The Trajectory of a “Genius” Writer 18: The Space-Time Spent with YOSHIKI - Shinya Kobayashi
In the spring of my 19th year, my dream was to be a “singer-songwriter.”
When I came to Tokyo during spring break after receiving my university acceptance letter, the place I headed to was the Keio University baseball team dormitory. I was supposed to move in and become a star at Jingu Stadium, but I ran back to the countryside after just one week. I can only say that I lacked the guts. When I came to Tokyo again for the entrance ceremony, what was in my heart was a faint dream of “wanting to become a singer-songwriter.”
I had been writing songs occasionally since I was in elementary school. Lyrics and composition. My song was once played over the school-wide broadcast during lunch time. I cannot recall any other experience as embarrassing as that. Amidst the laughter of my friends, I just hung my head and endured that time.
Even so, the desire to create and sing songs only grew. In junior high school, I encountered folk songs, and by the time I was in high school, that flow had shifted toward New Music.
Takuro Yoshida was my first hero. Then Rokumonsen, Akai Fusen, The Jiro's, Yosui Inoue, Miyuki Nakajima...
In a six-mat apartment, living a lonely city life, I played the guitar just enough to hold simple chords, recorded songs onto tapes, and applied to the “Yamaha Popcon.”
Unlike my high school days in the snowy country, Yamaha was right under my nose. It was close enough to reach even if I ran. However, reality was far away. Far from failing the preliminary round, I didn't even get a letter saying “application received.”
I gave up on the path of music, became absorbed in Frisbee which I happened to encounter, and about ten years after that led to my work at a publishing company, I also coincidentally gained the good fortune of being deeply involved in the world of music.
It was my encounter with X and YOSHIKI. Since I have already written about this in other series, I will quote a part of it.
...In the summer of the year that changed from Showa to Heisei, I suddenly developed a retinal detachment and underwent emergency surgery. I was told to rest even after the surgery, and there were days I spent listening to cable radio the whole time in a reclining chair at a workspace near my home that I had rented to write manuscripts.
The cable radio provided in the apartment was on heavy rotation, and the same song would play every few minutes. I had my heart grabbed by one of those songs.
The intro was a piano solo that was warm yet sharp, stirring something deep in my chest. The high, clear singing voice that followed hit me with a shock unlike any music I had heard until then, knocking me out in a pleasant way. Every time that song played, it felt as if my body, completely surrendered to the reclining chair, was sinking even further.
(Who is singing? What is the name of this song?)
Because it was cable radio, there was no way to find out.
A few days later, finally permitted by my doctor, I went to the Hero Workshop (note: my office) at the south exit of Shinjuku. When I opened the entrance door, I realized that while the dim space was sinking into further darkness, there was something wrapped in a faint glow at my feet.
At first, I didn't know what it was. Eventually, I realized it was a person, dressed in a long black coat that reached their feet, and wearing black long boots with laces. That person, because they were in a seated position, flicked back their long hair that was almost touching the floor by slightly twisting their neck. Not an athlete. I clearly saw the profile of a person from a field obviously different from sports, whom I don't usually see in this room. I didn't know who it was.
I went inside and asked the female staff member.
“Who is that person just now?”
“Don't you know? It's YOSHIKI. From X.”
“X? I don't know.”
When I said that, she took a videotape out of the desk drawer and handed it to me.
“Please watch this. Recently, he has been coming to receive treatment from Mr. Shiraishi.”
When I watched the video as I was handed it, the scene of him, YOSHIKI, whom I had just passed by, wearing what looked like a bright red long dress (coat) and performing Bach's Fugue in G Minor, emerged. That mismatch... while having a heavy metal rock appearance, he was performing Bach, one of my favorite classical pieces, and on the piano at that. When I was staring in a daze, and that intro with the chords that had shaken my heart at the workspace was spun from his fingertips, my whole body trembled.
(Huh? Was he the one playing this song!)
I learned at that moment that the song title was “Endless Rain” and the artist was X.
That was my fateful encounter with YOSHIKI. ...
The time spent in YOSHIKI's dressing room
Trainer Hiroshi Shiraishi, who was co-directing the “Hero Workshop” with me at the time, was requested by YOSHIKI to accompany him on tour and be in charge of his physical care. I accompanied them to support Shiraishi.
It was an irreplaceable time and space.
While Trainer Shiraishi treated YOSHIKI in the dressing room before, during, and after the live concert, I sat on the sofa in the same room, watching Trainer Shiraishi's treatment with all my heart, without really watching. An indescribable, trusting, and creative energy filled the room.
There are many unforgettable events.
To name one that is particularly impressive, it was the night X changed its name to X Japan and made its world debut. August 1992. After finishing the press conference at Rockefeller Center in New York, we went outside together. Before getting into a limousine that must have been about ten meters long, YOSHIKI looked up at the top of the skyscraper while holding down his long hair and said,
“Mr. Kobayashi, we finally made it this far.”
Thirty years have passed since then, and YOSHIKI has become “YOSHIKI of the world.”
Shinya Kobayashi: The Treasures I Have Created and Let Go - Events in the “Backstreets” of Japanese Sports, Episode 1: “Hero Workshop” | Shinya Kobayashi
The Trajectory of a “Genius” Writer 5: Shinya Kobayashi - Encounter with Genius Trainer Hiroshi Shiraishi 1 | Shinya Kobayashi
Shinya Kobayashi's “Sports Writer Cram School” is now open!
“School for Writers” HP