Its been revealed on B.P Records’ YouTube channel that guitarist Takemasa Kujou of Kiryu has been married since January 2017! After rumors spreading between the fans, Takemasa decided to make this video and confront the rumors.

Wearing a suit, Takemasa states that he thought a lot about announcing it because of the huge consequences on the business side of things. He goes on to say that the balance between his private and band life is very important, that he’s just a normal human being and wanted to be honest with his fans. There were also rumors going around on the internet that were making a lot of noise, hence this marriage announcement. He finally mentions that nothing will change but would be happy if fans could understand his decision.

From the eyes alone and stiff body language as he takes big gasps of breath after each sentence, you can see he’s worried. However, this greatly contrasts with the second part of the video that sees him relaxed, speaking less formally while he wears a hat that looks like cartoon poop.

This comes as a big shock to those involved in the world of visual kei as rarely does a musician in the scene announce such news. Just from a glance at the YouTube comments, it’s clear that this has caused much upset with the fans.

Regardless, Takemasa mentions in a blog post that he was aware that there would be a lot of opposing opinions, even before releasing it, but overall, he has no regrets publishing the video.

As stated above, this has huge consequences business-wise and, just my own thoughts here, fans may end up dropping the band entirely which means less of them buying tickets for Kiryu’s future performances and fewer fans buying merchandise. However, I also feel that Kiryu has established themselves enough that it won’t come as a massive blow.

Mixing both private lives and what they present themselves onstage, at handshake events, signing, so on and so forth is a no go, however, things do slip out of the woodwork and that’s how rumors start. It’s not an easy feat by any means and it’s unimaginable how hard it is to say what he said despite what’s against him.

Its definitely rare and there is no way of knowing if something like this will happen again but I hope it opens up the conversation, to not just Japanese fans, but western fans as well.

More info:

Official Website

YouTube

Twitter

Twitter (Mahiro Kurosaki) (黒崎眞弥)

Twitter (Mitsuki Sakai) (酒井参輝)

Twitter (Takemasa Kujo) (九条武政)

Twitter (Hiyori Isshiki) (一色日和)

Twitter (Junji Tokai) (遠海准司)

Instagram (Staff)

Instagram (Mitsuki Sakai) (酒井参輝)

Blog (Mahiro Kurosaki) (黒崎眞弥)

Blog (Mitsuki Sakai) (酒井参輝)

Blog (Takemasa Kujo) (九条武政)

Blog (Hiyori Isshiki) (一色日和)

Blog (Junji Tokai) (遠海准司)