Ju-ken is a Japanese bassist who plays as support for a variety of people (mostly live, occasionally recording); he just finished touring with VAMPS (Aug-Oct 2008), will be touring with Gackt (Dec 2008 – Apr 2009), has often toured with Tomoyasu Hotei and Anna Tsuchiya, and occasionally performs with other musicians. He is also a member of two bands: Hellmetz (with a singer + two of Anna Tsuchiya’s other band members) and Quintillion Quiz (with myco and Masanori Mine).

In 2009 he moved his website and blog to a new site: ju-ken.velvet.jp and blog.ju-ken.velvet.jp. As of August 2009, his old blog entries are still up at the old site.

I’m breaking this into parts because it’s continuously updated and is getting too long:

Part 1 (this part): general information, endorsements, interviews, goods, etc.
Part 2: band information (Hellmetz/Quintillion Quiz)
Part 3: support information (Hotei/Anna/Gackt/VAMPS/etc)
Part 4: schedule (performances, releases, other events, also livehouse links)

I also have information for 2007 in a previous post, and some other random information here.

Currently this is mostly taken directly from his site; hopefully, he won’t delete everything again. I’ve put the full schedule at the bottom; I didn’t do that last year due to working from memory and a lack of actual schedule on his previous blog. My Japanese is not the best, which is why I’m sticking to music-related info and not attempting to translate blog entries. I do (slowly) go through the notes of the day, and anything relevant does eventually end up here; a lot of the notes are just random thoughts or things like off to do this, back from there, etc; currently (early Dec) the ambition is the new goods and the attention is an offer for whoever hits 999999 and 1000000 on his site’s counter and the CRAFT jewelry. This entry might explain the lack of dates in March; in it, he talks about corrective eye surgery, and the subsequent notes of the day indicated he was recovering from it (hopefully, it was successful and he recovered quickly and had no complications; he hasn’t really mentioned it since); there’s now a post-surgery entry, and the note of the day mentions rehearsal. He also sounded like he spent a good portion of March and April recording with various people, some named, some not. The lack of dates in July were due to rehearsals for the VAMPS tour; the lack in November and early December are probably due to recovery from the VAMPS tour and preparation for Gackt’s tour.

The section (removed late November) 幸運の朝顔’０８ on his site is documenting an attempt to grow some variety of morning glory; he did that last year too, though the entries are gone. If I’m remembering correctly, last year the idea was definitely from Muta; I think the seeds were as well. (Muta’s results; there are also occasional progress reports before then). myco of Quintillion Quiz is doing the same and posting pictures of hers on their blog. He had some success (as did myco).

Endorsements, Interviews, etc:

  • endorses Sugi basses
  • is associated with 59’s Laboratory, Inc., which did the music for a number of Dragon Ball Z video games, among other things; the site says he worked on the theme for Dragon Ball Z: Sparking! Meteor (“Super Survivor”) for the PS2 and Wii (game released in Japan at least in October 2007; the theme will be released in a mini-album by Hironobu Kageyama July 23 and on the soundtrack Aug 27). Their site is fully bilingual; he is listed on the “Friends” page, but the arrangement is random.
  • was in a sidebar to an article in the March 2008 Bass Magazine about Trace Elliot equipment (amps, etc.)
  • was (June-July) featured on Fostex’s (equipment for recording, mostly) website, with a brief article (when first posted, it mentioned a summer tour; checked the link and it now says VAMPS); the front page has changed, but the article is still there
  • was in the October 2008 issue of Bass Magazine; the article is about the relationship between singers and their bassists. He and Anna Tsuchiya were interviewed together; they also talked to another bassist x singer and three other bassists. The cover is of Robert Trujillo of Metallica, but there is an inset picture for this article with Ju-ken x Anna. (his blog entry about the interview)
  • was at Zero Fighter Sept. 16, manager for the day? (１日店長体験, starting at 1pm); the details were in a note of the day; the event is also on his schedule
  • was interviewed in Monthly VAMPS #3 (and is in some of the other volumes in the live reports and backstage pictures)

Goods (currently available):

  • new T-shirt for Gackt’s tour (short sleeve, black with orange, blue, or pink camo designs); information and pictures are on the main page of his site (selling via email and on the tour; there is a space for member’s goods to be sold)
  • jewelry with CRAFT: a ring (“friend of the eternity”), a pendant (“guardian of the eternity”), and a chain (“bond of the eternity”); the pendant and chain are both listed under necklaces (site is flash, so no direct links). These are the items he was referring to in an earlier blog entry.
  • with DARTS, a bracelet and a strap (new in Feb.)

Goods (limited availability only and/or sold out)

  • new set “あなたの日常のお側セット” (limited to 200 pieces, sold out (or at least all reserved): 2 hand　towels + one each of coaster, mousepad (suitable for optical mice only), pen, pencil)
  • long-sleeved T-shirt, to be sold at the Zepp Tokyo VAMPS dates only (might be selling via mail order; they don’t have their own page, but the notes of the day have a section about them); black long-sleeve shirts with pink or yellow designs (they do look more or less like the pictures up); no longer available.
  • Goods #4, a T-shirt (“Vamp up your new body”) and a summer set? (towel, fan, flip-flops, bag — these were the items he had on the front page for a while); I think these will be sold on the tour or via mail order. (all sold out)
  • Goods #3, another set of picks (five: black with gold, silver, green metallic, pink metallic, blue metallic) (sold out)
  • Goods #2, new T-Shirt “Fight for Your Peace” (sold out)
  • Goods, two different sets of picks (two black with gold and silver; four white with gold, silver, red, black) and a T-shirt (all sold out)