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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)
Ju-ken is a Japanese bassist who plays as support for a variety of people (mostly live, occasionally recording); regularly for Gackt, Anna Tsuchiya, and Tomoyasu Hotei, and occasionally for a wide variety of other people. He is also in the band Hellmetz with Masahiro Muta (dr/leader) and Masanori Mine (g) of Anna’s band + T-2SubLow (tetsusaburo?) (v); they released a CD at their December 10th performance and it is now up for preorder everywhere with a release date of Jan. 11, 2008.
2008 information is in a new post.
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.
This page shows up in image searches from people looking for his Darts x TSUTAYA pictures; they were linked at the very bottom (and only ever links, so I don’t know why they show up in image searches). They are here: 1 2 3 4 5 6 (missing one, but it was just hands)
I’m going to dump this here to get it out of my head and somewhere I can find it later; most of this is online somewhere, but due to his blog deletions (deleted all entries in February, disabled comments for a while, re-enabled comments, deleted everything at the end of June, and started a new website+diary in July), is scattered across the internet. He now seems to have deleted all entries before November 13; I’m not sure if it was intentional or accidental.
This is probably not a complete list, since I was working from memory for most of it; it is probably as complete as it’s going to get, though I may go back through some of the Japanese fan’s blogs and confirm some of the vague information. There is post for 2008, which will hopefully be more complete than this one, and I plan on doing an overview of his past career eventually.
His site has a new address: www.ju-kenthebass.net, though it seems to be a redirect to the web.mac.com site.
Things Ju-Ken did this year:
- performed in the Training Days/Drug Party shows in Korea (Jan 28-29) and Taiwan (Feb 7-8) and is in the documentary DVDs released for those, as well as the DVD of the GACKT TRAINING DAYS 2006 DRUG PARTY (Zepp Tokyo)
- Played on the single 「RETURNER～闇の終焉～」 released 2007/06/20 (Returner~Yami no Shuen~)
- TV performances for single 「RETURNER～闇の終焉～」
- unsure about 「野に咲く花のように」 (2007/02/07 release; he does not mention it, and the TV performances were Gackt-only) (No ni Saku Hana no Yo Ni)
- Fanclub trip to LA in March (with a visit to West Coast Choppers; hopefully, this is still up on Jun-ji’s site somewhere)
- Fanclub ski trip in February 2007
- is not supporting Gackt in the November performances (did not play on the new songs on the upcoming album) but has the 2008 fan club ski trip on his schedule.
- played in a variety of live performances with Anna Tsuchiya (some earlier in the year; more recently several in Japan + festivals in Korea and Taiwan and at Anime Expo in LA); two dates in September, three in October, and one in November. He’s not playing all of her fall dates due to conflicts with Tomoyasu Hotei’s tour, but will be at her year-end dates (Back Night Tokyo 2007-08 Shibuya AX Dec. 30 and Back Night Osaka 2007-08 Namba Hatch Dec. 31).
- was in the “Bubble Trip” PV (and probably played on the single released 2007/08/08; the credits were ambiguous)
- played on a few tracks on her ANNA TSUCHIYA inspi’ NANA(BLACK STONES) CD
- is in her next PV (“Cocoon”, release 2008.01.30) filmed in December
- played in the Tomoyasu Hotei/Brian Setzer/Char: Super Soul Sessions in January (DVD released in June)
- will play for HOTEI and The WANDERERS FUNKY PUNKY TOUR 2007-2008 from October 2007 to February 2008; The Wanderers are currently featured on the top page of Hotei’s site
- he is occasionally posting in the tour blog and is sometimes mentioned in the backstage info
- was mentioned (with the rest of The Wanderers) at Hotei’s appearance on Yahoo Talk Dec. 11 (is streaming, available through 2008/01/17)
- in the PV for “Wanderers” (in the yahoo talk around 40 minutes in)
- I think there was also a performance with Hotei for something related to Cartier in the spring or summer
- TV performances for the “Tokyo ni mo Attanda/Muteki no Kimi” single (did not play on the single itself) (東京にもあったんだ / 無敵のキミ)
- “Tokyo ni mo Attanda” on the Music Station Spring Songs Special (2007.04.06)
- CDTV 2007/4/15 (far in the background on both of these)
- “Muteki no Kimi” on Music Station 2007/4/27 (can actually be seen and is singing backup)
- an actual live performance in the late spring/early summer
- Support for KOH+ (Kou Shibasaki + Masaharu Fukuyama) on ”２００７FNS歌謡祭” airing Dec. 5 at 19：00（JST）.
- Yahoo Talk performance (announced a few days before and had sheet music in front of him during; not sure if he was on the single)
- performance 2007/08/07: Date FM Starlight Explosion 2007
- performance 2007/10/21: 岩船山クリフステージ 2007 Cliff Stage Special #7
Other Musical:
- Support for S.K.I.N. (Yoshiki/Gackt/Sugizo/Miyavi) at Anime Expo
- Played on Inoran’s CD 「ニライカナイ」 (Niraikanai, tracks 3 and 8) + an instore appearance on 7/21
- played several gigs with Hellmetz, and sold a CD at the 12/10 show:
- Feb 20 at 原宿ルイード (Harajuku RUIDO) 「魂の共演 SMALL4 !」 feat. tko, The CIGARPOCKETS, HELLMETZ, CRAVE, KATSUMI SETZCHER With SMALL3
- May 6 at morph-tokyo (六本木モーフ) with Fifty50/50Fifty, BULL ZEICHEN 88
- Jul 9 at morph-tokyo (六本木モーフ) 「人生いつでも工事中 vol.1」 with Lion Heads,
ビートン（ピンストライパー） - Aug 8 at morph-tokyo (六本木モーフ) 「人生いつでも工事中 vol.2」 with ストロボ, Dakota Star
- Dec 10 at morph-tokyo (六本木モーフ) 「人生いつでも工事中 vol.3 ～HELLMETZ CD発売記念ワンマンライブ～」 (one-man, CD release)
- performed at 「魂の共演 SMALL4 !」 feat. tko [TOSHIYUKI KISHI] / THE CIGARPOCKETS [MASANOSUKE,NON,YUI]+ MARCY,Shue / (YELLOW)HELLMETZ [Ju-Ken,MUTA,MINE,T-2] / CRAVE [Ju-Ken,SHUE,SCHON] / KATSUMI SETZCHER With SMALL3 [KATSUMI ONISHI,TOSHIYUKI KISHI,Ju-Ken,Shue] (02/20 at 原宿ルイード (Harajuku RUIDO))
- Performed on and wrote music for a track on 酒井愁 （Shue）’s solo album 「夜露死苦哀愁」 (tracklisting, Ju-ken’s entry)
- A “Secret Live” Dec. 16 = 浜崎あゆみ(Ayumi Hamasaki) – イクスピアリ
- something with Ends (fan club trip in March and two unplugged dates in May)
- a performance with Heath in February, maybe (was mentioned before the deletion in Feb, but was supposed to happen afterwards); the pictures from Feb 2007 on Heath’s site are carefully cropped to show only Heath, but he was singing and so presumably needed a bassist (and I’m fairly sure he was on Ju-ken’s list before then).
- I swear there was a mention of playing with Olive Sunday (Mine of Anna’s band/Hellmetz), though I don’t know if it was this year, and they have an official bassist
Non-Performance
- became an endorser for Sugi basses and was in an ad in Bass magazine (I think it was the 2007/07 issue with Paul McCartney on the cover)
- model for the Collaboration the 9th of Darts x TSUTAYA and possibly designed a ring (one is labeled Darts x Ju-Ken). It was only through Aug 30; the pictures are here: 1 2 3 4 5 6
- a limited edition jersey (30 pieces!) with Zero Fighter
- Action figure! (nifty, but not seriously, unfortunately)
- T-Shirt! selling on Hotei’s tour or through his site (now has a “Goods” section).
This ended up being longer than I expected; I don’t know why this sort of information stays in my head while useful things are forgotten. It’s now 2008, and I’ve started a new post; I will update this if I find out anything I missed, though.
