Ningen Isu

NIngen Isu
Origin Hirosaki, Aomori, Japan
Genres Hard rock, heavy metal, doom metal
Years active 1987–present
Labels Tokuma Japan Communications
Website ningen-isu.com
Members
  • Shinji Wajima
  • Ken-ichi Suzuki
  • Nobu Nakajima
Past members
  • Noriyoshi Kamidate
  • Masuhiro Goto
  • Iwao Tsuchiya

Ningen Isu (人間椅子 "Human Chair") is a Japanese heavy metal band.[1] The name of the band is taken from the 1924 short story The Human Chair by Edogawa Rampo.[2]

The group was founded in 1987 as a hard-rock band and comprises Shinji Wajima (lead guitar), Ken-ichi Suzuki (bass guitar), Noriyoshi Kamidate (drums). Wajima and Suzuki used to go to the same high school, Hirosaki High School in Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture. The first drummer, Noriyoshi Kamidate played until the 3rd album "Ougon no Yoake". Masuhiro Gotô joined the group Gerard as a support member of the 4th album "Rashomon". After that the 3rd drummer, Iwao Tsuchiya, joined the group. After Iwao left, Gotô joined as an official member in 1996. The latest drummer, Nobu Nakajima joined in 2004. All members share the vocals.

They often write about Japanese classical literature, for example, Osamu Dazai, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Jun-ichiro Tanizaki, and so on. They often take up topics such as hell, Buddhism, the universe, and gambling. Wajima and Suzuki have a local accent called "Tsugaru dialect", which adds a unique atmosphere to their songs. They always wear Kimono and "Fundoshi" on stage; Wajima looks like an literary master of Meiji era, Suzuki paints his face white and looks like an Buddhist monk. He wears "Fundoshi", old Japanese underwear under the Kimono. While Nakajima wears Koikuchi shirt and sunglasses and looks like a Japanese gangster. In the band's early days, Suzuki often wore cloths like Nezumi-otoko, a rat man (a character of "Ge-Ge-Ge no Kitaro" by Shigeru Mizuki), which made them impressive.

Ningen Isu has seen a significant increase in popularity in recent years, and several of their releases have reached the top 50 in sales on the Oricon music charts since 2006. [3]

Influences

Ningen Isu was strongly influenced by Black Sabbath. Other influences include Led Zeppelin, Kiss, Budgie, King Crimson, and similar artists.

Discography

Singles:

Albums:

Best-of Albums:

Live Albums:

DVD's:

References

  1. ↑ Angus Cargill Hang the DJ: An Alternative Book of Music Lists 2008 Page 75 "Ningen Isu The first Japanese band I ever saw and still the very best; Black Sabbath reborn in the Tohoku region of Japan. Fourteen albums to date and you need them all."
  2. ↑ Mark Driscoll Absolute Erotic, Absolute Grotesque: The Living, Dead, and Undead - 2010 p139 "In the short story "The Human Chair" (Ningen Isu) published in 1924, Rampo intuited this neuropolitical invasion of the body and the de- anthropomorphizing effects that ensue. In the story a worker in a small factory becomes so engrossed in."
  3. ↑ "Ningen Isu on Oricon". Oricon. 2016. Retrieved 2016-11-08.
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