, born and better known by his stage name Sugizo, is a Japanese musician, singer-songwriter, composer and record producer. He is best known as the lead guitarist and violinist of the rock band Luna Sea since 1989. Sugizo started his solo career in 1997 and has since collaborated with a variety of different artists. In 2007 he became a member of the international trance/world music act Juno Reactor, and of the Japanese rock supergroup S.K.I.N., and in 2009 officially joined the rock band X Japan. He was also part of the psychedelic jam band Shag and the shamanic electronica unit S.T.K (Sensual Technology Kooks). In 2022, he became a member of the rock supergroup The Last Rockstars. In addition to being known for experimenting with many musical genres, mostly rock, psychedelic and electronica, he is known for his political views and for being an anti-war, anti-nuclear, and environmental activist. Biography Early life and musical education Yasuhiro Sugihara was born on July 8, 1969, in Hadano, Kanagawa, in Japan. His Manchukuo-born father played trumpet in the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, and his mother played cello in the same orchestra. He also has a younger sister. From a young age, Sugizo was brought up on classical music and studied classical music theory. At the age of three, by his father's initiative, he started to learn to play the violin. He practiced it for 3 hours per day, but without the right type of music or composer, began to hate playing music, and coercion from his parents aggravated his feeling of repulsion. The situation persisted until the age of ten. His early favorite composers included Beethoven, Bartók, Liszt and J.S. Bach. When Sugizo was eleven or twelve years old, he began to play the trumpet. He preferred the trumpet's "dirty" image from the 1950s through the 1970s over playing the violin, which was seen as something for higher-class people. During his junior high school days, he became exposed to non-classical music types, such as the Japanese synthpop group Yellow Magic Orchestra, the British new wave group Japan, David Bowie's glam rock, and the London punk scene, forming his attraction to rock'n'roll. Sugizo's parents divorced when he was in high school, and his father moved out. He has a good relationship with his mother and has since reconciled with his father, who has another family. 1986–1996: Early bands and Luna Sea Despite his father's