Hizaki

Hizaki (stylized as HIZAKI, born February 17, 1979) is a Japanese visual kei metal musician, songwriter and record producer.

He is best known as guitarist of the symphonic power metal band Versailles.

He is also a member of Jupiter and has a solo career.

Before forming Versailles he was in several independent bands.

Hizaki grew up in the countryside of Shiga Prefecture.

He liked classical music in kindergarten, especially the violin, but his parents refused to let him learn the violin or piano.

When he was in sixth grade his older brother started to learn guitar, and after Hizaki's first time playing with it, he "dove into music."

Even at that young age he hated playing other people's songs, and wanted to create his own.

Already a fan of Loudness and X Japan, Hizaki wanted to play lead guitar, but was not skilled enough for their songs at the time and so created his own guitar exercises.

After studying diligently, Hizaki was quite skilled by middle school, but had no one around him at his level.

He entered high school during Japan's band boom and so finally had others to play with in a band, but had to lower his skill level in order to fit in.

While unwavered in his love of metal and visual kei, his friends preferred punk or grunge.

As such, Hizaki said he had no fun in the band and that his high school days were "quite gloomy."

After graduating, Hizaki moved to Kyoto and finally found the music scene he always longed for.

Already comfortable wearing makeup from shows in high school, he formed a visual kei band with a former upperclassman of his and the upperclassman's friends.

He explained that ever since he started guitar, he felt that being able to play was not enough, one must be good-looking or put on a great performance; "I always thought about how I could stand out on stage, and eventually, my conclusion was to look like a girl."

Hizaki debuted as guitarist for the Kyoto-based visual kei band Garnet Grave in 1997.

After two years, Hizaki and bassist Hizumi departed from Garnet Grave to form Crack Brain with guitarist Airi (Madeth Gray'll).

In 2002, Crack Brain disbanded and Hizaki and Airi formed the band Gurotesuku Romantikkaa (グロテスクロマンティッカー), who in May 2003 changed their name to Schwardix Marvally.

They released two EPs, one composed of cover songs from various bands.

Soon after releasing the two EPs, Schwardix Marvally disbanded in 2004.

Hizaki then proceeded to start a solo career that same year and released Maiden Ritual.

He published two more EPs: Dance with Grace and Maiden Ritual -Experiment Edition- with a variety of musicians in the visual kei scene.

In 2005 he put his solo work on hold and joined Sulfuric Acid, staying until they disbanded in October 2006.

On 31 October, Hizaki supported Lareine at their last concert.

He then restarted solo activities and formed his solo group, Hizaki Grace Project, with Hikaru (Izabel Varosa) on vocals, Yuu (Jakura) on bass and support drummer Seiji (Sulfuric Acid).

After recruiting Mikage (Babylon) on drums, Teru (Aikaryu) on guitar and Juka (Moi dix Mois) on vocals, they released the album Dignity of Crest.

Hizaki Grace Project's album, Curse of Virgo, was released on 26 December 2007.

In early 2007, he became support for Node of Scherzo, a project fronted by Kamijo (Lareine), Juka and Kaya (Schwarz Stein), and also supported by Jasmine You and Asagi (D).

At Node of Scherzo's first live performance on 14 March, Kamijo and Hizaki announced they were forming a band together.

On 30 March, the details of the band were announced, it would be named Versailles and also included drummer Yuki (Sugar Trip) and Hizaki Grace Project's Jasmine You and Teru.

Hizaki's solo work was put on hold while he focused on Versailles.

On September 23, 2008, Hizaki modeled clothing for Baby, The Stars Shine Bright on the runway at Individual Fashion Expo IV.

On 15 July 2010, he partook in the one-night only revival of Crack Brain, at a concert for their old record label, Crow Music.

In January 2011, he and the rest of Versailles started starring in their own TV mini drama called Onegai Kanaete Versailles (おねがいかなえてヴェルサイユ).

The show also starred Rina Koike and aired on Mainichi Broadcasting System and TV Kanagawa until March.

In response to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on 11 March, Hizaki composed and dedicated the song "Prayer" to its victims.

Both Hizaki and Teru participated in the Blue Planet Japan project, which was created in response to the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.

In 2020, Hizaki remarked that his visual kei style of makeup and skirts has been the same since high school.

He also noted that he has a lot of childhood photographs where he is wearing red clothes, possibly being the reason a lot of his stage costumes are red.