Aichi Prefecture

When reading listings for live performers on tour, it can feel like Nagoya is completely missed out by all the big artists as they make their way from Osaka directly to Tokyo. In fact, this may be perhaps more than a feeling, as there is a word in the local lexicon for this phenomenon: ‘Nagoya tobashi’, literally skipping or jumping Nagoya. Fortunately, Nagoya has a really strong music scene itself, meaning that almost every night of the week you can find a great act performing at one of the city’s many Live Houses. Below is a selection of artists who have risen from Nagoya’s hotbed of musical talent, some of whom are huge international names, along with some hidden gems that you may never have heard of. Kuroyume Rock music in Japan’s late-90s was dominated by a movement called visual kei, proponents of which were known for their wild hair and typified by X-Japan. The scene owed a great debt to the local Nagoya kei movement which lay the groundwork for both the musical and stylistic template of visual, and of which Kuroyume could be considered the defining band. Formed in 1992, their early sound took influences from the punk…