Fishmans' last show with Shinji Sato: Akasaka BLITZ, Tokyo, December 28, 1998

About the artist

Fishmans were formed in the early summer of 1987 by Shinji Sato, Kensuke Kojima and Kin-ichi Motegi, who met through a student club at Meiji Gakuin University^[1][2]. Bassist Yuzuru Kashiwabara joined in 1988, and the band debuted on April 21, 1991, with the single "Hikōki" ("airplane")^[2][3]. Sato, the singer, wrote the words and music for almost all of their songs^[3]. From their third album in 1993, the engineer ZAK recorded the band, later becoming a co-producer^[1]. After moving to the Polydor label in 1995, they released the single "Naito Kurūjingu" ("night cruising") and, in 1996, the album Kūchū Camp ("aerial camp")^[2]. LONG SEASON, released that October, consists of a single 35-minute piece^[4], and Uchū Nippon Setagaya ("space, Japan, Setagaya," after the Tokyo district) in July 1997 became their final studio album^[2][5]. Their single "Yurameki In the Air" ("shimmering in the air") came out on December 2, 1998, less than four weeks before the show on this page^[2].

Why this was thought to be the end

In December 1998, Fishmans set out on a four-city tour called Otokotachi no Wakare (roughly, "the men's farewell"), built around the departure of bassist Yuzuru Kashiwabara^[4][6]. Writing for the music site Natalie, the music writer Dai Onoshima explains that Kashiwabara's exit had been settled in advance, for reasons unrelated to the music or the band, and that this is how the tour got its name^[4]. The tour ended with two nights at Akasaka BLITZ in Tokyo, on December 27 and 28, and Kashiwabara left after the second^[2][7][4].

The farewell, in other words, was for one member, not for the band. Then, on March 15, 1999, singer Shinji Sato died at the age of 33^[2][5]. Fishmans stopped performing^[4], and the December 28 show came to be described as the band's last real concert^[6][8].

The name did not end there, though. Drummer Kin-ichi Motegi, the only member left, gathered musicians connected to the band^[1], and on August 20, 2005, they appeared with guest singers at Rising Sun Rock Festival 2005 in Ezo, in Hokkaido^[9][2]. Motegi has called it the first show at which the band started up again as Fishmans after Sato's death^[10]. Since then he has sung lead, and the band has played on and off with guest vocalists^[8]. Because Fishmans have carried on under the same name, this archive files the 1998 show as "not the end after all" and records it as Shinji Sato's last time on stage.

What is known about the day

Akasaka BLITZ opened in 1996^[11]. The original building held about 1,900 people and stood directly above Akasaka subway station^[12]. Fishmans had played there before, ending their LONG SEASON '96–'97 tour there on December 26, 1996^[4].

The band's members that night were Sato, Motegi and Kashiwabara, who was playing his last show with them^[2][4]. The official CD and video contain 14 songs^[7][13]. They open with "Oh Slime" and run through "Naito Kurūjingu," the debut single "Hikōki" and "MELODY" to "Yurameki In the Air," released only on December 2, and "Ikareta Baby" ("crazy baby"), before ending with "LONG SEASON"^[7][2]. On the two-CD set, the last three songs make up the second disc^[14].

"LONG SEASON" first appeared as the single 35-minute track of the 1996 album of the same name^[4]; the performance from this night runs 41 minutes 31 seconds on the CD^[15]. Every official release of the show ends with it, though no report has been found that names the last song of the night.

The concert was filmed for the record on three cameras. The DVD released later was built from that footage, with sound by ZAK and video by Kensuke Kawamura^[16].

What the show left behind

The recording came out on September 29, 1999, as the two-CD live album 98.12.28 Otokotachi no Wakare; its label describes it as the band's last recording, capturing Sato's final show^[17][2]. Five songs from the night are also included on Kioku no Zōdai ("the growth of memory"), a 2000 video collecting performances from 1995 to 1998^[2][18]. A video of this concert on its own first came out on DVD as Otokotachi no Wakare 98.12.28@Akasaka BLITZ^[16]; it was reissued at a lower price on November 23, 2016, to close the band's 25th-anniversary year^[7]. The live album is now on streaming services as well^[15].

The film was shown at loud-volume "bakuon" screenings in Sagami-Ono in October 2015 and at Shibuya CLUB QUATTRO on February 25, 2016^[6]. The documentary Eiga: Fishmans (172 minutes), released in Japan on July 9, 2021, drew more than 30,000 viewers^[3][19]; according to ele-king's review, footage of this concert appears in its last hour^[20].

Abroad, the band has found a new audience. In 2021, the British magazine Crack noted that the album was the highest-rated live album on the user-review site Rate Your Music, ahead of records by the Beach Boys and Bob Dylan, and credited online music communities with building Fishmans' cult following over the previous decade^[5].

Kashiwabara later returned to the band's stage and was in the lineup announced for Rising Sun Rock Festival 2014^[10]. On February 18, 2025, Fishmans played Tokyo Garden Theater, the largest headline show of their career. According to Natalie, Motegi spoke of an audience of about 6,000, "LONG SEASON" was in the set again, and the concert was streamed overseas^[21]. The anthology HISTORY Of Fishmans, released the next day, includes "Hikōki" from December 28, 1998^[9], and around the same time the band announced its first headline show outside Japan, in Taipei^[22].

A night arranged to say goodbye to one member survives, on record and on film, as the last time Shinji Sato performed.