Kiyoshiro Imawano's last one-man show: Kyoto Kaikan, March 2, 2008

About the artist

Kiyoshiro Imawano was born in Nakano, Tokyo, on April 2, 1951^[1]. He formed the band RC Succession in 1968, and its first single, "Takarakuji wa Kawanai" ("I don't buy lottery tickets"), came out on March 5, 1970^[2]. A 1972 hit, "Boku no Suki na Sensei" ("The teacher I like"), was followed by lean years^[2]; Tamaki Kataoka, the band's former manager, remembers a show at Shinjuku Loft with an audience of five^[3].

Guitarist Reichi "CHABO" Nakaido joined in 1979. "Ameagari no Yozora ni" ("To the night sky after the rain") was released on January 21, 1980, and "Toranjisuta Rajio" ("Transistor radio") became a hit that October^[3]. The band played its first headline show at the Nippon Budokan on December 24, 1981^[1], and in February 1982 "I-ke-na-i Rūju Majikku" ("Naughty rouge magic"), a Shiseido campaign song he made with Ryuichi Sakamoto, reached No. 1 on Oricon's weekly singles chart^[3][1]. After RC Succession went on indefinite hiatus in 1991, he worked solo^[1]; in 1992 he made the album Memphis with members of Booker T. & the M.G.'s^[4][5].

Why this was the last show

In July 2006 Imawano canceled his concerts and stepped away to be treated for throat cancer^[6]. Yumesuke, an album he had recorded that May in Nashville with Steve Cropper, came out on October 4 while he was away^[7][4][8]. In 2007 he eased back onto the stage as a guest at other artists' shows^[6], and before the year was out a comeback concert was announced: Kiyoshiro Imawano Kanzen Fukkatsusai ("complete comeback celebration") at the Nippon Budokan on February 10, 2008^[9]. His official site says it was his first one-man show in a year and seven months, and that the crowd, filling 360-degree seating down to standing room, was the largest in the hall's history^[6]; the music site Natalie puts it at more than 13,000^[4]. Two additional shows followed, at Osaka Festival Hall on February 24 and at Kyoto Kaikan's First Hall on March 2^[6][10].

He kept performing after Kyoto: at ARABAKI ROCK FEST.08 on April 27, at two shows in Osaka in May, and on July 6 at his fan club event in Takadanobaba, Tokyo, where he played an acoustic set^[6][11]. On July 14 he called off all his scheduled concerts, including summer festivals and a September 6 show at Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall, because the cancer had spread^[6][12]. On November 20 he went to see Booker T. & the M.G.'s in Japan; Cropper invited him up, and he sang "In the Midnight Hour" and "Soul Man." He sat in again on the 21st and 23rd^[6]. He died on May 2, 2009, at the age of 58^[13].

The Kyoto show was never billed as a farewell. Natalie calls it effectively his last one-man show^[10], and his label, Universal Music Japan, says the same in other words^[14]. His former manager Tamaki Kataoka, writing in 2018, counts the July 6 fan club event as his last live show in front of fans^[11]. Following the press and the label, this page treats Kyoto as his last one-man show.

What is known about the day

March 2, 2008, was a Sunday^[14]. Kyoto Kaikan, a hall in the city's Okazaki district designed by the architect Kunio Maekawa, had opened on April 29, 1960^[15].

The billing was Kiyoshiro Imawano & NICE MIDDLE with NEW BLUE DAY HORNS plus Reichi "CHABO" Nakaido. Alongside his band, which included guitarist Shinji Miyake, and a three-piece horn section, two former RC Succession members took part: Nakaido on guitar and Kozo Niida on drums^[10][14][4]. The photographer Masayoshi Sukita shot the show, and his pictures became the artwork when the recording was released in 2025^[10][14].

According to Universal, the setlist was changed from the two earlier shows^[14]. The official recording has an intro and 23 songs, opening with "JUMP" from the 2005 album GOD^[14][16]. From Yumesuke came "NIGHT AND DAY," "Dansu Myūjikku☆Aitsu," "Mainichi ga Buran Nyū Dei" and "Hageshii Ame" ("Heavy rain")^[8], the last of these the first song he and Nakaido had written together in a long time^[4]. He also sang "DAY DREAM BELIEVER" by his 1989 band THE TIMERS^[14][1]; RC Succession's "Surō Barādo," "Toranjisuta Rajio" and "Ameagari no Yozora ni"^[3]; and "I-ke-na-i Rūju Majikku," which he had not played at the Budokan^[14].

The last song was "LIKE A DREAM"^[14][10]. It also appears on HAVE MERCY!, recorded at the Budokan in April 1992 with the musicians who had played on Memphis, Booker T. & the M.G.'s^[5][17]. The sources do not show where the encores began.

What the show left behind

The Budokan comeback was released quickly, on DVD on May 28, 2008, and on CD on June 18^[6]. The Kyoto recording waited 17 years. On April 2, 2025, his birthday, in the 55th anniversary year of his and RC Succession's debut, the live album LAST LIVE at 京都会館 2008 (Kyoto Kaikan) came out as a two-CD set and a three-LP set^[10][14]. The LP was first planned without "Mainichi ga Buran Nyū Dei" because of its running time; the order was changed so the song could be included^[18].

After his death, Nakaido, Booker T. Jones and Steve Cropper were among the musicians who played FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL '09 on July 25, 2009, as the Kiyoshiro Imawano Special Message Orchestra^[6]. In 2026 the Budokan concert was reissued in a remaster on DVD and Blu-ray (September 30)^[19], and the documentary Aishiatteru kai? Imawano Kiyoshiro ga Oshiete Kureta ("Are you loving each other? What Kiyoshiro Imawano taught us") opened in Japan on October 2^[20].

The hall has changed too. A naming-rights agreement for Kyoto Kaikan was signed in September 2011, and after renovation it reopened on January 10, 2016, as ROHM Theatre Kyoto^[15]. A new Main Hall stands where the First Hall was^[21].

Seventeen years after that night in Kyoto, its 23 songs were finally released.