NUMBER GIRL's “Mujō no Hi” at PIA ARENA MM, Yokohama, December 11, 2022

About the artist

NUMBER GIRL were Shutoku Mukai on vocals and guitar, Hisako Tabuchi on guitar, Kentaro Nakao on bass and Ahito Inazawa on drums. The band formed in Fukuoka in 1995^[1][2] and released an album, SCHOOL GIRL BYE BYE, in November 1997. On May 26, 1999, they made their major-label debut on Toshiba EMI with the single “Tōmei Shōjo” (“transparent girl”), followed by the albums SCHOOL GIRL DISTORTIONAL ADDICT (1999), SAPPUKEI (2000) and NUM-HEAVYMETALLIC (2002)^[1][3]. The song “OMOIDE IN MY HEAD” later gave its name to a live album and a series of compilations^[3].

Writing for rockinon.com, Tomoki Takahashi traces their sound to Pixies and Sonic Youth as well as Japanese bands such as eastern youth, and compares Mukai's stage talk to the patter of a rōkyoku performer, a traditional singing storyteller^[4]. Mukai's habit of announcing that the band had come from Hakata, a ward of Fukuoka City, became a fixture of their shows^[5].

Why this was the last show

The first breakup came in 2002. The band announced it on its website in September, saying that all four shared a strong sense that NUMBER GIRL meant these four people and no one else^[4]. The last show was on November 30 at PENNY LANE 24 in Sapporo^[1]. Mukai went on to form ZAZEN BOYS; Tabuchi played in toddle and bloodthirsty butchers, Nakao in Crypt City, and Inazawa led VOLA & THE ORIENTAL MACHINE, among other projects^[1].

The reunion of the original four was announced on February 15, 2019^[1][6]. In his statement, Mukai said that in early summer 2018, drunk, he had felt like playing Rising Sun Rock Festival as NUMBER GIRL with the others again, and had picked up the phone. He added, bluntly, that he wanted to make money^[6]. Their first show back was at Shinjuku LOFT on July 27. Then things went off script: the festival's first day, August 16, when NUMBER GIRL were due to play, was called off as a typhoon approached, and the real homecoming became the open-air Hibiya Yagai Ongakudo in Tokyo on August 18^[7]. In March 2020 they played a livestream with no audience, and the 2020 and 2021 festivals were cancelled because of COVID-19^[5].

On August 13, 2022, NUMBER GIRL finally played Rising Sun, and announced from the stage that they would break up again^[1][5]. Mukai's statement that day said the festival had been one of the main goals of the reunion; with that done, the members would return to their own work. He looked back on four years of cancelled and postponed shows, admitted that the money had not come, called the experience a “priceless” joy, and stated that the band would break up after the December 11 show at PIA ARENA MM^[2][8]. In a 2024 interview, he said the plan had been to make some money and make a quick exit, but the pandemic dragged things out^[9].

What is known about the day

The show began at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, December 11, 2022, at PIA ARENA MM, a 10,000-capacity arena in Yokohama's Minato Mirai district^[8][10]. The roughly 10,000 tickets sold out on the first day^[5], and about 10,000 people attended^[11]. Space Shower TV broadcast the whole show live, with a simultaneous stream on SKY PerfecTV!, and cinemas across Japan screened it live^[12].

According to Natalie's review, Mukai walked on in a face mask and surveyed the packed arena, drawing laughs, before his usual introduction: this was NUMBER GIRL, from Hakata ward, Fukuoka City. The band opened with “Ōatari no Kisetsu” (“jackpot season”) from their 1997 first album, then played “Tōmei Shōjo”^[5][11]. “Sakura no Dansu” (“cherry blossom dance”) fell apart midway; Mukai admitted he had come in too early and started it again. During “NUM AMI DABUTZ” he heckled Inazawa for drumming too fast, and in “U-REI” he lit one cigarette after another. When he swigged from a can of beer, it drew plenty of heckles from the crowd, which Tabuchi watched with a smile. Then he announced a “break time” that, he warned, was no rest, and the band played “Tōmei Shōjo” for the second time. In a nod to the screenwriter Taichi Yamada, the reviewer notes, he used the phrase “omoide-zukuri” (making memories) a couple of times^[5].

The 27-song main set closed with “I Don't Know,” a 2002 single. The encore ran through “Haikara Kurui,” “IGGY POP FANCLUB” and “Toranporin Gāru” (listed separately from the earlier “Trampoline Girl”), and ended with “Tōmei Shōjo”^[11][3]. It was the song's fourth performance of the night, and the last song NUMBER GIRL played^[5].

What the show left behind

A Blu-ray of the complete show, NUMBER GIRL Mujō no Hi, came out on April 26, 2023, re-edited for release and with Dolby Atmos sound. The limited first edition added a disc with Raijingu de no NUMBER GIRL (“NUMBER GIRL at Rising Sun”), a special aired on Space Shower TV in 2022, and a documentary on the four years since the reunion^[13]. A three-CD live album with all 31 songs, newly mixed, followed on May 31^[14][15]. Natalie's review described the show as the culmination of four years in which the band kept renewing its own sound^[5].

Before the show, artists who admire the band, among them Ayuni D (BiSH/PEDRO), Chiaki Sato, Yuta Orisaka, Soushi Sakiyama and Takumi Kitamura (DISH//), each put together a playlist of NUMBER GIRL songs for a series called Mujō no PLAYLIST^[12].

The members went back to their own work. Mukai turned his energy to ZAZEN BOYS from 2023^[9], and in January 2024 that band released Rando, its first album in about 12 years^[16]. His 2022 statement had closed with a joke: if they ever wanted to make money again, they would gather as many times as it took and come back from Hakata^[2]. As of October 2026, the band's website has announced no such return^[17].

A band that came back saying it wanted to make money bowed out with its major-label debut single, played for the fourth time that night.