Toshu Fukami, who has composed more than 800 songs and engages in a broad range of genres of music and other performing arts such as opera, rock, jazz, enka, ballet and noh, held a solo concert at Saitama Super Arena on Oct. 2. An audience of over 8,900 people cheered and rocked for more than three hours, even though the sold-out event was held on a weekday evening.
At the concert, 23 songs, as well as four encore pieces, composed by Fukami were performed. The songs were arranged in a variety of styles, including rock, pop, anime theme songs, oldies and ballads, and kept the audience entertained. Fukami is a singer and performer of various genres who has performed five times at Nippon Budokan, one of the most prestigious concert venues in Japan, and 12 times at the New National Theater, Tokyo, a renowned venue dedicated to opera, ballet, dance and drama. He also performed at Carnegie Hall in the U.S. and Royal Albert Hall in Britain.
He achieved excellent grades at Musashino Academia Musicae in Japan and Edith Cowan University in Australia. At the schools, as well as with various well-known masters of the performing arts, he studied opera and other types of singing, along with music theory and conducting.
His career includes being a first-grade opera singer of the China National Opera and Dance Drama Theater, and the patron-in-chief of Opera Australia. He is also the founder of the Australia Opera Studio and a patron of The Stellenbosch University Choir in South Africa. He has received an honorary doctorate and the Juilliard President’s Medal from the Juilliard School in New York as well as the Distinguished Service Medal from the State of Western Australia.
At the beginning of the concert, he introduced the members of his band Rock54 — three violinists, a trumpet player, saxophonist, drummer, bassist, guitarist, keyboardist and pianist — who played under the baton of conductor Hidemine Takano, music director of the Ensemble of Tokyo and a lecturer at Tokyo’s J. F. Oberlin University.
Fukami’s set list featured eight pieces newly written by himself. Despite his success in traditional arts such as opera, classical music and noh, he has never forgotten the sense and power of humor.
One of the new songs was titled “Tobazuni Saitama,” parodying the name of the hit comedy film series “Tonde Saitama” (“Fly Me to the Saitama,”) in a playful shoutout to the concert venue.
The first movie in the series depicted a hilarious fictional battle among prefectures in the Kanto region, including Saitama, which is one of the most disrespected for not having a coastline or any other tourist-friendly charms to compete with the adjacent capital of Japan. Fukami teased that the residents of Saitama themselves were laughing at the humorous way they were depicted.
“The song is filled with my love for the prefecture. I can’t flatter Saitama more,” he said in introducing the song. There was a line in the lyrics that read, “There is not much to see other than Mitsumine Shrine but people in Saitama are good-natured, which is what I love about Saitama.” The up-tempo number energized the audience, which likely included many of its residents.
In addition to Saitama, many of his songs featured various places, such as Kyoto, Shiga Prefecture’s Lake Biwa, Tokyo’s Nishiogikubo district and Tokyo Bay, allowing the audience to relate in their own ways. There were also many numbers about a dragon god that Fukami cherishes as a powerful icon that invigorates people. The beautiful stage lighting and pyrotechnics were also uplifting.
Fukami and the band received rousing applause and played a round of encores that left just enough time for a commemorative photo session at the end. The concert was the first at which he has released new original works since 2022. He said he looks forward to the next opportunity to meet the audience and share new songs whether it be in Hokkaido, Fukuoka, Osaka or any other location.
The event was hosted by the Tokyo Art Foundation, which was founded in 2011 to promote various art forms and entertainment. Fukami, who also goes by the name of Haruhisa Handa, chairs the organization and leads several other nonprofit and charity organizations, including Worldwide Support for Development, which facilitates international cooperation to support people in need by providing better social welfare and education; the International Sports Promotion Society, which is dedicated to funding and promoting sporting events; and the International Foundation for Arts and Culture, which supports music, theater, visual arts and youth education.
Aside from his philanthropic activities, Fukami runs multiple businesses while at the same time producing a great number of art works as a painter and calligrapher. Earlier this year, he held a solo exhibition in Osaka, commemorating his 73rd birthday.
