Wednesdays for our community are Kami Band Wednesdays, is the Kami Band Day and this is our post about Kami Band is for Mikio "158 Centimeters" Fujioka. The Young Guitar Genius from Japan, read more about him below.
Read Knowing the Kami Band: Leda CLICK HERE, Hideki Aoyama CLICK HERE, BOH CLICK HERE, Takayoshi Ohmura CLICK HERE, Yuya Maeta CLICK HERE.
Knowing Gita No Kamisama Mikio Fujioka
Mikio was born on January 19 of 1981. He is better known on BABYMETAL as "Ko-Gami" (The Small God or The Little God), and publicaly also known as "158 Centimeters" because he is only 158 centimeters tall.
Mikio graduated from the Musicians Institute of Osaka on 2000 with only 19 years old when he won the GIT Masters 2000. He also started early to be a Sensei when recorded monthly sessions for the Young Guitar Magazine CD. After that on 2007 he released the "Trick Box" CD for Young Guitar with songs recorded by him. The DVD was released on March of 2014 and can be found on Amazon.jp
Fujioka is full time Sensei at the Musicians Institute Of Tokyo since 2005, he still working there now. (Details about MI here).
Ko-Gami is a Jazz specialist but he also likes to mix genres thanks to his incredible talent with guitar. Mikio Fujioka is considered in Japan as "Young Guitar Genious"
On March 14 of 2010, Mikio Fujioka along with Leda Cygnus and Takayoshi Ohmura plus several artists was released "Metallical Astronomy". Mikio pas part of the songs "G.M.T" and "Demystify The Universe" playing guitar.
Fujioka-San played for BABYMETAL as Kami Band member for the first time on September 22 of 2013 at Lawn Open Space of Shiga in Japan for the Inazuma Rock Festival 2013 in the last show of the BABYMETAL's "Summer Fes Tour 2013". The Kami Band formation for that date was: Leda Cygnus first guitar, Mikio Fujioka second guitar, Boh on bass and Kadoshi Shuntaro on drums.
Mikio played with BABYMETAL several times and in very important shows for the band. Mikio also played at Loud Park 2013 on October 20, one of the most memorable BABYMETAL shows to date, the day when BABYMETAL was recognized as metal band according to Heavy Metal Japan. He also performed at Makuhari Messe on December 21, 2013 for the second Sumetal Seitansai "Live Legend 1997". Legend 1997 was recorded to be released as Live DVD/Bluray later on 2014 as "Legend 1999/1997", but he is well known by fans because he was part of the first leg of the BABYMETAL World Tour 2014, playing in France, Germany and England (Sonisphere Festival and The Forum) during July of 2014. Also on 2014 Mikio Fujioka performed in the first Day of Makuhari Messe 2 Days on September 13 of 2014. One of the closing shows of the BABYMETAL World Tour 2014.
In 2015, Mikio Fujioka during January, February and March performed several times doing live sessions as guest at "Grapefruit Moon" at "Showboat" with his groups "MMM" and "Trick Box". Along with him on "MMM" performed the Kami Band God Of Drums Yuya Maeta. Also Fujioka started in March his annual classes on Musicians Institute Of Tokyo as teacher.
On April 26, Mikio took the stage to show his talent with ESP and Electro Harmonix at Blue Guitars Shop in Toyama. Mikio introduced with his performance the new ESP "E-II". (Read more here)
Joined again to play as Kami Band member in April of 2015 for the BABYMETAL THE ONE shows "Apocrypha - The Red Mass" and "The Black Mass", both shows worked as warm up for the BABYMETAL World Tour 2015 which took Mikio and the rest of the band to play in Mexico, Canada, United States featuring "Rock On The Range Festival" in May, along with METROCK 2015 in Tokyo, Japan on May 24 and the next part of the BABYMETAL Wourld Tour 2015 in Europe playing in Germany featuring "Rockavaria FEstival" an "Rock Im Revier Festival", France, Switzerland, Italy where BABYMETAL was the opening act of NipPop Event and Austria for "Rock In Vienna Festival" in May and June of the same year.
On June 21 he performed with BABYMETAL at Makuhari Messe in Tokyo the biggest BABYMETAL show at the moment.
On August 9 of the same year was released by Young Guitar for free a 11 minutes Special Demostration of Mikio Fujioka performing with his ESP E-11 and Kemper Profilin Amplifiers (watch here).
In August, Mikio performed with BABYMETAL at Summer Sonic 2015. After Summer Sonic Mikio as God Of Guitar played the second part of the BABYMETAL World Tour 2015 in Europe playing in Germany and England at the Reading and Leeds Festivals on August 29 and August 30.
On September 13 took place the first BABYMETAL Kami Band Seminar for MI Japan. The event took place at MI Japan in Osaka, the sold out seminar was hosted by Takayoshi Ohmura, Mikio Fujioka, BOH and Hideki Aoyama. (Read more here)
Meanwhile also in September started with BABYMETALthe "Zepp Concerts Tour" as part of the BABYMETAL World Tour 2015 in Japan playing in September at Zepp Namba in Osaka 2 Days and Zepp Sapporo in Hokkaido.
In October performed at Zepp Fukuoka, Zepp Nagoya in Aichi 2 Days and Zepp DiverCity in Tokyo 2 Days.
On October 5 was released new music composed by ESP Artist and Bassist KOTA in collaboration with Kami Bandmembers Hideki Aoyama and Mikio Fujioka on NHK Kids program "Shakiin!". The music composed was broadcasted in the corner "Momo mo moe!" of the program.
On October 24 BABYMETAL Kami Band members, God Of Bass BOH, God Of Guitars Mikio Fujioka and Takayoshi Ohmura were featured and interviewed by NEO Oyaide to talk about the NEO Cables. (Read more here)
BABYMETAL Kami Band new God Of Guitar Isao Fujita regular member of the Makai's band welcomed Kami Band's God Of Guitar since 2013 Mikio Fujioka to debut on 19th Makai Ninpocho on November 13.
On November 22 Mikio performed for the first time with BABYMETAL at Ozzfest Japan at Makuhari Messe.
On November 30 Mikio Fujioka hosted the first performance of its new project along with BOH and Yuya Maeta called "Kari Band". The performance took place at ShowBoat. The Kami Band members after the show did a special Meet & Greet with attendees and did an autograph session. (See photos)
Mikio Fujioka ended 2015 performing with BABYMETAL at the Yokohama Arena "The Final Chapter Of Trilogy", place where BABYMETAL closed the World Tour 2015 on December 12 and December 13. In addition this month Mikio as God Of Guitar played with BABYMETAL at Music Station, and at Countdown Japan 15/16.
On January 15 ESP Guitars Japan wrote a report from the backstage of the Yokohama Arena where BABYMETAL played its last 2 shows of the BABYMETAL World Tour 2015 featuring the Kami Band members Isao Fujita, Mikio Fujioka and Takayoshi Ohmura. (Read more here)
Mikio started official activities in February of 2016 with BABYMETAL at the NHK Broadcasting Center for a private & secret show for THE ONE members on February 18.
On February 21 took place the second performance of Kami Band project called "Kari Band" at JZ Brat in Tokyo, in this opportunity the show featured a special guest, the Pianist Ai Kuwahara.
On March 20, God Of Guitar Mikio Fujioka to appeared at the ESP Museum "Vintage Salon Vol.2".
On April 2 played with BABYMETAL the biggest headline show outside Japan at the Wembley Arena in London, England, just 2 days after on April 4 performed also with BABYMETAL at The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, this show marked US TV Debut for BABYMETAL..
On April 18 as part of promotional listings, BABYMETAL Kami Band members received very important features on CD Japan (Read more here)
Before the next part of the World Tour 2016, BABYMETAL held 2 "Apocrypha" performances at Shinkiba Studio Coast for THE ONE members on April 20 and April 21. A day after BABYMETAL played for third consecutive year at Music Station Live.
On May 3 NEO Oyaide introduced BABYMETAL Kami Band Gear for US Tour 2016 including details of Kami Band members gear featuring Takayoshi Ohmura, Mikio Fujioka and BOH. (Read more here).
As Kami Band member Mikio played 8 dates with BABYMETAL during the first part of the US Tour staring on May 4 at the PlayStation Theater and finishing on May 14 at Northern Invasion Festival.
Next month, in June Mikio played the BABYMETAL European Tour playing in Switzerland, Austria, Netherlands, Germany, and closing on June 10 at Downlaod Festival in United Kingdom and on June 11 at Download Festival France.
On July 3 Mikio Fujioka was interviewed on Barks talk Kami Band abroad and Kari Band activities (Read here)
Also in July Mikio with BABYMETAL played the second leg of the US Tour. BABYMETAL visited Seattle, San Francsisco, Los Angeles and Chicago. On July 18 BABYMETAL played at the Alternative Music Awards 2016 performing with Judas Priest's leader Rob Halford as special guest.
After, on July 24 Mikio started the Japan Tour with BABYMETAL playing at Fuji Rock Festival followed by Rock In Japan Festival Rising Sun Rock Festival, Summer Sonic Festival and Apocrypha "The White Mass" in August.
BABYMETAL Kami Band members Takayoshi Ohmura and Mikio Fujioka hosted a Special Guitar Seminar at the MI Japan Osaka institute on August 10.
On August 15, Dorian Chiiwahwah Phallic and an incredible guitar cast including BABYMETAL Kami Band Gods Of Guitar Isao Fujita, Mikio Fujioka appeared on the first release for "The Epic Guitar Solo Challenge".
Also in the same month, Mikio Fujioka hosted a Special Guitar Seminar at MI Japan Osaka on August 27.
In September played with BABYMETAL their biggest shows to date on September 19 and September 20 at Tokyo Dome. Mikio played the first night "Red Night".
On November 26, Mikio Fujioka held a talk and demostration at "Inter BEE 2016" at Makuhari Messe.
In December played with BABYMETAL as support act in the Red Hot Chili Peppers UK Tour from December 5 to December 18.
To be continued...
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Biography wrote by: Maik Gianino.
Follow Mikio Fujioka on Twitter at: @mikio158cm
