It’s being announced today via social media that Japanese guitarist Mikio Fujioka has passed away. On Fujioka’s twitter account his wife made the announcement that he died on January 5th at the age of 36. Fujioka fell from an astronomical observation deck on December 30th while stargazing. His health took a turn for the worse and passed away from his injuries with his two daughters present at the moment of his death.
Fujioka published ten guitar textbooks and was a lecturer at a music school in Japan but he’s mostly known from being part of the Kami Band (originally referred to as the Gods of Metal), a group made up of five musicians who are members of other bands or work on solo projects but come together to be the band for Japan’s Kawaii-Metal music group BABYMETAL.
Fujioka went by the stage name Ko-Gami (the Small God) because he was the shortest member of the Kami Band at 5’1 (158cm). BABYMETAL has paid tribute to Fujioka on social media.
The “Little” Guitar Kami of #BABYMETAL ‘s #Kamiband has passed away in the METAL GALAXIES. We hope that he is now with his GUITAR MASTER A.Holdsworth and enjoying an epic guitar session with him.
We are the one
Together
We're the only one
You are the one
Forever#RIP #THEONE pic.twitter.com/NMUg3mhmes— BABYMETAL (@BABYMETAL_JAPAN) January 9, 2018
Fujioka’s wife added on Twitter via his account, “We are fortunate to have fans and people concerned. I hope you will continue to love him. Thank you.”
