Kiyoshiro Imawano

King of Japanese rock is the sort of title that usually embarrasses everyone involved. In Imawano's case it was simply accurate. He fronted RC Succession in stage paint and outrageous clothes, throwing his famous call out to the crowd, and the clowning was always a delivery system for something serious. After Chernobyl he wrote anti-nuclear songs and refused to retreat when the industry would have preferred silence. Very few performers anywhere will spend their commercial standing on a conviction. He died in 2009, and Japanese rock has never quite produced a successor, which is the highest compliment I can pay him.

Name (English)

Kiyoshiro Imawano

Name (Japanese)

忌野清志郎

Reading

いまわの きよしろう

Born

April 2, 1951 – May 2, 2009

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Aries / Rabbit

Origin

Nakano, Tokyo, Japan

Occupation

singer-songwriter / singer / actor / record producer / recording artist

High school

Tokyo Metropolitan Hino High School

• Official sitehttps://kiyoshiro.co.jp/
• Xhttps://x.com/I_Kiyoshiro
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiyoshiro%20Imawano
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BF%8C%E9%87%8E%E6%B8%85%E5%BF%97%E9%83%8E
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1041744

Tags

• Tokyo
• singer-songwriter
• singer
• actor

Last updated

2026-07-26

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.