is a Japanese musician and singer-songwriter. He has been the vocalist of the rock band

Buck-Tick Buck-Tick (stylized as BUCK-TICK) is a Japanese Rock music, rock band, formed in Fujioka, Gunma in 1983. The group has consisted of lead vocalist Atsushi Sakurai, lead guitarist Hisashi Imai, rhythm guitarist Hidehiko Hoshino, bassist Yutaka Hig ...

since 1985, previously being their drummer from 1983. He released the solo album '' Ai no Wakusei'' in 2004 and was also a member of

Schwein Schwein (German for ''pig'' as well as ''pork'') is a music group comprising members of Buck-Tick, KMFDM, and PIG. Members Raymond Watts (vocals, programming, guitar) and Hisashi Imai (Buck-Tick; guitar and noise), both having worked together in ...

alongside

Hisashi Imai is a Japanese musician and songwriter. He is known as lead guitarist of the rock band Buck-Tick since 1983. He has also performed in musical side-projects such as Schaft (1991–1994, 2015), Schwein (2001), and more recently Lucy (2004). Car ...

(Buck-Tick),

Sascha Konietzko Sascha Kegel Konietzko (born 21 June 1961), also known as Sascha K and Käpt'n K, is a German musician and record producer. He is the founder, frontman and "anchor" of the industrial band KMFDM. Konietzko jokingly purports himself to be the fat ...

(

KMFDM KMFDM (originally Kein Mehrheit Für Die Mitleid, loosely translated by the band as "no pity for the majority") is a multinational industrial band from Hamburg led by Sascha Konietzko, who founded the band in 1984 as a performance art project. ...

) and

Raymond Watts Raymond Watts (also known by his former stage names Nainz, Nainz Watts and Ray Scaballero) is an English musician, the founding and sole member of the industrial music project PIG, sometimes written as <PIG>. Watts was an early member and p ...

. In 2015, he formed a solo project called The Mortal.

History

Buck-Tick

Originally Atsushi was the drummer for Buck-Tick.''LOVE ME'', Yasue Matsuura, Takao Nakagawa; Shinko Music Publishing Company, Ltd. 1989. . When the members graduated high school and moved to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, Atsushi was the only one left in Gunma. He then asked

Toll Yagami , known exclusively by his stage name , is a Japanese musician, best known as the drummer of the rock band Buck-Tick since 1985. He is the older brother of Yutaka Higuchi, Buck-Tick's bassist. Life and career Toll Yagami dropped out of high s ...

if he could be the singer for his band SP, but was declined. Ironically, he ended up switching to vocalist of Buck-Tick, after the band fired Araki, and Toll became their drummer. His last name was originally written with the first

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

as "" ("sakura"), but when his mother died in 1990 he changed it to "", the older version. He also wrote "Long Distance Call" about his mother's death. He married Buck-Tick's stylist in 1991, but divorced a year later. They have one son,

Akutagawa Prize The is a Japanese literary award presented biannually. Because of its prestige and the considerable attention the winner receives from the media, it is, along with the Naoki Prize, one of Japan's most sought after literary prizes. History The ...

-winning author . He married again in June 2004. Throughout Buck-Tick's long career, he has written the most lyrics to their songs. He also performs on

Der Zibet Der Zibet is a Japanese visual kei rock band formed in 1984, which made its debut in 1985. They went on an indefinite hiatus in 1996, but resumed activities in 2007. History Der Zibet was formed in 1984 by vocalist Issay and bassist Hal, wh ...

's ''Shishunki II'' and ''Kaikoteki Mirai - Nostalgic Future'', Issay's ''Flowers'', PIG's '' Wrecked'',

Masami Tsuchiya is a Japanese singer-songwriter and musician, coming to prominence in the late 1970s as the lead vocalist and guitarist in the group Ippu-Do. His subsequent output includes solo work and collaborations. Tsuchiya's career in music started with ...

's ''Mori no Hito ~Forest People~'' and

Chiaki Kuriyama is a Japanese actress, singer, and model. She is best known in the West for her roles as Takako Chigusa in Kinji Fukasaku's 2000 film '' Battle Royale'' and Gogo Yubari in Quentin Tarantino's 2003 film '' Kill Bill: Volume 1''. Life and career ...

's ''

Circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclist ...

''. On December 9, 2018, Sakurai was visibly unwell during Buck Tick's concert at Zepp Divercity, but he insisted on finishing the performance. After the concert, he was diagnosed with

gastrointestinal bleeding Gastrointestinal bleeding (GI bleed), also called gastrointestinal hemorrhage (GIB), is all forms of bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract, from the mouth to the rectum. When there is significant blood loss over a short time, symptoms may incl ...

and subsequent shows had to be postponed for his treatment.

Solo

In 2004, Atsushi released his first solo album , which featured tracks composed by musicians such as

Wayne Hussey 250px, Hussey performing at the M'era Luna Festival in 2004. Jerry Wayne Hussey (born 26 May 1958) is an English musician who was born in Bristol, England. He is best known as the lead singer of The Mission, and the guitarist with The Sisters ...

(

The Sisters of Mercy The Sisters of Mercy is an English rock band, formed in 1980 in Leeds. After achieving early underground fame there, the band had their commercial breakthrough in the mid-1980s and sustained it until the early 1990s, when they stopped releasin ...

), J. G. Thirlwell (

Foetus A fetus or foetus (; plural fetuses, feti, foetuses, or foeti) is the unborn offspring that develops from an animal embryo. Following embryonic development the fetal stage of development takes place. In human prenatal development, fetal develo ...

), Cube Juice, My Way My Love,

, Cloudchair (Jake of

Guniw Tools are a Japanese visual kei rock band. The band's theme is "Integrated Art Direction featuring visual images that come forth from sound."Masami Tsuchiya is a Japanese singer-songwriter and musician, coming to prominence in the late 1970s as the lead vocalist and guitarist in the group Ippu-Do. His subsequent output includes solo work and collaborations. Tsuchiya's career in music started with ...

, and the remake of a 1992 song where he collaborated with

Clan of Xymox Clan of Xymox, also known as simply Xymox, are a Dutch rock band from Nijmegen formed in 1981 best known as pioneers of darkwave music. Clan of Xymox featured a trio of singers and songwriters – Ronny Moorings, Anka Wolbert, and Pieter Noot ...

. 2004 also saw his acting debut, with the starring role in

Ryuhei Kitamura (born May 30, 1969) is a Japanese film director, producer, and screenwriter. Biography Early life Kitamura was born in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. He dropped out of high school at age 17 and relocated to Sydney, Australia, where he attended a sch ...

's short film ''

Longinus Longinus () is the name given to the unnamed Roman soldier who pierced the side of Jesus with a lance and who in medieval and some modern Christian traditions is described as a convert to Christianity. His name first appeared in the apocryphal G ...

''. He released a book of his poetry and lyrics called in 2004. In 2015, he announced the formation of his second solo project, a band called The Mortal. The group consists of guitarist Jake Cloudchair, guitarist Yukio Murata (My Way My Love), bassist Ken Miyo (M-Age) and drummer Takahito Akiyama (Downy). The mini album ''Spirit'' was released on October 14 and they played a three date tour in November. The full-length album ''I am Mortal'' was released on November 11, 2015.

Discography

;Singles * "Sacrifice" (May 26, 2004),

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...

Singles Chart Peak Position: #25 * #22 * #62 ;Albums * , Oricon Albums Chart Peak Position: #15 ;DVDs * ''

'' (August 25, 2004, short film), Oricon DVDs Chart Peak Position: #16 * #47 ;With The Mortal * ''Spirit'' (October 14, 2015) #11 * ''I am Mortal'' (November 11, 2015) #12 ;With Buck-Tick

Books

* * ''Sacrifice'' (July 20, 2004)

References

External links

Atsushi Sakurai at Victor EntertainmentThe Mortal Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sakurai, Atsushi Buck-Tick members Visual kei musicians Japanese male singer-songwriters Japanese male rock singers Japanese rock drummers Japanese male actors Musicians from Gunma Prefecture 1966 births Living people Schwein members