KAN Passes Away at 61 (1962-2023)

 

In the light of the passing of singer Junko Ohashi（大橋純子）and lyricist Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）over the past week among the several figures who have left this mortal coil in 2023, I unfortunately have to report another untimely death. Singer-songwriter Kan Kimura（木村和）, who went by his stage name of KAN, had died on November 12th 2023 at the age of 61 although the first news reports didn't come until earlier today. Earlier this year, he had been diagnosed with cancer of Meckel's diverticulum in the small intestine although the direct cause of his death has yet to be announced.

Last night, I was about to turn in when something spiked in my head to check the Japanese news feeds on Yahoo.jp or Mixi. I'm not clairvoyant in the least but I sometimes go with my instinct and considering the sad number of times that I've had to announce the death of a figure in the Japanese music industry recently, I went to Yahoo and saw the headline of comedienne Kuniko Yamada（山田邦子）expressing her shock and tribute toward KAN.

As I expressed earlier this spring, KAN was a musical figure that I considered to be one of the four male pillars in that realm during my time on the JET Programme (1989-1991). His most successful single "Ai wa Katsu" was all over the airwaves during the latter half of my first stint in Japan. And if there had been a TV home base for KAN, it would have been Yamada's popular Wednesday night variety show on Fuji-TV, "Kuniko-chan no Yamada Katsutenai Terebi"（邦ちゃんのやまだかつてないテレビ）which had its run between October 1989 and March 1992. He was pretty much a semi-regular there performing "Ai wa Katsu" and writing songs for Yamada herself, and even for a while, the hit was used as the opening theme. Yamada even provided a parody song "Ai wa Chicken Katsu"（愛はチキンカツ...Love is a Chicken Cutlet）.

From Oricon.co.jp

In terms of how he presented himself, he always looked very dapper in a series of suits, sweaters and pullovers, but because of one appearance somewhere on TV, I will always envision him in a natty suit with a bowtie. With his friendly and slightly hangdog expression, he struck me as being the nice cute guy that any potential parents-in-law would accept on a dime. Plus, the way that his voice almost cracked when he hit the high notes probably cemented the adorableness factor. If I'm not mistaken, he admired Billy Joel, and I think he took some of the Piano Man into himself with his brand of piano pop and rock, and he has probably given some of his own self to contemporary artists such as Gen Hoshino（星野源）.

Below I will provide some of the KAN songs (his own and by others) that I've remembered from around 30 years ago. My condolences go out to his family, friends and fans. 

(1991) Propose （プロポーズ）

(1992) Kan no Christmas Song（KANのChristmas Song）

(1990) Miki Imai -- Ame ni Kiss no Hanataba wo (雨にキッスの花束を）

(1991) Yamadakatsutenai Wink -- Sayonara dakedo Sayonara janai（さよならだけどさよならじゃない)

(1990) Ai wa Katsu (愛は勝つ）