Masayoshi Takanaka

Masayoshi Takanaka (Japanese: 高中 正義, Hepburn: Takanaka Masayoshi, born March 27, 1953) is a Japanese musician, producer and composer. Takanaka rose to fame and achieved commercial success during the 1970s and 1980s. He is known for his virtuosic guitar playing and skilled musicianship, composing and performing across various different music genres.
In a career spanning more than 50 years, Takanaka has released more than 20 albums and continues to perform.
Takanaka was born in Akabane, Kita Ward, Tokyo, to a Chinese father from Nanjing and a Japanese mother whose surname was Takanaka. His father immigrated to Japan after World War II and later married his mother. Soon after Masayoshi’s birth, the family moved to Ōimachi in Shinagawa Ward, where they ran a mahjong parlor called Sangenkaku in the local shopping district.
When he was in the fourth grade, Masayoshi was naturalized as a Japanese citizen, changing his name from Masayoshi Liu (劉正義) to Masayoshi Takanaka (高中正義).
From a young age, Takanaka showed an intense passion for music. He listened to The Beatles and The Ventures as a child and played guitar with his older brother, who was three years his senior. His musical tastes later shifted toward Led Zeppelin, Cream, and Eric Clapton, whom he tried to emulate. However, his biggest influence was Alvin Lee of Ten Years After whose fast and fluid playing left a lasting impression.
He began his formal education at Ono Gakuen Elementary School, a private institution, but transferred to Musashi Institute of Technology Junior High School (now Tokyo City University Junior High School) since Ono became an all-girls school at the secondary level. Although he spent most of his time playing guitar, his grades remained excellent. He attempted to transfer to Hibiya High School in order to pursue Tokyo University, but due to the group school assignment system in place at the time, he was instead placed at Kudan High School, a result he found disappointing. He opted instead to remain on the internal track and attend Musashi Institute of Technology High School.
During high school, Takanaka performed in cover bands of Grand Funk Railroad and Jimi Hendrix at the AIRMAN’S Club, continuing to build his stage experience.
By the late 1960s, Takanaka joined a band called Escape, performing regularly at U.S. military bases around Tokyo. In winter 1970, at just 17 years old, he played in a band named The Evil, with whom he recorded what are currently the earliest known live recordings of his playing. These performances took place at the AIRMAN’S Club in Fuchū. Unfortunately, little is known about the other members of The Evil, and their names remain a mystery.
His first professional break came in his senior year of high school during a concert by the band April Fool. One of the members, drunk onstage, shouted to the crowd, “Can someone play guitar for me?” Without hesitation, Takanaka, still wearing his school uniform jumped onstage and played. That spontaneous moment marked the beginning of his professional music career.
He soon joined Hiro Yanagida’s group and performed as a backing musician at Nobuyasu Okabayashi’s “Kurui-zaki” self-written/self-performed concert at Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall in July 1971. In August, he supported Strawberry Path, a band led by Shigeru Narumo and Hiro Tsunoda, at the Hakone Aphrodite rock festival. A month later, he officially joined the group, which was then renamed Flied Egg.
Although he wanted to play guitar, he was initially assigned to bass, against his will. Under Narumo’s mentorship, Takanaka received daily lessons in music theory and guitar technique, which laid the foundation for his later style. Simultaneously, through Narumo’s introduction, he began working as a studio bassist, kicking off his professional life in the recording industry.
In 1972, after Flied Egg disbanded, he joined the Sadistic Mika Band formed by Kazuhiko Kato, and from there he began working as a professional guitarist. The band fragmented after the divorce of two of its main members. After the Sadistic Mika Band disbanded in 1975, he formed the Sadistics with remaining band members Yukihiro Takahashi, Tsugutoshi Goto, and Yutaka Imai. The following year, in 1976, he released his first solo album, Seychelles, and since then he has continued to pursue Sadistics and solo activities. The other members also engaged in solo activities, and as they all began to place more emphasis on their solo activities, the Sadistics disbanded in 1978, seemingly disappearing naturally.
After the Sadistics disbanded, he began working as a solo artist, releasing one or two solo albums every year, consisting mainly of his own original songs and guitar instrumental songs. Takanaka released his first solo album, Seychelles. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Takanaka continued his output, releasing over twenty albums and singles under Kitty Records until 1984 and EMI from 1985 to 2000. In 2000, he formed his own record label, Lagoon Records.
Takanaka is known for his flashy guitars, including a gold colored Fender Stratocaster. He also has a trademark "lagoon-blue" Yamaha SG guitar that he plays during live performances. In 2004, at his performance in Crossover Japan '04, Takanaka unveiled his iconic custom-made surfboard guitar. In this performance, the surfboard is painted light blue with his name in cyan text, however it would later be changed to be painted red with white text. This guitar was used in a 2008 performance of "Beleza Pula" at Super Takanaka Live, one of Takanaka's most popular concerts, and has since become highly famous across the world due to its unique design. In 2014, at the 13th Tokyo Jazz Festival, Takanaka also demonstrated a custom-built guitar which featured a model train set.
He has collaborated with several other musical acts, notably Santana and Roxy Music.
Takanaka has enjoyed a global resurgence in popularity since the mid-2010s, driven largely by younger audiences outside Japan discovering his music online. His 1981 song "Penguin Dancer" was sampled by Grimes on her song "Butterfly" in 2015. His 1979 song "Blue Lagoon" was named the 14th best guitar instrumental by Young Guitar Magazine in 2019. In 2025 he performed two sold out shows at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles in his first US performance in decades. Takanaka was visibly surprised and entertained by his frenzied reception.