Kashitarou Itou

**Kashitarou Itou** (**伊東 歌詞太郎**) started his career as a cover singer of online-centered music, releasing his first CD album in 2012. Called *Kitai no Utaite (An Extraordinary Singer)* in NicoNico, his powerful but clear-sharp singing voice captured the heart of Internet users in Japan. The total number of views his videos have received is now over 80 million. He is one of the most popular music artists among the current young Net & SNS users. More than 730,000 people follow him on Twitter, and his official LINE account has over 300,000 friends. He goes on One-man tours every year, gathering total audience of more than 20,000 in 2018. And in 2019, he went on a Nation-wide (total 18 concerts) tour, the largest of his career, titled "To the City You Live" including the finale at Toyosu Pit in Tokyo. He is also well-known in Asian countries, having made his first inroad into China, Singapore, Taiwan and Korea in 2014, and going on a successful One-man Tour over China with concerts in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, and Guangzhou in 2019. A man of many talents, he published his first novel "Classroom in the Home" (published by KADOKAWA) in 2018 which sold over 70,000 copies. He also holds lectures for the younger generations at educational institutions and libraries to talk about bullying and interpersonal issues using his experiences as a cram school teacher for reference. He has not revealed his face in the media, preferring to always wear his trademark fox mask.

### **Career**

**Kashitarou Itou** formerly known as **weezer**, is a singer-songwriter and utaite known for his strong, clear, "refreshing", and earnest-sounding voice, with a narrow, almost quavering vibrato. Although this distinct vibrato is occasionally described as being fluttery and slightly "peculiar", his voice is commonly considered to be "warm" and pleasant to listen to. He is a technically sound singer, capable of hitting notes cleanly and effortlessly as well as having a decent vocal range; he is also very good at controlling his singing volume.

His first upload was in fact not a cover, but an original VOCALOID song titled *Namida ga Koboreru Mae ni* using Hatsune Miku, after which he was given the -P honorific and dubbed **FuwamokoP (ふわもこP)**. In addition to VOCALOID work, he posted a few acoustic and arranged covers on the side under the utaite name **weezer**; but though they were well-received, their view counts almost never broke the 10K mark. His cover of *Melt*, posted in early 2012, was his first breakthrough hit - shortly afterwards, he created a new account, changing his utaite name to **Itou Kashitarou**. He has since deleted his old account, but despite this, the videos posted on it remain viewable. He continues to upload original VOCALOID works, although he is not as active in songwriting as he is in uploading covers.

He is good friends with Amatsuki, with whom he often collaborates, and is also friends with the illustrator and mangaka Kuwahara Souta, who has illustrated some of his twitter avatars. He is a close, longtime friend of LeftyMonsterP (with whom he forms the unit Itowokashi) and often collaborates with him, including composing songs or having lives together. They have known each other since childhood, and performed together in middle school. Whenever he performs live as Itou Kashitarou, he wears a fox mask, while LeftyMonsterP wears one of several other masks.

His first entry into the utattemita category was an acoustic cover of the pillows' *Strange Chameleon*, however his first cover under his present name was **Narisumashi Gengar**, which currently has 378K views and 12K Mylists. His first hit cover was *Shiwa*, which currently has over 381K views and 28K Mylists, and is the most popular cover of that song; while his most popular solo cover to date is *Pierrot*, which currently has over 2 million views and 40.4K Mylists as of January 2015.

### **Trivia**

* His name comes from the name of his favorite Edo period samurai, Itou Kashitarou (伊東甲子太郎) from Shinsengumi with the only difference being the kanji for "kashi" in each; he replaced the kanji 甲子 in the historical Itou Kashitarou's name with 歌詞, the kanji for "lyrics".
* He is about 180 cm (5'11") tall.
* He is left-handed.
* He was born in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture.
* He has two white cats named Pon and Mimi.
* He is known to like Studio Ghibli very much.
* He always wears a fox mask during lives when performing as Itou Kashitarou

### **External Links**

* Official Site
* Official Fan Club HomeTown
* Official Twitter
* Official Twitter Info
* Official LINE ID
* Official LINE BLOG
* Official Nico Nico
* Official Youtube Channel
* Official Facebook(Global)