Last year, Japan's hottest emerging singer was not "Yonebu Knot", he was versatile but really couldn't skate; of course, he wasn't "Lawyer Mickey", he didn't sing a theme song for the hit Japanese drama "LEGAL HIGH", and the song title was not "Melon"; finally, many people would be impressed by the widely sung "Hit with Fireworks", but its author was not a "Polished Rice Mage"...
His name was Yonezu Genshi.
Those who knew and loved him preferred to call him "Eight Masters.".

<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the eighth master is not the grandfather</h1>
When people recognize the creators behind them through those wonderful works, such a name, which is extremely rare even in Japan and looks very high and unpredictable, will indeed make people mistakenly think that they are the predecessors of craftsmen. In fact, Yonezu Genshi is a post-90s who is only 28 years old this year. The reason why he is called "Eight Masters" is not because of seniority, but precisely because of his innate nirvana talent that is not commensurate with age.
Yonezu was born in 1991 in Tokushima Prefecture, Japan. It's a small place, and probably the most well-known symbol is the "Naruto Whirlpool", the iconic fish fillet that often appears in Japanese ramen, which is called "Whirlpool" because it resembles the famous whirlpool phenomenon here. In fact, it is also the origin of the name of Naruto Uzumaki, the protagonist of the national bloody manga Naruto. When Yonezu was a child, he also frantically chased the serial of "Naruto" and thought about writing a touching divine comedy like "Butterfly", the theme song of "Digimon". Unfortunately, similar to the protagonists in those stories, the childhood Yonezu is an out-of-place presence among his peers. When he was in kindergarten, an accident caused Yonezu's lip to be injured, and he felt the strange gaze of his peers for the first time after returning from the hospital with stitches. Since then, the scars on his mouth have given Yonezu a sense of disgust that he is "different from others" and "monster-like". Coupled with his naturally reticent and indifferent personality, he later recalled that the conversations he had with his father before he became an adult added up to almost no more than an hour. Fortunately, his mother, who studied art, encouraged his initial hobby, and he began to try to doodle some comics. Yonezu's talent and talent in painting was revealed earlier than in music, which also laid the foundation for his "all-round" performance in his later creations. Because of his introverted and withdrawn personality, even his rare name, Yonezu was still subjected to inexplicable exclusion and bullying on the outside — until many years later, he was diagnosed with "high-functioning autism". It is a mental illness that is common in many artists or "geniuses", who often have severe social impairments but have unusually high IQs and are extremely gifted and talented in certain fields. The "autistic genius" causes such people to endure the loneliness of the world in the world, and they may have an infinitely wonderful world in their hearts, but they cannot share it with others like normal people. At the moment of diagnosis, Yonezu had a kind of "ah, sure enough" realization in his heart, and it turned out that his specialness did not come from the scar, but from the body. Fortunately, since it had been defined as such, Yonezu was no longer burdened and began to try to survive "with the hand assigned". He eventually found a way to make the defects that could have ruined his life the brightest light on himself.
In the second year of middle school, Yonezu began to try to form a team with his classmates to form an orchestra, but soon parted ways because of different creative ideas. Because his companions can never fully grasp their intentions, this also makes Yonezu even more determined that "his true intention is something that will be misunderstood no matter how he expresses it", "Human beings can never understand each other's existence". Although no one helped and supported him, because he could not ignore his strong love and desire to create music, he chose to continue to create his own works at home. Music was all about Yonezu during this period of his life, and as a standard "otaku", he could not face society and cope with social relationships, but his heart was filled with too many thoughts that he wanted to express. Soon, Yonezu discovered that the Internet, a channel through which he could communicate indirectly with people, had completely changed his life to some extent. Since 2009, Yonezu has published a large number of original PV works on the NICONICO website through VOCALOID software. He uses the ID "ハチ", which is the Japanese pronunciation of the number "eight". The rising Internet social network has given countless lonely people the opportunity to create miracles - VOCALOID has given birth to a creator culture represented by "Hatsune", the essence of which is to allow users to complete unique original music works by customizing lyrics and notes and loading accompaniment data. In this process, there is no need for a real singer or band accompaniment, and the "V-family P masters" only need a computer, and through the software, they can turn the inspiration and ideas in their minds into a fruit that can be shared. The Internet video community represented by the NICONICO website gives these young generations of original creators the best stage to display and share. It was in this opportunity that Yonezu had the opportunity to build his inner voice into a unique world that could resonate with others through programs and networks.
Yonezu chose the highest level of composition - lyrics, composition, arrangement, performance, mixing, editing, singing and even later PV production, cover painting, dance performance... All by one person. It was the golden age of VOCALOID, and for the first time, people discovered that Hatsune Mirai could not only sing those cute brainwashing songs, but also be created so many highly stylized avant-garde works. "The Luocha and the Skeleton of the Split", "Russian Matryoshka Doll"... "ハチ" completely conquered countless audiences with a legendary divine comedy with more than one million hits. The ethereal electronic synthesizers and percussion, the free abstract electronic sound reverberation, the curious, gloomy, confused, obscure but full of sincere and fierce emotions, coupled with the amazing self-painted illustrations, let the fans who are deeply "unconscious" officially put "Eight Masters" on the altar in this circle. This is the strength of "genius", although the influence of Yonezu's work in this period seems to be too negative and slightly "secondary two", but this kind of debauchery and imagination just poke the hearts of ignorant teenagers who have just come into contact with the online world. These bizarre subjects may not have fully understood the ideas he was trying to express, but for Yonezin it was one of the author's most precious periods of pure creation—free from any outside interference, and could be expressed directly and bluntly. He has been lonely for too long, and this creative process itself is the most cheerful vent; for the audience, being able to discover and recognize such an all-round and mysterious genius will undoubtedly make people feel a tacit sense of resonance and Bole pride. Thus, in this small kingdom of subcultural circles, the "eight masters" who are "omnipotent except to have children" in the mouth of fans were born. Although everyone does not know what kind of person the owner behind this ID is, "ハチ" has truly become one of the legends of the early Internet original music circle.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Yonezu is a mystic</h1>
"I used to really hate my name because it was rare so I was often bullied. Chinese characters are also exaggerated, and the 'Xuan' of the Xuan people and the 'master' of the master, so I am also worried about whether I am 'worthy of the name'. Although I didn't care much when I was a child, I felt that I should still live as a person who could match my name. ”
Although humans cannot communicate perfectly, music seems to be able to transcend language and evoke incredible resonance. When the expression is answered, the work gains recognition, and the barrier of constructing a lonely heart is gradually broken, and the lonely genius who lives at home and hides behind the mask of "ハチ" finally begins to yearn for a larger world. In 2012, "Eight Masters" submitted a new work called "GOGO Ghost Ship" online, and then released their first album "diorama". Still all the work is done by yourself, including the very characteristic cover drawing. Most importantly, this time he no longer used the vocaloid software's sound source to tune, but directly sang in person, and for the first time officially disclosed his real name - Yonezu Genshi.
Author: Yonezu Genshi
With the gradual unveiling of the mystery that shrouded himself, many fans looked forward to the image of the Elder Xuanshi made up by Wen Shengyi's brain, and it turned out that this legendary "Eighth Master" was only the same age as himself. But the tall thin man who is close to 1 meter 9, the messy hair that grows to cover his eyes, and the silent and cold temperament can't help but make fans have more mysterious and curious imaginations about Yonezu. Yonezu, who walked to the front of the stage, received a more enthusiastic response with his infectious and unique style and still mesmerizing magical melody, coupled with his own interpretation of the song. Soon, he embarked on the road to becoming a formal commercial singer, signing to Universal Records, and two years later bringing with him his second album, YANKEE, a more critically acclaimed masterpiece that continued to soar in Yonezu's popularity. He began to appear more live-action, began to work more deeply with professional teams to create, began to try more positive mainstream themes... Of course, as he became more famous and went more and more into the mainstream, in the eyes of some extreme fans, it became a betrayal of the original niche circle. It seems that any representative born in the subcultural circle to the masses cannot escape this process, and is sought after on a small scale - the "god" at the mass level - because of the controversy of "whether personality is dissolved and compromised", which leads to the division and confrontation of the fan base... This may once again confirm Yonejin's negative view that he cannot be understood by everyone. But Yonezu knew very well that how could he possibly forget the starting point that allowed him to be reborn? In 2017, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the birth of Hatsune Mirai, Yonezu returned to the VOCALOID community as "Hachiya", bringing with him a long-lost new work, "Planet of Sand" (沙の惑星[Hatsune ミク]), condensing the scenery he had seen in the world of VOCALOID and the wonders of all his creative companions into the planet described in the song. Genius is genius, "ハチ" will certainly not disappoint, the return of the king, this new song created the V family's fastest legend song record, less than two days on YouTube to get more than one million views, becoming the most VOCALOID songs in the past.
Has "Eight Masters" changed? There are also none. At the beginning, he was just a lonely genius, just to express the lonely and self-congratulatory personal world; then it is still the same, he did not compromise and accommodate, but he wanted to express himself into a being who "wanted more people to understand and resonate", so he took the initiative to try to change - the world in his heart became bigger. The name that once led to inferiority had already become a veritable annotation at this time, and the Xuanshi no longer had to hide behind the mask of the "Eight Masters". He even moved his family to Tokyo and began to make "meeting and talking to people of all kinds" his goal for the new year. Of course, Yonezu also sensed that some real pressures would indeed interfere with him, so he chose to sign Sony Music, which would give him greater creative freedom after the contract expired. Of course, the identity of "ハチ" cannot be relinquished, but he also "does not want to hide in the invisible cloak of VOCALOID" - from the very beginning, the purpose of publishing works is to find resonance, so Yonezu is not willing to become a lonely and small self-entertainer. He did not want the constraints of commercialization to interfere with his imagination, nor did he want to be bound by the labels of so-called niche geniuses, but he wanted to create works that really moved everyone, and proved himself in the larger world under the name of Yonezu Genshi.
The opportunity came quietly. In August 2017, the animated film Fireworks, directed by Akiyuki Shinbo and adapted from Shunji Iwai's original work, was released. The film itself was not well received by controversy, but the ending song "Hit with Fireworks" that Yonezu was invited to compose for the film received far more popularity than the original film, sweeping the major music charts and sweeping the Chinese online community. It was through this divine comedy that he sang with young female singer DAOKO that many Chinese netizens first met and remembered the unique name of Yonezu Genshi. At the end of the year, Yonezu was again invited to compose the theme song for a newly launched Japanese medical drama next year. At the time of his grandfather's death, he finally had a deep and personal feeling for the meaning of love and bondage for the first time, and realized how superficial his previous understanding of seemingly "cool" images such as life or death was in his previous works. He sank his heart and incorporated all the real sadness and growth he had personally experienced into this masterpiece. In 2018, with the popularity of the Japanese drama "Unnatural Death" starring Rimi Ishihara, its theme song "Lemon (Lemon)" continued to dominate the weekly top of the ORICON electronic singles chart with more exaggerated popularity, with sales quickly exceeding one million, and it set off a cover singing boom in the online community, and finally won the Best Theme Song Award at the 96th Japanese Drama Academy Awards. At the end of last year, at the highest-level "Japanese Spring Festival Gala" red and white song meeting, Yonezu monopolized three debut works, in addition to "Fireworks" sung by DAOKO and the specially invited song "パプリカ" specially composed for the Tokyo Olympic Games, in the finale stage of the party, he sang "Lemon" for the national audience at the Otsuka International Art Museum in tokushima, by remote connection. Breaking through the dimensional wall of the subcultural circle, "Eight Masters" finally became a phenomenon-level public singer under the real name of Yonezu Genshi, and the works he poured his heart into were truly transmitted to the hearts of thousands of people. The autistic patient, who once said in an interview that he would never open live, finally agreed to the program group in the last week before the Red and White Song Festival, overcoming obstacles to appear in the eyes of the world to perform his masterpiece on the spot. In the face of his deep voice when he spoke in public, even the host exclaimed that "the first time I saw a real person open his mouth" - more viewers finally found that this "Xuanshi" who only heard his name and was unpredictable turned out to be just a shy and green tall boy.
Author: Yonezu Genshi
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > days to eat lemons</h1>
"The song 'Lemon' is so successful, maybe it's an answer to what I've been doing so far. I started with the V family's Producer, and then I also did J-ROCK, and it took a long time to finally move to J-POP, "Lemon" should be regarded as one of the ends of this long journey... But honestly, while I've been working towards making universal works, I didn't expect Lemon to make that dream come true. Life doesn't have a script outline like a movie, so it's impossible to know what will happen in the future. However, the goal I have been working for can be achieved on the song "Lemon", and the moment the dream came true, I seem to hear the melody of '夢ならば...' ringing in my ears, which in a sense is also a happy ending. ”
Some people are always prone to define the heart of genius with their own assumptions, thinking that the niche is the classic, paranoia is the personality, pursuing the negative and gloomy, and looking down on the positive and empathetic. "Eight Masters" has also been marked with too many labels, Yonezu is a typical "Net Red" born in the era of the new wave of the Internet, thanks to the progress of science and technology and the development of society, so that his original lonely talent has gained recognition through the creation of the virtual world. But of course he is not truly omnipotent, his flaws are obvious, and his work is unlikely to be liked by everyone. But none of this matters, what is important is that Yonezu maintains a sense of prudence and humility—geniuses who have a unique view and understanding of the world, those who are really intelligent, because they see too much and think too much, often trap themselves in the prison of extremism and nihilism. But talent is always accompanied by responsibility, and the more capable and talented people are, the more they will find their own instinctive sense of mission and motivation. He once considered himself a monster, and even published a special copy of the Monster Illustrated Book; he once refused to communicate, believing that humans could never understand each other. But with such emphasis, he included a song called "Love" in the "Monster Illustrated Book", and he was good at alternative dark styles, but he confessed his love for Miyazaki's animation in an interview, and was deeply influenced by Nausicaa's sentence that "life is a light that flickers in the dark"... Yonezu debuted as a niche and was known for his genius, but instead of demoting himself to the maverick corner of the door, he bravely tore his mask to life and became a singer facing the public, letting his shadow interpret the meaning of the existence of the sun.
People who like him can be relieved that the mainstream does not necessarily mean compromise, and even outlier geniuses and outliers also have the truth and ordinariness that belong to ordinary people. Talent allowed Yonezu to reap his first achievements, but what really made him transform was to continue to think and grow day after day. The two masterpieces of "Hit the Fireworks" and "Lemon", which made Yonezu finally gain mainstream recognition, including the later Olympic song "パプリカ", which was full of life tension, the lyrics were meaningful, the melody was sad but not hurtful, and it could completely grasp the ears of the audience from the first second. This is the treasure that can really resonate with anyone, there is no experimental showmanship, there is no obscure personality, it is back to basics, the most basic - good sound, moving. Perhaps there are no more gorgeous and complex words and strange and fantastic tunes, but this simple narrative that precipitates from life and growth, such as the toncarnon-style circulation laying out, layer by layer, the melody is always maintained between the ups and downs of lightness and openness, until the climax is played together, a moment of direct impact. Compared with those who are noisy and innocent moaners, this genius who actually suffers from autism has overcome the difficulties that ordinary people can never imagine, from "two-dimensional" to "three-dimensional", from the minority to the universal, from behind the scenes to the front of the stage, step by step to accept and embrace this real world, and in turn use his own singing to bring courage to more people.
Among the tastes, sweet is joy, and bitter is sleepy, these are two attitudes and experiences based on instinct. So what is the acid represented by lemons? ——Slightly acid is moist and refreshing, which can set off sweetness; strong acid is astringent and numb, tending to be bitter. People cry because they are sad, and they cry with joy, and in both cases we can feel the sour nose, and the attitude that this kind of emotion means is uncertain, it all depends on the root of its origin. This is the importance of sourness, which is the "touch" itself, a reconciliation of reason and sensibility, positive and negative. Just like the "lemon essence" culture that has emerged on the Internet, in the face of those helpless realities, we are unwilling to admit jealousy or resentment, so we choose to use the image of "lemon (acid)" instead of "jealousy and sadness". This is a deconstruction that was only born in the Internet age, and the most valuable thing about this performance art is that people do not shy away from the human nature of "envy" while stripping away the negative meaning of "jealousy". Great art has to play precisely this role, it cannot be a sweet fodder that leads to depravity, nor can it be a bitter poison that destroys the soul. What we need is a stimulating "touch" to remind ourselves that not everything is sweet, but life is never bitter to the end. Yonezu Genju brings people not a flattering sweetness or a chaotic bitterness, but a fresh and cold sourness. He also struggled with barriers that prevented people from communicating with each other, so human beings need communication outside of words, we need novels, paintings, music, movies... Abstract expression and indirect interaction are needed to condense the trivial thoughts of individuals into empathy and emotion that represent the human collective. Good songs make people cry, and although everyone has different reasons for crying, we all know that this experience is the taste of "sour". This is also why those genius creators will always take out a "lemon" from the most sensitive corner of their hearts when they are about to become completely numb by the trivial and dull life, lick it, and let this sour but refreshing taste stimulate themselves, and completely wake up in an instant. It is not sweet, so it cannot be indulged in; it is not bitter, so there is no reason to refuse. This is the reason why truly great creations always come from life and can always touch the most universal public. If you want to struggle, not willing to be mediocre, you must always have the courage to taste the "lemon" - as long as you still have the ability to be touched by anything, as long as you remember what the taste of sour is, you will always be able to distinguish between sweet and bitter.
Thanks to this information age, geniuses are no longer lonely, and the most brilliant fireworks can bloom in front of the eyes of all. The once-inhabited autistic patients finally came out of inferiority because of the recognition of strange netizens, and now the popular singers choose to donate all the proceeds of "パプリカ" to the Japan Sports Promotion Center and foundation to cultivate the next generation of young athletes. Perhaps people never have to worry about the lack of excitement in life, there are always legends from obscurity to the front of the stage, offering a beautiful that deserves our applause. A genius once said, "Every day that does not dance is a disgrace to life." "The so-called not crazy devils do not live, and some people's mad devils are already in life." When from loneliness to growth, from creation to cooperation, it eventually resonates with countless souls. This is the story of a lonely man, wanton but sincere, a genius who eats lemons and wants to discern what has been forgotten. Besides, we still have music, and in that song called "Loser," Yoshizu Yoshinori sang briskly—
"On a bony night, I'm going to dance and dance again.
Tired of this groggy night, but still have to continue dancing. ”
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