Reita Japanese Bassist (1981–2024)

Early life

Reita was born on 27 May 1981 in Sagamihara, in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. He was raised by his mother alongside an older sister and was close to his grandmother. At school he joined the football club, where he met Uruha, the future guitarist of the GazettE. The two became childhood friends. Reita later recalled that during their second year of junior high school they spent afternoons at Uruha's home playing CDs and trying out covers, and that this is when he decided he wanted to be a musician, even though his family had little money. Outside music, he enjoyed boxing and trained at a gym on a regular basis.

Career

Reita first picked up the guitar in his second year of high school. After watching Luna Sea he moved to electric guitar, aiming to join a rock band, and he played in a Luna Sea cover group. By his third year he had grown frustrated with the guitar and changed to bass.

Before the GazettE, he and Uruha played in several short-lived original bands. Under the stage name Reiki, his first group was Karasu, which broke up in 2001. That same year he joined Ma'die Kusse and soon after moved to L'ie:Chris, which was renamed Kar+te=zyAnose and ended in 2002. Later in 2002 he formed the GazettE and took the stage name Reita. Until the band signed with PS Company in 2003, he supported himself with part-time work, which included packing bread at a convenience store. On stage he stood on the right side next to the guitarist Aoi. As with the other members, he took part in writing the band's songs, and tracks such as "Malum" and "Karasu" carry his composing credit.

Outside the band, he founded the clothing and silver accessories brand Snaked Lows in 2008, produced with Satoshi Yamashita of Deal Design. In 2012 he changed the way his stage name was written, moving from hiragana to romanised capitals as REITA. He opened a Twitter account in 2014, and he appeared on the cover of Rock and Read magazine on several occasions, including in August 2014 and in 2017.

His look was built around a mask worn over the nose, originally white cloth. At the time of the band's Project: Dark Age in 2015 he switched to black leather, and in 2017 he reshaped it to follow the line of his nose. He also wore spiky blonde hair that hid half of his face.

Reita designed his basses with the Japanese maker ESP and named the ESP RF-01 among his favourites. In interviews with Bass Magazine he described using TWO NOTES and EBS amplification with a Darkglass Electronics top. His equipment was modest in the band's early years around the album Nil (2006), when he relied on Ampeg and Mark Bass amps. After Stacked Rubbish (2007), recorded with a white ESP, he began collecting instruments and said he bought a new bass nearly every month. Beautiful Deformity (2013) was recorded with a Zon bass and Dogma (2015) with a Music Man Stingray. For Mass, his final album with the group, he used basses from the Canadian maker Dingwall, returned to Ampeg amplifiers and added a SansAmp pedal for heavier distortion. He played with fingers and with a pick, used slap technique, and in concert tossed his bass into the air and caught it.

He named J of Luna Sea, Sid Vicious, Fieldy of Korn, Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Nikki Sixx of Mötley Crüe as his main bass influences. Luna Sea, seen on television, was what first made him want to play in a band.

Personal life

Reita died on 15 April 2024. The GazettE announced it on its official website the following day, and musicians and the team behind the anime Black Butler, for which the band had written the second season's opening song "Shiver", paid tribute to him publicly.