Rock band X Japan founder Yoshiki will auction off his favorite piano to raise money for victims of the catastrophic series of earthquakes and tsunami which struck Japan last Friday. After seeing images from the northeast, Yoshiki said he was struck by the scale of the devastation and immediately sent out a Twitter message asking his fans if they were OK. The piano to be auctioned is the band’s instantly recognizable crystal clear custom Kawai grand piano. Details on the auction will be provided later.
Yoshiki, who plays drums and piano and writes most of the music for X Japan, is based in Los Angeles but was visiting Japan to attend a fashion show and write music at the time of the quake. Originally from Chiba, Yoshiki said he watched events unfold and when he saw the scale of the destruction, he decided to do what he could to help the recovery operations. “I decided the best I could do was to try and contribute something through music,” he said.