Kaoru is a Japanese musician, best known as the leader and one of the guitarists of the extreme metal band Dir En Grey. He has been with the group since its inception in 1997 and was previously a member of La:Sadie's. He has composed most of Dir en grey's songs (at least up to the Vulgar album, at which individual credits for the music were dropped). His contributions display a fair amount of variety, ranging from slow ballads such as "Zakuro" to upbeat numbers like "Jessica". He performs many solos for the band, which vary strongly in feeling and tempo, similar to his compositions. Kaoru cites X Japan guitarist hide as his biggest influence and the reason he plays guitar, saying "If I had never known him, I wouldn’t be who I am today." Revealing "Kaoru" to be his birth name in his book Dokugen, he's one of the two Dir En Grey members with a known real name, along with Shinya.
Also known as
Guitarist, Composer
