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The story
A one-line 2019 post by Denki Groove’s Takkyu Ishino — “‘Sansen’ (‘joining the fight,’ slang for going to a show) isn’t the same as going to war” — blew up after Quruli’s Shigeru Kishida quoted it seven years later. On 5ch, the debate centered on whether the word “sansen” is appropriate to use for concerts, and how it squares with the similarly “battle”-rooted term “kansen” (watching a game/match).
Aug 19 (Wed), 9:32 AM
A seven-year-old X post by Denki Groove’s Takkyu Ishino is stirring up quite a wave.
On April 25, 2019, discussing what it means to go to a live show, Ishino had posted: “A live show isn’t a place to check off what you already know — it’s a place to encounter new sounds and new fun. ‘Yoshu’ (studying up beforehand)? This isn’t school. And ‘sansen’? This isn’t war.”
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Read the original article here
What people said
Those two actually go way back — I think there was some incident where Kikuchi felt disrespected by Kishida or something, and just went off on him unprompted…
This was like 20 years ago now,
but he trashed Kishida on the radio,
painting him as this prickly, twisted, stereotypical Kyoto type.
Later he and Yoshio Otani also poked fun on the radio at that band Kishida did with Kokko — "Singer Songer" or whatever it was called.
No idea what actually happened between them, but he clearly doesn't like the guy.
But a live show isn't even a battle to begin with.
Kind of nitpicky — I mean, either way's fine honestly.
A festival's half a battle though
Well, you could call it a battle between the artist on stage and the crowd.
And the crowd's not exactly all friends with each other either —
people are literally slamming into one another.
Classic Takkyu lol
So very him, I love it
Give up on second base, but you'd better "kill" the runner at first for sure (baseball jargon for getting someone out).
Takkyu has zero interest in sports in general — he once told Taki (his Denki Groove bandmate), "I can't believe you get so hyped over something so pointless."
This is just word-policing.
So are we banning "kansen" (watching a game) for sports too then?
Guess we gotta say "kan-jiai" instead?
So lame.
Nobody's even talking about "kansen" here.
The subject is "sansen," a military term.
People with weak reading comprehension can't even follow the context.
Trace it back and "kansen" also comes from "watching a battle" —
that's literally why it uses the character for "battle" in the first place, obviously.
Are you a monkey or something?
Kansen = treating war as entertainment.
Which makes it the single most taboo word of all.
But if seeing the character for "battle" only ever makes you think "literal nation-vs-nation war"…
the fact that's the only thought you're capable of…
Generously put, that's a music nerd who's clueless about the world; bluntly put, that's just a low-information ○○.
"Sansen-ing" a ramen shop. "Sansen-ing" a barbershop. "Sansen-ing" the supermarket.
Put it that way and I think you can hear how weird it sounds.
Not war, but:
Chono
Muto
Hashimoto
(New Japan Pro-Wrestling's famed "Three Musketeers")
Background and Key Points
On Japanese social media, “sansen” (参戦, literally “joining the battle”) is everyday fan slang — used for concerts, sports viewing, cosplay events, even queueing for limited-edition sneakers. Its counterpart “kansen” (観戦, “watching a battle”) is the standard verb for spectating any competition, sport or otherwise. Both words are dead metaphors carried over from wartime vocabulary but drained of literal meaning centuries of ordinary use ago, similar to how English speakers say “killed it” at a show without meaning violence. Takkyu Ishino of Denki Groove — one half of Japan’s most influential techno/comedy act since the 1990s — objected to “sansen” back in 2019 on the grounds that a live show isn’t combat and shouldn’t be framed as one; Quruli frontman Shigeru Kishida resurfaced that post seven years later and endorsed it, which is what triggered this 5ch thread.
The board didn’t split over whether Ishino has a point in the abstract — most posters accept that, taken literally, “battle” imagery is a slightly odd fit for a concert. The real fault line is whether that etymological literalism is worth acting on at all, since by that logic “kansen” for baseball would need banning too, which most posters treat as absurd overreach.
What the thread never states outright is that this is a manufactured non-controversy: nobody in Japan hesitates before typing “sansen” for a gig, and the linguistic point being litigated is closer to trivia than a live dispute. The Naruyoshi Kikuchi tangent about an old grudge with Kishida is unrelated gossip that hitchhiked onto the thread, not part of the “sansen” debate itself.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Geisports Bulletin+) thread “Takkyu Ishino’s 7-Year-Old X Post Back in the Spotlight — “And Sansen Isn’t War” — Quruli’s Shigeru Kishida Quotes It: “I Think So Too”.”
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