Hideto Matsumoto, better known by his nickname hide (typically spelled in all-lowercase letters, sometimes in all-uppercase), was a Japanese musician, singer, and songwriter known as the lead guitarist of Japanese metal band X Japan, and for his solo career. He was also a co-founder of the US-based band Zilch.

With X Japan, hide helped to transform Japan’s fascination with ‘80s glam metal into something uniquely Japanese: the movement that became “Visual Kei”. Even with the iconic figure of Yoshiki, the drummer, pianist, primary songwriter and undisputed leader of X Japan, providing an obvious central figure for the band, hide’s charisma and flamboyant fashion—retaining his trademark shock of red, later magenta, hair after the rest of the band had shifted to more conventional rock fashion—allowed him to stand out and become a uniquely beloved figure among Japanese rock fans in the 1990s. He also wrote a handful of the band’s songs, including “Drain” and “Scars”, which continue to appear on their setlists to this day.

In his solo career, hide experimented with his industrial and alternative rock tendencies, as well as working with aesthetics and themes that didn’t necessarily fit into the work of X Japan. His stage shows, album covers, music videos and lyrics were characterised by open sexuality, juxtaposing androgyny and machismo, and exploring even dark themes with deliberate surrealism and absurdity.

hide passed away by hanging in 1998, a few months after X Japan had performed what was to be their final show and split up. Whether this was an accident or a suicide, as was ruled by the police investigation, continues to be a contentious issue among fans, but the shockwave hide’s death sent through not only the world of Japanese rock, but even into mainstream culture is beyond doubt. It has been reported that five fans attempted copycat suicides, of which three succeeded, and 50,000 people attended his funeral. His final solo album, which he had been recording at the time of his death, was released later that year and reached number 2 in the Oricon chart. Both of the posthumous singles from that album, “Pink Spider” and “Ever Free” reached number 1 in the singles chart.

Two decades after his death, hide continues to cast a vast shadow over the Japanese music scene. Compilation releases, and even posthumous singles (such as 2014’s “Co Gal”, a demo for which the vocals that hide had never recorded were created using Vocaloid technology) continue to be released and to chart. Fernandes, who produced the majority of the guitars hide used, continues to offer several signature models based on designs hide played, fans of X Japan and hide’s solo work continue to mimic his famous hairstyles and hide continues to be introduced as a member at X Japan concerts to rapturous applause.

To say that hide’s death made him a superstar would be to understate the staggering popularity that he and X Japan had amassed in their home country during his lifetime, which bears comparison to just about any great western band in history, no matter how famous, but certainly it enshrined the flamboyant, 33-year-old, pink-haired, guitar-slinging extrovert in the collective consciousness of Japanese music and pop culture, exactly as he was at his peak, for decades into the future.