In Nigeria there is a music called Fuji. In the early 1990s, Fuji was the most popular music in Nigeria. The music's originator, Sikiru Barrister, named it after seeing a postcard of Mount Fuji. He said it was the most beautiful mountain he had ever seen, and dreamed of playing or recording in view of it.
Through his record company he sent me word of his idea, and for a couple of years I tried to generate interest here to make Barrister's dream come true. Unfortunately, I never succeeded. The number of his touring party -- 34! -- made it, to say the least, extremely difficult.
It was therefore some consolation last year to see Nigeria's Femi Kuti perform at the Fuji Rock Festival (although it was nowhere near the sacred mountain). Seeing Femi Kuti play live was even sweeter because his father, the late, great Fela Kuti, never made it to Japan before he died in 1997, despite having a large and devoted Japanese following. Probably because his band too, in its heyday, numbered about 40.