May 2, 2006 - IMPORTANT NEWS -
砂川憲和 (Sunagawa Norikazu), 31, of ZAN has passed away. He was mainly known as their leader. He played the shakuhachi and fue. His last concert was at Utsunomiya. He went to Mt.Totsigi on April 18 and was found dead on April 22.

ZAN will continue as a 2 man group.

Here is the message they left on their official site :

ファンの皆様へ

今回の出来事は自分達２人にとって信じられない事で、また、信じたく無い事でした。

リーダーの最後の演奏となってしまった宇都宮の公演では、リーダーは、尺八、笛、フルートで古典、現代曲、ＺＡＮ、吹道と自分の全てを発揮しました。そして、次の日の朝、山に行くリーダーを見送ったのが最後となってしまいました。「死ぬ時は最後まで音楽家として、そして、好きな場所で死にたい。」と、いつも言っていた通りの最後だった事が僕達の気持ちを少しだけ救ってくれました。

ＺＡＮは２人だけになってしまいましたが、リーダーの思いを伝えるべく、これからも頑張っていきたいと思っています。皆さんのお力をお借りしても、２人だけではまだまだ時間がかかってしまうと思いますが、皆様応援宜しくお願いします。

小湊昭尚
市川　慎
(May 1, 2006)

ZAN official site
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I don't know what to think because i seriously wish i couldn't' read Japanese right now because what i read was read correctly. Thankyou Etsuko-san for confirming this... anyway how do i say this? Sorry for the lack of proper sentences in the update i'm not in the mood right now. If you don't know how much this means to me, right now i'm pathetically crying. ZAN is an awesome group. They're actually all University music graduates. When i was attending a music major at my University i went through a very low time in life and by listening to their music they encouraged me to continue on doing what i do. Personally i don't like going to concerts, but i was truely looking forward to going to a ZAN concert. I was actually planning on trying to catch one of ZAN's shows if i was allowed to go to Hokkaido do this year. Well either way, even if i did, it wouldn't be the same now. Nevertheless, I am grateful that I came to know of ZAN and their music, and my deepest condolences to Kominato-san, Ishikawa-san and the Sunagawa family

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