[5] His 1960s career with Group Ongaku is extensively covered in the 32-page essay "Experimental Japan," which appears in the book Japrocksampler (Bloomsbury, 2007), written by author/musician/occultist Julian Cope.
While in Japan Kosugi also worked with butoh dance originator Tatsumi Hijikata and the radical Japanese artist group Hi-Red Center.
[7] Along with Natsuyuki Nakanishi and Jiro Takamatsu of Hi-Red Center and the sculptor Hiroshi Kobatake, Kosugi participated in "Kuroku fuchidorareta bars no nureta kushami" (Wet Sneeze of a Black-lined Rose), a 1962 theater even organized by the radical leftist group Hanzaisha Domei (League of Criminals).
Kosugi's primary instrument was the violin, which he sent through various echo chambers and effects to create a bizarre, jolting music quite at odds with the drones of other more well-known Fluxus affiliated artists, such as Tony Conrad, John Cale, and Henry Flynt.
[12] Other works from this period include "Anima 1" (1961, alternatively "event for long string"), which appears to have been performed by Alison Knowles and Ben Vautier in 1964 as the 359 Canal street loft that Maciunas had made the Fluxus headquarters.
[5][13] The work prompted the performer to "Roll up a long chord," in response to which Vautier wound string around a seated Knowles and entangled her with the audience.
"[6] In 1965, he moved to New York City where he collaborated with Fluxus affiliates including Nam June Paik and Charlotte Moorman.
[5] This itinerant group travelled in a Volkswagen van from the Netherlands to India, stopping in the UK, Italy, Germany, Scandinavia and Iran staging outdoor performances and happenings.
[5] In addition to conducting a workshop during this time, Kosugi would bring his violin with him to cafes and bars in order to be prepared for any opportunity to improvise with strangers.
"[7] After the Taj Mahal Travellers disbanded in 1975, Kosugi moved back to the United States and in 1977 he was invited to be a resident musician/composer along with David Tudor at the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.
Responding to Kosugi's death in 2018, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth wrote on Twitter, "The times spent playing music with you will never fade.