Hello, everyone. Nice to meet all of you.
I am Kurosawa, a Thugaru samisen player. (samisen: a three-stringed Japanese banjo)
I’m glad to be here today.
To begin with, I’ll explain the origins of the Thugaru samisen.
It was started by a boy named Nitaro Akimoto,
who was born 154 years ago.
It is said that he became blind at the age of 8 years old,
and his parents died when he was 11.
He didn’t have anyone to depend on,
and so began to play the samisen to become a traveling musican.
He decided to become a real professional samisen player
He began training to become a medium for the dead, or Itako,
where he had to endure a whole week without any food or sleep.
Upon finishing,
he invented the way
the samisen is played now.
It was precisely because of his intense meditation
that he was able to play the shamisen so soulfully
and serve as the accompaniment to the memorial services for the spirits of the deceased.
It is no exaggeration to say that the shamisen.
which I play now is the same as
hat used during the memorial services of the deceased.
On every stage,
I always play this for the deceased who were killed in the Earthquake and Tsunami.
Hundreds of times, thousands of times, however many times I play, it will not be enough.
With the opportunity to be here today,
I’d like to talk for a while.
I was born in Morioka.
On the day of the Earthquake,
I felt that strong quake in my studio.
Most of my apprentices
live on the coast,
Miyako, Oozuchi, Unosumai of Kamaishi, Rikuzentakada, Kesennuma.
Where I work,
before the Earthquake and Tsunami, there used to be such wonderful scenery
The very first thing I did after the Earthquake and Tsunami
see if my apprentices were dead or alive.
Sadly, one of my apprentice’s students
had died.
Having seen such tragic scenes, like a vision of Hell,
I lost the will to play the samisen for a while.
The houses of my top two apprentices were
destroyed completely by the Earthquake and Tsunami,
so they had to stay in a shelter.
In late March,
they told me that they wanted to listen to music.
Until then, I had been delivering relief supplies
to Oofunato, and Rikuzentakada,
but I went to the shelter
to play music at the request of my apprentices.
I went to the shelter, located in the Shiroyama Gymnasium.
People there looked much better than expected.
“People staying in the Shiroyama Gymnasium all look fine.”
As I look back now and think of why they looked the way they did at the time,
I guess that they were too confused to feel sad
or understand what had happened to them.
“What was happening at that moment”
“With such a heap of rubble in the town what had happend?”
They were wondering that way.
They were laughing and talking,
and of course there were also some people crying.
I went there and played the samisen.
“I will go to various regions of Japan to play the samisen.
Let’s ask for help for the people there.”
“Is there anything you want me to tell them?” I asked.
A middle-aged man staying at the shelter shouted in a loud voice.
“We’re fine, don’t worry!”
“Help us now and we will repay you later, somehow, no matter what it takes!”
These words really cheered me up.
However, three months later when I went back to the shelter,
there were newly erected meter-high walls
surrounding each person’s living quarters. They didn’t talk to each other.
I wondered what was going on.
“You all look awful, are you all right?” I thought.
I guess they were reaching their limit, feeling very uneasy and wondering, “How long do we have to stay here?”
When I went to the shelter the first time,
there was a sense of community.
Three months later, temporary housing was built.
As people were leaving their neighbors at the shelter to enter temporary housing, their families were their first priority.
Around that time, as other shelters closed, evacuees from neighboring regions were moved to the Shiroyama Gymnasium.
Surrounded by strangers, the people had no one to share their sadness and talk with.
They went into their own shells, and gradually the walls made of cardboard got higher and higher.
Seeing this, I was at a loss for words.
Now they’re all living in temporary housing.
Many of them, although brought up near the coast, are still too afraid to see the sea.
Also, many of them, whose family members were killed in the Earthquake and Tsunami, still cannot move past their suffering.
Of course, as you all well know,
from June, July,fishermen and farmers, who have work to do day in and day out, start looking forward in order to recover from the damage of the Earthquake and Tsunami.
However, there is a gap between those who start making efforts to recover from the damage
and those who stay in temporary housing, having lost their jobs, with nothing to do.
Most of the latter are at a loss and don’t know how to make their living or where to live when they have to leave temporary housing one year and a few months later, I guess, as most of the temporary housing holds only for two years.
Those people, though told that the recovery from the damage is important, are sill not prepared to move forward.
I’m afraid such a gap will only widen and widen.
I thought, through playing the samisen, that it was the most important thing to listen to people who live in temporary housing and are at a crossroads as to what to do.
For example, when depressed, people want to talk about what is troubling them with someone first, don’t they?
Living in temporary housing, they have no friends or loved ones to talk with.
So they gradually enter their own shells, and often become physically ill.
Then they cannot move forward, even when someone whom they don’t know suddenly comes up to them and says, “Hey, cheer up!”
Be mindful of these people, let them say what they have deep inside,
cry together, and finally they will be able to feel that they can start again.
Now where there used to be a town there is nothing.
From now on there will be many problems to be solved, such as rezoning or designating no entry areas.
I believe now is a good opportunity to rebuild.
As there is nothing now, we can build anything we want,
the town as we want it to be, the way we want it to be.
With such ideas, if only those living in desperation can have a little hope
and think of the possible futures, we can create this new town.
This is what I am thinking. My time is almost finished, so I’d like to play you the Tsugaru samisen again.
This time, I want to play a song that will make you happy.
Please close your eyes and listen carefully.
This will be an improvised performance.
Thank you, Mr Kurosaki.
n fact, the samisen music that you heard earlier today is from the band that Mr Kusoraki played in, “Tenchijin”, or “Heaven, Earth, and Human Beings”.
I was very moved by such a heartfult talk and felt very pity that we listened to his Thugaru samisen play only for a few minuts.
I would like to hear more of this Tsugaru samisen. Everyone, what do you think?
As they all agreed with me, so would you like to play a samisen a little bit more for us, please?
Thank you
I should charge you for the extra performance, by the way... no, just kidding.
But such sounds of laughter will revitalize the areas struck by the Earthquake and Tsunami in turn.
want them to be more and more reinvigorated,
and they will be able to rebuild a great new town that we can’t even imagine now.
What I can do is very limited, but my belief in them resolute.
I will go to Ooduchi tomorrow.I played the samisen in Kyoto last week.
As they gave me the theme, “The Time of the Heart”, I talked about the Earthquake and Tsunami and played the samisen.
The directer of the kaleidoscope museum, who was there, had already sent kaleidoscopes to the elementary school in Ishimaki,
but he promised to send some to all the students of the elementary school in Oozuchi this time, and those kaleidoscopes just arrived the day before yesterday.
Tomorrow, as a part-time teacher at the elementary school, I will teach the students how to make kaleidoscopes.
Now, there is nothing but a heap of rubble in the town. There isn’t anything that people can see and enjoy.
That’s why we think it’t a good idea to make kaleidoscopes, so I will play a samisen and teach them how to make them.
Honestly, invited with such short notice, I haven’t thought about which songs I will play, though.
To show a versatility of the samisen, I will play different style songs for you.
Not as interesting as expected.
I’ll play more seriously. I would like you to support me, so please clap along?
I knew that you would all have such a good sense of rhythm. Please keep doing it.