Translator: Akiko Kamio Reviewer: Yuko Niizeki
(Shamisen)
(Applause)
Hello, everyone.
I am Niya, a Tsugaru-shamisen player.
I grew up in Yagishiri Island, in the northern part of Hokkaido.
I lived there from first to third grade of elementary school.
In second grade, I came across
the Tsugaru-shamisen on TV.
The sound of this original instrument caught my attention,
and I later found out that it was the shamisen.
For Christmas that year, I asked Santa for one.
The next morning, near my pillow,
I found my Christmas gift.
That was how I started.
As a result, I became an apprentice to Toshihiko Sato,
a third-generation Tsugaru-shamisen master in Japan.
Then I started taking lessons in earnest.
I commuted from Yagishiri to Sapporo
by bus and boat once a month.
Because there aren't any high schools on Yagishiri,
I had to move to Sapporo.
I had lived there on my own since 10th grade.
I was practicing my shamisen and going to school.
In the 11th and 12th grade,
I went through a phase where I hated the shamisen.
I didn't even want to touch it at all.
So I started skipping shamisen lessons without notice.
Then my teacher said,
"Without the shamisen, you are not yourself."
That night, those words mortified me.
After one and a half years, I asked him to give me another chance
and bowed down in front of him.
He accepted my request willingly.
Since then, he would take me to his performances,
and I had many opportunities to perform.
In the same year, due to subarachnoid hemorrhage,
my master died on stage during a performance in Tokyo.
There are so many important values that my master taught me.
I would like to share two of them, today.
The first one is that being human is more important than the music.
No matter how great the music,
if you are not a good human being, you cannot live like that.
Moreover, if you are of bad character,
you may not be asked to perform and lose many opportunities.
That is what my master meant.
The second one is "No music without death."
Many animal lives have been taken to make this shamisen.
For example, itomaki or the tuning pegs are made from elephant tusk.
And bachi or the plectrums are made from tortoise shell
and from buffalo horn and elephant tusk.
The shamisen body is called dou.
Do you know what it is made of?
It is made of dog skin.
Many of you may have thought it was cat skin,
but when it evolved into the Tsugaru-shamisen,
it became dog skin.
Indeed shamisen are made using many animals.
He told me that it is important to play the instrument a lot
as a way of giving offerings.
He taught me how important this is.
So that is the shamisen I play.
Compared to the past,
there are fewer opportunities
to listen to shamisen music performed live.
In the past, communities listened to folk songs,
and took strength from them.
These songs were the background music of their daily life.
Now we only hear shamisen live at summer festivals, New Year's,
or at other special events.
Even now the Tsugaru-shamisen are hand-made by professional craftsmen.
My shamisen was also made by one.
There are fewer and fewer professional shamisen craftsmen.
And now they are made by machines.
By using machines, the demand for craftsmen becomes limited.
This is very disturbing.
What I can do is focus on is spreading folk songs
and building a firm base on this traditional shamisen music.
Moreover, I would like to collaborate with artists from other genres,
like creating background music for a fashion show,
brass bands, and club house music.
This will familiarize people with the Tsugaru-shamisen.
I also have another project.
That is to teach young players and get them to feel the music.
Also I want to show that the shamisen can create impressive performances
appealing to the audience.
I want to collaborate with artists from various genres.
Doing so in Japan is very important work.
But I want to perform overseas.
Japan has heavy influences from the West.
Our lives are very westernized.
We're more likely to adopt a trend if it first became popular in the West.
That is my impression.
Traditional Japanese musical instruments are now very much valued overseas.
Using this to my advantage, I want to bring the world's attentions to Japan.
That is my dream.
I will make traditional Japanese music more familiar to Japanese people.
I love this music, and I would like others in Japan to discover it as well.
I hope you will find traditional Japanese music
more attractive than before.
These are my thoughts on the music in my heart.
This is how I imagine we can all unite.
Today, since I have my shamisen, I will introduce a supporting member.
We'll have an East-meets-West fusion session.
Here is digital percussion player,
KENGO beats.
Here he is.
(Applause)
(Shamisen)
We're going to perform "TO NORTH."
(Percussion)
(Music)
(Beating time with hands)
(Music continues)
(Music ends)
(Applause)
Thank you very much.
(Applause)