Today is the 66th memorial day atomic bomb attacked the city of Hiroshima.   We are passing our days in tense situations.  I find myself with shallow breath and end up with feeling my stomach heavy.  The news reported that a high level of radiation of 10 Sievert per hour was observed at Fukushima 1st nuclear plant, and also middle-class earthquakes happened frequently at Kanto and Tohoku area.  Again I feel some ominous sign of another big earthquake. Regarding the radiation, I am gnawed by anxiety that eventually I will not be able to live in Tokyo where I was born and bred.  On the day before March 11 of the earthquake, I wrote on the twitter, “I wish there would not be bigger earthquake anymore…”  Most of anxieties have come true, so I would like to keep thinking about lightness only. This fall, the Bayerische Starrtsoper will visit Japan for performance.  The program is Roberto Devereux, Lohengrin, and Ariadne auf Naxos.  I will go to the theater to see the Lohengrin.  Surprisingly enough, Sylvie Guillem will join the performance in Japan for almost full one month.  And at Iwate, the afflicted area, she will dance the ‘Bolero’ that is said to have been sealed, at almost no charge.  I express cordial gratitude for her spirit.  In this autumn, I am going to visit various locations to see her performance.  After the earthquake disaster happened, I made myself think anew about the value of art.  I had not noticed that arts could so sooth human mind.  The performance in Japan of Gidon Kremer taught me that.  The Chaconne he played struck my heart, and I was not able to prevent the tears from flowing. This is his message when he visited Japan the other day. “The music is an infinite source of energy.  The power will extend despite moving from one century to the next.  When we are thinking about great composers such as Bach, Shostakovich or Brahms, we will be connected to the eternal values and be able to get to something which teaches us that we are not alone in this world and still there is a harmony (accord) which reads us to existence even in an utmost chaos.When listening to Bach, we are never alone and there is always someone whom we can talk to.  When walking together with Shostakovich, we are able to realize that we can overcome every difficulty with high spirituality and inherent strength.Not only the classical but also modern composers can be role models for us bespeaking that we are living together in “one” world which does not have geographical or temporal border, and is free from cogitation of physics and politics, although our life is limited.Beauty and affectivity will interconnect us stronger than television or internet.  May our ears and eyes be able to see and listen to “each other”.  May the flow of energy that was expressed in the sound reach us all, and through that, may all of us feel that we are alive, and breathe and understand mutually.” Whenever I log-in the Second Life and meet various arts, I feel consolation and energy to live although they are only in a world of the internet.  That was felt as a matter of course before the earthquake disaster, but now I feel it has a special significance.

Today is the 66th memorial day atomic bomb attacked the city of Hiroshima. 

 We are passing our days in tense situations.  I find myself with shallow breath and end up with feeling my stomach heavy.  The news reported that a high level of radiation of 10 Sievert per hour was observed at Fukushima 1st nuclear plant, and also middle-class earthquakes happened frequently at Kanto and Tohoku area.  Again I feel some ominous sign of another big earthquake. Regarding the radiation, I am gnawed by anxiety that eventually I will not be able to live in Tokyo where I was born and bred.  On the day before March 11 of the earthquake, I wrote on the twitter, “I wish there would not be bigger earthquake anymore…”  Most of anxieties have come true, so I would like to keep thinking about lightness only.

This fall, the Bayerische Starrtsoper will visit Japan for performance.  The program is Roberto Devereux, Lohengrin, and Ariadne auf Naxos.  I will go to the theater to see the Lohengrin.  Surprisingly enough, Sylvie Guillem will join the performance in Japan for almost full one month.  And at Iwate, the afflicted area, she will dance the ‘Bolero’ that is said to have been sealed, at almost no charge.  I express cordial gratitude for her spirit.  In this autumn, I am going to visit various locations to see her performance.  After the earthquake disaster happened, I made myself think anew about the value of art.  I had not noticed that arts could so sooth human mind.  The performance in Japan of Gidon Kremer taught me that.  The Chaconne he played struck my heart, and I was not able to prevent the tears from flowing.

This is his message when he visited Japan the other day.

“The music is an infinite source of energy.  The power will extend despite moving from one century to the next.  When we are thinking about great composers such as Bach, Shostakovich or Brahms, we will be connected to the eternal values and be able to get to something which teaches us that we are not alone in this world and still there is a harmony (accord) which reads us to existence even in an utmost chaos.When listening to Bach, we are never alone and there is always someone whom we can talk to.  When walking together with Shostakovich, we are able to realize that we can overcome every difficulty with high spirituality and inherent strength.Not only the classical but also modern composers can be role models for us bespeaking that we are living together in “one” world which does not have geographical or temporal border, and is free from cogitation of physics and politics, although our life is limited.Beauty and affectivity will interconnect us stronger than television or internet.  May our ears and eyes be able to see and listen to “each other”.  May the flow of energy that was expressed in the sound reach us all, and through that, may all of us feel that we are alive, and breathe and understand mutually.”

Whenever I log-in the Second Life and meet various arts, I feel consolation and energy to live although they are only in a world of the internet.  That was felt as a matter of course before the earthquake disaster, but now I feel it has a special significance.

Notes

  1. absencen posted this