I’m going to go to Poland to perform.

From March 13 to March 20, I’ll be in Poland for performances.

In commemoration of the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth, many competitions and other musical events are being held there. We were invited by the Japanese Embassy in Poland. Our concerts will be a good opportunity to introduce Japanese traditional music.

One of the works in the program will be Tsuruga Wakasanojo’s musical staging of Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s short story, Kumo no Ito (The Spider’s Thread), that was premiered in 2010. This is primarily a shinnai work, but includes other Japanese instruments besides the shamisen, as well as Japanese traditional dance. In addition, I will perform Ran’cho, a typical su joururi shinnai work. Another work will be a ji’uta dance number, Yuki, which will be sung by Tsuruga Wakasanojo. Yuki is a very nice number, rather like shinnai.

Poles are Japanophiles, and seem to be interested in understanding Japanese culture and spiritual ideas in depth. Noh performances are held there often, I believe, but this must be the first time that shinnai will be performed there. I’m looking forward to seeing their reactions to our performances. This is a pleasant kind of nervousness… Please check this blog for my report about the trip.

Members of the group going on this trip:
Shinnai: Tsuruga Wakasanojo, Tsuruga Isejiro, Shinnai Katsushizu
Traditional dance: Fujima Jinsho, Hanayagi Kihi
Koto: Tomimoto Seiei
Shakuhachi: Yoshioka Tatsumi
Drums: Tou’sha Akane