MIYUKI NAKAJIMA & JOE HISAISI got Shiji Award in Japan.

Shijiaward is an honorable emblem which is sent to people who made great contribution to Japanese or international art or sports.  It’s not a big sureprise that Joe and Miyuki are selected time year. They are admired by nation as life long musician who made all Japanese be brave to live with their wonderful music. One strange thing for this prize is that HAYAO MIYZAKI or TAKEHI KITANO have never been selected with all their shining career and respect by nation of Japan.

MIYUKI NAKAJIMA started her career more than about 30years ago through YAMAHA popular song contest. Her song was JIDAI ( or AGE in English ). She wrote and sang it then and this song is still a big song for the Japanese. More or less, Jidai lives in the heart of Japanese mind.

JOE HISAISHI is already world wide famous composer. His contribution to Japanese or international music is beyond description. Studio Ghibli could not achive such high popularity and perfectionism without his music.  Takeshi Kitano needed Joe’s music for realizing the pure beauty of story. Many songs by Joe Hisaishi are still in the heart of us. 

Joe Hisaishi picks up Nausicaa of the valley of the wind as his best work ever. He says ” Listening to it now, the work is rough. But If I try it now, maybe I can’t produce it now,  it’s a fact that my career started with that work with Director, Miyazaki.”

Below are the videos of MIYUKI and JOE

 Rakugo is a traditional form of Japanese entertainment.  It’s a kind of comical play on the stage but exactly speaking, it’s not a comedian’s play. Rakugo is played by one person on the stage and the person who plays Rakugo acts as two person’s role or sometimes more than that. And the story is made by the Rakugo player and he always tries hard to make people laugh from the stage.

Rakugo started more than 2 hundred years ago in Japan and probably the basic style of Rakugo was roughly formed before that. Since then, people enjoyed the stories told by rakugo player and the stories often become the traditional Japanese tales.

Rakugo is a kind of mental and intelligent game of Japanese people.

Rakugoka means a person who plays Rakugo on stage for public people.  One of the most famous and respected Rakugoka, Sanyutei Enraku, died of cancer today, at 76 years old.

I still remember my father went to see and listen to his rakugo more than 20 years ago when Enraku came to our small town. My father had no special hobbies but for him, it was an important occasion to see him on stage. 

Of course I knew Enraku, and all of the Japanese people must know him as an outstanding rakugoka in Japan even though recent people don’t enjoy rakugo so often as my father’s generation.

It’s maybe difficult for non-Japanese people to understand how he is missed in Japan. But if I say it7s almost same thing as Mr. Akira Kurosawa dies, you might understand how we Japanese respect him.

Without doubt, Akira Kurosawa is far famous than Enraku in the world. Enraku probably had few fans in the world except Japan.  It’s not fair to compare with Akira Kurosawa who made international impact on film industry.

But for the minds of Japanese, Enraku’s talks will never disappear as Kurosawa’s movies will never do. Enraku made us happy when he talked on the stage as a Rakugoka and his rich story with much intelligence was good exercise of our mind and it was also a pleasant stimulation to our dull head.

We love you forever, Enraku san.  Rest in peace.

Yoko Ono is, probably, the most famous Japanese woman in the world. That’s because she used to be the wife of John Lennon. Actually she worked for her own art works but that didn’t make her famous. The reason for her recognition is after all John Lennon.

This is a Beatles fan’s opinion, and not about Japanese woman but about Yoko Ono, the wife of John Lennon.

I don’t like her. When I heard how Yoko treated the people of Liverpool at the death of John, I was not dissapointed but was angry. Yoko didn’t allow the friends of John or relatives of John in Liverpool including previsou wife, Sincer, to attend the funeral or she didn’t contact any of them. Those friends and relatives in Liverpool could not say a word of Goodbye to John. They don’t know yet where John was burried or where his grave is.

Yoko doesn’t have right to erase the history of John. Yoko has privilage to foster the momory with John, just like that, people in Liverpool have the same right to share the memory with John. In addition, if Yoko deletes John’s Liverpool hisotry, it absolutely means she will delete John’s past too. Crazy !

I’m a huge fan of John and the Beatles. I can’t say anything about John’s choice of his wife, Yoko. It’s alright.  But as a human, what Yoko does to John’s Liverpool memory is just out of moral, just a humanity problem.

I don’t want to remember she is a  Japanese.

When we were students of high school or college, one of our dreams were going to America and learn many things there. But for us , studying abroad was too expensive.  That wa just a dream for us.
 Now many go to the USA and the other countries for studying. That is not rare to experience foreign countries while young.
 But we thing international troubles are many now.  Maybe there are more troubles than the time we just dreamed.  People know the other world now, but troubles are many. How can we reduce the trouble ?
 Indeed, the more different people meet, the more troubles happen. People say ” we go abroad for international understanding”.
 But the truth is that more people exchange cause more troubles.  I don’t know how to cope with it.