If a tree falls and nobody hears it, does it still make a sound? Some in Miyagi Prefecture certainly do.
If a tree falls and nobody hears it, does it still make a sound? Some in Miyagi Prefecture certainly do.
A musical performance was held in quake-hit Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, on Oct. 2 using instruments made from large pine trees knocked down after a tsunami and fire following the Great East Japan Earthquake.
Groups playing the kocarina instrument from around the nation performed the traditional Japanese song "Furusato (hometown)" in front of the stumps of the pines near a local elementary school.
Folk musician Kurotaro Kurosaka, 62, brought this ocarina-like instrument from Hungary in 1995 and named it kocarina, with the intention of promoting use of the instrument in Japan. An ocarina is a flute-like wind instrument.
The damaged pines were cut down due to fears that the trees could fall, but Kurosaka gave a new life to the pines, producing more than 100 kocarinas from them.
Graduates from Kadonowaki Elementary School, who had been given the kocarina, participated in the Oct. 2 performance.
“(The instrument) made very heart-warming sounds,” said Maho Sato, a 13-year-old graduate who lost her father in the March 11 tragedy.