Professional orchestras are recording the songs of schools slated for closure in Japan's most disaster-stricken prefectures in hopes of preserving a piece of history and encouraging recovery efforts.
Professional orchestras are recording the songs of schools slated for closure in Japan's most disaster-stricken prefectures in hopes of preserving a piece of history and encouraging recovery efforts.
In Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, retired principals from schools in and near the city got together with others to propose recording the school songs on CD to hand them down to future generations.
The project is being led by Takashi Arisaka, 62, a member of Kokoro no Landmark Jikko Iinkai (Landmark of the heart executive committee).
"It is impossible to even imagine how severely the disappearance of schools--symbols of the region and an emotional anchor--will hurt (people's feelings)," said Arisaka, who runs a cram school in Ishinomaki.
Arisaka performed in an orchestra during his school days, and his experience there gave him the idea of preserving the school songs, he said.
Relying on connections from his friends, he consulted the Association of Japanese Symphony Orchestras last fall.
According to Arisaka, the association readily agreed, saying, "We had been considering how best to use our collected donations, and this is the perfect way."
They created orchestral arrangements of the original piano-accompanied tunes, and all 32 member orchestras across the nation, such as the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo, and the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, have participated in the project.
According to the education boards of the three quake-ravaged prefectures, a total of 27 elementary and junior high schools will be closed by the end of March 2014: six elementary schools and three junior high schools in Iwate Prefecture, and 13 elementary schools and five junior high schools in Miyagi Prefecture. Fukushima Prefecture hosts no public schools to be abolished.
The orchestras began with Miyagi Prefecture, where they have finished recording the songs of four schools in Higashi-Matsushima, whose closing ceremonies are scheduled earlier than the other schools.
The Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra recorded the school songs of Hamaichi Elementary School and Naruse Daini junior high school, Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa performed Ono Elementary School's song, and the Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra played the song of Naruse Daiichi junior high school.
"This is really delightful for the children," said Junko Miura, the assistant principal of Ono Elementary School, whose closing ceremony was held on Feb. 27. "We appreciate the aid that we have received from across Japan."
The CDs are expected to be completed by autumn 2013. They will not go on general sale, but will be distributed for free to local community centers and other bodies.
"We want them to be played at meetings of residents and on other occasions," Arisaka said. "I hope people will never forget the disaster and use the songs to encourage recovery efforts."
A separate but similar project is under way in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture.
Iwao Terasaki, 52, the Iwate philharmonic orchestra representative, asked the schools and neighboring residents what he and his group could do to help.
After deciding to record the songs of four devastated schools in the area, Terasaki teamed up with Toyota Motor Corp. and the Morioka city central community center to bring the project to life.
A total of 438 students from Otsuchi, Otsuchi-Kita, Ando and Akahama elementary schools took part in the recording, which was held at the temporary school they are all sharing.
Seven professional string players and a music teacher who played the piano accompanied the students as their lively singing echoed through the school gym.
"I love words of the second verse 'hand in hand with friends,'" said Haruna Okamoto, a sixth-grader at Akahama Elementary School living in temporary housing. "The words give me the feeling that we are all together. I sang as eagerly as I could so that I will never forget our song."
For Inemitsu Sato, 74, the school song holds a lot of memories as well. Sato, who was a student of Ando Elementary School herself, now has a grandchild who attends the school.
"It was a refreshing song. The lyrics say, 'Climbing high up the hill,'" said Sato. "Our family has sung it for three generations. I hope it will be played at the community center that will be built where the school currently is."
Recording wrapped up on Feb. 26, and the CDs will be distributed to 1,000 students and graduates at the closing ceremony scheduled for March 23.
Three of the devastated schools were inundated by the tsunami, while the fourth was found to have insufficient earthquake resistance.
The Akahama Elementary School has already been torn down, and the Otsuchi-Kita and Ando elementary schools are waiting to be demolished. The Otsuchi Elementary School was refurbished into the Otsuchi town office building.
The four schools will be integrated into a new Otsuchi Elementary School during the next fiscal year, which will have its own new school song.
(This article was compiled from reports by Mariko Furuta and Masakazu Higashino.)