NAGOYA--A musician is making antiquated musical instruments using wood from a pine forest swept away by the tsunami triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011.
Nehito Ishida, 60, a “kokyu” player based in the city’s Nishi Ward, has been making a “reikin,” a stringed instrument developed in the early 1900s, and also an Ainu-style kokyu called a “ka.”
“A new life has come into being in the form of a musical instrument. I want to deliver the melody of hope,” said Ishida, who has been performing in disaster-stricken areas.
The musician will unveil and play the reikin and the Ainu kokyu at a live concert March 10 in Nishi Ward to support reconstruction.
Ishida called on his musician friends to set up a support project called “Ototsumugi Net” in May 2011 soon after the earthquake and tsunami disaster. He has made 19 trips to Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, and other disaster-affected areas and organized concerts at about a hundred places to heal the hearts of disaster-stricken people.
Four years ago, Ishida learned that wooden boards from pine trees from the Takata Matsubara forest that was swept away by the tsunami in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, were stored in a lumber mill in the city. He decided to visit because he thought it would be encouraging if he could use the disaster-stricken pines to make instruments and perform music.
The boards made good sounds when he tapped them with his fingers. Feeling in his bones that it would be useful, Ishida got six large and small boards.
The reikin is a variation of the kokyu developed for lower registers. It is said that the instrument was invented by musician Hisao Tanabe in or around 1922. It is characterized by its low-pitched sound like the cello, and its tone has a rustic simplicity unique to its Oriental traditions. But it came to be referred to as the “lost instrument” after World War II.
Ishida has made at least 10 reikin since 2004. He donated one to the Funabashi museum of musical instruments in Iwakura, Aichi Prefecture, in December last year.
Ishida learned of the Ainu kokyu for the first time last year through the Internet. He used his imagination to reconstruct the instrument from sketches left from back in the day. With a single string stretched over the bowl-shaped body, it produces simple sounds with the horsetail-strung bow.
The boards made from the tsunami-hit pine trees were planed to adjust the thickness before they were used for the top plate of the body, which serves as the heart of the reikin and the Ainu kokyu. Although both instruments needed finishing touches and fine adjustment, they are almost completed. It has more depth to its sound than the reikin made of cedar or cypress, Ishida said.
“The pine trees that were washed away were brought back to life as beautiful sounds,” the musician said. “I’d be glad if the instruments could give disaster-stricken people the strength to face tomorrow.”
Ishida will hold a concert to support reconstruction at 3 p.m. on March 10 at Gannoji temple in the Nakaotai district of Nagoya’s Nishi Ward, during which the two instruments will be unveiled. Admission is 1,800 yen ($17).
Ishida also intends to hold concerts in Rikuzentakata and other disaster-affected areas.