最終更新日 Last updated : 27/2/2014

■ Report about Mitsuko Ito's "Tohoku Tour 2013" ■

( 日本語版はこちらです。 )

When the great earthquake hit Japan in March 2011, I was in Paris where I live, and I jumped when I heard the radio news in the morning. Since then, performing at Charity Concerts for Japan in France, I was thinking of delivering my performance in Tohoku area which is the worst striken part of Japan.

I am very grateful that I have been able to bring live music to those who are victims of Tsunami in Tohoku Japan for three years. This is thanks to Mrs. Eiko Masuda
( representative of a travel agency ), with the cooperation of "Caritas Japan and many other organizations and individuals. I thank them very much for their cooperation.

This time, I heard and saw meny difficulties by those who lived there. First of all you won't believe that some people are still living in the temporary houses. TV and Newspapers do not speak about this kind of thing, though the reality may be far from what we think it should be.

■ The 1st Day - 4 August

We left Sapporo by Mr. & Mrs. Masuda's car in the evening, and we took a ship from Tomakomai at 23:59 in the night. Another person who was going to guid us in Tohoku took the same ship by chance.

Actually, there was an earthquake of magnitude 6.0 ( seismic intensity 5 ) at Tohoku in the afternoon ( at 12:28 ), so we were not sure if the ship was going to run. As there was not another big quake, the ship left to Tohoku.

This year I performed six times under the sponsorship of Sapporo Caritas. Concerts were held at different temporary meeting places. ( People are still living in the temporary houses.)

Two recitals par day for three consecutive days - that was a big challenge for me.

■ The 2nd Day - 5 August

The ship arrived at Hachinohe in Aomori Prefecture in Tohoku at 7:30 a.m.. We went to the temporary meeting place in Kanan, in which the first concert was held.

On the way while my traveling companions had a breakfast at a restaurant, I was doing a bit of exercise outside ( I had taken my breakfast in the ship. ) Then a passer-by asked me, "Are you a cleaner of this restaurant, or a customer ?". I am sure that he thought I was a chinese who was doing Tai chi or Kung fu.

After that we dropped in a certain church to practice, as I would not be able to practice in the concert venue. But as it took about half an hour for us to get out of the ship in the morning, I had only 15 minutes to practice ! Then we rushed to the concert venue.

We arrived at the venue 30 minutes before the concert started. I changed into a dress and right away the concert started at 13:00 p.m.. It was a tremendous challenge for me to play the violin with a body so rigid, after traveling for 16 hours and yet without practice.

After the concert we had tea-time together with the audience for half an hour, then we went to the next venue in Nitake which was not so far from Kanan.

The second concert of this day began at 15:30 p.m.. As soon as we arrived, I heard a voice "Mendelssohn !", "Mozart !", "Brahms !", and I saw a man of a red face ( with alchohol ) following us. He was a great fan of the classical music, and he reviewed his high school textbook of music for this concert ! Actually he showed it to me, and I was impressed to see all the underlines in pink he had put all over his textook.

The concert started well thanks to him, though I suddenly realized something vital during the concert. I had not had my lunch yet ! It is true that I did not have time to have lunch before the second concert, but I just did not even think about it.

Naturally, I played to the end with only guts in a state running out of gasoline.

After the concert we had tea-time, and the man of red face asked me for my autograph on his shirt and on his brand-new mobile phone. We had a nice chatting together.

Some audiences gave us their handmade pesents. Thank you very much for your kindness. The mascot you gave me is attached to my violin case.

After that we had dinner with volunteers, and we moved to our accomodation. This time, we stayed in a house which Catholic Support Center had purchased to accomodate volunteers in Miyako.

■ The 3rd Day - 6 August

The first concert of this day was held at a temporary meeting place in Akamae. On the way, we dropped in a church to have a prayer meeting as a daily work of volunteers of Caritas.

Father Uesugi from Catholic Support Center in Sapporo joined us this morning.

Briefly we dropped in the social welfare council of the city, then we went to the concert venue. It was a sunny and cool morning, and it was quite refreshing.

The concert began at 10:30 a.m., and it was comfortable without using air conditioning this morning as a gentle breeze came into the room. The local highest temperature of this day was 27 degrees Celsius.

There was tea-time after the concert with the audience for half an hour, and we had a Japanese noodle which Father Uesugi had cooked for us all. I saw a lady who loved the classical music there. She owned 400 CDs before the earthquake of the 11 March 2011, and all was carried away by the tsunami. She never expected to listen to the live performance, she said joyfully.

I wanted to talk to her more, though we were obliged to leave as the second concert venue was quite far from there.

The "excellent cooking mothers" of the local cooking community, who treated us with fantastic lunch in 2011, live in Kamaishi City.（ Tohoku Tour 2011 report is here. ） Last year I performed at "Hashino Dongurihiroba" ( an open space ) in Otsuchi, and after the concert we had lunch boxes from a restaureant in the "Hamanasu mall" in Kamaishi.（ Tohoku Tour 2012 report is here. ）And this year, our 4th concert was held in that restaurant.

Signs warning of heavy rain were flashing here and there as we drove in the rain. It was very humid in the afternoon. We took a snack in the car to prepare for the concert.

What surprised me was that the temperature in these two cities were so different in spite of the distance between the cities. Kamaishi is only 40 km away from Miyako. In this unexpected condition of very high temperature and humidity, I was suffering from heat stroke in the middle of the concert !! I realezed it when I bowed and I almost fell. My face was completely red.

I asked for ice and I cooled down my head and neck with it. Thanks to this ice, I was able to perform till the end of the programme. It was my first time to use ice in the middle of the recital !

Right after the concert, those "excellent cooking mothers" treated us with a fantastic meal. Everthing they cooked was so delicious ( they are really talented !) .

I did not realized at all, though they told me that I was performing right under the light, so close to an electric bulb. ( It is silly that I did not realize it.) Yes, I see it on the photo !

I am grateful that they also shared with us what was really going on in their lives. That was very different from what we hear through the media. Dear "excellent cooking mothers", thank you very much for such great hospitality.

After the meal, with nice fellowship, we went to the church where our dinner was planned. It was about an hour's drive from Kamishi to Miyako. I took a rest in the church office, while others and volanteers with two Fathers from Sapporo had a good time together in the dining room. While they had a dinner, I practiced in the cathedral for one hour until we went back to our accommodation. A school teacher of music who was not able to come to any concert visited me to listen to my practice.

■ The 4th Day - 7 August

Like the previous day, first we gathered in a church for prayer, then we dropped in the social welfare council briefly. The first concert of this day was held at a temporary meeting place in Kuwagasaki. The building is called "ODENSE 2", which means "Welcome" in the Tohoku dialect.

It was a very hot and sunny day. The concert began at 10:30 a.m.. I heard that the temperature in this building was rising extremely high, so I was very prudent to go inside, particularly right after the heat stroke of the previous day.

Though there was a large air-conditioner in the middle of the room, so I did not fall. Actually some audiences were sitting where the cold air did not reach at all, and they saw a thermometer rised up to 37 degrees Celsius.

There was a large message sheet on the wall, with messages from all over Japan to encourage them. And I realized that the audience of this concert was very cheerful. Their reaction was totally different from others.

I thought that they were simply young. But one of them had 15 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren ! Indeed most of them were grandmothers.

"You are very cheerful !", I said to them after the concert. One lady replied, "Only cheerful people come here." It seemed to be hard for those who shut themselves in the house to come out to this sort of meeting place. As a result, the vast majority of my audience at any concert in Tohoku this year were ladies.

One more fact which impressed me very much was that those cheerful audiences were singing in a choir. That made me understood the reason why they were outstandingly different from others.

I almost forgot to give them my present because of such a cheerful and lovely fellowship after the concert. Fortunately one of them asked me, "Do you have your CD ?". In the end of every concert of this tour, I autographed my CDs and gave them as souvenir. This audience was particularly pleased by my present, and we took a lot of pictures together with the CD on my hands.

After the happy fellowship, we went to the "Huck's House" in Tanohata Village in Iwate Prefecture. This was the venue of our last concert of this tour. We took a snack in the car to prepare for the concert.

"Huck's House" is a working place for handicapped people. They are weaving the traditional "Hanasaki-ori" texture, and making ceramic works. They are also working as consignees of fish processing work. They bake bread and sell them too. When we arried at the "Huck's House", we took some cold drinks in the "Huck le cafe".

The "Hanasaki-ori" texture is famous. "Sakiori" is a traditional texture in Tohoku area since Edo Period ( 1600-1868 ) which weaves with recycled cloths. "Huck's House" calls it "Hanasaki-ori", by weaving recycled silk. There were a lot of weaving machines in the hall where I performed. When we arrived, we saw people weaving.

After the concert, a mute lady expressed her deep emotion by her gesture. A young man came into the office where I was putting back my violin in the case, and he held my hand tightly. When he bowed deeply toward me meny times repeating "Thank you very much, I was so deeply touched !!", it was I who was deeply moved.

I changed my dress into a T-shirt, then they gave me a special present. It was a beautiful pouch bag of Hanasaki-ori. The young lady who handed me the present was not able to recognize me as I looked too different in a T-shirt. Indeed she passed my side and went to look for the violinist !

As there was plenty of time until the departure of the ship, we decided to take a rest for a while. There, we had a visitor by chance. He was just elected as the chief of the village a few days before. Mr.Ishihara shared his vision about the future of Tanohata Village. The new chief of the village and the head of the "Huck's House" were both full of hope and vitality, and it was quite encouraging.

On the way to Hachinohe, we went to a restaurant of the local specialties. We drove to the port with great difficulty to find the way as it was already dark ( we got lost meny times ), though we fortunately caught the ship to go back to Tomakomai. The ship departed Hachinohe at 10:00 p.m., and it was astonishingly crowded. As I was not able to get a "Capsule bed", I spent a night like a tinned sardine between people. There was not even 10 cm from the person next to me on both sides !

■ The 5th Day - 8 August

Early in the morning at 6:00 a.m., the ship arrived at Tomakomai. Then we drove safely back to Sapporo.
For those who have helped us before and during our trip, I thank you very much from the bottom of my heart.