Respecting the tradition of my origin

I spent the New Year season in Japan. I had a wonderful stay there with 3 generations of my family and children's joyful friends.

In Japan at the end of each year, we usually keep ourselves busy with sweeping up the entire house, cleaning all the windows and decorating the entrance of the house with a New Year lees (Okazari) and a pair of pine tree and bamboo installations (Kadomatsu).

It's interesting to see the difference of greetings in Shinto style and Buddhist style.
It's also fun to see young generations learn new things by imitating us.
Japan has its unique culture of respecting such traditional gestures.

I played in a concert with my husband on the 25th December.

I had so many troubles last year…. I played with the sense of gratitude because I wanted to say "Thank you" to the people who supported me to retrieve my violin. I also received words of encouragement. Indeed, I still face some difficulties ahead of me.

Music is great because it can so easily transcend happiness and unhappiness of humankind, making borders between nations meaningless.

I can overcome the barriers of races and travel to the hearts of historical musicians. The moments of bliss are always mine thanks to music.

I wonder if Mozart himself could have imagined how profoundly his creation is loved by people after 200 years later.

I like indulging myself in such a daydream.


The new year has come….

I played Solo Sonata of the 3rd of Bach on the 3rd of January at the headquarter of Noguchi Seitai Dojo.

My audience's spirit was full of curiosity and concentration after Katsugen exercise and calligraphy of New Year. They sat on the tatami and listened to my violin. It had been cold and dry in the morning, but the dojo got warmer and made me even sweat a little bit.

I played Bach on the tatami.

The dotted rhythms of the first movement which remind us　of the instability, sufferance of the footsteps of Christ carrying the Cross. 2nd Mov. Fuga are just 4 bars of Choral. How could he make it so rich and grandewith only 1 violin with 4strings? It was a fugue Bach dared to challenge by himself. And the beautiful melody of reassuring Largo was followed by the finale of Allegro Assai full of hope.

I played so comfortably that I could have continued playing the violin forever. To me, the unison of Seitai and Music happened as a natural consequence.

It was destined to happen, but it arrived to me really naturally.

Bon alors….

I would like to write about things I have felt during my stay in Japan.

I used to notice that the Christmas illuminations were all taken away on the 26th and our surroundings had suddenly changed to Japanese traditional decorations for New Year. What I felt this time was that we had those Christmas illuminations continuously after Christmas. The spirit of "Save Energy" has gone away. What have we learned from the severe accidents of nuclear power plants in Fukushima?

We need no electricity for Kadomatsu, the Japanese decoration of the gate by pine tree and bamboo.

I brought my children to a shrine of Shinto in the neighborhood, and we walked along the river nearby.

Wagtails flew and white herons elegantly landed on the ground.

The sky was completely blue.

Beautiful….

We had this scenery since long time ago in Japan…, the field, the brook and little creatures who live in there….

This is Japanese New Year!

People start sending e-mails to say "Happy New Year!" on the 31st of December already. Time keeps flowing and nowadays they don't pay so much attention to the significance of the date. But we never lose our respect for rituals of good old days in our heart.

It's one of occasions like this that I can savor such an assuring feeling to see the respect for the tradition of my origin.

7th of January 2013 in Brussels