{"id":4455,"date":"2016-12-26T14:26:37","date_gmt":"2016-12-26T05:26:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/?p=4455"},"modified":"2016-12-26T14:26:37","modified_gmt":"2016-12-26T05:26:37","slug":"the-years-end-by-yuichiro-funabashi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/posts-by-kodo-ensemble-leader\/20161226_4455.html","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;The Year&#8217;s End&#8221; by Yuichiro Funabashi"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='wp_social_bookmarking_light'>        <div class=\"wsbl_facebook_like\"><div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div><fb:like href=\"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/posts-by-kodo-ensemble-leader\/20161226_4455.html\" layout=\"button_count\" action=\"recommend\" width=\"100\" share=\"false\" show_faces=\"false\" ><\/fb:like><\/div>        <div class=\"wsbl_twitter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-url=\"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/posts-by-kodo-ensemble-leader\/20161226_4455.html\" data-text=\"&#8220;The Year&#8217;s End&#8221; by Yuichiro Funabashi\" data-lang=\"en\">Tweet<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<br class='wp_social_bookmarking_light_clear' \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Dec. 7, 2016<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">The Year&#8217;s End<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/FullSizeRender-3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-11584 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/FullSizeRender-3-340x255.jpg\" alt=\"Photo: Erika Ueda\" width=\"340\" height=\"255\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nHello, everyone. How are you?<br \/>\nThe end of the year is upon us. How was this year for you? Personally, I became the Ensemble Leader of Kodo in the group&#8217;s 35th year and it feels like it was just\u00a0the other day that I was penning my first greeting&#8230; that&#8217;s how fast this year has flown for me! Thanks to your support, the help from our senior members, and guidance from\u00a0many people, Kodo has carried out a broad range of projects in\u00a0many regions and countries. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to everyone who made our\u00a0activities\u00a0possible.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-11578\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/28b71a07778aaf5929bb074917b08931-340x190.png\" alt=\"%e3%82%b9%e3%82%af%e3%83%aa%e3%83%bc%e3%83%b3%e3%82%b7%e3%83%a7%e3%83%83%e3%83%88-2016-12-07-14-55-24\" width=\"340\" height=\"190\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">&#8220;Kodo One Earth Tour: Spiral&#8221; is currently in the final leg of its Japan tour. Since the premiere at Suntory Hall in August, the program has been gaining depth on the road\u00a0with every\u00a0performance. We really hope you will come along to the theater to experience the sound we have been crafting over the past months, and years. Let us &#8220;charge your batteries&#8221; with the sound of taiko so you can start the new year fully energized.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/spiral_5053-f-ss.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-11583 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/spiral_5053-f-ss-340x510.jpg\" alt=\"Photo: Takashi Okamoto\" width=\"340\" height=\"510\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>By the way, as the year&#8217;s end started to approach, I was doing some tidying and I came across a memo of a passage I had written down from an essay I read at the beginning of the year.<\/p>\n<p><strong> &#8220;Everything\u00a0that grows changes. And it becomes more complex. With growth, how we\u00a0think and behave becomes more complex, more multilayered, and we\u00a0become more detailed and profound.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>These are the words* of philosopher and martial artist Tatsuru Uchida. They are words that express feelings of worry\u00a0about Japan. He says Japan is moving backwards&#8230; that Japan&#8217;s sudden growth and changes are accompanied by fear\u00a0and distortion. This is strikingly clear when you look at\u00a0the political and economical situation in Japan and abroad.<\/p>\n<p>*Note: This is an\u00a0English translation of the original Japanese quote.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/81fa30b299fd4365a7b49beda8a6141f.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-11581 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/81fa30b299fd4365a7b49beda8a6141f-340x510.jpg\" alt=\"Photo: Takashi Okamoto\" width=\"340\" height=\"510\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nHowever, this year I took part in our <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/offo2NoXsxs\">&#8220;Chaos&#8221;<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/PthwIzLDdtk\">&#8220;Spiral&#8221;<\/a> tours and\u00a0these words made me think of Kodo, a group that is constantly trying to grow. In the middle of the\u00a0growth process, we have a certain rawness. But I felt firsthand that Tamasaburo Bando used these productions to present\u00a0Kodo with a future mission.\u00a0This experience made me become\u00a0determined to create performances that our audiences will thoroughly enjoy and to always share\u00a0good sound.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_11582\" style=\"width: 350px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/adcb072c9ced184df7415f5c1c40226e-e1481091365286.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11582\" class=\"wp-image-11582 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/adcb072c9ced184df7415f5c1c40226e-e1481091365286-340x297.jpg\" alt=\"Photo: Takashi Okamoto\" width=\"340\" height=\"297\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-11582\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rehearsals at Kodo Village for &#8220;Yugen&#8221; (Nov. 2016)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Next year will begin with our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/news\/20170126dadan_en.html\">&#8220;DADAN 2017&#8221; USA Tour,<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/news\/20170304miku_ja.html\">&#8220;Hatsune Miku x Kodo Collaboration&#8221;,<\/a> and encore performances of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/news\/20170300michi_en.html\">&#8220;Michi.&#8221;<\/a> In spring, we will take the stage with Tamasaburo Bando for a brand new production,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/news\/20170500yugen_en.html\">&#8220;Yugen.&#8221;<\/a> As you can see, the first half of 2017 will be a very exciting, productive six months.<\/p>\n<p>Next year, we will continue to pour our hearts into creating soul-stirring sound that will move and energize\u00a0our audiences. We will do our very best to make next year a wonderful year. We wish you all a happy, healthy new year.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><strong>Yuichiro Funabashi, Ensemble Leader, Kodo<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dec. 7, 2016 The Year&#8217;s End Hello, everyone. How are you? The end of the year is upon us. How was this year for you? Personally, I became the Ensemble Leader of Kodo in the group&#8217;s 35th year and it feels like it was just\u00a0the other day that I was penning my first greeting&#8230; that&#8217;s how fast this year has flown for me! Thanks to your support, the help from our senior members, and guidance from\u00a0many people, Kodo has carried out a broad range of projects in\u00a0many regions and countries. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to everyone who made our\u00a0activities\u00a0possible. &#8220;Kodo One Earth Tour: &#8230; <a class=\"more\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/posts-by-kodo-ensemble-leader\/20161226_4455.html\">\u25b6\u7d9a\u304d\u3092\u8aad\u3080<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[26,148,141,259,64,301,112],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4455"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4455"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4466,"href":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4455\/revisions\/4466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}