{"id":4041,"date":"2016-04-18T17:51:06","date_gmt":"2016-04-18T08:51:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/?p=4041"},"modified":"2016-04-18T17:51:06","modified_gmt":"2016-04-18T08:51:06","slug":"the-joyful-buds-of-spring-by-yuichiro-funabashi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/posts-by-kodo-ensemble-leader\/20160418_4041.html","title":{"rendered":"“The Joyful Buds of Spring” by Yuichiro Funabashi"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Apr. 4, 2016<\/p>\n

The Joyful Buds of Spring<\/h2>\n

It has just been announced that Kodo Artistic Director Tamasaburo Bando has been awarded not only the Japan Art Academy Prize but also\u00a0the Imperial Prize.\u00a0We would like to express our sincere congratulations to Mr. Bando. All of Kodo is truly grateful for the extremely valuable time we continue\u00a0to spend under his direction.<\/p>\n

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April on Sado Island is a season for festivals. Each village is practicing demon drumming (onidaiko) to prepare for their local festival, so we can hear the sound of taiko deep into the night all over the island. After a long winter, spring on Sado is colorful and beautiful. I hope you will come and see the great scenery and joyful buds and blooms for yourself during the upcoming “Kodo Sado Island Performances in Shukunegi” this Golden Week.<\/p>\n

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Kodo is\u00a0spending this month and next focusing on rehearsals and creating new material for various programmes that we will present over\u00a0the year ahead. We are working with our artistic director and a range of visiting guests on our 35th anniversary concerts as well as our next One Earth Tour productions, “Spiral” and “Yugen.” We look forward to sharing many new works with you, so I hope you will look forward to seeing them, too!<\/p>\n

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Last month\u00a0I went to Brazil with Kodo on our first tour there in eight years. Having just hosted\u00a0the Soccer World Cup in 2014 and with the upcoming Olympics, I was expecting Brazil\u00a0to be brimming with energy, but the economic situation in Brazil is not favorable and their political world seems to be in turmoil with problems relating to\u00a0the president and so on. Despite the challenging\u00a0economic and political climate,\u00a0we were greeted with\u00a0boundless\u00a0energy from\u00a0our audiences and we were given many opportunities for exchange with samba teams and Japanese Brazilian communities, which were such precious, rare, invigorating experiences.<\/p>\n

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Brazilians are\u00a0cheerful and big-hearted and I will never forget\u00a0spending time with them, feeling the passionate heat\u00a0at traditional samba meets, and the moments when the Kodo performers became one with our audiences. Also, I clearly remember the inquisitive nature of people\u00a0in Brazil, demonstrated\u00a0through all the\u00a0questions about Kodo and the roots and significance of taiko during our many interviews and discussions. Brazilians live in a nation with a long history of immigration and I felt their strong interest in other\u00a0cultures. This experience gave me a new\u00a0opportunity to reflect on my own roots as well as\u00a0my future path.<\/p>\n

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Brazil is 12 hours behind Japan and while we were there it was 20 to 30 degrees hotter. Giving performances on the other side of the world, I felt a unique heat that radiated from the passionate, energetic people we met there. As we left Brazil, we vowed\u00a0to return there again.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yuichiro Funabashi<\/strong>
\nEnsemble Leader<\/strong>
\nTaiko Performing Arts Ensemble\u00a0KODO<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"yuichirofunabashi_s\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apr. 4, 2016 The Joyful Buds of Spring It has just been announced that Kodo Artistic Director Tamasaburo Bando has been awarded not only the Japan Art Academy Prize but also\u00a0the Imperial Prize.\u00a0We would like to express our sincere congratulations to Mr. Bando. All of Kodo is truly grateful for the extremely valuable time we continue\u00a0to spend under his direction. April on Sado Island is a season for festivals. Each village is practicing demon drumming (onidaiko) to prepare for their local festival, so we can hear the sound of taiko deep into the night all over the island. After a long winter, spring on Sado is colorful and beautiful. I … \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":[231,230,241,32,64,112],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4041"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4041"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4047,"href":"https:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4041\/revisions\/4047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}