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This past Sunday I had a koto concert. I arrived at my koto teacher's neighbor's house at 10:45 am and was driven to the library where the concert took place. Now, I had asked on several occasions what time the concert started, and I must have had really botched my Japanese ("Concert wa, starto nan ji desu ka?" or "Concerto wa, kara nan ji?). Every time I asked, I was told "Around 6:00 p.m." I thought this to be an awfully long time to be waiting around. My teacher had mentioned having a small enkai that same day, so I thought maybe we'd practice and have a lunch together before the concert started. This was not the case. Let me start by saying that I am not looking forward to the next time I have to wear a kimono. It is difficult to breathe, walk, eat, sit, and go the bathroom in one. It is hard to breathe because there is this giant piece of cloth wrapped around you, cutting off the circulation in your ribcage. Kind of like an outer corset. this also hinders your ability to sit in a chair because: a) it applies pressure to your ribcage, and b) there is a gigantic bow in the back that I didn't want to squish. But it was really cool to have warn one. The concert began at 12:30. There were many different players of koto, shamisen (a 3 stringed guitar'-like instrument), and shakuhachi (bamboo recorder/flute). There were 15 songs in all, lasting a total of 4 hours (that's a long time to be in a kimono).There were hardly any people in the audience. I think most of them were people performing in the concert. My general impression of the concert was that non of us were very good. Some people sounded all right by themselves, but the instruments mixed together weren't that great. Now this impression of the concert is not unfounded. I have come to realize that the Japanese are not always very efficient at practicing or rehearsing. Take my rehearsal for example. I met about 7 members of the group a few days before the concert. We spent 2 hours "rehearsing" our music. I played my song twice with a few of the people I ended up playing with on Sun. I stayed to listen to the other people rehearse their pieces, and some of the songs were played very poorly. But rarely did they stop to fix spots. It seemed more like a tea party than a rehearsal. No joke. We took a break and had tea and treats. I would like to say that is was fun and all, but I thought the Augustana koto ensemble is much better than the people I played with. So congratulate yourselves guys. And I think that Jesse Evans was a fine teacher and that I learned more from him than from my present teacher, although I love her dearly. My final comment about the actual concert is: Singing a song in a kimono is very difficult; I should have practiced before I performed. In order to participate in this concert, I had to pay a "membership fee" of 10,000 yen (~$90). I have since learned why it was so steep. I am sure that we had to rent the concert hall, and it was a free concert. Everyone was given lunch, a box of desserts, and a bag of various senbei (Japanese equivalent of potato chips). Then after the concert, all the students presented money to their teachers. Afterwards, we went to an enkai (drinking party), and that was also included. My favorite part of the whole day was the enkai. I was younger than everyone by at least 20 years. Most were in their mid to late 60s. One man (who was drinking GLASSES of sake like it was going out of style) is 85 years old. Everyone was so friendly. I think they got a kick out of having a foreigner in their group. I talked to almost everyone there and graciously accepted their offers to refill by beer glass and sake cup. DEFINITELY a lot of drinking by everyone there. So I talked to people, pretending that I understood that they were saying, asking people what their hobbies are (That's my best Japanese phrase). I learned that a few of the people had lived overseas for a short while. And of course, to top off the evening, we all sang some karaoke. It was great fun! Valerie Straayer |