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Ryuichi Sakamoto The last ten things in his life

In January 2021, the Japanese media suddenly broke the news that Ryuichi Sakamoto was seriously ill, and his brokerage company quickly issued a statement disclosing the fact that he had been diagnosed with rectal cancer and had progressed to stage 4. More than a year later, Ryuichi Sakamoto reviewed the situation in an op-ed: On this day, he was undergoing a 20-hour surgical operation to remove the primary tumor and liver and lymph node metastases, and he was under anesthesia and unaware of the commotion he had caused the outside world.

Ryuichi Sakamoto learned of his illness not long before the public. On December 11, 2020, the doctor told him that without treatment, life expectancy is only half a year. "To be honest, it was a state of despair," he later recalls his state of mind, and in the year after that, he returned to Japan from New York for treatment, underwent six surgeries, and while trying to treat the disease, he consulted with his children about what to do, such as who should be notified of the funeral and what form it should take.

In addition to the above, if there is anything Sakamoto Ryuichi did at the end of his life, it is only work. Listing the work he did on his deathbed, about music, about social activism, is no less than ever. He did not lose his enthusiasm for his work until the last moment of his life, and maintained a strong fighting spirit, and all these things, because he already carried a kind of "How can I continue after I die?" On the one hand, he can be seen as summarizing and ending his life; On the other hand, he is also trying to find some new way to keep his music and ideals alive after death - for example, through words or new technology, can he meet another form of Ryuichi Sakamoto forever?

Ryuichi Sakamoto passed away on March 28, 2023. He has done so much in the last two years that he can list at least the following ten.

1. The last magazine serialization

(2022.07-2023.02)

In the July 2022 issue of New Tide magazine, Ryu Sakamoto started a series called "How Many More Times Can I See the Full Moon Rise", and until the end of the February 2023 issue, a total of 8 articles were published, with the following themes: Living with cancer, Requiem for the mother, unable to fight nature, travel and creation, the first setback, facing higher mountains, meeting new talents, and leaving things for the future.

All 8 issues of "New Wave" magazine, the canvas bag in the background is a commemorative peripheral launched in 2015 to celebrate the comeback, and it is the image of the "professor" (photo | Cuso)

This series of articles was not written by himself, but was compiled on the basis of dialogue by his friend Masamu Suzuki as an interviewer. It is obvious that this is a conscious move by Ryuichi Sakamoto out of self-summary, and he himself said at the beginning of the serialization: "To be honest, sorting out fragments of memories and telling them into a story is not very suitable for me, however, since I have become ill and now have to realize the time left in my life, I want to start in 2009 and look back on my footprints in the past ten years." ”

The reason why it started in 2009 is that in his autobiography "Music Makes People Free" ("音楽は自由にする") published in 2009, Sakamoto Ryuichi has summarized the previous 57 years of his life. He talked about his musical activities around the world and in various fields, his interactions with young musicians, his thoughts on the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima nuclear accident, his attitude toward the construction of the new U.S. military base in Okinawa, and his views on environmental issues, as well as his life in New York and Japan, and his travels around the world. The serialization can be seen as a sequel to the autobiography.

As for the name "how many more times can I see the full moon rise", it actually comes from Bernardo Bertolucci in the 1990 film "Obscured Sky", and after collaborating on "The Last Emperor" in 1987, Sakamoto became the music producer of the film. At the end of the film, the original author Paul Powers appears, and he whispers: People cannot predict their own death, thinking that life is an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, a very small number of times. How many times can you recall memories from your childhood that you felt had a major impact on your life? At most, I think of it four or five times. How many more times will you see the full moon rise? That's more than twenty times. However, people always think that the opportunities are limitless. Ryuichi Sakamoto, who first heard this passage, was only in his thirties, but he kept thinking about it until he was 70 years old.

The 8 serials in "New Wave" magazine can be said to be one of the most important works of Ryuichi Sakamoto in the last two years, and this article has several pieces of work to mention, and a lot of information comes from the last article of this series, "What is left for the future". From this title alone, it is clear that he is joyful and hopeful about the future continuity of the work he left behind.

2. The final theatrical work

(2021.06)

Between June 18 and 20, 2021, Ryuichi Sakamoto's theatrical production TIME with artist Shiro Takaya performed three times at the Dutch Music Festival in Amsterdam. Ryuichi Sakamoto produced the music for the work, and although the concept of the music was finalized before his second cancer diagnosis, due to hospitalization and the coronavirus pandemic, he was unable to go to the scene in person, and could only participate remotely from his hospital room - after each performance in the Netherlands, he would communicate with Takaya through the Internet to give feedback and improvements.

"There were a lot of hardships during the hospitalization, the physical condition declined, the immunity was reduced, a lot of drugs had to be taken, and the body could not move freely. However, in this most difficult situation, there is a sudden moment when the soul is taken away by music, and the disease and troubles are completely forgotten. And when immersed in music, the time to concentrate becomes longer. "For the publication of TIME, I made detailed adjustments on the Internet, and although I was still in my depressing hospital room, I wonderfully forgot about my physical problems for the time being." It was the moment when I felt 'it's good to make music.'" ”

Ryuichi Sakamoto said that he wanted to send a message to people through TIME: time is an illusion. The work draws inspiration from traditional Japanese Noh dramas, and cites fragments from literary works such as Natsume Soseki's Ten Nights of Dreams, Noh Repertoire Handan, and China's Zhuangzhou Dream Butterfly, which he ended up watching online in his hospital room and "felt a different experience of time from the real world." ”

3. The last 3.11 concert

(2022.03)

After the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, Ryuichi Sakamoto has been actively involved in various social activities to support the disaster-stricken areas. Initially, he and the Japan Musical Instrument Association established a Children's Music Regeneration Fund to inspect and repair musical instruments in schools in the disaster-stricken areas.

In past interviews, Mr. Sakamoto talked about his original intentions: Shortly after the March 11 disaster, he saw photos of his musical instrument being damaged or his piano destroyed in news photos. If human life is compared to musical instruments, one would certainly think that humans are more important, but as a musician, his heart became extremely heavy when he saw injured instruments. Thinking that children in schools in the disaster area had lost their musical instruments, they wanted to start a campaign to help them.

The Foundation conducted a detailed survey of each of the 1,850 schools in the affected area, repairing damaged instruments free of charge and entrusting the restoration work to local musical instrument shops to get as much money as possible to the affected area. For instruments that cannot be repaired, the purchase fee is provided. At the end of 2011, Ryuichi Sakamoto launched a charity concert of the "Children's Music Regeneration Fund" at Yamaha in Ginza.

In 2013, Ryuichi Sakamoto established the Tohoku Youth Orchestra and served as music director in order to continue its work to support music in the disaster-stricken areas. The orchestra recruited members in three prefectures in the earthquake zone, ranging in age from elementary school students to college students, and today ten years later, it has grown into a group of about 100 people, holding regular concerts in the Tohoku region every year to support the recovery of the disaster area through music. In 2020, Ryuichi Sakamoto composed a song for the ensemble: "Time Tilt Now" ("いま時間が傾いて"), but unfortunately, the epidemic broke out and the performance was interrupted that year.

The premiere of the song was postponed to March 2022, the Great East Japan Earthquake 11th Anniversary Earthquake Commemorative Concert. Ryuichi Sakamoto adopted a rare 11-beat design in the song to express the meaning of mourning. Considering that long beats are difficult to master, he divided the string and wind groups into "4, 4, 3" and "3, 3, 3, 2" respectively, and since then, he has been directing the orchestra online, and on March 26 of the same year, at the Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Sakamoto Ryuichi was seen for a long time.

In 2022, Ryuichi Sakamoto at the 3/11 memorial party of the "Tohoku Youth Orchestra" (Photo|Tohoku Youth Orchestra Office)

"Due to my medical condition, I couldn't guarantee that I would attend, but luckily I felt good that day, so I was able to attend." It was the first public appearance by Ryuichi Sakamoto in a year or two, and he played the theme song of the anti-war film "If You Live with Mother" to a recitation accompaniment to his friend Sayuri Yoshinaga — the last time many saw Ryuichi Sakamoto playing the piano live.

On March 26, 2023, two days before Ryuichi Sakamoto's death, he also watched this year's Tohoku Youth Orchestra's commemorative concert online from his hospital bed. At the end of the 2-hour and 15-minute performance, he sent a message to the members in Japanese mixed English and Italian: "Superb! Bravissimo! That's great! Thank you! ♪ Good work everyone."

At this concert, Sayuri Yoshinaga was still performing poetry recitations in the orchestra's performance, and she chose Shuji Terayama's poem "When I Feel Sad", which contains the following sentence: "Life will always end, only the sea will not end, and when you feel sad, go and see the sea." These are considered her last words to her like-minded friend Ryuichi Sakamoto.

On April 3, 2023, the Tohoku Youth Orchestra published a public eulogy in which it read: "We deeply mourn Mr. Sakamoto and thank him for his guidance over the years. Without Sakamoto-sensei, this orchestra would not have existed. Our music will continue. ”

4. The last sheet music

(2022.04)

"Anti-war" is one of Ryuichi Sakamoto's most important social philosophies. Shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, he planned and published a collection of speeches called "No War," which brought together the anti-war rhetoric of many prominent people, and the Indian tax was also used to aid 9/11 victims and Afghan refugees. The title also sums up his lifelong attitude toward war: "Before this book, there was only 'anti-war' in society, and I changed it to 'non-war' because the use of the word 'anti' feels like it will cause disputes." ”

"I never imagined that I would see a new war in my lifetime," said Ryuichi Sakamoto, who follows the situation in the local media every day after the 2022 war in Ukraine. One day, he saw a video and was deeply moved - Illia Bondarenko, a young violinist living in Kiev, playing traditional Ukrainian folk songs in a bomb shelter. Later, 84 violinists from 23 countries, who were impressed by Illia, also joined the performance and uploaded it to YouTube. Soon after, composer Keith Kenniff came to Ryuichi Sakamoto and asked, "I'm going to make a Ukrainian support charity album, do you want to join?" Want to do it with Illia? ”

Ryuichi Sakamoto gladly accepted the invitation and wrote a violin and piano sheet music to send to Illia. Illia looked at the score, played the piece in the basement, and recorded the source with her iPhone to send back. Ryuichi Sakamoto added background music to this base, which eventually became this "Piece for Illia". The song was included in the charity album "For Ukraine (Volume 2)" released on April 29, 2022, and all proceeds were donated to the International Rescue Committee to provide supplies to Ukrainian children and families.

lllia plays "Piece for Illia" on the ruins of Ukraine (Photo|YouTube)

"Even a country that has not been to is no longer just a foreign country if there is a friend. For me, Illia is an important presence for me to establish a connection with Ukraine, although I have not met him directly, I think I can call him a friend ... Of course, even if you don't know people, you don't completely ignore it, but when you think of a certain part of the world and the faces of the people who actually live there, you look at the news in a completely different way. Ryuichi Sakamoto said.

Ryuichi Sakamoto lived in a society in which political remarks by celebrities in the entertainment industry would arouse resentment in the world, and in the past few decades, whether it was anti-nuclear or anti-war activities, Sakamoto Ryuichi also encountered a lot of skepticism and attacks, but he figured out in the final stage of his life: "If you have fame, you should actively use it." Even if it is criticized as hypocrisy, wouldn't it be nice if it would make society better? Whether it is environmental protection activities or post-earthquake activities, I am supported by this belief. Once the connection is established, it will no longer be easily disconnected. ”

5. Last group to join

(2022.05)

At the 2022 Venice Biennale, Dumb Type, a pioneering art group founded in 1984 by students from Kyoto City University of Arts, exhibited at the Japan Pavilion. Ryuichi Sakamoto became a new member of the group in 2022 and participated in its new work 2022, which was exhibited in Venice, composing the hour-long music.

Ryuichi Sakamoto admits that this is the first time he has joined a group since the formation of YMO in 1978 (note: the avant-garde electronic synthesis band formed by Harumaki Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi and Ryuichi Sakamoto). Then it can also be said that this is the only group he has joined in his life. He has been involved in 2022 since the concept stage, and later one can see the obvious part of Sakamoto Ryu from the work: sounds from 16 cities around the world, such as New York, Mexico, Beijing, Melbourne, Tehran and Cape Town, from morning to night, which are recorded on 16 records on the scene and played one by one according to the time difference between cities, and finally form complex harmonies.

Resonating with these voices are recitals from singers such as David Silvian and Bisqui Truth, among others, reading simple but universal truths, quoting from an American elementary school geography textbook in the 1850s, such as "What shape is the earth?" "What's on the other side of the sea?" ...... The theme of this work is said to be thinking about the way people communicate and perceive the world in the "post-truth era".

However, "this is a work that can truly reflect its value on the spot, so it cannot be completed under remote instructions", and although he participated in the complete creation, he could not witness the moment of completion with his own eyes, which became one of the regrets of Ryuichi Sakamoto's deathbed.

6. One last public performance

(2022.12.11-12)

Ryuichi Sakamoto personally curated his last solo piano concert: "Ryuichi Sakamoto: Playing the Piano 2022". The concert had no live audience, but it was performed four times in a row between December 11 and 12, 2022, webcast to 30 countries and regions, in a sense, breaking the concept of time and space and becoming the largest audience in his life.

This concert was held by Ryuichi Sakamoto "to record the form of performance that he could leave behind in the future," and he rented Studio 509 at the NHK Broadcasting Center (the best recording studio in Japan in his opinion), with a total of 30 people involved and three 4K cameras used to shoot.

"For me, this may be the last chance for everyone to see me playing, and under the nervous mood, I carefully record songs at a frequency of several times a day. There are some tracks I've never played on a solo piano, such as "The Wuthering Heights" in 1992 and "Ichimei- Small Happiness" in 2011. In this sense, despite claiming that this is my last chance, I am actually constantly exploring new realms. "Of course, even if I just play a few songs seriously, it is already the limit of what I can achieve so far." To the loyal fans who have been waiting for me, I'm sorry I don't have enough physical strength to hold a live concert. ”

The shooting took all of Sakamoto's physical strength, and he felt weak and unwell for the next month. "Nevertheless, I am very happy to be able to leave my satisfying performance before I passed away."

By the way, the opportunity for this concert was an online piano recital held by Ryuichi Sakamoto in December 2020. The live performance was held the day after he was diagnosed with cancer, and his diary at the time wrote: "I feel very cold physically and mentally because of my illness" and "In the worst case, I can't remember how I played 15 songs". Therefore, although this concert received a lot of praise, Sakamoto Ryuichi believed that his physical and mental condition at that time was extremely poor, and he had always been unwilling to perform the performance, hoping to leave a posthumous work that made him more satisfied, so he had this final performance at the end of 2022.

However, although the 2020 performance was not very satisfactory to Ryuichi Sakamoto, for three consecutive days after the live broadcast, he carried out a mixed reality video shooting of a solo piano, a project initiated by American producer and director Todd Eckart, and it was also the first time Ryuichi Sakamoto himself tried virtual reality hybrid video, in order to shoot, his whole body and fingers were plastered with tools to capture the movement, and in this state he played a game such as "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence and The Sheltering Sky.

Judging from the text left by Ryuichi Sakamoto, he should be full of anticipation for the performance: "If I record the performance, I can present its image as a hologram in the real world at any time through the app on the device, and it can be combined with an auto-playing piano to hold a virtual concert after my death." "After being declared that the rest of my life was short, it was precisely because of this job that I endured that despair and survived the difficulties of life."

The good news is that the recital, eventually named "KAGAMI," is scheduled to premiere this summer at The Shed in New York and the Manchester International Festival in the UK – which means that later on, we'll also meet Ryuichi Sakamoto in the virtual world.

On February 24, 2023, Ryuichi Sakamoto announced the picture of the "KAGAMI (mirror)" project on Facebook

Ryuichi Sakamoto himself, a month before his death, left a poetic message for this performance -

In fact, there is a virtual me.

This virtual me doesn't grow old and then continues to play the piano, year after year, decade after decade, century after century.

Will there still be humans then?

Will the squid who conquered the earth listen to me when humanity perishes?

What is a piano for them?

And what is music?

Is there empathy there?

Empathy spanning hundreds of thousands of years.

Ah, but the battery won't last that long.

7. The last album

(2023.01)

Ryuichi Sakamoto's last album was very ceremonial and was officially released on his 71st birthday (January 17, 2023). This album, after 6 years, is titled "12", and the titles are all named after a simple recording date, which lasts from March 10, 2021 to March 4, 2022. The cover was painted by his favorite artist, Li Yuhuan.

The last album, "12", has a cover drawn by artist Lee Woo-hwan

Ryuichi Sakamoto explained the album this way:

In early March 2021, after a major surgery and a lengthy hospitalization, I finally returned to my new temporary accommodation. At the end of the month, my body recovered a little and I suddenly wanted to touch the synth. I didn't realize what I was creating, I just wanted to "immerse myself in the sound" and feel that it would heal some physical and mental wounds a little.

I didn't even have the strength to listen to music, let alone make it. But since that day, I have touched synthesizers or piano keyboards from time to time and recorded musical material like a diary.

I selected 12 tracks from these materials and made an album. No processing was done, and it was deliberately presented as it was. I will continue to create a "diary" like this until my physical strength is exhausted.

In his last album, Ryuichi Sakamoto struggles to convey to his audience his final thoughts on music, that is, "music without processing is the most comfortable." If you listen closely, you can hear the trivial details of life in this album, including the sound of Ryuichi Sakamoto's breathing, and the small movements that bring up the fluctuations of the air, which is evidence that life is continuing in this moment, and they have become part of the music instead of the heartbeat.

On February 18, 2023, Ryuichi Sakamoto released the creation site of the album "12" on Facebook

In addition, the two songs "20220207" and "20220302" from this album will appear in Hirokazu Kore-eda's new film "Monster" released in June this year, and Ryuichi Sakamoto was invited to be responsible for the soundtrack of the film, but because he did not have enough physical strength, only two original songs were produced, and the remaining five were from "12" and some old songs from the past.

8. The last letter

(2023.02)

Over the past three decades, Ryuichi Sakamoto's social activism has been no less than his musical achievements. "Anti-war" and "anti-nuclear" became his two main labels, and his active involvement in environmental protection and support for the Great East Japan Earthquake was almost the same as his daily life.

Back in 2007, in response to deforestation and global warming, Ryuichi Sakamoto and his friend Harutomi Hosono founded the non-profit organization "More Trees". Their slogan is: "No Nukes, More Trees." The organization conducts reforestation activities throughout Japan and has now expanded to 16 locations in Japan and two overseas locations. In 2017, Ryuichi Sakamoto's Chinese fans also sent him a tree planting certificate as a birthday present, and they planted 1,170 trees in the desert of Inner Mongolia under the name "Ryuichi Sakamoto".

Ryuichi Sakamoto and "More Trees" (Photo|More Trees)

Just a month before his death, even though he was physically and mentally weakened, Ryuichi Sakamoto sent a letter to Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, as well as the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the Minister for Cultural Affairs, the mayor of Shinjuku and Minato.

The letter was written to oppose the redevelopment plan of the Jingu Gaien in Tokyo, and is currently published in the media in part as follows:

Suddenly a letter, faux pas. I would like to express my opinion on the redevelopment plan of the Jingu Outer Garden, so I write this letter.

Frankly, we should not sacrifice precious trees that our ancestors spent 100 years protecting and nurturing for immediate economic gain. In New York, where I live, in 2007 the mayor launched a program to plant 1 million trees in the city. Cities such as Boston and Los Angeles also planted trees.

The SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) are being promoted around the world, but the development of the outer garden can never be said to be sustainable. If we want to be sustainable, we should pass these trees on to future children, preferably by halting and rethinking current redevelopment plans.

Positioning Tokyo as a "sacred place of city and nature" and dominating politics towards this goal can win worldwide praise, right?

I look forward to your leadership.

The much-publicized redevelopment plan for the Jingu Gaien Garden in Tokyo is rumored to have cut down more than 3,000 trees in order to build a supertall building. On the days of cancer treatment in Tokyo, Ryuichi Sakamoto always walks around the Jingu Gaien to breathe in the fresh air and often takes pictures with his mobile phone. Leaving these trees behind is Ryuichi Sakamoto's last wish.

In fact, Ryuichi Sakamoto, who has always been unenthusiastic about urban development activities at the expense of the environment, is one of the leading opponents of Tokyo's hosting of the Olympics, and since Japan's bid for the Olympics, he learned that redevelopment activities would be bad for the environment, and he firmly expressed his opposition to the Olympics, and rejected all invitations to Olympics-related events.

Later, Japanese media interviewed Ryuichi Sakamoto about the letter, saying: "I am now battling cancer, and my mental and physical strength has declined to the point where I cannot continue to make music, so I cannot take further publicity and action other than sending letters." However, I think that it is not people like me who are more or less famous in the world who have a voice, but that every citizen should know and look directly at this problem, think about what kind of future they want, and then make their voice heard. ”

On August 30, 2015, Ryuichi Sakamoto appeared at a demonstration in front of the Diet attended by 120,000 people to oppose the amendment of Article 9 of the Constitution (Photo | Asahi Shimbun)

It should also be mentioned that at the same time as writing the letter, Ryuichi Sakamoto also published an anti-nuclear message in the Tokyo Shimbun, in which he criticized the government's policy of restarting nuclear power plants, raising his own doubts: "Over time, the danger of nuclear power plants will only increase." For example, the aging of concrete, the increased likelihood of human error, and the threat of terrorist attacks and missile attacks, etc. ... The treatment methods of radioactive waste generated remain unresolved, the amount of contaminated and treated water by accident is increasing, and the risk of accidents will continue. Still, what good is this attachment? In the country with the most earthquakes in the world, it puts its citizens at risk and implicates itself. Why are you so obsessed with nuclear power plants? ”

Just like that, Ryuichi Sakamoto kept sending a message to society through his words until the last moment.

9. Build a private library

(2018-2023)

After the treatment in Tokyo came to an end, in 2022, Ryuichi Sakamoto briefly returned home to New York. He says he "just lies on the couch at home like a perched bird, spending time at leisure, and if anything, it's organizing the books." He selected some books that he wanted to read or re-read and packed into 8 cardboard boxes. The collection also includes some of his father's belongings, a veteran publisher who edited Yukio Mishima and owned a large number of books during his lifetime, most of which were disposed of when he died, leaving only a row of handwritten labels that read "forever preservation," which Sakamoto took to his New York home because he felt so important.

Together, his father's books and his own, Sakamoto plans to use them to create a small exhibition space somewhere in Tokyo called Sakamoto Books. He doesn't want to be "permanent" like his father, but he wants the space to become a place for people to communicate, like a second-hand bookstore in the city.

As for the inspiration for "Sakamoto Books", it actually happened earlier. This stems from his serialization of book reviews in Women's Pictorial from 2018, which did not end until the 36th issue of February 2022. At that time, he selected one book at a time from his collection of about 10,000 books, and the first issue appeared in Robert Bresson's "Notes on Writing Films", as well as Natsume Soseki, Yasujiro Ozu, Akira Kurosawa, and Nagisa Oshima.

Ryuichi Sakamoto in "Sakamoto Books" (Photo|GQ JAPAN)

In a media interview in 2019, it can be seen that "Sakamoto Books" already exists somewhere in Tokyo, when Ryuichi Sakamoto sits in this private library, casually picking up a book and flipping through it. In addition to his own collection of 1,000 books and a large number of books donated by acquaintances, it is also equipped with superb sound, he told reporters that space and time for reading are important, and that this will be a library with good chairs and delicious wine and coffee.

The library was not open to the public until Ryuichi Sakamoto's death, but after the release of the album "12", 40 fans received access benefits through online contributions. Someone came here two days before his death and wrote on social networks: "It was a rainy day and I realized that the bookshelf is an excellent tool for conveying ideas".

Since photography is prohibited at the site, it is not possible to know the full picture of this library at this time, but we can fully look forward to the day when Sakamoto Library will meet everyone.

10. A "natural return experiment" for pianos

(2015-2023)

The last official photo of Ryuichi Sakamoto released may be the one he sat in his family yard in June 2022. In the background, there is a solo piano, piled with fallen leaves, showing a dilapidated state that has been severely eroded.

This piano is in the midst of Ryuichi Sakamoto's long experiment in time, and its gesture in the photo in a sense subtly coincides with Ryuichi Sakamoto's situation at this time.

Ryuichi Sakamoto and his piano in the garden (Photo|2022 Kab Inc.)

In 2015, Ryuichi Sakamoto went to Hawaii to recuperate due to illness, liked the island atmosphere, and impulsively bought a second-hand house. Inside the house was a piano made about 100 years ago, which was quickly sold again, but the piano exuded a charming atmosphere that he brought it back to his home in New York. "Then, under the name of the so-called 'natural return experiment,' I tried to expose it to outdoor gardens. Over the years, it has experienced many storms and the paint finish has been completely peeled off, and now it is gradually returning to its original wood condition. How will it rot? It also seems to have something to do with the way we humans age. ”

Ryuichi Sakamoto's words about this piano remind me of the story of another piano related to him. Shortly after the Great East Japan Earthquake, he heard that a piano that had been flooded by a tsunami had been covered in silt and had not been repaired, so he made a special trip to Natori City, Miyagi Prefecture in 2012 to see it.

The piano that appeared in front of him was stronger than expected, without deformation, but the metal strings had been completely rusted due to long-term immersion in seawater, and the wooden keys were also swollen due to moisture, and they would not spring back after half pressed. It was a piano that could no longer be used for musical activity even if it was repaired, but when he tried to press the keys and listen carefully, he heard the completely misaligned strings emit a unique timbre. Soon after, when it was heard that the piano was going to be abandoned, Ryuichi Sakamoto brought it home, after which its sound appeared on the album Async.

"Tsunami Piano" (Photo|NHK)

"If you think about it, pianos are originally about extracting wood from nature, joining it with metal, and making music that we love. So, conversely, the force of nature, the tsunami, destroys human self-righteousness and returns to what it should be, and that makes me feel that way. This is what "Tsunami Piano" gave Ryuichi Sakamoto to think, saying that since the moment he met it, he has been moving in the direction of creating without the rules of staves, and this piano has undoubtedly helped him achieve this.

What comes from nature, what comes to nature. In the last "Nature Return Experiment" about the piano, Ryuichi Sakamoto may be thinking about the relationship between man and nature, or perhaps through this instrument with which he has spent his life, thinking about the origin and destination of life. Perhaps he is also thinking about freedom and eternity in this way.

Ryuichi Sakamoto playing the "Tsunami Piano" (Photo|NHK)

In the last sentence of the "New Wave" serialization, he once again reiterates his favorite old saying:

Ars longa,vita brevis.

Art is long, life is short.

Art is eternal, while life is short.

Resources:

《Shincho》,July 2022~February 2023

Written by: Cuso

Editor: Kandy

Image: Zakkubalan

Operations Editor: Xintong

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