The music of Japanese poetry

Over the centuries, poetry has often been set to music. Indeed, Tomoko’s brother Hidehiko became a composer who would draw upon Japanese nature poetry to inspire his own compositions. On May 5, 1997, at the San Francisco Palace of the Legion of Honor, Tomoko and a handful of other instrumentalists performed music based on the poetry of Hojo Nakajima.

Hojo Nakajima is a contemporary of Tomoko. He was born in Fukuoka, Japan, and was educated at Kyushu University. The first anthology of his poetry was published in 1990, and that decade was his more productive one. He rose to become a Chamberlain to the Crown Prince of Japan, taking charge of the royal family’s daily life. In particular, he was responsible for music and ceremonies.

One of his most important duties was serving as special assistant of the New Year Poetry Recitation Commission (KyuchuKtakai Hajime), one the most popular and famous imperial ceremonies. This annual event is a legacy of Japanese courtly literature, dating back to the eighth century. Each year the Emperor chooses a theme, and anyone can submit an original poem. Specialists perform the winning poems performed in a traditional manner. The defining Japanese poetry form is tanka, a short poem of 31 syllables arranged in lines of 5-7-5-7-7 syllables each. Not surprisingly, Hojo Nakajima is a master of this form.

 On the international scene, Hojo Nakajima has been honored in Brazil, Finland, France, Mexico, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the United States.  

Tomoko appreciates the importance of lyrics in musical compositions. She advises her students to study the words of a piece before launching into the musical notes because that exercise helps her students understand and interpret the music. Tomoko knows: “The power of words is made stronger by music.”

Celebrants of Culture

On May 5, 1997, Tomoko played piano compositions for the poetry of Hojo Nakajima. Singers and musician with Western and Japanese performed her in this evening of music celebration, held at the San Francisco Palace of the Legion of Honor.

Hojo Nakajima was in Fukuoka, Japan, born two years earlier than Tomoko. He was Chamberlain to the Crown Prince and part of the Imperial Household Agency. His first poetry anthology was published in 1990.

The history of  the San Francisco Palace of the Legion of Honor begins earlier in the century. A replica of Paris’s Palaise de la Légion d’Honneur was constructed by the French for the 1915 San Francisco Panama Pacific International Exposition. At the end of the exposition, the French government sugar magnate Adolph Spreckels to build a permanent ¾ sized replica, which was completed in 1924. Spreckel’s wife, Alma, wanted the city to have a new art museum, so the family donated it to the city of San Francisco, in memory of WWI California military casualties. In 1995 the museum was renovated to make it seismic safe, and was enlarged in the process to handle more exhibits and services.

Since the beginning, the museum has been located in Lincoln Park, overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. IT collects ancient and European art, and houses the largest collecxtion of works on paper in the western United States. The museum’s Spreckels gallery also contains a symphonic organ, which is played every Saturday for concerts; another space holds the Gunn Theater, which is a venue for chamber music concerts.

Tomoko’s performance was held in that theater, and Tomoko likely saw the original Palaise when she visited Paris as part of her time as a contestant at the Long-Thibaud International Piano Competition, thirty years before her performance at the San Francisco Palace.

All of these people and places reflect celebrated the international world of culture, and we are their beneficiaries.

Tomoko and the San Francisco Notables

As a new California resident and student at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Tomoko enjoyed attending San Francisco Symphony concerts. Not only did the symphony play in acoustic halls but they also held summer outdoor concerts in San Francisco’s Stern Grove.

In 1965 Tomoko made a more direct connection with the San Francisco Symphony when she auditioned for the symphony’s foundation. She was chosen as a winner by Maestro Josef Krips. That April she performed with two other winners, both violinist, at the San Francisco Symphony Association Foundation Members’ Concert at the Masonic Auditorium.

Here is some background on these famous names and places.

The San Francisco Symphony is world renowned for its music performance. Its  1911 beginnings rose from the ashes of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The city leaders wanted a symphony to rekindle the areas cultural life. The symphony also provides the most extensive educational program of any orchestra in the U.S.: giving concerts to  children since 1919, providing tickets and supplies to schools, offering online music education resources, teaching grade schoolers music, coaching teen and adult musicians, and giving young musicians pre-professional training in their Youth Orchestra.

Austrian Josef Krips was popular in Europe and the U.S. because of his stellar performing and recording career. He was a conductor for several orchestras and opera companies, first in Europe; he escaped the Nazis but returned to perform after World War II. He led the Vienna Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the Metropolitan Opera, as well as the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.

Stern Grove, situated in the Sunset district of San Francisco, is a 33-acre recreational site. The park, which was donated to the city in 1931, was named after philanthropist Sigmund Stern, who was a nephew of Levi Strauss (of blue jeans fame). The Grove is now most known for its 80-year old music festival. In the summer, musicians perform weekly in the open amphitheater to crowds of up to twenty thousand.

San Franciso’s Masonic Auditorium’s predecessor dates back to 1861.  That first Masonic building was destroyed in the San Francisco 1906 earthquake, and another building was completed in 1931.The current auditorium opened in 1958 as a meeting venue for Masons, and holds concerts the rest of the year.

These notables all reflect triumph through culture, sometimes overcoming great odds, a motif dear to Tomoko’s heart.

Pianos for the Public

Tomoko appreciates how music brings people together. And she also appreciates when people spontaneously perform the piano in public places. “Societies love music, and they always have,” says Tomoko. Here are a few examples she has experienced or heard about.

For instance, Tomoko remembers having her students play at San Francisco’s City Hall. “There were 200 people listening, many of whom were homeless. One of the homeless men asked if he could play, and we let him. He played very well, and it made his day.” Tomoko remarks, “I like homeless people more because of that musical connection.” 

The space in which the piano is performed impacts the listening experience. Tomoko especially likes the European cathedrals in which concerts occur, emphasizing the community experience. She also mentions an entirely open environment; San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park now has an open-air piano for anyone to play. 

Pianos that may be played by anyone are appearing in shopping malls and airports. 

Several libraries provide pianos to play on. At the main Auckland Public Library, a well-used upright piano is wheeled out each day for library users and passers-by to play. Some Swedish public libraries, such as in Goteborg and Malmo, provide music rooms with electronic keyboards. 

British artist Luke Jerram has a project called “Play Me, I’m Yours,” which installed more than 1900 street pianos in over cities around the world. The pianos are decorated by local arts, and the public is encouraged to share their love of music.

Tomoko would applaud these public piano initiatives. She asserts, “Music is a natural urge, and a way for people to express their commonalities and celebrate.”

Connecting People through Music

Teaching piano is a social endeavor as a teacher relates to her student, and helps the student make a personal connection to music. Tomoko has made such social connections much of her life, both because she loves music but also because she loves to connect with people.

Even as a teenager, she taught people in her students’ homes, a practice she continued when she first came to the United States. Music made it possible for her to make connections with strangers, who became friends. She in turn uses music to connect people.

Each recital that Tomoko plans connects students and music to a larger audience. In a more public venue, Tomoko brought her students to San Francisco City Hall, where they played to over 200 people. One of the listeners, a homeless man, asked, “Can I play?” He played very well, and it made his day. Tomoko sees music as a “corner for exchanging ideas and skills.” It is no wonder that Tomoko appreciates public concerts that are open to all the people, such as San Francisco’s Stern Grove summer series of music performances.

Tomoko says, “Musical communication is the easiest; it needs no translation. It gives people a chance to know each other through their joint enjoyment of music. Being together with music generates a warm common feeling.”

Depending on the kindness of strangers

Tomoko left Japan to study piano at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM). She had few connections or money, so there were many challenges. Fortunately, along the way, Tomoko was able to get support from kind people. She recalls…

“The Conservatory was closed on Sundays so I went to Lone Mountain College and got permission from the music department to practice there on Sundays.  Some friends from Lone Mountain told me about a church on Octavia Street where the Japanese community gathered. One of the girls I met at the church was a fashion designer, and before she left San Francisco to return to Japan, she told me about Mrs. Bine’s house where she was staying and housesitting. She said, ‘Why don’t you meet her?’ That’s I how I ended up staying with Mrs. Bine.”

Mrs. Alma Bine was a Jewish widow of a doctor. They had three children who graduated from Stanford. Mrs Bine’s cousin was Mischa Elman, a famous violist. The family lived in the wealthy part of San Francisco called Sea Cliff. The Japanese consulate lived three blocks away; Tomoko notes: “ I taught his two children brought by the nanny.”

Tomoko continues, “Mrs. Bine let me stay with her in the house; I just had to give her breakfast every day. She had a piano, and loved to listen to me play.  I enjoyed the space; the house was huge with beautiful views of Pacific Ocean. Several neighbors and Mrs. Bine’s granddaughter and their friends took lessons from me there. One neighbor in particular was very kind: Mrs. Wildberg; before I left for an international competition in Paris, she gave me French money.”

Tomoko lived in Mrs. Bine’s home for three years, and had several good memories during this time, which she lists:

- I won a San Francisco Symphony competition.

-I decided to stay in the US and applied for my green card.

-I received a teaching position at SFCM after graduating.

- My 27^th birthday party:  I invited my close friends to Mrs. Bine’s house and garden, and the neighbors and relatives came. I had no idea what a birthday party in America was like; I never had a birthday party before this one.

Tomoko has that same giving nature, and has helped many people attain their musical dreams too.

The Blue Velvet Album

As can be imagined, Tomoko has hundreds of musical memories, some of which she stores in a small blue velvet photo album. Here is a sampling of those photo memories.

Tomoko is wearing a long organza white dress as she is seated playing a grand piano. A tall flower bouquet stands in the background of the stage where she is performing. This Tokyo concert took place soon after Tomoko graduated from the University of Tokyo as a music major. There were very few opportunities at that time for a young woman to have a concert performance. 

Tomoko is bundled in a heavy pale coat as she checks her airplane itinerary. She is leaving family and friends to go to the United States. She was able to work with the UCLA opera theater to get this opportunity. 

Tomoko is dressed in a pale flowered kimono, playing a board game at a peer’s home. It’s the Christmas break for the Conservatory of San Francisco where her friend and Tomoko attend.

Tomoko is being interviewed on KQED television by UCLA professor Herbert Jan Popper. She is talking about her musical background and dreams in the U.S. Later in the show she performs Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody A minor #11 on the studio piano.

Tomoko is talking with renown cellist Pablo Casals at Arizona State University, where a library is being dedicated to him. He was in his 90s at the time, and was still performing. Tomoko went with a couple of Conservatory girl friends to visit Arizona, and see him. 

Tomoko’s daughter Beata is a toddler, sitting at her mother’s piano at home. While Beata became a professional ice skater, she enjoys playing the piano, and performed at a concert honoring her mother’s piano teaching.

Tomoko and her violinist friend Ernestine Riedel Chihuaria  are accepting bouquets at the end of one of their concerts. Tomoko met Ernestine in 1968 through the Peninsula Symphony. Ernestine needed an accompanist at the last minute, and Tomoko performed with her at the DeYoung Museum. They continued to perform together for 30 years.

Tomoko is holding a resolution from the San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women, who recognized her cultural contributions to the San Francisco area.  On either side are her students, who are smiling at Tomoko’s honor. In their honoring speech, the commission concluded that Tomoko made it her life’s work to share the joy and serenity that music offers its listeners, include to homeless individuals in a Project Homeless Connect event.