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Shoichi
Tanaka, manager of Friendship Asia, discusses the day’s schedule with Sister
Catry Roos, founder of the Rondalla On Wheels. Fujisawa, Kanagawa.
I
clearly remember the performance Mr. Tanaka gave the members of the Rondalla
On Wheels in one of their hotel rooms. Plucking a sanshin
and singing the words of an Okinawan song, Mr. Tanaka kept making mistakes—to
everyone’s amusement. The message of the scene was unmistakable: It’s okay
to make mistakes in front of your friends.
And
Friendship Asia and the Rondalla On Wheels seem to have been friends for
a long time. Many members of Friendship Asia have visited the Rondalla
On Wheels in the Philippines through a yearly study tour conducted by Professor
Amemiya of the Aoyama Gakuin University. The Rondalla On Wheels’ concert
tour in Japan organized by Friendship Asia was an extension of that long
friendship.
Watching
Mr. Tanaka play his sanshin that night with the Rondalla On Wheels members
huddled close in their pajamas, the intimacy of the moment was tangible.
The composer and cellist Paul Hindemith once wrote, “People who make music
together cannot be enemies; at least not while the music lasts.” It might
be added that they also become really good friends.
Let the music
play on.
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