Toshiko Yonekawa & Kiyoshi Yamaya - 1976 - Tapestry Koto & The Occident Country

Toshiko Yonekawa & Kiyoshi Yamaya

1976 

Tapestry Koto & The Occident Country

01. よさこい節 = Yosakoi-Bushi

02. 秋田おばこ = Akita Obako

03. 真室川音頭 = Mamuro-Gawa Ondo

04. 相馬盆唄 = Soma Bon-Uta

05. おてもやん = Otemoyan

06. 五木の子守唄 = Itsuki No Komori-Uta

07. 宇目の唄げんか = Ume No Uta-Genka

08. 西武門節 = Nishinjo-Bushi

09. 郡上節 = Gujo-Bushi

10. 八木節 = Yagi-Bushi

11. ぶらぶら節 = Bura Bura-Bushi

12. 黒田節 = Kuroda-Bushi

Arranged By – 山屋清 (Kiyoshi Yamaya)

Drums – 原田寛治 (Kanji Harada), 岡山和義 (Kazuyoshi Okayama)

Electric Bass – 小泉僖美雄 (Kimio Koizumi), 稲葉国光 (Kunimitsu Inaba)

Guitar – 杉本喜代志 (Kiyoshi Sugimoto)

Koto – 米川敏子 (Toshiko Yonekawa)

Koto [十七絃] – 米川めぐみ (Megumi Yonekawa)

Koto [第2琴] – 米川裕枝 (Hiroe Yonekawa)

Koto [第3琴] – 辻本親登代 (Chikatoyo Tsujimoto)

Percussion [Electronic] – 穴井忠臣 (Tadaomi Anai)

Piano – 久富ひろむ (Hiromu Hisatomi), 江草啓介 (Keisuke Egusa), 栗林稔 (Minoru Kuribayashi)

Trombone – 中沢忠孝 (Tadataka Nakazawa), 西村吉次 (Yoshitsugu Nishimura)

Trumpet – 鈴木武久 (Takehisa Suzuki), 伏見哲夫 (Tetsuo Fushimi)

Vibraphone – 金山功 (Isao Kanayama), 吉川一夫 (Kazuo Yoshikawa) , 松崎竜生 (Ryusei Matsuzaki)

Born 1913 in Himeji city, Hyogo prefecture, as the eldest daughter of Yonekawa Kinō (1883-1969). She received lessons of koto and sangen from her father. He was the first Ikuta school koto and sangen player who started artistic activity in Tokyo in Taishō period (1912-1926). He himself was an excellent musician and performed traditional repertoire with a striking accuracy in pitches and rhythms. He was also creative in composition, inventor of the low-registered 13-stringed koto and inventor of new notations for koto and sangen.

Educated by such a creative father, Yonekawa Toshiko showed her progress even while she was a primary school pupil. It was very natural that she performed in a public concert when she was only 8 years old. She was only 12 years old when her performance was broadcast by nation wide radio. In addition to her performing activity, she began to compose. With her initial work Kokemizu ('Water running through moss') (No 1) she showed her talent as composer. Soon after that in 1942 she became recipient of the Education Minister's Award by her work Ohaguruma ('Sacred Palanquin') (No. 10). When she published her epoch-making composition, Chidori to asobu Chieko ('Chieko playing with plovers') (No. 33), in 1953, she was given the Art Festival Prize as Encouragement by the Ministry of Education.

As koto and sangen player, she extracted musical charms from new works written by her contemporaries. The extreme accuracy of intonation and rhythm as well as the unequaled beauty of sonority are well-known as her characteristics. In 1978 she succeeded to the position of iemoto (head of artistic clan) of the Kenso-kai. For these multifaceted activities numerous awards including the Medal with a Purple Ribbon, the Matsuo geino award, the Fourth Class Order, and the Mobil Music Prize were successively offered to her.

Since 1994 as third Iemoto of the Japan Kenso-kai. Designated Living National Treasure in 1996. Since 1997 honorary citizen of the Shinjuku ward in Tokyo, she has been leading her colleagues and students and directing the musical activity of the koto and sangen performers. Her two daughters, Yonekawa Megumi and Yonekawa Hiroe, are very active in the same field as Yonekawa Toshiko and are already highly evaluated for the solidness of musical basis and flexibility in musicality transmitted from their mother.

What can I say about this album... sheer beauty!