Aikawa Yumi - Sekai Saiko No[uta]wo Motomete [kojiki]hensan Sensanbyaku Nen Ni Yomigaeru Kodai - Japan CD Digipak

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Aikawa Yumi

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Ancient song revived for the 1300th anniversary of the Kojiki: the Kinkafu, and the soul-stirring sound of tamafuri that touches something deep in the Japanese psyche The Kinkafu may well preserve the oldest songs in Japan - and in the world - for which notation survives. Since its discovery in the Yomei Bunko archive in 1924, the Kinkafu has been the object of decipherment attempts by many scholars from both a musical and a literary standpoint, yet no performance reconstructing the notated melodies has ever been made. In this year marking the 1300th anniversary of the compilation of the Kojiki, Yumi Aikawa has taken on the task of deciphering and performing it. She has recorded the two songs among those contained in the Kinkafu for which koto tablature is given: "Shizu-uta" and "Shizu-uta no Utagaeshi." She sings while accompanying herself on the six-stringed wagon of the Heian period and the five-stringed yamatogoto of the Kofun period, and the programme also includes kagura-uta. - Yumi Aikawa (soprano) Aikawa completed her doctoral studies at the Tokyo University of the Arts in 1986. The following year, with a dissertation entitled "A Performer's Study of the Scores of Kosaku Yamada's Songs," she became the first person in Japan to receive a doctorate in music in the field of voice (soprano). Her 1992 recital brought her the Agency for Cultural Affairs National Arts Festival Award for that year. She toured the United States in 1985 and 1991, giving concerts in many cities. Her solo singing at the 1985 Carnegie Hall concert marking the 25th anniversary of the sister-city relationship between Tokyo and New York was highly praised in The New York Times and elsewhere. In 1994 she sang Japanese school songs and children's songs before the Emperor at the celebration of His Majesty's 60th birthday (Imperial Household Agency Hall), and in 1999 she sang the national anthem solo at the ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of His Majesty's accession, held in the plaza before the Imperial Palace. She has appeared on NHK's "ETV8," "Songs of Japan Chosen by Families" and "BS Songs of Japan," on TV Asahi's "Untitled Concert," on Shanghai Television's "International Music Festival" and "Bridge between China and Japan," on programmes for Okayama Broadcasting and Setouchi Broadcasting, and on FM programmes including "Super College" and "Music Bird." Her books include Is This Really the Song of Japan? (Bunshun Shinsho 14, published 20 November 1998), In Praise of Enka (Bunshun Shinsho 282, published 21 October 2002) and The Aikawa Method (Kawai Publishing, 2007). Since 2007 she has studied ancient song and the wagon with Shigeru Iwanami, former chief court musician of the Music Department of the Board of Ceremonies, Imperial Household Agency, and performs as a singer-accompanist in her "Uta no Terakoya" sessions and workshops. She gave wagon singing recitals at the Higashiyama Kaii Setouchi Museum in 2009 and at Yu Plaza Utazu, the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan and other venues in 2010. Camerata Tokyo