Susan Osborn: Home
MAY 2008
I have just returned from an extraordinary 5 week tour of Japan following the blossoming of the Sakura...cherry trees.
I joined two Americans who have been living in Japan for the past 25 years, Bruce Huebner,Shakuhachi flute and Curtis Patterson, Koto, a harp -like traditional Japanese instrument.
http://www.zabutonemusic.com/e/index.html
Our concerts were in mostly small, intimate acoustic spaces, no P.A., temples and old tradtional buildings. We traveled from 500 year old Seikoji Temple high in the mountains near Hiroshima to the village of Monzen on the Sea of Japan, from Kyoto to Osaka to Tokyo, from Fukushima to Senmaya in Iwate, and Aizu Wakamatsu and Nishiaizu. Everywhere we were met by enthusiastic and generous hosts and audiences and blossoms. The challenge and beauty of making music with these two masterful musicians was inspiring. We asked at each concert how many people were hearing the koto for the first time. Surprisingly, in the cities, almost no one had ever heard a koto live before. In the rural areas, it was the opposite. The traditions are being kept alive where people are living closer to the land and nature. I returned home more excited than ever about music-making and the power of the small. I will be looking for great acoustic spaces and sponsors for us to do a future tour in the US. Any ideas? For now,we will gather again this summer on Orcas to record, and then again in Japan this October to follow the changing maple leaves, momiji. I definitely got the bug!
Coincidentally, Paul Winter was also in Tokyo at the same time, and I had the great chance to attend a Consort concert, an incredible night of music, and reunion with old friends.
Our prayers are with the grieving families, friends and devastated communities in China and Burma. NW organization, Mercy Corps is providing relief in China. You can donate at: MercyCorps.org
Sending Love, Susan
A poem from David:
Cherry Blossom Time
Beneath the bright Cerulean sky of Spring
We sit and lie on blankets strewn below
The spidery branches of the humming tree
Cherry blossoms spun by light
Into a phosphate candy cloud cling
And clamber up the finest reach
of each far flung limb
Ruby throated sugar freaks whir
Incessant motors' fan belt squeaks
Pierce the clouds with lightning beaks
To free base the milk of the sun
A squadron droning in pink Heaven
Bees crisscross seduced by the scent
They drag fat duffels from bar to bar coating
Their hairy knees with the sticky substance of sex
We two sit with our mirror doubles
Not our children but in some way inheritors
Of those tasks which we are not free to give up
But are not required nor likely to complete
There, with youth, in the afternoon light poised
At the melancholy edge of the celebration of spring
That that which is fleeting is most precious
the breeze frees a few petals to fall
"Pink snow" you say.
Remembering Meiji shrine in moonlight
Families gathered under ancient trees
Sake toasts, ladies kneeling in kimonos
Among swirling drifts of blossoms
"Better than yellow snow" says your double
Remembering whatever it is that the young remember
David Densmore April 2005