三味線大好き！米女性が徹夜のお祭りに挑戦
I Love Shamisen! An American Girl Daring to Perform in an All Night Festival
Back in April I was first approached by Nippon TV to possibly appear in a news program about my research and activities surrounding shamisen. After meeting the director, who was both very kind and very interested in all of the crazy things I would be up to during the year, it was decided to make my research on Hanawa-bayashi, up in Akita Prefecture, the main subject of this 10 min piece. Since Hanawa-bayashi isn't until August, it took months before shooting actually started, but all in all, the experience was very good. I learned a lot of new tricks in how to better explain my passion for shamisen to a wider audience, as well as got to feel what it was like to be followed by cameras for over 12 hours during the performance (yes, the director stayed with our float the entire night). I am really happy with the product he came up with and I hope this leads to more projects in a the future, as well as more people gaining a new interest in shamisen!
The conclusion of this project was a new composition for shamisen and shakuhachi based off of Hanawa-bayashi and Native American music. Please look forward to hearing this piece!
四月に初めて日本テレビから連絡がありました。私の三味線である研究や活動について聞きたかったです。とても優しくて良い考えがあるダイレクターさんに会った後に、花輪ばやしでの私の活動や研究について番組のメインとなるように決めました。花輪ばやしは８月に行うため、実際に撮影が始まる前に結構時間をかかりました。でも、とても良い経験となりました。最もたくさん人に三味線の伝統や表現方法をいかに表現するほうが良いか勉強になりました。さらに、ダイレクターさんとカメラたちのとても頑張っている姿も見えたのはとても感動しました。花輪ばやしは12時間もずっと演奏はあって、ダイレクターさんとカメラたちは最後まで、雨の中で、ずっと撮影して頑張りました。とても良い番組を作っていただけましたので、ぜひ見てください！
この経験から、次に新作品を完成させます。この新作品の影響は、花輪ばやしとNative American Musicから受けましたので、ここで聞こえるのはご楽しみにしてください。
Here are some more pictures from the experience （最も写真です！）:
