Tachibana Interview Part 3: Band Director Yutaka Kaneshiro and Band Assistant Director Akemi Hayami

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This text, which is a summary of the part of the interview conducted at Kyoto Tachibana High School on April 24, 2018 is specially written for this website by Rei’ichirō Fukuno (福野礼一郎, Wikipedia), a writer, with the request from orangedevilsfan and Trueman Nishi -san. The contents are divided into five parts. No contents that were pledged with Kyoto Tachibana High School never to be made public are included in this document. On the basis of copyright, no part of this document may be reproduced without permission. Also release of any Japanese texts translated from this English document will be strictly forbidden.

Responsible for the interview and original text: Rei’ichirō Fukuno. Photographs (when indicated): Masayuki Arakawa (GENROQ). English translation: K. Hatano. Coordination: Trueman Nishi.

Separate article on Tachibana written by Rei’ichirō Fukuno has been published in July issue of GENROQ-magazine on May 26, 2018 (see more here and here).

本原稿はライターの福野礼一郎が本サイトの運営者であるorangedevilsfan氏および西真也氏の依頼によって本サイトのために書き下ろしたもので、2018年4月24日に京都橘高校で行なったインタビューの内容の一部をまとめたものです。内容は全部で５つのパートに分かれています。インタビュー時に京都橘高校に対して公開しないと誓約した内容は一切含まれていません。著作権上、内容の無断転載および英文から逆翻訳した日本文での公開を禁じます。文責：福野礼一郎

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Yutaka Kaneshiro (兼城 裕), Music Teacher, Band Director and Advisor of the Wind Music Club:

Yutaka Kaneshiro (photo by Masayuki Arakawa (GENROQ))

Biography of Mr. Yutaka Kaneshiro (兼城 裕): Receiving formal music education in college, Mr. Kaneshiro worked as a music teacher and the director of wind music clubs at public senior high schools in Kyoto for ten years. For the recent six years, he taught music and directed the wind music club at Kyoto Prefectural Hokuryō Senior High School (website, Wikipedia, band introduction is here). He let the band get excellent results at music competitions (sit-down performance). He is one of the most promising young music teachers, and very popular among students. From now on, Mr. Kaneshiro will teach wind music performance and let the students prepare for the All-Japan Band Competition (sit-down performance), and Mr. Yokoyama will concentrate on marching and All-Japan Marching Contest.

(At the time of the interview, it was only one month since he had come to Kyoto Tachibana, but he had instructed the performance of “Paradise Has No Border” by Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra for the ROHM Music Festival (see videos of that event in this playlist). He also taught other songs played there. He is gentle, polite, intellectual, and has an artistic and musician-like air about him. He stayed reserved during the interview, and spoke very little.)

Mr. Hiramatsu (professor Hisashi Hiramatsu, 1935-2021): The first performance that he conducted at the School Entrance Ceremony April 7, 2018 was really amazing, and wind music was the hot topic among the regular guests of honor. The performance at the ROHM Music Festival was marvelous, too. That is what the power of a conductor is all about.

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Akemi Hayami (早見 明美), Japanese Teacher, Assistant Band Director and Assistant Advisor of the Wind Music Club:

Akemi Hayami (photo by Masayuki Arakawa (GENROQ))

About Ms. Akemi Hayami (早見 明美): Teacher of Japanese. Chief of Guidance and Counselling. Ms. Hayami is responsible for general affairs in the club as the Assistant Band Director. She always carries with her the list of the members’ real names and nicknames because all the club members and their parents call each other by nicknames.

(I have an impression that Ms. Hayami is passionate and has a sense of humor, is affectionate to the students and warmly watch over them like mother.)

See also her introduction at school site here (Wayback Machine) (in Japanese).

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About the Uniform:

Click picture to watch video

There are four kinds; orange, blue-gold, happi, and red blazer (for sit-down performance). All of them belong to school, and are lent to the members on a year-by-year basis. Their guardians are responsible for laundry, size-adjustment, and alteration of the uniforms.

Mr. Yokoyama (Hirofumi Yokoyama, Band Coach): When we were taking part in the 123rd Tournament of Roses Parade in 2012 (see more of that here), we showed the pictures of the band to the local American person concerned in advance. Then, he said: “I’ve never heard of a marching band in orange uniforms, and the skirts are too short. They won’t be accepted in the States.” But once we went there and performed, the very person having criticized us was the first to praise us saying “How wonderful!”

(see above video by Mô de in The Japan for comparison of orange and blue-gold-uniforms)

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Selection of the Uniforms:

Click picture to watch video

Question: Who chooses the uniform to wear?
Drum Major: The member in charge of the uniforms will do.
Mr. Yokoyama: The uniform leader chooses one and reports to Drum Major, and Drum Major reports it to me. For the Kyoto Sakura Parade this year (2018), thinking about many factors, I advised them: “Then, why not wear PE kit this time.” But at the Blumen Hügel (see above the video by 慶次郎前田 of the event), though it was cold like mid-winter, they insisted: “We will go with T-shirts and Orange Uniform as usual. We are getting warmer moving.” So, I OKed to it with my jaw dropping. “You guys have no sense of the season.”

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Difference in Orange Color:

Ms. Hayami: The older ones are light orange. We had to change it to dark orange because the original material was out of production on the way. So, it isn’t that the color faded after the laundry (the material is not dis-colored).
Mr. Yokoyama: They don’t look good, so I want to unify the color to the newer ones. But the students say the older ones are better, and we can’t change after all.
Drum Major: We all say the light orange is prettier (KAWAII!).
Mr. Yokoyama: Since we have a lot of events, they wear them almost every week. So the uniform is like the school uniform for them. Seems like once they wear the orange, they get into the zone.

See also picture below: “Ron” (center, 114th Class Drum Major) has older “light orange” uniform as reigning Drum Major, whereas “Piimo” (left, 113th Class Drum Major) and “Cony” (right, 112th Class Drum Major) wear newer “dark orange” uniforms.

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Uniform for the 129th Tournament of Roses Parade:

The Three Generations of Drum Majors at the start of the Rose Parade

As 200 members, including alumni, participated, the number of uniforms in school was not enough, so they made a large number of new ones.
Mr. Yokoyama: We first made two Drum Major uniforms because I wanted to place three generation Drum Majors in the front row and we had only one uniform for Drum Major, which had been passed down for generations.

(see more of the band visit to the 129th Tournament of Roses Parade here)

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Instruments:

Click picture to watch video

Many students took their own instruments to the Rose Parade. The band rented the drums only. They bought three new sousaphones for the parade.

Mr. Yokoyama: The old ones made of FRP (Fiber-Reinforced Plastics) were quite damaged, which the students repaired with packing tape. Actually we wanted four new sousaphones, but settled for three.
Mr. Hiramatsu: We bought the white FRP ones when Yamaha first sold the light-weight FRP sousaphones, so they are very old (according to the Yamaha Corporation Public Relations Department, FRP made sousaphone were released March 1970). Back then, girls were short-winded because of their lung capacity, and they couldn’t produce bass sounds well with horns as well, so we tried to reinforce middle notes by purchasing baritone saxophones and bassoons to make the sound symphonic. We also tried letting two players play the first and latter part of one phrase separately. By contrast, students these days have enough physical strength, and can do effortlessly.

(see the introduction of the new shiny sousaphones at the 20th Kansai Stage Marching Festival on the above video by heights Wash)

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Sneakers:

The MoonStar sneaker

They use MoonStar’s Freshmate shoes (see more details here). The marketed product is white on both sides, but the manufacturer specially provide black ones for them. But male students color them black with markers because there’s no bigger size available.

Ms. Hayami: Those shoes are light and low-priced, but since they are not for sports use, the soles are thin, so there is a case where some students are injured because of hard practice. Shoes with a thicker sole are desirable, but as the students learn everything on muscle memory, we can’t easily change the shoes.
Mr. Yokoyama: If we place a custom order from Chacott (a Japanese general manufacturer for ballet supplies), we will be able to get light ones with a similar shape and thick sole. But it will cost ¥10’000 (about USD90/€80) per a pair. It’s too much for me to ask their guardians to pay.
Drum Major: All members put pads in the shoes last year, but we don’t this year (this seems to be a kind of ‘trend’ among the members).

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About Student Privacy:

Ms. Hayami: I very much appreciate that our performances are seen on YouTube or other media, but at the same time there are such cases as undesired fan behaviors mistakenly treating the students as idols in which they come to bring letters saying: “Hand it to that student”, or call the school for a certain student, and also low-angle shooting at parades. School and the students’ guardians are in constant fear that things might develop into the worst scenarios such as waiting in ambush, stalking, or crimes. Since it’s too late if something bad actually happens, we have strengthen privacy protection, and at parades we take such defensive measures as some guardians walk with the front and last rows to watch. Therefore, we preferably would like you to refrain from releasing not only the students’ real names, but also their nicknames, and hope you will enjoy the band as a whole.
Mr. Yokoyama: When their nicknames are revealed or some rumors are written by using the nicknames, the students uniformly say: “It’s creepy”.

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Jump to: Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5

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