Tachibana Interview Part 4: 115th Class Drum Major “Okazel”

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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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115th Class Drum Major (DM) “Okazel”:

115th Class Drum Major “Okazel” (photo by Masayuki Arakawa (GENROQ))

The biography of Drum Major: She was part of the wind music club in junior high school, but never experienced marching. She came to Kyoto Tachibana because she thought if marching was what she would like to do, she would enter a prestigious school. She plays the clarinet. She was elected Drum Major by vote in late October 2016 when she was a freshman. In the 129th Tournament of Roses Parade, she took the part as the National Flag bearer.

Mr. Yokoyama (Band Coach Hirofumi Yokoyama): She has unbelievably good physical strength. Probably she is the toughest of all the members in the past few years.

(She gives the impression that she is very polite, honest and faithful. During the two-hour interview, she kept sitting straight quietly without speaking up unless she was talked to.)

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Impression of 129th Tournament of Roses Parade:

Click picture to watch video

Question: How did you feel about the Rose Parade?
Drum Major: It was so fun that it just flashed by.
Mr. Yokoyama: Even after the 9 km parade, she looked calm and relaxed. But actually, the banner is an aluminum pole and not so heavy. Really hard units are drums and sousaphones.

(see her bearing the Japanese flag at the above video by 慶次郎前田-san, st.taketo-san and Mark-san at 7:25)

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

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Halfway Leaving of a Color Guard:

Click picture to watch video

Q: An alumna color guard with a supporter on her knee seemed to leave the parade on the way. What became of her?
Ms. Hayami (Assistant Band Director Akemi Hayami): She had a backache. She decided to go as far as possible anyway since joining the Rose Parade was a rare opportunity. How did you notice a thing like that? It’s a bit weird. (laughter)

(see her at the above video by 慶次郎前田-san, st.taketo-san and Mark-san at 9:03)

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About Drum Major Debut:

Click picture to watch video

(At my comment that she looked very confident at the Kansai Marching Festival, Kyoto Sakura Parade, Blumen Hügel, and ROHM Music Festival, and all were very good, she didn’t say anything with a blush)

Mr. Yokoyama: She was totally freaking out saying “What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do?” I asked her, “Are you all right?” Then she answered, “I’m not all right at all.” She also says she’s not so good at conducting the band. It looks like she’s still assuming that she can’t do well.

(see her conducting the band at ROHM Music Festival in 2018, video above by st.taketo)

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Battle Cry:

Click picture to watch video

Q: What do you call that?
Drum Major: We call it “Tachibana Tension.”
Q: Do you always do that before a performance?
Drum Major: Sure.
Q: Did the 200 of you do at the Rose Parade, too?
Drum Major: Yes, we did. But since we all couldn’t huddle at a time, we divided into several groups and did it.
Mr. Hiramatsu (professor Hisashi Hiramatsu, 1935-2021): The American high school students around us were so surprised to see us making huddles and letting out a big battle cry one after another, then they began to copy us huddling one after another. That was funny.
Q: When did you start doing that in the first place?
Mr. Yokoyama: I think it’s around 2003 or 2004. The students made it themselves. Or I should say it began suddenly one day. I instantly liked it because the way they shout “Agatte kita!” (=coming to heighten) was in Kansai dialect.

(see (and hear) “Tachibana Tension” from the video above by 慶次郎前田 at the beginning of the parade at Blumen Hügel Farm in 2018)

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The Members Not Playing:

Click picture to watch video

Q: Two members not playing the instruments were in the last row at Kyoto Sakura Parade and Blumen Hügel. Why was that?
Ms. Hayami: They were having slight injuries. As they wanted to join the parades even though they couldn’t perform, we did that way.

(see them at the above video of Kyoto Sakura Parade by Takashi at 10:45 onwards)

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Please note: in the following text “freshman” = 1st year student, “junior” = 2nd year student, “senior” = 3rd year student.

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Nicknames:

Juniors and seniors give nicknames to the freshmen soon after they officially join the club in April. They not only use katakana and hiragana, but sometimes use symbols like heart (♥). Some put “-chan” (an honorific that sounds cute) at the end of the nickname, and also there was a case where a male member was given a female name. The members call each other only by nicknames until they leave the club in early January of their graduation year. Senpai (senior) members call their kōhai (junior) members as they are, while kōhais put “-senpai” at the end of their senpais’ nicknames when calling them. When they write their senpai’s nickname, they add “sp” (shorten form of “senpai”) after it. Their guardians are also called “(their kid’s nickname)-mama” and “-papa” by the students and teachers, and call each other that way. (That’s why it seems guardians more often feel uncomfortable if the nicknames are leaked.)

Mr. Yokoyama: Even though memorizing nicknames is a hard job, the good thing about calling by nickname is that it produces the air of easiness just like calling each other by first name in English. If you call by surname without adding any honorifics, you get the feeling that there is a strict vertical relationship.

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Student Organization in Wind Music Club:

– Drum Major: three Drum Majors = 1st year Drum Major, 2nd year Drum Major, Head Drum Major.

– Club President + Vice President: responsible for general affairs, contact, safekeeping of valuables, ensuring a practice room, schedule control of all practices, etc.

– Composition Team*: responsible for the composition of marching for floor/field drill and parades.

– Section Team*: objective sound check (2 brass instruments, 2 woodwinds, 1 drum).

– Uniform Team: selection of uniforms.

– Sections and Section Leaders: Daily practice is done by each section except for the time of a group practice. Section leaders select the participants for the All-Japan Marching Contest.

* – from 116th Class (2019) onwards these two teams have been combined

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Nickname for Each Section (2018):

Saxophone: じゃんご (jango)

Clarinet: クラリーズ (kurariizu = claries)

Trumpet: めだち隊 (medachi-tai = stand out corps)

French Horn: エスカルゴ (esukarugo = escargot = snail)

Trombone: えろんぼーん (eronbone)

Percussion: パーカッション (percussion)

Flute: ハイフン (haifun = from ‘fife’)

Tuba: ビューティバス (byutiibasu = beauty bass)

Color Guard: ガーズ (gaazu = guards; not calling them “舞姫” (mai-hime = dancing princess) this year)

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Everyday Practice Program:

The Composition Team and Section leaders have a talk and decide what to do for the day, and report that to the Club President. The President reports it to the Band Director.

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Yearly Schedule for Freshmen (2018):

Most of the would-be members of the club have experience in wind music and marching in junior high school and have their own musical instruments, and enter Tachibana High School to be a club member. Thus the instruments they will play in the club are decided accordingly. If a member has no experience in wind music, it’s difficult for him/her to keep up with the practice and possible instruments are largely limited. (even the color guards play instruments in sit-down performance)

– Late March – Early April:

The club has a 10 day club activity orientation for new members-to-be. The new students make a final decision to join the club after seeing the atmosphere in the club, the practice, and the performances. The official number of the new members in 2018 is 33 (+ 39 seniors and 35 juniors = 107 in the club in total). Since they all join with firm determination, there are almost no members who leave the club during the three years.

– April:

Click picture to watch video

Juniors and seniors start to teach freshmen after giving them nicknames. The practice is divided into each section, and Section Leaders, juniors and seniors give them guidance. At the parade at the Blumen Hügel Farm in mid-April, the freshmen do “Tachibana Tension” with their senior students for the first time, and join the parade following the last row of the band in the school uniforms.

(above video by 慶次郎前田 is on parade at the Blumen Hügel Farm in 2018)

– May:

Click picture to watch video

They engage in morning practice, after-school practice, and Saturday + Sunday practice 7 days a week. Most of all the students cry at least once experiencing the rigors and thinking “It wasn’t supposed to be like this.” Before the Brass Expo in mid-May, the club recruits two volunteers to bear the banner parting right and left. The banner bearers do the job in turn until they graduate. The freshmen make a debut for the parade with their seniors at the Brass Expo.

(above video by 慶次郎前田 is on parade at Brass Expo in 2016)

– June:

Click picture to watch video

The field show at the “Brass Band of 3000” in mid-June is the first high point for the freshmen. They appear in front of a large audience wearing the orange uniform for the first time. It’s the moment they think “It was really good to practice hard. I will try even harder!”, moved by the big applause for the reward of the two-month practice of crying and trying.

(above video by I LOVE BRASS is on field show at “Brass Band of 3000” in 2015)

– July:

The term-end exams for the first semester are over, and soon after the summer vacation starts they will have a training camp at school for two nights and three days. At this camp, Yokoyama-coach and the students of the Composition Team have a discussion almost all night to think about the composition draft of the floor drill for the All-Japan Marching Contest.

– August:

Band after 54th Kyoto Prefectural Wind-band Music Competition in 2017

They take part in the All-Japan Band Competition (sit-down performance) Kyoto preliminary on August 6 (Team A) and 9 (Team B), 2018. They practice for it under the guidance of Kaneshiro-sensei. They complete the composition for floor drill, and have an off-campus training camp for the All-Japan Marching Contest at the Lake Forest Resort from August 10 to August 12. After this “camp as hell”, they will have a three-day summer vacation (for the Obon holiday). Except for this vacation, they practice from 8am in the morning to 7pm in the evening every day till August 31. They have difficulty finding good places for practice every year because the Marching Contest is held in a gymnasium. They can’t make a sound at the nearby gymnasiums due to noise problems, so they have to look for other training places with the help of the guardians’ network and the like. They sometimes use the gym at Kyoto Tachibana University, and other times they go all the way to a gym in Shiga prefecture.

– September:

Click picture to watch video

Around September 1 or 2, just before the All-Japan Marching Contest, they have a training camp at the Lake Forest Resort again for two nights and one day, and complete the practice. In 2018, Kyoto Marching Contest is held on September 9, and Kansai Marching Contest on September 23.

(above video by Marschtanz63 is on Kyoto Marching Contest in 2015)

– October:

On October 21, 2018 the 66th All-Japan Band Competition (the national competition for sit-down performance). In late October, all the members vote for the next Drum Major among freshmen. It means at this time the “representative of the freshmen” is born. Once elected Drum Major, the member begins to prepare for the day to come. When the Drum Major becomes a junior, she/he specifically start to assist the head Drum Major.

Mr. Yokoyama: The decisive factor for electing the Drum Major is “whether you can believe her/him and follow her/him no matter what she/he says to you.” It’s a vote of confidence. But when elected and brought to me by the senior member, they all look dejected like a cat just caught. The seniors will leave the club after electing the Drum Major two years from then. Thinking of that, Mr. Yokoyama’s arrangement of the front-unit lineup at the 129th Tournament of Roses Parade made a symbolic scene, where the former two Drum Majors were on the right and left of the active Drum Major, what’s more, on either side of them were the next Drum Major and the newly-elected freshman Drum Major (bearing the Green Band Association flag).

– November:

The 31st All-Japan Marching Contest National Finals on November 18.

(in the video above the band is winning Gold in the National Finals at 28th All-Japan Marching Contest in 2015, performance starts at 4:39)

– December:

Band greeting audience before the Regular Concert in 2017

The seniors’ performance comes to an end at the Regular Concert on Christmas Days. They completely retire from the club at the retirement ceremony in early January (to study for the university entrance exams). During the three months until the next freshmen join the club in early April, freshmen and juniors engage in performing activities. The junior Drum Major conducts the band for their performances.

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

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