Click picture to go to Tachibana Official Website
The Official Website of the band which went offline December 2020 is now completely rewritten (in Japanese) and relaunched (click here). The noteworthy parts of the new website is the band Official Schedule (click here), and the Blog (click here) which would contain band reports of the events. The history of the band and the list of duties can be found in the “About”-section (click here).
If you are interested in donating to the band as per their request (click here) the detailed instructions in English are here.
Long live the new Tachibana Official Website!
Note at the school site is here (Wayback Machine).
Information about the old and now defunct Website can be found here.
I have just booked a cruise around Japan. I will be in Kyoto on Mar.18, 2023. Is there anyway of finding out if they will be performing then? I just noticed its a Saturday. Please help. Thank you.
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The club has not yet published its 2022 schedule, which carries over to end March 2023. In March every year, the band participates in the Sakura Field Show and Parade. It is always held on a Sunday, sometimes the last in the month and sometimes the week before. So next year, it would either be the 19th or 26th. Looking at the pattern of past dates, sadly the latter looks more likely. Maybe another event will be scheduled for your visiting date, but we won’t know until the schedule is published.
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Glad to see they are back! I tried to register on the donation site but the registration form will not accept my postal zip code or my phone number from here in America! I hope it is just in need of minor adjustment to accept registration from outside Japan. Looking forward to being a registered donor and helping the band out!!
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For fill-in instructions click here. Check Step 4.
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Thanks. I checked it and with the help of someone much smarter than myself (my wife) i completed the process and made my donation! I will make it a point to make monthly donations and encourage all fans of this wonderful organization to do the same!
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Hope you can provide some insight. I made a small donation (10,000 yen) through the site around the end of August and received confirmation from the donor site where they said i would receive a document from Tachibana confirming that they received the money. I have not received anything as of today and i even sent an inquiry to the link provided with no response. Since i am in America will i get some confirmation or just assume the band got the money. I would like to make monthly donations and am just concerned as to whether the band actually gets it. Any advice is much appreciated.
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fred mcgowan-
It is a wonderful thing you have done! We have read under the “Interviews” page about the cost of providing the instruments the band requires and your donations must be very welcome. Fukuno-san (who wrote the article about the band’s instruments under the “Interviews” page) offers you this response:
“If you have followed the instructions on the DONATIONS TO THE BAND page of this website and made a credit card donation through a company called F-REGI, your donation will have reached the school.
If you designate the wind music club as the recipient of your donation, the club will receive your name and address information. In the case of donations, a “letter writer” from one of the KT members, under the guidance of Kaneshiro-sensei, will write you a “thank you” letter in English and send it to your address. This wonderful custom was started under the guidance of Kaneshiro-sensei. However, note that it may take some time for the letter to reach you.
If you have not designated the wind music club as the recipient, you may not have heard from the school that they have received your donation. Also, because F-REGI is a company that only acts as an agent for donors to pass on their donations to the school, were you to contact them, I believe that they are not able to reply.
It is worth adding that the only information given to the wind music club is the name and address of the donor, not the amount of the donation. From what I’ve been told, the total amount of donations is collated and reported to the club only on a yearly basis. Donations are used to purchase instruments. From the number, type and part number of instruments they buy in a year, it is possible to deduce how much they receive in donations each year. Without going into details, the amount involved appears to be considerable, although I have been told that only a few percent of donations come from abroad. Their biggest donors are, of course, the students’ parents.
I understand your concerns about donation, but please don’t expect a reaction from the club. Personally, I think it’s great to receive just one thank you letter. I have also made a few large (by my standards) donations but have received just one thank you letter. For me, that was enough.
The rules of the school of the KYOTO TACHIBANA JHS and SHS forbid students to receive gifts, letters, Christmas cards, etc. from outsiders. Therefore, the students themselves do not handle them, although Kaneshiro-sensei may still process thank you letters written by the students. At the end of last year, some members of the Fan Corner sent Christmas cards to KT and received “thank you” notes from Japan, but when, last March, I asked some of the students, they said they had not seen any. This is the school’s rule, so there is no choice.
Supporting them and donating to them is a wonderful thing to do, but please don’t ask for anything in return. If you receive one thank you letter from them, consider yourself very lucky! I hope my comments help to clarify the situation and thank you for reading them!”
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Thanks for the reply. I really didn’t expect any thank you letter just verification the money was received. I am very aware of school rules involving students and only donate to help out and show my admiration. I have friends in Kyoto and visit there every time i am in Japan and have actually been to the school and had my picture taken at the main entrance. With your words of encouragement i will continue to make donations and hope many others do also.
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I wish they will have their official social media accounts as well such as YT, FB, IG, etc.
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