Month: May 2022

The 9th “Jazz At The Mountain Temple In Mukawa” was held featuring Kimiko Ito with Mayuko Katakura piano quartet at Kaikoma Center Seseragi in the city of Hokuto in Yamanashi Prefecture on May 22. This year the site was a town hall instead of the regular place, Koryuji (Koryu Temple). I attended the 4th event and it was fabulous (Refer to the blog note on 5/19/2017). The opening part was presented by a band from the Waseda University New Orleans Jazz Club. The second part was presented by a piano quartet, Mayuko Katakura (piano), Takumi Awaya (bass) and Gene Jackson (drums) with Kazuhiko Kondo (alto and soprano saxophone). In the third part, a singer Kimiko Ito joined the quartet.

FYI: (https://dukesoftware.appspot.com/pianist/Mayuko_Katakura/) (http://www.kazuhikokondo.com/)

An egret was resting in a paddy field in a sunny day.

After a cold, rainy day, it was a hot, summery day. Plants and animals have been very active on the riverbanks of the Arakawa River in the city of Kofu in Yamanashi Prefecture.

Lance-leaved tickseed is a designated special alien organism by the Invasive Alien Species Act as a plant that may have a significant impact on the Japanese ecosystem, and cultivation, transportation and sales are prohibited; yet, it has been spreading all over Japan.

Here in the Nagasawa area in the town of Takane, the city of Hokuto, in Yamanashi Prefecture about 500 carp streamers have been floating in the wind hung on the wires over the basin (until May 7). According to a Chinese myth from the late Han Dynasty, there was a golden carp that swam up a waterfall at the end of the Yellow River and became a dragon (Li Ying, Fan Ye et al., Book of Later Han, Chapter 67). So, the carp represents a powerful symbol of perseverance and achieving one’s ambitions in China. There could be about 500 dragons floating in the dirk sky tonight.