Chapter 3 Joyful life

When I look back the project, I see how many people have helped us! Since we started to work at the site in the end of 1991, Kaiwaka (written as KW) accepted us with a warm and kind heart. People at the supermarket, at the post office, passing people, etc, have all welcomed us. It is difficult to find this atmosphere in a city these days. Another reason could be found that my then partner was a European, noble-minded and cultural. Since I, Japanese, started the project, I never felt what they call racial prejudice. It is a foreign country for me and I felt in fact if we could melt into them. I am very fortunate as I was able to get a lot of help in many different ways. It is natural that they become exclusive if their quiet and peaceful village is invaded with dirty shoes on, like a huge capital. They never welcome these people who disturb their established village with power. Though I don't know what kinds of people I will meet in the future, it will be a life which I could not have had in Japan. I want to write this chapter about New Zealand, tradesmen, neighbors, etc with published essays even from my diary, especially, about the music gathering at our amphitheatre which became an annual village event.

(1)Green country New Zealand

The greenness of New Zealand has two aspects, one is of great nature and another is pastoral. Its area is 80% of Japan, it has four million people, and the population density is little, especially compared to the Japanese. However, they had 70 million sheep - now 5.8million - and their contribution to the global warming is great. It can not be talked with its human population.

In the South Island, the Canterbury field is used for agriculture but other areas are kept for great nature partly because of the severe climate. Milford Sound is deeper than 500m surrounded by precipitous cliffs and there are nice trekking courses around. Some of them need booking. Lake Manapouri and its hydroelectric power plant are interesting. It uses 178m water level difference from the sea and supplies electricity for a near town where aluminum is smelted. They can be accessed from Te Anau or Queenstown.
If one goes up to the North along the east coast which faces the Pacific Ocean, there is the Maeraki Boulders that have many round boulders of more than 1 meter in diameter sticking out the sandy cliff and being distributed on the beach.Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island and is often called the 'Garden City'. It offers an access to the highest mountain in NZ, Mt Cook and it also has Mt Hutt for skiing in the winter. However, Mt Hutt gets three quarters of their skiers from Japan and their Kamikaze skiing increases. The number of people getting injured and get flown to Christchurch hospital which gives the Japanese a bad reputation.
It is said that the western side of the Mt. Cook range has a few nice glaciers. The Abel Tasman National Park based from Nelson offers a variety of ways to enjoy its wonderful nature. Railways are not well developed as it is in Japan. Public transportation relies mainly on buses or cars. Local buses serve only a few times on a day even along main state high ways. Preparation must be done collecting adequate information beforehand. Motels are here and there and are very well furnished and there are even cooking tools, knife and forks, a refrigerator, etc, in the kitchen. One can cook there as he wants, buying grocery at nearby shops. An accommodation called a backpacker offers a room for a few people with inexpensive charge and is distributed at many places through New Zealand.

When we travel from the bottom of the Northland, there is Mt. Taranaki which looks like Mt. Fuji, National Park of Mt. Ruapeihu next to it, Lake Taupo north to it, where we can enjoy fishing, Rotorua where a lot of Maori people live using hot springs, etc. They are Polynesian former inhabitants for New Zealand. Their population is ca 13% but their land is ca 5%. There are a few social problems including land use. They have the same philosophy of American Indian Chief Seattle that the land must be commonly used with flowers, grass, trees, insects, birds, animals etc. It is quite interesting to see how they live using hot springs and doing wood carvings.
There are many genuine, honest and polite people being grown in nature surroundings.

We can not talk about this country without former inhabitants Maori.
The English people started to colonize it in the early 1800. They had own schools before then. They did not have characters and transferred their knowledge orally by teachers who were called Tohanga. At the English colonization the schools were suddenly closed. A European published a book titled "Song of Whaitaha" who did enthusiastic research on the then background having the elders and Tohangas permissions. They thought it was an opportunity to tell the public about it too.
Time goes back even 2000 years ago. It says that they originated from the Easter Island where Asians and Europeans encountered. They were oceanic people. They bred mussels under a raft to take with them when sailing, to use them for food and bait for fishing from the boat. They supplied sweet water on the ocean as well. Isn't it interesting that most of the fishes have sweet water living in the salt water?
They could read the ocean stream when sailing, the location of stars, and a flying direction of sea birds. They got a big boat which could accept 172 men and women with food. Women had to have kumara (sweet potatoes) under their breasts. It only took 13 days to get to New Zealand. They called the island "Aotearoa" which means "the island of trailing white clouds".
The battles between tribes often happened. Their languages were somewhat different. I was told that the Rangitoto Mountain which is a symbolic volcanic mountain for Auckland is translated as “Red blood” by one tribe and another tribe translates it as “Red sky father”.
Hamilton is regularly planned in a grid like other modern cities. It was the time when they were discussing the 25 years urban renewal. Seven tribes got the queen and there is a meeting place called a Marae for them. A group of students and a professor who helped the renewal planning were invited to the Marae to talk with the Maori and he told us to join. It had developed along the Waikato River which brought fertile land. The area is quite industrialized and contaminated. When one of the elders looked down from the mountain top recently, he grieved how badly the area was contaminated. He started to tell his expectation for the renewal but his concern was if Pakiha-they call Europeans distinguishing from Maori- could understand their grief and stand points. He was negative if they can take in their points. They believe that the moment when they feel sleepy is the time for one's soul to be most free and precious. Speeches and discussions continued until early in the morning. Each nation's culture is rich and noble.
The Maori language is interesting for us Japanese. They have five vowels as we do. Each syllable has a vowel after a consonant and is spoken phonetically and clearly. They have r but no l. They have words refrained, Kerikeri, Piyopiyo etc as we have. "Kamatte Kamatte" sounds like "Ganbatte Ganbatte" for cheering up in Japanese. "Tenakoto Tenakoto" looks to exist in our western local language. Kai of our town Kaiwaka means foods (by the way 'waka' means a boat.). It means a shell in our language and reminds a mound of sea shells at the excavation of old village sites.

Before I got the strong impression from the Maori elder's talk, I got a letter from the American Indian chief Seattle replying to the then American president when he was asked to sell his tribe's land. It was written in 1854. He could not understand the meaning of possessing a land. I felt that people who love nature have the common mind. I let my students read it in the last several years before I resigned.
It is a fact that they tend to prefer cheaper price and they build houses, office buildings, and markets to give priority on functions and result in poor designs. They can stand the winter with hot water bottles, and don't mind to be tattered. Food is not expensive and their daily lives are established to be relaxed. However, it is true that their cultural aspects are poor. There is no colorful culture as there is in Europe. Towns spread without any cultural cores but sprawling like it has been recently in Japan and the USA. It is not impressive but it is full of nature. It gives better persuasion than the cheap culture. It is great that the dairy product of the country of 4 millions (0.07% of the world population) gets 1.5% of the world production. On the other hand, it is apparent that its contribution to the global warming and the ozone layer depletion is great. It is asked how it could be changed. The ozone hole depletion is not only a problem. People's minds which have produced the present situation will be questioned.

(2) Looking back the construction site

While I was on the staff for the Architectural Department, in the faculty of Engineering, Kansai University, I subscribed to a few short reports on campus journals on the construction site. They are given here to look back at the early stage of the site construction.

The project was started as a New Year’s resolution in 1990. One of my friends in NZ, Senior Lecturer for AKL Univ. Dr. George Dodd visited me at my lab in February that year. When I talked about it to him, he recommended me to come to NZ because the land there is not that expensive. I had a few other friends at the School of Architecture there and thought that it would be helpful for my students' internationalization. Additionally, a post which had been for our Architectural Environmental Engineering was taken by Structural Engineering and the Department turned to be composed mainly by the Structural Engineering (four professors for it, one for Architectural design, and one for Architectural history). I felt that the future development of my lab was hopeless having an increasing importance. This process will be mentioned later again. Finally, I decided to have the site in NZ.
I started to get donations from construction companies, Acoustic consultant offices etc. It was fortunately just before the bubble economy collapsed. I got enough funds to start the project with confidence; especially the ones from the Kenon Acoustic consultant and the Sekisui Housing are appreciated. Some friends in NZ were very helpful too.
The construction site started in December 1991 having a ground-breaking ceremony with sake, rice wine. The hill top was evened and a hole of 10m x 8m and 4m deep was excavated for a basement. Concrete block layers made a large concrete box reinforced by iron bars. Six Hume concrete pipes of 30cm was inside the diameter for cool tubes which were safely buried 3.2m below the surface, having thermo-couples at places for later monitoring. Excavator operator Des observed carefully from his machine for any collapses while our plumber Bruce Tomlinson placed the thermo-couples in. The basement had a 40cm layer of crushed pebbles outside the walls, and in the bottom perforated pipes were placed surrounding the basement. Rain water is collected through the pipes not to lift the basement but released to the creek from the end of the pipe. The outside wall was water-proofed. All the work was directed by Denis with his experienced knowledge.
2x4 construction is popular in NZ too, called 4x2. Our builder Steve Lomax experienced profoundly the structure. He pointed that the designed truss was too heavy and to make it lighter. He even organized a structure engineer to check it. I appreciated him for doing this for me as I could save a lot of money. It was a profound intuition by a well experienced builder.
Trusses that were assembled at a factory were piled to the top. After the last truss was put on, we celebrated the house rising on April 4, 1992. Every country looks to have a ceremony with appreciation not to have had any accidents when the most dangerous structural work is finished. They put up a branch, or a little flag. I made a Japanese one with white paper on a branch of a local t rimu tree and put it on the top, appreciating the safe work.
In the meantime, two wind mills of 400watt generation and one of 300watt were installed on pine tree posts.

There was a little international conference on "Earth building" at the Univ. of Auckland and I gave a talk on Japanese clay walls. I met David Studhlme who was a member of the National Historic Trust and showed a clay house with a thatched roof. He came over from the South Island to discuss clay walls. He offered to help me with the cobbing.
For a 2x4 construction, they nail plywood in place for bracing. When we were not at the site, our builders kept working and the house was clothed with plywood in June.
During the summer vacation in 1992, we planned to put a bamboo lath "komai" on the walls. But we found that it took too much time, and we decided to instead use wooden battens to be stapled. Ron Hutt, a friend of David’s, came over and we stitched the "komai" lath.Bruce introduced to us a roll of wool fleece recently developed for thermal insulation and sound absorption which was commercialized in NZ. Fiber glass has a lot of problems as a building material. It will be an interesting building material which is nature friendly. The cost is 1.5 times the cost of fiber glass. Triple glazed windows were fit in and it looked like a house.

In the Meantime, I gave a talk at the tenth conference for "Passive and Low Energy Architecture (PLEA)". Before the conference a friend of mine at AKL Univ. Tony Watkins brought the president of the conference, Prof. Cook, Arizona State Univ., Prof. K. Kimura, Waseda Univ. and Dr. Y. Kodama, Architectural Institute of Japan, and we had a useful discussion.
We could have a shower in the house from Sept 1st onwards. Before then we had a caravan life, fetching water, a candle light and a long drop. It is called a nature-friendly outside toilet. A shed was placed on a hole of about 4m deep. It still remains in my mind as a nice memory of looking up at the twinkling sky.
It took about 700yen per day per person, but we had good food even a beef steak once in 3 or 4 days. I already took seventeen undergraduate and graduate students. Two of them were invited to the local primary school and enjoyed talking with children. I hope all of them got good experiences.
In October and November, a friend of mine had a very hard job working with unemployed people to collect bulrushes in the field for thatching material. Norbert Kleinschmidt who finished the immigration process from Germany could start to thatch the roof from December. He brought his family and worked from early in the morning to late in the evening. The predicted bundles for the roof were less estimated because bulrush is thinner than water reed. Half of the roof was thatched and the rest will be done in the next year. It is quite different from the commercial building materials which are easy to supply. A subject remains.
After the site was started, a few media accessed us. But there was not much to introduce and they had to wait until Norbert started to thatch.
When the thatching had come to the end of the first stage we called them. Its copy is given in Fig.3-2-1. In the article I am titled as a professor. I didn’t personate myself to be titled as an associate professor. They are called together as a professor. They were quite interested in our project. On radio or TV they reported it as a news program. The location is at a remote place but over a hundred people visited the site. It is hard work to accept them, but each one has his or her opinion and I enjoyed having a discussion.
While I was not here, our builder stapled wooden battens on the ply wood walls, and we could cub in March and April in the New Year. David and Ron, whom was already mentioned, came along, an Italian plasterer Gino Bianca joined us, and we got local helpers and my students. The cobbing was quickly preceded.
We learnt a lot of things through the caravan life. Daily garbage bothered us and left us



Fig.3-2-1 A report about our project on a local news paper.

to think. We collected off-cuts for later use, but we learnt that they can not be used for fuel to cook because of their treatment for borers and decomposition. If they are buried or burnt, grass can not grow there. I chucked them at a local dump following the strong suggestion from our neighbor. I was concerned how it would be later on. Is the treatment really necessary?

Fig3-2-2 Experimental House in September, 1993 (omitted).

Plastic rubbishes were produced just like at a usual family. Just before I left Japan this March, I watched TV news on the reproduction of petrol from plastics. I hope it will be developed practically. Materials and/or products which once used large energy must be recycled or reused, I mean.
When I worked on the impact noise reduction for the Japanese High School Baseball Association, I was told that broken aluminum baseball bats are collected and recycled.
The construction site in Sept, '93 is shown in Fig3-2-2. Windmills produce electricity for lights and a little refrigerator. When it blows, a washing machine, vacuum cleaner etc can be operated. Biogas from the septic tank can be used for cooking. The inventor says it produces 12 days of cooking energy from 30 days of excrement and garbage. The main interior work is finished. A sofa, a dining table etc were brought in and now we can live in the house. This winter was unusually cold, the outside temperature dropped to zero and the inside temperature was kept above 9 degrees. We tried not to use any heaters, but wore thick clothing instead. After the bubble economy collapsed, it turned very difficult to collect donations. However, as we got further donations having a good understanding towards the project and I spent my private money, we got 75% of the construction which I planned in the beginning and I believe we can overcome the difficulty. The amount of money which was raised from December 1991 to now is a bit over 30,000,000 yen and it was spent for the construction, the transportation, the staying expenditure, etc.
When we look back at the site work, we did a lot of dangerous work, e.g. setting a scaffold at 10m above the ground. I appreciate God’s help for preventing any serious injuries among tradesmen and companied students.

To be nature-friendly and sustainable
A variety of words appear when we talk about global or earth environments. Once we expressed this project as an experimental house project to be kind to the earth and were criticized that it expresses the human arrogance. It is true. As Chief Seattle says, nature lets us to live on the earth. In the English expression, there are ones, e.g. nature friendly, zero energy, ecological, self-sustainable, perma-culture, low-tech, environmental etc. They are quite direct expressions. At this stage, we express our house as a nature-friendly experimental house and the project as the sustainable research project.
On the flow chart for the computer program to support an architect, an estimation function for the sustainability is introduced as an independent factor. It is very important to know quantitatively (MJ/kg) how much energy was used for not only building materials but all the materials involved in building a house. For building materials they are collected, e.g.


Used energy (MJ/kg)
Iron 30 - 60
 Aluminum 100 - 270
Glass 12 - 24
Polystyrene 100 - 140
Wood 0.5 - 6
Paper 45
Earth 0 - 0.5
Concrete 8

Energetically discussion is necessary about a food. Animal protein needs 40-100(MJ/kg) to produce and the one for plant protein 4-6(MJ/kg). The former needs more than 10 times. Eating habits should be discussed from this aspect and cooking way from each corner in the world can cooperate to create a new direction.
Besides, the following parameters are important to compose a proper scale to estimate sustainability.

•    Energy consumption at construction process and the way how it is used
•    Durability of each material
•    Energy to maintain a house
•    Permanence and long life with the design of a house.

For instance if furniture are well designed, they are cherished and last long. A house must be designed well to be kept longer. Unfortunately, I have never seen such poorly designed Japanese houses in any other countries. They are not created in the space but are a collection of new building materials. An architect has a very important role.

•    Toxicity of materials
•    Every material used certain amount energy. How it can be recycled and/or reused?

When these items are picked up and you see them, it is evident that we have to think about various factors to make an estimation function for sustainability. It must be used for building and/or renovating every house.
It could be a measure to get points in positive or negative referring to the experimental house here for each item and to have the total score.

Increasing responsibility for a university
Many of the Europeans who introduced materialism and developed have begun to think about the environment seriously and do practical activities. Their concerns occupy each one's mind heavily. Even in natureful NZ, many people are concerned about them. News papers, radios, TVs etc report on this project are the reflection of them. School children who visit the site know well about the green house effect and the ozone layer depletion. They are taught at school. On the other hand, how are they taught in Japan? Are they only keen to prepare for entrance examinations? For the protection of environments early time education is essential and fundamental.
When we observe the situation, it looks like a time when Japan strengthened the military force with the then technology before the World War 2, being a frog in a well. Am I the only person to feel like that? Especially recent technology has been developed to serve materialism, or worse to say, had been used as a device to get money. It is the time for it to serve for the environments which it has harmed.
Technology must enrich a human life, especially Architecture is a field to think over the way synthetically. However, it is a narrow split into special branches and the relationships with other related fields are not concerned or they can not discuss them. In this department, a structural engineering professor was keen to bring his friend of his field. Finally it was composed with four structural engineering professors out of 6 professors. It is composed completely different from the original philosophy of Architecture.
Recently I read a book written about an unusual society of a Japanese university and how they are out of common senses. Is this a choice that can be allowed in out dept because it is a closed society in a Japanese university? I believe that a university has a role to criticize the society and make it progress. It can never be done with this easy going. The future of a university is in crisis if a choice is done in such a way. I recommend readers to read it. The author’s family name is the same as mine but I don't have any personal relation with him by the way.                                 
K. Sakurai, "University professors-too typical Japanese", Taninshokan, Nov, 1992.

An Architecture treated at a university is so separated from the practical field. It looks to be made or constructed on one's concept without knowing any practical field works. After we built our experimental house, I got a lot of knowledge and will learn a lot more there. I believe that the practical site has a proper field to be studied for Architecture.
Tradesmen in NZ are quite interested in this project with active and practical attitude which is different from university people. A tradesman tries to grasp a house construction as a whole, even though it is not his own trade. People who call themselves specialized tend to talk only on their regions but people at a site are different. And the science there does not ask which university he graduated from. The impression and the attitude are far from the practical interests and disappoint students. It makes them just have a title to enter the society. I feel sad that a student attitude reflects the atmosphere.
The experimental house is located in rich green environments and has many kinds of birds: a pukeko-a native black bird, a rosera-a colorful beautiful bird, a ruru-an owl, a pheasant, a wood pigeon and so on. The green university (see the headline in Fig3-2-1) is going to realize the previously mentioned four items, i.e. natural energy use, local material use, no contamination and self-sufficiency, and review and use the knowledge which has been developed nature-friendly without changing this environment.
It does not mean only the application of technological knowledge, but we want to coexist the human basic aspects, e.g. music, arts etc. We want to have the site to express ourselves freely, making ropes and grass sandals, papermaking, music at an amphitheatre, gardening, and arts in this green environments.
One of the hill slopes has the similar angle of a Greek amphitheatre (26.3degrees). We will use it for an amphitheatre to invite local musicians. Namely, the reflection from the front becomes less as this steep slope and the direct sound from the stage reaches very clear towards the audience. A friend of ours, Nichole Nulden, who got an award after Ashkenazy at the Paris piano competition, promised to play for us. We are looking forward to having her play at the opening ceremony.
Why did two guys from Waimate, South Island come over to help us enthusiastically after traveling a long distance? It was nothing but human love. We hope the site will be filled with it. Practical workshops are being composed for wall cobbing with David Studholme and Ron Hutt, for thatching with Norbert Kleinschmidt, for a septic tank with Bruce Tomlinson and so on. Dick Aynsley for wind engineering, the Head for School of Architecture, AKL Univ. is helpful and supporting. The number of nationality is over 10 and the site is going to be more international.
When the project progress is explained in this way, everything looks to have been favorably done. It was not always like that. The impression of Japan in foreign countries is not well reputed in general. They tended to charge more money because they are cheaply rich. It is also criticized for its poor spiritual aspect. It has a certain limit for an individual to change it. It is yet a difficult issue for us Japanese to be internationalized.
When the construction of the experimental house was reported on TV news telling people that a scientist may give us a blue print for a future house design, it is not easy to realize. Rain water can be collected from the roof and only 75% of demand referred to the past statistically obtained amount if it is collected in the rainiest month. The biogas from the septic tank supplies only 40% energy for cooking if what the inventor's say is correct. We must know how much energy the windmills spend on the production process. If the carbon dioxide would be well processed by photosynthesis after burning? All these discussions are steadily being done.
If it is expressed negatively, it is a study to make it clear how much energy is necessary for a human life and how does it eat up the earth. Whatever it is, it is a challenge and a start to find a happy sustainable way of living.
Lastly, I want to insist that we have to live in modest and humble not only materialistically but spiritually, although it is very difficult for people who are used to the consuming society.

Since 1991 we started the project, many internationals also started to live in Kaiwaka; German, English, French, Hungarian, Dutch, Indian, Romanian, Russian, Scotch, Swiss, American and so on. The local primary school asked us to give a talk on "My primary school time", knowing this situation. The following is my memorandum for that opportunity telling the importance to learn in, for and with nature looking back my childhood. I think it is very important to tell it to Japanese children as well.

(My talk at KW Primary School on March 29, 2004)
My name is Yoshi. I am from Japan and live on Gibbons Rd. I have an experimental house. I collect a variety of the solar energy. I grow rice, veggies and fruits and want to be self-sufficient. It is very important not to contaminate around and I cleanse with a septic tank and three cleansing ponds in the green house. Once a year we have a music gathering in autumn at our amphitheatre. I hope you will come to our experimental house together.

The location of both countries was shown on a little globe with their areas and population comparison. Our characters with examples of a river and a fish were written. I told our original culture is fading after the country was open because of the globalization.
I was born in 1938. I attended a kinder garden for two years but I was a crybaby. My grand mother came with me. I entered a primary school at seven years old. It was in 1945. It was just before the end of the World War II. I wore a thick and deep coif to attend. Finally, our town Kobe was bombed. Not only Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but most of big cities in Japan were bombed and completely destroyed. And we didn’t have any foods.
We ate rice as a main food. I got a bowlful of plain soup with a few grains of rice for a meal. We got a ration of animal feed maize and coconut powder. I remember I was always hungry. At that time my father was taken to the Japanese army, I lived with my grand parents, my mother and my brother. My grand parents did gardening at a small space and taught me quite well about the way.
A strong memory is still in my mind when our text book was changed on my desk for a new one. It was a symbolic moment from old Japan to new Japan. I felt we must never have any wars.
Japan started to gradually recover from the destruction by the war. The difference between rich and poor was becoming large. The same lunch was given to children by their school and they got a uniform not to have the difference between them reflecting the family's economical situation. We learn a lot at school, but the strongest memory is that we played in nature: swimming and fishing in the sea, a can kicking on the road, catching dragon flies, cicadas and grass hoppers etc. It was poor but we enjoyed playing baseball with a glove made of cloth. Though I always felt hungry, it was a good old time for me. Japan is at the zenith of materialism, I feel it was most joyful and happiest.
When I was 13 years old and finishing primary school, my teacher recommended me to enter a middle school which has an entrance exam. After three years of high school, an additional three years later for university I had to have entrance exams.
Achievement test can not be a good measure to find one’s personality and creativity. I never thought it was a good system, but it is the reality in Japan.
Lastly I want to emphasize that each one has to have time to learn nature.

NZ media come to me for interviews. In the beginning, a few local papers, FM radio station, and TV3 news came over. After them National Radio interviewed me on rice growing, Northern Advocate came also for rice growing, Asia Down under on TV1 for the project as well as Kaipara Lifestyler. One of them is given in Chapter 5.

(3) Joyful life

Let's recall a moment when we felt joyful. Most of time we did not have any scenario, it did not happen at a certain place, at a certain time or even at thought, it happened suddenly. If we make a scenario and try to find it, most of time it never happens as it is written. It is created with a surrounding situation, being helped with additional factors not on the scenario, and then we get a wonderful result of joy. This is not an individual creation or a human work. A German song says "A joy is an impulse from God - Beethoven’s ninth symphony -." Or “It does not need much to get a joy but if you get it, you feel like a king – from a German canon -."  Don't they express aptly about a joy!

On our daily life we are not surprised or impressed when we see reproducible and linear changes, e.g. music replayed on CD. However, when we meet a non-linear change we feel impressed and amazed. Daily appearance of the sun set or the sun rise with a play of the sun and clouds, it is so great that no body can not express or create it. How could we be closer to it? Compare it with a monotonous expression with words. How rich space the joy we feel in nature is. Even a painting shows a beautiful scene, it is still linear.
We should consider and try to express aiming a non-linear nature creation. Then it will take us to an imaginary space and or a meditation space.
Nichole, who was a Belgian pianist and played piano at the first music gathering, put a lot of her own marks on her Brahms music notes. There must be her feeling which can not be given only by the code on the five lines. I felt like she was telling me that musical expression must not insist on the reproduction but has a non-linear aspect. Additionally, music is not a performance on the stage itself. It is always with an audience. The wonderful fusion of a performer and the audience at every music gathering is one of in-reproducible and non-linear aspects.
One thing is that if a time change is so fast, we can not follow it. Even the change at sunset or sunrise can not be expressed. We avoid expressing them into words. It is true that we can not feel relaxed from a quick change. We must have potential rhythm, like the alpha brain wave at relaxation, the preferred frequency spectrum with 1/f (Hz).
Why can we simply think the sun is in the sky? The sunset and /or the sunrise are cooperated with the earth, the scene becomes wonderful. With the horizon they and increase our delight. Appreciation to the sun and the earth.

When I do a simple observation, they express nature with its simulation and try to have a new creation beyond it in Europe. Although it depends on a geographical background, nobody likes to chase sheep with a minor and melancholic environment. A major tone became the basic. It can be said not only for sounds but also for paintings. They use a variety of colors. It appears to be arrogant but looks seriously on how to live. However, they think there is nature to be conquered and the target of challenge. The attitude brought to GE, I think.
On the other hand, in the Asian area, especially in Japan, there exists great nature first, and they tend to enjoy the atmosphere which is introduced with little human’s disturbance. Minor is the basic. It looks to be easier as execution. If the development of thought is stopped, it leaves it to nature. There might be the essence of life.
Recognizing that the eastern and western cultures have different aspects and profiles, we should create a new stage. Fortunately, there are multiple nations as well as the Kiwi locals gathered in KW as it was mentioned before. It has a wonderful atmosphere and space.
The pleasure at a festival is one. It seems to have contact with a soul world. There must be a lot of people who did not come out to the surface in the society being underground or finished their lives without expressing their established thoughts. However, God knows well about them and gives them higher starts in the next plane. They need not to complain about the bad luck. We have to gather their souls back. A Japanese summer festival 'Obon' is a habit to think of those people and to talk with them.
As a festival is often related with God and soul, we must not enjoy it just as habitual, but find a joy thinking over the background. There have been many habits to have contact with the soul world.
I think that we can only step into the next plane for the first time, when we do not set our lives for the short time on the earth, but set it to continue on to be influenced and reflected from our individual earthly lives. With the flow of such a thought we can find the relation even from the next plane, I think.

Most cultures have been flown to the direction of wealth. They should be with nature. Under vernacularism a sustainable space produced a lot of great culture. We have to review them carefully and never perish them. Japan has lost many of them being poisoned by materialism in the past 150 years. It is very difficult to create culture from a concrete box. It looks like culture but it is only a molt from the artificial space (see Fig.3-3-14).
It may be arrogant to think and pursue the soul world as the leader of creation. If it exists in joy, a bird or a plant would have it. Their monotonous -by a look-life could be the strongest way to survive. Us humans squirm when changes have been made by themselves and then proceed to the destruction.
What are we looking for between life and death? One of the sure things is steady progress toward tomorrow. And it must be the process of an effort to connect the earthly life to the next plane after death for the spiritual development.
Then, what is the progress for tomorrow? Practically each one has to have it depending on one's conditions and environments, because each one is different. And when we think of human progress, we have to put ourselves in great nature: birds, flowers, grass, plants, animals, minerals, clouds, etc, which live around us, namely, all the things on the earth, and start to develop it.
For that, precise observation and digestion, and the expression of one's philosophy at painting and sculpturing, meditation with a wonderful space spreads in front and one with its poetical expression beyond to the fantasy world, performance feeling trees trembling, chirping birds, literature at the practical research of a life purpose and one to find any beauty, joy at solving a natural phenomenon. If we don't have any of them every day, we can't find any meanings in our life. Without these essences of a life, it does not mean anything even for Architecture.
At the origin of a great result, there exists emotional and impressive creation. However, its energy starts to fade because of formalization and organization-most of time it is never done ideally- and it is destroyed. If its development comes to deadlock, it is one way to go back to the origin, I think. For instance, about a concert hall: Gewanthaus in Leipzig was originally a square ball room. Music for dancing sounded excellent and beautiful there, and they wanted to listen to them only. I guess it was a start of a concert hall. Since then quite a number of tries have done to improve a sound field of an auditorium, especially on its shape, but none was successful beyond Grosser Musik Vereinssaal in Wien that has a square shape called 'Shoe box'. Recently, a few are going back to 'Shoe box'.
If we start anything it gives us the next step. Only collection of knowledge does not give us anything. I have enjoyed the next new steps on and on to have development. There I found joy. Even if they are small joys I experienced to encounter a lot of them. For instance, on Acoustics, I wrote a lot of papers with my colleagues. Terrible weed kikuyu looks to include a lot of carbon in its hard stem and can be used as fuel, and its ash goes for fertilizer. Rice grass is perennial and gives a certain amount of harvest from its old root. If this is certain, we can save time for sowing and transplanting. The solar cooker got a glass cover with an air gap. It is just the use of the green house effect. These results can not be obtained easily on the process of mass production. We have to learn these kinds of things from nature and observing it, feeling it, touching it. It is completely different from the attitude to get anything through knowledge. Additionally each one has to experience this for himself.
As birds, grass, flowers, skies, clouds etc are different in themselves we human beings want to be different with each other. Then when we create the wonderful natural harmony together, we may be able to peep in the soul world.
Most of us forget the new and fresh morning feeling that day in which we experienced in our childhood, don’t we? We have to treasure our sensitivity. We have to start without any hesitation if we feel this is good, interesting, and/or useful. We have to create such an atmosphere. Aging makes us feel as though time runs faster.
Joy is not always to feel high. There exists joy at pathos. Some old Japanese houses had such atmosphere ‘wabi (humbleness)' and ‘sabi (agedness)'. Even kikuyu has a life from birth to death and goes back to the earth. It could create a non-linear space. A dry flower could be one of them. To enjoy it only at the height of flowering means to use its effort that took for a long time under the sun's care. Enjoying its whole life and deepen the joy gives a different aspect.
When I look back at my Acoustics, the steady individual effort has been contributed towards human development, which is a social cooperation. It is tiny logic given by an individual. However, its purpose is distorted with greedy social demands so it is worse. It was never connected to deep mind of nature. The real individual liberation is considered to exist in that connection. The quality and level of a joy is different. Our amphitheatre is a good example.
When a joint of two ply-woods is covered with a wooden stick their grains look continuous and give an illusion as if they are continuous two plates. Curved lines might give us certain interesting phenomena. If they are by straight lines we feel evidently that they are discontinuous. They can be connected by imagined curved lines, though.
Their interesting complements exist at many places in paintings, ikebana flower arrangements, sculptures etc. If the width of the stick is widened the illusion becomes larger. It looks interesting to pursue the subject. In the same way, there are many wrong spatial and time occasions in the society. We have to be very careful.
Recently I experienced an interesting phenomenon by the fusion of hearing and vision. When a movie was given on a large screen in front and the sound was given from the other end by two loud speakers, we recognized the sound came from the screen. By the Acoustical theory of the Haas effect, it cannot happen. Evidently the illusion was caused by the mutual effect of two sensitivities. It is possible that this confusion occurs with these similar conditions, so we have to be careful to know the truth. I want to study the subject but time is concerned.
Noise is apparently one of the pollutions to natural environments. As this house the openings are double glazed and sound insulation is large enough not to generate sounds to the outside, Birds come very close even when we move inside the house. A honey loquat tree at three meters in front of the house has visits of roseras, kingfishers, black birds etc. If we do not contaminate outside, wonderful nature comes to us.

3-1) Joy to make daily goods with off-cuts.
If we have a big carpentry work, it leaves a lot of off-cuts. It is fun to make something with them. I made a variety of daily goods as time permitted me. The things which were made even when we did not have good tools left joyful memories.




Fig.3-3-1 Two foot steps. They got cuts when I got a jigsaw.


 
Fig.3-3-2 Book shelves in the study and the bed room


Fig.3-3-3 Cup board


Fig.3-3-4 Shelves for seed banking


Fig.3-3-5 Shelves for electrical machines


Fig.3-3-6 Telephone rack


Fig.3-3-7 Little table


Fig.3-3-8 Sofa table

 
Fig.3-3-9 Desks


Fig.3-3-10 Japanese table


Fig.3-3-11 Food store rack in the basement


Fig.3-3-12 Drying shelves for Kikuyu grass


Fig.3-3-13 Stool for the fireplace in the shed (Picture not added)


Fig.3-3-13 Trash cans


3-2) Joy to express inspiration with surrounding miscellany
A monotonous wall needs anything like, paintings, ornaments etc. A corner spot where three straight lines gather needs anything too. If we buy them they are expensive. However, we can replace with things around and/or given by friends to create something with them.
If a part of them is changed, they give us different impression each time. Though I don't want to be argumentative, the space gets the time domain. It is a little joy which is given by a change. And, if we feel our own joy with them, it is the point.

Fig.3-3-14 A jump
The guy in the right top thinks that he is out of the structured society that is expressed by the bamboo table frame to feel enlightened. However, if it is observed from a side, he is still in the continuation from the society.


Fig.3-3-15 Start for a trip.
A father and his boy prepare for their trip with grass sandals and sticks.


Fig.3-3-16 Nosy
Honey loquat seeds are nosy at strange looking things, just like our society is.

3-3) Joy from four seasonal changes
Nature pleases and delights us with the beauty of every four seasons. Although I never tried to plant flowers, every corner of the veggie gardens, in the rice paddy, we can find wonderful arts with flowers of fruit trees, those of usual trees, new buds if we strain our eyes. I could not spend enough time to record them. I want to keep them for the next time. Here, I show a part of them.


Fig.3-3-17 Spider web formation (Not given yet).

a pheasant Kome a pheasant Kome
gourd Zucchini

garlic
Fig.3-3-18 Two shots of a pheasant Kome Flowers of veggies Zucchini, garlic and gourd

I started to raise a sheep on the 20th of October, 2003. He was brought with his name Tintin. When he came over, he still needed milk and after some while he ate only grass and became bigger day by day. His cooperation was valuable, he weeded, and his dung was given to the septic tank and a compost box. His sheared wool which was expected for cloths. Unfortunately, he died on the 20th of June, 2004 while I went back to Japan.
When he got facial eczema, his liver suffered. Later, he lost his back hair 3 to 5cm wide and winter coldness went into him from there. He must have missed me. It was only 8 months but I enjoyed living with him. Every morning I took him around to find new grass. He taught me the importance to have a contact with animals. Thanks, Tintin.


Shorn Tintin with Japanese drummers (Picture missing)

Creatures coming around are many:
Animals: hedgehog, ferret, rabbit, mouse, rat etc.
In my neighborhoods: sheep, cow, horse, goat, cat, emu, deer, chicken etc.
Birds: pukeko, starling, blackbird, thrush, tui, rosera, fantail, kingfisher, robin, yellow head, swallow, minor, sparrow, wood pigeon, silver eye, Canadian duck, pheasant, hawk, duck, turkey, peacock etc.
In the pond: frog, eel.
In the rice paddy: frog, dragonfly etc.

They give us natural environments, but we have to be careful about some of them. Pukekos, sparrows, rabbits etc damage our crops.I protect my rice with a 1.9m tall bird net over the paddy, 45cm tall chicken wire fence around the veggie garden. I see many cicadas, but they are not that welcomed by us.

3-4) Memories of autumn music gatherings at the hand-made amphitheater
Among our Acoustics researches, there is a paper where we found that a wave reflected at the grazing angle over a porous material surface produces a negative wave (see Fig.7 on p.131 of the paper referred in the end of this paragraph). In a usual concert hall where seats are gently raked, this phenomenon occurs at the reflection from the front seats and it decreases the loudness of the direct sound from the stage. Then it has to be reinforced with the reflections of the boundaries like the ceiling and lateral walls.
On the other hand, if we go to a Greek amphitheatre, we are surprised with its steep slope and the clear strong direct sound from the stage. The angle of the audience slope has 26.3deg which was measured by Prof. Meyer at Berlin Technological College.
It gives less of a negative reflection, has more delayed time from the direct sound, and it is heard clearly at any seats. It is interesting to know how they found the phenomena. It will be guessed a bit later.
If a stage is flat and does not have anything, it sounds as if in the field and the sound does not travel aloud and a performer there has a difficulty to play. The rectangular enclosure was made on the stage expecting its clear resonance frequencies support performers. Namely, a natural musical instrument was installed.
It is a brief acoustical explanation for the amphitheatre, but the interesting subjects are remaining, e.g. which dimensions are the best for the enclosure, if it gets a ceiling the density of resonance frequencies will be thicker and how it affects a performance, the comparison between hearing impression and an impulse response at the audience and so on.
Although it started with the acoustical interest in such a way, an amphitheatre offers performances on the stage with the surrounding atmosphere. We started to have music gatherings in the greens and/or under the stars.
Having a similar angle of slope at the hill, it was not exactly 26.3deg. Any machines were not able to use to have steps with a little curvature learning from a Greek amphitheatre. It was only by hands. Under the strong summer sun many people helped us and after days we got a hand made amphitheatre to accept about 250 people.
In the meantime, an interesting observation was obtained. When we moved the soil on the hill to the slope, the clayish soil made a cliff with release. Such a time, we ordered river sand and it was chucked from a dump car on the hill. I noticed that the slope of the sand cone made almost 30deg to the ground line. At this stage I guess that the empirical slope was obtained when they talked along a sandy slope up and down, they could hear each other well. The country must have sandy soil.
At a music gathering we leave every day's life, find joyful moment and space which are created between performers and audiences, and meditate towards the natural space. Greens, stars and music would be a rich moment. We need not to use the place only for the acoustical purpose.
It is said that music started for praying to God. The chanting choir of Tendai-shu Buddhism was invited to the international religions meeting at Praha in 2000. When they were practicing, another chanting group of Catholic Gregorian proposed a joint chanting. They did a joint practice spontaneously, and performed in front of the participants of the meeting. They impressed so deeply to the audiences. Music must have something beyond religions.

Finally, having the acoustical research purpose we got the first music gathering on March 30, 1996. We guided the experimental house as well. Our music gathering started to happen once a year to pray for good harvests and appreciate them from God.
The first one and the second got four years blank. We got the tenth on March 8, 2008.
Here I want to look back them with my diary and opening speeches.                
Y. Sakurai: “The early reflections of the impulse response in an auditorium", J.Acoust.Soc.Jpn. (E), 8, 4(1987).
Y. Sakurai and et al: “Reflection of sound at grazing angles by auditorium seats", Applied Acoustics, p209-227, 39(1993).

(i) First music gathering on March 30(Sat), 1996
When we got up at 8 o'clock, it was fine with blue sky. We started to work all together. A tent was installed in front of the kitchen. A table was being assembled with plywood. National flags were tied on the wind mill posts. NZ, Japan and Switzerland from left to right following the protocol. Two platforms were given in the middle of the stage to put in a piano. Tea and coffee were prepared.
A Japanese group arrived first just before 11am. Successively Othmar brought in an electrical piano. People arrived in about twenty cars.
They tried to adjust the piano, but something was wrong. A pedal doesn’t work well? Is power supplied? Connectors are wrong? They found a misconnection of plugs and then it started to sound like a piano. When today’s pianist Nichole Nulden asked me for an umbrella to shade her as she performed, I felt embarrassed. Fortunately the sun was hidden behind the clouds. It turned out to be the perfect weather for the amphitheatre performance.
Finally the assembly started 30minutes behind the scheduled time of 11am. Heidi gave the first opening speech: the German and Japanese choirs in AKL are making their friendship deeper after they had a joint participation to support the Beethoven’s ninth choir of the handicapped people’s choir "Yukiwariso" from Tokyo. A brief explanation of the project and team members was given and she passed me to talk about the project.
I have talked a few times about the project and thought I would get used to it, but I got nervous in the beginning and finished the outline explanation. Namely, the four purposes: the solar energy use, nature-friendly materials use, no contamination and self-sufficiency. In addition, computer programming, acoustics research of the amphitheatre etc were mentioned introducing involved people, our plumber Bruce, an odd job helper Paul, George for an acoustic measurement.
Before we started a tour, I mentioned the location of toilets, careful and responsible deeds, and the later schedule. I explained the outside, Heidi did the ground level, and Paul did the basement. The solar room was planned to be done by my student Hiro, but it is too narrow to accept many people and so we left it out. The tour was in such a way to have them split and successively, but it happened to do spontaneously. Hiro explained the solar cooker and the solar oven. Bruce did the three ponds in the green house. Akira did video-taping.
Each one opened one's lunch on the hill. We thought to have a light lunch, but Lisa invited me to her Japanese group. They offered me a lot of Japanese dishes. Even Kiwi Bruce accepted some. About 12 Japanese people made a group for lunch. I hoped to be with other nation people. Next time I’m sure they will be used to being internationally social.
While no people were at the amphitheatre for lunch, George tried to do a measurement at the empty audience. Unfortunately people slowly returned and it was postponed for next time. George's recording system does not have a long enough cable for a simultaneous measurement with two microphones, i.e. it gives a difficulty to separate the direct sound from a received sound at the audience.
The music gathering was started at 1:30pm. Our neighbors came along. Hiro counted 62 people in the morning and there were more than 70 for the music gathering. Othmar chaired the program. First we sang the national anthem all together.
Choruses by the Japanese and German choirs for their own country's and joint ones followed, Nichole played the piano in between. Othmar's humorous speeches cheered the audience. He praised that this is the only amphitheatre in NZ and that the enclosure of reflectors helps performers on the stage, without it a performer would have felt to sing in a field. I agree with him on the effect of it. The sound on stage was developed in the space especially since it was made rectangular. Performers said they felt enveloped. If it will get ivy on its inside surface, the sound there will be more distributed and singers and players will appreciate it. Nichole did not say that anything was wrong. A chorus must be done gathering near the conductor to make a point source on the stage as Dora said later too. I moved around while they performed. Middle stands could be the best area because the sound was heard with good harmony and they got good scenery beyond.
The first music gathering finished wonderfully. Each choir was nervous on the stage, but it made their performances more cheerful. Nichole's piano play was excellent indeed. She played with confidence putting in her studied expression. We enjoyed her plays with sureness. They will remain in our hearts for a long time.
We enjoyed an afternoon tea finishing the music gathering. I enjoyed talking with them drinking beer. They enjoyed it too with Swiss cake and coffee. They left by twos and threes. The weather was just ideal for us and for the amphitheatre performances. I appreciated the Teruteru-bozu doll, a fine day boy. Their plays were wonderful and acoustics of the theatre was good.I had nothing to say. Some day I want to have it under the star lit night. I just appreciate God.


Fig.3-4-1 Joint performance of the Japanese and German choirs


Fig.3-4-2 Nichole plays Brahms.

(ii) Second music gathering on March 25, Sat, 2000
At last, a music gathering under the starry sky was realized after a few years break.
I got up before 9 o'clock. Norbert had already started to work the candle stands at the stage after having finished his thatch roof renovation. Grant also started the preparation of Acoustic measurement. Rob turned up earlier than usual for mowing. Candle stands were nailed on the reflector panels on the stage.
When Rob and I were standing a sign for "Experimental House", the first comer Ewan turned up. Othmar told to German choir members to come earlier, he said.
German choir members arrived one after another. Setsuko and Othmar brought Michiko. In the meantime Grant and I did a preparation of acoustic measurements. Around five o'clock Aucklanders started supper and we three were invited to Setsuko's table. After that 12 to 13 people were split to two groups and we made a tour for the experimental house. I am pleased that many of them were interested in the project.
The choirs started warming up before 7pm. We had to give up an acoustical measurement unfortunately, because we found the power supply was broken.
Neighbors turned up gradually and they were more than 80 people at the beginning. I read my opening speech which I wrote beforehand. Trees were lit up. When a light was moved, they responded to the change.
We played a tape of waves which was recorded by Grant at Hatfield Beach, and the sound spectrum proportional to 1/f is heard very natural and relaxed. A music which was chosen with the spectrum was played and it was good for meditation.
It was explained that the purpose of the amphitheatre was for an acoustical research, I told them that we had to give up the day's measurement because of the trouble on one of the instruments. I played a tape of a Japanese Buddhism chanting showing that music was started for a prayer to God.
Now, it was handed to Othmar. He introduced the German choir. We sang Pokarekareana all together and the choir got off the stage.
The Austrian singers sang four yodels. The last one got an encore finishing the whole program.
It was a wonderful fine day. We had the Milky Way just above us which included the Southern Cross. The scenario was just as I expected at the last music gathering. After the music I showed my rice paddy with a torch and we got back to the hill top.
We enjoyed drinking wine. Oops I might have forgotten to prepare the cups. However, everybody must have enjoyed it. Bev came along saying that she did not have enough time to play tennis with me and introduced me to two charming ladies. Many were from Kaiwaka. Last time there were approximately 70 people here but this time there were more than 80. The following is the manuscript for today's opening speech.

A night for sound and light

Among all the creatures on earth only human beings cannot live sustainable because of their greed and arrogance. For us the present human beings, it is evident that we have to live sustainable. It is not said only because of the global warming and the energy crisis.
Where our souls go and how do they go? It does not look to be discontinuous even if a situation is different. When the solution of this interesting subject is found, our souls will be liberated. However, it will need enormous time to solve it. The sun and the earth will die whether or not. We may need the time until the last moment. For that we have to love our precious earth and keep it.
To find a peaceful soul world we need a joy given by nature. It is one of the items on the sustainable project to find it in nature. It is true as a German saying that a joy is an impulse from God. It is also said that it does not need much to get a joy, but if you get it, you feel like a king or a queen. Let's enjoy tonight together.

Non-linear and non-reproduction
How often I have enjoyed beautiful sunsets and sunrises since I came to Kaiwaka. As they are physically the interaction between the sun and the clouds, they seem to us to be arts given by God. They probably have the expression that we can not create. The clouds are caused by the turbulence of air flow, and our scientist says it is non-linear. It means that it is non-reproducible.
Tonight we want to try to express a similar atmosphere using wonderful trees along the front creek. Can't we create continuity from the artificial light fantasy to the star lights in the universe? John Whelan, my front neighbor, helped me to set up the lights.

-Light up of trees-

First I wanted children to play in the light under trees, but the lights are too strong for their eyes and I gave up.
The wind changes lights and each one feels differently their impression. The freak of trees and the breeze. Such a wonderful phenomena can be seen anywhere in nature. It is the entrance to a joy, yes, it is a joy itself.
A phenomenon of disorder or non-reproduction seems to have a deep secret. A sound of waves is acoustically a noise. But it is not the one that annoys us. An acoustician explains this, we have the biological rhythm in our self that has a frequency spectrum inversely proportional to frequency f (Hz) and any sound of the spectrum does not annoy us.
Tonight let's listen to a tape of waves recorded at Hatfield Beach by Grant who is a young Acoustician to get a PhD at AKL Univ.
(We planned to record the murmur of a stream, the whisper of leaves in the breeze, the sound in a long pipe with air turbulence, the sound of rain etc. But we could not find enough time.)
The play with nature is really pleasant and delightful. It hides the origin of arts, I think.

-Sound performance-

Music gathering
It is said that music started from the prayer to God. Each tribe brought up its own heritage. After these five lines, i.e. a musical note, were introduced, the musical expression became common and enjoyed through the world keeping its own locality. At a live music performance we hear it with a then feeling, the situation has no reproduction.
Now we turn the artificial lights off, spreading our minds to the unlimited wonderful space of stars, we listen to music.
We got a lot of people from AKL too. I hand to Othmar to chair the program.

After the program, I took them to my rice paddy.

-Appreciation to the harvest of rice-

We have another stage for tonight. Rice is a fundamental food for Asians not only for the Japanese. We have sent our appreciation for a good harvest to nature and we had a festival on the autumn equinox respecting our ancestors. It is one of good thoughts to find a contacting point to nature.
I hope that rice brought in Japan grows here at Kaiwaka and that it will be succeeded to the following generations.
There exists the origin of arts in nature itself, and there exists creation and arts in oneself. When they are brought together with respects, finally, it would be possible to jump into the next plane of the soul world, I think.
Arts must admire nature with love, and we imagine God through them. They are the method to develop appreciation and admiration to it through meditation. Namely, arts must be expression to be with nature and in nature.


Fig.3-4-3 A girl helps the German choir conductor giving a light.


Fig.3-4-4 Yoshi shows his rice paddy with a torch.

(iii) Third music gathering on March 24, Sat, 2001
I got up before 9am. When I was fixing a light stand for the paddy, my neighbor children, Glen and Leeza came over. She helped me to arrange some harvests on a showing bamboo table. Bruce turned up but he left soon saying he will come back for the music.
Following them, Brenda, Eli, Wady, and Paul arrived. Paul worked for the indicators. Tatjana gave me a phone call to come and help at 3:30. Grant, Lars and I did an Acoustical measurement for the vacant condition. It finished at 5pm.
Choir members arrived by twos and threes. It started at 5pm. It was fine and we appreciated God. At my opening speech I explained especially about today's Buddhism chanting. Changing the original program, we did Acoustical measurement first when the auditorium was filled with people. The sound generating system did not work well, but we could have five good shots. The start was delayed by 30 minutes.
The first program was monk's chanting. The unison of seven monks' natural voices was powerful and delicate. They were unison, and only a few times harmonized and got beat, I felt. Their costumes produced wonderful atmosphere as well. Their entrance and exit gave us a special impression too.
German choir and Austrian singers followed. And then we had intermission.
When dusk came, candle lights were turned on and we got a different atmosphere. I got an explanation for the next chanting from Mr. Saikawa, my family monk beforehand: it is for calling God at the first half when colorful flower pedals are spread into air, they are appreciating God for being together, and finally they send God back to the heaven. With the atmosphere given by the candle lights, a bit cloudy but with stars, and the light up of front trees and the rice paddy, a chanting was started in such surroundings. The audience was decreased to 60 people, but they listened to it enthusiastically.The German choir and Austrian singers were much better than last time. Finally the music gathering was over.
At the mutual talking in the end, many talked with monks. In my next Othmar sang a song to cheer people. I thought it was a good idea and I joined too. But I was regretful that I sang too loud. I was so drunk and I don't know who did the care for thing left, but what I remember was that around 10pm Grant, Betty and I went to the Town Hall to see an Irish Dance Party.

I did my opening speech as follows.

"Choirs for Harmony and Unison"

Welcome to our amphitheatre today.
It is true that time flies like an arrow. Once again autumn has come, time for harvesting, since our last musical gathering. I hope that your harvest is also satisfactory and or towards a good harvest. The time around autumn equinox is a time for appreciating Nature and Providence, having festivals. In Japan, we celebrate autumn equinox with a simple arrangement of grasses, surrounding this with harvest produce and goodies for kids on the night of the full moon. I have placed such an arrangement near the rice paddy using toitoi as the grass.
Two years ago, my mother passed away. I was not in time for the funeral, but in time for the next important prayer on the forty-ninth day after her death. In our Buddhism, a soul needs seven weeks to reach heaven, having a more heavenly name every week. Our family priest, Mr. Saikawa, chanted wonderfully for my mother on the day. I know his father and he chants well too. I asked Mr. Saikawa if such chanting could be performed in front of people to admire and enjoy. I learnt then that they started a chanting choir 15 years ago with 11 members. This choir was invited to the opening concert of the new Kyoto City Hall that was built to commemorate the 1200th anniversary of the city.
Later, this choir was invited overseas, to Norway, Sweden, Belgium, France, Czechoslovakia, and so on. Religions in the world held an international conference at Praha in the year 2000 to increase understanding of each other and break through barriers between them. The chanting choir was also invited to the conference. During practices, the Catholic Gregorian Choir proposed that they sing together. They never had any joint practices before, but, interestingly enough, it melted together so well on the stage that the audience was deeply impressed. Mr. Saikawa told me about it on the New Year day card this year.Finally, we have them here tonight at the Experimental House in Kaiwaka with the German choir and Austrian singers from AKL.
It is said that singing started as an earnest and fervent prayer to God. The choir chants in the unison of men’s natural voices. Besides, they follow the old musical note that is different from the staff (five lines) note. They still keep the original note to chant that originated in Gyozan Mountain, China in the second century.
When listening to the chanting, you may or may not expect such stimulation in your feeling that you get from western music. People who are familiar with European culture, be reminded of Gregorian chanting in a Catholic church.
Tonight’s chanting is divided in two parts. In the first part, look towards the trees and plants, and spread your feeling to the clouds and the blue sky, then feel the universe beyond. In the second part, hopefully under the star light, spread your mind to the universe. It might be important to think of our-selves as a tiny existence in the universe away from the daily work.
If you breathe with your stomach and concentrate your mind to the breathing only without thinking about anything else, it might help to take you into meditation.

This is the third time the German Choir and Austrian Singers perform here and they have never asked for any money. Japanese priests paid the main expenditures including the air fares by themselves. We are very fortunate and appreciate their love and compassion.
Today’s program starts with the Japanese Buddhist Choir chanting ‘taizoukai mandara kuonyo(胎蔵界曼陀羅供音用)’ Prayer for the universe and God. Then the German Choir and Austrian singers will sing for us. After that we would like to make some acoustical measurement. We can then have a stretch at intermission for a quarter of an hour. Wine or drinks will be served on the hill. Please mark your cup for later use.
The second part of the chanting starts around dusk and then songs by German Choir and Austrian singers.

At the acoustical measurement
This open theater was constructed for Acoustic research purposes. The slope of the stands has about 26degrees as in the Greek amphitheaters. You can hear the direct sound from the stage without the large negative reflection in front that occurs with the gentle slope of an auditorium. In addition, the stage has a rectangular enclosure to support performance.
Now let us do some acoustical measurement at this opportunity. We need a quiet moment after every explosion. Please put your fingers to your ears. We will have ten explosions tonight. Please cooperate with us.

These days I believe that not only our individual differences but also the cultural differences give us spiritual energy, inspiration, even a new direction of thought. Since we started our project here, Kaiwaka shows good examples of this here and there. I hope that it will keep going well and create something new.
Tonight in the Kaiwaka Hall is Celtic dancing which starts at 7:30 and goes until 11o’clock, as long as I know. You can also exchange culture, surrounding tables with prepared free drinks and snacks.
Before everybody leaves the theatre I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you very much to the German choir, the Austrian singers and the Japanese Buddhist Chanting Choir for coming along and performing for us tonight. I would like to thank many neighbors and friends who helped in preparation for today, and finally thank you all for coming.


Fig.3-4-5 Chanting by seven monks of the Tendai-shu Gyozan-shomyo Kenkyukai


Fig.3-4-6 Austrian singers

(iv) Fourth Music Gathering on March 30, Sat, 2002
I got up at 10am. Cutting weeds in the paddy, mending the bamboo fence, cutting the grass on the right side steps of the amphitheatre, Rob turned up. My first exchange helper Mayumi got up earlier and went shopping. She did my hair cut too.
Around 3pm, Brenda came over with her children. They started to prepare snacks. Wady helped Rob put up signs. Lars arrived to work to wire the power lines. I helped him until we fixed a stand for the rice paddy lighting. Othmar turned up and we talked about today's program. Setsuko listened to my singing of Shiretoko in the basement which has a good reverberant sound field, and suggested me to make a good succession of high tone near the end of the song.
We got a rainy weather forecast and I started my opening speech at 5pm. Austrian singers were behind schedule, but I used it for requesting any performers for today to fill the sudden change of the program. Gunter accepted it. Finally, the program started with their choir.
I finished my comic storytelling, Rakugo for 'Tokisoba'. It wasn't that bad, because they laughed a lot. David Yu and Jane Zu successively sang and they did a duet afterward. It gave us a different atmosphere and made us joyful. Jane sang Italian arias, but the accompanied music on tape was too loud and suppressed her wonderful voice unfortunately.
Because of a bit of rain threatening Othmar started a bit earlier on the second part shortening the intermission. I sang Siretoko, then Othmar, setsuko, and a Korean woman sang Sakura and Hurusato successively. Jane sang Chinese songs which I quite liked. She got musical education in Shanghai. David did a solo. I felt the musical level of China is very high as expected.
Gunter from Germany volunteered a song nicely. Chen from China sang a local song with a lovely local flavor. We enjoyed the full results created by the gathering of people excellently the music gathering was over. A scheduled program had to be changed because of a sudden performer's absence and it was a bit embarrassing. However, volunteers covered up.
Fortunately, we didn't have rain, we enjoyed atmospheres created by people's gathering, and I felt wonderful.

Opening speech
I think that a change and a difference give us a great creative energy. The change by every season is an example for the former and a different culture, namely, the difference gives us a great impact.
It is wonderful to meet again on an autumn day of harvest time after one year separation and to have new comers. I want to appreciate the nature and God with you. Though we can not have a regular member of the German choir, Austrian singers have successively come along. An expected Russian tenor could not come. However, Taiwanese and Chinese singers are here. I met a Taiwanese tenor David when he was building a musical chamber and asked me if anything wrong acoustically. He now has a wonderful hall in AKL.
The ring of people beyond nations is developing here at Kaiwaka. It might have done by God consciously.
Please enjoy music in the surrounding atmosphere from bright day time to dark night time. When the darkness slowly comes, we will have an intermission for three quarters of an hour. Wine and snacks will be served.
In the meantime you can go to the rice paddy, though you have to be careful for wires and birds net.
Using this opportunity, I want to thank Rob Sampson for his mowing, Paul & Brenda Jackson for preparing the snacks and setting up, Lars Haakenberg Van Gaasbeek for his wiring lines, and my exchange helper Mayumi for doing odd jobs.


Fig.3-4-7 Audience in the beginning of the second part


Fig.3-4-8 Familiar Austrian singers

(v) Fifth music gathering on March 15, Sat, 2003
Up at 8am. We started the last preparation for today's music gathering. Rob came over for mowing around 12 o'clock. He did around and in the amphitheatre, the way to the theatre, the car park, the entrance to the house, etc. By the time he had finished everything it was 4pm.
Lars came for the wiring which was separated into two groups: one for the stage and the recording system, and another for lighting up trees. Paola delivered 12 breads, 6 casks of red wine, 4 casks of white wine just when Lars came.
Around 3pm, the Japanese drummers turned up driving through from Palmerston North. Haruo and Chiyoko came with organic tomatoes. I asked them to direct the kitchen work and went out to keep preparing. People started to come by twos and threes. The electric piano did not work well and we decided to use a key board for the replacement. George and Marion, his son Andrew and his girlfriend came too. I briefly explained my project taking Andrew and his girlfriend into the house. Sarah turned up too.
Because of the electric piano trouble the opening speech started at 5:30. The German choir returned. Newly we got Japanese drummers. The KW local band arrived a bit late. Very pleasing was that we got mezzo-soprano soloist Yuko and her husband Farrell. His bamboo flute was wonderful. Yuko's Japanese folk songs were excellent. Japanese drummers showed wonderful performances which were very rhythmical and never monotonous as I imagined. Every year we get more performers as well as audiences. Detail must be seen on a video tape.
Various performers on the stage, each one's character matched so well on the stage in nature. The harmony between audiences and the stage was wonderful too. I affirm that this year we got much better. I talked with many people and all of them admired it.
I must not forget to send photos to Herbert. Nishimura helped very much with consideration. He cleared the place too. It was cloudy with a few drizzles in the morning, but no drops of rain at the music gathering. Very very lucky.

Opening Speech
We have again come to autumn for harvest. I am glad to see you again at the music gathering after one year. I see some people have come here for the first time. We welcome all of you.
First of all, I have to explain about toilets, especially for new comers. One is a long drop near the car park and another is in the house. You will see a curtain if you enter through the porch. It is in the right hand side. Please take off your shoes before you enter the porch. Women have the priority to use them and men can do everywhere in the field.
Last year an expected person did not turn up suddenly and some people covered it. They also entertained us wonderfully with each one's expression. We can continue today to enjoy with the same theme, the variety of performer's expression and creation. The program for today will be:

First part
1. Austrian singers
2. Chinese and Taiwanese singers
3. Irish whistle
4. German choir
5. Japanese female trio
6. Irish and Scottish music with local band
7. Japanese drum

Intermission

Second part
8. Duet
9. Bamboo flute
10. Irish and Scottish music with local band
11. Piano solo
12. Chinese and Taiwanese singers
13. Japanese drum
14. Open to comers
15. Austrian singers
16. Japanese female trio  

I have been doing a research project for sustainability. To have joy is one of the important items. This amphitheatre was constructed first for Acoustic research and then we started to use it for music gatherings. The first music gathering was held in March, 1996. Nichole Nulden played Brahms wonderfully. Unfortunately she passed away last November. It is sad news but her plays stay in our mind.
Here, I explain the acoustics of the theatre.
1) The steep gradient has 26degrees as a Greek amphitheatre has. It gives less reflection at the front seats and you get the clearer direct sound from the stage.
2) The box on the stage has resonance frequencies as each musical instrument has. They help and support performers on the stage.
3) Open space to nature helps to enrich the performances, of course.
I will sing the same brief song three times. The first time is outside the enclosure. The second is in the middle of the stage. The third is in the corner of the stage enclosure. You will find each quite different.
By the way the song says, 'It need not much to have a joy but a person who gets it feels like a king.' I hope you will be a king or a queen today.
In the last of my speech, I appreciate many people who helped me for the today's preparation.
Now, I pass on to Othmar Lichtnecker to chair the program.


Fig.3-4-9 Mezzo-soprano singer Yuko Takahashi


Fig.3-4-10 Local band of the Koanga Garden

(vi) Sixth music gathering on March 20, Sat, 2004
Finally, it is the day for music gathering. Once I got up at around 5am, but fell asleep again and was waken up by Kanji's phone. I asked for a bit of shopping on the way. There is no wind but a bit cloudy, it is very good for music gathering outside. I asked Othmar to bring his tape recorder.
George came around 11am and started to do wiring. George, Norbert and I had a light lunch. George did reshaping of the steps too. Norbert put signs up, and assembled tables. With minor things it took until 5pm. A DAT recording system wasn't good, but an old video camera worked well. I could not do well both videoing and taking photos.
Before the program started the German choir arrived and I took them to my veggie garden. I harvested 6 eggplants.
After I did a short opening speech, the music gathering started. The German choir entered to the stage singing and performed.After this all the groups were not yet ready and David Yu did a few solo performances and four Japanese women filled the delay with their choruses. Thanks for their cooperation for the program.
Gradually members arrived, and the Japanese drummers took the turn having Akinobu's delayed arrive. The audiences all praised their performances. They got more female drummers this year. In the end the Maoris kapa haka group could not make it. Having the local band in the end, the first part finished at 6:30pm.
Kanji told me he could not record on the DAT tape. Mario, Angel and Shanty came, and I told them that I decided to have Angela's interview of an Italian journal for sustainability to tell our project to Italian friends, replying to their request which I got on the other day. They were pleased.
Yuji, the main chef at a Japanese restaurant Tanuki, prepared foods before the program started, served miso soup, rolled sushi, rice balls and tempura to people. They were quite pleased with them as well. For tempura, veggies from my veggie garden, pumpkins, potatoes, and eggplants were used.
It was a bit earlier for the darkness. The first person to play in the second part of the program was Tony who played the Irish pipes. Ross did a Balinese dance with his daughter, Ayu's drum. A new performance always gives us a fresh feeling. He said the dance should be played with the dusk in the evening.
We got Austrian dances. David Yu gave me an impression that he did quite a lot of practices. He sang with Andrew's piano.
The last program was the Japanese drums by 5 members which were the highlights of the evening, and they got standing ovation. It was the first time that it had happened for this music gathering.
The Austrian dances led by Erick were merry. This time we got newly these performances as well as Balinese dances with visual expression.
They might have been satisfied with the Japanese drums and we got an unusual cold evening, and they started to leave after 9 o'clock. The audiences decreased almost to a half, when Othmar and Setsuko did the last program on their duet.
After the music gathering, we talked to each other until late in the night at the house. Othmar and George joined us too. We slept crowded together around 1am.

Opening speech
Welcome every body. It is wonderful to see each other again after one year. Last year I miscounted how often we had gatherings. This is the sixth music gathering.
I have three things to say.
Firstly, I have to tell you the location of two toilets which women have the priority to use. One is at the car park and another is a new toilet in the house. It is located to the right in the porch. Please take off your shoes there.
Secondly, it seems that we have more people this year, please do consider where you are parking. Never break the traffic on Gibbons Road.
Thirdly, please be quiet while the performances are on stage. I think that it is a very good opportunity to learn to respect other people.

Kaiwaka is a village of a small population, however, we have such a variety of nationalities. We are very happy and proud to be together enjoying music and talking for mutual understanding.
We again got a rich variety of performances on the stage last year. Each one’s personality matched quite well to the stage surroundings. The harmony created by the performers and the audience was wonderful too. It was a gathering to have felt the warmth by people.
We enjoy the enhanced creative atmosphere by the increasing number of people every year. The exchange of people’s personalities always inspires each other.

I think that non-reproduction is the important point of great arts. And the flow and exchange between the performers and the audience has one of the aspects. They leave a wonderful feeling. We can expect it this year too, having time and situation changed, and we will create different wonderful results. I strongly believe in that.
Indeed, in this structured society, it is very difficult to find time and space where we can enjoy each one’s expression and creation.

Today we have two parts having an intermission in between. The program is;

German choir from AKL
Japanese drummers
Taiwanese singer
Austrian dance
Setsuko & Japanese ladies
Local Scottish and Irish music
Bamboo flute and Irish whistle
Balinese dance
Duets, Setsuko & Othmar

At the intermission, we will have a corner with tempura. Yuji, the chief chef at Tanuki restaurant in AKL will cook it for us.Please enjoy not only the taste but also the way of cooking.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, let’s enjoy tonight together.


Fig.3-4-11 Enthusiastic plays of Japanese drummers


Fig.3-4-12 Increasing audiences

(vii) Seventh music gathering on March 19, Sat, 2005
Up at around 8am. We started with a bit of strain for today's music gathering. After we had breakfast, George came at around 10am. After a bit of talking he did the wiring and mowed the amphitheatre. When I was watering, I got a visit from Lars friend, Denis. After having a glance here, he left.
Lars and George finished wiring. Following Lars suggestion the main step got a foot light. We had lunch by four. Lars went back home. Chris came earlier then usual and worked with George putting up signs.
Following them Kanji arrived with Kanako. Afterwards, Midori and Kaoru came and started to prepare for tempura cooking. Around 4 o'clock when I was putting in candles, Barbara, Kevin and Derek, and Fung Yang arrived. Successively Greg came. He got a light cold, but we had to adjust the program practically. Fung brought chairs to the stage. Ross came and I helped him to pass his drum over the bamboo fence. It was unexpectedly heavy.
George and Marion arrived, Debbie, Mr. & Mrs. Takagaki, Tatjana, Nina & Lars came. Five couples for the Austrian dance came. On and on towards 5pm.
Around quarter past 5, I did an opening speech. Before the opening there were not many people, but when I looked up to the audience I noticed around 100 people.
I recognized the local band got all the members. They were the first performers. Sarah as a pianist and Florian a guitarist newly joined the band. The second was the Japanese drummers. Thirteen members with 5 drums did spectacular. After Greg read his poems, the Many Hands performed. The semi-professional band played wonderful. It was interesting Fung played an erhu of one string, a Chinese traditional instrument, creating complex sounds. The Austrians danced successively. They were as elegant as last year, but they must have been tired. The last on the program were the solos of David Yu and Yeh from Taiwan, which was the end of the part1.
During the intermission, I gave my harvests to Kevin, Derek and Fung. I prepared a lot but I could not find enough time to give it to them. Sorry about that. Tempura was well accepted as usual.
Part2 started at 8pm. The first was Ross, who had just recovered from a serious sickness, thanks for coming. After the two Taiwanese singers, the Japanese drummers played with 13 members. They were magnificent again.
Marjke's son Kane, 14 years old, played the guitar. The second stage of the Many Hands was wonderful too. Farrell played a Japanese bamboo flute and an Irish flute. The local band took the place again. An Australian poet read his poems as a volunteer.
I sang 'Soran' and 'Sukiyaki'. Humiko heard a few Japanese that joined me and a Kiwi was singing the English version in the audience. Two local volunteers sang successively. The music gathering of this year was over.
They left by twos and threes. We went in the house. Four of Tanuki restaurant, six of IPC Japanese drum team, seven of the AKL team, Kanji and Kanako, all together twenty-one people enjoyed talking, forgetting the night became late. Five of them left for AKL.
There is an expression 'Bring a plate.’ It is a habit that they make their favorite foods with a favorite amount and eat exchanging with other people. They call it 'a Pot luck party' too. This time I informed them to bring one's own plate. They brought not only cooked foods but olive oil, honey, apples, pears, almonds, nuts mix even beautiful flowers. This way gives us a hint of barter. Maybe we can have this opportunity from the morning until a music gathering starts.
It was cloudy in the morning, fine during the day time. Again we got a wonderful weather for the music gathering.

Opening speech
I am very glad to meet your smiley look after one year. I see some new comers here and there. We welcome you all. Please have a relaxed day. Do you have enough space around you to swing your shoulders? That's good.
Firstly necessary information: Did you do park in a considerate place along Gibbons Rd? Please never block the traffic there. There are two toilets; one is outside and another in the house. It is a mouse time please shut the porch door tightly when you use it.
Last year a collection box was handed around while I did not know. When it was handed to me at the end, I thought it was an ice cream box. The next day I found it was a collection box. The total money was $174.60. I was worried what I should use it for. I concluded to donate it to the local school. I don't want to have the same worry any more and I don't accept any money even if it is a donation. We are really fortunate, because we have such a peaceful day. I hope you do appreciate it in your own way. One of the items on my sustainable project is to realize a world where we do not have money. Please understand it.
Related to this point, I want to tell you that the performers today never asked for money. I only spent telephone fees and haven’t spent much money. We got here today just with people's love. Could we realize it better than such a way? However, I want to show my appreciation to them with my crops: rice, veggies, fruits etc. They are on the table and please take them.
Now, here is today's program. We will have three divisions: part1 and 2, and an intermission in between.

Performers are:
Japanese drummers: we have two teams together. One is the International Pacific College student team driving a long distance from Palmaston North. Another is a new team in AKL. Guitar and base with a Chinese traditional instrument: Three members of the semi-professional music group Many Hands were organized by Kevin. An electrical emphasis is used here for the first time. They play with a guitar, a base and a Chinese traditional instrument erhu.
Local Musical bands (Scottish, Irish music); they are from two eco villages in our area. They play with a variety of musical instruments as well as singing.
Taiwanese tenors; our familiar performer David brought his country tenor. They sing with the accompaniment of Andrew. Austrian dance; Elegant dancing team is led by Erick. They joined us last year transferring their country's wonderful atmosphere.
Balinese dance; Ross was hospitalized two weeks ago. He is not completely recovered, but he dances for us today. Bamboo flute; Farrell who will chair the later half program will play a bamboo flute and an Irish whistle.
Now, ladies and gentle men, Othmar who chaired a program and performed and Setsuko who used to sing can not come. The German choir can not come. We welcome volunteers. Part1 is chaired by Greg this time. Part2 will be done by Farrell who is a bamboo flute player. Joints among performers will be welcomed.
Tempura will be served at intermission. Please enjoy it sprinkling salt over to eat.
Anyway, we got a lot of performers again. Please enjoy the interaction between the stage and the audience. I believe you audiences are performers as well. And it will not be reproducible, and then today is felt wonderful.


Fig.3-4-13 Japanese drummers with increased members


Fig.3-4-14-1 Audiences at part2


Fig.3-4-14-2 Audiences at Part1


(viii) Eighth music gathering on March 18, Sat, 2006.
Up 8am. It was cloudy but no threatening of rain. It was a big relief. I set the lighting for the stage. I did a check up on the candle stand. A box from the past left over was taken out from the shed. Japanese lanterns for footsteps were placed.
Norbert put a fence around the pond. He checked the outside toilet too. He set tables with Sniel who visited him here. The house rules were written this time as follows and shown on sticks. The way to use the inside toilet was given there too.

After you finish, press only the right pedal twice to give flushing water and then both pedals together to expel. After this, press the right pedal once to give additional water and expel.
Thank you,
Yoshi

House Rule
Out of respect for our performers and audience we expect silence during the performances.
Parents please mind your children. Please don’t let them go near the pond and cut trees.
No dogs.
Thank you
Yoshi

Kanji arrived with Kana around 2pm. I asked him to use a video camera and Kana a digital camera. Lars came over around 2 pm and wired lines. Kaoru and Midori came and prepared for tempura cooking. Kana helped wash potatoes. Greg came around 3:30. We arranged and adjusted today's program. The Japanese drummers safely arrived around 4 pm. My neighbors, Jenny and Tatjana kindly offered us their land for car parking. Many will stop along the road, but I did not hear any troubles. This was another big relief.
This time many people came along. Looking at the audience, we started. At the opening speech, I talked as usual and we appreciated the good weather together. I sang a prayer song for a good day which I did yesterday evening. After I introduced today's performers, I handed it over to Greg.
The first performer was Alter Ego. Menno’s drum was with a light touch, John's bongo drum matched with Phil's delicate voice well. I felt they were nicely united. A few kids were dancing around the microphone for recording I had to ask them to be quiet or do it apart. Thursdays did a good job, but it was too long.
Andy and his friends from Puhoi sang wonderfully without pa. The violin sound added melancholy. John's Diggers followed. His mother from Scotland scheduled to attend this music gathering. I think she was satisfied.
The finish of Part 1 was the Japanese drums. They were good as usual. The joint between IPC and AKL teams went quite well. They had separate practices and jointed at KW. It's amazing.

I explained how to grow rice at the paddy. George, Marion, Min and so on there were around twenty people. I got a lot of questions which I appreciated. Tempura by Kaoru was popular. Later, Yuchan came and cooked a few dishes.

At intermission, Saho, Midori, Tanya, Menno, John and Ross did a joint drumming ad lib. It was the first try this time. It was a call for Part 2. A bamboo flute by Farrell showed the touch of Japanese culture. Yuko sang two songs. She is really professional and refined. Ross directed to ensemble Indonesian instruments. Kane played the guitar. Menno joined him with his drums. Greg read his poems and sang songs. He is universal.
The second performance for today was the Japanese drums. This time a Pakiha Lindy and a Maori Tanya joined the drumming. Both of them were once student members at the IPC. Midori came to me and said that a drum does not sound properly because the membrane influenced by the humidity increase that was caused by the temperature drop in the evening. I heard the change and it was not clear indeed. A program will be needed to think about it.
We saw stars in the sky and the moon was close to full. We were so concerned about the weather today because a big storm was predicted. Audiences started to leave around 8pm. When Gerd yodeled with Alter Ego, we only had 20 people. Next year we will have to arrange a program better and even a date.
After we tidied up outside, we enjoyed talking in the house. I appreciated IPC students who raised the petrol fee by themselves. Around 12pm Tanya and I visited Tatjana's. I left there leaving Tanya. Finally a long day was over and I went to bed.

Opening speech
It is great to see each other after one year. We welcome new comers too. First of all have you parked considerately? Are you seated relaxed to be able to swing your shoulders easily? There are two toilets. The way to use the inside toilet is given on the wall, please follow it.
Here we have a house rule.
Out of respect for our performers and audience we expect silence during the performances.
Parents please mind your children. Please don’t let them go near the pond and cut trees.
No dogs.
Thank you
Yoshi
Don't let your children to go to the pond and cut trees. Please be careful of the wires around the rice paddy.

We were very concerned about today's weather. One month ago it was told that it would be stormy. Yesterday I hung this doll and sang a song as we did when I was a child.
-Sunny days boy, please give us a fine day. Just like a fine day which came into my dream. If it will be fine, I will give you a golden bell.-

Here is today’s program;
Japanese drummers: One team is of International Pacific College students. Another is a team from AKL. IPC students raised money for the petrol to come. We appreciate that.
Diggers; finally the Kaiwaka local band got their name.
Ross and his family will play with Indonesian music instruments. A few drummers are asked to join in.
A bamboo flute played by Farrell.
A few Japanese songs sung by his wife Yuko.
Country music sung by Steve from Maungaturoto.
Guitar solo by Kane, He is from Otamatea Eco village
Alter Ego from Warkworth with yodels
Andy Hamilton and his friends from Puhoi
Thursdays, Florian and his friends from near Tutu kaka

Still we are expecting Anthony to play Irish Pipes.
We have today’s performers from quite widely distributed areas in Northland. We appreciate this very much.
My performance this year is rice. The rice you see in the right is going to be harvested. They are all from the old roots. It will be interesting to see what kind of results its shows in the way to use its perennial. Please have a look at this at intermission. I will explain briefly how to grow rice then.


Fig.3-4-15 Local band from Puhoi


Fig.3-4-16 Increasing audiences


Fig.3-4-17 Japanese drums are always highlights

(IX) Ninth music gathering on March 17, Sat, 2007.
I got up at 7am. It's cloudy but the rising sun was peeping in between. It looks that we will have good weather for today's music gathering. Sunny day boy which I hung yesterday helped us, I feel.
Norbert got up earlier finishing breakfast. I finished it quickly. We started to prepare for the music gathering. Candle stands for steps were placed and the lights for the stage were installed. Signs were taken out. Container full of water for hand washing was put next to the outside toilet. Norbert set a few tables for foods and distributed benches around. Rubbish boxes were given. George came along around 11am and wired lines for power and recording. He made a good lining, connecting a few points behind the stage. He got rid of spider webs and checked candle stands on the stage. Finally, I put floodlights on the stands at both sides of the stage. Norbert successively put up the signs and tied a rope on sticks around the pond. Ebi arrived from AKL. I asked him to do the recording system on DAT. Kanji arrived with Kana and Wada. We seven went to the German Cafe for lunch.
The final set up started. Kanji put in the candles for the lanterns by the footsteps and the seven stands surrounding the stage. Kana and Wada did odd jobs. Kana took photos with a digital camera today and I explained a location to take audiences from the back stage. It was a good place to take almost the whole view of the audience. Ebi put all the system for DAT recording by himself getting a line from George.
Brian came over with Pier on his van. They put Japanese drums and other gears out by themselves.
Kaoru arrived at quarter to five pm and prepared tempura cooking in the kitchen. Othmar and Setsuko arrived. We arranged the program for Part1. The AKL team and student team of IPC, Palmerston North did a light tuning. The student team was with the first and second year grade students.
Now, finally we got the time to start. As usual at the opening the audience were not a large crowd, say around 50 people. I started my short opening speech at 5pm.
Thursdays changed their name to the Shed and asked to start the program. The second turn was Diggers but no performers yet. We asked a Chinese tenor John but the piano was not ready. Othmar did a good job in the meantime with his jokes. While the piano was on the stage, we asked Farrell to play a bamboo flute for 'Haru no umi (Spring Sea)'. His wife Yuko, a mezzo-soprano soloist, accompanied with the piano. It reminded me of the Japanese harp Koto music and I enjoyed his play so much. I was a bit sorry because the piano sound was a bit too loud. But I asked him to play next year again.
Setsuko and Othmar played a piano duet. They are a wonderful music couple.
Now, Japanese drums. The drums were made by Brian with wine barrels and their sound was a bit softer than the Japanese ones which are usually made with a big tree trunk. Today I felt they have a certain taste. Anyway they were the highlights as it is at every gathering.
Brian played as the only male member enthusiastically. Midori and Yuna played vigorously, Saho did delicately, a German drummer Pier played bouncing, each drummer did it expressing each one's expression, I think.
At the seventh, we had Austrian dances with their ethnic costumes. One or two mistakes happened but they gave us grace.
At the eighth Net volunteered to sing with his guitar his and two of his original songs.
Finally Diggers' members were ready having their new member at Koanga Garden and sang folk songs.
At intermission I was asked to explain our project and I did this with a poster at the stage. Acoustic friends from AKL, Graham, Sili, James and his family and Min came to me. Around 20 people surrounded the poster and listened to me. A man wanted to take it on his videotape and I had to hold a microphone. It took about 15 minutes.
Part 2 was chaired by Greg. He played his guitar as the first performance. It was too long and affected the later program delay. Successively Japanese drums were played. Lindy joined them at Part 2. The audiences were very happy with their performances.
Stephe played country music with Pedro's guitar. Kimiyo, who brought her electrical piano, sang a few songs suggested by Yuko. Kane worried us a bit as it was delayed but he was fit in. It looked like he gets used to singing with an amplifier and he think it was not loud enough. But I spoke to him on the stage from the top of the hill and told the reciprocal of a sound that I hear him as he hears me. He is a good musician having a fine voice.
David Yu entertained us very much. He did calligraphy of his song on a large sheet of paper and sang it. For the second he wrote the title of a Japanese song and sang it. He got applause for his expression.
Jane sang two, an aria and a Himalayan song in Chinese with her wonderful soprano voice.
Successively, Shed and Diggers played. This time music gathering was over.
Othmar, Greg and I greeted and I told them the tenth music gathering date has to be considered on Wo Mad. All remaining performers came back to the stage and greeted the audiences of more than 50.
This year I was often asked if we would find one's left things, even a cat. I will have to work hard tomorrow morning. On the other hand, many people came to me and appreciated us. I felt that since I heard all the appreciation it is worth going to all the hard work for the preparation for the music gathering.
Othmar and Setsuko sang a song among people. I joined them a bit too loud and people ran away from us.
After people left we started to chat in the house. I explained this project to the Japanese drummers and other people on the night. The real human cooperation is to find out the soul world having the spiritual development. I hope they understood me.
Midori told me that she was getting married not to Kaoru but another man in Osaka. A few people who will leave for AKL early tomorrow morning went to bed and I followed.

Opening speech
Joys are necessary and important for our lives. However, one can not obtain it easily even if it is well planned. It comes to us without a notice. One thing is for sure that if we look for it with many people together, we get more of an opportunity to get it. Let's enjoy the ninth music gathering together.
As usual I ask you a few issues: Two toilets location and its use, considerate parking, care of children etc. Now I give you to Othmar who has come back after two years absence.

(X) Tenth music gathering on March 8th, Sat, 2008
I got up at 7am. It was misty but looks to be good weather for a music gathering which would be the last one. I appreciate God to have given us such nice weather for all 10 music gatherings.
I had my lonely breakfast and started to work for listed preparations. I eliminated a few bucketfuls of water in the long drop of the outside toilet. I filled water into a container for washing hands.
Mieko, my daughter, was brought back from Eva’s by George. He went to the bus depot to pick up Fumiko but he came back and he couldn’t find her. She came over around 11 O’clock with Takahashi on a rent car. Successively Yasuko and Mari came. I was concerned at how much Yasuko had lost weight, but they were quite cheerful. They went back to AKL after a few words because of their appointment. I put up signs with Takahashi who came from Yokohama with Fumiko. George mowed my neighbor’s paddock for car parking. Tables were set. We got sandwiches from the German Café and enjoyed lunch with seven people.
I put house rules and signs up for the children on sticks with Mieko. We started to extend power lines. Brian came alone with Japanese drums around 2 pm. They were supposed to have a work shop with Saho, but they were delayed and it was not held. Stephe brought his PA and set them on the stage to let it be used for the first performer Jack and then he went back to work.
David and Ryu came earlier and did brush writing for his performances. Setsuko and Othmar arrived in separate cars and took a piano directly to the stage.
While George and Ebi did the rest of the wire lining, I had a quick shower. Lars was just in time for the start and did the DAT tape recording. He said he was extremely busy these days.
I asked Ebi to do the video shooting and Yoko to take photos with a digital camera. Jim was supposed to do the video shooting but I could not find him.
However, we got time to start and the last work of preparation. When I finished printing out of the program, Greg turned up. I gave the program to Othmar and Greg and started my opening speech.
Steve had checked it beforehand and I just read it where I looked back at the past nine music gatherings. I appreciated the performers and the audiences. I told them that I decided to quit the music gathering from today onwards because I turned 70 years old and I thought to spend my time left for a sustainable way of living. They all sang me happy birthday. And I passed on to Othmar. The first performer was Jack who is Tatjana’s brother. He has a soft and delicate voice and wonderful talent as she also says.
Diggers made us worried but were just in time. Though Bob moved away, they performed with the full members, John, Wolfgang, Daniel, a woman drummer and a guitarist. They contributed for a long time to our music gatherings. Thank you very much.
Finally, the third was the Japanese drummers. Their live sound is really wonderful, especially the low sound. It is impossible to replay with any electrical devices. When I saw their members, most of them were foreigners: Australia, Brazil, Germany, NZ, and USA. Only three out of ten members were Japanese. The audience enjoyed them. Andy and Mad Hatterf were shifted to the first of the second part.
Greg covered it with tuba and a guitar string play. I remember that the tuba originated from Mongolia.
Successively, Setsuko and Othmar did a piano duet. They are very musical lovebirds and contributed to the music gatherings from the beginning. Thank you very much.
Farrell played Haru no Umi-Spring sea- with a bamboo flute being accompanied by another Yoshi’s piano. I like the tune very much. It harmonized with the piano very well. I enjoyed it very much.
In the meantime Yuji arrived and started to cook tempura. Kaoru came a bit later too.
Successively, Yuko, Farrell’s wife, sang two songs. One was an Okinawa song whose CD I often listen to. It was sung by a professional singer, but her one sounded much better. I’m always impressed with her well trained and strong voice from a slender body. They are musical lovebirds too.
Menno took two other drummers and they showed a nice joint drumming. He has wonderful talent with an African drum.
Part 1 finished around 6pm as scheduled.
I had started drinking wine, and enjoyed sushi rolled by Setsuko and tempura by Yuji and Fumiko. Fumiko helped me to put my poster on the reflection panel and I started to explain this project.
About ten people came to me and I got earnest questions. Mieko said she was surprised to see a couple whom she met in Nelson where she stayed for a language school. I finished it 10 minutes to 7pm following Lars suggestion and Part 2 was started.
Greg chaired it. He gave us a good contributor too. I missed talking with people at the intermission.
The first program was by Mad Hatterf. A woman violinist was swapped to a man. The violin sound gave a special atmosphere. Menno joined them with a drum.
The Japanese drummers performed second that was the last time to see them here. I felt tears coming and went into the house and drank wine. When I was told that IPC students could not come and Saho was in Japan, I contacted Brian. He strongly supported us to come. Saho got here in time to show her leadership and they played powerfully and wonderfully for us.
Stephe sang a few country music next. He is a local singer and came finding time from his busy time. Jack sang a few as a volunteer. He is a Kaiwakan too. Three happy songs were played by five Japanese members with ukuleles. The audience burst out laughing. Tatjana asked me where I found them.
The German choir from AKL had a few years absence but performed with six members whom I remember from the first music gathering. I hugged each member at the end of their performances.
The members of the Sakuranokai choir from AKL were completely changed. They did nice too.
David Yu sang a Chinese song showing his calligraphy behind and having his friend Ryu to drink Chinese sake. It was a wonderful show.
Setsuko sang a song with her clear and charming voice.
The last performer was Subhash for a tabla. Sue gave me a phone call from New Plymouth and this opportunity was realized. He talked with the audience through music and I felt it does not need any words.
Now it was the time to say good-bye. Performers came back to the stage and sang Pokarekareana all together. It was after 9pm but more than 100 people were remaining.
I was quite drunk but I enjoyed every moment again. I did a farewell speech. Thank you very much for everybody.
I heard a few whispers to have an amphitheatre at their places. I said I will help them with my best, acoustically and for the organization. I felt that there was something that was already starting to grow.
The last music gathering was over. I saw them off and we went in the house.
Ten Japanese drummers, Farrell and Yuko, Fumiko and Takahashi, and Mieko remained and we chatted and enjoyed the time.

Opening speech for the 10th music gathering
This is our tenth musical gathering. This is possible because of people’s cooperation and love.
This amphitheatre was constructed for Acoustic research purposes, for instance, the effect of sound reflection over audiences on a steep slope, and the acoustic behavior of a rectangular enclosure related to musical performances. We have not done much research on them yet. We will leave that for later joy.
Heidi and I planned the first musical gathering and held it on March 30, 1996. We got a professional pianist for Brahms, Nichole Nulden, a German choir and a Japanese choir from AKL. They gave wonderful performances in front of about 70 people.
I had a strong desire to have a musical gathering under the twinkling stars. This desire was realized on March 25, 2000 in the evening, it was our “night for sound and light”.
The third music gathering on March 24, 2001, was in both the day time and the night time, as the later musical gatherings were. That night we had a chanting choir of seven Japanese monks from 天台宗魚山声明研究会.
There was an international conference of religions at Praha, Czechoslovakia in the year 2000. They were invited there and did a spontaneous joint performance with a Gregorian choir. They left a strong impression on the audience. Later in 2006, they made a CD. One of tracks will be played at intermission. It is said that music started as a prayer to God. I hope that music will be a way to break a barrier between religions.
At the fourth music gathering in 2002, a few local musicians and musical bands started to come and perform.
At the fifth musical gathering, Japanese drummers joined us. Since then they have become one of the highlights.

At the sixth musical gathering, we had Austrian dances, Balinese dances and showed visual entertainment. The variety of performances has gradually increased as well as the audience.
Wonderfully and successively, we had the seventh, the eighth, and the ninth musical gatherings with a variety of enthusiastic performers and we enjoyed every gathering very much.
Finally, we have the tenth musical gathering today. It has been a great experience to learn what we can do with people’s cooperation and love. It also has proven that this creation can be the cultural foundation for a community.
Using this opportunity, I want to convey how much I appreciate all the performers and audiences for having created such wonderful musical gatherings.
Over the past days I have been reviewing and thinking about the musical gatherings. I have concluded to have a break for at least a few years.
The main reason is that I am seventy years old and the rest of my time is quite limited for my sustainable project. I still have a lot of subjects to finish.
My other reasons are that this little amphitheatre can not hold more people and there are a few dangerous spots for children, shortage of toilets and other necessary facilities etc.
I hope that this sudden stop will produce a new creative future development in some shape, leaving various feelings and thoughts in your mind.

We want to record and video tape today’s performances to make a DVD later. We have Lars for recording, Jim and Ebi for video taking.
At intermission, for people who want to learn more, I will explain this sustainable project up to this stage, using a diagram. I will play a CD of a joint chanting of two religions as well.
Now, I hand you over to Othmar. Thank you.

The fact that we did this ten times tells us the importance of mutual respect and love and a confident “We can do.” It also showed us that joyful life is very possible with people’s love. We can do anything if we do it with motivation and confidence and love that is what I leant.

Resume

At the amphitheatre which we constructed for the Acoustic research purpose, we got the tenth annual music gathering for autumn on March 8, Sat, 2008. Every year we get more performers with more variety, and each band improved their performances with practiced and finer expressions.
Before all, I feel glad and happy that they never asked for any money. Accordingly, I can open it without any charge. And people bring their cooked dishes, own brought nuts, honey, fruits, flowers etc. We share them with each other. There we find joy and creation. I think everyone enjoyed this opportunity in each one's way. This is a very important point for the individualism that I believe.
Any performers who got the information of our music gathering mouth to mouth offer us to join. Every year it has been becoming more joyful.

If we have a rich nature, with a little thing over there or a tiny off-cut we want to make something or express something with them. They are not to show for others but to enjoy by themselves. Doesn't the origin of arts exist there?

Born in Kobe, from a corner of Osaka where I lived for long time, I live now in a corner of New Zealand doing this sustainable project. I could not imagine the present situation just 15 years ago. This must be said as a command of God, nothing else.

Indeed, after having a lot of travels in the world, closed minded nations are Asians especially Japanese. New Zealanders easily move around in their country and go overseas to the USA, Africa etc. From the great universe it is a tiny distance to travel, but quite meaningful for one's life. We Japanese have to change from shutting us in our own country. It will be a real step toward individualism, I think.

When I turned 70 years old, I decided to quit the music gathering by the 10th, because I have a lot to do for the sustainable project. As I mentioned at the opening speech I got many people’s help. They helped me with genuine and rich minds. I appreciate all of them from the bottom of my heart.
And I got the confidence that we can do. It gives me wonderful possibility and courage to construct a utopia village with sustainable way of living.
If we do things with a number of people, we can have different dimensioned joy and can learn a lot, I believe.