Where In The WORLD is Yoshie? by Judy Beier

Some may ask, “Who Is Yoshie?” 

Yoshie Kinefuchi played dulcimer with the Twangtown Dulcimer Players from 2015- 2018, during the time she and her husband Masami, Consul-General to the Southern States from Japan, were living in Nashville. Yoshi joined the Twangs after being introduced to the dulcimer by Judy Beier. Judy and Yoshie met in a Tai Chi class at the GreenHills Y.

At the completion of their assignment in Nashville, Masami and Yoshie returned to their home in Tokyo. Yoshie shared her love for the dulcimer with her choir back in Japan. Their concert video can be found in an older blog, along with a picture of her first grandchild.

Read this recent letter from Yoshie to find out  "Where in the WORLD is Yoshie?"

Excerpt from Yoshie’s letter to Judy:

Masami is officially appointed Ambassador of Japan to Timor Leste (East Timor) as of February 5th.
He had the honor to meet with the Emperor last week and the Emperor accredited his appointment as Ambassador. 
We are leaving on March 11th for Dili.

Timor Leste is a small island nation, located North of Australia and East of Indonesia. It gained independence from Portugal in 1975. Unfortunately, Indonesian soon invaded the country and Timorese people were governed by Indonesia for 24 years. 
But due to political change in Indonesia, a referendum took place in 1999, and to Indonesia's surprise, 98% of Timor people voted for independence. Then Indonesia army suddenly struck Timor Leste and destroyed and burned everything!!! Very sad history.
It was the UN Peace Keeping Organization that realized ceasefire and the nation's independence in 2002. 

So it is a small and young country in the South Pacific, but it has a great strategic importance for Japan and Asia.
We are happy to go there and excited to meet with new culture and people.
The language they speak is a bit complicated. Their official language is Tetun and Portuguese, and working language is Indonesian and English. This is due to its historical background and geographical location. They aim to join ASEAN and has strong ties with their neighbor, Australia and Indonesia; as well as Portugal (Timor was a colony since 1514 for more than four hundred years).
https://www.britannica.com/place/East-Timor

East Timor | Geography, History, & Facts | Britannica
East Timor, island country in the eastern Lesser Sunda Islands, at the southern extreme of the Malay Archipelago.It occupies the eastern half of the island of Timor, the small nearby islands of Atauro (Kambing) and Jaco, and the enclave of Ambeno, including the town of Pante Makasar, on the northwestern coast of Timor. Dili is the capital and largest city.
www.britannica.com

I hear it is a peaceful island nation with beautiful beaches and mountains, and the people are very kind.
Japan is one of the biggest donors of Timor Leste and has been supporting their development and peace.
I will let you know about my new life there soon!

News from Japan: Former Member Yoshi Kinefuchi Sends Greetings to the GODC

Today ( May 1, 2019) we are celebrating the start of a new era in Japan. Our Emperor stepped down due to his old age and from Today we have a new Emperor (Naruhito). I was watching the ceremonies on TV. Japanese People are in a festive mood. The new Empress (Princess Masako)is a former diplomat and Masami and I know her well. She was a junior staff when my husband was in the headquarter office. And as I was working at the Foreign Service Institute (Training institution for Japanese diplomats), I remember receiving her as one of the newly employed diplomats there. She was not only beautiful but so elegant. (She graduated from Harvard too) After she married the crown prince, she fell ill for a long time, but today she seems to be recovering. I hope she will be healthy and strong again.

Our grand daughter is growing fast. I am sending a few pictures of her and our family.

The wrap is a sort of our traditional baby wrap in kimono style.

It is used to cover the baby with mother (or grandmother) when visiting the shrine. We go to the shrine to pray for the good health and happiness of the new born babies after one or two months. Then after 100 days (three months), we have another celebration for the baby. We call it "Okuizome" (first bite ceremony), as we start to feed the baby with other food than milk. In reality, babies don't start to eat food, but it is just our tradition.

Of course you are welcome to share the photos and my updates with all the friends of dulcimer and GODC. I always enjoy reading the group emails from Linda and keep me informed with the group's recent activities. How I wish I could join you again!

The weather is just gorgeous in Japan now. I try to take a walk whenever I can. There are lots of green spots near my house and I just love to smell the flowers blooming in the spring sun shine! It is a beautiful season again. I hope you enjoy the wonderful spring time in Tennessee too.

Love,
Yoshie

11.15.2018 Yoshie Concert Video is finally here! by Judy Beier

Check out the October 7, 2018 blog entry News From Yoshie if you have not already. Now you can see the the second half live performance. Yoshie and friends from her choir in Japan present the dulcimer segment just after the piano duet. Enjoy.

10.7.2018 News from Yoshie by Judy Beier

For about three years, the Nashville dulcimer community had the privilege of having Yoshie Kinefuchi join us in learning and playing the mountain dulcimer. Now living back at her home in Tokyo, she is sharing her love for the dulcimer with her Japanese community.

Enjoy the following photos and excerpts from recent letters from Yoshie:

Our concert last night (September 15 was a great success! We had a big audience; about 170 people in spite of rain. The feedback was very positive. They said the program was very good and our performance was excellent. The first part was the choir; we sang 10 Japanese songs. The second part consisted of a piano duo concert, country & folk music with dulcimer, viola and recorder, one Egyptian song, three songs for finale. I had the microphone before our performance in the second part and gave a brief introduction of the dulcimer: its history and structure, and how we enjoy it. The audience was very interested and listened to my explanation carefully. Some people came up to me after the concert to see my dulcimer up close and wanted more story about it.

It was truly a delightful evening. Many people said they loved the sound of the dulcimer. So I guess we gained at least 170 new fans of the dulcimer in Japan!

It was sometimes difficult for us to get together and practice regularly as everybody is busy in their own life, but each member practiced her part at home and tried our best to put them together in harmony.

I suppose the concert was successful because we put our hearts together. We had a very good time. Here is some information on our choir: The name of our choir is "Soot El Wald" (meaning "Voice of flower" in Arabic). This is a sister group of the Japanese women's choir in Cairo that was established around 1990.  At that time, there was little activity that Japanese women could enjoy there, so a few music-loving women got together and started a singing circle, and little by little more women came to join them. We used to practice once a week and sometimes visited local senior homes, schools and orphanages.

Over the years, the members of the original group have returned to Japan one after another, and around 2010, we established a new group in Tokyo.

So the members of our group are all returnees from Cairo. (Sadly, the original group in Cairo is no longer active due to security reasons over there.) This year's concert was held at Suginami Public Hall in Tokyo on Saturday, September 15th. This was our second concert in Japan. 

You were asking about the place we had the concert.

It is a concert hall called "Suginami Public Hall." It has a big concert hall, a small hall and a salon. We used the salon (the smallest space, accommodating approx. 150 people) for our performance.

It has a wonderful structure and the acoustic is really good. Unfortunately the website is only in Japanese, but I hope you can get the idea of it.

www.suginamikoukaidou.com

The gowns we wore are all hand-sewn by a friend of our member. We love the gowns too!

Submitted by Judy Beier who met Yoshie and her husband Masami during a Tai Chi class at the Green Hills YMCA. (Mr. Kinefuchi was serving as Consul General from Japan for the Southern States.)

When Yoshie overheard someone ask Judy about playing music at Uncle Dave Macon Days, Yoshie said:  “What is a dulcimer?”

Judy and Yoshie met for several sessions on Saturday mornings before the Tai Chi class began. After a few lessons Yoshie started playing regularly with the Twangtown Dulcimer Players. Now you know the rest of the story!