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10/14/1971 - Speculative Diary from a Visit to Japan by Roger Reynolds

INSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIRS RR Speculative Diary Visit Japan October Serpentine Drive Del Mar California 92014 Mr Richard Nolte Institute Current World Affairs Fifth Avenue New York New York 10017 Dear Dick After absence notices immediately increase congestion slightly slackened Tokyo The actively corrosive lungs spirit A painter young questions habitual pairing unreal relationship suburban Tokyo It customary speak tensions generated between elegant hardy ansitions Japan newly embraced Western ndustrial values For decades metaphoric potential generated between these mutually repellent highly charged planes tence I think primary source Japan energy An intuitive observation hazarded moment registers lessening potential field normalcy From contact Japan began I aware habit means which their artists intellectuals oriented themselves Their coordinate system center current achievements Western artists authors working America Europe Among Japanese painters foreign experience finds almost matter course titles bestowed English This greater extent composers Output geared distant powerful incompletely understood intellectual commercial marketplace A years aware happening New York Paris Los Angeles artists constant discussion major European American experimentalists among composers overshadowed concern think belief existence Japanese scene An absorption local Japanese matters automatically relegated offender unseemly parochi alism Concern activity West never seemed motivated simple factors acquisitiveness Rather suggested watchfulness possessed basic assurance learning biding carefully keeping track position wider picture This would appear borne During recent visit Japan I definite shift extreme significant sense internal awareness within Japanese context One tempted comfortable With exceptions composers artists I known previously better circumstances producing seemed concerned their orientation West This state affairs doubt partially result normal professional advancement seniority conscious nation partially afterglow income prestige reaped extensive participation RR Japan finest experimental architects sculpto composers filmmakers National Industrial Pavilions Expo Critic Yoshiaki Tono remarked caustically usual Expo would destroy Japanese contemporary through subversion money distortion business originated This happened though might I would country energies viewed standpoint artist intel lectuals probably nodal point frenetic years ready either healthy growth cynical erosion The possibility cynicism appears I think because Japan economic strength places necessarily public international arena She shown indication point emergent commitment Asian neighbors contributing solution staggering social cultural economic problems One cannot wonder people accustomed formal controls their interpersonal relationships strains international involvements practical route determination emergent nations Joji Yuasa steadily emerging prominence among composers entitled recently completed choral commission Questions The I think about remarkable seems A collaboration Tanikawa elaboration interrogative Brief exclamations delicately balanced aphoristic queries gracefully range between You OK Is Mankind Masses individual fragmentary exchanges superseded gence external soloists blaring interrogation through electronic horns outside performance There answers Emotive catchwords Vietnam interjected I asked meant Japanese intellectual answer unclear Far ambivalent deeply distressing issue there United States Vietnam conflict would appear stand primarily symbol injustice Its racial implications strong There understanding irony America belief possibility justifying beneficently little awareness right pious stance could arisen Hellfire Damnation admonishing finger trembling pulpit course totally foreign Japanese experience We understand better similarly formative ethical religious philosophical currents direct Japanese action Conscience responsibility prominent Japan forms familiar least Social conscience could hardly flowered without nourishment Western sense Sin cultivation broad spectrum international familial economic entanglements American ployglot provides Responsibility deeply engrained formally restrained coming clearly defined personal situations RR The questions asked Yuasa choral ranged deliberately mundane philosophical avoided significantly I thought reference nascent national conscience If Japan developing something normalcy strenghtening grasp values standards living slowing frantic merely energetic international national priorities Kenzaburo enormously popular author developed consistently decades liberal social political stance He operated great remove nationalistic militancy marked recently concluded career Yukio Mishima committed rather luridly classical belly cutting Fall While Mishima along O Kobo Abe popular Japanese contemporary authors considered patently ridiculous Japanese intellectuals O generally respected Asked comment Mishima death temporary residence India message referred handed colleague bothering mention O helping magazine devoted Okinawa agitating careful Japanese attention corrupted traditions Okinawan culture One would first general Japanese concern values needs fortunate Asian neighbors The prognosis social consciousness however would rather The Japanese particularly worried about emergent China They after traditional aggressors Russia serious matter On realistic plane nothing Asia The cliche Japanese regards lower station implacable superiority those advanced abject inferiority probably contains truth It gradual shrinkage latter category breed concomitant shift attitude towards former Everyone I talked doubted Japan likely develop genuinely sympathetic posture towards Asia except degree markets dictates Not careful observer notes cultivated Japanese musicians admit tendency toward lavishing attention moment producing series exquisite details failing sustain phrase Reflection confirms relative absence largish scale Japanese conceptually physically This drama music literature A taste minia everywhere evident small morsels themselves attentions hashi sticks seventeen syllable haiku poems still common pastime bonsai ikebana involve reduction nature elegance complexity small indoor trays ukiyo woodblock prints modest proportions products almost crafts What roots indifference towards inability production broad scope scale RR The Japanese individually nation chosen their context limited deliberately throughout their history This includes unparalleled shutting world centuries before Meiji Restoration It separate canons courtesy perform controlling social spatial relationships Political militaristic swagger tended localized Japan least degree I understand The ability think terms range contingencies relatively tendency follow committee consensus strong Until recently paternalism business tolerated competitive independence excellence mobility supports United States One horizons opportunity security predetermined corporation policy inevitable imposition seniority As I written other reports question relationship between planned goals Asia West would reward attention It belief value while Japan considerably stable United States There appears hesitation redirecting efforts unexpected inconvenient obstacles encountered This going around deflecting towards unimpeded object In Japan preparations relative value immediate elsewhere In extraordinarily significant goals level preparation accordingly It sometimes seems unfairly Western observers business world In other cases acquiescence common Things often allowed themselves A sense thingness cultivated One oldes important instruments Japan shakuhachi Made bamboo finger holes capable producing twelve notes through adaption mouth finger position The striking thing about Western heterogeneity sound If plays ascending scale successive notes found drastically timbre strength Each pitch allowed naturally reflect unashamedly facts acoustic origin Compare Western woodwinds where constant attention improving mechanisms instruments might achieve canto homogeneity sound thought appropriate musical expression The Western player devotes years practice elimination inconsistencies discontinuities sound quality His Japanese counterpart finds acoustical quirks valuable resource The tense structure Japanese language perfective serves completed actions processes imperfective those complete influence subtly existence forward perspective There future tense There direct I All numerous other perhaps incidental instances could raise individual validity What indisputable Japan achieved virtue capacity concentration energies single minded fixation stemming remarkably homogeneous population island isolation intensely pragmatic philosophico religious RR Apparatus Its essentially masculine orientation borrow adapt import process unlikely develop altruistic inclinations It depressing almost grotesque American columnists politicians reasonable reciprocation without would appear reaching information regarding deeply rooted culture One Japan original important painter sculptors Keiji Usami working years schematic outlines human figures They incidentally drawn photos Life Magazine chronicling Watts riots during Usami structured these headless bodies formal congruence dramatic artistic philosophical implication The themes trans ference exchange prominent reproduction screen print Exchange No eminently contemporary domain Deprived their heads hence depersonalized bodies share through Usami design shapes substance identities These shapes however existence apart context employed differently within configuration The implication oneness configural functional confusion suggestion action though arrested determinant meaning indeed substantial The reproduction gives barest subtlety color shading sference speed manner which temporal factors introduced A thoroughly rounded contemporary artist Usami primary large complex scale paired canvases I0 He extensive involving laser beams showing critically important ability capture metaphoric power these slender almost tactile columns colored light I another artist manage I asked Usami interest Japanese traditions None answered Though claimed Japanese educated reader learn Lady Murasaki classic The Tale Genji reading Arthur Waley superb English translation original philosophical practical value their traditional values inestimable One still hears frequent reference Century itinerant Bashe ideals Zeami progenitor Noh wondrous restraint drama itself One still under impact archipelago unique architectural vision constraints perhaps superb sense flowing inter action restriction sensibility relationships things animate inanimate Sincerely Roger Reynolds