Chapter 6: Legacy of the Nikkei

With inspiration from Glen Miller’s famous piece ‘In the Mood’ driving the base and crafting a sense of the War era generation’s music as a foundation, this piece was written with the concept ‘Sukiyaki’ after Kyu Sakamoto’s famous piece which was popular after the war and symbolized a gradual restoration of relations with Japan, Japanese people and identities in the post war era; and the dish which symbolized for the composer a memory with family in a period of prosperity sharing culture, food and stories with family many years after the war.

This piece returns to the foundation of Edo style Ohayashi in its construction, however, it uses distinctly western swing style and jazz motifs. Though dating it to the Issei generation, it takes on new energy with the freedom of the main instrumental players to improvise over the base rhythms. Sukiyaki is meant as the closing act of this brief Ohayashi sharing the common history of the Nikkei and celebrating the many generations and stories that spring forth from these beginnings.