Since the time I used to live in Kyoto, I dreamed of our music hall
as a playhouse with a panoramic view of the ocean. Although we did not have a lot of financial funding, I strongly
believed that my dream music hall would be found and built. We had been searching for the ideal place to build Tennyo-za
while we were performing the event, “the concert to touch one
million hearts“ all over the count
ry and abroad as musicians. In 2000, after traveling around the Kii peninsula, we came to
Kumano city and had a spiritual experience that confirmed that
this was OUR place. We felt as though it was the home we had
been looking for over so many years. Although this place is three hours from the highway, where the
closest convenience store is twelve kilometers away, and sparsely
populated, it is a beautiful place. This place is a utopian place
with stretches of beautiful ocean, stars in the heavens, the Milky
Way, and kindhearted people,
We moved to Kumano city from Kyoto three months after we
decided to relocate. We started to convert the TOYOTA auto parts
factory which is about 900 tatami mats big . At first, there were only the two of us and a carpenter working,
but soon after strangers came to help us on the weekends. We
finally finished the renovation after three months with the help of
over one hundred volunteers. There is a 100 tatami mat size (English conversion in square
footage？) music hall, a pine picture scene that we received
miraculously, and a café that seats thirty with a panoramic view
of the Pacific Ocean
This music hall was opened on April 29th in 2001. Although the
population of the town was only 260 at the time, 400 people had
rushed over for the opening of Tennyo-za. The local people made
3000 rice cakes to celebrate this occasion. This town used to be a depressing town with its sparse and aging
population. However, since the arrival of Tenyo-za there have
been many visitors and the town is starting to revitalize. Six years ago we launched the village kabuki play. The people
who were new to acting at the time are at a professional-level
now. The lion dance used to be performed 80 years ago in this village
but it had died out. I learned
the lion dance and Takamitsu Yanaka learned to play the flute. We do like the convenience a life in the city brings. However, we
cannot be creative as it is difficult to draw inspiration as
musicians in a “convenient” place. We created many songs since we moved here. The original and the improvised ones are the songs that are most
important to me. We have performed a variety of musical performances such as,
jazz, matouqin, flute, and opera. My dream is to start a Tennyo-za art festival and interact with
many artists not only through music but through various forms of
art. Kumano kodo, a world heritage site is also near by. Please come visit Kumano. You can feel your soul come home. Welcome home to Kumano, the spiritual hometown
