Behind a Single Note
— How My Daughter’s Performance Awakened the Structure —
Late October, 2025. A humid, memory-shifting knot in time. There is a distinct moment of germination when I resolved to spin my own “sound” once again and began this voyage toward StructureR. It was the day my master, Akira Ifukube’s Violin Concerto, was performed at the Sogakudo Concert Hall of Tokyo University of the Arts, where my daughter studies.
After entering the university, my daughter became intensely drawn to Ifukube’s music, as if pulled by an invisible gravity. I had never explicitly told her that I had studied under the maestro, but she had found out somehow. She invited me: “It’s only a ten-minute appearance, but I want you to come to Tokyo to hear it.” From Osaka to Tokyo. For me—who had been postponing visits to my bedridden father (her grandfather) using a busy work schedule as an excuse—it sounded like the calling of an inescapable “fate.” I stopped by my childhood home to fulfill my minimal duties as the eldest son, and then headed for Ueno.
2025年10月下旬。秋というにはあまりに蒸し暑い、記憶の結節点
私が再び「自らの音」を紡ごうと決意し、この『StructureR』への航海を始めたのには、明確な発芽の瞬間がある。それは、娘が学ぶ東京藝術大学の奏楽堂で、私の師・伊福部昭のヴァイオリン協奏曲が奏でられた、あの日だ。大阪から東京へ。多忙な仕事を言い訳に、病床の父（彼女にとっての祖父）の見舞いを先延ばしにしていた私にとって、それは逃れられない「縁」の呼び声のように響いた。私は実家へ立ち寄り、長男としての最低限の務めを果たした後、上野の地へと向かった。
The Silence of Sogakudo, and the Master’s Question. Stepping into the Sogakudo for the first time, I was struck by its solemn presence. Years ago, I had taken the entrance exam for this very university and failed spectacularly. I went on to Tokyo College of Music instead, but it was there that I encountered the giant, Akira Ifukube—the greatest fortune of my life. Gratitude toward my father, who had spared no expense for my tuition, overlapped with his current bedridden silhouette, warming the depths of my chest.
Soon, my daughter’s performance began, and a conversation with my master vividly rushed back to my mind.
“Have you ever considered the human being who plays that single note?”
It was a gentle yet severe lesson my master had thrown at a note I had written with a lack of confidence. The weight of a single note. The human endeavor behind it. Even now, it remains deeply rooted in the foundation of my creation. Was I forgetting something truly important in my life right now? Amidst the melody my daughter spun, I was conversing with my master across a gap of over twenty years.
奏楽堂の沈黙と、師の問い
初めて足を踏み入れた奏楽堂の、荘厳な佇まい。かつて私は芸大を受験し、見事に玉砕した。その後、東京音楽大学へと進んだが、そこで伊福部昭という巨人に巡り会えたことは、人生における最大の幸運であった。学費を惜しみなく出してくれた父への感謝と、病床の彼の姿が重なり、胸の奥が熱くなる。 やがて娘の演奏が始まり、私の脳裏に師との対話が鮮烈に蘇った。「その一音を奏でる人間を、考えたことがありますか？」それは、私がかつて自信なげに書いた音符に対して投げかけられた、師の優しくも峻厳な教えだった。
The Awakening of Earthbound Rhythm. For the past few years, I had kept my distance from Ifukube’s music. But the moment the sound was released from my daughter’s fingertips, the dormant, earthbound rhythm (rhythm of the soil) inside me roared like a distant earthquake. It was the sound of a primal hunger for rhythm, a thirst for music, bubbling up to the surface.
I realized it then: the “Structure of Light” I had pursued for years in architectural photography would only achieve true completion when fused with the “Structure of Sound” that Ifukube chased.
My daughter’s performance was magnificent, even stripping away any fatherly bias. But looking back, I felt a conviction on the Shinkansen ride home, staring at the passing scenery: it wasn’t my daughter who called me to Tokyo that day—it was Maestro Ifukube himself.
土愛的律動の覚醒
ここ数年、私は伊福部の音楽から距離を置いていた。しかし、娘の指先から放たれた音を聴いた瞬間、私の中で眠っていた「土着的律動（リズム）」が、地鳴りのように鳴り響いた。私は悟った。私が長年追い求めてきた建築写真における**『光の構造』は、伊福部が追求した『音響の構造』**と結びつくことで、初めて真の完成を見るのだと。 新幹線の帰り道、流れる景色を眺めながら、私はそんな確信に近い思いを抱いていた。
Postscript: The Exchange of Souls. Barely a month later, news of my father’s passing arrived. The rhythm of the soul that had awakened within me, and my father’s soul leaving this world as if swapping places with it. I could not dismiss this as mere coincidence.
How should I dedicate the “rhythm” awakened by my daughter’s performance to the “eternal silence” thrust upon me by my father’s death? I resolved to spend my remaining time facing my own soul head-on. This event fundamentally altered my perception of Sound, Light, and Absence. As a Structurer, I will incorporate even the silence of my absent father to continue building cathedrals of light and sound.
I am a Structurer.
追伸：魂の交換
その僅か一月後、父の訃報が届いた。私の中に蘇った魂の律動と、この世から入れ替わるように去っていった父の魂。私はこれを、単なる偶然として片付けることはできなかった。 娘の演奏によって呼び覚まされた私の「律動」を、父の死によって突きつけられた「永遠の沈沉默」にどう捧げるべきか。私は「構造家（Structurer）」として、不在となった父の沈黙さえも取り込み、光と音の伽藍を築き続けていく。
