World of Kocarina

New Kocarinas and Japanese Drum made of Trees around Tokyo National Stadium

2016-12-16T08:04:09+00:00

Reconstruction work of the previous Tokyo National Stadium started in January of 2015 toward the 2020 Tokyo Olympics/Paralympic Games. Tokyo National Stadium was surrounded by a great number of trees, most of which had to be cut down for this reconstruction work. These trees existed there back in 1964 when the first Tokyo Olympics was held, back in 1958 when the Asian Games was held in Tokyo and back in 1943 during the 2nd World War when the farewell parties for the departure of students to the battle-front and military marches were played there. In a way, these trees witnessed the turning points of the modern history of Japan.

Mr. Kurosaka was given these trees, and created 500 pcs of Kocarina and Japanese drums out of these trees. In the year of 2020, the Tokyo Olympics Games are held again in the place. Mr. Kurosaka is still now passionately expanding the musical circle of Kocarinas and Japanese drums here in Japan and the world, expecting that the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will become the Peaceful Event of the World.

On January 16, 2016, Mr. Kurosaka led and held Kocarina 20th Anniversary Concert at Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre in the presence of Her Majesty Empress Michiko. With the full house of 2,000 listeners, the concert was a great success. An ensemble of 300 Kocarina players and Japanese drum players offered an amazing musical concert. These Kocarinas and Japanese drums are made of the trees growing around the previous Tokyo National Stadium.

Overseas Concerts by Japan Kocarina Ensemble

2016-12-16T08:02:04+00:00

Japan Kocarina Ensemble holds concerts in many places in the world. For example, we joined pre-Beijing Olympiad Cultural Events held in July in 2006 and 2007. We played the Kocarina in Wangfujing Street, the most busiest and famous area in Beijing, and in the Great Walls, famous World Heritage Site in China.

In January 2012, we held a Kocarina concert titled “Kocarina Concert: With Many Thanks from the Affected Areas and Hope for Early Recovery from the March-11 Earthquke” in Wiener Musikverein.

This concert was to express our great gratitude for the worldwide support and assistance which Japan received after the disaster. In this special concert in Vienna, totally 110 Kocarina players joined, including 14 players belonging to Kocarina Circles in Ishinomaki and Sendai (they are both affected areas). All the seas up to the third-tier were filled with the audience. All the players played the Kocarinas made from damaged pine trees in Ishinomaki. At the end of the concert, children delegated from the affected areas neatly expressed words of thanks to the audience who gave the performers and children an endless applause and standing ovation.

What is Kocarina?

2016-12-16T07:56:23+00:00

Kocarina was initially called “Ocarina made of the woods from cherry trees” and many Kocarina were sold, as an East European ethnic musical instrument, on the streets in towns in Hungary. Back in 1995, Mr. Kurotaro KUROSAKA, now a leading Kocarina player in Japan, brought this ethnic wooden musical instrument to Japan and named it “Kocarina.”

After that, Mr. KUROSAKA and some Japanese woodworkers improved the musical instrument in many ways into high-precision musical instrument.

In 1998, when Winter Olympic Games were held in Nagao, Japan, a group of children played the Kocarina in its ceremony, and then a great number of people came to know Kocarina for the first time. The Kocarinas used there were made from the trees which had had to be cut down due to the construction of Olympiad Roads in Nagano Prefecture.

Several Kocarinas were also made from an A-Bomb-damaged tree in Hiroshima. This tree had been partially burnt by the A-Bomb dropped there. In 2008, the musical performance by these Kocarinas was adopted in a radio commercial introducing Suntry Hall in Osaka. This radio CM won the Journalist Award in ACC CM Festival, Japan’s largest-scale CM Competition, in the same year. The Journalist Award is the highest award in this competition selected by all the major newspaper companies in Japan.

Now, it is estimated that some tens of thousands of people enjoy playing the Kocarina all over Japan. Kocarina is easy to play, and so different generations from children to the elderly are attracted to play this musical instrument for fun. Also, Kocarina makes gentle wooden tones and warm sounds. Kocarina is getting a lot of attention as the symbolic musical instrument associated with environmental protection.

Shape, Materials and Musical Functions of Kocarina

Kocarina comes in various sizes and types, ranging from Soprano Kocarina of 80mm in length and 28mm in diameter to Bass Kocarina of wine bottle size. There is also Joint-type Kocarina just like Pan Flute. Three or four Kocarinas are jointed horizontally into a horizontally long Kocarina.

Different from an ordinary type of flute, Kocarina is closed at its bottom (so Kocarina is a closed tube), and the sound it creates becomes soft and gentle. Plus, the sound itself turns around inside the tube and is nicely influenced by the materials.

Soprano Kocarina is made of the solid woods from broad-leaved trees (including cherry trees, Japanese maples, walnut trees, etc.) and low-pitched Kocarina is made of soft woods from Japanese cedars or other coniferous trees. Kocarinas of different wooden materials make different tones of sounds, which is an interesting part of this musical instrument.

Kocarina is small-sized, and you can hang it from your neck and bring it everywhere. Kocarina is very easy to play. Even small children can make beautiful sounds with Kocarina easily, and can learn simple musical pieces in a couple of days. Thus, Kocarina is an easy musical instrument, and so Kocarina is rapidly becoming popular among Japanese people. They include forest protectors and outdoor sports fans. Some of them say that there are no other better musical instruments than Kocarina to express the gentleness and beauty of wooden materials. Others say that Kocarina sounds as if tree fairies sang. Kocarina is a good musical instrument combined the idea of eco-friendliness and music. In other words, Kocarina is a timely musical instrument timely the demands of our current times.