I chose the piece, “March-Bou-Shu”, which is written by the Japanese composer, Satoshi Yagisawa. Yagisawa’s work, which is popular in Japan and many other countries, includes orchestral music, choral music, chamber music, and music for instruments that are traditional to Japan. He graduated from the Musashino Academia Musicae in Tokyo. March-Bou-Shu was commissioned by the All-Japan Band Association to honor their 45th anniversary and was requested to be based on the folk songs in Chiba Prefecture. After several months of research, Yagisawa discovered Boushu Oiwake, a lyrical folk song that included the Japanese bamboo flute and shamisen, which inspired him to compose “March-Bou-Shu”. I chose this piece because I am very familiar with it and with Satoshi Yagasawa because I played it in band my freshman year of high school. We had learned a lot about the composer and about Japanese compositions. I enjoyed playing this piece, and it immediately came to mind when we started learning about this region in class. https://youtube.com/watch?v=dKGSoxjfozY&feature=shares

I also wanted to include the song, “Teo Torriatte (手をとりあって)” by Queen. Although this song is not from this region, the chorus includes verses that are sang in Japanese. Brian May worked with interpreter, Chika Kujiraoka, on translating half the choruses into Japanese and wrote it as a thank you to the passionate Japanese fanbase. I decided to share this song as well because it is a song written for the people of Japan and it is a song that I have always really admired by Queen and I think it is very lovely. https://youtube.com/watch?v=yfrYcm7YNTA&feature=shares