(Original posted on March 29, 2007)
I watched the NHK program “Shiru wo Tanoshimu” that I had recorded. It was the fourth installment of a series where Director Shinoda spoke about Toru Takemitsu.
One thing that personally left an impression on me was a video segment where Takemitsu was speaking about the austerity of nature and trees, and he rephrased himself, saying something like, “old… ancient trees. No, aged trees, and so on…” using multiple adjectives.
It’s widely known that Takemitsu was revered by foreign musicians during his lifetime, almost to the point of worship. According to his family, he would occasionally use philosophical words that an ordinary English speaker might not, and despite not fully understanding the question, he would answer with a single word with a serious face, leading the other person to read too much into it and be impressed.
(If I recall correctly, his family mentioned something to this effect in an interview book by Shuntaro Tanikawa.)
While there might be an element of humility or sheepishness from his family’s perspective, it’s certain that Takemitsu had a strong sense of self-production in public. This is evident from his choice of words and his use of furigana (phonetic annotations) in his writing. I found it amusingly insightful to catch a glimpse of this “actor Takemitsu” aspect in that brief video moment, which made me grin.
On the other hand, in scenes where he appeared with his daughter (like in the third installment), he was just a smiling, soft-spoken old man. The gap between this and a scene where he seriously commented, “…qualitatively, rich…” is quite delightful. Overall, I was satisfied with the series as it included some photos and footage I hadn’t seen before.
However, the frequently shown photograph of him “grinning while holding a wine glass and gazing at a large score” personally feels a bit overdone. This might have been largely due to recommendations from those around him at the time, but I feel such a photo could have been released much later, after Takemitsu had been somewhat deified. What are your thoughts?
It also occurs to me that it would be interesting if, perhaps, his daughter or someone close chose to release it as a deliberate act of demythification, as if to say, “You know, Papa was quite the show-off, see… (laughs).”
As an aside, Takemitsu’s death anniversary and my birthday are the same. I remember being surprised when I saw the news bulletin on TV while having my birthday dinner at home.
