{"id":592,"date":"2007-10-03T01:20:40","date_gmt":"2007-10-02T16:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2007-10-03\/592"},"modified":"2007-10-17T22:33:39","modified_gmt":"2007-10-17T13:33:39","slug":"kousuke-atari-in-concert-itsukushima-shrine-miyajima-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2007-10-03\/592","title":{"rendered":"Kousuke Atari in Concert, Itsukushima Shrine, Miyajima Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f\/3.5-5.6 VR @ 130mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>180 sec, f\/5.6, ISO 500 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nA small part ofItsukushima Shrine (\u53b3\u5cf6\u795e\u793e\u3001\u5bae\u5cf6), Miyajima Japan<\/span>during low tide\n<\/div>\n\n

As I mentioned yesterday, we went to Miyajima<\/a> on Sunday\nto see Kousuke Atari<\/a>\n(\u4e2d\u5b5d\u4ecb)<\/span>\nin concert at the Itsukushima Shrine (\u53b3\u5cf6\u795e\u793e),<\/span> a large<\/span> complex almost\ncompletely over the water when the tide is in. In the picture<\/span> above, which\nI took<\/span> the morning after the concert when the tide was out, you can see the\npiers and such.<\/p>\n\n

The concert was in the open air away from the building, on a little<\/span> dais\nyou can sort of see in the center of the picture.<\/p>\n\n

Photography was not permitted during the concert, so I didn't<\/span> bring my\ncamera, but before he took the “stage” (the dais was pretty small) I\nsnapped<\/span> a picture<\/span> with my archaic cell phone....<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\noutdated cellphone — handheld at 0.6 sec —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

We were the 6th row back; the stage is just in front of the people on the right.<\/p>\n\n

It's been ages since I've seen a live<\/span> music concert, much less a pop<\/span>\nmusic one. The audience<\/span> had people of all ages, from children to the\nelderly with walkers, split about evenly down gender lines. For what I<\/span>\ncould tell, I was the<\/span> only person (out of about the 800 in attendance) who\nclearly looked “not Japanese.”<\/p>\n\n

The singer, Kousuke Atari, is from a relatively<\/span> small island way in the\nsouth of Japan (Amami\nOoshima<\/a>) with its own indigenous language and culture that was mostly\nstamped out during the earlier half of the previous century.\nCoincidentally, Fumie's grandmother is also from there, and apparently when\nshe was a little<\/span> girl, kids would be punished for speaking the local\ndialect.<\/p>\n\n

Times are different now, and the area's uniqueness is embraced. Part of\nhis draw is that before he became famous, he spent years studying the local\nsinging style, and now incorporates that into his more mainstream\nmusic.<\/p>\n\n

He has an interesting quality about his voice in that he sometimes\nsounds as if he's harmonizing with someone else. Listening to his CDs, I thought<\/span> it was<\/i> two people harmonizing until I saw<\/span> him sing live a\ncappella<\/span><\/i>. You can sort<\/span> of get a feel<\/span> for the effect in\nthis snippet<\/a> from one of his songs.<\/p>\n\n

His music tends to be more meaningful and less fluffy than a lot<\/span> of pop\nmusic, and his image is that of a clean<\/span>-cut regular guy instead of some\nkind of gimmicky\/sexy put-on. His music<\/span> is his image, I guess.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Currently, his most-popular song is “Hana” (\u82b1, “flower”), a song<\/span> about\nnot losing hope, and that even in this modern age you can rely on the basic\nkindness. (If you like, you can hear\na snippet<\/span><\/a> of the end of the song, or see\na snippet<\/span><\/a> of the video.)<\/p>\n\n

Anyway, the Itsukushima Shrine concert was labeled “acoustic live,” and\nfeatured just him, a piano<\/span> player, and a guitar<\/span> player. It was very<\/span> nice. He even did<\/span> Ave Maria<\/i> in Latin.<\/p>\n\n

He maintains a blog, and later wrote about how much he enjoyed<\/a> the\nconcert and location. It's rare for<\/span> the shrine to host events like that,\nmuch less pop music events. Itsukushima Shrine is a designated<\/span> Japanese\nNational Treasure and an UNESCO World Heritage Site<\/a>. It indeed<\/span> would have been\nspecial to an artist to be allowed to sing there.<\/p>\n\n

He had to have done it for the privilege, because he almost certainly\nsaw no profit from it. I chatted<\/span> the next morning with someone from the\nlocal equipment-rental staff, who told me that they had 800 chairs prepared\nfor the event. At 6,500 yen ($56) for a ticket,<\/span> the event would have\ngrossed about $45,000, only about $5,000 more than the guy estimated it\ncost to rent the equipment and pay the shrine. Subtract from that the\nmarketing costs, the slice given to the ticket vendors, transportation and\naccommodation for everyone, and I can't<\/span> imagine it's a profitable<\/span> event.\nWell, at least, not monetarily.<\/p>\n\n

I took<\/span> a walk<\/span> the next morning and found the\naforementioned equipment-rental staff packing up the chairs and such...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f\/3.5-5.6 VR @ 200mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>125 sec, f\/5.6, ISO 500 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nHauling Stuff<\/span>while a dragon looks on\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f\/3.5-5.6 VR @ 29mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f\/4.5, ISO 500 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nPacking Up<\/span>(view from the side)\n<\/div>\n\n

They took the opportunity of low tide to drive out onto the intertidal\nzone to make the job easier.<\/p>\n\n

A few pretty pictures....<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f\/3.5-5.6 VR @ 40mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1500 sec, f\/4.5, ISO 320 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nSide View<\/span>(the dais is on the right; our seats were about where the guy facing away is standing)\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f\/3.5-5.6 VR @ 36mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f\/4.5, ISO 500 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nFront View Closeup<\/span>At the highest of high tides, the water comes right to the tops of these boards\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Walking around the shrine to the back, you could see the little tent\nused as the room for the event staff and the artist before\/after the\nconcert, on a little<\/span> patch that's always above water.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f\/3.5-5.6 VR @ 32mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f\/4.5, ISO 320 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nView from the Back<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

The big orange gate in the background is the main gate for the shrine,\nand is out in the middle of the water when the tide is in. It's brilliantly<\/span> lit up at night, but was at our backs during the concert. The singer<\/span> had a\ndirect<\/span> view during the whole concert, which he said he really enjoyed.<\/p>\n\n

Of course, we really enjoyed it as well, both before and after the\nconcert, and the next day. It looks<\/span> small in the picture above, but\ndominates much of the area, and is the world famous symbol for Miyajima,\none of the historically “three beautiful\nscenes<\/a>” of Japan. I took a<\/span> bazillion<\/i> pictures of it that will be\nappearing on my blog shortly....<\/p>\n\n

Continued here...<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I mentioned yesterday, we went to Miyajima on Sunday to see Kousuke Atari (\u4e2d\u5b5d\u4ecb) in concert at the Itsukushima Shrine (\u53b3\u5cf6\u795e\u793e), a large complex almost completely over the water when the tide is in. In the picture above, which I took the morning after the concert when the tide was out, you can see the piers and such.<\/p>

The concert was in the open air away from the building, on a little dais you can sort of see in the center of the picture.<\/p>

Photography was not permitted during the concert, so I didn't bring my camera, but before [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,15,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}