Cultural Event

Kurosaka (b. 1949 in Ueda, Nagano Prefecture) became a lyricist, songwriter and folk singer after graduating from university. He has composed numerous popular songs and theme music, including the Shin-Eiken theme song We Can Stand. A friend gave him a Hungarian Kokarina in 1995. The Kokarina, a wooden instrument similar to an Ocarina, captivated Kurosaka, and he is now the foremost Japanese artist on this instrument.

He makes Kokarinas using trees of significance and history. For the Nagano Olympics he made a series of Kokarinas from the wood of the trees that had to be felled to make way for the new facilities, and played them with local children at the awards ceremonies. In 2001 he performed for the International Peace Symposium in Hiroshima on a Kokarina made from the wood of a hackberry tree which had stood in the garden of the Army Hospital in the city center, which had survived the atomic bombing only to fall to a typhoon in 1984.