Japan Tour ‘26 Chapter 1: “Ritsuko Marimba”

A few months ago, while looking for information about Kawamata, the town in Fukushima where Cosquín en Japón takes place and where Jesica will be performing during this tour, I came across an album called “Ambient Kawamata” by Ritsuko Matsumoto, a Japanese marimba player who had dedicated an entire record to the sounds, landscapes and culture of that place.

The album immediately caught my attention, so I decided to write to her. I told her that we were traveling to Japan, that we would be spending a few days in Kawamata, and that I would love for us to meet and perhaps make some music together.

A few days later, I received her reply. Ritsuko told me that Kawamata was her grandparents’ hometown and was now based in Sagamihara. Still, she was excited about the idea of meeting, and that was the beginning of an exchange of emails that continued for several months. Little by little, we shared music, stories and ideas about things we could do together during our trip.

Finally, on September 20, the day came for us to meet in person.

Ritsuko met us at the station and took us to her home, where her husband and her daughter Rin were waiting for us. They had prepared a delicious Japanese lunch, and after eating and talking for a while, we went into her studio to do what we had been imagining for months: play music together.

We really didn’t need to plan much. We simply started playing, and for most of the afternoon we freely improvised with her marimba, Jesica’s violin and my piano. We tried ideas, listened to each other, changed directions and started again. We hardly spoke while we were playing because, somehow, we didn’t need to.

Meanwhile, Cielo was playing with Rin in the living room, and every now and then we could hear their laughter coming into the studio. It was one of those afternoons when something you have imagined for months finally happens and, fortunately, turns out to be even more beautiful than you expected.

After spending the day at her home, Ritsuko took us to the Hikari to Midori no Bijutsukan museum (Museum of the light and green) where we will perform together on October 17. There we met her friend Nagata, who has been instrumental in making this encounter possible, as well as the director of the museum. We spent some time talking about music, art and ideas for the performance, which will have a special meaning for us because it will be our final concert before returning to Argentina.

For our second day together, we had planned something completely different: taking our instruments to a park and having a kind of outdoor musical picnic. But Typhoon Dujuan changed our plans and, with the recommendation to stay indoors, Ritsuko invited us back to her home.

So after midday we returned to her studio and simply continued where we had left off the day before.

This time, we also decided to record some of what happened. For more than two hours we improvised and played with the instruments, with the sounds that appeared in the moment, and even with Cielo’s voice, which eventually became part of the music. From that session, we recorded a unique twenty-minute piece in both audio and video that we hope to share very soon.

When we finished, Ritsuko and her family invited us to dinner. We had sushi, miso soup and several other Japanese dishes that we enjoyed discovering around the table. We had also brought a few things from Argentina, so they got to try mate and alfajores. By the end of it, we had spent two full days together sharing food, conversations, music and family life.

Something about this whole story that I especially like:

A few months ago, I was in Buenos Aires looking for information about a small town in Fukushima when I accidentally discovered an album that made me curious. I sent an email without really knowing what would come of it, and that email eventually brought us to Ritsuko’s home, where we met her family, improvised together for hours and began preparing a concert at a museum in Sagamihara.

I guess this is also why we make these trips.

Beyond the concerts, the places we want to visit and all the plans we can make in advance, traveling with music as our excuse allows us to meet people we probably would never have met otherwise.

Thank you, Ritsuko, and your beautiful family for opening the doors of your home to us and making us feel so welcome.

We leave Sagamihara with happy hearts and full of energy to continue this tour, meeting people and making music along the way.