Japan Tour ’26 Chapter 6: “Sayo Teranishi – Music at Amida-Ji temple”
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One of the dreams I had before coming to Japan was to have the opportunity to play music in a Japanese temple. I had no particular place in mind, and certainly no idea how something like that could happen. But during our stay in Kyoto, that dream came true in a completely unexpected way.
I first heard about Sayo Teranishi, a soprano singer from Yamashina, through Etsuko, the owner of Café Monogataru. Etsuko told me that she had invited Sayo to participate in K-Connection, the artistic gathering we were organizing at her café, and that Sayo had accepted.
A few days later, Sayo and I began exchanging emails to coordinate her participation and discuss what she would need for her performance. We finally met in person on September 27, during K-Connection at Café Monogataru.
Sayo performed two songs that afternoon, and one of them was by Hibari Misora, one of Japan’s most beloved singers. This immediately caught my attention because I have been listening to Misora’s music for many years, and some of her songs have a very special place in my personal relationship with Japanese music.
After the event, Sayo’s son came over to introduce himself. He told me that he and his mother lived at and looked after a Buddhist temple in Yamashina called Amida-ji. Before leaving, he gave me his business card.
That same evening, I wrote to Sayo with an idea. I asked her if she would be interested in recording a version of “Kawa no Nagare no Yō ni” (Like the Flow of a River), one of my favorite songs by Hibari Misora, together at the temple.
She immediately said yes.
A few days later, on Saturday, October 3, I found myself arriving at Amida-ji with my small portable keyboard, ready to make music with Sayo.
It was a sunny and slightly hot afternoon in Yamashina. Sayo and her son welcomed me into their beautiful temple, where we prepared a simple setup to record our performance in audio and video.
We started with “Kawa no Nagare no Yō ni,” a song I have loved for a long time. Hearing Sayo’s wonderful soprano voice singing it while I accompanied her on the keyboard, inside a Japanese temple, was a very special experience for me. I had imagined playing music in a temple many times before coming to Japan, but I never imagined that my first opportunity would involve performing one of my favorite Japanese songs alongside such a talented singer.
After finishing that recording, we decided to play another song together: “The Rose,” made famous by Bette Midler. It was a beautiful contrast, moving from a classic Japanese song to an American ballad, with the same voice and piano bringing both pieces to life in that peaceful setting.
We spent some time talking with Sayo and her son about music and about how these encounters were creating unexpected bridges between Argentina and Japan. It was interesting to think that only a week earlier we had been strangers, and now we were sharing an afternoon recording music together in their family temple.
When we finished, Sayo and her son kindly invited me to explore Amida-ji and its gardens. I spent some time walking around, enjoying the atmosphere of the temple and appreciating the opportunity to discover another beautiful corner of Yamashina that I probably would never have visited otherwise.
This experience reminded me once again how much of this tour has been shaped by the people we have met along the way. Etsuko introduced me to Sayo through K-Connection, Sayo’s son told me about their temple, and a simple email turned into an afternoon of music that I will always remember.
I’m deeply grateful to Sayo Teranishi and her son for welcoming me into Amida-ji, sharing their music and their home with me, and helping me fulfill a dream I had carried with me to Japan.
We recorded both performances, and I’m very happy that we can now share these moments with everyone through our videos.
What started as an invitation to participate in a small artistic gathering became another beautiful musical friendship, and another connection between Argentina and Japan.
