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日本語は英語の下記にあります。
5) Song for a Stateless Wanderer - Theme for a Stateless Wanderer
This song was originally the theme song for a documentary film about a young man who went from Japan to Vietnam to trade in the 16th century.
Shortly after he crossed over, the Tokugawa Shogunate unified Japan and closed the country to the outside world, issuing a decree that anyone who returned would be put to death. The Japanese town where he stayed was built next to the Chinese town. The Chinese quarter still exists, but the Japanese there were mixed with Vietnamese. While composing the theme song for this documentary film, I was thinking about the following.

Unlike Europe, Japan does not have the historical tradition of creating nation-states. Therefore, the existence of nations is also different from that of Europe. It was not a modern nation-state that emerged naturally from tradition, but a nation-state that was created in a hurry when it coud have been dominated by Europe in the 19th century. Newspapers, education, and later radio, were used to create artificially an image of a nation that people could have some common attachment to. However, this did not include the traditions of individualism and democracy that emerged from a European tradition. Such ideas were created from Western Europe's history of domestic wars and resistance. When they are artificially created as laws as in Japan, they become something different from the European model.

There were always people in every age and culture, who could not join the society of their own time. When a nation is closed off and becomes secluded, those who know about another culture become outsiders and enemies. In the Edo period, those who came from another culture were put to death. I myself grew up in the American culture of New York and have always felt culturally shut out of this Japanese society.

My title for this composition is "Theme for a Stateless Wanderer". The word "stateless" here does not have a happy image. It refers to people who are shut out of society. The word "Wanderer" refers to the minstrels who wandered and played music in ancient and medieval times.

5):無国放浪人の歌 - Theme for a Stateless Wanderer
この曲はもともと、16世紀に日本からベトナムへ貿易に行った若者を描いたドキュメンタリー映画の主題歌だった。
彼が渡った直後、徳川幕府は日本を統一して鎖国し、「戻った者は死刑」というお触れを出した。彼が滞在した日本人町は、中国人町の隣に作られた。中国人街は今でも残っているが、そこにいた日本人はベトナム人と混血していた。このドキュメンタリー映画の主題歌を作曲しながら、私は次のようなことを考えていた。

日本はヨーロッパと違って、国民国家をつくるという歴史的伝統がない。したがって、国家の存在もヨーロッパとは異なる。伝統から自然に生まれた近代国民国家ではなく、19世紀にヨーロッパに支配される可能性があったときに、慌ててつくられた国民国家であった。新聞や教育、後にはラジオを利用して、人々が何らかの共通の愛着を持てるような国家像を人為的に作り出したのである。しかし、そこにはヨーロッパの伝統から生まれた個人主義や民主主義の伝統は含まれていなかった。このような思想は、西欧の国内戦争と抵抗の歴史から生み出されたものである。それが日本のように法律として人為的に作られると、ヨーロッパ型とは違うものになってしまう。

いつの時代も、どの文化圏でも、その時代の社会に参加できない人たちがいた。国家が閉鎖的になり、鎖国状態になると、他の文化を知っている人はアウトサイダーとなり、敵になってしまう。江戸時代には、他文化から来た者は死刑にされた。私自身、ニューヨークのアメリカ文化の中で育ち、この日本社会から文化的に締め出されていると常に感じてきました。

この作品のタイトルは「Theme for a Stateless Wanderer(国がない放浪者の歌)」です。ここでいう「国がない」という言葉は、決してハッピーなイメージではありません。日本で使われている「無国籍」とは違う意味です。国を失って、社会から締め出された人たちのことです。ワンダラーとは、古代・中世に放浪して音楽を奏でた吟遊詩人のことである。

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Ayuo Tokyo, Japan

Ayuo Takahashi (born October 19, 1960) in Tokyo, Japan and raised in New York City) is a Japanese-American composer, poet, lyricist, singer and performer of guitar and bouzouki, From 1984 he has released over a dozen solo albums, collaborating with Peter Hammill, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Danny Thompson, Maddy Prior, Takehisa Kosugi, Carlos Alomar, John Zorn, Clive Deamer, Kazue Sawai and many others. ... more

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