The story of Saxophone Samurai

IntroductionPROLOGUE

Wearing a sedge hat, I play the saxophone on a street corner. Thankfully, hundreds to a thousand people now gather to listen, and I have even been given the title of Nagoya Tourism Ambassador.

However,It wasn't always like this from the beginning.Actually, I started out as a gloomy child who couldn't do anything. It's a life where things go wrong far more often than right.

This page is a direct transcription of the talks I give at schools and businesses. There are only two things I hold dear.How to turn things that don't go well to your advantage. Whether you can live true to yourself no matter what those around you say.I couldn't be happier if this serves as food for thought for someone's future.

the origin of one's true selfCHAPTER 1 ／ ORIGIN

As you can see, I dress distinctively and do distinctive things. In other words,“individuality”value very much. Its origins date back to when I was in junior high school.

At the time, I was short, overweight, and wasn't good at studying or sports. I harboured a deep sense of inferiority about being that way. One day, a mean classmate said this to me:

What on earth makes life fun for you?

It is a very hurtful word. However, because of it, I began to think deeply about what I am living for.

That was also around the time I started reading philosophy books just to look cool. Amidst all the incomprehensible words lined up on the page, there was one phrase that really struck a chord with me. It was a quote by the philosopher Nietzsche.

Having encountered these words,Live a life that only you can live.I decided. Decades have passed since then, but this is still the theme of my life.

My encounter with the saxophoneCHAPTER 02 ／ ENCOUNTER

So, what kind of path should I walk down? While struggling to find the answer, the instrument I came across was the saxophone.

The catalyst was the manga "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure", which I've loved since I was a child. Many of the characters that appear are named after Western music artists. Trying to act cool and listen to Western music, I used those names as a guide to search for CDs.

in it, within the work“Just one panel”There was a person who appeared. His name was "Kenny G". I picked up his CD without even knowing he was a saxophonist.

I was blown away right from the first track.

At that moment, living life true to myself and expressing it through the saxophone came together. From here, my life began to move forward.

I had no talent.CHAPTER 03 ／ NO TALENT

I kept holding onto the dream of wanting to buy a saxophone, but a junior high school student has no money. After dreaming about it for years, I became a university student, was able to do a part-time job, and finally bought my first saxophone.This tenor saxophone, which I'm still using today.

However, during my university years, I was worse than those around me, and I couldn't play anything like the performances I had envisioned.I suppose I simply didn't have the talent.

Even so, driven solely by the stubborn belief that "this is the life I've chosen" and a deep love for the saxophone, I didn't stop even when people told me I was useless. Almost every day I'd ride my bicycle down to the riverbank and carry on practising.

However, those effortsIt didn't lead to immediate results.

Let go onceCHAPTER 04 ／ LETTING GO

After graduating from university, I got married and had a child soon after. Work, family, and the saxophone. I wasn't able to balance it all successfully.

The working conditions at the time were brutal, and IThe decision to quit the saxophoneI play. The saxophone was my whole life, but above all else, "family" was what mattered most.

However, there was something I was thinking at that time.If it's truly important, you can always start again someday.That's the situation.

RestartCHAPTER 05 ／ RESTART

More than a decade had passed, and now in my mid-thirties with my life having settled down, II've started playing the saxophone again.After joining a band, taking part in sessions and trying my hand at various challenges, I eventually settled on the ‘street musician’ style.

However, at first, almost no one would stop to listen. This was because he wasn't good at flashy performances and had a plain, ballad-centred style.

In a time where no one stops, it was still blowing nonetheless

The Day I Learnt the Meaning of MusicCHAPTER 06 ／ MEANING

"Are my performances of any use to anyone?"
One day, while I was carrying on with such worries, I was playing at Ōsone Station when a woman listened to me while shedding tears. And then, she said this to me.

I couldn't say a thing. I asked myself, "What on earth could my music have done for this person?"

However, as I thought about it more deeply, I realised."My sound is one that can resonate with people's sorrow."And.

It's not music that cheers you up, but music that gently accompanies and heals your sadness. This is the “meaning” of my music, andThe meaning of lifeIt has become.

The most difficult period of my lifeCHAPTER 07 ／ THE HARDEST TIME

Thus I found meaning in my playing, and as my fan base gradually grew, particularly on social media, I began to receive attention. However, just as things were starting to go well, another huge wall stood in my way.cyberbullying on social mediais.

I taught myself the saxophone, so I still can't read sheet music and don't really understand music theory either. On the other hand, the wind and brass world is centred around concert bands and jazz, which are strictly faithful to sheet music and theory. Although it's only a tiny minority, I've started receiving harsh words from people who think doing things strictly by the book is the only right way.

The abuse escalated further and eventuallyIt extended to friends, people around me, and even family.

Among them, the most terrifying was that at the time stillMy son, who was at primary schoolthat was involved. On the internetEven my son's personal information was leaked online.And then one day, while his son was alone in the park,One of the group who had been harassing me comes up to me out of sight of my parents.even an event like that took place.

Centring around me,The whole family was driven by intense fear and anger.Even now, I cannot forgive the fact that their reach extended even to unrelated children.

By consulting the police and sharing the details of the damage on social media, I was able to calm the situation down a little bit. Even so,the most difficult period of my lifeIt was. If things go well, you get attacked out of envy. I feel this is a major problem in modern society.

Saxophone Samurai is bornCHAPTER 08 / THE BIRTH

It was in the midst of these circumstances that the current style, "Saxophone Samurai," was born. The birth of2020. It was a time when the COVID-19 pandemic had only just begun and everyone was filled with suspicion and mistrust.

Since it's a wind instrument, I thought people might say it's "inappropriate", so I wondered if I could attach something like a face shield, and what I came up with was this thing that samurai wearRonin hatThat was the case.

However, that is not the only reason. Having experienced severe abuse whilst performing without a mask—which even dragged my family into it—The method of operating while concealing one's real face and namethat I had been looking for. And another thing: at the time, I was working under a very underhand boss, in a situation where everything I did was being criticised.

My job is in marketing, and for many years I've been involved in making companies and products known to the world. Thinking to myself, "At this rate, my self-esteem is going to shatter," I‘Well then, let’s try to make a name for myself by marketing myself as a product.’I thought of it as a way to prove my skills to myself.

It was an event that I thought could only ever be negative. However,It was precisely because of these three things that the Saxophone Samurai was born.

Adversity is an opportunity for changeCHAPTER 09 ／ ADVERSITY

When things are going well, people don't try to change because they are fine just as they are.

However, it’s a different story when things aren’t going well.I'm struggling now, so I want to change.It seems that way. In other words, it is also an opportunity for energy for change to be born.

In my case, it was precisely because I was a child with no particular talents and full of feelings of inferiority that I was prompted to search for a meaning in life, which led me to discover the saxophone. It was precisely because of the slander and abuse, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a difficult working environment that the new ‘Sax Samurai’ style was born.

To a Human Tourist AttractionCHAPTER 10 / HUMAN LANDMARK

Around the time my customer base started to grow as the Saxophone Samurai, I happened to see a news story.Nagoya has become the number one least attractive city.That was the news.

Well then, I thought – since we're now able to gather people locally, we should start attracting people from outside the prefecture as well,Let's become a "human tourist attraction" ourselvesAnd.

In recognition of these activities, we nowThe fifth person ever to be appointed ‘Nagoya Tourism Ambassador’I have also been appointed as. Hundreds to a thousand people now gather for our live performances in parks and on streets.

We are leveraging that ability to attract visitors for tourism. At live performances outside the prefecture, we hand out leaflets for Nagoya tourism, draw people in to help revitalise shopping arcades, and also promote the traditional craft of Arimatsu shibori.Use your ability to gather people for the benefit of those around you and the local community.We are focusing our efforts there right now.

See efforts to boost tourism

Future dreamCHAPTER 11 ／ THE DREAM

When you think of Shizuoka, it's Mount Fuji. When you think of Tokyo, it's Tokyo Tower. When you think of Kumamoto, it's Kumamon.

The reason sightseeing in Nagoya is a bit lacklustre, despite there being plenty of tourist spots, is thatThere is no obvious symbol that screams "Nagoya"I believe it is the case.

I will become that too.When people think of Nagoya, they think of the Saxophone SamuraiMy current goal is to strive to be someone of whom people say that.

What it means to be of service to othersFOR SOMEONE

Being helpful might look like mere platitudes at first glance, but I actually believe it is not the case.

To humans,need for approvalIn other words, there is a desire to be recognised by someone. This is by no means a bad desire, andthe desire for fulfilment derived from helping othersThat is so.

So, if you can find something that allows you to be useful to someone, it becomes easier to feel a sense of your own existence. For me, that was music that stands close to those who are grieving.

SummarySummary