Chiko’s description: Here’s a look at the process of crafting the sounds for The White Comet on “Lucy,” the pipe organ at Yokohama Minato Mirai Hall, in preparation for the Yamato Festival. When we performed at The Symphony Hall in Osaka this past April, we didn’t change the timbre by pressing buttons during the performance, but this time, we actually played using four different timbres! It reaffirmed for me that selecting and combining sounds one by one is one of the fascinating aspects of playing the pipe organ.

A huge thank you to Professor Gaku Kondo for his cooperation, and to everyone at Minato Mirai Hall. I was nervous, but it was so much fun. Lucy sounded amazing. I hope I get to play it again someday.

The Origins of My Music

The Spirit of Three Generations of the Miyagawa Family Resonating at Yokohama Minato Mirai Hall: A Review of the Siena Wind Orchestra’s “Space Battleship Yamato Festival”

Published at NOTE blog, October 3, 2026. See the original post here

by Maestro

A solitary musician who, for some reason, finds himself in the IT industry. People I respect: Hiroshi Miyagawa, Kentaro Haneda, Koichi Sugiyama. Favorite artists: Masahiro Ando, ​​Hiroko Moriguchi, Ayasa, Masato Honda, Akira Miyagawa, Ichiro Mizuki, Kazuko Kawashima. Favorite foods: Chikuwa (fish cake) fried in seaweed batter (isobe-age), agedashi-dofu (deep-fried tofu).

The roots of my music and my way of thinking undoubtedly lie in Space Battleship Yamato.

Hiroshi Miyagawa and Kentaro Haneda are the musicians I have always cited as the ones I respect most in my life. As an elementary school student, being immersed in the grand, soul-stirring soundtracks they wove together was what first awakened me to “the power of music.” It was the very beginning of my lifelong journey of creating and loving music.

Then came the “Space Battleship Yamato Festival: Yamato & VILLAINS!!”, a performance featuring Akira Miyagawa, who carries the DNA of Hiroshi Miyagawa, alongside the Siena Wind Orchestra, one of Japan’s premier wind ensembles. I secured my tickets the moment the first advance sale opened on June 8th, and after four long months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrived.

The venue was Yokohama Minato Mirai Hall, a place I was visiting for the first time. I had only one goal in mind for this event, to be immersed in a live performance of White Comet played on “Lucy”, a magnificent, top-tier pipe organ boasting over 4,600 pipes that towers at the front of the hall.

Ever since I first encountered the piece on screen, I had vowed to myself: “If it’s ever performed nearby, I must hear it live, no matter what.” Knowing for certain that this piece would move me to tears, and wanting to fully absorb the acoustic energy of this colossal instrument throughout the entire space, I deliberately chose a seat in the very last row of the third tier, near the center.

The deep, resonant bass of the pipe organ filled the hall, bouncing off the ceiling and side walls before reaching the very back of the highest tier. With a panoramic view of the hall spread out below, completely unobstructed, my choice of seat proved to be the perfect decision.

Photo posted on Twitter by mtama315

The floodgates opened at the “third note”, a miracle wrought by three generations of the Miyagawa family

The program began with a grand, sweeping overture, followed by a solo performance of “White Comet” by Tomoko “Chiko” Miyagawa.

The first and second notes pierced the silence, leaving me breathless. Then came the third note.

A thunderous, subterranean bass, unleashed from the pedalboard, made the floor and the very air in the back row vibrate, striking me to my core. In that instant, I could no longer hold back my tears.

All the longing I had harbored for the past four months came rushing back, along with the memory of how this music had struck my soul when I was just a boy. There was the heavy, ominous swell of counterpoint, reminiscent of the structural beauty of Bach, and the profound weight of a musical legacy passed down from Hiroshi to Akira, and now to Tomoko. Bypassing all logic and rational thought, every cell in my body resonated with the vibrations in the air, moving me to tears. As my vision blurred, the organ’s thunderous roar surged into the Space Battleship Yamato suite, a torrential, explosive entrance by the robust brass section of the Siena Wind Orchestra. This is the true power of live music.

From an “Impossible Demand” to a “Voluntary Challenge”, A Legacy of Spirit and Ambition

During the interlude, Akira Miyagawa and his daughter Tomoko, who performed on the organ and piano, shared a heartwarming exchange.

Akira asked, “What made you decide to play the pipe organ?” He recounted a famous anecdote from his own high school days: his father, the composer Hiroshi Miyagawa, had casually asked, “You can play the organ, right?”, only for Akira to discover, to his horror, that it was a massive, full-scale pipe organ with a pedalboard. It had been a living nightmare.

Tomoko’s reply was simple: “I’d always participated on the piano, but I thought the pipe organ looked cool, so I volunteered.”

The audience erupted in laughter, but I found myself deeply moved. The “trauma-inducing, impossible demand” of the father’s generation had evolved, in the daughter’s, into a gesture of pure respect and a bold, self-initiated challenge. While this was Tomoko’s first time performing on the pipe organ with the Siena Wind Orchestra, she followed in the formidable footsteps of her grandfather and father, and stepped forward of her own accord to master that colossal instrument, affectionately nicknamed “Lucy.” As a fellow musician, I offer her a standing ovation for her remarkable spirit.

A Relic of the Showa Era: The “Mad” Piano That Dominated the Hall in Goruba

In this concert, the piece that struck me with an intensity rivaling that of The White Comet was Automated Planet Goruba from The New Voyage.

It is a 100% pure example of the Showa-era sound of composer Hiroshi Miyagawa, a piece that has remained virtually untouched even in recent remakes. And the undisputed star of this challenging composition is the piano. Tomoko-san unleashed a barrage of cold, maddeningly repetitive low notes and razor-sharp passages. The performance captured both the overwhelming, inscrutable mass of that dark fortress and the extreme, desperate tension faced by the combined Yamato and Dessler fleets.

Her virtuosity, honed at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique et de Danse de Lyon, cut through the roaring brass, filling the entire hall. While the organ represented “stillness and intimidation,” the piano embodied “motion and madness.” This explosive moment was, without a doubt, the absolute highlight of the entire concert.

The Satisfaction of Experiencing Live Sound, And “My Personal Yamato Aesthetic”

Also shining in this performance were Yuuki, who provided vocals and scat singing, and the male chorus group GLORY CHORUS TOKYO, both of whom delivered truly passionate performances.

While the mix in the streamed audio made the vocals stand out a bit too much, hearing it live in an acoustic space revealed a different reality: the voices blended beautifully with the rich, dense resonance of the brass instruments, creating a magnificent ensemble. It was a wonderful experience, one that could only be fully appreciated by being there in person.

And yet, as an artist who loves Yamato and loves music, there is a line I simply cannot cross.

Take the scat singing, for instance. Yuuki-san’s performance was superb. But for me, the ethereal, otherworldly sound of Kazuko Kawashima is simply too monumental, it is truly one-of-a-kind. That sound, imbued with such profound melancholy, crystalline clarity, and the very essence of cosmic sorrow, transcends the limitations of human vocal cords. it exists on an absolute plane of its own. Hearing this live only served to reaffirm that truth.

And then, there is Cosmo Tiger (Wan-Dah-Bah). The power of the chorus in a live setting was staggering…but, honestly, Cosmo Tiger has no need for the “Wan-Dah-Bah” vocal motif!

The true essence of that piece lies in the sharp, incisive bite of the brass section and the rugged stoicism of the men gripping their control sticks in the vast, unforgiving reaches of space.

What I envision is not some female character from a remake. It is the sight of Yamamoto, his face partially obscured by long bangs, his stoic figure piloting his craft into the void, never to return. (To be frank, the character designs in the remake simply do not resonate with my sensibilities. They lack the fluid, graceful lines of Leiji Matsumoto’s art and the melancholic, elegant beauty of his female characters.)

In a battlefield where men burn their lives away in such a raw, gritty struggle, there is no place for the soft, human quality of a singing voice. Cosmo Tiger only truly comes alive when it cuts through the darkness of space with nothing but sharp, piercing instrumental sound.

Photo posted on Twitter by Sota Watanabe (guitarist)

The Delightful “Akira-style” Encore, and the Final Punchline

Following an intense main program, the encore began. Addressing the customary ritual in classical concerts, where the conductor repeatedly leaves and returns to the stage, Akira-san declared, “Usually, the conductor would go offstage and come back on, but let’s skip that!” His lighthearted, signature way of poking fun at rigid, formal conventions drew both applause and uproarious laughter from the audience.

The pieces performed were Scarlet Scarf and the main theme, Space Battleship Yamato. The powerful, commanding vocals from the soloist of GLORY CHORUS TOKYO were truly magnificent. Yet, the moment the song ended, I found myself chuckling and whispering:

“Wow, that’s incredibly skillful, truly impressive. But…it’s just not quite Isao Sasaki, is it? (Haha!)”

That deep, resonant baritone voice of Isao Sasaki, which vibrates to the very core of one’s being, along with his signature, deliberate sense of timing…for those of us from the generation baptized by Yamato, the longing to hear that specific voice is simply an irresistible, ingrained reflex.

In Closing

Clutching a ticket I’d held onto for four months, I sat in the very last row of the third-floor balcony, letting the waves of the “Miyagawa Sound” wash over me. It was an incredibly rich, two-hour experience, one that defies simple description, filled with tears, laughter, and internal quips, as I witnessed the legacy of the Miyagawa family being passed down through three generations.

The world of Yamato taught me that even one’s enemies possess their own sense of justice and their own prayers for peace. And then, there is the grand, sweeping score by Hiroshi Miyagawa. It is precisely because of that formative, foundational experience that I have the sensibilities, and the music, that define who I am today. I would like to express my heartfelt respect and deepest gratitude to the Siena Wind Orchestra, as well as to Akira Miyagawa and Tomoko Miyagawa, for their truly magnificent performance.

Space Battleship Yamato Festival (Yamato & VILLAINS!!) – Siena Wind Orchestra & Akira Miyagawa

Published at NOTE blog, October 4, 2026. See the original post here

by Meisei Mizuno

I love history and travel. While I’ve always felt a deep personal connection to the late Heian and Kamakura periods, I’ve recently become fascinated by the Bakumatsu and Meiji eras. I enjoy traveling both within Japan and abroad.