But the loss that she and her family went through was too great and she focused all her energy into music. I used to practice for 12 hours initially,” she says animatedly, her long slender fingers holding the neck of the Niko in the air. I was already in my early twenties and so it was personally difficult to do it. Our fingers adapt to the Niko as we grow, like most string instruments so it is best to start as soon as possible. “Musicians usually start early on the Niko. The challenges she faced in learning how to play the instrument only made her more determined. Many of us cling to vices after losing battles, but Haruyo only got stronger. Even today, after about two decades of playing it, I am still learning.” I met about six masters from all over Japan and China just so I could get the basics right. “I searched for masters on the Eastern part of Japan and then China because the instrument is believed to have originated on that part of Asia. She traveled to learn from masters on the eastern coast and even Shanghai but says that there is so much one can do with music, it never really is enough. That was the beginning.” At first, it lay there, she says but after thing started looking up she started playing again and never looked back. “I was 19 at the time and to help me out of the grief, my mother’s friends got me a Niko. My music school happened to be one of the buildings that fell apart,” she narrates like it was just yesterday. There was no water or power supply and we lost our homes. The Great Hanshin Earthquake struck in 1995 that claimed the lives of about 6,434 people happened to have its epicenter in Kobe. Haruyo eventually enrolled in a music school and studied jazz, but life had different plans for her. I was so into J Pop!” she laughs, “I had seen this movie, For the Boys, and was so taken by the world of pop and jazz.” The 1991 feature film traces the life of singer and actress DixieLegend played by Bette Midler who was awarded a Golden Globe for it. “I remember I had a band when I was around 16. It doesn’t have frets and it only has two strings, making it quite challenging to play.” At the bottom of the string is a small drum covered in python skin, where the acoustics happen, she explains.īorn in Kobe, western Japan, Haruyo wasn’t always a classical violin player. Haruyo plays the Niko, a two stringed bowed instrument, which is also called the “southern fiddle” or the “exotic violin” and sounds much like a soft female voice, she says. “The city is becoming my second home slowly but steadily,” she says, “I found love here,” she says before tucking a strand of her shoulder length hair behind her ear, “I found acceptance and I found appreciation for music, even if it is something as different as a traditional Japanese violin.” Sitting at Harima Restaurant on Residency road, Haruyo Kimura, in her grey cotton shirt and flannel pants looks right at home.
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