Tamuke for Yokoyama Katsuya 1934- 2010

Hear Tamuke.

FLASH

4/25/10 The Buddhist funeral for Yokyama Katsuya is will take place in Tokyo on April 26th. San’ya will be played at 11am Tokyo time, which is 10pm April 25th in New York City. Please play Sanya if you can. I will.

4/22/10
I heard the news today when I arrived at Jim Schlefers for a visit. Together with Brian Ritchie, the three of us played Tamuke. I have been playing Tamuke a lot recently to help myself ease the pain of the loss that surrounds us daily. But today I was numbed by the fact that I was playing for the teacher of my teacher, the great Yokoyama Katsuya,

News Flash!

JIEGU - Rescuers yesterday pulled out a 4-year-old girl and a Tibetan woman alive from the rubble of an earthquake more than five days after they were trapped. As search teams and other rescuers left the shattered town of Jiegu in remote western China, about 20km away rescuers dug out the pair who relatives said they had kept alive by sending them food and water through gaps in the rubble with the help of bamboo poles. Read the story here: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10639475
I had recently worked on After Shock as a featured extra. This film follows the harrowing journey of a Chinese immigrant as he makes his way into New York City’s Chinatown. The character lost his wife and daughter in the Szechuan earth quake of 2008 so the coincidence compounded the emotions during the filming. I was emotional during the shoot because I felt the pain the actor had of loosing his daughter. His only reminder of her was a simple child’s bracelet. Life is short. Seize the moment.

I am experiencing an unsettling coincidence this week. I am doing some on-camera work on a film based on the 2008 Chinese Earth Quake in Szechuan, China that killed at least 68,000 people. The earthquake in Jiegu, China this Wednesday was a reminder of the fragility of life. CNN reported that the local monks were the first to start digging through the rubble for survivors.
From the internet:

Ger Lai Tan Zeng, a 20-year-old Buddhist monk, was the recorder of the dead, his graceful Tibetan script filling an old datebook. By Friday morning, he estimated there were 900 bodies spread across the brightly painted pavilion that normally functions as a seating area for the monks at his monastery….“We’ve been too busy tending the living to count the dead,” he said.

Let’s give a moment of silence for our Chinese friends.