The Sacred Music Center has been publishing SMC News twice a year. However, the corona crisis reduced the chances of people gathering and made it difficult for us to deliver paper news to anonymous people, I decided to publish web news along with E-Newsletter, on a irregular basis.
In this first issue, Professor Emeritus Naoki Onishi and Mrs. Yoshiko Kusakari have contributed. Professor Naoki Onishi is a graduate of ICU and has been teaching at ICU for a long time as a professor of American literature. He is one of those who are familiar with the initial state of the chapel organ dedication. Professor Onishi will write about the period in a series. Yoshiko Kusakari is the wife of Tetsuo Kusakari, an organ builder. Tetsuo Kusakari is the creator of the Mori Arimasa Memorial Organ on the 4th floor of the University Hall. Mori was a member of the ICU Church and had been supporting Tetsuo Kusakari's organ production for a long time.
Please enjoy reading the memories of Prof. Onishi and Mrs. Kusakari of that time.
A Memory of ICU Rieger Organ Naoki Onishi, Professor Emeritus, ICU
In October 1970, Rieger's full-scale organ was dedicated to the ICU Church. The epoch-making organ concert was held on February 11, 1973, in which Anton Heiler and Marie-Claire Alan, the world-famous organists played the organ. The concert was broadcasted by NHK nationwide and the performance by the full-scale organ made a big impact to Japanese audience. The story of ICU Rieger Organ is full of interesting episodes including such a concert.
Kiyoshi Tōgasaki, the first Chair of the ICU Board of Trustees, donated a funeral donation held at the ICU Church for Mrs. Misu Tōgasaki, who died in 1967, for future organ construction. Fortunately, I was able to hear the episode about the organ directly from his son, Mr. Shigeru Gordon Tōgasaki, in his last years. He returned after three years of detention in Siberia after the end of the war in Manchuria, but eventually went to study abroad at Swarthmore College. Before he came to the United States, he took an organ performance lesson from Mr. Kōten Okuda of Aoyama Gakuin University. There was also Professor Yūko Hayashi, who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The two, who have no direct connection to ICU, nevertheless shared a firm belief that a full-fledged organ was essential to the ICU Church. The two visited, without a request from ICU, Raymond Architectural Design Office, Inc., which had begun rebuilding the university church in 1959, and discussed the position and acoustic matters of the organ, to be prepared for the future installation.
Meanwhile, Rieger was planning to exhibit it's organ at an international trade fair in Tokyo, but the trade fair was canceled and the company started to look for a take-back destination in Japan instead of taking it back to Austria. Perhaps it all started in 1968 when Shigeru told this information to the university board and H.C. Shorrock of the ICU Foundation in New York. In other words, the beginning was not a university or a church, but the conviction and wishes of two people, Mr. Shigeru Tōgasaki and Ms. Yūko Hayashi. The board of directors who received the talk approved it on the condition that it was not financially responsible, and left everything to the ICU Church. The university was involved in a student strike from the first semester of 1969, and despite the deep damage given to the chapel by the conflict, the organ construction proceeded, and a year and a half later, a dedication memorial service was held. However, with the current monetary value of more than 200 million yen, a huge amount of debt was expected to be left in the future, and a grand fund-raising activity of the ICU Church led by Professor Akira Hoshino had started. Thus, in the story this organ, which began with the wishes of two people who are not directly related to ICU, the wishes of so many people and their amazing dedication are condensed.
Memories of ICU Organ Yoshiko Kusakari
On 12th June 2021, in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic, a concert was held to celebrate 50th Anniversary of ICU Rieger Organ. The magnificent sound of organ reverberated in the chapel. I was in a choir and singing with an accompaniment of a reed organ at the backside of the chapel.
On the wall where the organ is located now, there previously was a big wooden cross. Rieger Organ from Austria was installed there in the University Chapel in 1970. The dedication concert by Prof. Yuko Hayashi took place in October of the same year. She was a small person, but her performance was powerful and a majestic sound throughout the chapel. I can't forget how much I was impressed at the moment. She said, "If you don't have a delicious thing before playing, you can't be powerful". As she stayed another 2 months even after the concert and had several more times to play the organ, I delivered her, before her performance, gourmet dishes such as fried pork or steamed eel with a rice.
At the organ academy held for 3 times, world-famous organ performers such as Marie-Claire Alain, Anton Heiller and Ferdinando Tagliavini were invited. As for Maestro Tagliavini, I have a memory of my suggestion being approved by my company, Alitalia, to let him fly to Japan in a first class.
In these days, I had a good time every week singing under the choir master and Mr. Susumu Masai, along with Prof. Donald Worth, with an accompaniment of the organists, namely, Mr. Sakae Takahashi and Ms. Yoshiko Ueda.
The ICU has four organs, and one of them is the Mori Arimasa Memorial Organ built by Kusakari Organ Kobo, installed in the Sacred Music Center. Mr. Arimasa Mori was enthusiastic about growing young people, and thanks for a luck, he gave my husband Tetsuo a chance to build the organ. I had no idea when I received a call from Prof. Kanazawa that the call was about receiving the order of a new organ production.
Mr. Mori is said to have been mentioned that he'd purchase the organ by his royalties from his books. I heard other relative members including Prof. Masakata Kanazawa, Prof. Hachiro Yuasa, Prof. Yoshito Shinotoh and Prof. Yasuo Furuya had agreed about the plan. After a reasonable length of time, the organ was completed in 1985 and was installed in ICU Sacred Music Center, located on the 4th floor of the university hall.
Prof. Akira Hoshino, the chairman of the organ fundraising committee, was struggling to raise funds for the payment of the organ. Eventually, he came up with an idea of paying off by collecting contributions of small amounts and I joined in the movement. Soon after, his discretion made the way for paying off. The Rieger organ was then donated by the church to the university.
The organ will continue to sound with our worship, bringing comfort and peace to the hearts of many.I pray that the organ will be loved by many and cherished as an instrument of praise to God for many years to come.
SOLI DEO GLORIA "Glory to God"