Photo/Illutration A damaged percussion instrument at the Susono City Cultural Center in Susono, Shizuoka Prefecture, on Sept. 24 (Provided by Sinfonietta Shizuoka)

SUSONO, Shizuoka Prefecture--A sprinkler system malfunction apparently caused hundreds of millions of yen in damage to musical instruments set up on a stage here shortly before the Sinfonietta Shizuoka orchestra was to give a performance.

Members of the orchestra based in Yaizu, Shizuoka Prefecture, held a news conference Oct. 13 to express their anger over the late September incident at the Susono City Cultural Center and distrust of Susono city’s approach to handling the matter.

“Substitutes cannot be found for many of our musical instruments even if we tried to look,” Tomoya Nakahara, the 49-year-old artistic director of Sinfonietta Shizuoka, told reporters.

“It is a calamity that so many instruments were so badly soaked,” Nakahara added. “We are praying they can be repaired so they can continue to be used, but right now it is unclear whether that is even possible.”

The overhead sprinker system started spraying water across the stage around 1 p.m. on Sept. 24, shortly before the Sinfonietta Shizuoka orchestra was scheduled to perform. The instruments were set up on the stage beforehand.

Taku Tsuchida, a contrabassist, said he was practicing on the stage when the glitch occurred and quickly ran to the wings where other orchestra members were fleeing with their instruments as fast as they could as water poured down from the ceiling.

Tsuchida, 39, said they tried to rescue as many musical instruments as they could to be wiped down with towels and pieces of clothing the members were wearing.

Even so, more than 100 instruments were damaged, according to the orchestra.

Sinfonietta Shizuoka said the orchestra expects the damage to run into hundreds of millions of yen, but as yet has been unable to determine a total amount as many instruments are the musicians’ personal belongings.

Five orchestra members were injured while running and falling. A Steinway grand piano Susono city had purchased for 13 million yen ($88,000) was also damaged.

“No mechanical problems were detected during a check of the sprinkler system,” a municipal representative said.

City authorities contacted prefectural police, suspecting the system may have been tampered with by a third-party.

But Nakahara expressed doubt this was the case.

“The sprinkler’s control panel is backstage and members of the orchestra did not see any suspicious individuals,” he said.

Sinfonietta Shizuoka said Susono’s deputy mayor expressed dismay over the incident during a phone call but offered no insight on steps to prevent a recurrence. City authorities apparently did not even bother to ask the orchestra members what losses they suffered.

For his part, Nakahara told the Oct. 13 news conference the local government should first and foremost display a sincere attitude toward the damage sustained by the orchestra.

“I expect the city to respond to our suffering in an honest manner by taking steps to avoid a repetition of this situation,” Nakahara said.

On Oct. 27, the Susono city government announced it will set up a committee
of experts by the end of November to investigate the cause of the sprinkler
glitch. Municipality officials also said that damage involving the city’s property was estimated to be at least 159 million yen.

With regard to compensation for the orchestra, mayor Harukaze Murata told reporters he will consider the matter once the city has clarified the reason for the malfunction.

(This article was compiled from reports by Takuya Yamazaki, Yuichi Koyama and Tamotsu Sugao.)

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