Photo/Illutration A musician plays a Wajima-nuri cello retrieved from quake debris in a gymnasium of Wajima High School in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, on April 8. (Tatsuo Kanai)

WAJIMA, Ishikawa Prefecture--The melodic tones of a lacquered violin and cello that survived the New Year’s Day earthquake on the Noto Peninsula resonated through a school gymnasium here. 

Hirochika Yatsui, a craftsman who applied local Wajima-nuri lacquerware techniques to the musical instruments, was in the audience at Wajima High School on April 8. 

“I hope my instruments will continue to energize Wajima and help it return to what it was,” said Yatsui, 86, whose studio was destroyed by the magnitude-7.6 temblor.

His 54-year-old son, Takahiro, also a Wajima-nuri craftsman, found a suitcase containing a cello amid the remains of the facility in early February. He also found a violin and a viola.

“The instruments remained intact, although everything else was demolished. They might have something to tell us,” Yatsui said he thought at the time.

Officials of Ishikawa Ongakudo, a prefectural concert hall in Kanazawa, learned about the instruments and proposed holding a concert.

On April 8, professional musicians performed several pieces on Yatsui’s amber-colored violin and cello, accompanied by a keyboard, on the second floor of the gymnasium.

About 150 people, including newly enrolled students and their guardians, attended the concert, which was held after the school’s entrance ceremony.

About 70 displaced residents are still living in an evacuation shelter on the first floor of the gymnasium.

Yatsui hit upon the idea of applying lacquer instead of varnish on violins when he saw people playing the stringed instruments on the streets of Paris during a visit in 2005.

He said he wanted to spread the charms of Wajima-nuri lacquerware around the globe through violins that are part of the Western way of life.

It was a daunting task. For one, the sound of a violin becomes strained when lacquer permeates the wooden body, a technique to enhance the strength of Wajima-nuri crafts.

So, Yatsui “placed” lacquer on the wood instead and adjusted its thickness in 0.1-millimeter increments.

He has created 12 Wajima-nuri violins, cellos and violas.

“I am full of emotion hearing a wonderful performance,” Yatsui said after the concert. “I feel that the new students have been given the strength to spread their wings into the new world.”

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