Yamagata Prefecture is home to the Yamagata Symphony Orchestra (Yamakyo), the first professional orchestra in the Tohoku region. It was founded by the conductor Murakawa Chiaki.
"An Orchestra for My Hometown of Yamagata"
Murakawa Chiaki was born in 1933 in Murayama City, Yamagata Prefecture. After studying at the Tokyo University of the Arts, he went to the United States in 1963, majoring in conducting at the graduate school of Indiana University, and studying in New York under the conductor Leopold Stokowski.
He returned to Japan in 1966 and made his debut as guest conductor of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. He could have pursued a career based in Tokyo, but Murakawa held on to a single wish: to bring an orchestra to his hometown of Yamagata.
In 1971, he organized a preparatory orchestra, and the following year, 1972, formed the Yamagata Symphony Orchestra. It was the first professional orchestra in Tohoku and the fourteenth in all of Japan. That same year, he established the association that would run it, and held the orchestra's first regular concert in September.
Building a Place for Culture, Outside the Capital
Sustaining a professional orchestra outside a major city is not an easy thing to do. Even so, Yamakyo has continued with the support of local businesses and the people of the prefecture, and has grown into an orchestra recognized nationwide.
Murakawa Chiaki passed away in June 2025 at the age of 92. The passion of one person who, more than half a century ago, decided "if it doesn't exist here, I'll create it," still resounds through Yamagata today.
A Source of Encouragement for Me
I, too, am growing my work as an artist here in Yamagata, one step at a time. You don't have to go to Tokyo to keep creating in this place. Yamakyo's history shows me that such a path exists.
Don't make your location an excuse. If something doesn't exist, take the time to create it. That's what I take away from the way Murakawa Chiaki lived.
The commissioned artwork at Mermaid nao, too, is something I aim to send out from this place, Yamagata, to people all across the country.
[References]
Yamagata Symphony Orchestra Official Site (Orchestra Profile / What Yamakyo Aims For)
Wikipedia (Yamagata Symphony Orchestra / Murakawa Chiaki)
Nikkei (Obituary: Murakawa Chiaki, Conductor, Founding Honorary Conductor of the Yamagata Symphony Orchestra)
TOWER RECORDS ONLINE (In Memoriam: Murakawa Chiaki, Conductor, Age 92)
https://www.yamakyo.or.jp/profile.html
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/山形交響楽団
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/村川千秋さん
https://tower.jp/article/feature_item/2025/06/26/1112
Related Articles
