Shakuhachi meets Pena is a musical composition and performance, which is a collaboration of the performances of the traditional Japanese musical instrument

Shakuhachi A is a Japanese and ancient Chinese longitudinal, end-blown flute that is made of bamboo. The bamboo end-blown flute now known as the was developed in Japan in the 16th century and is called the .

and the traditional Meitei musical instrument Pena. It is a maiden collaboration of traditional music between the two nations,

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. It was performed by Motonaga Hiramu of

and Mayanglambam Mangangsana with his daughter Mangka Mayanglambam of Laihui,

Imphal Imphal ( Meitei pronunciation: /im.pʰal/; English pronunciation: ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Manipur. The metropolitan centre of the city contains the ruins of Kangla Palace (also known as Kangla Fort), the royal seat of the fo ...

. It was performed at "The Giving Tree", Sangaiprou, Imphal West on 28 November 2016. It was performed on the last day of a 3 day workshop on

conducted as a part of the "Manipur Japan Summit 2016". It was organised by the " Laihui" in collaboration with the "Art Heals Trust, Imphal, Manipur" and the "The Japan Foundation, New Delhi". According to Motonaga Hiromu, both

and

Pena (musical instrument) Pena is a string instrument, mono string instrument falling in the lute category, slightly similar to some of the traditional Indian stringed musical instruments such as the ravanahatha, ''ubo'' or the ''kenda''. It is the traditional musical in ...

have their own traditional styles of playing and they need to create something new to represent the traditional Meitei music. He further said that it took his team 7 continuous days to bring out their collaborative performance. Mangka Mayanglambam said that it took her 5 days in learning the Japanese lullaby "Komori Uta" completely. Motonaga Hiromu gave her the Japanese lyrics in

Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Italy ...

. However, her pronunciations differ and Motonaga Hiromu corrected her everyday. Both Hiromu and Mangka concluded that the tonal vibrations of "Komori Uta", the Japanese lullaby were very much similar to the

Meitei language Meitei (), also known as Manipuri (, ), is a Tibeto-Burman language of north-eastern India. It is spoken by around 1.8 million people, predominantly in the state of Manipur, but also by smaller communities in the rest of the country and in pa ...

lullaby named ''"

Tha Tha Thabungton Tha Tha Thabungton ( mni, Thaa Thaa Thaabungton; omp, Thaa Thaa Thaapungton) is a traditional Meitei language lullaby. It is one of the Meitei folk songs traditionally sung by parents, usually mothers. It has reference to the aspects of brin ...

"''.

References

{{Reflist Songs in Meitei Japanese culture Japanese-Meitei culture Meitei culture Meitei folklore in popular culture

See also

References