Hello everyone. This is Takimoto from Hi-Fi Do Kyoto Repair Department. |
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Now the summer has gone and there has been a fain touch of autumn in the air these days. I wish this finds you well wherever you are reading this. |
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In Japan, people say autumn is a good season for sports, reading, and cultural activities. They say it is a season of huge appetite as well. To me, I feel like spending the season indoor reading books touching deep culture calmly. I feel the somewhat lonely atmosphere of the season gives art works such as music and books deeper impressions and further joy. So these days, I have been spending my time watching recorded movies that have been unwatched, listening to my favorite music, and reading books that have been waiting for me on the shelf. Seasonal delicacies are necessity for that. It seems huge appetite is here to stay. |
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When it comes to movies, there is one movie that has been viral in Japan. |
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It is "Your Name" directed by Makoto Shinkai. |
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In recent years, he is one of the highly regarded animation directors. Some even say he is new Hayao Miyazaki. However, the hit of the movie was mush bigger than expected. Until the September 22nd, the box office was 10 billion yen (approx. 100 million USD) and drew an audience of 8 million approximately. The heat has spread to other things such as skyrocketing sales of his past movies and music by Radwimps which provided some songs including the main theme. The songs occupied the major Japanese hit charts as well. It seems the movie brought a great economic benefit to Japan. |
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It makes me happy that Radwimps is getting active more and more like this. They have been one of my favorite bands for many years. Below is the main theme song of the movie "Zen Zen Zense". (*Zense is a buddhist term meaning past existence.) |
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I think this is a good song. The attractions of the band, I think, are lyric that is a bit twisted but deeply affects people and ever-changing melodies. In contrast, this song has very straight-forward lyric for them. Although it is superfluous to say this but I think the song title is kind of spoiler of the movie... |
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Well, let's leave it at that. Another thing that is hot among the deep fans is "pilgrimage" to the locations of the movie. This is getting very popular among anime fans recently. Now if you say "Seichi Junrei" which means pilgrimage to sacred places to them, they would take it as a tour to locations in their favorite anime. The fact that this movie has realistic and beautiful sceneries might be one of the reasons that are driving them to go on pilgrimage. |
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I have some sympathy for that because my reading habit in autumns is the dame thing fundamentally. With some additional factors, I think one can have deeper impressions or further joy towards artworks. Don't you think it is a very good method to enjoy a thing? |
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The term "Seichi Junrei" reminded me of this one thing. It was presumptuous of me but I wrote on the passing of David Bowie on Hi-Fi Do Newsletter (#628, Feb 12th, 2016). |
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(Japanese only) http://www.hifido.co.jp/merumaga/kyoto_shohin/160212/index.html |
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At the end of the article, I wrote about TANNOY Canterbury that is from England where Bowie was born. To me, the process of tracking the origin of Canterbury was "Seichi Junrei". |
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It is very interesting how Tannoy names their products. If you ask the speakers what is "your name"? (like the movie), the answers are Westminster, Arden, Edinburgh, and so on. They are all names of places in the UK. In Japan, hotels and ryokans also name their rooms likewise such as Gion (a district in Kyoto). I imagine that is something similar to what Tannoy does. Anyways, there must have been meanings or images they put in the names. When I was writing the Bowie article, I was in the UK in my mind imagining the homeland of Tannoy Canterbury. The scenery that I saw, to me, is part of my images agains the Tannoy Canterbury. To me, I felt the imagination was "Seichi Junrei" of Canterbury. By coincidence, the city Canterbury has been the center of Catholic church since the medieval times and the travel will be a real pilgrimage. Since then, I have been wanting to go to a pilgrimage to the places of Tannoy speakers and I think this is a good chance to do it. As long as time allows, let me go to "Seichi Junrei"-ish trip on the internet. |
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1. Westminster 2. Edinburgh 3. Stirling A. Arden B. Berkeley C. Cheviot D. Devon E. Eaton *From now on, I will refer to city names with capital (ex. Westminster) and speaker manes with lower letters (ex. westminsters) to avoid confusions. *Map reference: Google Map & Bing Maps |
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The first is westminster. This model was released in 1982 as a flagship at that time. It came with 3839W coaxial two-way unit with 38cm diameter. |
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I find the speaker very elegant and I imagined so the city would be. And I was correct. |
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Westminster is located in the center of London and the south and the east face the Thames. The district also has Palace of Westminster and Buckingham Palace and still remains one of the center of British politics. |
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If you want to see the famous Changing the Guard, Buckingham Palace is the place to go. |
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You can see Palace of Westminster (as known as Houses of Parliament currently) and Big Ben in the picture. This is a trivia but the chime of Japanese schools are the same as that of Big Ben. I don't know why but now I want to listen to the Westminster Chime on this speaker. |
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The next is edinburgh. It was also released in 1982 but the height is 1020mm, which is smaller compared to 1300mm of westminster. The unit is 3149 and also is two-way coaxial which is 30cm diameter. |
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Is it simple-minded thought of me to say the modesty of the speaker resembles Edinburgh the capital city of Scotland? |
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It seems the city has both new and old parts intermingled. The beautiful historical city attracts many tourists. |
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Then it came to my mind that the integration of the old and the new is same here in Kyoto and I wondered if the city has similar atmosphere. Then what a surprise! I found out that Edinburgh and Kyoto are sister cities. What a shame I wasn't aware of that. |
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As a Kyoto resident, I feel closer to this speaker now. |
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The next is stirling. It was released in 1983. The unit is 2558 coaxial two-way unit (25cm) and the height is 700mm, which is even smaller than edinburgh. Even it is relatively small, the elegant sound of Tannoy is still there. |
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The name makes a lot of sense to me. Stirling is the smallest city in Scotland and it stretches surrounding Starling Castle. It still obtains the primal scene of Scotland and the fact matches the feature of the speaker well in my opinion. |
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I know there has been some changes in sceneries since the 1980's when the speaker was released. I wonder if it is just far-fetched thinking of me. |
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Lastly, I will list Tannoy's alphabetical series. Arden This was named after "Forest of Arden" that lies in the suburbs of Birmingham the second largest city in the UK. Berkeley The origin of the name is "Vale of Berkeley" that lies along the Bristol-flowing River Severn. Cheviot Named after the vast Cheviot Hills which lies between England and Scotland. The hills are also known for Roman castles. Devon Devon is a country in southwest England. The climate is mild and it encompasses beautiful scenarios with sandy beaches. Eaton Eaton is located in the suburb of a historical city Chester. The city is surrounded by walls built by the Romans. |
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It is much harder to go to a real pilgrimage both money-wise and time-wise. But I would like to do that and see the places of the speakers in person someday. I have a feeling that it will just end up as a basic sightseeing in the UK but I think the travel would be more enjoyable thinking "I am now in the city that the speaker is named after". I have no idea when the dream comes true at the moment. For now, I will comfort myself with the animation "Your Name". Until then! |