kobeintern

Typhoon passed us by last night. It dumped rain, and gusts of gale force wind howled all night long. The wind continued into the morning, but the rain stopped by 7:00 am, the time for daily morning Eucharist. Poor begonia, the petals were torn off by the wind.

As soon as the storm passed, we had a beautiful, sunny late morning! I was invited to go to an Organ Concert being held at Kobe Church, an United Church of Christ church. Beautiful church.

The organist, Chie Seo played Buxtehude’s Nun bitten wir den Heiligen Geist, BuxWV209, an Arrangement of Dvorak’s Ninth Symphony From the New World, Second Movement, Op. 95 and finally J. S. Bach’s Passacaglia in c minor, BWV582. She played wonderfully, convincingly.

After the performance she went on to explain the organ she was playing on, and she blew my mind. It was made by Tsuji Organ, a company that my Uncle Tamisuke once worked for a long, long time ago, where he met his wife, and he worked once again for a couple of years around turn of the millennium.

I went to speak to Seo-san after and she told me she believes my uncle was in the picture of the craftsmen who made the organ when it was completed in 2001, and she remembers seeing his name. I confirmed this with my aunt!

My aunt was just as surprised as I was that I would end up hearing a performance on an instrument her late husband helped to build. It seems too strange to be a coincidence. Had I not been invited to the concert I would not have heard it. Had the performer not explained about the maker of the instrument, I would have walked away completely unaware. It seemed that I was drawn – destined to be bathed in the soundwave created today by someone dear I would not see again, until the day of the resurrection. How significant is that?!