Music as a Means of Expression

We have started expressing our developmental theory through music. Most of what we work on at Polymath Research is simple, at the level of physical laws, yet perhaps because it runs against the common sense that society has cultivated, we often feel that our real meaning is hard to get across. So we have begun an experiment in using “music” as a way to get more people to “lend us their ears.”

Music like a treasure box from three hundred years in the future

We have started making music under the name “URASHIMA TURTLE.” We and our daughters (currently 6 and 2) write all the lyrics and music ourselves, and we compose using today’s most advanced technology¹.

Our first album, “SHY and Y (SHYとY),” is available on Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music and other services, so if you are interested, please give it a listen.

Expressing the feel of daily life and alternative ways of thinking as a “family mob”

People interpret our ideas however they want to, or pick out bits and pieces and interpret only those. We had been wondering day after day how we could get people to take in our thinking as one whole, letting it soak in just as it is.

As usual, while we were playing with new technology with our children, we discovered the potential of music as a medium of expression. For us, as complete amateurs, this music is nothing more than experimental output, part of our “play” or “independent research.” But given how deeply music can penetrate, we secretly think it might also be seen as a polymathic artistic activity, one with the potential to speak to someone’s heart and change how they act.

There is a surprising amount of raw material for expression: the joys and the sense of unease we feel in daily life, ways of thinking that differ from the ideas currently in circulation, and so on. All of it is clearly rooted in the emotions that come from raising children, and the many discoveries and insights we gain by doing things together with our children are a good opportunity for us adults to wash away deep-seated preconceptions.

If making things together as a family, as a kind of “family mob,” became as ordinary as going camping or shopping, Japan might become a truly “fun Japan.” And beyond that, we also secretly think, a path might come into view for the evolution of a system of raising children that transcends the “normal” practice of leaving children somewhere while adults just push ahead with colorless work.

Putting the “Outline of an Introduction to Peasant Art” into practice

Now, more than ever, we want to put into practice the “Outline of an Introduction to Peasant Art” (Nōmin Geijutsu Gairon Kōyō) by Kenji Miyazawa, our teacher at heart.

What shall we discuss together from now on?

We are all peasants; we are very busy, and the work is hard
We want to find a way to live more brightly and vividly
Among our old forefathers there were often people like that
We want to discuss it where the proofs of modern science, the experiments of seekers and our own intuition agree
There can be no happiness for the individual until the whole world becomes happy
The consciousness of the self evolves gradually from the individual to the group, to society, to the universe
Is this not the path the old saints walked and taught?
The new age is heading toward the world becoming one consciousness, one living being
To live rightly and strongly is to be conscious of the Milky Way within oneself and to respond to it
Let us seek the true happiness of the world; seeking the way is already the way

Why must our art arise now?

Once, our forefathers lived quite happily, poor though they were
There was art there, and religion
Now we have only labor, only survival
Religion grew tired and was replaced by modern science, and science is cold and dark
Art has now left us, and has fallen into dreary decay
Today’s men of religion and men of art monopolize and sell truth, goodness and beauty
We have no means to buy them, nor do we need such things
Now we must set out anew on the right path and create our own beauty
Burn that gray labor with art
Here is our ceaseless, pure and joyful creation
People of the city, come and mingle with us; world, accept us, who have no ulterior motives

What forms the heart of our art?

Peasant art too will surely have beauty as its essence
We create a new beauty; aesthetics is always on the move
It will spread without end, until even the word “beauty” vanishes
We must beware of forks in the road and wrong paths
Peasant art is the concrete expression of cosmic feeling, communicating with the land, the people and the individual
It is creation, unconscious or deliberate, made from the inner experience of intuition and emotion
It always affirms real life and seeks to deepen and elevate it
It teaches us to behold and enjoy life and nature as a ceaseless art photograph, as inexhaustible poetry
As a vast theater and dance
It lets people’s spirits communicate, socializes their feelings, and seeks at last to lead everything to the ultimate ground
Thus our art is the foundation of a new, rising culture

How can it be classified?

When the voice has melody and rhythm, it becomes vocal music; when sound does, it becomes instrumental music
When words have true expression, they become prose; when they have rhythm, poetry
When action has true expression, it becomes theater; when it has rhythm, dance
When images of light are expressed through the camera, they make art photography of stillness and motion
When images of light are drawn by hand, they make painting; through modeling materials, sculpture
Combined, they make drama, opera and the talking picture
Intention is often accompanied by scent, taste and touch
When voice and words rest on intention, they make speeches, treatises and teachings
Through the intention of daily life, images of light make architecture and clothing
Through each different intention, images of light make the many crafts and fine arts
Joined with the intention of production, images of light give rise to gardening, forestry and land design
When scent, taste, light and touch find expression in the intention of daily life, cooking and production are born
Combined with the intention of action, they become labor, sport and gymnastics

Adults and children on an equal footing

The ideal environment for growth that we aim for is one where adults and children, on an equal footing, can carry on lively sessions like this. This is what we always want to proclaim loud and clear.

That is why the alternative school we currently have in mind is closer to a “research institute” than a “school.” A research institute where, like poets, people advance their understanding of the universe through daily life; a place where “eternal incompleteness is itself completion” is allowed. We are pouring all our energy into making such a small, cosmic place a reality.

What we need is a transparent will that embraces the galaxy, great power and passion

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Footnotes

1. So-called AI composition. We do not leave everything to the AI; instead of playing instruments and arranging, we create songs by fine-tuning parameters and the like. ↩