Candidate Hiwatashi, who attracted attention through an online campaign to defeat him and other controversy, lost the Saga gubernatorial election. It was an unexpected defeat despite the joint endorsement of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito. The final vote was:
▽ Yoshinori Yamaguchi (independent, new), elected with 180,0002795 votes.
▽ Keisuke Hiwatashi (independent, new), 140,0003720 votes.
▽ Yukihiro Shimatani (independent, new), 30,0002844 votes.
▽ Yoshitaka Isagai (independent, new), 6951 votes.
The margin was much larger than expected.
As someone who has watched Takeo City and its then-mayor Hiwatashi in various senses since February 2012 [1], I have complicated feelings. Yet, disregarding all that, I am going to write about how brilliant Seiya Ueno is.
As for Seiya Ueno, I knew nothing about him until the day before yesterday. Recently I have become fond of video messages. For example, at Christmas I hurriedly posted something like this [2]:
While wondering what to do for a spring message, I considered playing Yumi Matsutoya’s “Haru yo, Koi” [3], whose score I had at hand. I searched YouTube for a model performance and found this: Seiya Ueno. A prodigy who won the Jean-Pierre Rampal International Flute Competition at only 19 and went on to the Conservatoire de Paris.
Incredibly good. Every single note is played with a different nuance. That is what music ought to be. I completely lost the will to compete. Incidentally, the CD is here.
But the YouTube version is better.
Returning to the subject
I think today’s biggest news is not the Saga gubernatorial election, but this:
Paris march: Global leaders join ‘unprecedented’ rally in largest demonstration in history of France
Silencing speech through violence must never be tolerated. Muslims, too, are raising their voices to say that violence is absolutely unacceptable.
Freedom is always exposed to assassination by violence. Freedom is not bestowed from heaven. It is something we must fight to win and defend.
[1] Well, I have consistently been criticizing him indirectly, I suppose…
[2] I planned to record a practice, review it, fix the bugs, and then make the final recording, but ran out of time for the final recording… So it is full of bugs…
[3] I have the score by the admired Ayako Takagi, beside whom I once happened to eat at the counter of an okonomiyaki restaurant.
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