Traditional Fire Warning Rhythm
Comments: 9
During winter nights the traditional Japanese reminder to take care with fire and kerosene heaters and so on can be heard throughout the neighbourhood. The warning is produced by striking together two blocks of wood. Volunteers stroll around tapping out the rhythm – clack… clack… clackclack – which echos through the cold, a woodblock public service announcement. You can hear them streets away. Watch out for fires! Be careful with those heaters! Have a safe night, everyone….
Japanese Fire Warning (250K mp3, 00:00:30)
Not a great recording because I had to turn the gain on the mic right up, but it’s one of my favourite sounds, a drawn out saunter of a rhythm, a calm and civic-minded syncopation timed to the player’s footfalls, a warm accompaniment to the shrill soprano cold. I found that if you add an echo…
…you end up with something like notes for an Iannis Xenakis composition.
•••
Posted to Audio • 2002.12.29 (Sun) • 12:52
Comments
Posted by Chas. Porter 2002.12.29, 14:50
Thank you for that. I could hear the cold, smell the woodsmoke, and see the image of a solitary figure passing from shadow to light to shadow again, walking the narrow streets, sounding a simple, infinite rhythm across centuries.
Posted by Scott 2002.12.29, 17:38
Chas summed it up perfectly. The sound is almost romantic, if you get what I mean.
Posted by nick 2002.12.29, 17:43
goddam other cultures being more interesting than whatever one i live in…
Posted by Kevin 2002.12.29, 21:25
Don’t they say anything while walking around? Here in Kyoto they call out in between clacks. It’s almost like chanting, usually very soothing…
Hi no you jin…
Be careful of fire…
Posted by jh 2002.12.29, 21:59
Oh, you ebullient Kansai people! Tokyoites seem to take a more muted approach to their civic responsibilities these days. I haven’t heard chanting for many years.
Posted by Jeff 2002.12.29, 22:49
This is why I like Japan so much. A mixture of “on the cusp” future-oriented thinking without throwing out everything of the past. City dwellers could just issue an iMode alert -grin
Posted by Peter 2002.12.30, 09:57
Thanks Jeremy, I enjoyed that. It moved me to describe in words my local night noises. Must get a sound recorder of some sort….
Posted by shoop 2002.12.31, 16:03
One cold and grey, post blossom, sunday morning in Tokyo (Ikebukuro) I awoke to a shrill and yet strangely melodic chant echoing throughout the streets below. I didn’t mind the interruption to my sleep until I got the translation.
Seems this particularly vocal capitalist was driving up and down the alleys singing about the clotheslines or poles from which to hang your clothes that were for sale in the back of her truck.
Posted by Logo dzwonki polifoniczne sms 2004.01.03, 03:17
It is better not to hear a fire warning too often and too close. Heaters are very dangerous, it is better to remeber not to sleep when they work.
Post a comment:
Send This Story to an Enemy
• • •
