Street pianos have become widely known thanks to Harami’s success, but did you know that they were actually installed in Kanazawa City early on in Japan? Among the various people playing street pianos and posting their performances on SNS, we have selected a few recent masterpieces.
Street Piano 4 (image from 『photoAC』)
What is Machikado Memories Piano?
In October 2017, a grand piano that had been loved at Higashi Asakawa Elementary School in Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture, was installed in the underground plaza of Kanazawa Station’s Motenashi Dome as a 「Piano of Memories」.
It was earlier than that, as Harami, a music college graduate, began uploading videos of her playing 「Metropolitan Memory Piano」 to YouTube around 2019 when she was an office worker.
The use of the 「Memory Piano」 in Kanazawa was temporarily suspended in April 2020 to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, and resumed in March 2021.
Horse racing announcer and singer/songwriter also perform
Many videos of 「memory piano」 performances have been posted on social networking sites, and freelance singer-songwriter Tomoaki Oda is one of them.
Among the songs, the rendition of 『Tori-yasai miso no uta』, a commercial song for a soul food of the people of Ishikawa Prefecture, which was written without their permission, is particularly heartwarming.
「Mitsuo Okawa」, a horse racing play-by-play announcer, also often plays 「memory piano」, which is often classical.
In fact, many people play classical music on the 「memory piano」. Pianist Shunji Kotaki and Tokyo College of Music professor and conductor Junichi Hirokami also play.
In the midst of all this, Namechan, the keyboardist for the music band Ultra Sushi Fuyaa, played a Christmas song to soothe us when we visited Kanazawa.
Tomoko Yamaguchi has also posted some great classical performances, and recently on May 3, she uploaded a wonderful video of a 「relay performance」 of the theme song 『Ai no Hana』 from the NHK TV series 『Ranman』 sung by Aimyon street pianos in various locations.
Information on Machikado Memories Piano
| Name | Machikado Memories Piano |
| Location | 2-2 Kinoshinbocho, Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture Kanazawa Station East Exit, Moshinashi Dome Underground Plaza |
| Related website | https://pianomitsuketa.com/40/ |
