Hayami Saori(早見沙織): A Female Singer With Monozukuri — Japanese Craftsmanship Ethic

Monozukuri is the art, the science and the craft of making things with continuous improvement¹.

It can be regarded as a Japanese tradition which shapes many Japanese products in high quality. Many Japanese musicians follow this ethic and Hayami Saori(早見沙織) who is a Japanese female singer makes Japanese Pop music well presented with variations which impress many music lovers. In the following I will introduce the three elements of monozukuri: skills well mastered, respect to work and improvement towards perfection and how Hayami Saori presents these elements very well.

The first element of monozukuri is that the skill has to be mastered very well.

In music, timbre is the key for listeners to judge if the music is a classic. To get the sweet timbre, pitch accuracy, rhythm, dynamics and articulation are essential.

To get every element above well presented, the musicianship of the musician is very critical — the deep understanding and the feeling towards the music. This requires the musician to study the music very well. For example, the genre of the music is Jazz so the musician has to consider the elements of Jazz music based on the music score. That is, the musician has to make some analysis on the music score.

After that, the content of the music matters. What does the composer convey? Is it about a departure which makes a sad scene? Once the mist is clear, the musician can imagine the picture of the music and feel it. Then he/she can decide the music elements, dynamics and articulation to present the music in his/her own style.

This makes the music very unique so you can see different versions of one music piece which makes music listeners very obsessed with it. And Hayami Saori makes it. Hayami Saori is a musician who plays piano and sings Jazz music.

The following music Escort which is Jazzy is her classic that she meets the first element of monozukuri:

The second element of monozukuri is the respect to work.

With respect, Japanese make everything perfectly — you can’t see any flaws in their products. Hayami Saori respects music by singing the Jazz classics very soothingly. Although it is not easy for Japanese to master English well because English is not the official language of Japan, Hayami does her best to achieve this when she sings Jazz music. Her English pronunciation is nearly perfect when she sings the classic, Fly me to the Moon with her own style making the song really catchy:

The third element is the improvement of work towards perfection.

It is so common to see one Japanese product like bowls which are durable and with a nice appearance which makes you feel comfortable with it. So Japanese makes everything perfect even with a small bowl!

This is also common in Japanese music, especially the music concerts. Every arrangement, including the sound effect, stage decoration and costumes is very outstanding. The concert of Hayami Saori tells you everything about it and I have bought her concert DVD in Amazon US and watched it many times:

Monozukuri is a Japanese tradition which should be well respected as it makes the world beautiful by not just the appearance of creations, but also the spirit of craftsmanship which improves the lives of mankind in the world.

Besides music, there are so many examples with monozukuri in Japanese culture, especially animes, mangas and electronics. You can easily find them in your daily lives. If I find something interesting in this area, I will introduce them one by one in the coming future!

Reference

The ideas and spirit of monozukuri: https://www.allaboutlean.com/monozukuri/