What the Wind Carries

Nobuyuki Tsujii is featured on the third night of a four-part mini-series TV show shown in Japan on February 2, 2011.

風がはこんできたもの～音楽の原風景～』 - "What the Wind Carries".

Here's the Japanese  write-up that promoted the show, from http://www.tbs.co.jp/kazehako/:

2011年1月31日(月)から4夜連続放送

出演：JUJU、坂本冬美、辻井伸行、コブクロ/倉本聰

第3夜 2/ 2（水）辻井伸行 風を奏でる。

天才ピアニスト・辻井伸行。

作曲も手掛ける彼の、独特の感性に迫る。欧州ツアーに密着。

盲目の彼が、脚本家・倉本聰と共に富良野の大自然を歩き、即興で演奏を披露。彼が森の声を聴いて紡ぎだす美しいメロディとは…。

The photos above are screen-grabs from the show that featured Nobu. In it, Nobu visits a famous Japanese scenario writer 倉本聰 Kaoru Yamatani, better known by his pen name Sō Kuramoto, (76 years old) in Hokaido, walking in snow with him and then playing several impromptu pieces on the piano. The sponsor company uploaded two videos that came from the show, unfortunately with commercials left in: (sorry, these videos are no longer available)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYo4i4TF-6E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJavG2WFGYo

A Japanese Nobu fan has kindly provided the following translation:

K = Kuramoto; N = Nobu

(K) This may be rude to ask...

I think that we(sighted people) sometimes don't realize...I believe that sightless people --  especially you -- must have a special sense which sighted people don't have.

(N) I was extremely sensitive about sounds since little.  I can even hear things that are  hard to explain with words.

(K) For instance ... Is it possible to explain with piano the differences of such things as cold, warm, cool -- different temperatures?

(N) Yes. I can feel the differences of the air even in the same atmosphere.

(K) Can you tell the differences of people that you talk to?

(N)Yes. I used to play the piano to express my imagination of the guests when they visited our house.

(K) Can you please play your imagination of me?

Nobu plays the first  impromptu

(K) Thank you very much. I wonder if I'm so beautiful like that.

(K) In Hokkaido(where he lives) the new year starts when ice melts into water.

Can you play the scene when ice melts into water?

Nobu plays the second impromptu

(N) When I was little, my mother took me to many places to feel any thing like sighted people, even though I can't see.

I could feel wind, sounds of stream, birds singing... and I can see the colours of them.

I like the wind very much since I was little.

One day when my mother was explaining colours to me, I felt a very pleasant wind blowing; then I asked her what colour is the wind today? It  surprised her.  (Editorial: The question became the title of a book by Itsuko Tsujii.)

(k) Can you see the colours of wind?

(N)Yes.

(K)I envy you to have such a wonderful sense.

Nobu has never walked in the forest in winter; Nobu asked Kuramoto to show him around the forest.

Nobu is shown touching  an ice-laden tree, frozen in the forest where temperature falls to -30C.

Nobu is shown touching those trees, the buds and also the foot-prints of animals.

Nobu is shown watching a play about the environment that Mr. Kuramoto wrote and directed.

Nobu plays the composition of the forest he visited with Mr. Kuramoto.

**

UPDATE Jan 12 2019

Below is a clip from the show, "What the wind brings": An original composition by Nobuyuki Tsujii, as an impromptu played for the first time in a 2011 TV documentary filmed in Hokkaido, Japan.  He played it in Tokyo ("The PIANIST!")  yesterday (Jan 12 2019).  Nobu recorded a rendition of it on his 2011 Original Works album. I have always had a fondness for this piece. The original rendition is more masculine; the recorded track more sweet sorrow.