In May of this year, when organbuilder Hans-Ulrich Erbslöh was in Hawaii to clean and add a couple of stops to the Beckerath organ, I mentioned that I was planning to go to Japan for my birthday this year. Hans immediately said that I ought to contact Takeshi Nakazato, with whom he had gone through together in the masters program in organbuilding. They also worked together on the installation of the Beckerath organ at Kunitachi College of Music. I took down Takeshi’s email address and wrote to him about my visit.

Then, about a month ago, while I was cleaning out my cabinets for termite treatment, I came across a note pad listing a bunch of people with Japan addresses. I guessed it was from 2006, nineteen years ago, because there was a listing for Yuko Honda’s parents. 2006 was the year my husband Carl gave a series of reunion recitals with violinist Yuko Honda, in Washington, California, Hawaii, and Japan. That list included people we could possibly contact on our trip that year.

But guess what! Takeshi’s name was also on that list, meaning Hans had given me his contact information 19 years ago! I had obviously forgotten about it, and we never contacted him when we were in Japan in 2006.

Today, though, we spent almost the entire day with Takeshi, who met us at the Meguro station at 8:00 am. From there we walked to the Shirokane church, which is part of the United Church of Christ where Takeshi’s company with Joji Matsuzaki, MaNa Orgelbau, built the organ in 1990. Even though the organ is now 35 years old, it was obviously constructed with great care and outstanding craftsmanship. It is mechanical throughout, and Takeshi told us that he rarely uses electric stop action, preferring mechanical instead.

We then got into Takeshi’s car and drove to another of his installations at the Kakinokizaka Church, also a UCC church. This organ is only six years old but we really were impressed by its beautiful construction and compact design. When the organ was installed, the furnishings of the church were upgraded, creating an elegant worship space.

An unexpected treat was meeting the organist of the church, Hisako Watanabe — we found an immediate connection between us and exchanged information. She has been at the church for many years as organist and handbell director. I hope we can keep in touch.

After our visit to the church, the four of us, Takeshi, Hisako, Bill and myself went to lunch at a nearby restaurant to eat ramen and dumplings. We then said goodbye to Hisako while Takeshi drove us to his workshop in Machida, a 90-minute drive away where we had a tour and met his wife, the wife of his partner, Joji Matsuzaki and employees. What a special treat it was for us to join in their daily afternoon coffee and to see pictures of all their many organ installations.

Takeshi’s wife drove us to the train station where we boarded the express train back to Shinjuku to All Saints chapel at Rikkyo University where we could hear the choir and organist rehearsing for Evening Prayer. I sneaked over to take a photo of the organ, thinking it would be the Beckerath we had read about and discovered it was built by an English organbuilder, Kenneth Tickell and Company in 2013. As we listened to the service, it was obviously an English-style organ and we wondered what had happened to the Beckerath. Afterwards we went up to the console to ask the organist, and she directed us to a small room elsewhere on the campus. The organ had been modified from three manuals to two by none other than our friend, Takeshi Nakazato. I’m afraid the organ’s sound is still too large for that small of a room.

What I was very pleasantly surprised at was the immediate connection I had with the organist, Yuko Sakiyama, who studied with Guy Bovet and Yuko Hayashi. We spent a few minutes chatting about Church of the Advent in Boston and our connection with Edith Ho. Yuko showed us the little positiv organ in her office built by Taylor and Boody, and what a gem! We exchanged contact information and hope we can keep in touch.

It’s these interactions that make my trips so memorable, meeting Takeshi Nakazato after all these years, and the chance encounters with the two women organists, Hisako Watanabe and Yuko Sakiyama.