Without a doubt, the story of the musicians Parihuanita and Auki is very unique. They recently performed at the Peruvian Japanese Cultural Center. With emotion and elegance they performed Peruvian Andean music. Precisely these are the characteristics that both, despite not being Peruvian, best understand and appreciate about this musical genre. This note narrates the original artistic life of the duo, alternated with the beautiful presentation of that day.
The lights in the Jinnai auditorium go out. Auki enters the stage, guitar in hand. “Good afternoon,” he says in almost perfect Spanish. “I don't speak Spanish well,” he adds humbly. Start playing The Condor Passes. The sound of his guitar has an Andean harp feel. The melody evokes the peaks and valleys of the Peruvian mountains. In the next song Parihuanita makes her entrance, wearing a light blue skirt. The theme is the Marinera Puneña. Parihuanita sings with a high-pitched voice, typical Andean intonation.
The songs performed by the duo alternate lyrics in Quechua and Spanish. Those who do not know them would not suspect that any of these are their native language. Parihuanita's real name is Ayane Matsuzaki. Its stage name comes from the red-and-white birds that inspired José de San Martín for the colors of the Peruvian flag. Auki is actually Ryuya Aoki. It occurred to Parihuanita that his last name sounded like the Quechua word for old or wise. The duo formed 18 years ago in their homeland: Japan.
The concert continues with an Ayacucho song. Auki begins to sing with an Andean emphasis. Parihuanita dances on stage. He interrupts his dance to sing in Quechua. The public accompanies them with clapping.
Parihuanita has known traditional Latin American music since she was a child. He no longer remembers why or how. As an adult she began to perform Bolivian music. He needed someone to accompany his voice with the quena. This is how they introduced him to Auki, who mastered this instrument. Parihuanita later learned that Auki also played the guitar. He proposed to her to perform Peruvian Andean music, he on the strings and she on the singing. Due to its elegance, Parihuanita already had a special affection for this music.
“(The music of) Ayacucho has several tunings,” says Auki while tuning his guitar. “(The) guitar is his lover,” jokes Parihuanita while the audience waits impatiently for the next song. “She is his lover because she has a waist,” adds Parihuanita, referring to the curvature of the instrument. The audience bursts out laughing.
The duo is professionally dedicated to performing Peruvian music in Japan. However, Auki confesses that in order to travel to Peru he usually dedicates himself to other jobs for three months, to pay for the ticket. They both visited Peru for the first time in 2001. They say with joy that during the six months they stayed, they spent much of the time in their favorite town: Ayacucho.
Jinnai Auditorium is almost full. Auki and Parihuanita introduce a new song saying that it is very sad and sentimental. As you begin to perform it, the air on the stage changes. The guitar melody is now melancholic. Parihuanita is crestfallen. Her song in Quechua gives the impression that it will end in tears.
The couple usually performs at clubs in Japan. However, they claim that most of their audience is Japanese. They suspect that Latinos prefer to go to salsa music venues. If they find Peruvians among the attendees, they are usually elderly. Parihuanita says that the Japanese can understand the beauty of the huayno very well. He believes this is due to the peaceful Japanese culture, which allows people to appreciate other cultures without prejudice.
To perform the next song, Auki tunes his guitar again. “His lover, very capricious,” Parihuanita tells him. The audience laughs again. They close the concert with an Ayacucho huayno. The voices of both, accompanied by the guitar, form a single feeling. At the end, the audience immediately stands up and applauds.
Parihuanita learned about Peruvian music through recordings on vinyl records and cassettes. Later, thanks to Japanese businessmen, numerous Peruvian interpreters arrived in Japan. This helped the Japanese duo have a greater approach to this music.
The duo produced, in 2002, a compact disc titled “Parihuanita y Aoki, Andean music of Peru.”
Attached to the album, Raúl García Zárate, renowned Ayacucho guitarist, introduces both of them, narrating anecdotally how he met them: “…at the end of my first concert in the city of Tokyo, I had the pleasant surprise of being greeted in Quechua by a young Japanese couple ( …) at the end of my last concert (…) they said goodbye to me in the typical clothing of Ayacucho, which moved me greatly…”
* This article was originally published on the website of the Peruvian Japanese Association (APJ), Affiliated with Discover Nikkei.
© 2008 Asociación Peruano Japonesa and Yamato Icochea Oshima