AKIRAIFUKUBE.ORG- Jin

JIN
(1932)

An Ainu fisherman (1845)

Jin, a work for solo guitar, was written by Akira Ifukube when he was 18 years of age. It is Ifukube's second known musical composition.

The name Jin has its origins in a ritualistic Ainu dance. One evening, the young Ifukube observed a group of Ainu dancing around a fire pit in Sapporo. The curious composer-to-be asked one of the dancers about the significance of dance. The dancer pointed at the fire pit and uttered the word "jin." This mysterious word made an impression on Ifukube and he consequently decided to write a guitar piece based on the music he encountered at the ritual.

Soon after the piece's completion, Ifukube attempted to send it (along with another early guitar composition, Nocturne) to his pen-friend, the Spanish composer Ernesto Halffter. When Halffter received the package from Ifukube, both scores were missing. Unfortunately, Ifukube did not make a personal copy of either score; both compositions have thus been considered lost since the same year they were written, 1932.

Ernesto Halffter

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