The sound I was born with

Kondo Toshinori, a world-renowned jazz trumpeter, weaves the world of sounds from his hometown, which he grew up listening to, into words. The illustrations are by Western-style painter Chinai Kyosuke. Chinai has established a unique painting style using acrylic paint on Japanese paper, and is known for his innovative expressions that transcend the boundaries between Japanese and Western painting. Chinai's dynamic and artistic drawings add color to Kondo's words of sound, creating a magnificent competition between sound and art that will resonate with children's hearts.

From the heartbeat inside the mother's womb, to the everyday sounds of the outside world, to the baby's first cry, each sound weaves together the miracle of the birth of life. Through sound, you can experience the warmth of life, the joy of becoming a parent, and the excitement of a new family member being born.

[Title] The sound that gave me birth
[Publisher] Fukuinkan Shoten
[Date of publication] March 2007
[Number of pages] 28 pages
[Size] Approx. 29.3 x 30.7 x 0.8 cm
[Format] Hardcover
[Title reading] I'm a cute guy
[Author/Editor] Tonori Kondo/Text, Kyosuke Chinai/Illustration
[ISBN] 978-4-8340-2260-5
[Condition] Used, average condition (minor stains on top): Used Good
[Accessories] Cover
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Toshinori Kondo

Born in Hashihamacho, Imabari City, Ehime Prefecture in 1948. He began playing the trumpet in the brass band club at junior high school, and was a classmate of fellow band member Kyosuke Chinai until he graduated from Imabari Nishi High School. He began performing professionally while attending Kyoto University.

After graduating from university in 1972, he moved to Tokyo with the aim of becoming a free jazz musician. In 1978, he moved to the United States, living in New York's Lower East Side and beginning touring and performing with numerous musicians. By 1983, the year his eldest son was born, he had recorded 121 live shows around the world, earning him international acclaim.

In 1984, he returned to Tokyo and formed the band IMA with other Japanese musicians. He began his "International Music Activity" activities, broadcasting his music from Tokyo to the world. While touring the world with the band every year, he also engaged in a wide range of activities, including music for television and film, appearing in television, film and commercials, and publishing books.

In 1993, he disbanded the IMA band and established a new musical base in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. That same year, he launched his "Blowing the Earth" series, beginning with a performance in Israel's Negev Desert. He continued his journey, improvising on the electric trumpet in the natural wonders of the world, from the Andes in Peru, to Ladakh in the Himalayas, to McKinley in Alaska, to Kudaka Island in Okinawa, and to Uno in Mie Prefecture. In 2001, at the invitation of the 14th Dalai Lama, he produced the "International Peace Music Festival Hiroshima 2001," a concert themed on peace and the environment, at Itsukushima Shrine on Miyajima Island. In 2005, to mark the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he launched the "PIKADON project" with Seitaro Kuroda, Nobuyoshi Araki, Tadao Ando, and others.

Kyosuke Chinai

He was born in 1948 in Namikata, Namikata-cho, Ochi-gun, Ehime Prefecture (now Imabari City), as the youngest of six siblings.

Even before he started school, he was a child who loved to read and look at picture books and draw. He wanted to join the art club at Kitago Junior High School and paint oil paintings, but gave up because all the club members were female students. At the time, he was dazzled when Kondo Toshinori was elected student council president and gave orders at morning assemblies, and when he saw Kondo practicing the trumpet alone on the beach, he envied his "youthful dedication." He joined the art club at Imabari Nishi High School and aimed to become a painter.

While studying at Tokyo University of the Arts, he won the Honorable Mention Award at the Shell Art Award Exhibition (1971), and the theme of the competition, "Contemporary Expression of Japanese Beauty in the Modern Age," became a major theme in his own paintings. For several years before and after graduating from graduate school, he hit a wall in his art and stopped creating. He went on a study tour of ancient art in Europe and several reporting trips to Tibet. During these trips, he reaffirmed the high standard of "Japanese beauty" and resumed his work, using the dignity of "Buddhist paintings" as his model. He also traveled to the Kingdom of Bhutan in search of the origins of Buddhism.

He has received numerous painting awards, including first, second, and special prizes at the Figaro Exhibition at the Japan-France Contemporary Art Exhibition, second place at the Bibliothèque des Arts Prize (1978-1981), an honorable mention at the Tokyo Central Museum of Art Oil Painting Grand Prize Exhibition (1987), the Grand Prize at the Drawing Grand Prize Exhibition (1985), the Liquitex Prize at the 1st Liquitex Biennale (1986), a special prize at the Yasui Prize Exhibition (1987), an excellence award at the Young Japanese Artists Exhibition (1988), and an honorable mention at the Yasui Prize Exhibition (1990). He has also held numerous solo exhibitions both in Japan and abroad, receiving high praise, including in Tokyo and New York. From March 1992 to April 1993, he illustrated Tomiko Miyao's "Kura" serial (Mainichi Shimbun).