Did you hear the sukiyaki simmering?

a great master of shakuhachi (vertical bamboo flute)

Composer, Toru Takemitsu dined with a shakuhachi master at a restaurant and then requested a song from him. There was left sukiyaki in the pan between the two. While listening to the song, they heard the sound of the sukiyaki simmering, and, in addition, even the noise of the traffic. But the sound of shakuhachi was "not marred". The master said it was a good performance because of this. Takemitsu thought sound should blow through not silence but a rustling bamboo thicket. From Takemitsu's essay, "On An Obstacle."

"April 28  2019

from “Oriori no Kotoba” by Kiyokazu Washida, The Asahi Shimbun"