Begin Japanology

This month, we present a special talk-show series called Japanophiles, featuring lively interviews with foreigners living in Japan. Silvain Guignard came to Japan 28 years ago and is now a master of the biwa, the Japanese lute. Today, he performs both in Japan and abroad. He also teaches ancient Japanese music as a professor at a university in Osaka where one of his main goals is to make the subject more accessible to his students. Before coming to Japan, Guignard was already an established Chopin scholar. He was 30 years old when he first encountered the biwa. His switch from Chopin to the biwa occurred in 1983 when he met a musician who would change his life. For 23 years, Guignard studied the biwa under this musician, a Living National Treasure. Nowadays, Guignard's life is deeply embedded in the rhythms of Japanese culture and tradition. His everyday experience of Japan has become indispensable to his performance on the biwa.