CHICHIBU, SAITAMA PREF. ¨C Shin Sasakubo grew up listening to blasts of dynamite scar the slopes of Mount Buko and echo across his small town every day at half past noon.
But it wasn¡¯t until the guitarist returned from Peru, where he studied Andean music, that he understood the significance of what was happening to the pyramid-shaped mountain considered a sacred symbol of the mountain-ringed basin in Saitama Prefecture known as Chichibu, some 70 km northwest of Tokyo.
¡°For us children the explosions were like bells signaling lunchtime,¡± he said. ¡°Little did I know back then that we were witnessing the execution of an object of worship.¡±
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