NATORI / IWANUMA, MIYAGI PREF. 每 A grand piano damaged by the massive tsunami in March 2011 and later restored has been temporarily installed at Sendai Airport in Miyagi Prefecture.
On Saturday, its owner, 61-year-old piano instructor Yumi Sakurai, performed with one of her students in the airport lobby, filling the terminal with music.
The piano was originally on the second floor of her parents＊ home in the town of Shichigahama, Miyagi Prefecture, when the tsunami swept the house away. After being made playable again, it has been placed at the airport for a limited period every year since 2021 in the hope that it will encourage people to reflect on the earthquake and tsunami.
Scratches on the lid and several missing keys have been deliberately left as they are.
※I hope people will come here, play it and feel something about the disaster from this piano,§ Sakurai said.
The instrument will remain on display at Sendai Airport, which straddles the cities of Natori and Iwanuma, until March 11, the 15th anniversary of the disaster. Anyone can play it with a reservation.
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