Going on

The sisters walk on stage for tonight's performance.

Warm-up

The three sisters practice for tonight's performance. Last week they
only had two shamisens. It's loud!

River play

Shana plays in the river with her labradors who love water. The
sisters have their weekly performance tonight. Kyla just got back her
drum with a new skin on it which is always expensive but it sounds
great! The tsugaru shamisen uses dog skin because it is strong and
acts as a percussion when the players strikes it.

The sisters were in Sendai today for their lesson. On the Yamagata expressway in this photo. It was a hot summer day, 33C in Yamagata!

Gourmet Summer Party: July 14-17

The sisters will be performing four nights in a row in the evening for Koyo hotel for a summer party. It's a beautiful time to come to Yamagata!

Taking turns

The sisters made a special Tuesday night appearance at KOYO hotel onsen in Kiminoyama tonight. Kyla's skin is being replaced so they only had two shamisens. In this photo, Brenna and Shana play while Kyla waits in the back to take her turn. There were over 100 people watching as this is peak cherry season in Yamagata.

The Sisters need your support!

The Ryan Sisters perform in the genre of traditional Japanese music. Very few people, including Japanese, are familiar with this genre and the dedication and financial support it takes to keep doing it. Unfortunately, there is little support (such as private or public grants) for individual musicians in Japan. In Japan, grants are given to groups rather than individuals.

Traditional Asian arts and music are indeed supported in the US by grants, but you are required to be Asian. So, the sisters have very little support to promote Japanese traditional music. They need your help!

To our readers, is there anyone out there who would like to help sponsor or make a small donation (via Paypal) to The Ryan Sisters to help promote traditional Japanese music via the tsugaru shamisen? Thank you!

Two + one

Kyla tells the audience that one shamisen is getting repaired and that they will take turns playing in pairs. They did a good job tonight with a loud, enthusiastic audience. Now is cherry season in Yamagata, so the hotels are very full and busy. Brenna wants to go cherry picking!

Oh no!

Every tsugaru shamisen player's worst nightmare is to open their case
on the day of a performance and find the skin of their drum broken.
This time it's Kyla's...

Brenna & Shana practice

Brenna helps Shana with practice tonight.

Swimming

Shana and her friend go swimming this afternoon.
She is currently learning how to play "Waiha bushi" in addition to
preparing for the national competition coming soon. Shana really wants
to win her first award.

Sendai street

The Sisters are on their way to their lesson in Sendai tonight. The restaurant across the street reads, "hormone"...ooh

No. 3

The sisters finish up tonight in Kaminoyama.

Sagae Performance

The sisters played in front of 360 people at this evenings performance in Sagae city, Yamagata. They met a lot of really nice people. and played in two different places in the same event. Next, they move on to Kaminoyama-city for their weekly performance at Koyo hotel.

Backstage

The sisters get ready to go out. There are over 300 people here!

Together

The sisters practice for three performances tomorrow. Shana has really
improved and is keeping up with her two older sisters on the fast
pieces. More pictures tomorrow !

Nagoya plan

Today all three sisters received acceptance letters in the mail for
the August 1st national tsugaru shamisen competition in Nagoya. They
each had to send in a tape to be selected. Shana will compete in the
elementary school division, Brenna the jr./sr. high school division,
and Kyla in the women's general division. Nagoya is really hot and
humid in summer, so they will have to be careful that the skins of the
shamisens don't pop.

Black & Yellow

Shana practices while her two Labrador Retrievers wait for dinner. The
two labradors are used to hearing the loud practice of the tsugaru
shamisen.

Show

The sisters perform at Koyo Hotel in Yamagata.

Putting on Kimono

The sisters are seen here going through the process of putting on
their kimono for tonight's performance.It takes them about one hour to
be completely ready.

Tsugaru shamisen: unappreciated

Here is a pencil sketch of the sisters performance last month in
Tokyo. Now that it is summer, the sisters are getting busy with a lot
of performance requests. They are also hoping to participate in the
Nagoya national competition in August.
Brenna just wrote a school assignment (作文）about how the
Tsugaru Shamisen is unappreciated in Japan. After all, there is not
even one school or university where you can study it in all of Japan.