WESTERN CLASSICAL MUSIC IN JAPAN
The Japanese have a passion for “Ode to Joy” from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. It is performed by orchestras and choirs all over Japan around New Year's Day and satellite transmissions of the piece from five continents was a key feature of the opening ceremony of the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. Once it was performed with a 10,000 person volunteer choir.
The NHK Symphony Orchestra is Japan's oldest orchestra. The Japan Philharmonic Orchestra has an international reputation as do the acclaimed Japanese composers Takemitsu Toru (“Textures, November Steps”) and Moroi Makato (“Taiwa Godai”).
The global recession in 2008 and 2009 hurt Western music orchestras in Japan as performances were canceled, promoters went bankrupt and sponsors withdrew their support.
Many Asian parents encourage their child to take up a Western musical instrument and dream of their kids becoming classical music stars and spend a great deal of time and money providing them with lessons and instruments. One 19-year-old cellist who was good enough to become a professional started piano lessons at four, began studying the cello at six, entered a conservatory when she was nine, left home to attend an overseas academy of music when she was 14.
In an effort to turn to turn on infants and you children to classical Western music and enlighten them about endangered animals conductor at the same time Shunsuke Hori put together the six-piece Zorrasian Brass band comprised of musicians in masks, with a Sumatran tiger on trombone, an Indian lion on coronet, a douc langur monkey on trumpet, a polar bear on sousaphone, a Malaysian tapir on French horn and an okapi conducting. The masks make it difficult to hear what they are playing but doesn’t interfere with the playing itself so much.
Ryuichi Sakamoto composed the score to the movie “The Last Emperor." Kitaro is a Japanese New Age synthesizer performer. He won the grammy for Best New Age Album award in 2001. Kitaro was nominated for the same award in 2011 but did not win it this time.
Good Websites and Sources: Toru Takemitsu Profile schott-music.com ; Toru Takemitsu Bio and Listen to His Music naxos.com ; Seiji Ozawa short bio bach-cantatas.com ; New York Times articles on Seiji Ozawa nytimes.com ; Culture Vulture of Madame Butterfly culturevulture.net ;Tokyo Opera City concert hall operacity.jp Wikipedia article on Budokan Hall Wikipedia ; Tokyo International Forumt-i-forum.co.jp . Tours of the Yamaha Piano Factory can sometimes be arranged with advance reservations by calling (053)-460-2901. Hamamatsu City site city.hamamatsu.shizu
Links in this Website: CLASSICAL JAPANESE MUSIC Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; WESTERN CLASSICAL MUSIC IN JAPAN Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; JAPANESE FOLK MUSIC AND ENKA Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; J-POP AND POP MUSIC IN JAPAN Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; J-POP AND POP ARTISTS IN JAPAN Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; ROCK IN JAPAN Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; PUNK, FOREIGN MUSIC, HIP-HOP IN JAPAN Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; YOKO ONO Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; KARAOKE IN JAPAN Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; DANCE IN JAPAN Factsanddetails.com/Japan
Good Websites and Sources on Japanese Music: “The Rough Guide to the Music of Japan” is a CD assembled by Paul Fisher, Short Introduction to Japanese Music asnic.utexas.edu ; Bibliography on Music in Japan aboutjapan.japansociety.org ;Traditional Japanese Music and Dance sfusd.k12.ca.us/schwww ; Wikipedia article on Music of Japan Wikipedia ; Performing Arts Network of Japan performingarts.jp ; Traditional Performing Arts in Japan kanzaki.com ; Hear Music, a World Music Store with a hearjapan.com ; Japanese, Chinese and Korean CDs and DVDs at Yes Asia yesasia.com ; Japanese, Chinese and Korean CDs and DVDs at Zoom Movie zoommovie.com
Introduction Western Music in Japan
The Meiji government, with the intention of modernizing Japanese music, introduced Western music instruction in schools, and in 1879 Izawa Shuji, a government bureaucrat who had studied in the United States, commissioned songs which were written using a pentatonic melody derived by exclusion of a major fourth and seventh. He compiled these songs, along with Western airs of a similar tonal structure (such as “Auld Lang Syne”) in a textbook, which was used in schools throughout the country. [Source: Web-Japan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan]
“The gradual entrenchment of this pentatonic scale resulted in it becoming the basis for a genre of commercial music. Another type of Western music with broad appeal was the military march, which was introduced by the Meiji government as an element in its modernization of the Japanese armed forces.
“In 1874, Japan’s first political party was founded, and the call for direct election of a national parliament gained strength. Leaders, who were often prohibited from speaking in public, had songs written to air their message and singers walked the streets selling copies of the songs. This was the beginning of “ enka”. The performers themselves gradually developed from street-corner political agitators into purveyors of sheet music and paid professional singers. Before the spread of radio and phonographs the “ enka “singers were an important medium for the publication of music.
Classical Western Music in Japan
By the early 20th century there were connoisseurs of Western classical music in sufficient numbers to attract the attention of European performers, some of whom came to Japan to give recitals or mount concert tours. In 1926, the New Symphony Orchestra was formed and, in 1927, regular performances began. In 1951, the orchestra was renamed the NHK Symphony Orchestra. Today, it is sponsored by the NHK Broadcasting Corporation and is Japan’s leading orchestra. Since 1950, the Japan Contemporary Music Association has held an annual festival to promote composition. [Source: Web-Japan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan]
“Notable postwar composers include Dan Ikuma, who wrote a charming opera, “ Yuzuru “(1952; Evening Cranes”), based on a Japanese folk tale, and Mayuzumi Toshiro, who composed symphonic pieces inspired by esoteric Buddhism. Takemitsu Toru, a composer of respected avant-garde pieces, has also written music for the cinema and is known worldwide. Many Japanese musicians have gone abroad to study, and some, such as the conductor Ozawa Seiji, the violinist Goto Midori, and the pianist Uchida Mitsuko, have established enduring international reputations. Conductor Ono Kazushi and violinists Daishin Kashimoto and Sayaka Shoji have also done some brilliant works.
Toru Takemitsu
Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996) is regarded by many as the greatest Japanese composer of the 20th century. Endorsed by Igor Stravinsky at a young age, he produced richly-textured Western pieces and incorporated Japanese traditional styles into his music. He has a huge body of work, including orchestral pieces, electronic and tape music and scores for 93 movies including Kurosawa’s “Ran” and Horishi Teshigahara’s “Women in the Dunes”.
During World War II, 14-year-old Takemitsu was stationed in an underground fortress west of Tokyo. There he said he had a life-changing experience when an officer played Lucien Byer singing “Parlez-Moi d’Amour”.
Takemitsu was largely self taught and once said he learned everything he needed to know about music from Debussy. His works take a great deal of skill and subtlety to play and are difficult to pull off in concert halls. Some consider Oliver Knussen’s DG recording “Quotations of Dream” to be a fine rendering of his work.
Alex Ross wrote The New Yorker, “Critics have underestimated Takemitsu because of the unstinting sensuality of his music. It is rich in opulent chords, luminous textures, exact tones that almost brush the skin, hazy melodies that move like figures in the mist. The titles give a sense of the sound: “Twill by Twilight,” “Toward the Sea,” “How Slow the Wind.' Yet the picture book atmosphere is periodically disrupted by harsh timbers, rumblings of dissonance, engulfing masses of tone...Above all he prizes the concept of “ma” — the “powerful silence” — as he defines it, which is set in relief by a single, equally powerful sound. Most of his mature works began with a tone materializing from silence, and a dematerialization towards silence once again.”
Seiji Ozawa
Seiju Ozawa was music director and conductor with the Boston Symphony for 25 years, beginning in 1973, and turned the Tanglewood Music Center in western Massachusetts into a major summer venue for classical music and place for nurturing promising talent. He was the longest-running musical director in Boston Symphony's 117-year history. As a conductor he helped give the symphony an international reputation.
James R. Oestreich wrote in the New York Times: “Ozawa has characteristically exuded life, energy and a positive spirit, both on the stage and in personal contact.” His “English remains idiosyncratic despite some four decades spent largely in the United States and Canada. [Source: James R. Oestreich, New York Times, September 8, 2010]
Ozawa holds dual citizenship in Japan and the United States but has started spending most of his time in Japan.” James R. Oestreich wrote in the New York Times: “Still, he said he enjoys being taken for an American in Boston or New York. And like many another American, he rejoices in the start of the football season. He remains a Boston loyalist in all sports, and though he fondly recalls good years from the Celtics, he knows the other side of the coin all too well. He said of his beloved Red Sox’ World Series victories, “I was there 29 years, it never happened, and after I left, it happened twice.” He followed the New England Patriots to the Super Bowl in New Orleans in 1997, when they lost to the Green Bay Packers. [Source: James R. Oestreich, New York Times, September 8, 2010]
“Music” is “his most natural medium. Language difficulties aside, Mr. Ozawa has always tended to discount the value of speech. “My one rule,” he has said of conducting, “is to avoid words.” In their place, he has developed a most eloquent language of full-body communication (but one that makes, say, back problems all the more troubling). [Source: James R. Oestreich, New York Times, September 8, 2010]
Seiji Ozawa Life and Music Career
The son of a dentist, Ozawa was born in China and lived there until he was six. He studied music in Japan and arrived in Massachusetts as a poor musician in 1960 and became a conductor when with the Boston Symphony when he was still in his 30s. In 1979, Ozawa made history when he brought the Boston Symphony to China at the invitation of Deng Xiaoping.
Ozawa married a model. He lived in Boston while his wife, son and daughter lived in Tokyo. They would spend summers with him in Tanglewood. According to his daughter Ozawa likes to do a strange rabbit dance at parties to entertain his friends and eat bananas as a midnight snack.
Ozawa was music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 29 years, from 1973 to 2002. In 2002 Ozawa became the conductor of the Vienna State Opera, regarded as one of the most prestigious conducting jobs in the world. His debut was received with a standing ovation. Among the great maestros that served before him were Mahler and Meingardtner.
Ozawa directs the Saito Kinen Festival in Matsumoto, which he largely founded in 1992. In January 2006, the 70-year-old Ozawa suspended all his engagements for several months after contacting shingles. After six months of “God-given rest” he returned to work in June 2006 with a much less loaded schedule. He told the Daily Yomiuri, “I had never taken a long rest. I was always worried about the inconvenience this would cause to the people around me.” During his rest he climbed some mountains, went to Hawaii and took up running.
Seiji Ozawa’s Health
Seiji Ozawa underwent surgery for cancer of the esophagus in January 2010, in which, he says, his esophagus was essentially removed, and had problems with sciatica before and after that. He turned 75 in the summer of 2010 and by that time looked haggard and worse for wear and sounded gravelly but still exuded optimism and energy. [Source: James R. Oestreich, New York Times, September 8, 2010]
“I kind of was threatened for life,” Ozawa told the New York Times. “Fantastic thing. They pulled the stomach up — can you imagine? — and put it together here,” he said, pointing toward the area of his collarbone, then showing a scar from an incision across his throat. Recovery from the surgery proceeded on schedule though Ozawa said he still sometimes chokes when lying down after eating. Always slight of build, he lost some 30 pounds, leaving him a decidedly thin 120 pounds. “I needed new pants,” he said. More important, having completed a course of chemotherapy, he was declared cancer-free in June.
Yet there was still that matter of sciatica, which makes it painful for him to walk. “I thought, when you have an operation, have to sit there and stay in hospital four weeks or five weeks, these things go away,” he told the New York Times. “It didn’t. When I became better, and then I started to walk in springtime, it came back, and even worse, because there’s no muscle around there. And this is the situation now.”
Ozawa Makes His Way Back
Ozawa says he cannot walk for more than five minutes without having to sit down, and he cannot conduct standing for any substantial length of time. So he canceled all his engagements for the year except for two. One was the Saito Kinen Festival in August. There he cut his appearances to a minimum, conducting a lone movement from Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings. The other was Carnegie Hall’s festival JapanNYC, of which he is artistic director and in which he conduct the Saito Kinen Orchestra in December, 2010 in an acclaimed series of concerts. [Source: James R. Oestreich, New York Times, September 8, 2010]
After the August concert When Ozawa told The Japan Times, “I consider today, the first day I conducted before an audience after my convalescence, as the first date of my second life.” He added, “I hope my music has acquired more depth.”
In 2011, Ozawa confined his conducting mostly to Japan, though he still plans to revisit Carnegie in April with the Seiji Ozawa Ongaku-juku, a training orchestra for young players, which he founded in 2000. Ozawa was unable to perform at a festival in China he had been invited to.
Classical Western Musicians in Japan
Among the most famous classical artists from Japan are the Tokyo String Quartet, opera soprano Azuma Atsuko, conductor Iwaki Hiroku, Shinichi Suzuki (creator of the "Suzuki method" of violin lessons), and pianist Mitsuko Uchida. Alex Ross wrote in The New Yorker,”Mitsuko Uchida delves deeper into Mozart and Schubert than almost any pianist alive.”
Osaka-born Midori Goto is a highly regarded violinist who performed with Leonard Bernstein and the Boston Symphony at the age of 14 in 1985. During the performance an E-string broke and she quickly changed to a second violin without missing a beat and then the same string broke on the second violin and again she made a seamless switch to another violin. Iluku Kawai is a famous Japanese female violinist.
Japanese soprano Michie Nakamura has performed at La Scala and the Met not long after her debut in 1986. In 1990 she won the Maria Callas vocal competition in Venice and has performed with Pavarotti and Placido Domingo. Based in New York, she jogs daily around Central Park and everyday consumes a soup made with 20 different vegetables and vegetable juices.
California-born conductor Kent Nagano has been heralded as the "next Bernstein." The grandson of first generation Japanese-Americans who were placed in a concentration cap in World War II, Nagano grew up on 500-acre artichoke farm in central California halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Japanese Musicians in International Music Competitions
Japanese do very well at international classical music contests. In November 2006, 22-year-old Japanese Kyoko Yonemoto won first prize in the Moscow Paganini International Violin Competition. She placed forth in the competition in 1997 and places third at Long Thibaud Competition in France in 2002. She studies at the Converatorium Maastricht in the Netherlands.
Mayuko Kamio, a violinist from Toyonaka, Osaka Prefetcure, won the violin section on the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. She is the second Japanese to win the violin section, Akiko Suwanai won in 1990 at the age of 18. Kamio began playing at four, studied at Julliard and has performed with a number of orchestras around the world.
In October 2008, 19-year-old Japanese student Sida Ueno won the 8th Jean-Pierre Rampal International Flute Competition. Uneo is a student at the Tokyo of the Arts.
Japanese Pianists in International Music Competitions
In June 2002, 21-year-old Ayako Uehara won the 12th Tchaikovsky Contest, arguably the most prestigious classical music competition in the world. She was the first Japanese and the first woman to win an award in the competition, which is held every four years. In 1998, Uehara became the youngest competitor to advance to the second round. She was born in Kagawa Prefectures and raised in Kobe and spent much of her time studying in Paris. In Moscow she played Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” and Tchaikovsky’s No. 1 Piano Concerto. Another Japanese, 22-year-old Tamaki Kawakuno shared the top violin award with Chinese Xi Chen.
Blind 20-year-old Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii shared the top prize with a Chinese pianist at th 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Ft. Worth Texas in June 2009. They were the first Asians to win the prize Blind at birth, Tsujii began playing a toy piano when he was three and was coached by the conductor Yuitka Sado after Tsujii sent him a tape of his playing when he was a middle school student. Although he can read notes with braille, Tsujii tends to memorize most of the pieces he plays. Tsuji’s debut album, entitled “ Debut, “ released less than a week after he won the award, flew off the shelves, selling tens of thousands of copies and reached No. 8 on the charts, the best ever for pianist’s first album.
In April 2011, Masataka Goto, a 26-year-old Japanese man won the triennial International Franz Liszt piano competition in the Netherlands. Goto was among 22 finalists from 11 countries in the contest, held in Utrecht. A native of Aichi Prefecture, Goto finished graduate school at Showa Academia Musicae and has performed overseas including in Europe and the United States. He played the composer's Piano Concerto No. 1 among other pieces during the competition. [Source: Kyodo news, Mainichi Shimbun, April 10, 2011]
Internationally-acclaimed Japanese pianists include Yoshihiro Kondo, trained under Gerhard Oppitz in Germany; Takako Takahashi, and International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition prize winner; Akira Wakabayashi, Queen Elizabeth Competition prize winner; and Rika Miyatani, also a Chopin Piano Competition prize winner. In November 2010, 23-year-old Hiroshima-native Mami Hagiwara won the piano division of the Geneva International Music Competition, one of the world’s oldest classical music contests..
In 2011, classical pianist Mitsuko Uchida won the Grammy for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance with Orchestra. She recorded some Mozart piano concertos with the Cleveland orchestra.
Japanese Composers and Conductors in International Music Competitions
Past Japanese Grammy Award winners include musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, who won the Best Album of Original Instrumental Background Score Written For A Motion Picture Or Television in 1989, and synthesizer performer Kitaro, who won the Best New Age Album award in 2001. Kitaro was nominated for the same award in 2011 but did not win it this time. [Source: Kyodo]
Yuki Kakiuchi, 33, won the grand prize at the International Besancon Competition for Young Conductors in September 2011 with his favorite "Don Juan," a symphonic poem by Richard Georg Strauss. Born into a family of music professionals, Kakiuchi began learning piano at 4. His father, who was a professor of music education, had Kakiuchi repeatedly listen to performances conducted by Wilhelm Furtwangler, a famous maestro. His mother was a former opera singer. Kakiuchi's desire to become a conductor bloomed when he was a middle school student. After graduating from Tokyo University of the Arts, he studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, where he met Seiji Ozawa. .
Three years after winning the 2009 Besancon International Competition for Young Conductors, Kazuki Yamada, is one of the world's most sought-after conductors. He has performed with leading orchestras such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, among others. "Offers came from prestigious orchestras. When asked about how the Besancon competition has affected his career Yamada told the Yomiuri Shimbun, “I'm still walking the same path, doing the same things as a musician. I didn't think I should change.” In September 2012, the 33-year-old Yamada assumed three new posts: principal guest conductor for the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, principal conductor with Japan Philharmonic Orchestra and music partner of the Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra. [Source: Hiroko Oikawa, Daily Yomiuri, November 9, 2012]
In October 2010, 30-year-old Keiko Mitsuhashi won second prize at the Arturo Toscanini International Conducting Competition. It was the highest prize ever given to a woman in contest for up-and-coming conductors.
In May 2011, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported: “Kenji Sakai, a Japanese composer living in Paris, has won the Queen Elisabeth International Grand Prize for Composition, the award's organizers have announced.Sakai, 34, won the grand prize in composition for his orchestra and violin concerto, the organizer's website said. It was the first time in 35 years that a Japanese has won the grand prize in the composition category. [Source: Takehito Kudo, Yomiuri Shimbun, May 20, 2012]
“Born in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, in 1977, Sakai studied composition and electronic music at such schools as Kyoto City University of Arts, Conservatoire de Paris (National Superieur de Musique et de Danse) and Conservatoire de Musique de Geneve. In 2009, he won the Toru Takemitsu Composition Award. "I incorporated [into the composition] ideas I acquired while studying electronic music. I'm delighted to win the award for the first work I entered into the competition," Sakai said.
Western Music About Japan
“The Mikado” is a famous humorous light operata by Gilbert and Sullivan that debuted in London in 1885. Even though it has many catchy tunes that remain popular today it was never well received in Japan because of the stereotyped way that the Japanese were characterized. Among Gilbert's crass lyrics are: “We are gentlemen of Japan . . . / Our attitude's queer and quaint.”
"Mikado" is an old name for the Japanese Emperor. Using the name was intolerably offensive to many Japanese, who saw the whole opera as a satire of the Japanese Imperial family when in fact it was a satire of Victorian England.
The “Mikado” debuted in Yokohama in 1887. The name of the play was changed and references to the Emperor were removed and only expatriots saw it. When a Japanese prince visited England in 1907, London performances of “The Mikado” were canceled. When a troupe from the Savoy Theater visited Tokyo in 1923 they were not allowed to perform the opera. After World War II, it was finally staged in Japan, but again mainly for expatriates, on a military base.
Madame Butterfly
Giacomo Puccini's famous opera “Madame Butterfly” (1904) is the most famous Western piece of music about Japan. Set in the harbor town of Nagasaki at the turn of the century, it is about the unfulfilled love between Cio-Cio-San (Butterfly) and U.S. Navy Lt. Pinkerton. Cio-Cio-San loves Pinkerton deeply, marries him when she is 15, renounces her faith, leaves her family and bears his son. Pinkerton leaves and returns 15 years later with his American wife. Cio-Cio-San is crushed. The opera ends with Cio-Cio-San killing herself.
It was not quite clear what inspired the opera. Many think it was influenced by novel set in Nagasaki called “Madame Chrysanthemum” by Pieree Loti, or memories of a missionary who wrote about a girl forsaken by an American sailor that was turned into play seen by Puccini.
“Madame Butterfly” was written at a time when Europeans were fascinated with the Orient, and Japan in particular. The debut performance was one of the most famous disasters of all time. Audience laughed when they were supposed cry and rioted when they were supposed to be clapping for curtain calls. Puccini reworked the play. When returned to stage a few months later it was a big success.
The first productions of Madame Butterfly intimated that the Japanese ate spiders and flies. Later scenes that portrayed Japanese as primitive were deleted by Puccini. When the opera debuted in Japan in 1914 the play was modified for Japanese audiences. Even so one Japanese newspaper called it a "contemptuous glance at customs and habits of loose women in Japan." A complete version was not performed in Japan until 1936. It was not very well received either.
Western Musical Instruments in Japan
Two Japanese violin makes — Nagoya-based Hiroshi Kikuta and Osaka-based Akira Takahashi — won the violin craftsmanship at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Both were trained in Cremona. Italy, home of the Stradivarius.
A Japanese composer invented a massive 300-string harp that fills up a large room and takes five players to play. The instruments, which has gone on tour throughout Europe, is made up of strings strung between what looks like volleyball net posts. There is no resonating chamber, Sound is amplified with paper cups attached to each string. The strings, which are made of silk, produce fluid, gently throbbing sound and played with tugs by gloved hands rather than plucking. The harp takes hours to set up and tune, including time waiting for the strings to adjust to the humidity of the playing space. Because the silk string are all but invisible players look like they are plucking air around paper cups floating in space. The players dance as they play.
Pianos in Japan
Japan makes the most pianos (about 360,338 per year) in the world. In terms of sales 136,000 digital pianos were sold 2002, compared to 37,000 regular pianos. Buying second hand pianos and selling them overseas, particularly in China and Southeast Asia, is a big business in Japan. One company that does it advertises regularly on television.
Yamaha is the world’s largest piano maker in terms of volume output and the world’s largest maker of musical instruments. That company is completely separate from the motorcycle maker. The Yamaha piano factory in Hamamatsu in Shizuoka produces some of the worlds' best pianos. The first domestically-produced piano was also made in this town more than a hundred years ago.
Yamaha makes a computerized piano that sells for $333,000. Known as the Disklavier Pro 2000, it boast Pentium III chips, an LCD screen that shows sheet music and video music performances that sync to moving keys, a computerized command center and computerized orchestra that can provide backup for playing,
Yamaha Disklavier Grand Touch Digital Grand Piano is fully digital grand piano with no strings. It was introduced in 1997 with a price tag of $15,495. The keyboard has the feel of a conventional piano but lacks the resonance and “finely grained nap” of a traditional instrument. It can also play synthesized sound and play pack what a pianist has just played. www.yamaha.com
Yamaha also make drums and electric guitars that don’t make any noise so the players don’t bother their neighbors. The players listen with headphones.
Image Sources:
Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Daily Yomiuri, Times of London, Japan National Tourist Organization (JNTO), National Geographic, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, Lonely Planet Guides, Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.
Last updated January 2013