Pictured: Tomi Fujiyama and Josh Bishop. Photo courtesy of Josh Bishop.

Tomi Fujiyama & Josh Bishop. Photo Credit: Josh Bishop.

GALO: Country-western as a genre is thought to be extremely American at its core. Yet one interesting point brought up in the film is that country is really a global genre, built from influences in England and Ireland and played on instruments from Africa and Hawaii. I wondered if either of you thought the content also spoke to a global audience. Are there themes there that everyone can identify with?

JB: It’s important to point out that when Tomi first started performing as a kid, she was playing traditional Japanese music known as Enka. It’s basically [the Japanese] version of [American] roots music. In a way, you could consider it Japanese country music. Through default and necessity, she stumbled into playing [American] country-western. However, she fell in love with the music at a very young age, and organically she became that thing. As a filmmaker, I found it interesting that American country-western is an amalgamation of all kinds of folk music from Ireland, England, France, you name it. To me, it was very fitting. There seems to be nothing weird about it. Those were actually her roots, too, just a Japanese form of it.

GALO: Tomi, did you feel these collective musical roots when you transitioned to American music? Did it make it easier?

TF (via Ehrlich): Music has roots. Everybody has roots, and heart, too. I understood this once I started singing country-western music for Americans. I wanted to sing more. It was easy to understand.

GALO: Another interesting point that comes up in the film is the effect of WWII as a sort of catalyst for this mixture of Japanese and American cultures. Josh was this topic planned or did it come up spontaneously?

JB: Tomi was a product of WWII. [When Tomi was young], Japan had just been opened up to the world and was being bombarded by American culture on all sides. It was natural that our music and culture would make it over there, and that it was embraced [so fully].

The topic was an obvious progression. That was an observation that I made, and it felt like something I needed to touch on in the film. I feel like just by telling her story, we did that. I didn’t necessarily need to go into it any deeper.

GALO: Throughout the film, Tomi visits several sites of her country-western youth that have disappeared, such as the performance spaces in Las Vegas or the set of the Les Crane. At the end of the film, Tomi and her supporters on Music City Roots are identified as faithful to a kind of old-school country-western, which has fallen out of sync with the mainstream country genre today.

JB: It’s not that Music City Roots are identifying with old-school country-western. They’re identifying with the sentiment of the time — that era, the ’30s to the ’60s, when Americana was at its birth and still [in its original form]. Music for music’s sake is what that’s about. Music City Roots represents the rebirth of this idea.

GALO: I see. Tomi, with Music City Roots promoting the roots of the genre and generating interest in authentic country-western, do you have hope that the country genre in general might feel the effects of this authenticity? Maybe the mainstream genre can find its way again?

TF (via Ehrlich): I truly believe it. Origins are important, and that’s part of what I want to relate.

JB: Tomi considers herself an ambassador, a country-western ambassador from Japan.

Tomi comes from an era when country music became very popular. Before ’64, when she was signed to Columbia, she was quite popular. She was doing television appearances. When she came back from her tour in the United States, she found that that fad had actually died.

GALO: I didn’t realize how widespread her popularity was in Japan outside of the USO shows.

JB: Yeah. And in the meantime, there has been a resurgence of [country-western] popularity in Japan. Tomi is very well-known in that circle. But, of course, it’s nowhere near the popularity we have here.

GALO: Interesting. Another thing I was curious about was the song “Tennessee Waltz,” which is a song about loss and yearning. It appears a number of times throughout the film. Tomi, do you find that your experience in America, specifically your quest to get on the Grand Ole Opry, evokes the themes of this song?

JB: She wants to answer this one in English.

TF (in English): I love the song “Tennessee Waltz” very much. When I performed at the Grand Ole Opry, they asked me to sing something else, and I said, “No. I will sing, but only my favorite song.”

JB: What is it about that song that you love so much?

TF (In English): I like the words, but I like the melody more. Every time I would perform the song on military bases, more and more people would grow quiet [as I sang]. Sometimes they would close their eyes and just listen. When I saw that, I felt so happy. For 50 years, I think I’ve been singing “Tennessee Waltz.” Always in the key of F. It’s the same today as it was then.

JB: I think in a larger sense, that’s the song she sang at the Grand Ole Opry, which was the biggest night of her life. As you can imagine, that’s the song that means the most to her.

GALO: Tomi, the film ends without you getting a chance to perform at the Grand Ole Opry again. Given this conclusion, do you still hope to play at the Opry or have you left that dream behind?

TF (in English): Yes, I wish I could sing there again, one more time at the Grand Ole Opry. It is my dream. I love country music. It is my whole life.

GALO: Made in Japan was recently selected for the Nashville Film Festival. Will you all be heading back to Nashville for the event come April 16?

JB: Oh, you betcha,’ we’ll all be there.

GALO: Tomi, even if you don’t get a chance to play at the Opry again, does it offer you any comfort to know that the Nashville community appreciates you?

TF (via Ehrlich): I’m very happy that my story is appreciated in Nashville.

JB: Every time we’ve gone to Nashville, we’ve been greeted with open arms. We set that town on fire every time. Tomi is very well-respected and loved there. She just makes people happy and I think that makes her happy.

GALO: What do you both expect from this film? Tomi, do you expect it will help bring you opportunities to perform? And Josh, with the exposure and interest in your first feature film, where do you hope to go from here?

TF (in English): I appreciate Josh making this film. It’s been a very important thing in my life. After this movie, I want to have more opportunities to perform, to sing more.

JB: I saw that this woman was important. I saw that this story was important. A lot of times, people ask me how it feels to be done with this movie after 11 years. I tell them, “It took a long time to make this movie, but this woman has been doing this for over 60 years. 11 years is a drop in the bucket.” This is someone who has dedicated her entire life to something and has literally never wavered in the face of adversity. That’s amazing and inspirational. People need to know about people like Tomi Fujiyama. We need these kinds of stories in the world right now.

Tomi also taught me a lot about myself. If you don’t give up and you are willing to sacrifice for what you believe in, you can actually achieve that thing. I don’t think that’s a cheesy story. That’s reality, and I think that’s what we proved with this movie.

Made in Japan Official Trailer HD from The Diamond Bros. on Vimeo.


Video courtesy of Music City Roots.

For more information about “Made in Japan,” including current screenings, you can visit the documentary’s official Web site by clicking here. Currently, the film can be seen at the Nashville Film Festival. The film will be screened on both Saturday, April 18 and Monday, April 20.