World Happiness Festival

Headliners: Yukihiro Takahashi, Shugo Tokumaru, Hikashu

The brainchild of bassist Haruomi “Harry’ Hosono, one of three founders of seminal elepop group Yellow Magic Orchestra along with keyboardist Ryuichi Sakamoto and drummer Yukihiro Takahashi, World Happiness has enlivened Tokyo Bay’s “Dream Island” park with a bill that digs into the artier end of J-pop since 2009. The 2013 edition features among others indie-folk multi-instrumentalist Shugo Tokumaru, pioneering avant-pop outfit Hikashu, roots rocker Tamio Okuda and Yukihiro Takahashi himself.

Yumenoshima Koen Rikujokyogijo, Aug 11, ¥8,500. http://world-happiness.com

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Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto

Headliners: Saito Kinen Orchestra, Junko Onishi

Influential conductor Seiji Ozawa directs the Saito Kinen Orchestra in its annual celebration of all things Western and classical amid the serene Japan Alps surrounding the city of Matsumoto. The festival grew out of the Saito Kinen Orchestra, which was created to honor teacher and cellist Hideo Saito, and was born in 1992 with Ozawa guiding its development. The month-long event will see the ailing 77-year-old Ozawa direct a program featuring works by Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Gershwin, Ravel and Schubert and Haydn among other composers. The grand finale comes in the form of a performance of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue by jazz pianist Junko Onishi’s trio with the Saito Kinen Orchestra conducted by Ozawa himself. The finale came about after Ozawa and author Haruki Murakami attended a purported retirement concert by Onishi, and convinced her to join them in Matsumoto. Concerts are held at the Matsumoto Performing Arts Center and other halls in and around Matsumoto in Nagano Prefecture.

Matsumoto, Aug 12-Sep 7. Prices vary for individual events. www.saito-kinen.com/e

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Earth Celebration

Headliners: Kodo, Hiromitsu Agatsuma

Primal beats in a placid island setting fringed by thick forests and, in the distance, the Sea of Japan. Yes, it’s the Kodo drummers’ Earth Celebration. The weekend festival on far-flung Sado Island, which usually pairs the muscular men of Kodo with a foreign guest, this year turns toward Japanese tradition.

Legend of the kabuki stage, Tamasaburo Bando, will direct Kodo in a special encore performance of their coproduction Dadan, with a specially commissioned screen as backdrop under the nighttime sky. Also slated to rejoin Kodo is shamisen (the Japanese banjo) virtuoso Hiromitsu Agatsuma. Together they will delve into the intricacies of Japanese tradition—and point the way toward the future—in the world’s first performance of Agatsuma’s new epic composition.

With Earth Celebration half the fun is getting there. A shinkansen journey across Honshu gives way to a placid ferry ride—sometimes regaled by a local drum troupe aboard for the journey. A quaint Japanese fishing village awaits on arrival, transformed briefly into a kind of hippy encampment. Ogi supplements its earnings from the sea with a week of tourism as thousands descend upon it for Earth Celebration. One can participate in workshops ranging from Sado’s native “demon drumming” to traditional Japanese dance and folk song.

Ogi Town, Sado Island, Niigata Prefecture, August 23-25. Prices vary
for individual events. www.kodo.or.jp/ec/en

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Tokyo Jazz

Headliners: Chick Corea, Tony Bennett, Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club

Tokyo Jazz takes jazz out of the archetypal smoky basement and places it on the stage of Japan’s finest concert hall. Public broadcaster NHK’s festival is a dignified affair, with polite audiences applauding jazz giants in the comfort of the grand Tokyo International Forum as Japan does its part to keep the American jazz tradition alive. This year’s 12th bill achieves the impressive feat of following up last year’s appearance by 84-year-old Burt Bacharach with a visit by equally unassailable crooner legend, 86-year-old Tony Bennett. For modern jazz fans, pianist Chick Corea (Miles David Band, Return To Forever) will be joined by saxman Lee Konitz and guitarist Larry Carlton. A set by Cuba’s Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club featuring 82-year-old Omara Portuondo should inject some Latin brio into the proceedings.

Tokyo International Forum, Sep 6-8. ¥6,500-¥9,500 (individual concerts) ¥18,000 (one-day pass). http://tokyo-jazz.com

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Wire

Headliners: Sven Vath, Takkyu Ishino, Josh Wink

Irrepressible techno impresario Takkyu Ishino’s Wire turns 15 this month—a testament to four-to-the-floor dance music’s longtime appeal in Japan. Other electronic music festivals may reach from disco to dubstep, but Ishino focuses ruthlessly on straight-ahead beats in what may be the world’s biggest techno event. Wire 2013 looks back before the current commercial EDM scene to a time when Japanese DJs were forming links with German producers—both of whom had been heavily influenced by the Detroit underground of the 1980s. This means Ishino and friends like DJ Hell, Sven Vath, and Westbam at the steel wheels, along with Japanese veterans including Ken Ishii and Fumiya Tanaka. Get your fill of not only massive beats booming across the Yokahama Arena, but also cutting-edge visuals courtesy of inventive domestic VJ outfits Device Girls and Krak x Heart Bomb.

Yokohama Arena, Sep 14. ¥11,550. www.wireweb.jp/13

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