A project is under way to have 1,000 violinists from around the world play at various venues in Japan and abroad with violins made from debris in the tsunami-ravaged city of Rikuzentakata, with the first performance to be given by Israeli-born violinist Ivry Gitlis, 89, at a first-anniversary ceremony there on Sunday.
Violins have been made under the project from wooden debris in Rikuzentakata, home to the "miracle pine" that became a symbol of hope and perseverance.
The tree survived the gigantic tsunami that knocked down all the other roughly 70,000 pine trees on the area's 2-km scenic stretch of Pacific shoreline. The tree's roots, however, were destroyed and it is dying.