Takeda article TLed.

The Concert Band novel shines a light on Uji

- The 4th year university student Takeda-san's Sound Euphonium novel

2 years since Doshisha University 4th year student Ayano Takeda (22) had her novel focused around students playing concert music in her hometown of Uji, Takajimasha has published over 180,000 copies of "Sound! Euphonium: Welcome to North Uji High School's Concert Band." With an anime adaptation starting in April, the response has grown to have many fans touring around Uji as in the story.

The high school concert band alumnus Takeda-san won the 8th Japanese Love Story Award (from Takajimasha) for her work "We breathed together today", which she wrote in only 2 weeks. As the judges saw it as a "hidden gem," her debut novel was published in 2013. Later that year, she continued by publishing "Sound...."

The euphonium itself is a smaller mid-bass brass instrument than the more well-known tuba. Takeda-san, who played in a band herself through her middle and high school days, constructed the story and characters with help from her friends in high school who told about practices, concerts, and emotions during that time.

With the main characters speaking the Uji dialect of Kansaiben, the Aida Festival in June, the famous tea urn postbox, and Mt. Daikichi overlooking Byoudou-in temple, there's bits of Uji stuffed in every part of the story.

The sightseeing committee has said that since the anime started airing, the amount of fans and field trip students carrying cameras to take pictures of locations that were featured like the benches alongside the Uji river has multiplied. Fans from all around the country have wrote impressions and drawn illustrations in a message book near a desk and chair from the model school, Toudo High School, in the Uji sightseeing center. The staff comments "We want to increase the amount of Uji fans with how popular the series gets."

- We asked Takeda-san what started her desire to write and what she plans to pursue in the future.

I dreamed of being a writer after reading (fellow Kyoto native) Risa Wataya-san's "The Back You Want to Kick", which won her the Akutagawa Prize when she was 19. I started to write seriously when I joined the literature club at Sagano High School (Ukyou Ward).

Though I didn't want to write about high school while I was so close to being a student, I wrote Sound! Euphonium as I was re-reading over my diary and other works I wrote in high school. I really like that straightforward clash inside the cramped classroom feeling.

As I continued to write, the characters grew, and it felt like they started to become alive on their own. When I wrote the scene where the third years graduate, it miraculously felt like I was watching my own upperclassmen graduate. I took great care to make it easy to read. I avoided difficult phrases so my friends who don't like to read could read it. I write first for others to read.

Right now I'm job-hunting. Originally, my plan was "become an author when I'm 40", but now I'm bewildered that I made my debut so early. My ideas haven't run out yet, but I want to continue to write while I'm working and gaining more life experiences.

- About "Sound! Euphonium: Welcome to North Uji High School's Concert Band"
An adolescent tale featuring the band members of the North Uji High School concert band, who once were regulars at the National Concerts. With a new adviser joining them, the group clashes, but once again makes it a goal to head to Nationals. A year of high school worries and troubles like fights, studies, love, parent relationships, and more are bound together and come to life in this tale. It started with "North Uji High." This March, the second novel, "The Hottest Summer for North Uji High School's Concert Band" was published. Then in April, the third novel "The Greatest Crisis for the North Uji High School Concert Band" was published alongside the first manga volume and the TV anime started. Finally, on the 25th of this month, the collection of shorts, with some newly written, "The Secret Tales of the North Uji High School Concert Band" was published.

Source: www.yomiuri.co.jp/local/kyoto/news/20150525-OYTNT50414.html
Picture of Takeda alongside the Uji River with her novels: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/photo/20150525/20150525-OYTNI50082-L.jpg