The Japan News by The Yomiuri Shimbun
Pop star’s piano stuck in limbo in Miyagi Pref.
ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi — A piano donated by U.S. pop singer Cyndi Lauper to a municipal hospital in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, to support reconstruction efforts after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, has not been played for more than two years because of a dispute over ownership of the musical instrument.
A 51-year-old female representative of an organization in Miyako, Iwate Prefecture, who had asked a musical instrument shop in Ishinomaki to store the piano, filed a complaint against the male owner of the shop, claiming that the piano was donated without her permission.
In January, Ishinomaki Police Station sent papers of the case to the Ishinomaki branch of the Sendai District Public Prosecutors Office on suspicion of professional embezzlement.
In March 2012, one year after the disaster, Lauper visited the shop, which specializes in repairing pianos that were damaged by the earthquake and resulting tsunami. Looking at an upright piano to be repaired, she told the shop owner that she would buy the piano and wanted it to be used by citizens.
In response to her request, the shop owner proposed the piano be donated to Ishinomaki Municipal Hospital, which had been totally destroyed by the tsunami and was planned for reconstruction.
As a result of discussions with the hospital and Lauper’s side, the initial proposal of donating the upright piano changed to the repair and delivery of a grand piano, as the hospital’s lobby makes for a good venue for playing the instrument. The grand piano was donated to the hospital in August 2016.
Meanwhile, the Miyako organization was working on getting damaged school pianos from local boards of education and storing them as reminders of the disaster. The organization asked the Ishinomaki shop to store several pianos.
The representative noticed that the piano donated to the hospital was similar to one of the pianos her organization left at the shop. She confirmed the piano’s production number in the presence of hospital officials. The number coincided with that of a piano that her organization obtained from the municipal Ogatsu Junior High School building demolition site in Ishinomaki and had asked the shop to store. She filed a complaint with the police against the shop owner in May 2017.
She told The Yomiuri Shimbun that she did not ask the shop owner to return the piano, but added: “The value of the piano as something that bears scars of the disaster was destroyed. Basically, the confusion was caused by the fact that [he] did not donate the piano that Cyndi had first selected. The shop should apologize to those involved in the issue for causing such trouble.”
The shop owner said, “As I had heard nothing for a long time from the organization since I was asked to store the piano, I thought that ownership of the piano had been handed over to us.”
In response to the issue, the municipal hospital has refrained from performances on the piano since it held a concert in December 2016.
A hospital official said: “It’s unfortunate, as we know that the piano was donated for the purpose of having citizens play it. We want to deal with the issue appropriately after the prosecutors make a decision.”
According to Reiko Yukawa, 83, a lyricist who accompanied Lauper when she visited the shop, Lauper felt that she wanted to support the reconstruction efforts in disaster-hit areas through the piano’s repair and said that she wanted to visit Ishinomaki again and play the piano, too.
“If Cyndi knew about this, she would be very sad. I think she will visit Japan this year or next year, but then, if she would not be able to play the piano, it would be frustrating and regrettable [for me]. I hope this incident will be properly resolved,” Yukawa said.