FROM PIANO TO ACCORDION, AND JAPAN TO SERBIA: Fumiko moved here because of music, then became a Serbian bride! (VIDEO)

Fumiko, a Japanese woman, plays the accordion – in Serbia! It was her love for Serbian music that brought her here in 2003. And then she fell in love with a Serb as well.

Before she met him, her surname was Takeshita. Now it is Knežević. She is an example of how two completely different cultures can merge in harmony, and her story is a testament to how much music can connect us across all borders.

Learning Serbian kolo in Japan

She first came to Serbia in the summer of 2000. In Japan, she was a member of a folklore society that nurtures dances from Eastern Europe, including our kolo…

“Serbian music brought me to Serbia. In Japan I played the piano. When I told an acquaintance that I loved Serbian music, she introduced me to a man who plays the accordion and I started taking lessons,” Fumiko told Kurir.

She later studied with the famous master Slavko Mitrović Cale. Asked why the accordion, she says that the right side of the accordion has the same keyboard layout as a piano.

@japanka_u_srbiji #CapCut #japanka #japanka_u_srbiji #harmonika #srbija ♬ オリジナル楽曲 – Japanka u Srbiji

“It was difficult to master the accordion”

“It was easy to play it because I had played the piano in Japan. Besides that, I like playing the accordion because it covers everything – melody, chords and bass – and I can carry it anywhere. Still, it was difficult to master the accordion. Only four years ago, when I successfully played ‘Tanino oro’ by Bata Kanda, a song I had wanted to play ever since I started learning the accordion, did I allow myself to say that I am an accordionist,” she says.

Between 2000 and 2003, she visited our country as a tourist whenever she managed to save enough money.

Moving to Serbia

“During that period, I talked a lot about Serbia to my family, so they had a picture of what it looks like here and were not so worried. The decision to move came from my desire to continue playing the accordion and to learn from masters of the instrument.”

The songs she loves to perform are “Kada padne prvi sneg” by Zvonko Bogdan and Balašević’s “Ringišpil,” while the first piece she learned was something more traditional – “Moravac.”

She met her husband at the wedding of a mutual friend in Belgrade, and learning the Serbian language, she says, was not difficult for her.

“I love Serbian music and culture, and I wanted to learn as much as possible about Serbia. That’s why it wasn’t so hard. Also, it’s obvious that I’m a foreigner, so I thought people could accept me even if I made mistakes, and I wasn’t afraid of that,” Fumiko says, adding:

“Serbs are a hospitable people, and that helped me when I started living here. For further communication, music and the friendship between Serbia and Japan open many doors for me.”