“A Japanese Journey – Nihon no tabiji” reflects the fact that over the last twenty years, I have spent many months touring Japan through all the varied seasons and have travelled to its many different areas. I have been lucky enough to glimpse the hidden Japan away from the vast cities and to sense the true culture and history of the land. To an outsider, it might appear that a Japanese person will seldom show their real feelings but these songs must surely confirm their ability to have emotions, covering the wide range from a child’s simple wonder of a red dragonfly to the remembrance of a first love. As in the great Schubert songs, so these strophic songs hide a depth of meaning and one has to peel away each layer of the poems and music to discover their centre. An album of all-Japanese traditional songs is not an unusual thing for a Japanese artist to do in Japan but the fact that I am a “gai-jin” – a foreigner, may give them a different slant. I hope you enjoy listening to them as much as I enjoyed recording them with the help of the wonderful Masahiro Saitoh as accompanist."
Charlotte de Rothschild

“Upon hearing the very first song I was enthralled by Charlotte’s singing…she conveys the very essence of the music. One wonders where she obtained such intimate feelings which seem, at times stronger than those possessed by many contemporary Japanese." - Ryohsuke Hatanaka (Music Critic, Professor Emeritus of Tokyo University of Fine Art and Music)

Contents:
Autumn
1. I Want To Go Far Away (Rokusuke Ei) - Hachidai Nakamura
2. Evening Primrose (Yumeji Takehisa) - Tadasuke Ohno
3. Watercolour Waltz (Koh Fujiura) - Tohroku Takagi
4. Red Dragonfly (Rofu Miki) - Kohsaku Yamada
5. White Gourds (Hakushu Kitahara) - Fumihiko Fukui
6. I Came Here Before (Hakushu Kitahara) - Kohsaku Yamada
Winter
7. Torreya Nuts (Hakushu Kitahara) - Kohsaku Yamada
8. Setting Sail (Kohgetsu Katsuta) - Haseo Sugiyama
9. Waiting In Vain (Hakushu Kitahara) - Kohsaku Yamada
10. When Little Plovers Sing (Hakushu) - Kitahara Hidemaro Konoe
11. Early Spring Poem (Kazumasa Yoshimaru) - Akira Nakata
Spring
12. Pond Snail (Bochoh Yamamura) - Yoshinao Nakata
13. Wild Rose (Rofu Miki) - Kohsaku Yamada
14. Flower (Hagoromo Takeshima) - Rentaro Taki
15. Cherry Alley (Shuichi Katoh) - Yoshinao Nakata
16. Dandelion (Tatsuji Miyoshi) - Yoshinao Nakata
Summer
17. First Love (Takuboku Ishikawa) - Tatsunosuke Koshitani
18. Shore Of Kujukuri (Shihoko Kitami) - Kohzaburo Hirai
19. When Summer Comes (Shohko Ema) - Yoshinao Nakata
20. Banana Orchid Leaves (Yasukazu Yoshikawa) - Tsuneo Fukuhara
21. Beach Song (Kokei Hayashi) - Tamezoh Narita
22. Coconuts (Tohson Shimazaki) - Toraji Ohnaka