Solo fingerstyle champion guitarist returns to Waynesville Music

Tsukamoto, now based in New York, maintains a full itinerary coast-to-coast in the US and abroad. He will be making a stop Oct. 4 at Waynesville Music, 198 S. Main St., Waynesville. This is the third time the retailer has sponsored a performance by Tsukamoto in the Dayton/Cincinnati area, but the first in the store’s intimate listening room.

When you do something as a teenager, it sticks with you for life. In high school, Tsukamoto practiced his fingerpicking skills on a five-string banjo before switching to guitar. For fast passages, he mostly uses three fingers on his right hand, with the occasional ring finger thrown in for good measure.

He originally played in groups before branching off as a solo artist. When he went solo, he wanted to create something like he had with the band. So he started using a looper pedal for his guitar and vocals to create a fuller eclectic sound.

Hiroya has since been leading concerts internationally, including several appearances at Blue Note in New York and the United Nations, and on Japanese national television. He’s released five solo albums.

Tsukamoto’s style is introspective, nostalgic and deeply connected to the natural world. He spends a lot of time on the road, and is especially inspired by small towns and memories of Japan.

“When I have the time,” he said, “I walk around the area and I compose music in different places.”

When he performs, he taps into the feelings of those unique locales and the emotions he felt there. Whether it be the people or the places themselves, he can revisit the moments through the delicate interplay of his picking hand.

The “cinematic guitar poetry” label implies that Tsukamoto approaches songwriting as a filmmaker or a wordsmith would their respective crafts. Though his music is abstract, with few lyrics, it does suggest an atmospheric quality found throughout his repertoire.

With so much nuance dancing between fingers and strings and vocals, the delicacy of Tsukamoto’s playing could be attributed to his growing up in Zen Buddhism.

“In the [Buddhist] culture, calm is the key,” he said. “That’s where that came from. So maybe I still maintain that kind of attitude.”

His music suggests profundity in life’s simple pleasures: reading, walking, exercising, cooking — “the regular stuff,” as he calls it. These everyday inspirations often become songs. Silence also plays a role in Tsukamoto’s work. Silence, as practiced in Zen Buddhism, fosters inner peace, present-moment awareness and deeper self-understanding. In an overstimulating world, quiet is a great reprieve.

“I treat silence as important and almost like part of the music,” Tsukamoto said. “The moment when I make space between notes and people get so quiet, that’s a very special moment.”

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