If memory serves, I met conductor Seiji Ozawa in Beijing around 20 years ago when he was working with a group of young Chinese on the opera “The Barber of Seville” composed by Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868).

I vividly recall his look of tremendous satisfaction, mixed with surprise, as he told me happily, “The rise of the level of music in China is simply astounding.”

Ozawa, who died Feb. 6 at age 88, was born in 1935 in the former Manchurian city of Mukden (present-day Shenyang). He was said to have been named Seiji after two senior officers of the Kwantung Army--Seishiro Itagaki (1885-1948) and Kanji Ishihara (1889-1949).

Probably because of his background, Ozawa always had a special affection for China. He often referred to himself as “someone who was born in China and grew up in Japan.”

When he revisited China after World War II, Ozawa recalled the tragic history of the Sino-Japanese War, and his eyes were sometimes said to be red from weeping as he stood on the podium.

Around the time of his global debut, racial discrimination and prejudice toward Japanese was not unusual in Europe and the United States. There, people just assumed no Japanese conductor could really understand Bach.

Ozawa struggled to find his own identity. His search for roots, if you will, may have made him aware of his feelings for China.

If you watched him from a distance, he was “Ozawa of the world” who only had to wave his magic baton to melt national borders so he could easily jump over them.

But I will never forget these words he spoke quietly: “How far can Asians understand classical music that was born in Europe? My life is an experiment to find out.”

Ozawa valued personal ties. He once said of the Japan-China relationship, “What matters is each individual person. What ordinary citizens think is far more important than what the government thinks. That, at least, is what I believe.”

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 10

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.