A Nagano high school student has become the first person to play a new violin partially made from the symbolic "miracle pine" that survived the March 2011 tsunami.
"I was thinking of those who have suffered from the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Kumamoto earthquake," said Rika Nishizawa after playing the instrument Saturday at Togakushi Shrine.
The violin's musical debut came nearly three weeks after fatal earthquakes rocked Kyushu, wreaking havoc in Kumamoto and Oita prefectures.