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Kataoka Sensei researched many things during her career. Over this last period of fifteen years, I witnessed her research one question in particular. Her tenacity and persistence in finding an answer to this question was truly remarkable. The question involved the Chopin Polonaise in Ab major, Op.53, the most advanced piece programmed on this most recent 10-Piano Concert in Matsumoto.

She often mentioned that it had always been physically difficult for her to execute the repetitive pattern of four descending octaves in the left hand in the middle of the piece. She felt as if she could barely make it through this passage. Her left hand was stiff and in pain by the end of it. As a young pianist, people always praised her ability to perform the piece, but she felt it was empty, irresponsible praise, since she knew that she did not really play the piece with ease. So she was left with the lingering question: how does a really good pianist execute this passage with relaxation and enough control to make musical sound.

The answer to such a question is not easy. I recall sometime in the late 1980's that Sensei discovered a film of Artur Rubinstein performing the piece. Much of the performance was filmed with an overhead camera focused down on the keyboard. The first revelation came visually. It was easy to see Rubinstein's thumb moving sideways, taking every note. It moved very quickly as only fingers can. Sensei showed us this film at the time and pointed out the moving thumb.

Her research did not end with observing Rubinstein. She began reading scientific studies about the human hand and how it works. There were many lectures in which she would discuss, in great detail, the difference between human hands and those of apes, remarking on the miraculous nature of our hands and what they can accomplish. The greatest difference between human and ape hands is, of course, the structure of the thumb. Some scientists believe actually that this structural difference in the hand, and not the brain, is the source of human intelligence itself.

As she conducted all this research, Sensei began teaching all of us, teachers as well as students, to move our thumbs as we played. It seemed that, for months on end, that this is all she was teaching. She was determined to give this important ability to each and every one of us-to preserve the ability in children and to regain the ability in us teachers who had misused our hands for years and years.