My first visit to Hammonds Wood was around this time of the year, at the end of February.

At the time I was still in my early years as a musician, working part-time and practising, trying to increase opportunities to play. I had won a harmonica competition in Japan, but I still felt that my playing was lacking so much, I was struggling and didn’t know where to turn…

When I was offered lessons by Tommy in the UK, it was hard to imagine what it would be like. I knew I was going to meet someone who knew this instrument very well, someone who would listen to my playing and help me to find out what I was missing, and I was told that he was very strict.
I have already written about this in his biography (to be published in due course), so I won’t go into details here, but I thought of writing about ’Hammonds Wood’, the estate in Surrey where Tommy lived.

I was allowed to stay there for the duration of my lessons.

Even though it was the first time in my life that I had been in this place, I felt like I was back in a place I knew very well. The reason for this is that it perfectly matched the image of Dr. Dolittle’s house in the book written by H. Lofting.

In Japan in particular, this book series has been loved by all generations as one of the masterpieces of children’s literature. This is because the story, translated into Japanese by Masuji Ibuse, evokes a vibrant imagination throughout its twelve volumes. I don’t know how many times I have reread them since I was a child. In my mind, every detail of the scenery and the characters has been captured.

The twisted branches of the trees floating in the moonlight, the sturdy brick chimney, the fireplace bigger than the boy, Tommy (who tells the story), and the vast expanse of land outside the house… You’d find all of these features in Hammonds Wood, exactly as I had imagined in the Dr. Dolittle’s story. There, Dr. Doolittle encounters a giant moth sent from the moon, or he gets told off by Dab-Dab, the housekeeper duck, for offering the pond as a home to a crocodile that has escaped from a zoo.

Incidentally, as an adult, I read the original English version of the series, however, I found it to be less vivid than Ibuse’s translation, which is full of charm and humanity. Many films have been made based on the ideas of this book, Dr. Dolittle as Rex Harrison (1967), Eddy Murphy (1998) and more recently by Robert Downey (2020). Each version of the film is far removed from my image of Dr Dolittle’s world. Perhaps the charm of this story is that there is space for the reader’s (and filmmaker’s) imagination to fill. Like a chef who brings out an amazing flavour from an ordinary ingredient, what Ibuse brought out from this story is exquisite and profoundly human.

Tommy did the same, showing me in his lessons what I could not see for myself, what I needed to cut out of my chaotic playing at the time, how to shape.. My playing has changed a lot after spending time at Hammonds Wood.