Mixing Blunt Words With New Age Serenity : Kitaro, the once-reticent composer/performer, is now voicing opinions that may offend some in his Japanese homeland

Kitaro stood at the center of a cyclone of energy--an island of calm surrounded by flurries of chaos. He had just finished a performance before media representatives to promote his world tour, and the huge sound stage in Valencia was still clouded with smoke from visual effects.

The diminutive composer/performer, characterized by his fine-boned stature and a glistening mane of black hair reaching to his waist, had barely stepped away from the two-story-high bank of electronics, keyboards and percussion instruments before he was surrounded. Pouncing on him were cameramen, reporters, public relations people and a small platoon of JVC businessmen in dark suits who are here for the U.S. part of the tour.

Fielding all their questions, requests and comments with a bemused expression and elegantly polite bows of his head, Kitaro managed to satisfy the enthusiastic crowd, which finally dispersed. As Kitaro left the stage, he glanced toward a group of friends, winked, and did his own version of a buck-and-wing step toward the spread of food.

It was a characteristic gesture from a composer/performer whose meditative New Age music and guru-like image contrast dramatically with his love of golf, professional football and rhythm & blues. Far from being a one-dimensional musical sage, Kitaro, who admits only to being in his “mid-30s,” is a strongly opinionated, well-traveled artist who feels that everything of this world is connected with everything else.

His compositions, which combine the plangent scales of Japanese music with the rich orchestrations of the West, underscore his belief in the intrinsic connection between cultures. In performance, as in everyday life, he seems most comfortable at the heart of the vortex, his plain garb, calm demeanor and soaring keyboard melodies contrasting dramatically with the vigorous activities and striking rhythmic patterns of his musicians.

Described by Encyclopedia Britannica as “the quintessential musician of the New Age,” Kitaro has been one of the most globally visible Japanese artists to emerge in the last decade. His mid-’70s work with synthesizers resulted in a cult following that soon expanded into a worldwide audience. In 1987, the year of his last North American tour, he sold more than 12 million albums worldwide with titles such as “Astral Voyage” and “The Light of the Spirit,” as well as more esoteric titles in Japanese. In 1988, his single, “The Field,” was nominated for a Grammy award.

But Kitaro’s image has changed since his last visit to the United States. He doesn’t seem to be just a reclusive composer living in a thatched-roof farmer’s home at the base of the Japanese Alps.

No longer shy and retiring, interested only in discussing his music, he comfortably displays the sophistication of the world traveler he has become. Yet he remains intensely private.

A growing articulateness with the English language has allowed him to express some strikingly un-gurulike thoughts. To put it bluntly, he is not at all happy with the current state of affairs in his home country.

“The Japanese have an inside problem,” he explained. “Economically, they think only about money. They don’t want to think about other countries’ problems. We have so many problems in the world--like with the rain forest and the hole in the ozone. Japanese industry helps make those problems, but they don’t want to worry about it. They want to make money. They don’t have a sweet heart for the Earth.”

Nancy Fleming, public relations manager of JVC of America, which is sponsoring Kitaro’s tour, was surprised by the composer’s comments. “We’re working with Kitaro,” she said, because we felt that he, as a Japanese artist, represented an excellent cultural exchange between JVC and the rest of the world. I think it’s a little unfair for him to generalize the way he has, but JVC sponsors Kitaro because of his music and his artistry and not because of his economic beliefs.”

Kitaro was no less direct with his feelings about Japanese performers. “Most Japanese artists come to the U.S. to perform on a festival, or just for one event,” he said. “I don’t think they want to make relationships with Americans, they just want to do their performances.

“I like to feel that I can make relationships with people in any country. We may talk different languages, but we feel the same things. But other Japanese artists don’t feel the same way. They think too much like businessmen.”

Perhaps wisely, given his comments, Kitaro ‘s current plans call for him to move his recording studio to the United States in the near future. It will allow him, he feels, to make closer connections with other musicians, his record company and his friends around the world. Actually, his two most recent albums were partially recorded in the United States. “The Light of the Spirit” was co-produced with the Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart, and “Kojiki” features the ad hoc symphony at George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch near San Rafael.

But he is still fond of his mountain hideaway. “Last month I went to Tokyo for five hours and that was enough,” he said. “I came in for the afternoon and then caught a flight out that night.

“But I’m happy at my house in the mountains,” he said of the place where he lives when he’s not touring the world. “It has a big fireplace on the floor, and the roof is thatched, with a hole in it for the smoke. This kind of house is part of our culture, part of our tradition. Ten years ago, there were quite a few houses like that in my village. Today there is only mine.

“To me, it seems that Japanese culture--the real Japanese culture--is being replaced by everything plastic, everything made of chemicals and unnatural things. That is not the traditional way, but it is the way it is in Japan today.

“I want my music,” he explained, “to express the real world, not the plastic world. I want it to express how people all over the world have similar feelings.

“My new recording, ‘Kojiki’ (released last week on Geffen Records) is based on very old Japanese myths, but my feeling is that this world of the gods is totally similar to the world of today. These characters may have the powers of gods, but they fall in love, play sports and act just like humans.”

Kitaro’s parents are Buddhist/Shintoist farmers, but his own spiritual views, which are powerfully reflected in his music, have become considerably more eclectic.

“I think the natural way of life is the real Shinto,” he said. “The trees, the woods, the grass, the air, the winds--everything is living in God. Most Japanese have two religions, Shintoism and Buddhism, sometimes Christian too, but I feel that all religions, finally, are the same.”

Kitaro chose ancient Shinto Kojiki texts as the basis for his new recording (as well as the source of a planned opera, with choreography by Merce Cunningham, for the Lyons Opera Company) because of its vigorous connections with the Illiad and Odyssey, the book of Genesis and the oral traditions of the American Indian.

“These stories tell us that we’re all humans, all the same, all living on the same Earth,” Kitaro said. “We all experience nature in the same way, from the Earth out into the universe. And we need a balance of ourselves with the universe.

“There are seven stories in ‘Kojiki.’ They start with a creation story, ‘Hajimari,’ and end with ‘Reimei,’ which means new dawn or new day. It goes from the ancient past to the present. It connects the old myths and stories with the world of today.

“These are the kinds of connections I want to make with my music,” concluded Kitaro, “to show that the old gods and goddesses are like people today, that the old stories are the same as our stories, and that all humans are living on the same Earth.”

Kitaro in Concert

Two Southland concerts will be given as part of a world tour:

Tuesday, California Theatre, 1122 4th Ave., San Diego. 8 p.m. Tickets available at TicketMaster outlets. Information: (619) 233-1781.

Thursday, Universal Amphitheatre, Universal City. 8:15 p.m. Tickets available at TicketMaster, May Co. and Music Plus. Information: (818) 980-9421.