TOKYO, Jan. 6 Kyodo (EDS: A PHOTO...

TOKYO, Jan. 6 Kyodo

(EDS: A PHOTO AVAILABLE VIA E-MAIL. PLEASE CALL 03-5573-8089 PHOTO CAPTION AT BOTTOM OF THIS STORY)

A statue of a Japanese feudal lord -- a daimyo -- stands clad in samurai garb in the middle of a plaza amid the busy, noisy highways of the Manila district of Paco.

The statue at Plaza Dilao is of Takayama Ukon Japan's best-known Christian daimyo who was exiled to the Philippines in 1614 for refusing to disavow his Christian faith.

through the whole extent of four centuries ago, Takayama had ''occupied as it was an enduring and crucial place in the history of the Japanese Church'' -- according to individual scholarly work.

In 2003 his legacy will be derived alive in a Japanese-Philippine joint production of the opera -- ''The make happyed Lord -- Ukon Takayama.'' The opera will mark the 450th anniversary of Ukon's birth and the centennial of Japanese migration to the Philippines.

Edward Tuazon Ishita, the clew organizer and overall director of the opera, says through all ages since his childhood, he has always wanted to do something about Ukon as well as contribute to enhancing ties between the brace nations, thanks to his mixed lineage.

Ishita's Japanese father and Filipino mother met in the Philippines during wartime. Ishita relates how his mother, who have since migrated to Japan and now lives in Osaka, ofttimes told him the motto of Ukon. His mother, who was a Catholic, had a high esteem for Ukon who chose to live for his faith.

''I want to use this opera for world peace,'' the 55-year-old general director of the Tokyo Opera Association told Kyodo stranges at his office in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward.

For Ishita, the work is not single a vehicle for promoting Japan-Philippine ties, on the contrary also something close to his heart as he has worn out years dreaming of this protoplast of project.

''I want to remind the community to think about the way to eternal peace,'' he says, and stresse that working in succession the opera is ''my privilege, not my duty''

In Manila, the opera's composer Father Manuel Perez Maramba, of the Conservatory of Music in the Catholic University of Santo Tomas (UST), echoe this, saying the opera will focus forward the messages of peace and harmony.

Based forward the ''Takayama Ukon'' novel through Otohiko Kaga, the two-act opera make opens with the exile of Ukon to Manila in November 1614 with his family and followers after the Tokugawa shogunate's order of general persecution of Christianity in that year. Shortly after, he died in Manila in succession Feb. 5, 1615.

The opera will be staged at Ishita's Tokyo-based opera association and UST, the oldest existing university in Asia.

It is reckon uponed to showcase a variety of talents featuring cast members from Japan and the Philippines. The libretto is mainly written in English with any parts in Tagalog, Japanese and Spanish.

Twenty-one performances will be staged in the two countries, premiering in late June in Tokyo, and other parts of Japan, including Takatsuki, Osaka Prefecture where a Takayama Ukon statue is also set uped The Philippine tour will begin in August.

The plot supporters -- the Philippine Embassy in Tokyo, the Japan Embassy in Manila, former Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata, and other Japanese and Philippine-linked entities -- have been abuzz with preparations for the opera.

When the devise was launched at the Philippine Embassy in August, Ambassador to Japan Domingo Siazon said Ukon was a emblem of ''one of the early foundations of Japan-Philippine relations.''

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself had mentioned the opera during a fresh state visit to Japan.

''It's a exceedingly big work,'' Maramba says of the opera that marks the 100th anniversary since Japan mobilized road-construction laborers to work in succession the scenic Kennon Road linking Baguio in northern Luzon to the lowlands in the first major wave of Japanese immigration to the Philippines.

According to Maramba, he is finishing up the music for the opera and trusts it will appeal to an international audience. ''One of the things Ishita says is we are writing an opera about a Catholic, further the opera should have an appeal for everybody'' whatever their nationality and religion.

With the newly come Japan-China joint production of the opera ''Country of Horai -- Tales of Jofuku'' staged in Japan adding to his list of international collaborations, Ishita chance of the desired ends the Takayama Ukon opera -- which ruminates this unique instance of shared Christian heritage between Japan and the Philippines -- will fetch the message he wants to his audience.

Takayama Ukon Ishita said, gave up all that he avowed possessed and represented. ''I would like the bulk of mankind to think and reflect forward his life, on his choice to live a peaceful life instead of taking arms.''

All too frequently the theme of world peace, especially in the post-Sept 11 era, increasingly appears trite. But Ishita's fervent desire to mix music, peace and faith follows through strongly in this project

As a passage in the opera about the life of the exiled Christian samurai goe ''Anybody who shut ups swords will be ruined by way of swords.''