The Udaka-kai European Tour: Paris

Original Noh masks for the play Inori, written by Udaka Michishige

I just returned from an unreal world created in unreal time and space. From November 4 to November 15, I took time off from school to be with a group of actors, musicians, technicians, mask carvers, and general supporters in Paris, Dresden, and Berlin for a tour of Noh performances. In each city, Udaka Michishige made vengeful spirits and tormented souls appear on stage and helped them find enlightenment by telling their stories to the public. Even I got to join in the performance as a light-bringing angel in the original Noh play Inori.

The purpose of the trip was to perform Inori (Prayer), a play by Udaka Michishige about the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but also about violence and terror throughout the world, to an international audience for the first time. Before our departure, Sensei went with Nakamura Yuko to Hiroshima to the Peace Memorial to inform the spirits there of the intentions for the tour. As they prayed in front of the arch, facing the A-Bomb Dome in the distance, Sensei closed his eyes and could see only a deep, dark red. Thinking this was strange, he turned his face in another direction and closed his eyes. The red color was gone. He turned back towards the Dome and saw the same oppressive red again. Was this the color of the sky during the atomic bombing? His eyes filled with tears, which he hastily wiped away before he turned around for a newspaper interview.

Okina: Religion and Male Chauvinism in Noh

Okina performance by Udaka Michishige, March 10 at Itsukushima Shrine

Perhaps the most beautiful Noh stage in Japan is located in Hiroshima at Itsukushima Shrine. It is surrounded by water at high tide, drawing a natural division between the material world to which the audience belongs and the world of gods presented onstage. Only men may stand on this stage, and early in the morning on March 10, I saw a performance of Okina by Udaka Michishige-sensei.

Okina is the oldest Noh performance piece, more a set of dances than an actual play. It is a piece that women may not perform. The lead actors (shite) who dance Okina are said to become invested with the presence of a god, to literally become the embodiment of a god, during the performance. In preparation, the lead actor will do bekka (a period of ritual purification), during which they are not to eat from the same dishes as women, cannot eat food prepared by women, and are not supposed to communicate directly with women. According to the demanding schedule of an actor and the traditions of their school, actors will practice bekka for a week to a month or (at least in the past) a year in hopes of calling the gods into their performance. Udaka-sensei went through a similar practice for a week before his performance, or so he says since I didn’t see him in that time.

When I explained this all to my father, he commented on the male chauvinism of Noh performance. I had not allowed myself to think about Noh performance as exclusive of women, but wanted to think that the exclusion of women from the professional Noh stage was rather in performances related to particular religious institutions that did not allow women to perform Noh in front of the gods. Yet, although believing male chauvinism exists can also lead to reverse prejudices, this comment prompted me to question women’s role in Noh performance more directly.

On German Radio Again!

In addition to her radio program on “Japanorama” about the Origin program, Uta Kodaira made a program about Noh, including an interview of me and sound recordings of Tatsushige-sensei, who happened to be practicing at Iori on the day Frau Kodaira came to Iori for the interviews.

Frau Kodaira asked me about what Noh is, about women and foreigners performing the traditionally male art-form, and about my own studies of Noh.  With this program, Frau Kodaira also began spreading the word in Germany about Udaka-sensei’s Europe tour in November.  At the end of the program is a clip from Genshigumo/Inori, a Noh play written by Udaka-sensei which will be performed in Paris, Dresden, and Berlin on the tour.

http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/german/index.html

To listen, go to the link above, click on “Wochenübersicht” and then on “So.” The clip should pop up in Realplayer.

NOTE: Since NHK is putting all its efforts into producing international English television, their quality work in radio with a history dating to before WWII was terminated last year.  These broadcasts are no longer online, and I don’t have a recording either. . .

Interview with Onozomi.com

And somehow I forgot to mention this online article. I was interviewed by Onozomi, the company who does Iori’s internet support and specializes in other forms of publicity as well. The series of interviews includes various Kyoto personalities, such as Murata Yoshihiro of Kikunoi (the most internationally known kaiseki chef), Randy Channell (a Canadian who is an elite tea master of the Urasenke school of tea ceremony), the owner of Francoise (a popular cafe), a Kyoto University professor, a Doshisha professor, company presidents, etc. To say the least, I am stunned and honored to be listed among such an elite group of people.

On German Radio!

In February, I was interviewed along with Alex Kerr by a wonderful woman, Uta Kodaira, who works for NHK World Radio Germany. She puts together a weekly radio program that’s aired on Sundays about various facets of Japanese culture. Last week was the first program starring Alex Kerr, and this week is the first program in which I speak about the Origin Arts program at work. This radio clip was broadcast over shortwave radio in Germany.

http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/german/index.html

To listen, go to the link above, click on “Wochenübersicht” and then on “So.” The clip should pop up in Realplayer.

Frau Kodaira’s program will be shut down in September, as NHK focuses more on television instead of radio.

Noh Maskmaking

My mask (on the right) and the model. To the left side of my work space are my tools and to the right are the templates.

I started Noh mask making class in the beginning of February. The mask I’m working on is based on a design by Tatsuemon, a famous mask maker of the Edo period. This was one of his three koomote, or young woman, masks, this one entitled, appropriately enough for me, “Yuki” (Snow).

On the first day, after work and grabbing an extra sweater at home, because I was tippling on the edge of catching a cold, I raced to northern Kyoto to make sure I would have enough time to accomplish something. First, Sensei showed me to a cushion placed before a small Buddhist altar at the edge of his stage and had me meditate to relax in preparation for handling the sharp tools and to prepare myself for working with the mask’s spirit hidden within the wood.

Hagoromo

My second Noh performance

On February 4, I had my second Noh performance. Sensei had rented the Noh stage at Iori, where I work, for a day of private recitals by his professional students – a sort of master’s class, in which Sensei gave feedback following each performance. I was invited to perform the kuse shimai of Hagoromo although I am far from being a professional.

Hatsugama

My performance of “Yuki” as the host of the thin tea ceremony (usuchaseki)

I’m a little behind in my posting. On January 14, 2007, I had my first major performance as host in a tea ceremony for hatsugama. Hatsugama is the first tea ceremony of the year, with much pomp and circumstance, at least with my teacher, Matsumoto Soei. To effectively pomp myself up for the performance, much effort went into my outrageous hair and trailing sleeve “furisode” kimono.

Usually, hatsugama tea ceremonies take place at a teacher’s home or in a traditional Japanese setting. However, my teacher and her older sister have continued a tradition established by their mother by holding their hatsugama at hotels in a effort to adjust to the times and to accommodate the many students and their guests efficiently. In this version, guests usually sit at tables and the host will perform on a small stage. Afterwards, a full course meal of French cuisine is served and the students do skits, perform a sort of talent show, and have party games in a banquet hall to top off the occasion.

Tracing Mori Ogai in Leipzig

Liebigstraße is the street on which the Leipzig University Hospital, where Mori Ogai studied medical hygiene, is located and on which a pension he went for meals used to be located.

Over Christmas, I had the opportunity to go to Germany for two weeks to spend the holiday with my family. Over the trip, I kept a copy of Japan’s first great modern author Mori Ogai’s Deutschlandtagebuch 1884 – 1888 (Doitsunikki, Germany Diary)[1] as travel literature, and went to Leipzig on December 20th to see what I could trace of him there. Leipzig was the first city Mori lived and went to university in after coming to Germany as a military doctor to study hygiene. After returning to Japan, for a Japanese language school application I wrote the following paper about Mori Ogai, which I’ve edited to post here. I’ve included pictures of some of the places I found that were mentioned in his diary.

Hatsubutai II – Yuki

Closing the fan at the end of the performance. The two people behind me were a part of the chorus, the person to the left is my teacher, Udaka Michishige.

On November 2nd, I went to Matsuyama in Shikoku for my Noh debut. One only gets one debut, and I wanted to make mine the best it could possibly be. However, after only a half year of lessons, there was a lot to pull together for a successful performance. All in all, though, the experience was amazing, including also meeting my Sensei’s students from across Japan, being allowed backstage during a full professional performance, and watching a new Noh play Sensei had written.