Keiko-ba (the practice space/studio)

Exit Hon-Komagome station turn right then left cross the main street walk right turn left down a narrow path between an office building and a temple graveyard turn right walk to the dark red building turn left into the small cul-du-sac and the keiko-ba (studio) is on the left. If they ever paint that red house a different colour I will never find this place again.  I swear.

Like most traditional keiko-ba it is in a private home.  This one is the main floor of Shogô-sensei’s mother Fujima Shôho.  She was his teacher and when she retired he took over her studio and students and she still lives upstairs. It is an older wooden home, with a narrow hall leading to a small changing room and a larger practice room on the left.
The studio/practice room is partially tatami and mostly a perfectly smooth unpolished hinoki (Japanese cypress) floor.  Whoever is having a lesson is of course on the wooden floor.  Those waiting sit on the tatami and watch. Watching is a huge part of the learning.

Photos of Shôgo-sensei’s teacher, teacher’s teacher and the iemoto (head) of the Fujima school are on a small table; there’s a container of various rehearsal props in the corner; a shelf of books and a sound system.

We work for two hours as this is a private lesson and I need to learn all of Shiki-no-Yamamba in three weeks.  A 15-minute dance (shortened for this performance from it’s original 24 minutes)  More on that in the next few days.