At the wigmakers

I went for a wig fitting with Shôgo-sensei, and Izumi Tokuho (who is another dance who will be travelling to Vancouver in April for Odori: The World of Kabuki Dance).  Japanese kabuki dance wigs are extremely specialized things and to make them takes YEARS of study through apprenticeship with a master wigmaker. 

The wigs are made each time there is a performance and then taken apart and the pieces re-used.  The base sections are made from tin or copper, and are fitted precisely to the dancer’s head.  The wigmaker judges the size, shape and contours of the dancers head and face then takes pieces of pre-formed metal and using a small rounded anvil and a variety if hammers pounds and shapes the metal perfectly.  Depending on the style of wig to be made, a series of metal pieces are attached by punching small holes in the metal and then a small nail is pounded in to make a rivet. Bits around the edge may be cut away, or section’s added until the base fits perfectly to the dancer’s head.  Later, hair (usually real human hair) is woven through the many small holes in the metal frame and then meticulously dressed to match the dance to be performed.  There are many details to consider in the choice of hairstyle, hair decorations etc. as each choice gives a great deal of information about the character.

Professional dancers generally use the same wigmaker for all their performances, and have their own metal wig bases, so the wigmaker doesn’t have to change as much.  Though if the dancer has gained weight in the neck, or their face has changed in any way, the headpiece then needs to be reworked.
It was amazing how quickly and accurately the frames could be fitted.  And incredible and magnificent art.  And I found it very ironic that the wigmaker was really treated like a tradesman rather than an artist.

Nagauta Practice

I have been taking a few lessons on nagauta singing with Kineya Rokufue.  Nagauta is a form of music that is generally played for kabuki dance pieces, and I wanted to learn a bit of Shiki no Yamamba to help me learn the dance as nihon buyoh choreography is generally set to the lyrics.  I am not ever intending to be able to perform the singing, but just working through the lyrics has really helped me recognize musical/lyrical cues and will help me learn the dance.  Dancers should all study at least one type of dance music.

Kineya Rokufue (her professional nagauta name) is Yûko-sensei’s sister-in-law.  She has been studying shamisen and voice since she was a child, and has been teaching for over 60 years.  Her teacher was her mother, and was apparently pretty strict.  Rokufue-sensei told me she began teaching when se about sixteen years old when – without warning – she came to the keiko-ba one day and her mother simply told her that she was teaching all the students that day. Trial by fire or what!  She said she was totally terrified, but did it, and although she hated it for years came to realize how very lucky she was to be given such skills.
Since Yûko-sensei’s death many of my ane-deshi (sister-students, fellow dance students) have been taking music lessons.  It is one way that we have all managed to keep in contact and get together for concerts or events. 

Visiting Yûko-sensei's Grave

(image: Fujima Yûko dancing Kiyomoto no Yamamba, date unknown...but probably about 1980) 


I went to pay my respects to my first nihon buyoh teacher, Fujima Yûko 藤間由子(1929-2002).  She is the one who granted me my natori (professional) name, Fujima Sayû 藤間左由.  The "fujima" part of the name indicates the "ryû" which means school or tradition. All natori of the Fujima-ryû have the same "family" name.  The "yu" part of my "given" name comes from my teacher's name, so that the artistic lineage can be easily recognized.  The "sa" part was an individual choice. Yûko-sensei created the name, and when it came time to have the natori ceremony, we had to apply to the school head office to make sure it was available and appropriate.

Everytime I am in Tokyo I visit her grave, bringing flowers andan offering of a small can of beer.  Yûko-sensei loved beer!  She was an incredible dancer, a generous teacher and I miss her deperately. She began her lessons when she was only 4 years old, so had been dancing for over 70 years when she passed away.

She was absolutely open to teaching a non-Japanese, and in fact had started a group called "The Japan Cross Culture Association" to be able to perfrom at embassies in Japan, and to do workshops and performances abroad.  She didn't speak a word of any language but Japanese, but was the ultimate communicator through her heart and spirit.  I hope I can carry her spirit with me wherever I go.

Zombies at the Kabuki-za?

Went to Kabuki-za again this time with a colleague of mine from graduate school. It was an array of pieces ranging from dance plays to a new piece about zombies...really...I am not kidding.

Ayatsuri Sambaso  - a fantastic dance play where the main actor dances as a puppet.  Utterly astounding movement technique.  My legs hurt just thinking about it!
See : http://homepage3.nifty.com/NAHKI/senwaka-kai/eng/descriptions/ayatsuri.htm

Nozakimura - and act of the piece I worked on at the University of Hawaii. Really fun to see it with Lei - who had played Osome - the lovely daughter of a pawn broker...Really interesting to see it live at the kabuki-za!

Migawari Zazen - a dance play from a kyogen farce...with the fantastic Toziwazu Mozibei as #1 shamisen player!  Very funny - if a bit sexist!

Oedo RibbinguDeddo (The Oedo Living Dead) - say "living dead" with a heavy Japanese accent and you get "ribbingudeddo"- I am all for experiments and fusion...I love it and support the whole idea even if the experiment fails.  Kabuki has always been about the "new" and "different" but this was...well...just really really bad.  Written and directed by Kudo Kankuro (who is a famous writer, actor and director for shogeki and TV) it featured an incredibly talented kabuki cast who spent 90 minutes shuffling around the stage and grunting as zombies.  A total waste of amazing talent.  Kabuki is all about dance and music and heightened language - and this had bad pop tunes, VERY facile choreography and text with the sophistication of a quickly slapped together highschool play.   I felt sorry for all those brilliantly trained actors.  Can't see that this director/writer had even seen a kabuki - or cared to use the skills these artists have.  Rantrantrant. I hate to see such a wasted possibility!

But...tickets for the day program are COMPLETELY sold out for the entire month.  Average price about $100.  So the producers knew what they were doing. There you go.

Also see: http://www.kabuki-za.co.jp/english/program.html

Buying fans in Asakusa

I was wandering through Asakusa yesterday buying rehearsal fans at Iida-ya (飯田屋).  This is a crazy shop with all kinds of kimono goods and fans and nihon buyoh props.  Upstairs has a wonderful selection of fancy kimono for Taishu-engeki performance.  It is a great place and the rehearsal fans are very reasonable. I alos love the fact the staff all look at me like I am a crazy woman when I buy ten fans.  But this is "shitamachi" and the merchants mean business...so they are always pleased to take my money!


Also indulged in an age-manju and looked around at all the second-hand kimono shops.

Shiki-no-Yamamba

I have been having lessons almost everyday.  And I have to say that my knees are killing me.  I am learning a piece called Shiki-no-Yamamba　（ 四季の山姥）Yamamba is often translated as "Mountain Witch"  though the character of Yamamba is not a "witch" but a supernatural being, female, very strong and the mother of Kintaro who becomes a famous warrior.  This being kabuki, she was a beautiful courtesan in her life previous to living in a mountain hut...and this dance describes that past life. And of course - as it is kabuki - though the dance takes place in the mountains, she is dressed in a long silk kimono and brocades. This is NOT realism!


I foolishly thought that this dance would be rather quiet and sedate, as the character is a "middle-aged" woman.  Hah. It describes everything from the courtesan district in the spring, shamisen playing, gather clams on the seaside, a boatman, the flgight of crows, the vista in the mountains...lots and lots of charcters and movement.  I hope I can make it!


http://www.kabuki21.com/yaegiri_kuruwa_banashi.php

Antique Booksellers in Tokyo

Jimbôchô - the area where there are dozens of second-hand booksellers.  I was hoping to find some good books on kabuki and nihon buyô but was very dismayed to find my favourite bookstore GONE!!! I thought perhaps I have just been gone to long and getting old...fogotten which direction to go from the station...but no...I think there is a construction site where the shop used to be.  I am hoping it has just moved...and I will find it on a backstreet somewhere.

Another favourite, TakayamaHonten, was still there.  Though couldn't find the book I was looking for.  I'll have to go back!


See:
http://jimbou.info/

Kabuki Marathon – Ten Hours of Chûshingura!

OK.  I’m not a total lunatic, but I have never seen the whole play done at one time and it was the last day.  All kabuki performances tend to run from the first of the month to the 25th or26th and everything closed today…so this was the last chance I had.  Stood in line for an hour and got 4th floor cheap seats at the Kabuki-za for the entire day…11am to 9pm…with breaks.  I was practically on a first name basis with all the staff by the end of the day.

(picture of the Kabuki-za countdown clock)

And incredible performance. Chûshingura is a very special play, and the historic Kabuki-za in Ginza will be torn down in April, so this was the last time they will perform this play in this space.  The energy was palpable – even on the fourth floor, and I feel as though I participated in something rather monumental. The silence during the seppuku scene (Act 4) was breathtaking – literally – and during the breaks audience members were chatting to each other like party guests. 

Lots of kakegoe (audience calls to the stage) – in fact I ended up talking to one of the kaegoe “pros” named Yamamoto-san.  He attends kabuki every second day, trains in kakegoe with one of the main kabuki actors, and is pretty incredible.  A kind of “star” on the upper balcony as it were.  He was there all day as well, calling out the actors’ names at precisely the right moments.  It was a rather tour-de-force performance and he was is so involved in the play he was exhausted by the end. He himself said he actually “plays” all the characters and has to breathe with the actors. All this and he’s a volunteer…I think he may have even paid for his ticket!  Talk about a die-hard fan.

check out:
http://www.shochiku.co.jp/play/kabukiza/theater/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%ABshingura

Danjûrô and Tôjûrô at the National Theatre

Kabuki at the National Theatre of Japan. Two of the most famous and historic names in kabuki are performing together until Thursday: Ichikawa Danjûrô XII and Sakata Tôjûrô II.  Kabuki actors names are a kind of credential or degree and they are passed down through generations usually from teacher to student.  Both of these names stem from the Genroku period and the current actors carry the performance traditions of these names. It was pretty incredible to see them performing together.

Uirô Uri  (The Medicine Peddler) – Danjûro as Soga Gorô in disguise as a medicine peddler, villains and courtesans (one of whom was played by Nakamura Gannosuke, a friend of mine).  Fantastic aragoto –style tongue twisting monologues, comic battles…much fun.

Keisei Hangonkô (Matahei, the Stutterer) – by Chikamatsu Monzaemon - Danjûro as Matahei and Tôjûrô as his wife Otaku.  I love this story. Matahei is so desperate to succeed as a master painter and held back by his speech impediment.  Danjûro was lovely as Matahei – charming and lovable. 

Ôtsu-e Dôjôji (Five Ôtsu-e Pictures) – by Kawatake Mokuami, choreography by Fujima Kanso II – OK.  This was the most interesting from my point of niew as I have never seen this dance play and it was BIZARRE.  It was created as a parody of the famous shosagoto (dance play) Musume Dôjôji inserting characters from Ôtsu-e, or small cartoon paintings sold as souvenirs.  It was first staged in 1965, reconstructed form a script written in the late 1800s: Fujimusume dances bits of Musume Dôjôji (but at Miidera, a different temple!), there is a bind masseur dancing with a dog, a falconer, a demon that looks like she’s right out of Momijimgari, then Benkei shows up, followed by Soga Gorô in his costume from the play Ya-no-ne Gorô. CRAZY!

Check out:
http://www.naritaya.jp/english/compendium/18_12.html
http://www.ntj.jac.go.jp/english/
 

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.

Arrival in Tokyo

I have arrived, and it feels like home.  I am truly happy to be back in a place I spent so many years. I lived here from 1995-2002 - studying nihon buyoh (Japanese classical dance) and noh, and working in contemporary theatre. I have tried to return every year to study and visit friends.

I am off to my first o-keiko (practice) with Fujima Shôgo-sensei in a few hours and am certainly looking forward to it. The next few days will also be full of KABUKI!  There are three performances all closing in the next few days.  I am going to try to see at least two of them.  Hopefully all three.  Reports on all activities daily!