Okinawa Style

On a nice Sunday of summer, early afternoon, I found myself studying (in spite of me) for an exam with the window of my room open. At some point throughout my efforts to concentrate on the book in front of me, I got the impression that a beating sound was coming in through the window, but I quickly dismissed it thinking it was nothing but my mind refusing to work. However, the low yet deep thumping sound kept going. Then I started thinking that it could be an anti-nuclear demonstration. But curiosity was too much (more, at least, than the drive to study), and finally I decided to go out and track the sound to its source.

I was surprised to find the neighbourhood's elementary school's courtyard full of people dancing and playing drums, and even more people gathering around them, enjoying the show while sipping beer. This was Okinawa's traditional エイサー "eisa", a style of dance that is accompanied by singing and the music of the three-stringed 三線 "sanshin" (the ancestor of the more famous "shamisen").

Here, see for yourself what kept me away from the books

八千代高校「鼓組」

Once the parade through Narita finished, I thought the festival had ended. Yet, I happily discovered that there were more don's and doko's coming from somewhere else. The music led me to a stage where taiko groups from different high schools were performing. I could only catch the last group, but I wasn't surprised to discover that these young performers packed more punch than a lot of groups I had seen so far. In high schools, among the numerous clubs offered to students, taiko is not a rare option. And when these kids are serious about it, they are really serious about it. Take a look at this video to see for yourself. This ensemble is called "Kogumi", and they are all students of Yachiyo high school in Chiba prefecture. In the video, Kogumi performs Miyake, and then the show finishes with all the high school groups that had played that afternoon performing together.

Another great piece by Kogumi (and there are tons more of their videos on youtube):

http://youtu.be/b95PqWTO-sU

成田太鼓祭 - Narita Taiko Matsuri

Earlier this year I attended the Narita Taiko Festival (成田太鼓祭), which takes place over a weekend of March in the streets of the city of Narita, Chiba prefecture. The 25-year-old festival is famous for its grand opening ceremony, where hundreds of taiko players play together at the colossal Naritasan temple (成田山), the city's landmark. At different points along the city's main street there are stages where groups coming from many cities play throughout the day. Finally, the groups parade down said street. The crowds gather on the sides, as close as they can to the drummers. When they get too close (whether because they want to get a good shot with their cameras or because there is simply no physical space on the sidewalk), a security officer comes to (try to) push them back.

Having thousands of people crammed against the sides of this rather narrow street makes it obviously very hard to walk. In my personal experience, by the time I had gotten there, the parade was well on its way. Coming from the train station, the starting point of the parade, I had to work my way down the street in order to get to see all the groups. Having to navigate the crowded streets faster than the parade itself was quite hard, as witnessed by the videos below. I have decided, however, not to edit anything out, as the sound is as important as the image, if not more. One group's music blends into the next's as I speed past them. Also, the frantic, crazy beauty of the festival comes across better.




This video, on the other hand, I  have edited. This is the end of the parade (and of the festival). One by one, the groups get to the finishing line and conclude their performance.



The festival's website.
http://nrtm.jp/

伝説-Legend

Following are my impressions on Kodo's latest, One Earth Tour: Legend. If you want to know more, a very interesting article on this new show appears on July's edition of Kodo eNews, as well as a quote from my own (http://www.kodo.or.jp/enews/pdf/Kodo_eNews_201207.pdf). Highly recommended if you want an inside perspective,written by Kodo's own Melanie.
A big thanks goes to Alison for proofreading.

NB: This show is VERY different from past ones, so if you prefer discovering it by yourself, refrain from reading.

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I have seen Kodo in concert four times since 2007 – three times in North America and once in Japan (last December’s One Earth Tour)– prior to this year’s 伝説-Legend. I thought that, by now, I knew what to expect from a Kodo show, yet I realized I was wrong. Over the last year, Kodo has undergone significant internal restructuring that has seen a shift of artistic responsibilities within the organization of the group. Most notably, and after a few outstanding collaborations with Kodo (One Earth Tour Special (2003), Amaterasu (2006), Dadan (2009)), kabuki legend Tamasaburo Bando has become Kodo’s full-time artistic director. In this context, I was very excited about Kodo’s latest work. Following are some of my thoughts on the show.

The very first “scene” (a new composition by Bando, “Kaden”) announces a totally different kind of presentation. On-stage we see a group of four performers playing flute around a bonfire (created through the use of light, of course). There are also dancers, and, further back, two half-moon-shaped sets of roughly ten taiko plus a timpani each. Gone is Kodo’s traditional happi (which only appeared in the second half of the show). Even more striking is the fact that the flutes are not playing any recognizable Kodo or even Japanese melody, but rather “El condor pasa”, a Peruvian song based on Andean traditional music.

Kodo’s past is filled with world music experiments and international collaborations that have sadly, as far as I know, rarely seen the stage outside of Earth Celebration. If “El condor pasa” is a hint of Kodo starting to explore world music as part of their annual concerts, they have an extremely rich well to draw from.

As the performance unfolds, we appreciate the most impactful feature of Kodo’s new presentation: the use of space. Bando’s stage sensibilities seem to be his most compelling contribution to the group. The drums, for example, are set in such a way that they shape the movement of the performers as they raise their arms to strike them and as they rotate positions. Space takes on new meaning as dancers perform “Sado Okesa” at the back of the stage under different lighting, while others play “Monochrome” in the front. Drum changes are minimized (even if it means keeping some on stage that will not be used) and the players are highlighted, becoming actors that inhabit the space of the stage. As a whole, the concert evolves in a much more organic, narrative way. This flow made me lose myself in the ‘story’, so to speak, to the point that before I knew it the concert was over.

Much in the same way, the musical space becomes three-dimensional as well. Moments of cacophony give new significance to those of harmony. Different melodies and rhythms blend into each other as we move from one space to another, from one song to the next.

In true narrative fashion, the concert finishes by taking us back to the beginning through the repetition of the melody of “El condor pasa”. If anything, I would say that the encore felt slightly underwhelming, removed from the rest of the performance. Of course, an encore always comes after the end of a show, but it did not seem to flow from everything that had come before, especially considering how cohesive the whole had been up until then. To put it in other words, it felt as if they had taken the encore from a pre-Bando concert and used it for this one. Or, it may also be that after the pitch-perfect encore for the Bando-directed One Earth Tour Special I’ve simply become too demanding.

All in all, I see 伝説-Legend as a very refreshing, meaningful and exciting new step in the artistic evolution of Kodo, whose new approach seems to be based not so much on the adaptation of the ancient tradition of taiko to the stage, but more importantly on a reinterpretation of it. If this is only the beginning of the Bando era, the next work cannot come soon enough for me.

日本と反抗的な僕

Following is my speech for my last semester at Keio University (Tokyo). It took me 8 years to realize this, but now that I have the past feels much lighter, and the future promising. We must know and understand where we stand before we can start walking towards our goal. Otherwise, how can we know which direction to go?

(Sorry, only Japanese version for now. Also, bear in mind that the audience were fellow exchange students from all around the world.)

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皆さん、おはようございます。皆さんは日本のことに関心を持っているといって間違いないと思います。私もそうです。日本人と会うと、だいたいいつも日本語が話せることや文化にある程度詳しいことに日本人がビックリして、きまって「どうして日本に興味あるんですか？」と聞かれます。皆さんも聞かれますか？私は８年前から同じ質問に答えているので、いつも考えないで同じ答えが出てきます。日本の映画や日本語をきっかけとして、関心を持ったという答えです。当時、日本の映画を見て日本語と日本の文化や歴史に引きつけられたというのは本当ですが、今日本に来てから私と同じような経験をしてきた人にたくさん会って交流して過去を振り返って、他にも理由があるのではないかと考えるようになりました。家と家族から離れて東京に来た私がわかったことについて話したいと思います。

一人っ子の私は優しい両親と非常に仲が良かったので、 好き嫌いまでヨーロッパ志向の父と母と同じでした。ギタリストの父からは音楽の素晴らしさ、またフランス語や英語に堪能な母からは語学の魅力を教えてもらいました。 でも、若者はティーンエイジャーになると権力に対して反抗して独立した人間になろうとするものです。私がどうして日本の映画をきっかけに日本に興味をもったかというと、日本の映画や文化の中に両親のとは違う価値観をみつけたからです。それで、この文化についてもっと知りたくなって日本語を勉強し始めました。知らず知らず日本の文化や価値観を取り入れてだんだん自立してきました。 人間は成長するには、足がかりが必要なんです。私の場合は、日本でした。

最初は、私の情熱が理解できなかった両親はただの一時的な興味だと思っていました。 私が「漢字を2千以上習わなけりゃ」と言ったら、母は「それは絶対無理よ！」と言いました。 でも、私はこのような言葉を聞けば聞くほど熱心になっていきました。大学に入って日本研究を専攻するようになってから、親は私が真剣であることをわかってくれました。その時から今まで、親はずっと励ましてくれています。

皆さん、「どうして日本に興味があるのですか？」という質問に私のようにいつも考えないで同じことを答えているのなら、もう一度深く考えてみればどうでしょうか？

ご清聴ありがとうございました。

第50回全日本合気道演武大会

A couple of weeks ago I have had the honour of participating in the 50th All Japan Aikido Demonstration. As far as I know, this is the largest and most significant Aikido event, held once a year. Dojos from all over Japan and overseas come to share their devotion and talent in the friendly atmosphere that Aikido, a martial art with no competition, proposes.


Aikido is written in Japanese "合気道", literally "unify/energy/(the)way". It could be translated many different ways, but I would say it is something like the Art of becoming one with oneself and one's surroundings. Unlike other martial arts, Aikido does not teach how to challenge and overcome an incoming force by meeting it head-to-head with one's own, but rather how to accept the attack, redirect it, and make it fade away to successfully gain control of your environment.


Here is a video of Aikido's top man, Moriteru Ueshiba, the grandchild of Aikido's founder Morihei Ueshiba. His demonstration was the last one of the event.