Japan at the Edinburgh Festival #3
Japan Experience at the Edinburgh Festival (1999)
The following includes reviews of various Fringe shows which were promoted as part of the 'Japan Experience' at the Edinburgh Festival. This year most of the events were at a small venue, the Garage, near the Traverse theatre. The shows were quite well attended, as was the case last year.
Miyako Hatanaka THE DAIRY OF TAKUBOKU
Drama
Takuboku (1886-1912) was a poet, novelist, educator, and newspaper reporter, whose poems, for many Japanese people, reflect an era. His diaries were published after his death. A Takuboku memorial hall has been built at Shibutami, his home village, and contains many artifacts and memorabilia.
The play was adapted from the diaries, and, while the program promised that it would be performed in Japanese, & "an English narration would be given to the audience" in fact the English narration consisted of a summary given in Hatakana-san's halting English at the beginning of each scene, so that a familiarity with Japanese (and dialect Japanese at that) was needed to get the most out of this piece. Despite this, this was a quiet and moving performance. Afterwards, Hatakana-san herself kindly found me a leaflet about Takuboku.
Migiwa - YOSHIKO, AN ORDINARY JAPANESE GIRL
Comedy
Program blurb: "A hilarious and cute introduction to a day in a life of an ordinary Japanese girl. Yoshiko does tea ceremony, flower arrangement, calligraphy and Japanese dance like all good Japanse girls. To become international she learns English conversation. And to know about the world, she comes to Edinburgh fringe."
The show was indeed very funny and a contrast to the seriousness of the more highbrow Japan Experience items. It's a tongue in cheek look at the accomplishments that a well-educated Japanese girl is supposed to master. Migiwa performs the whole show wearing a kimono (she also wears it off-stage during the day). Some of her activities are less traditional; she also learns karate to sort out the perverts and gropers on the subway trains.
Egiku Hanayagi - Japanese Dances
Traditional Japanese dance movements with modern choreography.
Hanayagi has won various prizes at national cultural dance contests in Japan. She is a regular performer at the prestigious National Theatre in Tokyo. This year's performance at Edinburgh comprised "The Crow", and "Spring Has Gone". The accompanying music was from a recording.
This performance would appeal to classical and modern dance fans rather than a general audience.
CHIKUZAN TAKAHASHI
Tsugaru Shamisen
"The virtuoso master of the tsugaru shamisen, the 3 stringed zither. Improvisation and jazz with an oriental twist"
"Chikuzan was designated by her blind master, Chikuzan, to be his successor when he died in the spring of 1998, thus causing a stir in the male-dominated world of the shamisen. He gave her his name, encouraged her to break the tradition, to abandon the old concepts of how the instrument should be played, and to take it to its extreme."
This is the same performer I saw in 1998.
The shamisen sounds like a banjo and is played with a plectrum the
size and shape of a paint stripper. I can't say that shamisen music is growing on me, but such virtuosity on an unlikely looking instrument is startling, and her singing in the traditional Japanese styles is not something you'd hear every day.
Kumiko Yamaguchi BODY TALK
Modern dance with a Japanese flavour.
Yamaguchi trained in New York.