Hope to bring Takarazuka Revue to Las Vegas
Shinji Ueda, President of the Takarazuka Revue Company (Takarazuka City, Hyogo Prefecture) which this year celebrates the 90th anniversary of its founding, spoke under the theme of 'Ninety Years of Takarazuka and Its Road Toward Its 100th Year' at the luncheon meeting of the Kansai Press Club held in late March.Ichizo Kobayashi (1873-1957), the founder of Hankyu Railways who founded the Takarazuka Revue Company 90 years ago, believed that culture was as important as politics and the economy. He took the revue company to Europe to give performances in the late 1930s and made a great deal of effort to introduce Japanese culture to foreign audiences from a very early date. As Takarazuka performers go on stage only after they graduate from the company's training academy, the Takarazuka Music School, the troupe performances were sometimes dubbed as 'class shows.' And, in a way, they have come this far by following the 'class shows' tradition.
Some critics also accused Takarazuka for plagiarism, but its mode of operation has been to adopt Western dramas and transform them into something Japanese that are loved by the Japanese people. In 2002, Ueda was invited to an art industry forum in China to talk about the Takarazuka Revue Company as a successful example in the theater industry in the keynote speech. The passage of 90 years and the weight of history have changed the way in which Takarazuka is viewed, so that today Takarazuka is held in esteem as 'theatrical art and culture.'
Although Takarazuka revues were very popular immediately after World War II, the number of Takarazuka-viewers declined as the Japanese economy entered its high-growth period. The resulting sense of crisis has prompted Takarazuka to turn to the late Kazuo Hasegawa and Shoroku Onoe, the big stars in the film and Kabuki, respectively, at the time, to teach the troupes stylized beauty (beauty of style), which led to the production of hugely successful 'The Rose of Versailles.' Those were also the heydays of underground theater, which some young stage directors at Takarazuka chose to follow.
However, Takarazuka managed to increase its fans by sticking to 'the shows that were true to the reputation of Takarazuka.' Since theater is a mirror that faithfully reflects the times, it is 'impossible to say what Takarazuka will be like when it reaches its 100th year,' Ueda said.
Ueda said that he hoped to bring Takarazuka revues to many countries in the world, especially those in Asia, and also to produce a year-long show in Las Vegas with the company's five groups of performers taking turns. He also said, 'I realize that the performers can no longer depend on the reputation of Takarazuka to draw viewers and that we must aim at creating a Takarazuka that is original and creative.'
Osaka Collection 2004/05 Autumn-Winter, Apr. 21-22
'Osaka Collection 2004/05 Autumn-Winter,' a gateway to the fashion world for fresh designers, will be held at MID Theater (Shiromi, Chuo Ward, Osaka City) on April 21-22. The event, which will be held under the auspices of the Osaka Collection Organizing Committee comprised of the Osaka Prefectural Government, the Osaka City Office, the Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI), Osaka 21st Century Association and the Kansai Association of Corporate Executives, is designed, among other things, to nurture designers who will play important roles on the world stage and make Osaka a leading international fashion center.The event will feature colorful shows, including sophisticated stages by Hiroko Koshino, an internationally-renowned fashion designer who is the proponent of the Osaka Collection, and 'Up-and-Coming Asian Joint,' by young designers in Japan and South Korea.
KIX summer schedule for int'l flight released
Kansai International Airport Company (KIAC) has released the 2004 summer schedule for international flight departures from the Kansai International Airport (KIX).The new schedule shows that during the August peak period, the number of scheduled departures will reach 694 per week, up by 100 flights from the same period a year earlier and up by 58 flights from the corresponding figure for the winter season. The figure is second only to the record figure of 700 flights per week scheduled for the summer of 2001.
As flights will increase due to the opening of new routes or reinstatement of cancelled services, including the new service to KIX by Shanghai Airlines, inauguration of flights to Hangzhou, Hanoi and Kota Kinabalu (Malaysia), reinstatement of flights to Chicago, and the increase of flights to Vancouver from one a day to two a day, KIAC reports that flights may be increased further.
Japan-USA volleyball challenge cup in Kansai
'2004 Japan-USA Volleyball Men's Challenge Cup' games will be held in Wakayama, Shiga, Fukui and Osaka Prefectures on April 24-29 under the aegis of Japan Volleyball Association (JVA) with joint sponsorship of Mainichi Shimbun Company in the Osaka game. The Volleyball Associations of respective prefectures will supervise the games.The games will be held at the Wakayama Prefectural Gymnasium (Wakayama City) on April 24, the Shiga Prefectural Gymnasium (Otsu City) on April 25, the Fukui Sports Park Gymnasium (Fukui City) on April 27 and the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium (Naniwa Ward, Osaka City) on April 29.
For the All Japan Men's Team, which is scheduled to play the final qualifying game for this summer's Athena Olympic Games in May, Japan-USA games are important events for building up the team and gaining momentum for the qualifier. The U.S. team has already won the North and Central American qualifying games and hence a place in the Athena Olympiad. The Challenge Cup games will attract a great deal of attention to see how far both teams have prepared for the Olympiad.
Experiments on 'agri-trigeneration' launched
Osaka Gas Co., Ltd., in cooperation with Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture, and others, will launch on an experiment on a 'trigeneration system for agricultural use,' the first such test in Japan.The system is designed to efficiently generate electricity and heat for use in hot houses with a cogeneration system while at the same time supplying carbon dioxide, a byproduct of cogeneration, to farm plants to accelerate their growth. As the system will use the gas emission from the cogeneration system as it is, it is expected to contribute toward raising the utilization rate of the heat emission.
The National Institute of Floricultural Science (NIFS) (Tsukuba City) of the National Agricultural and Bio-oriented Research Organization (NARO) and a rose grower in the city will participate in the project. The experiment will investigate the effect of carbon dioxide supply as well as artificial lighting and underground heating and cooling using the hot houses of the rose grower.
Wakayama to send World Heritage mission to China
Wakayama Prefectural Government will dispatch approximately 100 persons to participate in the Wakayama Prefecture-Shandong Province Visit 'World Heritage' Friendship Mission that will visit Shandong Province, China, May 21-25.The mission is one of the events to mark the 20th anniversary of the friendship ties between the prefecture and Shandong Province. The members will participate in the commemorative ceremony as well as visit Mount Taishan and other world heritage sites to see Wakayama's nature and culture in a new light ahead of the imminent inclusion of the 'Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range' in the World Heritage List.
Kansai in Focus: Noh performance of Paul Claudel's drama in verse
Hideo Kanze, a man of exceptional talent in the world of Japan's Noh plays, is very ambitious though he will cerebrate his 77th birthday next August. This spring, he produced and acted in a creative (modern) Noh drama based on Paul Claudel's works in Paris, Tokyo and Kyoto in collaboration with Mansai Nomura, a very popular Kyogen (Noh comedy) artist, and will also collaborate with Stomu Yamash'ta, a world-renowned percussionist.Hideo Kanze is the second son of Tetsunojo Kanze VII, a descendant of Kan'ami and Ze'ami, the founders of Noh drama. Hideo made his debut on the Noh stage at the age of three and his talent was widely recognized. After the World War II, he advanced on to Tokyo Music School (now the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music) but quit it, and defied tradition by allowing himself to be 'adopted' by another Noh school Kita-ryu for 11 years. He made a great deal of detours before he finally returned to the world of Noh at the age of 51. During this interval he had both directed and acted in modern dramas, operas and films and also taught at universities.
I saw Hideo Kanze in Kyoto in March. In a press conference on his new work he will perform with Yamash'ta in late April, he said, 'Japan's traditional arts have deep spiritual meaning and are attracting a great deal of attention overseas. I hope to continue to introduce theatrical art that will move the soul.'
Paul Claudel, the greatest writer of dramas in verse in the 20th century who also served as French Ambassador to Tokyo for five years in the Taisho period (1912-26), was deeply attracted by Japan's traditional culture, which, it is said, he integrated in himself. He wrote many verses and cultural critiques based on Oriental esthetics. The modern Noh drama, 'Twelve Scenes of the Inner Moat or the Double Shadow,' which is a scenic montage of Claudel's works, was written by Moriaki Watanabe, a French literature scholar, while Hideo Kanze wrote the musical composition and choreography. 'The Double Shadow' is a story of star-crossed lovers, while 'Twelve Scenes of the Inner Moat' is a poem depicting the scenes around the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.
The drama was presented on March 1st at the Shunjyuza Theater of Kyoto University of Art and Design where Hideo Kanze teaches. Hideo (protagonist) played the roles of the spirit of Claudel and St. Jacob, Mansai Nomura, as a young man, danced Sambaso and Shinya Umewaka (tritagonist) played the 'double shadow,' the spirit of the young lovers, who ultimately are united in heaven.
The greatest challenge was how to express the double shadow with Noh techniques. In Europe, the apparition of Claudel led the drama into Noh. On stage, the spirit of the young man appears from behind the woman's costume and possesses the young man. The dance in which the two lovers lament their tragic love is sensual and sensational, and intoxicated the audience in France. Kanze transformed the dignified verse-drama in French into a Noh form and, with Mansai Nomura, showed Noh's diverse and colorful power of expression to its full advantage.
Hideo Kanze is dedicated to exploring the potentials of Noh. While performing traditional Noh dramas on the one hand, he has successfully managed since late in February the tour of Claudel Noh in Tokyo, Paris and Kyoto on the other. Later this month, he will present in collaboration with Stomu Yamash'ta a creative stage, which will be a fusion of sound and Noh movements, and Noh chant and story, to create a new art form that can also be enjoyed as music.
In May, he will perform with Kankuro Nakamura, a noted Kabuki actor, at Kabuki Theater in Tokyo. In the autumn, he will perform for the first time 'Obasute,' the story of abandoning old women in the mountains, abandoning himself altogether on the stage that will commemorate his 77 years. He is still full of spirit. (T)