Thoughts about the “I-Ro-Ha” (ABCs) of Shinnai: 4 Translator’s Note: This essay is a continuation of the series started in #30 (see below in this blog, February-March 2018 issue of the Kagurazaka Community Magazine), in which Wakasanojo uses I-Ro-Ha and so on to label the items. The translation of t~
Thoughts about the “I-Ro-Ha” (ABCs) of Shinnai: 3 Translator’s Note: This essay is a continuation of the series started in #30 (see below in this blog, February-March 2018 issue of the Kagurazaka Community Magazine), in which Wakasanojo uses I-Ro-Ha and so on to label the items. The translation of t~
Thoughts about the “I-Ro-Ha” (ABCs) of Shinnai: 2 Translator’s Note: This essay is a continuation of the series started in #30 (in this blog, February-March 2018 issue of the Kagurazaka Community Magazine), in which Wakasanojo uses “I-Ro-Ha” and so on to label the items. As was done in #30, the tran~
Thoughts about the “I-Ro-Ha” (ABCs) of Shinnai: 1 Shinnai is one of the Japanese traditional musical performing arts, a leading school of the Bungo-style group of Edo joururi. Tokiwazu, kiyomoto, and tomimoto, which are other well-known traditional musical styles, are the artistic siblings of shinna~
Shinnai Overseas Performance Tours 18 2017 Performance in Spain, a Passionate Country When I went to Spain in 2017, it had been twenty years since my previous trip there. This time, Spain was in turmoil because of the issue of Catalan independence. Historically, Spain has gone through an unusual amo~
Shinnai Overseas Performance Tours 17: The Baltics Northern European Beauties: 2011 Tour in the Baltics First, since it seems that many Japanese do not know what countries are in the Baltics and where they are located, I would like to briefly describe the location of the three countries and explain ~
First Attendance by The Imperial Couple at an Individual’s Recital of Traditional Music: Report, Part 2 Preparing for this important concert, I worried about the relationship between my position on the stage while I was performing and the position in the audience where Their Imperial Majesties would~
First Attendance by The Imperial Couple at an Individual’s Recital of Traditional Music: Report, Part 1 From a single word, like a seed, grew a bud and then fruit. On September 10, 2005, at the Small Hall at Kioi Hall, I was honored to hold the “Tsuruga Wakasanojo Recital” in the presence of Their I~
Shinnai Overseas Performance Tours 16: Poland – Part 2 Performing in Krakow: Moved by Their Charitable Spirit Poland and Japan have a historically long relationship, and Poland is known to be a country that is pro-Japan. Therefore, the Poles admire Japanese culture and study it seriously. The ~
Shinnai Overseas Performance Tours 15: Poland – Part 1 Performing in Poland immediately after the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster Happy New Year! This is the beginning of the year of the rooster. Japan is an earthquake-prone country. In 2016, an earthquake in Kumamoto caused s~
Shinnai Overseas Performance Tours 14: England – Part 3 Scotland Shinnai Performance of a Poem in Scottish English in the ancient city of Edinburgh, capital of Scotland During my time as Special Cultural Envoy, when we went to various places for our performances, although I did some of the dri~
Shinnai Overseas Performance Tours 13: England – Part 2 Concerts That Touched British People’s Hearts My job as a Special Cultural Envoy began. The first thing to do was to find a place to stay. It had to be suitable for an extended stay. I asked the Japanese coordinator whom I’d hired locally~
Shinnai Overseas Performance Tours 12: England – Part 1 Sent Overseas by the Agency for Cultural Affairs as a Special Cultural Envoy Traditional and Proud Great Britain – Before It Left the EU In order to help people around the world have a deeper understanding of Japanese culture, and to form~
Shinnai Overseas Performance Tours 11: France – Part 5 Bordeaux, the City of Wine, Drunk on Shinnai After a comfortable train trip through an unchanging rural landscape, we arrived in Bordeaux. The hotel was located near the train station, which was convenient. The rooms and other facilities, ~
Shinnai Overseas Performance Tours 9: France – Part 3 Under Paris Skies, We Encounter Some Calamities I went to Paris in June, 2014, for the first time in thirty years. The purpose of the trip was to plan and make arrangements for my performance tour of France that was scheduled for the follow~
Shinnai Overseas Performance Tours 9: France – Part 3 Under Paris Skies, We Encounter Some Calamities I went to Paris in June, 2014, for the first time in thirty years. The purpose of the trip was to plan and make arrangements for my performance tour of France that was scheduled for the follow~
Shinnai Overseas Performance Tours 8: France – Part 2 Participating in the Avignon Festival: II My tale of performing in France, which I started in the previous issue, was something that happened more than 30 years ago. At that time, my mother’s Kagurazaka restaurant, Kikuya, was operating, an~
Shinnai Overseas Performance Tours 7: France – Part 1 Participating in the Avignon Festival: I I’ve performed in America more than twenty times. I haven’t enough space here to write about my many memories of those tours, both good ones and bad ones. I’ll write about those interesting trips at ~
Shinnai Overseas Performance Tours 6: America – Part 2 Performances at Prestigious American Universities I’ve mentioned many times that almost all of my overseas performance tours were done in conjunction with the Hachioji Kuruma Ningyo puppeteers. However, as I haven’t yet provided an explana~
Part 14 – Shinnai Overseas Performance Tours 5: America – Part 1 English Shinnai: West Coast of the United States and 4 Hawaiian Islands After I was designated as a Living National Treasure in 2001, I was extremely busy attending congratulatory parties not only in Tokyo but also elsewhere in J~
Shinnai Overseas Performance Tours 4: (South America) Shinnai Activities in Ecuador People associate Ecuador with the Galapagos Islands, which are famous as the natural habitat of a unique type of iguana. We flew to Guayaquil, which is the largest city in Ecuador. Guayaquil, a seaport, is the base f~
Shinnai Overseas Performance Tours 3: (South America) Spanish Shinnai Except in Brasilia, which was the first of the five places that we performed in Brazil, I sprinkled Portuguese into the performances in the way that I’ve described. Latino people are lively and cheerful, and express their feelings~
Part 11 – Shinnai Overseas Performance Tours: 2 (South America) Portuguese Shinnai Well, how did I solve the problem? I will explain a little about the problem for those who did not read the previous essay. At the first of our joint shinnai-Kuruma Ningyo performances in Brazil, the audience co~
Shinnai Overseas Performance Tours: 1 (South America) At My Wit’s End at the First Performance in Brasilia When I was a child, we rarely saw foreigners, especially not in Kagurazaka. When I was in the 5th grade at Tsukudo Elementary school, a Japanese girl who had returned to Japan after living in a~
Misora Hibari’s Performance and Shinnai “Genius” refers to a person who has a God-given talent at a level unreachable by ordinary human endeavor. Among the entertainers that I’m familiar with, Misora Hibari was such a person. To commemorate Misora Hibari’s having performed there continuously for 20 ~
Shinnai Shone on the Toho Stage For one month, the performances of shinnai with the two major actors, Isuzu Yamada and the kabuki actor Shoroku Onoe, were joyfully received with great ovations, and not only from shinnai fans. Shinnai itself also was a big star. Shortly after the war, Isuzu Yamada ca~
Recollections of Isuzu Yamada and Shoroku Onoe: I Although I have no memory of who suggested my name to them, I got a telephone call from the production department of Toho asking me whether I would perform in one of Shigetami Enomoto’s productions. “It’s the April performances at the Imperial Theate~
Recollections of Kuniko Mukoda In those days, we went up to our teacher’s second floor studio by an external staircase. From the sound of geta on the stairs, we realized that someone was coming up. It was a cute young girl wearing a kimono. She said, “I have a message from master Shincho~
Coincidental Colorful Encounters That Affected My Artistry (1) I wrote in an earlier part of this series that my mother’s restaurant, Kikuya, had sponsored us two shinnai entertainers, my father and me. However, Kikuya didn’t just provide us with essential financial support. From among t~
Traditional Edo Music: Crisis of the Decline of Shinnai I graduated from Tsukudo elementary school. My grandfather, my father, my son and daughter, and my grandchildren – five generations of my family – graduated from that same school. This may be rare in Kagurazaka. My junior high and h~
My Mother’s Restaurant Was the Sponsor of My Father’s and My Shinnai In the Muromachi Period, the Noh theater had the protection and backing of the family of Shogun Ashikaga. All the arts, including music and painting, were cultivated by sponsors. Compared to that history, my father̵~
Tsuruga Isedayu I and Izumi Kyoka According to my family’s register at our temple, my great-grandfather was born in Gifu (formerly Mino). When he was young, he came to Edo by boat. I don’t know why, but his son (my grandfather) had a rickshaw company. His shop, called Musashiya, was on t~
I Love the Old Kagurazaka Although rivers continue to flow, the water in them is never the same. Bubbles appear, gather, and disappear, never persisting for long…… The people dwelling in this world are like that. This passage, exuding a feeling of the transience of worldly things, is the~