Last spring I decided to go back to my hometown in Tokushima during this Obon, from August 12-14.
Tokushima is located in Shikoku Island, which lies to the west of Osaka.
I usually go back there 2 or 3 times a year.
Tokushima is famous as the birthplace of Awa-odori (阿波踊り) which is one of the most popular traditional Japanese dance festivals in Japan. These days Awa-odori festivals are held all over Japan and there are many professional and amateur Awa-odori dance groups in Japan, despite small beginnings about 400-years-ago in Tokushima..
When I left Tokushima as an 18-year-old, I hated my hometown, because I felt it was a very closed society.
I also disliked my family, because they were over protective and interfered too much.
Nevertheless I think I was just childish.
When I joined a professional Awa-odori dance group in Tokyo some years ago, I suddenly realized my deep connection to my hometown’s Awa-odori culture. However I left that Awa-odori dance group after 4 years for various reasons.
As I was planning to go back to Tokushima in Obon, I asked my mother to purchase Awa-odori tickets for me. I wanted to enjoy seeing Awa-odori in my hometown, especially some of the professional dance groups.
As I have written in previous articles, when I talk about my hometown to my customers, most of them ask me if I can dance the Awa-odori. When they ask me this I remember my connection to Tokushima.
For this reason, I especially wanted to see Awa-odori this year.
When I arrived at Tokushima airport, the Awa-odori group which I had been a member of in Tokyo welcomed us incoming passengers with their dance. It was a big surprise.
My mother smiled me when she found me.
My parents and I enjoyed lunch at the airport. After lunch we went back to my parents home, which is located about 30-minutes-drive by car.
Indeed I was nervous about talking with my family, especially about my job, because as I have written previously, my family don’t have a good opinion of geisha.
However, contrary to my expectation, my mother said to me that I should do my best not to have regrets about what I do with my life.
That night, my mother cooked vegetables which my father had grown. They were very delicious.
The next day, my parents and I visited my grandfather and my sister’s graves. After that, we went to my grandmother’s house, which is located only 10-minutes-drive away.
After we enjoyed talking with my grandmother and aunt, who is living with my grandmother, we went to see an Awa-odori festival, which was being held in Tokushima city. Tokushima city is located about 30-minutes-drive from my grandmother’s house.
My mother parked her car in a parking lot which she had reserved and we walked to the venue for which we had purchased tickets.
There are many performance areas for the various events at the festival. Many of the events are free but 4 of the outdoor performance spaces at the festival in Tokushima city require a ticket to enter. The venue my family had reserved was the farthest from the parking lot, so we had to walk for some time.
Nevertheless we enjoyed the atmosphere of the big festival while we were walking to the venue.
The festival usually starts at 6pm. At the outdoor performance spaces which are not free, performances are divided into two parts. The first half is from 6pm-8pm and the second half is from 8:30pm-10:30pm. We booked the first half.
While we were eating and drinking, we really enjoyed seeing the professional Awa-odori dancing.
Indeed I really wanted to dance with them, however I couldn’t, so I decided that I would dance Awa-odori at ozashiki parties.
That night, I stayed at my grandmother’s house, and talked with my grandmother and aunt till midnight.
The next morning, my aunt and I went to a cake shop, because my relatives were coming to visit my grandmother’s house in the afternoon.
After my aunt and I went back to my grandmother’s house, I started practicing the shamisen.
After a while, my grandmother knocked on the door, and she asked me to record my shamisen practice.
She said to me that when she has some free time, she wants to enjoy listening to my shamisen music.
I felt a lump in my throat, because I realized that she really wanted to talk with me everyday, but since I live so far away, being able to listen to my shamisen music everyday, will help her feel close to me.
To tell the truth, my parents, aunt and I didn’t talk to her about my job, because we thought that people of her generation might have a prejudice towards geisha. My parents and aunt forbade me to tell her the truth.
In this trip, I reflected deeply about my job, especially concerning my family.
2011年8月22日月曜日
2011年8月8日月曜日
The Hachioji festival in 2011
As I wrote in a previous article, this year’s official Hachioji festival had been cancelled due to the M9 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami.
However, Hachioji’s residents didn’t want this historic festival cancelled, so they decided to carry out the event as a number of smaller festivals, individually organised by the local areas within Hachioji city. Hachioji’s geisha had to practice dance and shamisen very hard for this year’s “community organized” festival.
On July 22, the "Yoimiya (宵宮)" event, our annual public geisha performance, was held in a small square.
We performed about 10 songs at the “Yoimiya” event which lasted for about 30 minutes.
Some songs were familiar to me because I had played them before at ozashiki parties, and also because I had played at last year’s festival. However several songs were new to me, so I had to practice them hard before the festival. Of course, I had to memorize all songs by heart.
In July, we had several group practice sessions for the “Yoimiya” event, however before the group practice sessions I couldn’t completely memorize some of them. So I had to use music scores when I played the songs. When I saw that my younger geisha sister was playing by heart, I felt inspired to memorize the songs.
This year, we had an opportunity to perform at “Kaguraden (神楽殿)” in Hachiman-yakumo-shrine (八幡八雲神社), which is one of the biggest and most well known shrines in Hachioji. Kaguraden is the name of the public performance stage in the shrine. To be able to perform at Kaguraden was a big honor.
We selected almost the same songs from the “Yoimiya” event for the performance at Kaguraden.
On July 22, I went to my regular hair salon early in the morning. After that, I prepared the venue with my geisha sisters.
At 2:00pm, all members gathered there again and we rehearsed for the “Yoimiya” event.
After the rehearsal, we changed into kimonos and gathered again at the venue.
A large audience was already waiting for our performance.
By the way, this year, we were not permitted to publicise our performance to Hachioji’s residents except for our handmade poster, so when I saw the large audience, I was glad.
The performance started at 6:30pm. I played the shamisen with intense concentration.
I felt the 30 minute performance was very short.
After the “Yoimiya” performance, we each went to our ozashiki parties.
Early in the morning of the 23rd, we picked up the stage lighting from the bar in front of the venue. Since the “Yoimiya” event had been held in the evening, we needed to use stage lighting.
Actually we had to do everything for the event by ourselves except for setting up the audio equipment.
After picking up the stage lighting, we rehearsed at “Kaguraden (神楽殿)” in Hachiman-yakumo-shrine (八幡八雲神社).
After the rehearsal, we quickly changed into our kimonos and went back to the shrine again. We were very busy.
At 4:00pm the performance started. I felt it was a new experience for us to perform at Kaguraden.
In the audience, I was able to find my friends who had promised they would come and see our performance. I felt very happy.
After our performance at Kauraden, “Niwaka-dashi (にわか山車)” * started.
Hachioji’s geisha play the shamisen, drums and flute on the “Niwaka-dashi”, which is a float paraded around the city.
* “Dashi” means a float and “Niwaka” means hasty preparation.
This year, floats weren’t permitted to be paraded along the wide public roads, so this year’s route was special. The residents of Hachioji’s geisha area pulled the “Niwaka-dashi” through the streets.
In the afternoon of July 24, the last day of the festival, we pulled our town’s float, which was different to “Niwaka-dashi”, through the streets.
While we were pulling the float, the residents of the different areas of Hachioji extended a warm welcome to us with food and drink. I was very happy.
It was a bit hot while pulling the float but I enjoyed it.
At night, the Niwaka-dashi was paraded through the streets again.
After the festival, Hachioji’s geisha and the residents of the geisha area gathered at the local hall and celebrated the success of this year’s festival.
Last year I didn’t know the flow of the festival, so I just had to follow my geisha sisters.
Nevertheless this year, as I was able to understand the flow of the festival, I could learn a lot of things from the festival.
However, Hachioji’s residents didn’t want this historic festival cancelled, so they decided to carry out the event as a number of smaller festivals, individually organised by the local areas within Hachioji city. Hachioji’s geisha had to practice dance and shamisen very hard for this year’s “community organized” festival.
On July 22, the "Yoimiya (宵宮)" event, our annual public geisha performance, was held in a small square.
We performed about 10 songs at the “Yoimiya” event which lasted for about 30 minutes.
Some songs were familiar to me because I had played them before at ozashiki parties, and also because I had played at last year’s festival. However several songs were new to me, so I had to practice them hard before the festival. Of course, I had to memorize all songs by heart.
In July, we had several group practice sessions for the “Yoimiya” event, however before the group practice sessions I couldn’t completely memorize some of them. So I had to use music scores when I played the songs. When I saw that my younger geisha sister was playing by heart, I felt inspired to memorize the songs.
This year, we had an opportunity to perform at “Kaguraden (神楽殿)” in Hachiman-yakumo-shrine (八幡八雲神社), which is one of the biggest and most well known shrines in Hachioji. Kaguraden is the name of the public performance stage in the shrine. To be able to perform at Kaguraden was a big honor.
We selected almost the same songs from the “Yoimiya” event for the performance at Kaguraden.
On July 22, I went to my regular hair salon early in the morning. After that, I prepared the venue with my geisha sisters.
At 2:00pm, all members gathered there again and we rehearsed for the “Yoimiya” event.
After the rehearsal, we changed into kimonos and gathered again at the venue.
A large audience was already waiting for our performance.
By the way, this year, we were not permitted to publicise our performance to Hachioji’s residents except for our handmade poster, so when I saw the large audience, I was glad.
The performance started at 6:30pm. I played the shamisen with intense concentration.
I felt the 30 minute performance was very short.
After the “Yoimiya” performance, we each went to our ozashiki parties.
Early in the morning of the 23rd, we picked up the stage lighting from the bar in front of the venue. Since the “Yoimiya” event had been held in the evening, we needed to use stage lighting.
Actually we had to do everything for the event by ourselves except for setting up the audio equipment.
After picking up the stage lighting, we rehearsed at “Kaguraden (神楽殿)” in Hachiman-yakumo-shrine (八幡八雲神社).
After the rehearsal, we quickly changed into our kimonos and went back to the shrine again. We were very busy.
At 4:00pm the performance started. I felt it was a new experience for us to perform at Kaguraden.
In the audience, I was able to find my friends who had promised they would come and see our performance. I felt very happy.
After our performance at Kauraden, “Niwaka-dashi (にわか山車)” * started.
Hachioji’s geisha play the shamisen, drums and flute on the “Niwaka-dashi”, which is a float paraded around the city.
* “Dashi” means a float and “Niwaka” means hasty preparation.
This year, floats weren’t permitted to be paraded along the wide public roads, so this year’s route was special. The residents of Hachioji’s geisha area pulled the “Niwaka-dashi” through the streets.
In the afternoon of July 24, the last day of the festival, we pulled our town’s float, which was different to “Niwaka-dashi”, through the streets.
While we were pulling the float, the residents of the different areas of Hachioji extended a warm welcome to us with food and drink. I was very happy.
It was a bit hot while pulling the float but I enjoyed it.
At night, the Niwaka-dashi was paraded through the streets again.
After the festival, Hachioji’s geisha and the residents of the geisha area gathered at the local hall and celebrated the success of this year’s festival.
Last year I didn’t know the flow of the festival, so I just had to follow my geisha sisters.
Nevertheless this year, as I was able to understand the flow of the festival, I could learn a lot of things from the festival.
2011年8月1日月曜日
My trip to Kamaishi
As I wrote in a previous article, my geisha mother is keeping in contact with Kamaishi’s last remaining geisha.
On July 9, my geisha mother, some geisha sisters and I went to Kamaishi in order to learn Kamaishi’s local folk songs and dances. These songs and dances are unique to Kamaishi and are only known by Kamaishi’s last remaining geisha.
Before going we learned 2 local Kamaishi folk songs, “Kamaishi Hamauta(釜石浜唄)” and “Kamaishi Kouta(釜石小唄)” from my shamisen teacher.
My geisha sister also discovered the “Kamaishi Kouta” on the Internet, and they learned the dance before we went to Kamaishi.
In the early morning of the day we left, some members took the Shinkansen from Tokyo station and other members got on the same Shinkansen at Omiya station.
We took the Shinkansen to Shin-hanamaki and then from Shin-hanamaki, we took the local train (Kamaishi-line). The trip was a quite long, especially since it was a one-day trip.
The total return journey was about 8 hours.
We heard from my geisha mother 2 or 3 days before our trip to Kamaishi that NHK would film our visit. So she said to us that we had to wear a Yukata (Summer kimono) and style our hair (wear our hair up).
When we arrived at Kamaishi, we had lunch at the station. There were many flies in the town. Although I had heard about it on TV, I was surprised to see so many flies. In addition, that day was too hot.
From Kamaishi station to the shelter where we had arranged to meet, we took a taxi.
I saw many damaged shutter doors fronting the shops on both sides of the streets. A lot of debris still remained in the town.
We arrived at the shelter within 5 minutes. I was surprised again because it was also very hot and were many flies in the shelter. However, the people who were staying in the shelter and the volunteers gave us a warm welcome.
To my surprise, Kamaishi’s last remaining geisha greeted us dressed in a perfectly starched Yukata. She looked beautiful.
While we were talking she smiled the whole time.
My geisha sister and I had brought our shamisens, so we prepared them to play quickly. Soon Kamaishi’s last remaining geisha’s lesson started.
At first she taught us the “Kamaishi Kouta(釜石小唄)”. It was not so different from the version we had learnt from my shamisen teacher. However the “Kamaishi Hamauta(釜石浜唄)” was a bit different.
She taught the “Kamaishi Hamauta(釜石浜唄)” to my geisha sister and I without using any music score.
I usually use music scores when I play, so it was my first time to learn a shamisen song by only verbal instruction. I got tense but I respected her, because in her era, there were no music scores for geisha songs.
She also taught the “Kamaishi Hamauta(釜石浜唄)” dance to my geisha sisters. At first she said to my geisha mother that she wouldn’t dance herself because of her health condition. Nevertheless, for our benefit, she made an effort to dance for us. I felt her passion and that she really wanted to express her art to us.
We left Kamaishi after only a 1 hour visit.
I never forget her words:
“I will never give up just because of a Tsunami.”
“You should always be happy.”
I was very tired, however I could learn many new things from her.
On July 9, my geisha mother, some geisha sisters and I went to Kamaishi in order to learn Kamaishi’s local folk songs and dances. These songs and dances are unique to Kamaishi and are only known by Kamaishi’s last remaining geisha.
Before going we learned 2 local Kamaishi folk songs, “Kamaishi Hamauta(釜石浜唄)” and “Kamaishi Kouta(釜石小唄)” from my shamisen teacher.
My geisha sister also discovered the “Kamaishi Kouta” on the Internet, and they learned the dance before we went to Kamaishi.
In the early morning of the day we left, some members took the Shinkansen from Tokyo station and other members got on the same Shinkansen at Omiya station.
We took the Shinkansen to Shin-hanamaki and then from Shin-hanamaki, we took the local train (Kamaishi-line). The trip was a quite long, especially since it was a one-day trip.
The total return journey was about 8 hours.
We heard from my geisha mother 2 or 3 days before our trip to Kamaishi that NHK would film our visit. So she said to us that we had to wear a Yukata (Summer kimono) and style our hair (wear our hair up).
When we arrived at Kamaishi, we had lunch at the station. There were many flies in the town. Although I had heard about it on TV, I was surprised to see so many flies. In addition, that day was too hot.
From Kamaishi station to the shelter where we had arranged to meet, we took a taxi.
I saw many damaged shutter doors fronting the shops on both sides of the streets. A lot of debris still remained in the town.
We arrived at the shelter within 5 minutes. I was surprised again because it was also very hot and were many flies in the shelter. However, the people who were staying in the shelter and the volunteers gave us a warm welcome.
To my surprise, Kamaishi’s last remaining geisha greeted us dressed in a perfectly starched Yukata. She looked beautiful.
While we were talking she smiled the whole time.
My geisha sister and I had brought our shamisens, so we prepared them to play quickly. Soon Kamaishi’s last remaining geisha’s lesson started.
At first she taught us the “Kamaishi Kouta(釜石小唄)”. It was not so different from the version we had learnt from my shamisen teacher. However the “Kamaishi Hamauta(釜石浜唄)” was a bit different.
She taught the “Kamaishi Hamauta(釜石浜唄)” to my geisha sister and I without using any music score.
I usually use music scores when I play, so it was my first time to learn a shamisen song by only verbal instruction. I got tense but I respected her, because in her era, there were no music scores for geisha songs.
She also taught the “Kamaishi Hamauta(釜石浜唄)” dance to my geisha sisters. At first she said to my geisha mother that she wouldn’t dance herself because of her health condition. Nevertheless, for our benefit, she made an effort to dance for us. I felt her passion and that she really wanted to express her art to us.
We left Kamaishi after only a 1 hour visit.
I never forget her words:
“I will never give up just because of a Tsunami.”
“You should always be happy.”
I was very tired, however I could learn many new things from her.
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