review of a performance

Gion corner

2010- Gion corner, Kyoto, Japan

Before leaving Japan we decided to attend a special performance in Kyoto. At night we went into an old theatre in the Gion area to attend a special night with some different kinds of Japanese performances. Kyoto is known for its traditional buildings, such as shrines (temples),  and the geishas. On the other hand there is a very modern train station/shopping mall.

Well, what was so special about this show?

Tea ceremony:

The show started with an introduction of the Japanese tea ceremony. The tea ceremony history goes back more than 1000 years. The first tea leaves were brought back from China by Japanese priests and only used (at temples) for religious purposes.

The Japanese tea ceremony is called Chanoyu, Sado or simply Ocha in Japanese and it means the Way of Tea. It is a traditional ritual of preparing and serving Japanese green tea, called Matcha, together with traditional Japanese sweets because of the bitter taste of the tea. The whole process is not about drinking tea, but is about patience and relaxing your spirit. A real, formal tea ceremony can last up to four hours. But in the present-day Japanese gardens you also find people having a small informal tea ceremony-like gathering.

The tea ceremony is very complicated and to master all the techniques it can take 10 years of practicing. Therefore I won’t explain these steps in this blog. If you want to know the exact steps of the ceremony, please visit this site:

http://japanese-tea-ceremony.net/preparation/steps_furo.html

Two people were picked out of the audience to participate in the ceremony during the whole show. To be honest I was very glad it wasn't me because now I could enjoy the other performances more. The explanation of the tea ceremony wasn't the most interesting act of the night.






Koto:

After the introduction two women played the Koto, the national instrument. Throughout Asia there are some related instruments (the Chinese zheng).  Koto are about 1,80 metres long and made from kiri (wood). They have 13 strings that are strung over 13 movable bridges of the instrument. The players sit on the ground with their Koto in front of them and they play it by moving these bridges before playing, and by using three finger (thumb, index finger, and middle finger) to pluck the strings.

I enjoyed listening to the songs. It's hard for me to explain why I liked it, I thought it sounded unique and typical Asian. The music they play is very calming. I guess I also admired the performers because it seems like a really difficult instrument to play.

Maiko dance:

A maiko is an apprentice geisha which can be distinguished from a real geisha by their flowery hair ornaments and often by their high sandals. If the maiko perform well in the Gion Corner they often reach the stage of a geisha earlier. Maiko's and geisha's entertain by singing, dancing and playing traditional Japanese instruments they are often hired for business meetings to make sure the night proceeds well and to prevent awkward silences or a bad atmosphere. 

The maikos (as well as the geishas) move really slow while dancing I think that’s because of the weight of the clothes and because they can coordinate their movements better when they dance slowly. But even thought they dance a bit slow and stiff, they still look really graceful. I actually found the dance quite beautiful.

Note the difference between a maiko (left) and a geisha (right)

Ikebana:

Ikebana is the Japanese word for the art flower arrangement. The performer has a few branches and flowers in front of him and some tools and out of these objects, they make a beautiful creation. Geisha's used to be the only ones doing ikebana, but nowadays the owners of the geisha houses, the geisha make-up artist or even professional ikebana artists arrange the flowers whereas there aren’t many geisha’s who perform ikebana anymore.

When the performer came on the stage and when I saw her branches (just 3) and tools (a pincher and a small cutter)I was extremely surprised that she needed so little. Then she started bending and arranging the branches, the audience went silent, and in just five minutes or so she was finished, leaving behind a beautiful piece of art. She didn’t use flowers, she only used three branches, but it looked simple, beautiful and most importantly; complete. It felt like watching a magic show.

Noh theatre

Noh is a major form of classical Japanese theatre that has been performed since the 14th century. There are four instruments used: flute, hip-drum, shoulder-drum and the stick-drum. Many characters are masked and  men play female roles. Monsters and demons are also a populair topic. Traditionally, a Noh performance lasted all day and consisted of five Noh plays and in between the shorter, humorous kyōgen pieces. (Nowadays Noh performances often consist of two Noh plays with one kyōgen play in between.) The field of Noh performance is divided into 9 sections (3 by 3), and every Noh play starts on the first section and ends on the ninth. Futhermore the place where the actor stands can indicate their character and their mood.

The performances all wear white socks at the beginning of the show and those ought to be as white at the end of the performance as at the beginning.

In the Gion Corner we saw a kyōgen, the funny short part in between the serious play. The performance was completely in Japanese, but I still managed to understand the story because the actors were really good. I really enjoyed it. The story was all about two stupid boys who accidently crushed the vegetables of a farmer. The farmer only saw one boy crushing his vegetables so he got punished, but then the second became a bit reckless and made fun of the first. So the farmer bound them together and they had to cooperate to escape which didn't go all that smoothly in the beginning but at the end they managed to escape.

At last there was a dragon dance. But I didn’t find the dragon dance really special or typically Japanese. In China, for instance, dragon dances are more interesting because the costumes are more decorated and longer.

The Japanese arts are really traditional which I find really nice because you can see the exact same arts on the famous Japanese prints in earlier times, but on the other side sometimes it came across as a little bit stiff and slow as they are bound to many rules and not flexible.

Overall I had a great night! If, perhaps, you decide to go visit Kyoto one day I surely recommend this show!