 Time : Friday - June 19th, 2009
Venue :
Sakura Hotel Jimbocho
The first ever "Noh Workshop" was held at Sakura Hotel Jimbocho on Friday, June 19th.
Noh is a major genre of classic Japanese musical drama that has been performed since the 14th century. There are approximately 250 plays in the current repertoire, which can be divided according to a variety of themes. It is one of the most powerful presentations of traditional Japanese aesthetic that even many theatres and music composers in the west have came under its influence.
The workshop consisted of Noh explaination, performance and actual voice acting challenges. If you missed the first one, don't worry,
the next workshop is scheduled on Friday, September 18th. In the meantime please check out the following photos!
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 6:30 pm ~ Noh Explanation~
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Guests are very curious! |
Smile face! |
Sad face from the same mask! |
Over 40 people took part in the first ever Noh workshop at Sakura Hotel Jimbocho.
Even though I'm Japanese, it was the first time for me to see the perfomance in person. A famous Noh actor, Mr. Kamei first introduced one of the most important props, the mask. Just by turning his head up or down slightly, the actor's expression will change from happy to sad.
All the guests were impressed by the ingenuity.
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7:00 pm ~ Noh Performance ~
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Explaining about
"Noh mask" |
Noh actor, Mr. Kamei's deep bass voice is amazing! |
Watch a short but formal play together |
Lengends said that Noh masks are alot more than just a tool of disguise; they are casted with spells which provide spiritual power to the Noh actor.
Althought Mr. Kamei is not big, once he sings, his voice is like a rumbling of the earth!
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7:30 pm ~ Noh Experience (Noh Voice-acting Challenges) ~
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Throw a streamer like a spider's web! |
Try it yourself! |
Learn more about Noh |
We moved outdoors and experienced one of the most spectacular Noh effects. First Mr. Kamei demonstrated how to throw a special streamer. It's just like Spider Man in the movies! Then we tried it out ourselves and it was not that easy as it seems!
After the workshop, many of us were fascinated by Noh's aesthetics and stayed even for quite a while to learn more from Mr. Kamei. |
Thank you all for joining and making the event a huge success!!
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Share the Sakura Event
Sakura House would like to share our happy moments with people from all over the world. Because of limited space here we have put the rest of the photos on flickr. Check them out!
 More photos @ flickr
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