I had an interesting day yesterday. I thought I'd share it with you.
Something or another reminded me of my short but intense residence in Tokyo. I think it was probably the discovery of the http://www.wtfjapanseriously.com/ site. I had already recommended ROBO GEISHA in teh lounge.
Anyway, I was reminded of the time I arrived in Tokyo. It was August, and something was not right in the street. It mainly looked and sounded like this. Creepy, eh?
It turns out those are Self-Declared Imperialist Fascists, who really hate all foreigners, especially Chinese people.
A week or so later, a special day came along (I cannot remember what day it was). It was the day when Yasakuni Shrine gets populated by two sides of the Sino-Japanese war. On the one hand, there are Japanese Fascists who go there to venerate the souls of Class-A War Criminals buried there. On the other hand, there are Chinese who come all the way from their homeland to pray to-, and eventually hope to get, the remains of their loved ones - who were killed by above mentioned criminals. Pretty effed up, no?
However, many months later, still in Tokyo, I heard an intersting tune playing in the street. It sounded similar to the one emanating from the car linked above, but less militaristic. I was, in a way, lulled by it.
At the time, I was getting into Japanese Folklore and enjoying all the subtle hints to it found anywhere one goes. I grieved the fact that I was unable to attend Kabuki (or Noh) as I had planned. Basically, the ticket was in the hundreds - which I'd gladly pay now - and people told me that I'd be wasting that money sitting amongst decidedly anti-gaijin obasans and sitting through hours of Japanese pun accompanying slow dancing. At the time, this didn't sound very attractive.
Little did I know that I would have enjoyed it nevertheless. Although a thorough education in both Japanese culture and language would definitely enhance the experience exponentially, one can still enjoy it by simply taking the time to learn the common themes that most plays incorporate.
What I learnt yesterday was that a lot of these themes are carried on in a genre of song called nagauta ("long song"), and that, although the choreography and symbolism and "Female Role Specialists" (men that look more beautiful than many women as painted women) are all pretty, what really would have gotten to are the operatic vocalists that sit in the corners with their little instruments.
It turns out that these vocalists, who produce the voices I was looking for, and who seem to have inspired the more manic Fascist songs, would have traditionally been poor blind people adopted by buddhist monks.
This fact, and the fact that the beautiful women on stage are in fact more often than not gay men, brings together several elements of that which would have been rejected had it not found itself an aesthetic niche.
I enjoyed several segments of Kabuki - some with English narration - thanks to youtube. But I still regret not having gone to see it live in Tokyo.
A lot about Japan remains a complete question mark to me. It seems that the Japanese are in the gray area between being ashamed of their past and being too arrogant to share it with you.
When asked about Kabuki and Noh, most (who spoke good English) didn't have much to share besides the obvious: go to the theatre and watch it.
When asked about the obakemono most laughed nervously, only one shared much: a Sociologist obsessed with fetishes who thought I had an Obakemono fetish.
When asked of the traditional advertisers I spotted once playing below the Takadanobaba tracks, they didn't even know what I was talking about!
I guess a lot of Japanese idiosyncracy is too enmeshed with everyday life for Japanese people to even know it is there.
(I still would love to know more about this "advertisment folklore", or anything else here for that matter, if anyone knows anything about them, please do share!).
Perhaps the most interesting find of yesterday was This. A piece by the first Japanese composer ever studying western classical music. Sadly for him, Japan got condemned en masse by the west only a decade later. I suppose an emperor on an island ought to know that he is only emperor on the island.
Thanks for reading, as always
.
Something or another reminded me of my short but intense residence in Tokyo. I think it was probably the discovery of the http://www.wtfjapanseriously.com/ site. I had already recommended ROBO GEISHA in teh lounge.
Anyway, I was reminded of the time I arrived in Tokyo. It was August, and something was not right in the street. It mainly looked and sounded like this. Creepy, eh?
It turns out those are Self-Declared Imperialist Fascists, who really hate all foreigners, especially Chinese people.
A week or so later, a special day came along (I cannot remember what day it was). It was the day when Yasakuni Shrine gets populated by two sides of the Sino-Japanese war. On the one hand, there are Japanese Fascists who go there to venerate the souls of Class-A War Criminals buried there. On the other hand, there are Chinese who come all the way from their homeland to pray to-, and eventually hope to get, the remains of their loved ones - who were killed by above mentioned criminals. Pretty effed up, no?
However, many months later, still in Tokyo, I heard an intersting tune playing in the street. It sounded similar to the one emanating from the car linked above, but less militaristic. I was, in a way, lulled by it.
At the time, I was getting into Japanese Folklore and enjoying all the subtle hints to it found anywhere one goes. I grieved the fact that I was unable to attend Kabuki (or Noh) as I had planned. Basically, the ticket was in the hundreds - which I'd gladly pay now - and people told me that I'd be wasting that money sitting amongst decidedly anti-gaijin obasans and sitting through hours of Japanese pun accompanying slow dancing. At the time, this didn't sound very attractive.
Little did I know that I would have enjoyed it nevertheless. Although a thorough education in both Japanese culture and language would definitely enhance the experience exponentially, one can still enjoy it by simply taking the time to learn the common themes that most plays incorporate.
What I learnt yesterday was that a lot of these themes are carried on in a genre of song called nagauta ("long song"), and that, although the choreography and symbolism and "Female Role Specialists" (men that look more beautiful than many women as painted women) are all pretty, what really would have gotten to are the operatic vocalists that sit in the corners with their little instruments.
It turns out that these vocalists, who produce the voices I was looking for, and who seem to have inspired the more manic Fascist songs, would have traditionally been poor blind people adopted by buddhist monks.
This fact, and the fact that the beautiful women on stage are in fact more often than not gay men, brings together several elements of that which would have been rejected had it not found itself an aesthetic niche.
I enjoyed several segments of Kabuki - some with English narration - thanks to youtube. But I still regret not having gone to see it live in Tokyo.
A lot about Japan remains a complete question mark to me. It seems that the Japanese are in the gray area between being ashamed of their past and being too arrogant to share it with you.
When asked about Kabuki and Noh, most (who spoke good English) didn't have much to share besides the obvious: go to the theatre and watch it.
When asked about the obakemono most laughed nervously, only one shared much: a Sociologist obsessed with fetishes who thought I had an Obakemono fetish.
When asked of the traditional advertisers I spotted once playing below the Takadanobaba tracks, they didn't even know what I was talking about!
I guess a lot of Japanese idiosyncracy is too enmeshed with everyday life for Japanese people to even know it is there.
(I still would love to know more about this "advertisment folklore", or anything else here for that matter, if anyone knows anything about them, please do share!).
Perhaps the most interesting find of yesterday was This. A piece by the first Japanese composer ever studying western classical music. Sadly for him, Japan got condemned en masse by the west only a decade later. I suppose an emperor on an island ought to know that he is only emperor on the island.
Thanks for reading, as always
.
