Tag ‘Tetsumi Hanaoka’
“Cooking Together” by Tetsumi Hanaoka
Oct. 15, 2015
I’ve been in Canada for a week now. When we travel abroad, we usually eat out for most of our meals. It’s enjoyable to eat local food to experience a place, but we also long for the tastes of Japan.
This time while I’m in Montreal, I have a kitchen in my hotel room. So I decided to cook while I’m here!
For this particular lunch, each person was in charge of bringing along one part of the same dish.
Ryosuke was in charge of the vegetables: carrots, onions, and potatoes. The onion was almost as big as his face!
I was in charge of the pork, which I carved myself.
Kenta was in charge of the rice.
Yuta was in charge of the curry roux… so yes, that’s right: we made Japanese curry together!
When we all get together and cook like this, it reminds me of life at the Kodo Apprentice Centre and living in the dorm at Kodo Village.
Curry tastes so good when you make it and eat it with others. We made a full pot and ate every last bit. (LOL)
This should see us through the rehearsals this afternoon!
Ballet Performance “Kaguyahime: The Moon Princess”
Oct. 15 (Thu)–30 (Fri), 2015 Montreal, Canada
http://www.kodo.or.jp/news/20151015kaguyahime_en.html
Kodo Cast: Masaru Tsuji, Kenta Nakagome, Eri Uchida, Maya Minowa, Yuta Sumiyoshi, Tetsumi Hanaoka, Ryosuke Inada
(Photo: Damian Siqueiros / Dancers: Jerimy Rivera & Edi Blloshmi)
“Mr. de Roo’s Special Souvenir” by Tetsumi Hanaoka
Just as we thought the colours of autumn were getting richer, all of a sudden there was snow in Montreal! Over the weekend the temperature fell and today it was just 1℃ during the day. Of course, the cold is no problem for Kodo! We are all doing our best!
We had rehearsals on Sado Island, then further rehearsals after we arrived in Montreal, and last week the curtain rose on the 2015 season of “Kaguyahime”! Every day our conductor, Mr. Michael de Roo, made detailed adjustments to the music as the dancers rehearsed on stage.
The choreographers are so serious during the rehearsals, but during the breaks we can see their playful side, too!
The percussionists are all so friendly. I’ll tell you more about them and our interactions with them soon!
Back to the conductor, Mr. de Roo. A certain item has pride of place on his music stand. Can you guess what it is?
It’s a Hokusetsu notepad!
Hokusetsu is the name of a sake brewery in Akadomari on Sado Island. Mr. de Roo likes Japanese sake, especially sake from Sado! During our rehearsals at Kodo Village, it turns out that he visited the Hokusetsu Brewery for a tour and was given this notepad!
When we saw Mr. de Roo’s beloved souvenir from Sado Island in Canada, it warmed our hearts.
Kodo Appearance in Ballet Performance “Kaguyahime: The Moon Princess”
Oct. 15 (Thu)–30 (Fri), 2015 Montreal, Canada
http://www.kodo.or.jp/news/20151015kaguyahime_en.html
Kodo Cast: Masaru Tsuji, Kenta Nakagome, Eri Uchida, Maya Minowa, Yuta Sumiyoshi, Tetsumi Hanaoka, Ryosuke Inada
(Photo: Damian Siqueiros / Dancers: Jerimy Rivera & Edi Blloshmi)
“Off to Osaka for ‘Amaterasu’!” by Tetsumi Hanaoka
Apr. 28, 2015
My view from the bus as we were waved off from Kodo Village.
We set off from Kodo Village today to head to Osaka for the “Amaterasu” performances, which begin on May 3 at Osaka Shochiku-za Theatre.
We will be giving performances there for almost a month, so please come along. We’ll be waiting for you!
May 2015 “Amaterasu” (Osaka)
http://www.kodo.or.jp/news/20150503amaterasu_en.html
“Launching Ceremony for New Fast Car Ferry ‘Akane'” by Tetsumi Hanaoka
Apr. 21, 2015
Launching Ceremony for New Fast Car Ferry ‘Akane’
The new fast car ferry, “Akane,” has just been launched between Naoetsu and Ogi on Sado Island. Kodo’s Motofumi Yamaguchi, Tomohiro Mitome, Mariko Omi, and Rai Tateishi performed at its launching ceremony. I went along to help out behind the scenes.
A large crowd gathered to see Kodo perform in the ferry terminal building, and outside there was a range of stalls and demon drumming performances. Misato and Misaki, the Community Development Course trainees, were helping the Ogi locals serve up delicious soup.
The “Akane” is a fast car ferry service that has shaved one hour from the usual travel time between Naoetsu and Ogi. It also has increased the number of services on this route, so it has made access to Sado both faster and easier. I hope you’ll use this service to come to Sado Island!
“Collaboration with Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra” by Tetsumi Hanaoka
Apr. 8, 2015
Collaboration with Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra
I’m in Osaka with the rest of the Kodo cast and crew for our collaboration with the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra. We are going to perform Maki Ishii’s Mono-Prism under their conductor, Michiyoshi Inoue. It has been 6 years since Kodo last performed Mono-Prism, which was in Rome, Italy, and 22 years since Kodo last performed it in Osaka. It will be my very first time.
From Kodo’s last Mono-Prism performance in Japan, in Tokyo (2008)
As I’m sure many of you know, composer Maki Ishii’s piece Mono-Prism has a subtitle “for Japanese drums and orchestra,” and he based the taiko piece (now a “Kodo classic”) Monochrome on this taiko & orchestra piece.
Maki Ishii also composed Dyu-Ha and ballet suite Kaguyahime, which Kodo has performed countless times. Mono-Prism is a crucial part of Kodo’s history: it was debuted by Kodo’s antecedent group Ondezoka, then performed at Kodo’s own debut at the Berlin Festival in 1981 with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra.
On the first day of rehearsals for this year’s performance, the conductor Michiyoshi Inoue met with Kodo first, to check through the piece together.
He said things like, “This part is sharp, make it cut like a Japanese sword,” and “That part is really menacing!,” and gave us all kinds of advice.
These images might seem obscure, but Mr. Inoue’s instructions were really easy for us to grasp and when we were rehearsing, we could see that his directions were really accurate for the feel of the piece. It felt like he enjoyed following the score and feeling the unique schrony of our taiko, which clashed and harmonized with the orchestra.
On the second day of rehearsals, we practiced Mono-Prism with the orchestra.
Personally, I felt that the orchestra has its own unique physical synchrony and timing, just like taiko does. By no means are they just playing what is written on the score and simply progressing through the piece. I was able to understand this firsthand by taking part in these rehearsals with them. It was a valuable experience for me to see if their synchrony and timing could harmonize with ours as we played taiko. It is a really difficult challenge. This collaboration has taught me so much already, although I haven’t performed this piece for an audience yet! Please come and see us perform this weekend.
Apr. 10 (Fri) & 11 (Sat), 2015 Collaboration with Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra at Festival Hall, Osaka City
http://www.kodo.or.jp/news/20150410osakaphil_en.html
Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra on Twitter
https://twitter.com/Osaka_phil/status/585045986835202048
“All Loaded in for ‘Mono-Prism’!” by Tetsumi Hanaoka
Apr. 10, 2015
We’re all loaded in and set up on stage for Mono-Prism, and now we are getting ready for our rehearsal today.
Looking around the orchestra, I noticed something interesting…four wooden fish.
Apparently they normally use these in the orchestra and they call them “Temple Blocks,” not wooden fish!
We use wooden fish (mokugyo in Japanese) on the Kodo stage, but I had no idea that I’d ever see an orchestra playing them!
I also saw they had gongs called “Kin” and bin sasara in the percussion area. It made me feel happy to see Eastern instruments in an orchestra full of Western instruments.
Time to get ready for our performance! I’ll do my best!
Collaboration with Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra
Apr. 10 (Fri) & 11 (Sat), 2015 Festival Hall, Osaka City
http://www.kodo.or.jp/news/20150410osakaphil_en.html
Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra on Twitter (Japanese)
https://twitter.com/Osaka_phil/status/585045986835202048
“Kodo Cake” by Tetsumi Hanaoka
We are all doing well, traveling around the U.S. with “Kodo One Earth Tour 2015: Mystery.” We are very surprised at the climate here, which is so different to winter in Japan. It was hot enough to get sunburnt in Las Vegas.
At each theater, there is always a “Green Room,” where we have meals and refreshments, hang out, and sometimes watch a TV monitor to check what is happening on the stage.
On our performance day in Dallas we found a….(drumroll)…. “Kodo” cake in the green room at Music Hall at Fair Park!
We were so grateful to Rick, who prepared all our meals that day, for bringing this cake for us!
Of course, we all enjoyed this delicious treat together. Thank you, Rick!
We have been on tour for two weeks now. It’s the timing on a long tour when we feel physically tired, so this surprise cake gave us a real boost!
“Kodo One Earth Tour 2015: Mystery” North America Tour
http://www.kodo.or.jp/oet/index_en.html#schedule13a
“Martin’s BBQ” by Tetsumi Hanaoka
Our “Mystery” North America tour is going along well.
To tour and hold performances requires dedicated work by so many key people behind the scenes. On this tour, one of them is Mr. Martin Lechner, our lighting director. We affectionately call him “Martin.” He is a tall like a big bear.
One performance day, I thought I could smell something good… and it turned out that Martin was cooking meat and sausages! He made hotdogs and hamburgers for us! They were so delicious, fresh off the grill!
By the way, he said that when you cook them slowly on a low heat it’s called “barbequing,” and when you cook them quickly on a high heat it’s called “grilling.” I never knew that before!
We’ll use this BBQ fuel as energy for our upcoming performances!
“Kodo One Earth Tour 2015: Mystery” North America Tour
http://www.kodo.or.jp/oet/index_en.html#schedule13a
“Our Visit to Asano Taiko U.S.!” by Tetsumi Hanaoka
Feb. 7, 2015
Our Visit to Asano Taiko U.S.
Today we visited “Asano Taiko U.S.” in Torrance, California, on the way from Santa Barbara to San Diego during our “Kodo One Earth Tour 2015: Mystery” North America Tour.
Asano Taiko has helped us so much with our current tour. We visited their store, studio, and Kato Taiko‘s workshop next door to Asano Taiko U.S. They told us that the studio holds workshops almost every day and that the U.S. taiko population is rapidly growing, along with the level of technique. We need to keep up with them!
We will continue to do our best on this tour!
“Kodo One Earth Tour 2015: Mystery” North America Tour
http://www.kodo.or.jp/oet/index_en.html#schedule13a
“Transit at Incheon International Airport” by Tetsumi Hanaoka
Jan. 26, 2015
A couple of hours after we left Japan, we arrived at Incheon International Airport in South Korea, were we waited in transit for our flight to Vancouver.
We ate lunch, looked over our tour schedule, double-checked our recent performance videos, and did other bits & pieces of tour preparation to pass the time.
See you soon, North America!