Yaobikuni


Tokyo Newspaper Evening Edition, November 1, 2003

Surprised citizen
Midori Nishizaki Shanghai Performance
Crowded hall even with 50 yuan.

There were one thousand garden chairs on the grass. Thirty boys from the Guang dong Dance Group performed a lion dance on the next stage the day before and old people who live in neighborhood occupy the seats 1 hour before the show.

In Japan, Mileenario at the JR Tokyo station was famous at the end of last year. There were art works by Italian Baroque Ruminarie in China now. In the evening the park was illuminated with lights and became a good place to walk.

That’s why the park entrance fee went up ten times higher in the evening than the fee (50 yuan) in the afternoon.

The performance is free but the audience has to pay 50 yuan (about 65 yen) to enter the park.

“Old people who have time would like too see it in good seats. It was publicized on newspapers and TVs. We have never had such a big show in the open air. It will be crowded”, said an interpreter.
As she mentioned, all the seats were filled and many people couldn’t get seats.

“2000 brochures we prepared were all sold out and 500 spare brochures were also sold out.”

A student, Hon Enshi, who is majoring in business and is interested in Japan said, “In China, powers like Ming and Shing were changed repeatedly. I can understand sad feeling of Heike who was destroyed by Genji. More than that, I was fascinated with a new world of Japanese dance which has a different style from Kabuki or traditional puppet shows.

After the performance, Nishizaki said “I was overpowered by huge audience and their excitement. I heard that the audience got to know the Japanese classic story through the open-air Japanese dance performance for the first time. I was asked to perform the dance again.”  She seemed to be very happy.

Midori Nishizaki
She started to perform Japanese dance when she was 6 and became a pupil of Midori the First after being being fascinated with her. She succeeded Midori the First in 1957. She founded Midori Nishizaki the second Dance Company and has been working on popularizing dance art. Her main work is to perform creative Japanese dance at open-air stage. She received "Art Festival Excellent Award" from Amidaraigei in 2002. She has performed Japanese dance in Spain and France, and Shanghai in China is the third country for her overseas performance. Her husband is Yoshisada Shirakawa, a mountain photographer.

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(Yomiuri Newspaper July 1999)

First Japanese Dance performance in Spain
Midori Nishizaki Dance Company - They performed to a full audience.
With Shakuhachi, Japanese drums, Monks and Yaobikuni.

Japanese dance was performed for the first time in Spain this month: The Midori Nishizaki Dance Company performed “Yaobikuni”.  El Pais Newspaper (of Spain) reported, “It was perfect”.

They had confidence. They performed twice in Talence City (near Bordeaux) in South France before coming to Spain.  They told us “the audience concentrated on our performance and they enjoyed it.”

The performance in Spain was held on July 7th at a summer resort town of El Escorial which is one hour drive from Madrid.  It was a cultural event for summer courses at Madrid Complutense University. There are 77 courses, and about 10,000 attend the school.

The show was held at Plaza Virgen de Gracia near the monastery-palace of San Lornezo de El Escorial. The show began at 10:20 pm.  The sound of shakuhachi flutes, the beat of Japanese drums and then dozens of monks and Yaobikuni appeared in the dark.

Yaobikuni is a legendary character who has eaten the flesh of mermaids to get immortality and she marries many men and see their deaths one after another.  She mourns her impiety and becomes a nun to help people.  Her agony makes trees hum.  The dancers perform traditional yet radical movements, and the movements have an ominous air.  Junko Handa’s Biwa music and narration, synthesizer, costume and lighting were very effective and touched the audience to their hearts.

They moved to Madrid after two performances. They performed a one night show at Muralla Arabe near the Royal Palace. They showed magical world of Buddhism in front of Almudena Cathedral on the evening of the10th, performing for an audience of about 1,000 people. After this show, El Pais newspaper reported, “Midori Nishizaki knit her eyebrow slightly and shakes her fingers.  Those movements alone were enough to tell the story. It’s perfect. Why was it only for one night?”  Additionally, ABC newspaper reported, “Superimposing the classic period with modernism - but not mixing them - caused the appreciative audience to burst into applause at the end of each scene in the western style, something that Asians usually do not do. At the Muralla Arabe in Madrid, applause was frequent and at the end went on for several minutes to thank the subtle and artistic performance of Ms. Nishizaki, and the skillful interpretation of the Biwa music by Junko Hanada."

Nishizaki said that she was even a little confused because she was welcomed almost too much. She received such a good response that she would like to play this work in a foreign country next year again.

The director, Mr. Suzuki, said that he thought this was a great work which could be performed abroad. I was glad that people accepted its theme. It was interesting to perform at three different places.


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(ABC Newspaper July 12, 1999)


Yaobikuni: between Pink Floyd and Eastern Magic
Even though its start was delayed for 23 minutes, a miraculous dance performance, "Yaobikuni" opened at Muralla Arabe.  It was pity that the twilight had already arrived.  The last rays of a beautiful sunset were gone at Almudena Cathedral when the canons of Hanaki Hisami started to beat the enormous Japanese drum.

“Immortal legend” is a admired and somewhat controversial work in Japan, but it succeeded here in Spain. A wise mixture of a classic story with the Japanese traditional dance (Noh and Kabuki) and symphony pop music using synthesizer, which reminded us of classic Pink Floyd.  All these elements are held together by Midori Nishizaki, who plays the lead in the performance, who doesn't move a single muscle more nor a step less than needed - her every movement has its purpose.

Superimposing the classic period with modernism - but not mixing them - caused the appreciative audience to burst into applause at the end of each scene in the western style, something that Asians usually do not do. At the Muralla Arabe in Madrid, applause was frequent and at the end went on for several minutes to thank the subtle and artistic performance of Ms. Nishizaki, and the skillful interpretation of the Biwa music by Junko Hanada.

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(EL PAIS Newspaper, Spain, July 12, 1999)

Immortal Japan
Nishizaki Dance Group
Yaobikuni (Immortal legend)

The show performed by the great dancer, Midori Nishizaki and her group, expressed great beauty with simple, elegant and modest movements.

This classic tale is a story about desire for immortality gained by eating mermaids’ flesh and agony.

It's an interesting contrast to the classic Don Juan story. It shows her conflicts over many lovers and the end of her sin.

The narrator says (with classical voice) ‘dead man’s voice calls me’ and dancer Nishizaki knit her eyebrows slightly and shake her fingers. Only these movements are enough to tell the story, because of their dance method, interweaving traditional and contemporary styles.

There are beautiful costumes, splendid music and a Japanese drum sound.   The hall was packed with people. “Why was the performance only one night in Madrid where people are starving for dance performance?”

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