Nagasawa festival and Awaji puppet theatre company

Today was the Nagasawa Festival.  The artists took part in running a workshop organised by Masahiro-san and Keiko san for the children of the local school.  We collected leaves from the local temple..

And then had two large scrolls of paper on which the artists drew trees with animals in..

The children then glued the leaves onto the trees.  There was a wonderful sense of community about the day which I really enjoyed.  I tend to work 12 or so hours a day and the weeks blend into the weekends, so it was nice to do something totally different.  It was nice to feel part of the bigger picture of Nagasawa.

Here are the finished images.  I like the way that the images were framed against the backdrop of the mountains.

Awaji puppet theatre then came to give some performances and talks for us.  The puppet theatre's ethos is very closely linked to that of Noh and Kabuki [traditional Japanese theatre].  During the performances, the puppeteers wear black masks, so the focus is on the puppets.  I liked the eeriness of this effect.  Like all traditional Japanese arts, it takes years to master, as each body movement can suggest a mood or atmosphere. I am very drawn to the aesthetics and philosophy of Noh, so enjoyed the puppet show tremendously.  Like Noh, the puppet performances are seen as a prayer in front of the gods, so at the beginning, wooden sticks are clapped together to attract the attention of the deities. 

Here a character is being brought to life.

At the side of the show, sat an orator and an instrumentalist.  They both explained their parts in creating the show.  The orator demonstrated different voices that he uses to convey different parts that are played.  Even though the entire afternoon was in Japanese, I understood quite a bit of what was being said.  I seem to be understanding how Japanese sounds and it is not that difficult to ascertain meaning.  

The orator reads from a book, which is shown here, alongside the drum.

The puppeteers then showed us their role in the performances, including how the puppets are animated.  It takes three people to animate each puppet. The two pictures below show the different states of one mask.  He pulled a lever and the face changed completely.

These shoes are used by the actors to elevate themselves if the character needs to be raised into the air, for example if it is walking [as a human], or flying [as an element or spirit].

Here, the performers are demonstrating how the puppet works, showing us different expressions.

We were then very honoured to be invited to experience trying to work one of the puppets.

The puppeteers then put on a short performance for us, to finish the day.