Art and Entertainment- Japanese Dance

For this post I decided to talk a little about Nihon buyo, or one form of Japanese traditional dance. I chose to write about this because after seeing this particular show, I realized that this dance form is really both art and entertainment all in one. Also, after doing a little bit of research into the matter, I discovered that there are actually several different kinds of Japanese traditional dance forms, all of which are unique in some way or another.  For example, some dances are done entirely by men, whereas other dances are done to describe some historical event. Today there are four traditional dances; Noh Mai, Bon Odori, Kabuki and Nihon Buyo.

          

Although I can't be TOTALLY certain, I believe that the style of dance that these women were doing was Nihon Buyo, for they seemed to incorporate many different aspects into their dances such as fans, screens, props and even a weapon in one of them.  Also the music (from what a friend and I could discern), was often telling a story that the women were both dancing to and "acting" out. Nihon Buyo combines aspects from Kabuki Buyo, Noh Mai, folk dancing and even some European/ Western culture. I could see aspects of all of these things in the dances. For example, it was done on a stage which comes from the Kabuki style theatre, some of the music incorporated flutes and hand drums (Noh Mai), and then some of the dances were done to music that seemed to be made with electric guitars! I remember watching the dances and thinking how different each one seemed to be from the last, and this is what leads me to believe that these dances were part of the Nihon Buyo style dance.   

Also, I would like to mention briefly that the audience was almost completely made up of elderly women; I hardly saw anyone there who was younger than 40. Even the women who were dancing in the show were older (with the exception of a very young girl who did a dance by herself). I thought that to be quite interesting and also associated this with Kabuki because Kabuki theatre tends to attract an older audience. I'm not sure if my observation is correct, but either way, it was interesting to watch this show unfold. 

**Check this out: it is selection from a book which uses Japanese traditional dance as an ethnographic case study that explores how movement is transmitted and embodied through dance. Unfortunately, in order to access selections from the book (the link I gave doesn't work), you must first go to google and type in book search. Then, when the search bar comes up, type in: Sensational Knowledge: Embodying Culture through Japanese Dance. 

The Politics of Art Making

For this post I decided to write about the 'politics' that are behind different styles of throwing pottery. When I first came to Japan I had already taken ceramics classes and had learned how to throw on the wheel, however, we were taught to weigh out the clay, form them into balls and then put one on the wheel and make it into whatever you want (mug, bowl, plate etc). When you are finished making a form, you simply take it off the wheel and move to the next ball of clay. However, the first day that I began to throw here in Japan, Inomata Sensei told me that I should start to throw in a style called 'off the hump'. This is a different style of throwing in which you take one large lump of clay and center it on the wheel and then start from the top and throw multiple forms from this one piece of clay. I had already learned this technique, but only used for certain forms such as pots with lids. So, I started to throw everything 'off the hump' and essentially had to re-learn how to throw forms using this method.

I began to wonder why it was that he wanted us to throw like this instead of doing it the way that we had been taught somewhere else; what was the reasoning behind having a student re-learn something that they already knew how to do, just in another style?

                                                        

A lidded form thrown by Inomata Sensei

So, I talked to Inomata Sensei about this topic. Originally he began to talk about the convenience of throwing 'off the hump'; when you throw 'off the hump' you can make many things off of one piece of clay which means that you don't have to spend the time weighing out and re-centering each ball of clay. I asked him if this was the way his sensei had taught him to throw and he said yes, but that for large forms like vases they use bats (a piece of plastic or wood that you place on top of the wheel and then throw off of so that when you are done you can simply remove the bat).

                                            

Then he began to talk about the differences between the way Westerners and Japanese eat and drink. For instance, Westerners don't generally pick up bowls/mugs and drink from them as the Japanese do, therefore, for Western potters there is no need to throw a bowl with a foot-ring at the bottom (the foot ring, as shown above on a cup that I threw, is handy for the Japanese because they can hold the bowl from the bottom with their middle finger and not get burned by the bottom). In this way, it makes sense that Westerners would throw a bowl or mug with a flat bottom made on a bat rather than off the hump; when you throw off the hump it is much easier to simple pinch in the clay at the bottom of the form when you are done making it thus forming a foot ring. 

So, although it was inconvenient at first for me to learn this new style, I now understand why Inomata Sensei wanted me to learn this way; after all, we ARE in Japan, so it only makes sense to throw pottery which the Japanese could (potentially) use...

**If you are interested in learning a little bit more about Japanese Pottery styles, history and aesthetics, check out this website: 

http://www.burlingtonartcentre.on.ca/Exhibits/japanese_traditional_pottery/japanes_traditional_pottery.html