「GENJI」
- Timeless Collaboration-Dance,Noh,Gagaku,Shomyo-

    Piece of dance-Noh, inspired by the chapter “Aoi no ue” from “Genji Monogatari”, famous Japanese classical novel of 11th century, which is about the life of a noble, Hikaru Genji.
    《Aoi no ue, the wife of Hikaru Genji, is suffering for an invisible, but terrible jealousy of the lover of her husband. The jealousy of this woman exercises an incredible negative power upon the body of Aoi no ue 》.
    Free from the limit of time and space, the empty stage of “Noh” invite us to the world of passions sublimated into the contemporary dance movements. Shomyo, Buddhist prayer and Gagaku, Japanese ancient court music, (both were born in 9th century) will embrace this timeless world, beyond more than thousand of years.

Direction:  Sengiku
Choreography / Dance:  Kondo Ryohei・Sengiku
Shomyo ：Ebihara Koshin・Arai Kojun・Sano Koryu・Tamada Hoshin
        Hirata Shinsho・Saito Setsujo
Gagaku ：Noda Setsuko・Kusunoki Yoshio・Yamamoto shojun・Narita Tomoaki
Lighting :  Fukuda Reiko
Sound : Kohei Harashima
Stage direction :  Takahashi Tetsuhiko
Progress :  Kurihara Nobutaka
Production :  juin 2004
Cooperation :  Theatre Office Natori , Tokyo Butai Kikaku

Name of Paper:    Morgunbladid
Date:    12 June 2006
Page:    Cultural section
Title of Article: Beyond Time and Space
Genji -Japanese Guest performance
Translation:  Magnea Marinosdottir

Summary text above picture: Dancers and choreographers: Ryohei Kondo and Sengiku. Four musicians played Gagku music and six singers performed Shomyo vocal music.

Main text below picture: Dancers and choreographers: Ryohei Kondo and Sengiku. Four musicians played Gagku music and six singers performed Shomyo vocal music. The work Genji was performed in commemoration of the 50 years anniversary of the diplomatic relations between Japan and Iceland. Another Japanese performance [ACO Okinawa] will be staged at the National Theater 25 June.

Genji is based on a chapter from a classical 11th century Japanese novel. Aoi no ue, the wife of the nobleman Hikaru Genji is captivated by jealousy of the lover of her husband. The bad feeling turns her into monster, but the husband finally managed to conciliate her and the monster disappears. The show is a combination of modern dance; the ancient Noh Theater; Gagaku, the court music of the Imperial Household of Japan that developed in parallel with Noh; and Shomy that is the general term for Buddhist vocal music that adds melodic patterns to the chanted words of sacred Buddhist words.

To begin with, the stage is almost empty, only two lamps, tent in one corner, a chair and several boxes in the back. The musicians then enter the stage and sit down in a row in the back. The musicians wore dark traditional Japanese dresses and the singers, all elderly men who came across as actual monks, wore elegant and colorful dresses. Then there were two dancers, the wife personated by Sengiku and the husband by Ryokei Kando. Their dance was a fusion of modern and traditional Noh dance theater movements. Slow, composed movements and very beautifully stylized leg and hand movements characterized their dance until at the very end when Ryokei Kando, who is a very good dancer, began to perform very fast and powerful dance. Sengiku personated the suffering wife in a traditional Japanese way with her head low and moving by taking small steps. The inner struggle never became apparent in her movements. However, when she became captivated by jealousy, the white gown she has worn is gone. Instead, she is wearing a grey and almost transparent gown and she has gotten a devil-like face and horns and in her very self-possessed movements and posture is some kind of threat to be sensed.

The contribution of the Shomyo singers was considerable in this interesting show. They sang one by one or as a choir and their mystique song moved the audience beyond time and space. Actually, the audience had to come to the show with a certain inclination, ready to be entranced by the great elegance and simplicity of the ancient Japanese art forms fused with modern dance movements making the show more accessible to our western apperception.