[Headline of the newspaper article: “Deconstruct with an Eye on the Source: Next Step in ‘Okinawan Performing Arts in the World’”]
[Title of the article provided by its author Shoko Yonaha: “On Viewing ‘Wind from Hawai’i—Nana i ke Kumu’”]
[Article in Japanese written by Shoko Yonaha, a drama critic]
[First published in the July 1, 2015 issue of the Ryukyu Shinpô newspaper.]
On June 12, at the National Theatre Okinawa, I saw the Okinawa performance by the Cheryl Yoshie Nakasone Ryukyuan Performing Arts Institute of Hawai’i. The performance was titled “Wind from Hawai’i—Nana i ke Kumu.” The first surprise for me was the difference in the use of hands from the style I am familiar with, such as that used by the Tamagusuku School, Miyagi School, and Shin’yô School. The dances in Part One of the program, such as “Kajadifu,” “Zei,” a new number “Nkashi habira bushi,” and “Ichihanari bushi”—all had different uses of hands, posturing, and movement patterns. Singing and sanshin playing also had different nuances.
“Kajadifu” danced by Earl Masanobu Ikeda, who now resides in New York, was different from its opening, njifa, or entry walk. His manner was not one of sliding feet but rather like one of walking; his hand movement while holding a fan, and the slight bending of the torso in tune with the music also differed from what I was used to hearing. Most of all, he did not have the posturing of thrusting the side of his torso into a turn. Then a surprising thought hit me. Maybe this use of his hand could be the traditional form danced by those who had performed in the last Ukwanshin in the Year of the Tiger (1869), a tradition that dated back to the Kingdom Era, and which was kept alive after the abolition of the Kingdom by the performers at the Nakamô, the first modern theatre built in the 1890s.
The “Nkashi habira bushi,” a dance number created by Ryôshô Kin and debuted for the first time in this performance, is longer than “Shudun,” and the hand movements and the style of fingers are different. Above all, there was no femininity, or coquettishness, that pervades classical women’s dances, making this dance seem clean and pure. The first pose of a classical women’s dance usually exudes an erotic atmosphere, but there was none here. Instead, the emotions of the woman as the focal person were displayed, which I found appealing.
Ryôshô Kin received his training in kumi odori and classical dance directly from the performers who had starred in the Ukwanshin in the Year of the Tiger. His book Ukwanshin yawa (Evening Talks on Ukwanshin), published by the Wakanatsu-sha, provides us the details of his training. Ryôshô’s father, Ryôjin Kin, was the founder of the Afuso-ryû Gensei Kai of the sanshin school, and Ryôshô fully upheld the performance tradition in the Shuri style, through the tumultuous years since the dawning of the modern era for the Ryukyus down to the modern-day Okinawa. In 1930, the father and the son, Ryôjin and Ryôshô, were invited to Hawai’i to give instructions in the Ryukyuan performing arts for a year. Their efforts, the seeds they sowed and fostered, surely developed into buds and bore the fruit in the person and art of Cheryl Yoshie.
“Nana i ke kumu” is a Hawaiian expression meaning “to turn one’s eyes to the source.” In the case of this performance, the expression carries three meanings. One of them is the sense of gratitude toward her mentor Ryôshô Kin, another, the sense of gratitude toward her “homeland,” and the third, a look back to the origin of the Ukwanshin performing arts. Half a century after the standardization of dance patterns, it seems as if Ryukyuan performing arts have entered the era of deconstruction. We can say that the established concepts and styles are being re-examined. “The Wind from Hawai’i,” the Hawaii “Jimpukai,” which is composed of people with English as their mother tongue, I understand, was the harbinger of the Okinawan performing arts in the world.
Among the audience of “Shûshin kani’iri,” directed by Ryôshô Kin and performed by Cheryl Yoshie and Earl Masanobu and others, staged at the Kennedy Theatre at the University of Hawai’i in 1976, were Etsuko Higa, who chaired the steering committee for this performance in Okinawa, as well as Nobuko Ochner and Kathy Foley, who wrote up an excellent article on kumi odori after the viewing. The Hawai’i Jimpukai’s premier performance in Okinawa, of “Hanauyi nu in” (Bond of the Flower Seller), created a unique space of its own. I hope that the Kin style (or, the Shuri style) of kumi odori will be solidly transmitted to successive generations. According to Kishun Nishie, a living national treasure, who played the musical accompaniment for this performance, “the music in the Kin style of kumi odori has the characteristic of including even the chants or calls that other performance schools would omit.” The group plans to perform in New York next. The next step toward “Okinawan performing arts in the world”—the wind is rustling.
[English translation by N. Ochner]
