"Yo! Omodakaya!" ANA Charity Kabuki Grand Performance
(Oita Godo Newspaper, November 18th 2009, morning paper)
The program was adopted from a script titled "Keisei Hangonko" that was written by Ichikawa Ennosuke, a Japanese playwright. The characters like Ichikawa Ukon, Ichikawa Emiya, Ichikawa Enya, and Ichikawa Emisaburo, appeared in the play. There were 1300 pairs watching the Kabuki performance, who were selected from 5,719 pairs who applied to obtain the performance tickets. After watching exciting fights between the characters, the courageous acts disappeared and the audience's emotion was stirred by the love and affection between a husband and wife. Those were impressive, famous scenes which are known among the Kabuki fans to be the trademark of Ichikawa's plays. "Omodakaya!" was one of the enthusiastic shouts by the audience, which was followed by a hearty applause afterwards.
At the lobby, a fund-raising activity was held with the purpose to promote traditional culture in Oita Prefecture. The money collected will be donated to the Social Welfare Association in Oita Prefecture, the Social Welfare Association in Oita City, Kunimi Kabuki Preservation Association (Kunisaki City), and Matama Kabuki Preservation Association (Bungotakada City).
Comment: I attended the evening performance and I was very exciting since it was my first Kabuki show. I received the free ticket sponsored by ANA through my university, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University. I think this event achieved its goal which was to promote and preserve Japanese traditional culture. As a foreigner myself, Kabuki used to be unfamiliar. Infact, many of my Japanese friends have never watched a Kabuki show before. With this charity event, the organizers managed to reach more people to get to know Kabuki and experience the enjoyment of watching Kabuki. Through the Kabuki show that I watched, I had some new insights about Japanese culture. I hope that there will be similar events in the future, which promote other Japanese arts. It will definitely help foreigners to understand Japanese culture.
NUGROHO Katarina Marsha Utama
Indonesia
Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, APM 3
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