Kakushin Nishihara
novembernov 12
Muga Miyahara ©
Tuesday november 12
20h00
Performance, composition and arrangement noise, object design Kakushin Nishihara. Technical coordination Ken'ichi Iijima. Traditional singing Yoshitune Kinshi Tsuruta (composition), Genzo Murakami (lyrics).
The Maison de la culture du Japon in Paris and the Festival d'Automne in Paris are co-producing this concert.
Brought to the public eye by Ryūichi Sakamoto, Kakushin Nishihara takes the biwa, the short-necked lute which is emblematic of Japanese musical tradition, to undreamt of horizons. Her intense presence transforms each of her concerts into an almost shamanic ceremony.
The influence of punk culture at the start of her adolescence left a long-lasting mark on Kakushin Nishihara, and indeed it was this same desire for originality that prompted her to learn the biwa. Its large triangular plectrum, which the samurai are said to have used as a weapon, produces an aggressive percussion sound which, in contrast with the hieratic pose of the performer, steers the music in the direction of a martial art. After training under the biwa master Kinshi Tsuruta, and spotted at the start of the millennium by Ryūichi Sakamoto, Kakushin Nishihara, who is also a visual artist, has made a name for herself as part of the Kintsugi trio (with Serge Teyssot-Gay and Gaspar Claus). However, she is also present in dance and theatre: she performs in Yoroboshi: The Weakling, directed bySatoko Ichihara, in this year's edition of the Festival. With her shaved head, piercings and tattoos, she imposes an intense, almost shamanic presence on a concert which reveals the full extent of her instrumental range, from traditional music to noise, but also in vocal terms.
In the same place
Toshiki Okada, chelfitsch The Window of Spaceship 'In-Between'
Toshiki Okada, a critically-acclaimed figure on the Japanese theatre scene, probes the mechanisms and symptoms of our society. Mixing together science fiction and poetry within the confines of a group on a space expedition, his new play The Window of Spaceship ‘In-Between’ tackles the issues of distancing and the definition of humanity.
Shingo Ōta, Kyoko Takenaka Les dernières geishas
The profession of the geisha, an emblematic figure of a fantasized vision of Japan, is often a little-known one, and which is also in the process of disappearing. Going beyond the stereotypical vision we have of them, what is the reality of their practice? In this documentary performance, Shingo Ōta and Kyoko Takenaka set out in search of the last geishas of the Japanese archipelago.