Directors Notes

Having never previously managed to read through the entire of Yameru Maihime, a text full of multiple layers of twisted images, I wondered if it was possible to read it through the body of actors. My other intention was to see whether it was possible to project the more obscure “human existence” on top of the individuality of the actors’ bodies. This thought came to me while frequenting the garden of Takuzo Kubikukuri, who passed away in 2018. In that garden, there were moments where to hang one’s seemed in a sense theatrical, but for the most part it was just an old man walking slowly around the garden. I think a body that doesn’t attempt to reveal something definite better expresses a human existence that goes beyond the individual performers, in a way akin to the climax of a grand performance. Can actors use their bodies as blank canvases to present Hijikata’s text? What will the audience take away from this? These are the questions I would like to answer in this piece with director and actor Kiyoshi Hashimoto and performer Manabu Tomita.

Yasunori Ikunishi