2022 年 8 月 20日
Here's a second raft of impressions (Part 2) 文明ー第２章
Evening sets in on the first night......金曜日の夕方
In the morning the coolest place to be (both physically and otherwise) was the smaller of the two stages, where Kijo Mitsuru sang gentle songs to calm the nerves.....静かな歌
It was also a suitable venue for Ai Shion さん, the lead singer from the band Selfish...
Razaris Dance also used the small stage at one point...Satoshiさん,Masさん and MC Sui-se さん: a wild bunch these guys.....
As the festival got into it's stride, Shakuhachi playerTouzan ascends the stage to perform with Koto player Naoko Kikuchi.....
This picture was taken as they performed on the smaller stage......
Touzan had previously performed with Yurieさん...
Meanwhile Nichibu Dance Meisterin Sen Yumeiji Nishikawa (centre) is preparing to go on stage. But first we take a picture of her with her Friseurin びようし美容師 and Mochi さん。
...Madam Hairdresser びようし美容師 was busy the whole day, I can tell you..... all those Japanese ladies hairstyles look very comlicated!
And at this point we need a picture of one person without whom the stage interviews would have been meaningless - our professional interpreter and translator Jasmin Dose...bilingual German/Japanese....プロの通訳・翻訳者
One act where the screams became almost raucous was the Shap gang entry.. This granny, 婆ちゃん said to me (in German I have to add) "oh these young things...they can do anything....chuckle....."
A video clip is needed here.....the Jpop scene..😅
on a more demure (おとな 大人しやか ?) note, the Kimono fashion show was also appreciated.....first a little chit chat before going on stage....
着物ファッションショー
...and then the walk....
So many impressions these last few days. Musn't forget that mouth-watering Taiyaki 鯛焼き(a sort of fish-shaped waffle filled with sweet beans) washed down with a refreshing class of Calpis...
Fanning myself....(The character on the fan 酒 is sake by the way.....)
One of the weirder performances was a Cuban/Japanese dance...I haven't got a video here, but the background music here gives it away...!!
Juan de Ildefonso Garcia.....er...now where do we place him. Not a typical Japanese name eh? Well, it's possible you may have heard him in the Frankfurt Oper, but here we find him on quite another planet...either improvising on stage ......
...or sinking behind an Apfelwein Bembel.....
Koji Yamaguchi...he has just put new strings on his shamisen. No wonder - he is the "fastest shamisen performer in the world"......first his instrument...
..and then the man himself...but what is this? he has a Katana 刀, not a shamisen, in the hand.....😅....he is of course a funny man....😂 (did you notice the kanji character for sword? - extraordinarily simple).
The things that go on back stage, honestly.....here members of the band "Selfish" (Hiroshi さん on guitar) do a spontaneous cover for Mochi......
I nearly missed this, but this is when Kaori Kawabuchi, leader of the Samurai group IDEAL, shows us that she is the Nr. 1.....defeating all her attackers with her fearsome sword......They stagger off the stage, mortally wounded, but hopefully recovered for Main Matsuri 2023.....
Phew! Here is a tension of a different kind.....Usui さん, master painter and calligrapher wields his ink brush with frightening speed over the canvas, producing two pictures which were immediately auctioned off for a Ukrainan charity...
...I soon discarded my hat in favour of an umbrella, the sun was so fierce.......
Solo Taiko Drummer Takuyaさん was one of the last performers on stage. Whilst trying to find a parking place for his van, I thought - "why does he need such a big van just to drive up from Munich?" Ah, well,you see, his big drum is rather big you know.....and he has a lot of other drums with him aswell......彼は非常に大きな車と非常に大きなドラムを持っています...
which need tlc.......("tender loving care") I can't translate that I'm sorry..訳せません ごめんなさい
for things are about to hot up on stage.....
no doubt a video will emerge of when he gets to work on that huge drum at the centre of the stage. That's the reason for the big van of course! Here's a pre-stage shot...
As I have already written, this is a personal glimpse of the festival. I haven't got film of other perfomers, like Tatto the magician and his colleage Raaik. Or of Enka singer Koo Bérma Baffo. And no doubt facebook et. al. has lots of wacky, weird and wonderful pictures of Cosplay characters.....
👉 All the performers can be looked up here https://www.main-matsuri.com/en/programme/artists and if you need a professional Japanese/German interpreter you need go no further than Jasmin here https://jddj.de/
So that's the last of my impressions from this year's Main Matsuri. I hope the scene on Sunday at Lokalbahnhof didn't look like this. This was at the end of a Matsuri happening in Japan this week, a "hanabi"花火 -a firework display in Atami, just south of Tokyo. Firework displays were originally meant to ward off evil spirits - it's a pity we are not allowed to have them in the middle of Frankfurt. But German rules are German rules - Amen. (Thanks Benedikt for the photo )😀
To end, here are two classic "Sayonara" farewell pictures.....here we are about to drive those returning to Tokyo to the airport.......
"The party now is over....." 2023 watch out!
Note: We are very lucky indeed that sponsors, for example the airline ANA✈ , enable us to transport all these artists from Japan. However - if you want to visit Japan yourself as an individual tourist, without a paid guide, you will still not get a visa. Government Covid policy. Don't listen to all the casual talk about Japan "opening up" again. Look at the detail from the Japanese Consulate. https://www.frankfurt.de.emb-japan.go.jp/itprtop_de/index.html . Thank you.
Additional Info: a very clear summary of the visa situation is provided by the Coto Academy, a language school in Japan. I myself cannot get a visa, unless I pay a personal guide every day of my visit. I had planned to go for 3 weeks this November, but paying couple of hundred € per day is just getting silly. https://cotoacademy.com/what-is-erfs-guide-to-short-term-visa-for-foreigners-in-japan/
I send out this blog pretty randomly to whoever I think might be interested. Some of you have subscribed (if you are on your mobile then open the menu at the start), which means you get a deluxe notification via email. Thank you! However, if you don't want this, don't hesitate to tell me and I shall take you off the list. No problem.
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A parting shot......Erikoさん, part of the IDEAL Sword Performance Team, in a stage pose..
THE END
酒は本心をあらわす
👏👏👏👏👏👏
終わり
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