NEWS OF TRAVEL JAPAN

I saw a kyogen-play on stage at The Festival Hall in Osaka, which is usually used for the classic music concerts of orchestras. Kyogen which is the traditional Japanese satiric comedy is usually performed in combination with Noh at a Noh hall, but this-time Kyogen was independently performed on its wide stage. So I felt the essences of Kyogen directly. As a silent play in the sorrowful drama “Narayamabushi-ko” is a sorrowful story in a poor old mountainous village. The village has little food, so the number of the population is limited. Thus, a newly born baby means removing an elderly person from the village, who is taken to the depths of Narayama Mountain and will not return. There is an elderly mother who has a filial son and a grandson who will have a new baby. She has to leave the village and she wants to go to the mountain. She has accepted the rule of the village and her fate, and she waits for the day when she will be taken. Of course this is my imagination. She said ...

About thirty years ago when I was young and I worked at the Akihabara branch of a bank, I enjoyed the festival of Kanda Shrine four times. Almost all of the young male bankers in the branch participated in the festival, and we looked forward to carry a portable shrine “o-mikoshi”. It was an unordinary experience with release of myself as a banker who is required to behave politely on business which was somewhat difficult to me. After the festival I was used to feel severe muscle weakness of all my body and shoulder inflammation, but the pleasure of carrying the portable shrine was supreme. At the first participating time I was a little bit nervous to carry the portable shrine, because it was the first time in my life and I heard that the portable shrine was very heavy. On wearing the happi coat of the festival the thermometer of my tension gradually rose, but yet I couldn’t wear the formal underwear “fundoshi”( a long cotton cloth) humbly. While being taught by my close cowork...