In late 2017 Ho Etsu embarked on a journey to study EDO MATSURI BAYASHI, a 300 year-old musical tradition originating from the streets of old Tokyo. The highlight of our journey came in April 2018 during a 6-day residency with master Japanese musician Kyosuke Suzuki of the acclaimed Wakayama Shachu performance troupe. For perspective, we spent months of training and received hours of coaching from our friend and mentor Eien Hunter-Ishikawa just to prepare for this residency.
Towards the end of the residency we held a concert to perform the Edo Bayashi suite and to showcase solo pieces from Suzuki sensei and Eien, as well as selections from Ho Etsu’s own repertoire. It was a special performance as Suzuki sensei demonstrated his mastery of Edo-period traditional dance pieces including “Ryomen Odori (double-masked dance)” and “Edo Kotobuki Jishi (traditional shishimai, or lion dance, of Tokyo)”.
Learning Edo Bayashi has been a rewarding experience for Ho Etsu – we not only benefited from Suzuki sensei’s instruction but we’ve also been enriched by his deep knowledge of traditional Japanese performing arts. We are grateful to Suzuki sensei for this overall experience and to Eien for guiding us through it. To get a better sense of our experience we invite you to read our EDO BAYASHI blog.
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Normally each August we perform and volunteer at MBT’s Ginza Holiday Festival. This year Ginza will be ‘virtual’ – learn more.
Composer’s note: Poston is an incarceration camp in Arizona that held over 17,000 Japanese American citizens rounded up and displaced by the US government during World War II.
Only what you can carry, they said
An unknown future, moving forward
Separation, nulled identities
Stories hidden, some may never know
Divided by war (Unified to forge ahead)
What lies ahead from here? (We’re staring into present day)
No time for the past (Unified in face of hate)
What lies ahead from here? (Won’t let it repeat again)
All life
All life is
All the love you give
Tell me Where does your heart
Your heart live?
In the nightwood, dark and deep
The tiny songbird cries in sleep
Sleep my love, though the wind do wail
And snow clouds pile, and storm and hail
Black bough trees, cold earth beneath
The breath of night bares icy teeth
Water moves, though the moving’s slow
And the deepest root guards life below
Fire flicker, warm and bright
Bind us in your ring of light
Shadows tall on the cold ground cast
Draw dancing shapes of those who passed
Gather now in the circle round
While the hoarfrost kiss the ground
Heart and hand and drum and song
We speak of them, we speak of them, our voices strong
Mountains high and oceans wide
The dead stand with us, side by side
Greeting’s sweet and parting’s sore
And still time’s tide wears on our shore, wears on our shore
And still time’s tide wears on our shore
Come by me and share your light
Walk hand in hand into the night
Glowing hearts and our faces cold
Life catches us in a web of gold
In the nightwood, dark and deep
A tiny songbird sighs in sleep
Sleep my child though the wind do cry
My love will keep you by and by
All life
All life is
All the love you give
Tell me Where does your heart
Your heart live?
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