For the past several years Ho Etsu has participated in the Japan House Matsuri Festival on the campus of the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana. The festival shares Japanese food, entertainment and culture with university students and guests. This year in addition to the Matsuri Festival, Japan House celebrated their 20th anniversary with a special ceremony and concert.
The concert featured Japanese musicians and performers, including members of the Toho Gakuen College of Drama and Music in Japan specializing in traditional koto and shamisen playing; Michiyoshi Sato, a prominent Japanese player of the tsugaru jamisen; and calligraphy artist Seiran Chiba. It was Ho Etsu’s honor to collaborate and share the stage with these amazing artists! Many thanks to Jarvis Kim for these rehearsal and performance photographs.
ABOUT JAPAN HOUSE
Japan House is a teaching facility with Japanese tea rooms and class space surrounded by Japanese gardens. The environment of Japanese aesthetics both inside and outside makes for an immersive experience. Even without taking part in the tea ceremonies, classes, workshops and performances, a visitor can learn about Japanese culture just by absorbing the Japanese influence and aesthetics. Japan House is a unit of the College of Fine and Applied Arts at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It has both University classes for academic credit, as well as community classes open to the general public. Although it is not a cultural center for Japanese students, it often becomes a home away from home to Asian students because of its traditional stylings and peaceful environment. (source: Japan House website)
Photography Credits:
Jarvis Kim
(click any photo to view the gallery as a slideshow)
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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