Bando School of Nihon Buyo Dance blossoming in Southern California

Cultural News, May 2006

 

Headmaster of Bando School of Nihon Buyo, Bando Mitsugoro X (center in the front row), leads natori (stage name holder) dancers of his school in Southern California and outstanding dancers from Tokyo to present the first major show of his school in Los Angeles. Mitsugoro comes from Tokyo to Los Angeles to teach natori dancers in person every year. (Photo courtesy of Bando School Los Angeles Chapter)  

 

 

By Fumie Iida

 

  TOKYO -- It was a dream of both of his father and mother for a long time to bring a major Japanese classical dance (Nihon buyo) show to Los Angeles. After his parents’ death, renowned Kabuki actor and headmaster of the Bando School of Nihon Buyo, Bando Mitsugoro X has been seeking a way to fulfill their vision.

 

  When he visited Los Angeles in 2004 for the first time since his succession to the title of Bando Mitsugoro X in 2001, he and three Bando School master teachers in Los Angeles – Mmes Bando Mitsusa, Bando Mitsuhiro and Bando Wakatsuye – began formulating plans for a show.

 

  The Bando School of Nihon Buyo will present a charity show on June 11 at the Aratani/Japan America Theatre in Little Tokyo. This will be the very first time in the history of the Bando School that a show with the headmaster and three master dance teachers will be presented outside of Japan.

 

   “I think it will be a great show due to the collaboration of three teachers who have distinctly different personal qualities,” Mitsugoro said in a recent interview with Cultural News in Tokyo. “Mitsusa has learned Japanese dance from my great-grandfather, Bando Mitsugoro VII. There are few people who know him both in Japan and in the United States, so she is like a treasure of the Bando School. Mitsuhiro has a great frontier spirit. Without her determination and strength, the Bando School would not have prospered in the United States as it has now, and I respect her so much for this. Wakatsuye is the youngest of the three teachers and I expect her to foster the Bando School in the coming years.”

 

   For the show, he will bring 18 top dancers from Japan with him, including his sister Bando Hideko and his daughter. “It will be a rare opportunity for people in the United States to see these outstanding dancers at one time,” he said. Mitsugoro has selected more amusing dance numbers for this particular Los Angeles show because he wanted to make the show accessible to all kinds of audiences, especially to the average American. “Sho Chiku Bai is a very distinguished number but other numbers are enjoyable ones, and there will even be some comedic numbers,” he said. “So, I’d like to call this show ‘Bando Kai-California style,’” he laughed.

 

   Mitsugoro explained that the Bando School has inherited the classic elements of the Edo period. “I’m sure that the audience will enjoy our authentic Japanese classical dances,” he said. “I’d like them to know how Japanese classical dance is rich in the appreciation of the beauty of nature. Our ancestors have been enjoying them and have embraced them into the arts.”

 

  In one of the numbers called Kisen, the dance expresses the beauty of cherry blossoms of spring. Ryusei is a dance about the legendary Star Festival celebrated in the summer. Omatsuri expresses the air of excitement of a summer festival. “This sense of beauty appears in costumes as well. When we wear kimono, we wear a ‘season’ at the same time. Kimono fabrics are full of flowers and sceneries of the season,” he said. “I believe that the Japanese classical arts, not only Japanese dance but also tea ceremony, Japanese flower arrangement and haiku, are the best in the world in this sense,” Mitsugoro said.

 

 “But unfortunately, most Japanese today are indifferent to the beauty of our own culture and this tendency applies to the Japanese-American people in the United States, too,” Mitsugoro said. “There are increasingly fewer Japanese-American people who know about Japanese culture. Japanese culture is not familiar to them anymore.” Mitsugoro said that he is trying hard to find a way to convey the beauty of Japanese culture and the way to appreciate it. “So, bringing a major show to Los Angeles is the first step. I believe it will be a good opportunity to reintroduce the authentic beauty of Japan,” he said.

 

(In this article, Japanese names appear in the family name and given name order)

 

  Fumie Iida is a freelance writer and works at a public relations firm in Tokyo. She was a student of Bando Mitsuhiro from 2002 to 2005 during her stay in Los Angeles.