Like every year in autumn, there are again a variety of cultural events going on these days. After being blown away by the speed and power of Yasmeen Godder in the "Dance Triennale Tokyo", as soon as that one was over I realized that a bunch of other quality exhibitions and theatre performances just kicked off. As you can read about "CREAM - Creativity for Arts and Media Yokohama 2009" (10/31-11/29), which opened with Fujihata Masaki’s bombshell "artwork removal" announcement, on the "ART iT" website, I'd like to take this occasion and write about a string of events I witnessed that were all connected by some strange coincidence.
The last week of October saw the opening of the Izu Photo Museum, the interior and gardens of which were designed by Praemium Imperiale award winner (in the painting category) Sugimoto Hiroshi. The opening exhibition is Sugimoto’s solo show "Nature of Light" (through 3/16). At the press preview on 10/23, the art crowd was rubbing shoulders with a large number of individuals from the realm of photography, such as Furuya Seiichi from Graz, and Higa Toyomitsu from Okinawa among others. There was another preview event on the following day, which I wasn't able to attend, but from Sugimoto’s connections one can guess that it was attended by quite a few people from outside the art and photography circles.
The "Festival/Tokyo" kicked off in the same week with Ishinha’s new piece "Rojishiki". While smaller in scale than the company’s trademark outdoor shows, it took place on a stage (at the Nishi-Sugamo Arts Factory) where 800 cabinets filled with bones of various fish and small animals were piled up, with rhythmically spoken "Jan-Jan Opera" dialogues accompanied by irregularly metered music in meters, and the additional attraction of rows of outdoor food stalls that astounded all theatre-loving Tokyoites.
On the day I went to see the show (10/26), the performance was followed by a rather interesting talk session. Ishinha leader Matsumoto Yukichi has the coolness of a genuine Kansai man, yet his poisonous jokes rendered Tanino Kuro (head of Niwa Gekidan Penino), who could be his son age-wise, completely speechless. "Most of the skeletal preparations were made by members of the company. We bought horse mackerels and other fish from the fish shop, and I had some mackerel sashimi with my drink while watching the others prepare the bones. I didn't eat what was left of the mice though…"
What’s interesting is the thought that inspired Matsumoto to use skeletal preparations. "There was that Sugimoto Hiroshi exhibition at the National Museum of Art in Osaka, and the Sugimoto buddy surely is rich enough to put a collection of precious stones on display. 'I can do that!' I thought, but as I don't have the cash I had to build my own collection first…" Money talk aside, getting stimulated by a fine artist’s solo exhibition is very much like Matsumoto, who is originally from the realm of fine art but maintains an interest in other fields.
Three days later I went to see an improvised live concert with Onda Aki, who was back in Japan for the first time in quite a while (on 10/29 at Earthdom, Shin-Okubo). Optron player Ito Atsuhiro, guitarists Imai Kazuo and Uchihashi Kazuhisa, Onda on cassette recorder, drummer Samm Bennett, and bassist Yamp Kolt (aka Fujinoya Mai) played four disarmingly voluminous sets in rotating lineups. Uchihashi currently lives in Vienna, and has been doing the music for Ishinha for several years now, which means that I was lucky enough to enjoy that inimitable Uchihashi treatment for the second time within a week. The venue was crowded with Hara Museum (of Contemporary Art) staff and other art people, including Berlin-based artist Koganezawa Takehito.
In the following week, or more precisely, five days later, an even greater chance was awaiting me in Kyoto. I went to see a live concert with Thai manga artist "Tam-kun" aka Wisut Ponnimit and Hosono Haruomi (on 11/3 at Kyoto International Manga Museum), only to find out that they had made a last-minute arrangement with a special guest - Uchihashi Kazuhisa. The performance was based on "a meeting of about twenty minutes and more or less no rehearsal" (Uchihashi), combining Tam-kun’s animations and piano with Hosono’s richly sonorous vocals and guitar, and Uchihashi’s "daxophone" improvisations. The daxophone, an instrument of which reportedly only eight models exist in the world, sounds like an uncanny mixture of theremin, musical saw and bestial howl. All these instruments together created a weirdly sentimental and nostalgic, and at once pleasantly dry sonic landscape. In the previous week, Tam-kun had performed alongside poet Tanikawa Shuntaro, and I only hope that there will be more such crossover collaborations also here in Tokyo.
During the live performance I remembered that Hosono was born in the same year as Sugimoto Hiroshi, and graduated from the same Rikkyo High School and University. The coincidental Sugimoto - Matsumoto - Uchihashi - Hosono connection ended again with Sugimoto in a complete circle. Each of these events was — by Japanese standards — a rare occasion for people with different backgrounds to get together, which to me felt like the icing on the (circular) cake.
Ozaki Tetsuya / Editor in chief / REALTOKYO