On Thursday, March 26, Associate Professor Mariko Anno from the Institute of Science Tokyo visited UW-Eau Claire to give a seminar on traditional Japanese performing arts. Around 80 Eau Claire students and community members were in attendance for the seminar, which took place in Haas Fine Arts Center.
Anno holds a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from Tokyo University of the Arts and a doctorate in musical arts in flute performance and literature from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Anno specializes in Noh, which is the oldest surviving form of Japanese theater. She said Noh is a comprehensive art form dating back to the 14th century. The performances consist of music, dance and drama and focus heavily on engagement from the audience.
Although she was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Anno said she would travel to Japan and watch Kabuki performances. Kabuki, she said, is an art form with some components similar to Noh but with contrasting storytelling and a variety of genres.
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Anno herself is a Noh performer, and she said the music used in performances — played primarily on the Nohkan flute — is what first captured her interest. She even performed several compositions with the audience during the seminar.
“I was always really mesmerized by the sound of the Nohkan,” Anno said. “Kabuki includes different genres and there’s just too much. But within Noh, we have a set format which is easier for me to manage and also learn the instruments.”
In her presentation, Anno outlined the ways Noh theater has evolved over the past several centuries and how it is being kept alive today.
“Noh has been adapted into different languages all over the world,” Anno said.
English-language Noh performances are rising in popularity and often involve the retelling of familiar stories through the Noh format. Anno said one example of these English-language performances is “Blue Moon Over Memphis,” a Noh about Elvis Presley.
Anno’s own English-language Noh, titled “Visas for Life,” will be taking the stage later this year in the United States.
“Noh in Dialogue” was made possible through a collaboration between UW-Eau Claire, the Japanese Consulate out of Chicago and the Japan America Society of Wisconsin (JASWI).
Yuya Murata, the Japan Information Center director for the consulate general, said Wisconsin is one of 10 midwestern states his office covers.
“We have two main missions,” Murata said. “One is to promote Japanese culture, and the other is to support Japanese language education. Regarding the first mission, it was our great honor to invite Dr. Anno from Japan to travel to the Midwest.”
Both Murata and Kerry Clark, executive director of JASWI, said they were pleased with the turnout at UW-Eau Claire’s event.
“I think the mixture of the audience was very telling,” Clark said. “I know a lot of Japanese people were in attendance. I spoke to some of them afterward, and they said that not only were they excited to learn, but also they were quite proud that people were taking the time to maybe learn something different about Japan that we don’t hear about as often.”
Wojahn can be reached at [email protected].