"Break a Leg!"

A professional noh performance was held in Kyoto in March featuring Kageaki and Susumu. They portrayed young brothers in a played calledTosen. Susumu's six-year-old sister, Aya, also took the stage in another play calledSakuragawa.

InSakuragawa, Aya played Sakurago, a boy who sells himself into slavery to help his poor mother. His mother is heartbroken when she learns what he has done, though, and she travels from the southern island of Kyushu all the way to the northern part of Honshu, desperately looking for her son. After a long and difficult journey, the mother and child are reunited. The mother is played by Mr. Inoue.

The second of the two plays on this day's program isTosen, a story about Sokei, a Chinese officer who was captured in a sea battle with a navy from Japan. He has been looking after the cattle and horses of a landlord in Kyushu for 13 years and now has two children by a Japanese wife. Sokei had a family in China too, and his two Chinese sons now travel to Japan, bringing along a ship full of treasures in exchange for their father's freedom. The landlord agrees to let him go, but when Sokei's two Japanese children say they want to go to China with their dad, the landlord says no, they must stay on and work for him. Saddened and torn between his Chinese and Japanese children, Sokei tries to jump to his death. Seeing how painful the decision must be for Sokei, the landlord has a change of heart and gives his permission for the Japanese children to travel with their father back to China. Kageaki and Susumu play the two Japanese sons, while Kageaki's father, Mr. Yamanaka, portrays one of the two Chinese sons.

The father struggles to decide whether to go back to China with his Chinese children or stay in Japan with his Japanese children.

With the performance due to start at 1 p.m., the actors start gathering backstage at around 11 a.m. Tension starts to build as the minutes tick away, but Kageaki and Susumu are completely relaxed. Kageaki is showing a magic trick using a rope that he learned from one of the actors. And Susumu says he doesn't feel any pressure at all.

After lunch, Kageaki, Susumu, and Aya get dressed for the stage. The costumes are beautiful, even those for children. Before long, the three transform into figures from centuries past.

The first play on the program isSakuragawa. It's a long play, but Aya sits still for a very a long time, performing her role flawlessly.

After a comedy and a few short dances comesTosen. Both Kageaki and Susumu look very serious. They move just as smoothly as the adult actors, and their voices echo throughout the hall. The play reaches a climax as Sokei dances in joy on the boat back to China with his four children, and they exit the stage to enthusiastic applause.

Asked backstage how the performance went, Kageaki and Susumu both say they could have climbed aboard the boat a little more smoothly. "The parts where we sing together weren't completely in unison either," they add," but overall it went fairly well."

< Back to previous page