Practice Makes Perfect
How often these kids rehearse, and how their efforts are appreciated.
The kids rehearse once a week for several months, and excitement builds up as performance days approaches. On the big day, the kids first have their faces made up, and then put on their costumes and finally their wigs. The audience is on the edge of their seats, and the curtain closes to a big round of applause.
Rehearsals take place once a week from 7 p.m. The piece performed in 1999 was a one-act adaptation of Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura, a story about a twelfth-century warrior.
The story goes something like this. Japan's first shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo orders his younger half-brother Yoshitsune to launch a military campaign against their enemy. Yoshitsune is successful and becomes an immensely popular figure in the capital of Kyoto. His older brother, operating from his shogunal headquarters in Kamakura (near Tokyo) grows jealous and suspects Yoshitsune of treason, and chases him out of the capital. Yoshitsune's lover, Shizuka Gozen, says she wants to go along but is turned down out of concern for her safety. Just as they part, the enemy general Hayami Tota appears with a retainer and is about to capture Shizuka when . . . .
Mr. Shibasaki plays the shamisen while Mr. Imai gives stage directions. Practicing to project one's voice.
The instructor Mr. Shibasaki starts off the rehearsal by playing the three-stringed shamisen, and the kids follow by reciting their lines. They've been practicing for months now and know their lines by heart.
The kids who aren't on stage chatter among another, but on cue they move effortlessly into the world of medieval drama. The other instructor, Mr. Imai, barks out directions from time to time like, "Shizuka's standing up too early" and "Speak slower, Tota!"

Yuji Takahashi, is starring as Sato Tadanobu, who protects Shizuka from the enemy. The kids know the lines by heart, but getting the movements right can be a challenge.