Backdrop (Noh)
Tokyo Arts and Space, Tokyo, 2017
Performing Arts Research Centre, Helsinki, 2018
Video-scenic Installation
(Color, Sound, 10’ /4’ /10’)
The backwall of a Noh stage is called the kagami-ita, on which a pine tree called the Yōgō no matsu is painted. Kagami-ita means “mirror panel”. Whether the play is Noh or Kyōgen, the performance always happens in front of the tree. The reason for the name kagami-ita is generally explained with reference to the Yōgō no matsu (pine of the advent), sheltered in the Kasuga Taisha shrine in Nara. Yōgō means advent, or coming, of the gods and Buddha. According to the historical explanation, the pine tree of an incarnated god stood behind the audience, and the stage’s rear panel reflected the tree like a mirror. Therefore, the actors were giving a performance to the god, rather than to the audience. I shot the first video on 19 October in the compound of Yasukuni Temple in Tokyo, in front of the stage of the outdoor Noh theatre, next to the main temple. I was already familiar with the place, having stayed near the temple during a previous residency in Tokyo. Never, though, during my previous numerous visits to the temple, would I see any activity onstage. Therefore, when I came back that morning to film, my plan was to shoot footage of the old “unused” stage with heavy rains in the foreground. Indeed, the main reason for going that morning was the forecast of torrential rains caused by Typhoon Lan along the Tokyo coast. This time, however, I found the theatre, usually unoccupied, in full preparation for a show. I then started to film a fixed shot of the empty stage just before the rehearsal. The fragment of music one can hear is a sound check of the loudspeakers, arranged along the periphery of the stage, off-camera. What is happening onstage took place without any prior preparation nor arrangement with the stage staff and performers. I shot the second video on the 29 October from my bedroom in a private traditional house in Kyoto on a windy morning. The text is directly copied and pasted (one textual element was freely added to the original text) from the synopsis of the play The Well Curb, found in the program of the National Noh Theatre in Tokyo. I shot the third video on the 26 November in the Zenyoji Temple, in Edogawa, an hour’s train ride north of Tokyo. The temple is famous for housing one of Japan’s oldest pine trees (600 years old), often compared to the sacred pine of the Kasuga Taisha in Nara, the famous Yōgō no matsu, painted on all Noh theatres' backdrops. The three videos are intentionally glitched. (Videos fullscreen on double-click)
The project was carried out during a residency period at Tokyo Arts and Space Residency in Tokyo.