The game of Go is probably something over 2,500 years old, making it one of civilisation’s oldest hobbies.
Recently I’ve been getting interested in kabuki theatre though the NHK series Kabuki Kool, which got me wondering what other traditional activities other forumgoers enjoyed or were interested in.
Some topics which I know have come up before are, in greater or lesser measure:
classical music, baroque instruments, and Byzantine chants
Here are some channels with videos about kabuki and Noh theatre:
I recently watched an interesting solo kabuki dance. Female (onnagata) roles in kabuki are performed by men. Traditionally, this was also the case in Noh, although female actors began to enter the industry in the mid-20th century and have since become fairly common.
The dance is performed by Bando Tamasaburo V, more widely known as simply Tamasaburo, the most renowned onnagata specialist and one of the most popular active kabuki actors. It relays a scene from the tale of the giant eight-headed serpent Orochi, from the foundational 7th century work Kojiki.
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about gennan’s (paraphrased) comment “if you’re plateauing at technological maturity, switch your technology”, which is to say that if you’re struggling to progress then try changing your style. In this episode, Kataoka was talking about his teacher’s approach that “theatre is a living thing; you shouldn’t always play the same role the same way.”
Dancing tango argentino, organising salons, DJ-ing tango, writing about it (musical evolution).
And although due to circumstance I haven’t been doing that since more than a year, I am sure it has stood the test of time and one day i will …
So patiently waiting for now.
There’s a reference to Go in the classic kabuki history play The Battles of Coxinga, which follows a Japanese aragoto hero in his quest to restore the Tang dynasty to the rule of China.
The stirring second act of The Battles of Coxinga, a Japanese Kabuki play by Chikamatsu, begins with some Immortals visiting China from their home on the moon.
Seated atop their sacred mountain, they are playing a game of go. My comments follow one of theirs.
“The ordinary man, confused of mind, takes it for a mere contest between go stones . . . the fish swimming in the water . . . mistakes it for a fish hook . . . the bird soaring above the clouds . . . is frightened, thinking it a bow . . .”
Although the two Immortals were observing that one can see on a go board anything one wishes, as they spoke they were not looking at the "Sky‟ — a traditional metaphor for the go board with its black and white stones and star points. The "it‟ they viewed as mirrored on their mystical board referred to the waning and waxing of the forces of yin and yang over the land of China displayed before them—the cause of the hero’s exile in the face of the invading Manchu hordes in the 17th century.
Not brewing because I’m too lazy for that just drinking it