What we do

ZANGE 1945

  • Organization : Sign Art Project.AZN
  • Section : None
  • Type of Grant Program : Single
  • Art Forms : Theater

Outline

“Tell me about it…that summer that left its mark on your hands….”
Natsumi is a magazine journalist who lives with her deaf daughter Yui, from whose father she is divorced.
Natsumi and Yui’s relationship is on the verge of a breakdown.
Since Natsumi’s relationship with her own mother, Yasuko, broke down during puberty, she has tried to avoid seeing her more than absolutely necessary.
One day, having been assigned to write an article about the 70th anniversary of the end of the war, Natsumi recalls her mother’s experience.
Her mother is deaf and was exposed to the atomic bomb that was dropped on her birthplace of Nagasaki toward the end of the war.
Natsumi requests an interpreter so that she can ask other deaf atomic bomb survivors about their experiences.
The interpreter assigned to her is Sawaguchi, her ex-husband.
In Hiroshima, the horrific experiences recounted by the deaf atomic bomb survivors make Natsumi think of her mother.
She takes Sawaguchi the interpreter back to her family home.
Mother and daughter meet for the first time in years.
“It’s just the same. I’ve become the same kind of mother as this woman whom I hated so much….”
Eventually, her mother recounts half of her life through the interpreter.
And then, the exposure of her mother’s parents to the atomic bomb….
This is a tale of tangled and interrupted relationships between mothers and daughters, spanning 70 years.
Director: Yoshiko Nozaki
Writer: Yoko Yonaiyama (Chitakiyo)
Performers: Hiroe Ohashi and others

Profile

The objective of Sign Art Project.AZN is to develop sign language as a form of artistic performance.
For example, we want to make an impression on people by blending music, dance, and theater with sign language to create a highly artistic performance. We also aim to undertake a wide range of other activities to promote the spread of such artistic sign language performances. The “AZN” in the name “Sign Art Project.AZN” signifies our awareness of and pride in our Asian identity. In this project, we would like to promote sign language as a means of communication that transcends ethnicity and national borders and facilitates communication with a variety of people, in order to engender a new movement and culture.
We hope to convey love, emotion, and dreams through our sign language performance. In addition, our most heartfelt wish is that this should help to break down the barriers that each and every one of us carries in our hearts in order to set ourselves free, so that we can learn to understand and live in harmony with others across the globe.

Contact

Hiroe Ohashi
Producer, Actor
Sign Art Project.AZN
E-mail:info@sapazn.jp

Venues

ZA-KOENJI 2 (Suginami City, Tokyo)