Hokutopia Tsutsuji Hall, 2024 Photo: Maki Takagi
Hokutopia Tsutsuji Hall, 2024 Photo: Maki Takagi
Hokutopia Tsutsuji Hall, 2024 Photo: Maki Takagi
By regarding the venue as consisting of three or four stages including the audience seating area, and by arranging musicians around the audience seating, the Ensemble aimed to create a three-dimensional sound configuration that would turn the entire venue into an acoustic environment.
In this space, the Ensemble presented a program that traced tradition and the creation of the future, the history of the composition of avant-garde works, and gave an overview of the future of gagaku.
~Program~
– “Sazanami” from Kagura-Uta
– “Starlight and Frost I, II” by Kaito Nakahori
– Bashikichō-Chōshi
– Sōjō-Chōshi
– Ōshikichō Chōshi
– Kishunraku Jo/Ha
– “Ōgenraku”(1980/1996) by Toshi Ichiyanagi
~Performers~
– Naoyuki MANABE GAGAKU Ensemble
Shō: Naoyuki Manabe, Hideaki Bunno, Taishi Nagai, Fusayoshi Aoki, Ayako Kawakami
Hichiriki: Motonori Miura, Yoshie Kunimoto
Fue: Yutaka Ota, Tatsuya Iwasaki, Ryo Fujiwaki, Takuya Koketsu
– Special Performer
Shō: Hideaki Bunno
– Supporting Performers
Shō: Hirosato Shimomiya,
Hichiriki: Osamu Kashiwagi, Tomoko Nakamura
Koto: Sakura Kido
Percussion: Karin Tozaki
Naoyuki MANABE GAGAKU Ensemble
Formed during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 under the philosophy that only performers who respect tradition and continue honing their craft can create new traditions. While rooted in tradition, the Ensemble engages in a new style of performance by using gardens, historic ruins, and theater spaces to practice a form of performance that is not limited to the format of a stage and audience seating. Taking the musical elements of gagaku, composer Naoyuki MANABE has created a new playing style. This involves using the techniques of Choshi, Omeribuki/Oibuki (playing methods in which musicians start playing a melody at different times), and Omerimai (a dance method in which one dancer follows another’s movements after a set interval).
The Ensemble continues to devise projects it hopes will offer new traditions.
2020: Video production “Understanding “Etenraku”: An introduction to watching Gagaku performance / Garden Concert (Kuraki Noh Stage/Otsuka-Saikachido archaeological site)
2021: Selected for the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ ARTS for the future! program
2022: Selected for the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ ARTS for the future! 2 program
2023: “Gagaku at Nishi no Shosoin,” Misato, Miyazaki Prefecture / “Tradition and Innovation,” Toyosu Cultural Center
2024: Won the 16th Award for Tradition and Creativity
Satsuki Manabe
Naoyuki MANABE GAGAKU Ensemble
nmge@sho-manabe.net
Hokutopia Tsutsuji Hall, Kita-ku, Tokyo
