Report of July's Nara EU English Cub with Rebecca, the "Shihan" of Kongoh Noh^^♪

Listen...

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Long,long ago in a certain place, a certain day,

Noh masks and a leek dropped out of the sky.

The villagers were surprised.

And then they buried the masks and made "Menduka monument(面塚)" with respect,

meanwhile the leek became the specialty of its village later.

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This is a folk story passed down in Tawaramoto-cho, NARA where is said to be the birthplace of "Noh Gaku".

Well,this month, we welcomed Ms. Rebecca Teele to our English club held at "つづきの村".
She is a Licensed Instructor (師範) of the Kongoh Noh, and is the first foreigner to become a member of the Noh Association In 1996.

On this day, she's brought some Noh masks and showed them with explanation.(One of them SHE carved by herself!)

What image do you have on Noh masks?
Doesn't it look like "Lack of facial expression", does it?
But actually, it includes several (and very sensitive) emotional expressions....

Now that someone looks carefully,
we can find that the Noh masks are made in unsymmetrical shape

You can see it..?It is unsymmetrical.


And by inclining it toward the light, the contrast between light and shadow change, and we can see various emotions on it.
For example, if you incline the mask down it looks sad, and if you incline it up, we can see somehow light expression.
Wonder of light...


Backside.
Can you see the shape of eyes? It is from "Lotus" meaning "enlightenment " in Buddhism.

This day, we deepened the understanding of Japanese traditional culture from Rebecca's lecture.
It is true and it is good that these Japanese tradition is promoted abroad,
but it is also true that many of us, the Japanese, don't have much knowledge about our tradition.
We might have much room to know about our country.
In that way,this was very convivial and exciting gathering!!


★★★English club in August★★★
Wednesday 14th August,2013
from 18:45-20:45 at Nara Seibu kominkan.
Details will be followed late!!