Nov 3, 2008
Special thanks Izu House 2008
The artists of Izu House dance project would like to thank all Ohito who supported our creative process at Chihan-an this fall. With spectacular weather and Ohito town's sounds of buzzing traffic and festival firecrackers, we enjoyed each presentation as its own story. We'd like to extend our special thanks to Nobuko Awaya, Chihan-an's caretaker and project director, for her vision and generosity. In addition, we owe much to the greater Chihan Art Project staff and board, its community and the Suganuma family. Please stay tuned to new blog updates such as video interviews with audience members and beautiful photos by our resident photographer and blog-master Eiichiro Iwasa.
Toshi Makihara comments
Toshi Makihara comments on the performance.
© IWASA Eiichiro, Chihan Art Project
© IWASA Eiichiro, Chihan Art Project
Chirstpher Yohmei Blasdel comments
Christpher Yohmei Blasdel, Shakuhachi player and performer of the first Chihan Art Project, comments on IZU HOUSE 2008.
© IWASA Eiichiro, Chihan Art Project
© IWASA Eiichiro, Chihan Art Project
Nov 1, 2008
KYOTO Journal
The performance "IZU HOUSE" is appeared on the article of Ten Thousand Things, KYOTO Journal.
This article is on the following web page of KYOTO Journal;
http://www.kyotojournal.org/10,000things/218.html
This article is on the following web page of KYOTO Journal;
http://www.kyotojournal.org/10,000things/218.html
Oct 31, 2008
Schedule
Sat. November 1, 2008 @ 1pm and 4pm
Sun. November 2, 2008 @ 1pm and 4pm
For reservations, please send a fax or email with the following information:
1. full name of contact person
2. number of tickets you wish to reserve
3. your email address or fax #
4. which performance(s): specify date/time
5. alternate date/time, just in case we cannot accommodate your first choice.
Tickets: ¥3000 (advance reservation); ¥3300 (day of show)
We will accept payment in cash at the box office on the day of the show. Doors open 30 minutes before each show. Please be sure to arrive by the start time. No latecomers will be admitted.
Directions to Chihan-an will be included via fax or email when we confirm your reservation.
For more information (English):
Tel 090-8306-9766
Fax 03-3718-4666
Email chihan.project@gmail.com
Sun. November 2, 2008 @ 1pm and 4pm
For reservations, please send a fax or email with the following information:
1. full name of contact person
2. number of tickets you wish to reserve
3. your email address or fax #
4. which performance(s): specify date/time
5. alternate date/time, just in case we cannot accommodate your first choice.
Tickets: ¥3000 (advance reservation); ¥3300 (day of show)
We will accept payment in cash at the box office on the day of the show. Doors open 30 minutes before each show. Please be sure to arrive by the start time. No latecomers will be admitted.
Directions to Chihan-an will be included via fax or email when we confirm your reservation.
For more information (English):
Tel 090-8306-9766
Fax 03-3718-4666
Email chihan.project@gmail.com
About Chihan Art Project
Since the Edo Period (1603-1867), Chihan-an has been home to the Suganuma family. The Suganuma's were wealthy landowners, and Nobuko Awaya's maternal ancestors. 2008 marks the 200th anniversary of their residence at this home. It takes its namesake after “Chihan,” the pen-name of Nobuko's grandfather, who was a patron of the arts with a special love of poetry. Located two hours south of Tokyo in the tiny town of Ohito on the Izu peninsula, Chihan-an still faces Shimoda Kaido, the famed road taken by U.S. emmissaries in 1854 who had forcibly entered Shimoda port to demand that the Japanese open its territory for foreign trade, effectively catapulting the country into an overnight “westernization.” The area is also well known for the novel “Izu Dancer” by Yasunari Kawabata whose story takes place just a few hours south of Chihan-an.
Chihan-an still retains its original footprint amidst beautifully designed modern additions. When entering the large foyer, one's attention is drawn high up toward the thatched roof interior. From a spacious, contemporary kitchen, the eye can follow dark, gigantic ceiling beams undulating through the house into the room with traditional hearth and ancestral altar, all visible by sliding open the shoji (rice paper) and wooden screen doors. In fact, the vast interior space can be enclosed or expanded by sliding or removing these screen doors and walls.
Privately, the Suganuma family gave birth, celebrated weddings, and held funerals here. Publicly, as community patrons, they provided a center for town meetings and important gatherings. As a philanthropist, Chihan invited artists to come for creative retreats, haiku contests, and cultural exchanges amongst one another. Today, we can see some of the work they left behind as a “thank you.” For example, 91 year old monk , Yuinen left his painting of snake. The “an” of Chihan-an, means “retreat” or “sanctuary.” Among his guests were such luminaries as playwright Mantaro Kubota, novelist Fumiko Hayashi and filmmaker Heinosuke Gosho.
In 2000, Chihan-an was passed on to Nobuko. While there was some discussion about whether to bequeath the property to the state as a historic site, Nobuko decided to carry on her grandfather's vision: to use it both as a home and a place of creative inspiration. In an interview for the International Herald Tribune, she said: "I didn't want to keep the house, where my maternal ancestors had lived and where I was born, just as a museum. I wanted to restore its cultural vitality by actually using it…I started thinking of the meaning of the house when my uncle died and I came to take care of the house." (10/10/08 by Kazue Suzuki).
Beginning in 2003, Nobuko began planning the “Chihan Art Project,” an ongoing artist series that includes live-in workshops, performances/installations on site, and the space for good food, drink and company. The first Chihan Art Project event was a music concert featuring shakuhachi player Christopher Yomei, vocalist Mika Kimula, and pianist Ayako Ono on April 14, 2007. In October 2007, U.S.-based dancers/choreographers Roko Kawai and Leah Stein came to begin collaborating with Tokyo artists Hideo Arai (movement artist) and Mika Kimula. This fall, these three collaborators are joined percussionist Toshi Makihara who is also based in the U.S. Called “IZU HOUSE,” this site-specific dance/sound piece will be performed on November 1 and 2, 2008. Next “Chihan Art Project” will feature Koji Ono who will create sculptural installation around the exterior of the house.
Chihan-an still retains its original footprint amidst beautifully designed modern additions. When entering the large foyer, one's attention is drawn high up toward the thatched roof interior. From a spacious, contemporary kitchen, the eye can follow dark, gigantic ceiling beams undulating through the house into the room with traditional hearth and ancestral altar, all visible by sliding open the shoji (rice paper) and wooden screen doors. In fact, the vast interior space can be enclosed or expanded by sliding or removing these screen doors and walls.
Privately, the Suganuma family gave birth, celebrated weddings, and held funerals here. Publicly, as community patrons, they provided a center for town meetings and important gatherings. As a philanthropist, Chihan invited artists to come for creative retreats, haiku contests, and cultural exchanges amongst one another. Today, we can see some of the work they left behind as a “thank you.” For example, 91 year old monk , Yuinen left his painting of snake. The “an” of Chihan-an, means “retreat” or “sanctuary.” Among his guests were such luminaries as playwright Mantaro Kubota, novelist Fumiko Hayashi and filmmaker Heinosuke Gosho.
In 2000, Chihan-an was passed on to Nobuko. While there was some discussion about whether to bequeath the property to the state as a historic site, Nobuko decided to carry on her grandfather's vision: to use it both as a home and a place of creative inspiration. In an interview for the International Herald Tribune, she said: "I didn't want to keep the house, where my maternal ancestors had lived and where I was born, just as a museum. I wanted to restore its cultural vitality by actually using it…I started thinking of the meaning of the house when my uncle died and I came to take care of the house." (10/10/08 by Kazue Suzuki).
Beginning in 2003, Nobuko began planning the “Chihan Art Project,” an ongoing artist series that includes live-in workshops, performances/installations on site, and the space for good food, drink and company. The first Chihan Art Project event was a music concert featuring shakuhachi player Christopher Yomei, vocalist Mika Kimula, and pianist Ayako Ono on April 14, 2007. In October 2007, U.S.-based dancers/choreographers Roko Kawai and Leah Stein came to begin collaborating with Tokyo artists Hideo Arai (movement artist) and Mika Kimula. This fall, these three collaborators are joined percussionist Toshi Makihara who is also based in the U.S. Called “IZU HOUSE,” this site-specific dance/sound piece will be performed on November 1 and 2, 2008. Next “Chihan Art Project” will feature Koji Ono who will create sculptural installation around the exterior of the house.
Oct 11, 2008
INTERNATIONAL Herald Tribune/The Asahi Shimbun
The performance "IZU HOUSE" is appeared on the article of Weekend|
arts & MORE, INTERNATIONAL Herald Tribune/Asahi Shimbun on October 10, 2008.
This article is also on the following web page of The Asahi Shimbun;
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200810100054.html
arts & MORE, INTERNATIONAL Herald Tribune/Asahi Shimbun on October 10, 2008.
This article is also on the following web page of The Asahi Shimbun;
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200810100054.html
Leah Stein
Leah Stein comments about site specific.
October 19, 2007
© IWASA Eiichiro, Chihan Art Project
October 19, 2007
© IWASA Eiichiro, Chihan Art Project
Roko Kawai
Roko Kawai comments about Chihan-an and herself.
October 17, 2007
© IWASA Eiichiro, Chihan Art Project
October 17, 2007
© IWASA Eiichiro, Chihan Art Project
Roko Kawai (dancer/choreographer and project leader)
Roko Kawai investigates the relationship between the specificity of traditional dance and the craft of improvisation. Her work includes international collaborations in Bali, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Japan, and she has performed nationally in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Hawaii, New York, Chicago, at the Florida Dance Festival and Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out. Roko has been supported by the Artists Exploration Fund of Arts International, Dance Advance, Independence Foundation, the PA Council on the Arts, DanceLINK, and others. In 2003, she was awarded The Pew Fellowship in the Arts for Choreography and, in 2005, a 7-month Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Fellowship in Tokyo during which she trained in Classical Japanese Dance with Hanayagi Kazu, and pursued artistic research on the contemporary dance scene in Japan as well as on kagura in Shimane prefecture. This Fall, she performed as part of the Philadelphia cast in Jerome Bel's The show must go on at the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival. She is also currently working on a writing project, an 'Artist's Workbook' to be published on the web, that reflects upon issues of “categorizations and collisions,” “belonging and longing,” in the 15 year arc of her career.
© IWASA Eiichiro, Chihan Art Project
Leah Stein (dancer/choreographer)
Leah Stein has been living and making dances in Philadelphia since 1987. She has created dances on site and on stage in Indonesia, Canada, Poland, Romania, Japan and Scotland. She founded the Leah Stein Dance Company in 2001 and in 2004 established a program for annual local on site performance projects called “On Site Philadelphia”. In 2007 she collaborated on a film documenting the making of GATE, a seminal site work at Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site in Philadelphia. She has been awarded grants from Dance Advance, the Leeway Foundation, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts including three Fellowships in Choreography.She has been in residence at Yellow Springs Art Institute, the American Dance Festival and Djerassi Resident Artist Program in California where she received an honorary award for her work “Barn Dance”. In 2001, Stein was awarded a Herald Angel Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland for In Situ. Stein has collaborated with dancer/choreographers Sean Feldman, Roko Kawai and Gus Solomons jr, sculptors Jeanne Jaffe and Edward Dormer, poet Josie Foo, and composers/musicians Pauline Oliveros, Robert Maggio, Mark Weber, David Forlano, Dave Burrell and Dan Peterson. She has been collaborating with percussionist Toshi Makihara since 1989. She currently teaches at Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore Colleges. http://www.leahsteindance.org
© IWASA Eiichiro, Chihan Art Project
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