For the first time in Russia, performances were held of the Japanese Nihon Buyo national dance theater in Moscow’s Maly Theater from March 10-11, 2010.
On the occasion of the tour, a reception was held on behalf of Metropol Group and attended by the Ambassador of Japan Mr. Masaharu Kohno, staff members of the Japanese Embassy, representatives of the RF Ministry of Culture, artists of the Nihon Buyo theater and a delegation from Metropol Group headed by M.V. Slipenchuk.
Background
Yasyao, based on the drama Tale of Syudzendzi, written by Okamoto Kido in the 44th year of the Meiji Era (1911), was first performed by the Nihon Buyo collective in Tokyo in March 2009. This grandiose production is about a master mask-maker named Yasyao, who strives for the highest skill in his art, and his eldest daughter Katsura, who is committed to defending her husband, the military leader Minamoto Yoriie. Dressed in samurai armor and wearing a mask created by her father for her husband, Katsura dies. Yasyao remembers that no matter how hard he tried to remake the mask, the seal of death always appeared on it. He comes to realize that only the gods know a person’s fate, and his art is equal to the art of the gods. Yasyao is amazed and shudders, realizing the heights of his skill…