Osaka Deaf Pantomime Group at Gallaudet

If you happen to find yourself in the Washington D.C. area over Golden Week, you might want to check out the free performance of the Osaka Pantomime Group at Gallaudet University (link).

If the images at the bottom of the poster look familiar, you most likely remember a past post about this group here at VAOJ.

This might be a good time to remind readers that this blog, while supporting the spirit of Fair Use, is still registered under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

"World Without Sound" - 30th Anniversary of the Osaka Pantomime Group

The Osaka Pantomime Group celebrated its 30th anniversary on Saturday, August 30, 2008 with a performance in Higashi Osaka. The group has had a long and lively history, with both deaf and hearing members. The group has performed throughout Japan and the world. I have blogged in the past about their performance at a deaf school in Cambodia.


The group when originally formed in 1978 was billed as an exclusively deaf group. However many hearing people became interested and joined. Thus the themes of the performances and skits are not necessarily deaf related, they are more universal themes that both deaf and hearing people can understand.


This is not to say that deaf cultural aspects are missing from the group. The majority of the audience was deaf and were vigorously chatting away in JSL before the show and during the break. As for the performance itself, I learned there was a difference between classic pantomime and deaf pantomime. In the former, facial expression is usually absent - body movement is stressed. However with the latter facial expression is key, revealing mood and other subtleties. The excellent body movement of the Osaka Pantomime Group combined with facial expressions made simple themes such as flying kites, playing golf, riding on the train, manners and fashion shows come to life with an absence of props. Perhaps the most popular skits had to do with the interaction between a shower (played by one member) and two women, the first young and beautiful, the second old and not so attractive.


Only three people performed at this anniversary show. However many more people were involved with backstage activities. Here again deaf cultural influences are at work. Electronic devices are used to allow deaf performers and stage hands to cue communicate with each other. Pantomime takes a large time commitment that many people don't seem willing to give anymore. However, after 30 years the the curtain is not falling on the group. They promised to do their best and continue on into the future.

See a related blog about the relationship between sign language and pantomime:
http://deaf.cocolog-nifty.com/english/2005/07/is_sign_languag_c7bd.html

"Osaka Library Opens Folk Dance Archive to Public"

(A scene from Miwasaki no Aya Odori, a dance from Shingu, Wakayama prefecture, in 1958. Photo courtesy of Ikedabunko Library, published along with the story in The Daily Yomiuri, April 11, 2008, p. 3)

More than 7,000 audiovisual and written accounts of folk performances recorded by the Takarazuka Revue Company, an all-women's theater troupe, have been made available to the public by the Ikedabunko Library in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture...

The material covers many types of performing arts that are no longer practiced, making it an invaluable resource for researchers.

The archive includes 670 DVDs, each with a running time of about 20 minutes, 1,650 audiotapes, with a running time of 20 to 40 minutes, and written reports.

Read the whole story:
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/culture/20080411TDY03101.htm

This could be a good resource for visual anthropologists dealing with performance. Below is some information about the Ikedabunko Library.

Ikedabunko Library is well known for holding a famous drama collection that includes Kabuki, Takarazuka - Review and Ukiyoe scenarios, script paintings, programmes and other ephemera of the dramatic arts. As a collection of the dramatic arts, Ikeda's collection is only rivaled by that at Waseda University in Tokyo. A lot of the material is delicate and is rarely exhibited, but books, programmes etc are available for viewing.(Close:Monday, National Holiday, first Wednesday)(from Ikeda City Tourism Association website)

Link to Ikedabunk Library website (in Japanese):
http://www.ikedabunko.or.jp/

Some of my students have blogged about Takarazuka. Read their posts here and here.

Link to information in English on Takarazuka:
http://kageki.hankyu.co.jp/english/