27 Years of Tonda Ningyo Joruri Summer School
A story of Tonda Traditional Puppetry Troupe
Speaker: Hidehiko Abe (The leader of the Tonda Traditional Puppetry Troupe)
Date: October 26, 2024 (Saturday) Time: 14:00~17:00
Fee: Free for members and students; nonmembers: 500 yen
Language: Presentations are in Japanese with English interpretation
Venue: Crosspal Takatsuki (Takatsuki Shiritsu Sogo Shimin Koryu Center) Room 301
(Address) 1-2 Konyamachi, Takatsuki, Osaka 569-0804 (Tel) 072-685-3721
Social event: Optional dinner–*reservations required by Oct 23, 2024
Contact: fujimotodonna@gmail.com
Description:
Every year the Tonda Ningyo Joruri Puppet Troupe, a Shiga Prefecture intangible folk cultural asset, holds a summer school for two months from June to August. Participants are university students from overseas (mainly from the U.S.) who learn the three art forms of puppeteering, shamisen playing, and tayu storytelling.
The summer program began in 1997 and is now in its 27th year. Suspended due to the corona pandemic, the Tonda Ningyo Joruri Summer School was reopened in 2023.
Classical practices still persist in the field of traditional Japanese performing arts. Tonda-cho, Nagahama City, Shiga Prefecture, is a small community with a population of about 70. Since the start of the summer school, groups of students from overseas have continued to visit the Tonda Puppet Hall. How did Tonda Ningyo Joruri start the summer school and how has it accepted a diverse group of students? What were the difficulties and struggles of teaching Ningyo Joruri to overseas students who do not know Japanese?
On the other hand, what did the summer school participants learn through the two-month program and what impact did they have on the community? Here is the story of an international activity that began in a small town.
In the second half of the lecture, you will learn about the structure of a puppet and how the puppeteer works. You are invited to actually hold the puppet in your hands and experience its weight and the delicate fingerwork of the puppeteer.
Speakers: Ishino Emiko, Sugimoto Kazutaka, Abe Hidehiko, and
Abe Sueko (left to right); (not included here) Terada Masashi and
Mabuchi Niemon
The leader of the Tonda Traditional Puppetry Troupe is Hidehiko
Abe. The group was re-launched in 1979. Abe practices the three
skills of puppeteer, shamisen player, and tayu storytelling with
members who love puppets, mainly Kita-Tonda residents and others
in and outside the city. In addition to working hard to preserve and
pass down the art of puppet theater, the group teaches its operations to local elementary and junior high school students. In 1997, they began a summer program that welcomes students from abroad to train successors and promote international cultural exchange. Since 1994, the Tonda Traditional Puppetry Troupe has toured 15 times overseas, starting with a tour in New Zealand, Germany, Russia and including 22 states in the U.S. They have contributed to the introduction of traditional performing arts that Shiga Prefecture is rightly proud of.