Lee Liang Ying
School of Culture, Media and Society
The sky was still bright out when I stepped into the Garden Hall for Kyogen Night. Other than the summer humidity that clung to my skin, it was an evening like any other. I checked-in at the front desk and went over to my assigned seat. Two of my groupmates were already there, so I introduced myself briefly. This was followed by moments of awkward silences broken only by the usual run of pleasantries.
I thought the night would play out like any other, where anything that happened during the event would remain as “the event”, and anyone I met would eventually become a distant memory. Little did I know how wrong I’d be.
Two weeks after Kyogen Night, I joined the Waseda Kyogen Circle and went for my first practice session. There, I was able to meet the wonderful organizer of the event, Kanon-san, and one of the student performers, Tsurumaru-san, again.
Admittedly, it seems like I joined my first circle in my third year of university on a whim, but at the same time, it has been a long time coming. I remember feeling a tad bummed when I wasn’t able to join a badminton circle in my first year, and thought that I might graduate without joining any in my second year. But now that that misgiving has been allayed by several serendipitous encounters, I believe that some things in life are about waiting for the right things to happen at the right time.
Photo by ICC
As the saying goes, one thing leads to another. To give a reason as to why I joined the Kyogen circle after attending Kyogen Night, I would have to start with a class I took on traditional Japanese theatre this semester. We didn’t learn about kyogen in particular but it did leave an impression on me as a form of light-hearted, comic entertainment compared to Noh, which often depicts resentment and tragedy. Actually, I was excited to hear that the guest performers, Nomura Yuki-sensei and Nakamura Shuichi-sensei, would be performing Kazumou (Mosquito Sumo) because our professor had told us about the mosquito mask (Image 1). To watch it in front of my eyes felt like what I had learnt was coming to life and becoming a little more real.
It was such a fun experience being able to come up with our own nicknames, creating our versions of kyogen plays and reading it out loud that I hadn’t noticed the sky turn dark outside. I always thought that I wasn’t suited to performing but perhaps all I needed was a low stakes opportunity to try it out. It was honestly a star aligned situation because I was also lucky to have groupmates who were equally eager to try performing and encouraged me to join the Kyogen circle afterwards.
For such a fortuitous turn of events, what better way was there to mark my induction into the Kyogen circle than a mosquito landing on my knee in the practice room during my first session.
Photo www.nohmask-japan.com/new_usofuki.html
