国際共同利用・共同研究拠点関連

Every year in autumn, The Japan Foundation Kyoto Office organizes an event called "An Evening of Noh and Kyogen" to give people an opportunity to experience traditional Japanese culture, inviting international students, Japan Foundation Fellows, and those enrolled at the Japanese-Language Institute, Kansai to join in this event.

This year, however, the outbreak of COVID-19 has resulted in travel restrictions, making it difficult for students and scholars of Japanese Studies abroad to come to Japan.

To minimize the risk of virus transmission, the Japan Foundation Kyoto Office will take a new approach to this year's event in cooperation with the Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University, by filming the productions without an audience and releasing the video to the public free of charge for one year from December 24, 2020, at 14:00.

The program

"An Evening of Noh and Kyogen"

Noh: Kanze School Noh actor KATAYAMA Kuroemon in "Shari (The Bones of Buddha)"

Kyogen: Okura School Kyogen actor SHIGEYAMA Sengoro in "Shimizu (A Servant for Better Working Conditions)"

*Both productions will be presented with English synopsis.

Japan Foundation　An Evening of Noh and Kyogen 2020:https://www.jpf.go.jp/e/world/kyoto/2020/12-01.html

The Noh performance "Ikkaku Sennin" by the Katayama Family Foundation for the Preservation of Noh and Traditional Kyoto Dance is available online as part of the Agency for Cultural Affairs' program to provide cultural and art experiences for school children across Japan. Based on the agreement with the Foundation, the ARC provided technical support in making the video.

The fans of Noh and children who watch Noh for the first time can both enjoy the performance as the video is made child-friendly with the explanations of the story and the scenes shown with furigana (reading aid which indicates kanji pronunciation).

Noh "Ikkaku Sennin (一角仙人)"

Planning and production by the Katayama Family Foundation for the Preservation of Noh and Kyoto Dance, in cooperation with the Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University

Click here to watch the video → https://www.kodomogeijutsu.go.jp/video/traditional/f93.html

Learn more about "Ikkaku Sennin" and Noh performance (in Japanese) → https://www.kodomogeijutsu.go.jp/junkai/dl/program/r02/h93.pdf

Learn more about 令和２年度文化庁「文化芸術による子供育成総合事業−巡回公演事業−」(The Agency for Cultural Affairs' program to provide cultural and art experiences for school children across Japan) (in Japanese) → https://www.kodomogeijutsu.go.jp

The 79th International ARC Seminar will be held as a Webinar on Wednesday, December 16, starting at 18:00 JST.

The program is as follows:

1. "The Representation of Korean Female Ghost: the Influence of Japanese Kabuki" (in Japanese)

Speaker: Dr. Mikyung BAK (Part-time Lecturer, Faculty of Letters, Kyoto University)

2. "The Possibility of Related Materials in Game Preservation" (in Japanese)

Speaker: Hitomi MOHRI (Ph.D. Candidate, Digital Humanities for Arts and Cultures, Graduate School of Letters, Ritsumeikan University)

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Date: Wednesday, December 16, 2020 18:00 - 19:30 JST

Participation: online, free of charge (no reservation required)

*This Webinar is open to everyone, and non-ARC members are also invited to participate.

Please click here to watch the Webinar on YouTube.

The 78th International ARC Seminar took place on Wednesday, December 2. This year, the seminars have been held online to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.

For those who were unable to attend the 78th International ARC Seminar, we have made the video available online until the end of January 2021.

The program was as follows:

"Tsuda Seifu's beginnings as a Kyoto design artist" (in English)

Speaker: Prof. Scott JOHNSON (Emeritus Professor, Kansai University)

[On copyright of Tsuda Seifu's artworks]

In his Kyoto years, Tsuda Seifu's woodblock printed art was the product of publishers who owned the blocks, and therefore controlled publication rights. The artist was paid at the time of original publication, and his rights were then taken over by the publishers. This was the "hanmoto" tradition, carrying on from the Edo period. I would like to thank the Unkindo/Unsodo publisher descendants, who graciously allowed me to use images of Tsuda's artworks for this YouTube video. (Scott Johnson)

The Art Research Center (ARC) is pleased to announce that a special video of Mio no Kai (澪の会), which could not take place on December 7, 2020, has been released and will be available online.

Please click here to watch the video PART 1.

Please click here to watch the video PART 2.

Please click here to watch the video PART 3.

Background

Kyomai refers to the Kyoto style of the Japanese traditional dance expressed by the Inoue school that is based in the geisha district of Gion, Kyoto. The Inoue style is the only dance form studied by the geiko (geisha) and maiko (apprentice geisha) in the center of Gion district, and it incorporates influences from the traditional Japanese noh dramas as well as joruri puppet theater performances.

With a history extending back to the Edo period (1603 to 1868), the Inoue style of kyomai has been passed from generation to generation by a succession of female dance artists. The current headmaster of the Inoue school is Yachiyo Inoue V, designated as a Living National Treasure by the Japanese government.

Mio no Kai (澪の会)

Mio no Kai (澪の会) was started as a study session by Yachiyo Inoue V in 1981 using the rehearsal hall in Shinmonzen, Kyoto.

As it is a rare and sophisticated dance performance by the headmaster of the Inoue school, Yachiyo Inoue V, this event has been widely known across Japan, attracting both the citizens of Kyoto as well as many people from the Kanto area.

Mio no Kai (澪の会) is usually held four times a year (April, June, September, and December). However, due to the impact of COVID-19, it has not taken place this year.

Therefore, we are even more pleased to share this video of Mio no Kai (澪の会) online for the people who were looking forward to the event and to provide an opportunity for a broader audience outside of Japan to watch the kyomai dance.

While the performance is usually held on a relatively small scale in the rehearsal hall in Kyoto with an audience limited to around 70 people, please take this unique opportunity to watch the performance from home.

The ARC's Involvement

Based on the agreement with the Katayama Family Foundation for the Preservation of Noh and Traditional Kyoto Dance, the Art Research Center has been in charge of the production (recording and editing) and distribution of this video.

Furthermore, master's students of Digital Humanities for Arts and Cultures, the Graduate School of Letters, Ritsumeikan University, have participated in this video production.

We sincerely hope that you will enjoy this video and spread the word to your friends and family.

The 78th International ARC Seminar will be held as a Webinar on Wednesday, December 2, starting at 18:00 JST.

The program is as follows:

"Tsuda Seifu's beginnings as a Kyoto design artist" (in English)

Speaker: Prof. Scott JOHNSON (Emeritus Professor, Kansai University)

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Date: Wednesday, December 2, 2020 18:00 - 19:30 JST

Participation: online, free of charge (no reservation required)

*This Webinar is open to everyone, and non-ARC members are also invited to participate.

Please click here to watch the Webinar on YouTube.

The 77th International ARC Seminar will be held as a Webinar on Wednesday, November 25, starting at 18:00 JST.

The program is as follows:

1. "Some Knowledge through the Exploration of Dice Gambling in Asia" (in Japanese)

Speaker: Mr. UMEBAYASHI Isao (Part-time Lecturer, Shitennoji University)

Seminar handout part 1 (free to download)

Seminar handout part 2 (free to download)

2. "Images x Communities: Reviving Communities by the Power of Images" (in Japanese)

Speaker: Mr. MIYATA Yuuji (Ph.D. Candidate, Digital Humanities for Arts and Cultures, Graduate School of Letters, Ritsumeikan University)

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Date: Wednesday, November 25, 2020 18:00 - 19:30 JST

Participation: online, free of charge (no reservation required)

*This Webinar is open to everyone, and non-ARC members are also invited to participate.

Please click here to watch the Webinar on YouTube.

Ako City has started to hold the online exhibition Head of the Loyal Warriors: Oboshi Yuranosuke (「義士の頭領・大星由良之助」) from Saturday, November 14, using the Virtual Institute platform of the International Joint Digital Archiving Center for Japanese Art and Culture (ARC-iJAC).

Ako City and the Art Research Center (ARC), Ritsumeikan University, have been promoting the digital archiving of ukiyo-e with the theme of Chushingura and have made the ukiyo-e collection of Chushingura held by Ako City open to the public.

Since 2019, the ARC and Ako City have been working to hold digital exhibitions centered on the works in its database for the purpose of developing database operation methods and promoting their utilization.

In this exhibition, we are introducing a collection of works depicting Oboshi Yuranosuke (or Oishi Kuranosuke), the protagonist of the play Chushingura (The Treasury of Loyal Retainers). Based on a historical event, Chushingura tells the story of forty-seven loyal retainers from the Ako domain led by Yuranosuke who avenged their lord's death. This year, the second online exhibition entitled Head of the Loyal Warriors: Oboshi Yuranosuke has been now made available to the public.

You can enjoy various "cool" images of Yuranosuke, such as scenes when he appears, scenes of the famous actors playing the role of Yuranosuke, and scenes depicting him in the act of revenge.

>> Click here to enter the Ako City Chushingura Ukiyo-e Digital Exhibition.

>> Click here for the Ako City Chushingura Ukiyo-e Database.

The 76th International ARC Seminar will be held as a Webinar on Wednesday, November 11, starting at 18:00 JST.

The program is as follows:

"Book design and the presentation of text in hanpon" (in English)

Speaker: Dr. Ellis TINIOS (Honorary Lecturer, University of Leeds, United Kingdom)

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Date: Wednesday, November 11, 2020 18:00 - 19:30 JST

Participation: online, free of charge (no reservation required)

*This Webinar is open to everyone, and non-ARC members are also invited to participate.

Please click here to watch the Webinar on YouTube.

The Art Research Center is pleased to announce that The World of the Takeuchi Dokei Collection (『竹内道敬文庫の世界』), a treasure trove of early modern Japanese music materials, has been released.

With the aim to digitize and publish one of the representative collections of the Kunitachi College of Music Library - the collection of Takeuchi Dokei - the Art Research Center has been collaborating with the library to release the official version of The World of Takeuchi Dokei and make it available on the ARC's Virtual Institute: https://www.arc.ritsumei.ac.jp/e/v_institute/.

The Takeuchi Dokei Collection is the world's largest collection of modern Japanese music, especially regarding shamisen music, with over 10,000 items in total, including nishiki-e (woodblock prints), music books, and banzuke (playbills).

While we had previously released the nishiki-e database in March 2019, we officially launch an online digital exhibition this time based on the Kunitachi College of Music 90th Anniversary Project: Takeuchi Dokei Collection Nishiki-e Picture Book. At the same time, the entire banzuke collection (over 5,600 items) with the focus on kabuki and joruri theater playbills will be made available to the public from our banzuke database.

Please feel free to use this as an online hub for your research on Japanese music: https://www.arc.ritsumei.ac.jp/lib/vm/kunitake/.

As we strive to continue with the digital archiving of music books to release them in the next fiscal year and beyond, please visit our website again in the future.

Furthermore, our digital exhibition is also accessible from the top page of the Kunitachi College of Music Library: https://www.lib.kunitachi.ac.jp/.