Greetings to the friends of Praha

HIRATA Atsushi　

President of Toyama Prefectural Artistic and Cultural Association

Japan that has been called 'the country of the Rising Sun', also called herself as 'Yamato', literary translated as 'Great Peace'. Japan proper is an arch shaped island stretching from north to south, and Toyama is situated in the middle of the arch, facing northward on Toyama bay, surrounded east, south and west with a high range of mountains with its highest peak Tateyama, about three thousand meters high. Toyama Bay is famous for its mirage and schools of firefly squids with mysterious blue phosphorescent light over the surface of the sea in early spring. Deep snow in winter provides clear and fresh water for many rivers, and not only rice-raising agriculture, but also fishery and traditional patent medicine productions had been its main industry. There had been many young people who could not get his wishes fulfilled, and would go over the mountains seeking his utopian paradise. Since the Meiji Era, abundant water supply attracted the attention of the capitalists, who built hydro-electric power stations and many spinning mills and weaving factories were opened. And there has been many factories built for various kinds of modern industry.
In 1945, our native town Toyama was attacked with fire bombs and reduced to ashes, in the true sense of the words. We were knocked down with the loss of material and spiritual defeats, but a little later, as the Japan Government, denying its militaristism, proclaimed to reconstruct Japan as a cultural nation, we wished and tried to turn to art and culture as our standing basis, in re-establishing ourselves again. These trends brought artistic activities here and there around us, but most of them disappeared just as foams floating away carried by the current. We can count less than ten groups that has carried on their activities without ceasing: Kasai Dancing Company and the Theatrical Company Bungeiza are among them, and they celebrated their fiftieth anniversary a few years ago. We can be proud of the high quality of their artistic activities, which will be proved by the high evaluation they gained in their overseas performances.
Toyama Prefectural Artistic and cultural Association had a commemorative meeting to celebrate its thirty-years activities in 2001, when we had a chance to hear some members talk about some well-known and many unknown episodes. One of the most impressive episodes was the performing tours of those remote mountainous districts done by Kasai and Bungeiza groups. As is said before, Toyama is rich in mountains and there were many people living in those little villages blocked its traffic with other villages and towns. For many villagers, there was little chance to watch and listen to live art as performed on the stage. These may be called a 'on-demand delivery performance', and this performing tour was the starting point for the artistic activities of our Association. Groups of drama, dance and music went together to give performances, and all the members were obliged to help and cooperate with each other, and they were influenced each other, and this fact helped to bring their inner artistic fermentation and to realize their new artistic style.
Our association has tried to help our members to achieve their artistic perfection through cooperative activities of the member groups each other; on the other hand, we have invited many excellent lecturers and instructors, both domestic and foreign. Toyama Prefectural Government has been very positive in inviting these artistic tutors. Mr. Hiroshi Koizumi, (former Secretary General, and present Vice-President of our Association, and representative of the Theatrical Company Bungeiza) were elected as the council member and Vice-President of the International Amateur Theatre Association for many years, and he has a very big and wide network of men of art and culture throughout the world. He sits in the center of the activities of our Association. His very existence has made it possible for us to organize six Toyama International Amateur Theatre Festivals since 1983 and four Inami International Wooden Sculpture Camps.
Our close relationship with Praha(more exactly Czech(Slovakia) Republic) was formed in this way. From Czech participated to our 1983 Festival Pantomime Theatre Mimosa, to the '85 Festival Deaf Theatre Ensemble, to the '89 Festival Torepon City Center Puppet Group, to the '92 Festival Radislav Finalka Pantomime show, and to the '96 Festival Horonov Senior Theatre. While from Toyama, to the '85 Pantomime Festival in Brno the Deaf Theatre Group Onnyoroza, to '89 Hep City Youth Brass Festival Takaoka Commercial High School Brass Band, to '90 Shutety City Brass Orchestra Festival Toyama Commercial High School Brass Band participated. The Theatrical Company Bungeiza held a Bungeiza Evening in Praha in 1992, and in 1997, they visited Hronov City to give a drama performance and a lecture by Mr Koizumi. These exchange programs connected Toyama with Academy of Performing Arts in Prague(HAMU)closely. In 1997, we held our Art Appreciation Event with the cooperation of HAMU, Kasai Dancing Company and Toho Orchestra Academy; in 1998 Art Appreciation Event with Tanaka Hideko Ballet Company with the accompaniment of Toho Orchestra Academy directed by Mr. Baksa of HAMU, and also with the pantmime performance by Professor Ctibor Turba and his students of HAMU; in '99 The Art Event was organized by the cooperative performance of Wada Asako Dancing Company, Toho Orchestra Academy directed by Mr. Ivanovich of HAMU. These events and seminars by lecturers invited from abroad had given good stimulus and incentive to our artists and the fruitions hereby resulted cannot be overestimated too high.
In 1999, the 2nd Asian Amateur Theatre Summit was held in Toga, to which Professor Noemi Zarubova participated with Professor Boris Hybner and a student to give a pantomime performance. Professor Zarubova was kind enough to permit two students of Kasai dancing Company to study under her tutorship. Miki and Kaori returned from Praha after a year's stay, as a refined dancer, not only technically but also culturally advanced. They are good examples for young dancers and gave excitements to them. (Now, two other students are studying at HAMU.) We are much obliged to their kindness.
As the first foreign tutor in the 21st century, Professor Ivanka Kubicova of HAMU visited Toyama. Those dancers of Toyama who had been given good enough stimulus under her guide, met together in Toga to give two performances of Carmina Burana, choreographed by Professor Kubicova, which were successful, impressed the audience with its expression and message. Its performance was called for very much and in answer to the call, it was re-performed in another theater in Toyama. In November 2002, Carmina Burana choreographed by Professor Kubicova was performed at the Tennosu Isle Art Sphere theater in Tokyo, to which many dancers and critics who will be representatives of Japan were invited, and they all of them unanimously highly appreciated the performance and to our great joy, some even said that it was a new wind that blew into the stagnant stage of present-day dancing in Japan. Looking back, we know that this has been brought by the constant exchange of art and culture between Praha and Toyama.
The performance given by the joint production of Kasai Dancing Company and the Theatrical company Bungeiza is 'The Snow Bird and The Sun Bird', originally written by Pierre Grosz, adapted into musical by Mr. Haruhiko Miyajima, with music composed by Mr. Shigeru Yahata. This was produced for presenting at the Toyama World Festival of Children's Theatre in 2000, and again performed through the special invitation at Monaco World Theatre Festival in 2001. We are going to give the performance to the audience of Praha, wishing their appreciation. You will find Japanese elements and European elements intermingled on the stage, but we are sure that the message will be fully understood.
'The White Road' represents a woman's spiritual pilgrim to initiation, after suffering agonies of love and hate, joy and sorrow, following her steps among the Mt Tateyama, long forbidden to approach for women. The theme is characteristic of Japan, no, rather of Toyama, we should say, but will make an artistic and religious appeal to you, we hope. Kasai Dancing Company will perform some pieces from their repertory, chiefly of folk ballads of local Toyama. They will show you some aspects of our everyday life.
To think that these performances are going to be given on the stage of the Estate Theatre, which has a long history with a big list of famous artists (musicians, actors, actresses, dancers, and many other stars of world-fame), we are convinced that the memories will remain with us all our lives; we will be speaking and speaking of our excitements and elations again and again, never to be forgotten. We must extend our great thanks to all who have helped us so far, and last but not least to Mr. David Pospisil, without whose kind considerations and cooperations to us we could never have thought of organizing this great event of ours.
We heartily wish that these friendly exchange of art and culture will be continued on and on between Praha and Toyama.
Toast to the friendship and cultural exchange between Praha and Toyama.