The following is a direct except from the Miyako
Odori programme of 1954, from the private collection of Naomi
Graham-Diaz, ImmortalGeisha.com. This has been copy-typed verbatim,
along with scans, from the original programme by Naomi
Graham-Diaz.
Scene I.
Poem Contest
Stage Setting: Silver Screen in background
Honoring the theme for this last New Year’s Poem Contest
of the Emperor’s Court, we made the song title of the curtain
raiser “Forest”. AT the end of the song, the girl
dancers with fans, decorated with cherry blossoms, come out from
the two entrances. They cry out in unison “Miyako Odori
wa yoiyasa” (Let’s star the Cherry Dance.) The theme
of the Cherry Dance changes yearly, but this introductory chanting
has become their tradition in starting the program of the dance.
Scene II.
Izumo Yaegaki
Stage Setting: The frontal view of the Izumo Shrine
1. Madam Okuni was a maiden-in-service of the Izumo Shrine.
The girls on the stage perform the dance that interprets the young
days of Madam Okuni in her native village, Izumo Province.
Stage Setting: Landmarks enroute to Kyoto
2. After a long journey, she came to Kyoto at last. On the stage,
Okuni and her husband, Nagoya Sanza, with their man-servant, dance
together to narrate the noated places they came through in their
journey.
Scene III.
Michiyuki Kasumi-no-sode (Lover’s Journey in Spring)
Stage Setting: Inari-Yama at the outskirts of Kyoto
Under the spring sun, village children are playing on the
highway that leads to Kyoto. They see pretty girls from a village
of the north-eastern outskirts of Kyoto who are peddling kindling
wood. At the sight of the girls, they know that their heart-set
destination is at hand.
Scene IV
Mon Zukushi Kawara-No-Nigiwai (Forest of Flag Poles with the emblems
of Kabuki Players Stands on Dry River Bed)
Stage Setting: Somewhere at the intersection of Kawaramachi
Street and Shijo Street. A makeshift theater in distance.
Madam Okuni settled in Kyoto and founded the art of Kabuki
dances. She danced in the front square of the Kitano Shrine and
other places in Kyoto. Her spear dance was most widely acclaimed
by the populace. The whole troupe of Geisha girls dance with “spears
with hair crowns”.
Scene V
Furyu Renbo Mai (Dance of True Love)
Stage Setting: Grand Hall in the Fushimi Momoyama
Castle
Her reputation reached far and wide. One day she was ordered
to dance before the feudal lords in the sumptuously furnished
Grand Hall of the Fushimi Momoyama Castle. She and her female
students performed a Kabuki dance. Between the performance, a
comical Noh played name “Male Crown & Female Crown”
will be staged.
Scene VI
Mai Sugata Kasuga Mode (Pilgrimage to the Kasuga Shrine in custom
of Kabuki Dance)
Stage Setting: Praying room in front of Wakamiya
Subsidiary Shrine to Kasuga Shrine
From olden times, artist made pilgrimages to the Wakamiya
Shrine and made “the offerings of their works”. Madam
Okuni followed the traditional practice of her profession to visit
the shrine and “offered her dance”.
Scene VII.
Yume Makura Maboroshi Sado (Sado Island in Dream)
Stage Setting: Renga Hermitage on Yechigo sea-shore.
Snow capped Sado Island in distance.
Her husband died when she became a national figure as a Kabuki
player. She was in great sorrow over his loss, and became a Buddhist
nun. One snowy winter night, she was standing on the sea beach
of northern province. Looking at the distant Sado Island over
the sea, where she once spent brief but happy and innocent days,
she begins to dance the Buddhist Prayer to forsake her worldly
passions. But her flesh was weak. The ghost of young Sanza appears
before her. She is back to the Okuni of her young days and plunges
herself into a frenzied dance in reminiscence of her past glory
and happiness.
Scene VIII.
Gion Hana Zoroye (Gion Flowers Assembled)
The cherry flowers in the Maruyama Park by the Gion Gay District
are at the best. The district has been a faithful defender of
the Kabuki tradition. The girls of the district will dance in
memory of the great work done by Madam Okuni under cherry blossoms
in full bloom.
