Notes, Mitsuru KAMIJO

-We toured in Middle & South America from September to November in 2002. One of the projects was our original one, which was performed mainly in Brazil. And the other was joint program with Edo-Daikagura under the auspices of The Japan Foundation.
We spent most time to prepare and manage for these projects in 2002.

-We have visited Brazil once in 2000. Through our performance, we realized so many people wanted to see and touch the Japanese culture, but we could perform only a few places in Brazil last time. So, we thought we wanted to show our performance to many people, especially Japanese Brazilian��. Because they are very old, we thought we needed to visit there again as soon as possible. We talked about it to the person who concerned Brazil. He advised us to go to Amazon. Then the story spreads out, finally we visited Brazil (Sao Paulo, Brasilia, Manaus, Tome-azu, and Belen), Bolivia (La Paz, Santa Cruz, and San Juan), and Lima in Peru. We had 26 stages in 24 days including the DAIDOGEI <Street Performance> and workshops. More than 4000 people watched our performance.

-Because it was our second visit, we could have more time to hear immigration troubles from many Japanese Brazilian�殃n each place. We introduce some stories. When they arrived to their destination, they were in a jungle. And there were many snakes on the ground. Especially, the little children felt uncomfortable and hopeless to live there. Everyone suffered from malaria two or three times. We cannot talk about development without malaria. Because malaria out break with pure water. We had mixed feeling to hear that malaria died out when people settled in there and water was polluted by people.

-The soil is red clay there. We heard that the richer the soil become, the more it turns red. In the midst of liberalism economy, while agriculture was fighting against the climate of Amazon, it was trifled with by international price. They said, "We are envious of Japanese farmer because they are protected by the government. We couldn't understand why they can sell their products at such a high price!"

-In Tome-azu, now they are trying the new way of agriculture called "mixed agriculture". They came to think the reason why their crops were damaged by illness and harmful insects many times was that they planted only one kind of crops in their field. Even if the land was sterile, the rain forest has a jungle with big trees. So, they have just begun their research on their field to make it like jungle. The chairman emphasized, "We will make something special made in Tome-azu some day."


-Japanese Brazilian�毆hom we met were vigorous.
A 95-year-old man from his colonia listened to our last reputation and he traveled 1000 km from his colonia to Sao Paulo. Also, one old man attended us from the morning to the night every day, so I said him "You looks fine!" Then, he said, "The people who didn't agree with this climate were all died instead of their age."

-We made our stage in cooperation with the local people. When we didnﾕt have any stage lighting, they brought their searchlights for agriculture. Also, when we needed cherry trees in full blossom, they cut another some local trees and put artificial cherry blossoms on them. In Brasilia, we put them on "Ipe"which is the national tree. Then, some one said "A Brazilian national flower and a Japanese one became as one!" I was deeply moved by the words.

-Though Brasilia is the capital, it was the first time for the local Japanese association to receive the cultural delegate from Japan. They were also looking forward to the next performance "Bunraku"coming after our stage. But they said, "The tickets are too expensive to get it!" It was a strange story because it was presented under the auspices of The Japan Foundation and it was promoted by Agency for Cultural Affairs.


-This time, we mainly performed in the Japanese association's hall and on the street. We had a lecture including the workshop to make a simple marionette at State art school in Belen. We had a lecture and an interchange meeting with local artists in Santa Cruz. We had a lecture in the University and a street performance and an interchange meeting in front of the famous Peruvian puppet theater in Lima. We could have pretty much time to interchange with local people. It was the first time for us to have a workshop. They made their marionettes with immediate materials. After they had done it, they looked really happy.


-La Paz is the highlands of 3700m. Because we had often heard from a man who had been there that how painful the mountain sickness was, we had tried to condition ourselves little by little since we arrived there. The next day, we rehearsed our play slowly and we conditioned ourselves. Then, we could play as usual on the day of performance. Only I played "Kurokami- Black Hair", I felt as if my lung became empty for an instant. I supposed it happened because I played it with breathing. It might be I played in the highlands.

-When we were walking in the town, I wore a respirator because the air was very dry. A police man told me to show my passport to him. Maybe, he thought me a suspicious-looking person because there are no custom to wear a respirator there. I heard there are many bogus policemen and they robbed travelers of their passport and money. So, I left my passport in the hotel. When our interpreter was protesting strongly, we found ourselves surrounded by some policemen. They took us to our hotel by their patrol car and checked our passport. After we proved our identity, we got along to take pictures and they gave us a ride to the town again. It was dramatic.



-In case of our independence project tour, it took us lots of money to do it by ourselves even if we received local people's warm hospitality. We were provided aid in the form of part of the expenses for our overseas tour from The Japan Foundation, Mecenat, and six companies, but we resigned ourselves to operate in the red in this tour. Just then, The Japan Foundation introduced us other performances abroad program supported by them. We were very happy to receive the job.

-We visited Chicago, Cleveland, Guanajuato in Mexico, Quito in Ecuador, Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago, Vina del Mar, Santiago in Chile, and Bogota in Colombia.

-We had 20 stages in 28 days and 6000 people watched our performance. We were received by the embassy and the consulate in each country. We stayed at the hotel and we mainly played at the theater. Moreover, we could have more free time as compared with our independence project tour. We thought it was much easier tour for us. Some one told us, "I was sure that this tour was not hard for you, who visited terrible places. Oops, excuse me!"


-Whenever we finished our stage, we stand up at the exit and see our guests off. We were spoken to in Japanese by many guests, "Konnichiwa-Hello.", "Arigato-Thank you.", and "Sayonara-Good bye." We heard in Quito that the Ecuadorian people were not interested in Japan at all. But, people came to have interest in Japan soon after The World Cup.

-On the day of the final performance in Quito, when we began to explain how to play the marionette on our first curtain, some people came into the theater late. The people gradually overflowed the theater, so we had to interrupt our explanation to put them in order from the top of the stage. I heard later that the entrance was closed because the theater was full of people, and then the people who couldn't enter, struck the door and made a noise. It seemed a riot broke out. The number of the people was about 200. Therefore, we opened the entrance door all in a fluster. Then the aisle was blocked with the people and some people came up on the stage. But they became silent as soon as they settled down. Needless to say, we were very pleased to play in front of such hot people.

-In Chicago, we suddenly decided to play at the colored elementary school. We could have only 20 minutes to play. But we had lots of fun to see their sensitive reaction to the movement of the doll. They reminded us the children in Palestine. We realized again children's sensitivity didn't have much difference all over the world.


-Even if each country had different culture and different way, staff's excellence was common to all country. Except for one thing that we couldn't light up as we thought at all in the U.S because of the strong unionism, people understood very well what the stage was, loved the stage, and they were very cooperative. For example, I told them the audience couldn't see the dolls in Guanajuato and Vina del Mar, and then they immediately rifted up the stage. Because the sponsor didn't pay their wage in Guanajuato, the staff struck on the second day of our performance and they were replaced. But they were left to the end and told new staff accurately how and when to light up.

-After our stage, some audiences sometimes came up to the stage to see the doll closer. Some of them were concerned with puppets and they gave us some earnest questions. And one of them gave us a chance to visit the doll theater in Colombia. It was a beautiful and easy to see the stage. We heard there were about 100 puppet companies in Colombia and Bogota had 6 doll theaters. On the other hand, Chile had only 15 puppet companies and they were getting old. They tried hard to bring up their successors. Thanks to our good reputation in Vina del Mar, 800 people came to see our performance in Santiago.

-Bogota had many homeless children as well as other South American countries and they came to go into the drug business in the end. To avoid them from the drug business, the administration of Bogota tried to teach them juggling and how to make money by themselves. When the signal turned red in everywhere of the town, children run into the pedestrians' crossing. They played juggling there and scratched up some coins between the cars before they began to run.


-We always think that it is only one time for us to play in front of the audience. So, we have tried to do our best under the different condition in each place to build the best stage. We were sorry to hear the local attendant said, "Some culture delegates from Japan got used to the reception and they spent their most of time on their sightseeing and pleasure after having only two or three stage." Or, "Some of them could come here by using their connection, but their stage was terrible and they gave us troubles."

-We had a reception at the official residence of Port of Spain ambassador and we manipulated a doll for 30 minutes. The person of JICA was watching our play and said to us, "I usually watched the play in the backseat because I felt ashamed. But, today I was proud of your play though I could not see the doll but your face." We welcomed his word gratefully.


-We could have many experiences and meet many people through these two tours. We want to treasure the people who met in our life.

-Many people helped and cooperated with us. We would like to say thank you to all of them.


■ details report
Edo Marionette Group " South America Tour"
"The Japan Foundation Cultural Demonstration Tours Proguram 2002"