Yoshitsune 2018/05/07
There are many National holidays gathered between end April to early May and if you take two days personal leave, you can have as long as 9 days consecutive holidays.
It is the most comfortable and refreshing season of the year in Japan, therefore everybody can enjoy this holidays in various ways, such as sightseeing, playing sports, returning to home town to see families and so on.
I watched modern plays which are based on historical happenings or stories on Minamoto Yoshitsune who lived 800 years ago. These are something like modern interpretation or revised understanding of old stories and aggressive challenge by ambitious directors.
Yoshitsune has been most popular historical hero and has been played by traditional arts such as Noh, Kabuki or Bunraku.
He was considered as a genius with full military talent and played a key role to defeat old enemy Heike. Unfortunately after the victory he was cornered to fight against his own elder brother and finally defeated by his blood relative. Japanese have been feeling sympathy with Yoshitsune’s glory and deep grief.
It is important to be kept played at traditional theaters, however it is encouraging to have Yoshitsune in modern play so that young people get familiar with a famous historical hero.
I wish traditional plays and cultures will survive with the support by such new challenge.
