The Naoshima Onna Bunraku performing at a newly renovated Maestranza Park.

Let me open this column by greeting everyone in the spirit of the Edsa Revolution anniversary. I hope that this significant milestone will remind the world of how Filipinos fought for the freedom we enjoy today.

Now, on to what's happened recently while around and about. Last week, I was invited by the Japan Embassy to see a performance of the Naoshima Onna all-female Bunraku troupe who were in the Philippines as part of the celebrations for the 40th year of ASEAN-Japan Friendship and Cooperation. All of the members, whose ages range from early 50s to 72 years old, are volunteers keeping alive an art with a long history, and the Kagawa Prefecture has recognized them as keepers of the area’s heritage.

Bunraku puppeteers, dressed in dark clothing, carry their beautifully crafted and detailed puppets on stage and manipulate them in plays and dances as a narrator voices all the roles and a musician plays the shamisen, a traditional stringed instrument. Bunraku is considered a noble form of theater in Japan.

Traditionally, Bunraku or shadow puppeteering has only male performers. The Naoshima-Onna are the last all-female troupe, founded after the Second World War, and their performances, which take place just 10-15 times a year in Japan, attracts audiences, even youths from other parts of Japan.

That evening at the Maestranza Park in Intramuros, where the venue was transformed into an improvised theater with a stage set against a newly restored Curtain Wall decorated with bamboo and cherry blossoms,  Ambassador Toshinao Urabe welcomed the audience and expressed the significance of the long-standing partnership of ASEAN and Japan in the last four decades. He mentioned, “with our historical responsibility in mind, the Japanese Government supported the reconstruction of the curtain wall which was destroyed during the World War II” and that Intramuros hosting a Japanese traditional theatre play illustrates the forward-looking nature of Japan-Philippines relations. Secretary Ramon Jimenez, Jr. of the Department of Tourism, Chancellor Ceasar Saloma of UP Diliman and Director Michikazu Aoi of the Organization to Promote Japanese Restaurants Abroad (JRO) graced the occasion with their inspiring messages.

The Naoshima-Onna Bunraku performed three short plays, the first being “Dango Uri” (The Dumpling Peddlers). It was a sweet dance about a couple who travel the country selling dango or dumplings, and their harmonious pounding of rice is proof of their happy union. Then there was “Keisei Awa no Naruto,” which was about a courtesan who tries to spare her daughter from the harsh realities of her life in the province of Awa by leaving the child behind with her grandmother.

The final performance was done with the University of the Philippines Center of International Studies (UP CIS) Bunraku Ensemble: “Ebisu Mai” or The Dance of Ebisu, one of Japan’s seven gods of fortune who sails off to sea and catches a red fish—a lucky symbol in Japan. We were told that it was a Naoshima puppet adaptation of an Ebisu folk dance.

The delicate movements of the puppets, precisely controlled yet very graceful, really did bring to mind how Bunraku was originally performed on boats or by the seaside.

At the presscon hours earlier at the Bulong Pulungan at Sofitel, I learned that the UP CIS formed their own Noh Theatre and Bunraku ensembles with the support of the Japanese Embassy. Dr. Amparo Adelina Umali of the Center shared that after the ensembles were formed, she brought some students to Naoshima to train with the Naoshima-Onna troupe.

When they got back, Prof. Umali commissioned a student from the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts to customize puppets for the newly-formed troupe. The puppets to be created will be as similar to their forerunners save for one aspect: their faces and costumes are to be distinctly Pinoy. The UP CIS Noh Theatre Ensemble did a short excerpt from Amelia Lapena Bonifacio’s “Ang Paglalakbay ni Sisa, Isang Noh sa Laguna”.

Over 200 guests were treated to a banquet, highlighted by the serving of Sanuki Udon.  The wheat based noodles from Kagawa Prefecture were specifically brought from Japan by Hanamaru Udon and the Organization to Promote Japanese Restaurants Abroad (JRO) for the occasion.

In the course of meeting people as I do coverages for this column, I think that one of the most important things I’ve learned so far is that when you bring together people with common interests and passions, they can transcend country, cultural, and societal barriers to create something wonderful. I believe that the UP CIS Noh Theatre and Bunraku ensembles, working with the Naoshima Onna Bunraku Troupe and the Japanese Embassy, are proof of that.

Email Around and About at msgo@mb.com.ph.