Dugong Noh "Okinawa Heike Monogatari" 2023 [Sponsored Performance]

■ About the work

The centerpiece of this work is a dugong. Dugongs inhabited Yanbaru in Okinawa as the northernmost point.

A fisherman looking out over the dugong-less Uchina sea tells a story in the style of Okinawa's 18th-century Kumi Odori.

Encouraging the fisherman is the Heike crab, which was revived after transforming the souls of the Heike samurai who sank to the bottom of the sea during the Battle of Dannoura. The Heike crabs speak in the style of Noh.

It is said that the dugong still remembers the fisherman and migrates to the southern islands, and the fishermen and Heike crabs head to the southern islands with Maui's song and dance "Haka".

The sunken Emperor Antoku in the second act speaks in the style of Noh. The dugong, who became friends with Emperor Antoku, became blind and deaf due to the construction of the embankment, and his mother came to tell him that he was resting on a southern island. The mother of a dugong who lived in Uchina for many years speaks in the style of Kumiodori.

Antoku, the dugong's mother, and Heike Kani, who are in the sea of Uchina, sing and dance the Hawaiian "hula" together, thinking about the island of Hawaii where the dugong lives.

Makiko Sakurai

■Original story/screenplay/starring: Makiko Sakurai

■ program

I  "Okinawa Heike Monogatari" Front Act

II   Intermission/Lecture Video "Mermaid Singing?"

III "Okinawa Heike Monogatari" second act

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●Cast/Staff

Shite "Fisherman (first act), mother of the dugong (second act)" Makiko Sakurai

Waki "Tomomori crab (first act), Emperor Antoku (second act)": Akira Yoshimatsu

Wakitsure "Kyokyo crab (first act): Taku Sato

Wakitsure "Head of the family crab (first act): Kobayashi Takahide

Ukulele: Sakae Ebisawa

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Lecture video of Ai Kyogen (intermission): Kotaro Ichikawa (Field Science Education and Research Center, Kyoto University)

Kumiodori/Choreography Instruction: Shinji Kinjo

Kumiodori/song: Toshimichi Arakaki

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Planning/Production: Maripla

●Synopsis

front curtain

Heike warriors who sank to the bottom of the sea at Dannoura are reborn as Heike crabs and meet fishermen on the coast of Yanbaru, Okinawa. His companions stop the fishermen and become laborers for land construction, and the dugongs, friends of the sea, no longer appear in front of him. The dugong asked the Heike crab to leave a message, saying, ``Even though the Yanbaru seawall construction began, I fled to the southern sea, but I never forgot about the fisherman.'' The Heike crabs tell the fisherman to go see the dugong, and the fisherman sets out on a boat.

second curtain

Eight-year-old Emperor Antoku drowns himself at Dannoura. 1,000 years have passed since Antoku was picked up by the King of the Sea Dragon Palace in Okinawa. Antoku also made friends with a dugong, but this year the dugong won't be visiting Ryugu. Then the dugong's mother visited Antoku and said, ``My son's eyes have been damaged by the sand from the bank protection work in Yanbaru, and he has lost his hearing. I came to see you at your request." Antoku is saddened, but he looks out over the rainbow at the sea where the dugong is and longs for the day when he can play with him again.