STORY

STORY

The performance starts with Fuei Nishimatsu’s singing and shamisen playing. She talks to the audience in the style of a traditional dinner show during the Edo period. By discussing the lyrics of the songs, current issues of the world and gradually mingling the story with the movie on the screens and the dance, takes the audience into a fictional world. The story of a temple that will sever relationships with men, the story of a woman who visited the temple begins.
The fleeing woman is a victim of terrible violence from a man. This is how it appears to the audience in the beginning, but the truth is that she is the evil　one, one who has killed a man and burned a house down and come to hide in this temple.
Why did she kill the man? Why did she run away here?
What does the cigarette smoke mean that often appears on the screen?

Description of the piece

The title “ASYL” (asylum) means places of refuge or sanctuary in a historical/political sense, it also refers to temples and churches. In the Edo period, there were temples that worked as shelters for wives who held a weaker position in the family during these times, and assisted these women in divorcing their husbands. There were practical and systematic ways of dealing with divorce process, however the women who came to these temples were not always victims of the relationship, some just simply wanted to get rid of their men. It appears somehow similar to modern womens’ attitude towards love.

The music by Fuei Nishimatsu on shamisen together with kouta singing is considered a traditional high art now, but in the Edo period, it was seen as pop music for ordinary people.
Love is universally always on people’s mind. In this performance, in a refuge from love, a story of love will be told.
What is ASYL for us now? A sanctuary that protects you and purifies you. We are looking for our own ASYL not only for the sake of love.

On the second day of the Tokyo performance, we will invite Mr. Tadashi Takagi, manager of the museum into the Mantokuji en kiri temple. He will give a talk session after the performance: “How to get rid of unwanted relationship – en kiri manner between man and woman” Secrets of success for the modern woman’s love life!