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The World of Sankai Juku: A Rigorous Japanese Dance Form
| Article
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12293 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
Date : |
1 / 1987 |
1,727 Words |
| Author
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Roku Hasegawa
Roku Hasegawa, an architect, is former editor of Dance Work, a
magazine devoted to the dance in Japan. A former actress, she
gave up the theater after having met the celebrated Butoh
dancer, Tatsumi Hijikata, so that she could support the field
of Butoh as a dance journalist. |
Sankai Juku - these fascinating living beings guide us to the wonderful and faraway world of ancient times. They inspire our imagination to wander upstream through time into holy lands we cannot hope to see with our eyes and to picture how divine rituals must have been performed in those times. The people of Sankai Juku exist always in a realm that transcends the limits of our ordinary imagination. They rest serenely in the holy Takamagahara, where the gods of Japan are assembled with their servants and where we cannot venture.
For us Japanese, the gods of Takamagahara are the creators of this world. The gods are numerous. They live in the mountains and rivers, and are as beautiful as we can possibly imagine. They are both visible and invisible spiritual existences.
Japan's divine nature is found at holy grounds in its forests and in specifically designated mountainous areas. Those who would possess this divinity must continually discipline their bodies through rigorous training. For example, there are those called Mokujiki no Gyosha - "those who eat trees" - whose discipline consists of subsisting only on the fruits of trees and grasses.
This rigorous training is aimed at attaining Buddhahood while still in the flesh and is carried out most commonly in the mountains. At the time of day when the spirits of the ancestors grow still, those in training enter the mountains where the spirits dwell. Purification rituals are performed to cleanse the body. The training begins in order to escape from all the illusions of daily life.
Mountain
... (1989 of 10192 Characters)
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