Hanagumi stands strong amidst the 3/11 aftermath
Sharing the scenes around the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater as of April 2011 ;
You can see traces of "3/11" everywhere...
A crack runs in the pavement in front of Chanter building.
At the Tokyo Theater ;
A snack stall stands in the dark.
The 2nd floor auditorium lobby is dimly lit and gloomy.
As a part of the Tokyo Theater's electricity conservation effort other than reducing illumination in the hall lobbies to minimal levels, the toilet seat warmers are turned off.
The Hanagumi's Tokyo run of Ai no Prelude/Le Paradis!!, which is a retirement performance for Matobu Sei and 7 others, opened on March 25 in the midst of the still unsettled earthquake aftermath. The Hanagumi-sei and most of the audience are living with the extraordinary number of aftershocks (some of them rather strong) and the crippled nuclear power plants in Fukushima. The entire Tohoku-Kanto area still faces a serious electricity shortage and its railway/subway services are often delayed and occasionally canceled because of recurring quakes. A large part of Zuka fans who usually come to the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater are affected to various degrees by the massive Great Eastern Japan Earthquake which shook the country on March 11.
During the curtain call of the shonichi on Mar. 25, Hacchi-san, the Hanagumi kumichou and Matobu Sei, the top star of the troupe respectively made a unusually long speech to share the action the troupe took following the 3/11 disaster and presented the Hanagumi-sei’s own initiative to help the victims of the devastating quake.
Hacchi-san told of the troupe-wide discussion which was held every night after a rehearsal for the Tokyo run and attended by all Hanagumi members.
She mentioned, " I’m going to share with you what all Hanagumi-sei want to let you know.
(Even though they had been told by Hankyuu to do the Tokyo run as scheduled,) Taking the graveness of the quake-caused damage into consideration, we were not able to convince ourselves if performing in Tokyo was appropriate to do under such circumstances.
“Hanagumi has two members from Miyagi Prefecture. We have many fans in the afflicted area who might be having a difficult time just to survive this very moment. How we should cope with the quake-related things is our own concern.
“We set ourselves to hold a troupe meeting every night after a rehearsal for the Tokyo run to exchange our thoughts, concerns and ideas and discuss what would be the best to do as people. Our discussion continued till right after the dress rehearsal in Tokyo.
“As a result of our brainstorming we have decided to run a fund-raising drive for the 3/11 victims after every performance."
Hacchi-san continued, “Many people here are experiencing grocery shortages, electricity outages, troubled public transportation and so on. We had concluded that we might be able to cheer you up and alleviate your stress through our performance. Those who have received genki from us might use the gained energy to make others genki. We hope that transmission of genki may reach those people in the disaster area who are having a long long way to go for a recovery from the devastation.
“I’d be honest, though, that we had no confidence about our decision. But when the curtain rose today, you gave us a yes. We felt your strong support to what we were up to do. We are no more in anxiety.
“Hanagumi has a strong sense of solidarity through what we have gone through in the past 2 weeks, more than ever.
“We would like to make this Tokyo run a charity performance for the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake relief.”
Yuu began her speech by “I can’t find words…”, then fell into long silence in front of the microphone with tears in her eyes. After much deliberation, she began her story.
“I wasn’t certain about justification of our being in Tokyo to perform in this moment of a huge national crisis. I was seized by a keen fear - who wants to see us do the show? Am I doing the right thing? The fear haunted me even after the dress rehearsal and I was so afraid to face the audience today.
“The moment we opened our show, though, we were received by your warm welcome. All my fear instantly disappeared.
“I am so grateful that today’s performance was safely completed. We will be taking turns to collect donations for the earthquake relief after each performance all through this run. We have just spent happy moments together in this theater. Let us give a share of that to the people under suffering. I would very much appreciate your cooperation.”
While those two were delivering their statement and genuine feelings to the audience, Hanagumi-sei lined up on stage were all silently shedding tears. I had never seen such expression of distress on siennes’ faces. Amachaki constantly trembled with tears, and her agonized face broke my heart. Yuu said nothing about her retirement.
I attended the Hanagumi shonichi and was deeply moved by the curtain call speeches. Only recently I found out that the contents of their speeches were largely cut in the shonichi digest aired on Skystage News. Their remarks about holding a series of troupe-wide discussions and their independent decision to support the earthquake victims through fund-raising WAS TOTALLY OMITTED FROM BROADCASTING AT ALL. They didn’t show a glimpse of Hanagumi-sei’s teary faces. Their after-performance fund raising initiative fails to be publicized by the Revue Company and you see nothing on the official website.
(The outside media though, have shown interest in their voluntary charity work and spread the news. On April 6 Nikkei Shimbun, a Japanese equivalent to Wall Street Journal, ran a favorable review of the Hanagumi show on their entertainment page and published a part of Hacchi-san's speech. )
The fund-raising on the shonichi night was a unprecedented spectacle!
More than a dozen Hanagumi stars gathered in the ground floor lobby, all in the sequined costumes from the parade of the revue except for Yuu and Eritan who had changed into black tailcoats. You would never find such gorgeous and shiny fund raisers elsewhere in the world. In front of the central entrance door were donation boxes placed on a rectangular desk. How can you resist when standing in line between the desk and the door were Miwacchi, Ran-chan, Yuu and Eritan smiling straight into your face?
Yuu, fully committed to the Hanagumi's own charity work, attends the fund raising on every performing day. The siennes usually make small groups of 2 - 6 people and stand around the pillars on the ground floor to collect donations. The top star would move around and
spend some time with each group to draw attention and encourage the leaving audience to donate.
Highly motivated Hanagumi-sei staged the fund raising even on the shinko night, which I had not expect to happen.
I came down the stairs after the shinko performance on April 7 and was astounded to be greeted by beaming Eritan holding out a donation box. There were more than twenty Hanagumi upperclassmen including Hacchi-san, Yuu and the stars of the troupe. It was a rare occasion to see a flock of siennes in their various private outfits. A bonus!
Earthquakes keep coming back.
On April 1 during the performance of Prelude, the central stage was revolving and rising with Sou Kazuho and Hanagata Mitsuru on the top of it when a quake of middle intensity hit the theater building. I felt the shake while in the audience and was horrified to realize that the theater was not equipped with a seismic response system to automatically stop the stage machinery. The show went on as if nothing was happening. Eritan was unlucky to be hit again on Apr. 12, this time while on Ginkyo singing a scat solo during Le Paradis!! She never ceased singing and smiling.
Hanagumi-sei are not having fanclub-organized iri/de at this moment. When to resume is not known yet.
Before Hanagumi's Tokyo run began, I had had mixed feelings about doing a show in Tokyo from the standpoint of energy conservation and concerns over safety of both siennes and the audience.
Now I'm much grateful they decided to come to Tokyo. A strong shiny light coming out of the Theater is my source of encouragement and relief when many things still remain unsettled.
I pray with all my heart that those people of beautiful minds performing in the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater will successfully and safely complete their mission on April 24.
You can see traces of "3/11" everywhere...
A crack runs in the pavement in front of Chanter building.
At the Tokyo Theater ;
A snack stall stands in the dark.
The 2nd floor auditorium lobby is dimly lit and gloomy.
As a part of the Tokyo Theater's electricity conservation effort other than reducing illumination in the hall lobbies to minimal levels, the toilet seat warmers are turned off.
The Hanagumi's Tokyo run of Ai no Prelude/Le Paradis!!, which is a retirement performance for Matobu Sei and 7 others, opened on March 25 in the midst of the still unsettled earthquake aftermath. The Hanagumi-sei and most of the audience are living with the extraordinary number of aftershocks (some of them rather strong) and the crippled nuclear power plants in Fukushima. The entire Tohoku-Kanto area still faces a serious electricity shortage and its railway/subway services are often delayed and occasionally canceled because of recurring quakes. A large part of Zuka fans who usually come to the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater are affected to various degrees by the massive Great Eastern Japan Earthquake which shook the country on March 11.
During the curtain call of the shonichi on Mar. 25, Hacchi-san, the Hanagumi kumichou and Matobu Sei, the top star of the troupe respectively made a unusually long speech to share the action the troupe took following the 3/11 disaster and presented the Hanagumi-sei’s own initiative to help the victims of the devastating quake.
Hacchi-san told of the troupe-wide discussion which was held every night after a rehearsal for the Tokyo run and attended by all Hanagumi members.
She mentioned, " I’m going to share with you what all Hanagumi-sei want to let you know.
(Even though they had been told by Hankyuu to do the Tokyo run as scheduled,) Taking the graveness of the quake-caused damage into consideration, we were not able to convince ourselves if performing in Tokyo was appropriate to do under such circumstances.
“Hanagumi has two members from Miyagi Prefecture. We have many fans in the afflicted area who might be having a difficult time just to survive this very moment. How we should cope with the quake-related things is our own concern.
“We set ourselves to hold a troupe meeting every night after a rehearsal for the Tokyo run to exchange our thoughts, concerns and ideas and discuss what would be the best to do as people. Our discussion continued till right after the dress rehearsal in Tokyo.
“As a result of our brainstorming we have decided to run a fund-raising drive for the 3/11 victims after every performance."
Hacchi-san continued, “Many people here are experiencing grocery shortages, electricity outages, troubled public transportation and so on. We had concluded that we might be able to cheer you up and alleviate your stress through our performance. Those who have received genki from us might use the gained energy to make others genki. We hope that transmission of genki may reach those people in the disaster area who are having a long long way to go for a recovery from the devastation.
“I’d be honest, though, that we had no confidence about our decision. But when the curtain rose today, you gave us a yes. We felt your strong support to what we were up to do. We are no more in anxiety.
“Hanagumi has a strong sense of solidarity through what we have gone through in the past 2 weeks, more than ever.
“We would like to make this Tokyo run a charity performance for the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake relief.”
Yuu began her speech by “I can’t find words…”, then fell into long silence in front of the microphone with tears in her eyes. After much deliberation, she began her story.
“I wasn’t certain about justification of our being in Tokyo to perform in this moment of a huge national crisis. I was seized by a keen fear - who wants to see us do the show? Am I doing the right thing? The fear haunted me even after the dress rehearsal and I was so afraid to face the audience today.
“The moment we opened our show, though, we were received by your warm welcome. All my fear instantly disappeared.
“I am so grateful that today’s performance was safely completed. We will be taking turns to collect donations for the earthquake relief after each performance all through this run. We have just spent happy moments together in this theater. Let us give a share of that to the people under suffering. I would very much appreciate your cooperation.”
While those two were delivering their statement and genuine feelings to the audience, Hanagumi-sei lined up on stage were all silently shedding tears. I had never seen such expression of distress on siennes’ faces. Amachaki constantly trembled with tears, and her agonized face broke my heart. Yuu said nothing about her retirement.
I attended the Hanagumi shonichi and was deeply moved by the curtain call speeches. Only recently I found out that the contents of their speeches were largely cut in the shonichi digest aired on Skystage News. Their remarks about holding a series of troupe-wide discussions and their independent decision to support the earthquake victims through fund-raising WAS TOTALLY OMITTED FROM BROADCASTING AT ALL. They didn’t show a glimpse of Hanagumi-sei’s teary faces. Their after-performance fund raising initiative fails to be publicized by the Revue Company and you see nothing on the official website.
(The outside media though, have shown interest in their voluntary charity work and spread the news. On April 6 Nikkei Shimbun, a Japanese equivalent to Wall Street Journal, ran a favorable review of the Hanagumi show on their entertainment page and published a part of Hacchi-san's speech. )
The fund-raising on the shonichi night was a unprecedented spectacle!
More than a dozen Hanagumi stars gathered in the ground floor lobby, all in the sequined costumes from the parade of the revue except for Yuu and Eritan who had changed into black tailcoats. You would never find such gorgeous and shiny fund raisers elsewhere in the world. In front of the central entrance door were donation boxes placed on a rectangular desk. How can you resist when standing in line between the desk and the door were Miwacchi, Ran-chan, Yuu and Eritan smiling straight into your face?
Yuu, fully committed to the Hanagumi's own charity work, attends the fund raising on every performing day. The siennes usually make small groups of 2 - 6 people and stand around the pillars on the ground floor to collect donations. The top star would move around and
spend some time with each group to draw attention and encourage the leaving audience to donate.
Highly motivated Hanagumi-sei staged the fund raising even on the shinko night, which I had not expect to happen.
I came down the stairs after the shinko performance on April 7 and was astounded to be greeted by beaming Eritan holding out a donation box. There were more than twenty Hanagumi upperclassmen including Hacchi-san, Yuu and the stars of the troupe. It was a rare occasion to see a flock of siennes in their various private outfits. A bonus!
Earthquakes keep coming back.
On April 1 during the performance of Prelude, the central stage was revolving and rising with Sou Kazuho and Hanagata Mitsuru on the top of it when a quake of middle intensity hit the theater building. I felt the shake while in the audience and was horrified to realize that the theater was not equipped with a seismic response system to automatically stop the stage machinery. The show went on as if nothing was happening. Eritan was unlucky to be hit again on Apr. 12, this time while on Ginkyo singing a scat solo during Le Paradis!! She never ceased singing and smiling.
Hanagumi-sei are not having fanclub-organized iri/de at this moment. When to resume is not known yet.
Before Hanagumi's Tokyo run began, I had had mixed feelings about doing a show in Tokyo from the standpoint of energy conservation and concerns over safety of both siennes and the audience.
Now I'm much grateful they decided to come to Tokyo. A strong shiny light coming out of the Theater is my source of encouragement and relief when many things still remain unsettled.
I pray with all my heart that those people of beautiful minds performing in the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater will successfully and safely complete their mission on April 24.