　　The Meguro UNESCO Association has been making friends with many people since its foundation.　They have taught us many things, and we have shared what we have with them, too. The International Exchange Committee sometimes works alone, and sometimes with other committees.　The International Exchange Bazaar, the Art

Exhibition, and the International Exchange Forum are some of the activities carried out with other committees.　The venues of those events become places where people meet and communicate.　As for our independent activities, we have made excursions with friendship members; Forest Park was one of the places we visited.　We've also had classes for chigiri-e (picture pasted with Japanese paper torn into pieces) and sumi-e (brush and India ink drawing).　Any member can take part in these programs.　So please read Short News attentively.　

　On February 23 (Sat.) from 2:00 p.m. "Enjoy Noh Theater", organized by the International Exchange Forum, is to

be held.　The members of the Kita school, in order to introduce Japanese culture, kindly offered us their Noh theater, Kita Roppeita Kinen Nohgakudo (7 minutes' walk from Meguro Station, next to Sugino Gymnasium).　"Hagoromo" (The Robe of Feathers) performed by Akio Shiotsu, bearer of the title "Important Intangible Cultural Property", is a Noh dance that you should not miss.　We do hope you will be able to come.　It will be a good opportunity for people from other countries, especially young people including Japanese youths to get to know one of Japanese traditional cultures.　We'd be happy if you could bring many of your friends.　(Please read the article bellow by Akio Shiotsu)

　The Noh stage projects into the audience seating area.　It is because Noh is not a play merely to show the audience but an art that has quite a large element of being created by both the performers and the audience.　It eliminates unnecessary things in the extreme.　A single pine tree symbolizes the seashore dotted with pines called Miho-no-Matsubara, and plovers or seagulls floating on the waves are just suggested when the performer points his folding fan toward where they are supposed to be.　 There is no ornament in the shape of a plover or a seagull.　Each spectator pictures in his mind Miho-no-Matsubara, plovers or seagulls, and creates his own stage. He is free to imagine an illusory pine-dotted seashore wrapped in a morning mist or a pine-dotted shore lit up with the crimson setting sun.　If the performer is good, the spectators will have a vivid picture of the sight, and it is every performer's ideal to develop his ability to that level.　The greatest source of that ability is the force of will.　Even when he is standing still, the energy burning inside the performer is enormous.　And it depends largely on the audience whether that energy will be fruitful or wasted.　 It seems that only when the spectators' will to see and the performers' willpower interact, something moving can be produced.　The energy condensed in the performers' souls is the core of Noh, and it gives life to those Noh masks, making them look as if they are smiling.　That is the very difficult part of Noh, and also that is where its beauty comes from.