　On February 23, 2002 “UNESCO Noh Theater” was held at the 14th Kita Roppeita Kinen Nohgakudo, sponsored by the Meguro Board of Education and presented by the Meguro UNESCO Association.　It was the 14th annual event of the Meguro City International Exchange Forum that has so far introduced various Japanese cultures such as Noh, Gagaku (court music), Kyogen (a farce presented between Noh plays), Sankyoku (a three-part piece for a koto, a samisen, and a shakuhachi), Bunraku (a puppet play), Budou (martial arts), Kabuki, etc.　Every year we were able to carry out our program successfully thanks to the generous cooperation of the Meguro Board of Education and the performers who kindly participated, and now we think we must make special mention of the kindness and consideration of the Kita School, who offered us their Noh theater, the 14th Kita Roppeita Kinen Nohgakudo, as the venue of our event and had some members including two leaders of the school exhibit their performances.　Interpretation and English explanation by Mark Oshima, who has now become a regular participant, was well received by the foreign audience.　We'd like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all the people who helped us in this event

　　　　　　　2nd Part - “HAGOROMO” (The Robe of Feathers)
SHITE (main character) an angel: Akio Shiotsu, bearer of the title “Important Intangible Cultural Property” (photo left)
WAKI (supporting character) a fisherman: Yoshihiro Tateda

For the February issue of “Short News” Mr. Shiotsu contributed to us a valuable article “Join us with Your Determined Will to See”.　The following article was also contributed after the event.　We are deeply grateful to the members of the Kita school.

　In a book about historical events in China there is a phrase “picking simultaneous with peeping”.　When an egg is going to hatch, the chick peeps trying desperately to tell us that it wants to get out of the eggshell, and the mother bird picks the eggshell to help the chick to get out.　The phrase means that hatching will succeed only when these two actions occur at the same moment, in other words things cannot be accomplished without an exquisite timing of the two parties.　

We were really happy that “UNESCO Noh Theater” was held at Kita Nohgakudo as part of the activities of international understanding and exchange of UNESCO, who designated Noh as the world’s first intangible cultural heritage.　 It happened that the mother of a director of the association was related to Minoru Kita, the 15th head of the Kita school, which fortunately lead to the materialization of this event.　It was in fact the fruit of such mysterious human links coupled with eagerness to popularize Noh now awakened in the Kita school so as to keep up with the times.　We were inspired to make the stage a daring one- first showing on the stage how the Noh costume is put on in order to give people from other countries a clue to understand Japanese culture and then inviting them to the climax, “Hagoromo”, a graceful masterpiece of Noh plays.　

excellent interpretation by Mr. Oshima, who has a thorough knowledge of classical art, made us quite prepared for the appreciation of Noh.　In fact, friendly cultural exchange between the one who explained “how the Noh costume is put on” and the interpreter, working perfectly in tune with each other, and the Noh play “Hagoromo” that created Japanese time-honored mysterious atmosphere in the ever-changing, breathtaking tension of the performance in response to the eyes of the audience firmly fixed on the stage were as blissfully satisfying as if we ate something luxurious we had long dreamed of.　It was indeed the very Noh of “peeping and picking”, interwoven with the wills of the two parties with exquisite timing.

[Comments in Japanese] * I saw Noh for the first time.　There were many things I didn't understand, but the dance of “Hagoromo” was very beautiful and the sound of Japanese musical instruments was pleasant to the ear.　* I'd like to spend time digesting what I saw.　*　I didn't know there was such a nice Noh theater near Meguro.　I had an unexpected time of elegant ease.　* Thank you for explaining the Noh costume and showing how to put it on in detail and with humor.　I found Noh very easy to understand and moving.

[Comments in English] * It was a wonderful event, so informative and well presented for us foreigners.　It couldn't have been better.　I look forward to seeing more.　* I really enjoyed this Noh performance.　I had expected Noh to be boring, but it was fascinating, not in the least boring.　

(Note)　The number of participants: 360 (including about 100 foreigners).　We received many applications from foreign embassies, foreigners living in Japan as well as Meguro citizens.　The number of applications more than doubled the seating capacity, and we regret we had to send many applicants our apologies for being unable to invite them.