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Ningyô Jôruri 2000 Ôishi Shrine In addition to the standard Sanbasô, this year's program will feature Kokaji ("The little blacksmith"), a drama about the swordmaker Kokaji Munechika who hires as apprentice a young man who in turn is revealed to be the transformation of a divine fox; and the fourth act Michiyuki hatsune tabi from Yoshitsune senbon zakura ("Yoshitsune's thousand cherry trees"), a play which also features the appearance of a transformation fox. Each year's performances have been exceptionally well received, and this year promises no less. The Ôishi Shrine is located in the Shinobara community of Fujino, about fifteen minutes' drive from Fujino Station. Prominent signs are posted to Shinobara and the shrine. Entry to performance is free, and food and drinks are sold by various community groups in the vicinity of the shrine. The performances are an outstanding example of new means of preserving traditional Japanese culture, but in a way meaningful to modern sensibilities and not merely antiquarian interests. For a bit more background information about the performances, please see my page on Fujino Bunraku 1999. You can also get more information from the Fujino Town Offices at 0426-87-2111, and ask (Japanese only) for the Kikaku-ka (planning department). You might also take a look at Kato's Shinobara site for a few photos and descriptions of the performance in Japanese. Access: From Fujino station area: take Highway 20 to the Hizure Iriguchi intersection, cross the Sagami River and head south on Highway 76 for about three minutes. Just two-hundred meters before you reach the Workshop for Art, a small road leads off to the left for Shinobara; it should be marked on this day. Take this road about ten minutes until it comes out onto the main Shinobara road; turn left onto the main road, drive one kilometer to the large intersection; turn right into Shinobara and follow the signs to the Ôishi Shrine.

FREE! Ningyô Jôruri Puppet Performance: August 19, 2000 The seventh annual free performance of Ningyô Jôruri by members of the Osaka National Bunraku Theater will be held beginning at 6:30 P.M., August 19, 2000 at the Ôishi Shrine, in the Shinobara district of Fujino Township. The theme this year is "Foxes." As most readers probably know, foxes are considered mysterious semi-divine animals in Japanese folklore. Frequenting the borders between human habitation and The Wild, foxes are "tricksters" capable of casting spells on the unwary traveler along a dusk road, transforming themselves into human shapes and leading their victims astray into the wild where they are driven mad. They are also well known as servant familiars of the kami called Inari. In fact, the first spring we moved to Fujino, I saw a fox from my house window, just as it was wandering around a small Inari shrine at the base of a neighbor's tree. The fox jumped up into the shrine itself and came out a moment later, then walked around the shrine, finally lying down for a nap--and giving me time to run and grab a camera with telephoto lens. I took a number of pictures of the fox, and showed them to my neighbor, joking with him that I had seen the kami of the little shrine, but the photos are on ordinary film and I haven't scanned them yet. I'll try to do so and upload them here before long. Fujino Bunraku '99 (Sanbasô) Fujino Bunraku '99 (Sanbasô) Fujino Bunraku '99 To return to your previous location, use your browser's "BACK" button, or click your heels together three times while saying, "there's no place like home" . . .

Green Gables: A Contemplative Companion to Fujino Township
by Norman Havens nhavens@gol.com
Updated: April 20, 2002

URL: http://www2.gol.com/users/nhavens/htmlfile/joru1-e.html