Celebrating the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Singapore and Japan, Esplanade have launched a new cultural festival, Super Japan, celebrating all of Japanese culture, from Kumamoto to Tokyo to Kitami. With the massive craze of Japanophilia having no signs of stopping and relations between Singapore and Japan ever strong, the events of the festival will celebrate both of these with works from some of Japan’s most exciting contemporary artists in all genres, and other events resulting from intense collaboration between the two Asian nations. The festival is set to open with one of Japan’s biggest music exports. Called by the press “Japan’s Lady Gaga”, J-pop artist Kyary Pamyu Pamyu is one of the genre’s biggest stars, with her latest album reaching number one not only in Japan and Singapore but also Hong Kong and Taiwan. An exponent of the “kawaii” (“cute”) culture that originated in the Harajuku district of Japan and has influenced pop-stars as diverse as Grimes and Gwen Stefani. Super Japan’s other musical acts could not be further from the maximalist cartoon aesthetics and deliberate artificiality of J-pop. Apart from the diplomatic golden anniversary that the festival marks, 2016 also sees Yamaha Music (Asia) turn 50. This birthday has led to the formation of the “Blue Note Tokyo All-Star Jazz Orchestra”, featuring Singaporean singer-songwriter Nathan Hartono alongside Tokyo jazz singer Asako Toki amongst a bevy of Japanese horn players. Those with an interest in more historic Japanese music, or those who want to see a style less familiar to those outside of Japan can also see traditional Japanese folk both old and new and shamisen (a kind of lute native to Japan) playing amongst the varied events over the festival’s nine days. Although traditional Japanese art forms, such as ceramics, printmaking and “noh/nō” drama will be represented, the festival will focus on how these arts are practised in the modern day, how Japanese history has influenced generations of Japanese and Singaporean artists in creating contemporary work. The latter two arts (ceramics and printmaking) are represented in Hyper Japanesque, a nine artist group exhibition focusing on contemporary takes on classics, works that show Japan and Singapore as countries that are both deeply historic and hyper-evolving. The latter art, nō theatre is featured in a double bill in which both Singaporean playwright Chong Tze Chien and Japanese director Shigeki Nakano will both present their interpretations of Yukio Mishima’s modern version of the seventh century play “The Damask Drum”. The story of a man in unrequited love with his neighbour, who plays a trick on him that leads to him committing suicide and haunting her, the cast will feature a mix of actors from both countries. Other ticketed events include a shadow puppet take on the beloved Japanese fairytale “Princess Kaguya”, famed butoh dance troupe Sankai Juku’s latest piece, and two exciting multimedia takes of classical music from the country. Alongside these are many more events both ticketed and three that offer almost comprehensive scope over Japanese culture and its interactions with Singapore. Tickets will be available from 19 February to the general public. “Super Japan - Japanese Festival of Arts” will run from 13 May through 22 May, 2016 at various venues.
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