An evening of Japanese culture was held in Moscow

Interest in Japanese culture is growing rapidly among Russians, and it is mutual. A unique production of the Tokyo New Repertory Theater took place in Moscow — artists of this level came to our country for the first time in a long time. Traditional masks, costumes and, of course, instruments – all this was presented to the audience at the Zaryadye Concert Hall. Details can be found in the story by Maxim Prikhody, a correspondent of Izvestia.

A gentle flute pierces the silence of a full hall with a samurai katana: not an ordinary one, such as in Zaryadye regularly, but a Japanese shakuhachi. My ears are still ringing from the taiko drums that have just died down. This is an evening of Japanese culture: traditional instruments, costumes, choreography and an excerpt from the play "Kojiki". The text is dated 712 AD.

"Kojiki is the forerunner of all Japanese culture. These myths are based on the ancient story of the creation of the world and the distribution of responsibilities between the supreme gods. On stage, he is dressed in a theatrical uniform at the Stanislavsky School," the correspondent said.

It doesn't look like our theater at all, but the artists of the Tokyo New Art Theater have brought the most exotic things they have to Moscow. In Japan, they stage Greek tragedies, Shakespeare, and—where without them—"The Three Sisters," "Uncle Vanya," and "The Cherry Orchard."

This theater in Tokyo was created 25 years ago by Russian director Leonid Anisimov. He breathed a Russian soul into the Japanese theatrical tradition.

"We combine two systems: the Stanislavsky system and the Japanese dzami system. They are very close," said the artistic director of the Tokyo New Repertory Theater.

Anisimov himself had not been to Moscow for eight years, and many of the members of his troupe had never been at all.

"When you are in Japan and you watch the news, it seems that Russia is a rather complicated country, but it turned out that this is not the case at all," said pantomime artist Yamamoto Koyo.

"Thanks to the interaction of different cultures, we, the Japanese, were able to see and realize many things that we had not previously paid attention to," said Okazaki Hiroshi, artistic director of Tokyo's Shin Geijutsukan Theater (New Theater of Arts).

And in Russia they are attracted to Japanese culture.

"These drums participated in the services, and in the army, they used these drums to send signals to attack, to retreat," said Yulia Chelmakina, a member of the Japanese drum ensemble in Miyaba, an organizational specialist at the Moscow Conservatory's Department for International Cooperation.

Russian musicians mastered Japanese instruments at the Moscow Conservatory, thanks to which this evening took place in many ways.

"There are no people in Japan who don't love Russia. I've never met anyone like that. These 28 people who have come, they will tell their friends everything," said Margarita Karatygina, Head of the International Cooperation Department, scientific director of the Center for Musical Cultures of the World at the Moscow Conservatory.

It turns out that the cultural blockade has been broken, although in practice it did not exist at all.

"The blockade of Russian art is an impossible statement in itself, because our colleagues, creative people, come here to perform in front of the Moscow public, in front of the Russian public," said Ivan Rudin, General Director of the Moscow Zaryadye Concert Hall.

But this is unofficial, if anything. Japanese officials, some of whom are also here, ask to mention less that they have wholeheartedly promoted cultural exchange.

"We feel that there is some progress in the field of culture and education of youth exchanges, despite the fact that everything is happening on the part of Japan at the non—governmental level," said Mikhail Shvydkoi, Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for International cultural cooperation.

The next one is at a low start — business.

"Not everything is frozen so much that it would take a long time to freeze these projects. And Japanese companies will not have to stand in a long queue here," said Alexander Shokhin, President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP).

In recent years, including covid years, none of the festivals of Russian culture have been canceled in Japan. They visited us too, secretly, but regularly. Cultural and business ties were not very well hidden before, and now they won't be.

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The film was presented to the Chinese audience by Milos Bikovic and Zheng Hanyi.

A Chinese Culture Festival was held in Moscow on September 16. One of the main events of the festival was a production about kung fu, which was presented on the stage of the Maly Theater. The Long Yun Theater Company, founded by the famous Chinese actor Jackie Chan, demonstrated how the principles of this martial art are connected to Chinese culture at a deep level.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.