Monday August 13, 10:15 a.m.
It was a pretty miserable day on
Saturday when I went up to
The Toronto Buddhist Church to catch my friend's dance recital there. It was actually my first time to the church in its new location and configuration. I'd used to go with my family to the old one on
Bathurst St. deeper into downtown way back in the 70s, but not to pray but to watch Japanese drama videos on that newfangled contraption called
a VCR. The old church had that traditional thatched-roof architecture, but this new one up north looks more
Tadao Ando.
This
buyokai was dedicated to the music of
Hibari Misora, one of the singing legends of modern Japanese music. In terms of comparative status, I'd peg her with
Elvis Presley and
The Beatles in terms of how much an effect she had on the Japanese population. Her untimely death in
1989 at the age of
52 may have had
Japan unofficially declaring a day or two of national mourning.
Misora, through her music, led the people through the dark early days of
the Postwar period all the way to the end of
the Economic Bubble days of the late 80s. Her nom de genre was
enka but she was known to have gone into jazz and even pop. I can't say, though, that I'm a huge fan of hers but since she released over
1,200 songs during her 40-year career, there are a number of them that I know just from hearing the opening notes.
These were the dancers...or at least, some of them...unfortunately, we were forbidden to take pictures during the performance itself. I was joined by The Dancer's family and so we all saw about 20 different performances all done to
Misora's songs over the decades. The audience mostly consisted of folks older than me, so I was pretty sure that her music had an even more resonant effect on them. As for my friend, she performed a couple of dances....one in which she portrayed an old-fashioned Japanese thief in all-black, Her daughter also had a dance as well with two other young girls.
I would be rather intrigued if there were ever a similar
buyokai done to the strains of
Seiko Matsuda. Yes, I am being sarcastic here.
