Centre > Travel diaries > Japan 2000 > p9: Ninjas at Edo Mura
Friday September 8
We left the youth hostel before 7 am to go to Edo Mura. Anne had been there many years back and had transmitted her excitement to me. This is a really hard-to-find place, well-known to the Japanese but apparently unknown to tourists: she only knew it because she had been there by the family she was staying with. At one point during our visit, she asked me:
"Have you noticed something?"
"Yes, we're the only gaijin."
Indeed, not one other foreigner showed up the whole day.
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A street in Edo Mura
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Some of the actors in their Edo garb.
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We were at the gate at opening time, and so got to enjoy the morning welcome: actors in Edo dress, lined up on either side of the entrance, bowing to us with a resounding "O-hayo gozaimasu!" while a drum sounded. Edo Mura literally means "Edo village", and is a reconstruction of a town of the Edo period (17th to 19th c.), often used as a film set. we were therefore plunged in an atmosphere of shogun, samurai, court ladies and above all ninjas! They're what we were really after. We watched a show of "water magic", a traditional theater art, and spent the rest of the day in the ninja shows. A particularly gorgeous one with manga-length hair caught our eye. He winked at me. I still blush at the thought. |
Above: Magic Water show.
Right: My "blue ninja" and his opponent in the show.
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What hit me about ninjas is the rectilinear quality of their movements. They're all bent on efficiency, incredibly fast, and deadly accurate. I feel now the difference with Kung Fu, where the movements are deliberately curved to obtain something as beautiful as it is efficient. The shows were truly well studied, with a light flashing from time to time to allow us to see the movement frozen for a second. |
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One of the shows was the story of the monk who founded the Nichiren Buddhist sect. I didn't understand a thing, but that allowed me to focus my attention on the movements, the costumes and acting. It isn't possible to evaluate a Japanese play by Western standards: Japanese standards are too different. For instance, instead of raising their voices in anger, they 'roughen' them in a way that would sound funny to the unsuspecting Western audience. As for the public, it reacts with such enthusiasm that for a moment I thought it was participating to the show.
The second show was another true story, and the battle was set up in a tricked house was full of trapdoors and secret passages. One minute the guy is standing in front of the closet, the next he's gone and the closet is empty, and their movements are so smooth you have no clue what happened. We watched this one twice
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The third show was in the open air, or as a matter of fact, in the air: an aerial battle. The ninjas slid along suspension cables that were covered by hundreds of dragonflies: flights of the crystalline things preceded every one of their moves. |
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Here's one of the movie sets in the village.
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The return journey was exhaustingly long, but Mama-san prepared us a wonderful dinner. After eating we sat down for a charming moment: she wanted to teach me to make a paper crane, "so I could teach the children back home". It is said that if you make 1000 paper cranes, your body will heal entirely. |
Flip to Page 10: Climbing Takao-san and my last days. |
