Hundreds gathered Tuesday, Nov. 22, in the Smith Memorial Student Union Ballroom to celebrate Japanese art, food, music, dance and good old-fashioned fellowship at Portland State’s annual Japan Night.
The event was planned and facilitated by the Japanese Student Society, whose key members kicked off the night by iterating the theme of the night and the society’s goals.
Hundreds gathered Tuesday, Nov. 22, in the Smith Memorial Student Union Ballroom to celebrate Japanese art, food, music, dance and good old-fashioned fellowship at Portland State’s annual Japan Night.
The event was planned and facilitated by the Japanese Student Society, whose key members kicked off the night by iterating the theme of the night and the society’s goals.
“Japanese Student Society is about presenting Japanese culture to the world,” said JSS President Mahmood Dawood. “We love to present people with the opportunity to learn more about Japan.”
The theme for this year’s Japan night, hope, was in light of the March 11 tsunamis that devastated so much of the country. Portland’s consul-general of Japan, Takamichi Okabe, spoke briefly about the catastrophe and the importance of hope.
“Through the tragedy, Japan’s people knew they were not alone,” Okabe said from the stage. Even after such a debilitating disaster, “the spirit of cooperation was still there,” he said.
After opening remarks from the JSS leaders, the night’s performances began. Attendees were treated to a wide spectrum of Japanese entertainment, including traditional Taiko drumming, vocal and band performances, Japanese pop dancing, a fashion show and a Kyogen play.
The Taiko drumming of Portland State’s own Takohachi grabbed the audience’s attention immediately: Their polyrhythmic gallop propelled the music onward, simultaneously evoking melancholia and bliss.
The Japanese pop-dance numbers were exuberant: Dancers smiled, winked, waved and worked their way through songs by Perfume, Namie Amuro and the popular Japanese outfit AKB48. The audience broke into timed hand claps, and cameras snapped at an epileptic pace.
The fashion show, planned and directed by JSS member Yuka Miyake, spanned Japanese history, from beautifully crafted kimono to Sailor Moon-style school girl outfits to leather jackets and baby-doll dresses. The audience responded with murmurs of approval, constant camera clicks and copious whistling.
But the Japanese fashion didn’t stop at the fashion show: Numerous JSS volunteers sported happis, a traditional Japanese short-sleeved coat with a distinctive crest on the back.
One of these volunteers was Jake Hardman, a Portland State anthropology student and first-term JSS member on “traffic control” duty near the front door.
When asked why he got involved with JSS, Hardman replied, “I have an interest in Japanese culture and I want to learn the language.”
An interest in the Japanese language is what prodded PSU student (and Vanguard writer) Aimee Zink to pursue a major in Japanese and, ultimately, become a performer in the ancient Japanese theatrical genre known as Kyogen.
The evening’s Kyogen performance, The Mountain Wizard and the Persimmons, featured Larry Kominz, PSU professor of Japanese, and Zink, who previously studied drama.
“I had been doing theater since high school,” Zink said. After performing several times with fellow Japanese drama classmates, Zink said that “Dr. Kominz wanted me to start doing Kyogen with him regularly.”
The Mountain Wizard and the Persimmons is a silly farce, and its absurd humor drew large bouts of laughter from the crowd.
“I think it’s perfect for Japan Night because it is a short piece with lots of slapstick, verbal humor, physical movement and absurdity,” Kominz said.
The play was actually Kominz’s original introduction to Kyogen.
“I started Kyogen lessons in 1977,” he said. “The Mountain Wizard and the Persimmons was my Kyogen debut play.”
The humor of the Kyogen performance exemplified what emcee and JSS member Adam Walters called “the humorous, the joyful, the amazing culture of Japan.”
Much of the night’s entertainment also stuck to a humorous and joyful motif: The fashion show had dozens pulling out their cameras or phones to snap photos; the two band performances—by The Youngest Boots and Sadistic Banana—caused the crowd to cheer loudly; and the Japanese Pop Dance segment garnered delighted hoots and hollers from attendees.
This convivial atmosphere is what brought many of the night’s visitors to the event.
“I came to maybe make a friend,” said applied linguistics student Tomohiro Muta, smiling. “It’s always good to see people who want to learn about the culture.”
Japanese students like Muta were excited by the prospect of others encountering their culture—people like PSU students and friends Wen Fung and Huan Li.
“We’re Chinese but we’re very interested in Japanese culture,” said Fung, a biology student. Although their cultures have many differences, “we’re still very similar,” he said.
Throughout the evening, Japan Night highlighted the commonalities between seemingly different cultures. As the attendees lined up to get their serving of kalé rice with beef, the band’s warmed up on their instruments.
The band performed two popular Japanese pop songs, “Natsumatsuri” and “Sobakasu.” While they sound-checked, Sadistic Bananas’ bass player broke into the ubiquitous bass line to the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back”—perfectly encapsulating the cross-cultural appeal of this exceedingly pleasant evening.
