Ta-chan (“I wish to make the whole world smile.”)
Experience the joyful tradition of Kamishibai (paper play) at Seattle Japanese Garden!
Ta-chan, a kamishibai artist from Nagoya, Japan will be touring all through town and will be performing at the Garden on September 17th and October 8th. Bring your whole family to the Garden for this special opportunity.
Kamishibai or "paper play" is a form of Japanese street theatre and storytelling that was popular during the Depression of the 1930s and the post-war period in Japan until the advent of television. Kamishibai was told by a kamishibaiya (kamishibai narrator) who travelled to street corners with sets of illustrated boards that he or she placed in a miniature stage-like device secure on a bicycle and narrated the story by changing each image. Kamishibaiya would also sell candies before his story so that children could eat it while listening to the story.
Kamishibai has its earliest origins in Japanese Buddhist temples where Buddhist monks from the eighth century onward used emakimono ("picture scrolls") as pictorial aids for recounting their history of the monasteries, an early combination of picture and text to convey a story. Many believe that Kamishibai is the foundation for Japanese Anime. Given Anime’s significant popularity in the U.S., we hope to bring awareness to how Japanese culture is integrated into modern life and inspire appreciation for traditional storytelling from all foreign cultures.
About Ta-chan: Tatsuo “Ta-chan” Kawakami Ta-chan began his acting career in a local community theatre during his college years in Nagoya, Japan. After college, he joined a professional children’s theatre, Urinko and acted with them for 6 years. Tacchan then broke out on his own to do kamishibai in 2007, founded his own troupe Marguerite Family, performing for over 100,000 people. He performs across Japan at roughly 150 locations every year including schools, hospitals, community library, temple, retirement homes, private party, parks, malls, and amusement parks. He is the He makes appearances on TV, radio, newspapers and magazines and is the winner of Japan Street Kamishibai Competition in Numazu for two consecutive years. He is the only full time Kamishibai Storyteller left in Japan.
Saturday, October 8, 2022 | Family Saturday – Maple Festival
First show starts at 11 a.m. & Second show starts at 1:00 p.m.
Each performance is a one-hour programming with four stories.
* Free admission to all youth 12 and younger from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for Family Saturday.
This tour is made possible with collaboration of Youth Theatre Northwest and UW East Asia Resource Center and the support from 4Culture.
