A Dance Master’s Pursuit of Perfection

Meet Masayasu Wakayagi, exponent of perfectionism and master of paradox.

Putting dancers of the local branch of the Seiha Wakayagi school through their paces in rehearsal, he croons, groans, teases, demonstrates, and occasionally nods approval as he coaxes them towards the ideal clarity and grace of Nihon Buyo, classical Japanese dance.

His Tokyo-based Seiha Wakayagi ryugi (school and company) will complete its first U.S. tour this weekend at the Japan America Theatre, performing excerpts from Kabuki, Odori and Noh works with dancers of the Los Angeles branch of Seiha Wakayagi. Genial and relaxed, he took time out from a recent rehearsal to discuss training and traditions.

Wakayagi made his professional debut at age 11, began teaching at 13, and became a producer at 17. Yet he never had a lesson in his life.

Students of his generation who came to Nihon Buyo from the outside world took daily lessons in movement, singing, music, and Kabuki-style voice projection. But Masayasu, son of grandmaster Kichisanji Wakayagi, said that he “just grew up with it, learning by osmosis and observation.”

For children of professional families, the process fostered rugged independence. Wakayagi recalls dancing for his father. When he mimed lighting a pipe, his father scoffed, “You didn’t do that in the manner of an artisan. Other dancers have done it properly. You go find out how for yourself.” Wakayagi adds with satisfaction, “Now I do the same to my children.” Quality of interpretation is paramount in what is essentially a static repertory. As in the West, where each new Giselle and Albrecht is compared to great performances of memory and legend, each new generation strives to perform standard Nihon Buyo repertory in a way that is at once faithful and fresh.

“It is organized to pass down inherited tradition,” explains Wakayagi, “but each generation reflects its own time and world. Today performers study and incorporate other forms of art and life into their work . “

The evolution of Nihon Buyo accelerated sharply in recent years. One prominent Japanese Noh theater company developed a dance based on St. Paul. Seiha Wakayagi incorporated non-traditional movement in productions of “Carmen” (using Bizet’s music) and “Faust.”

Not everyone embraces dynamic change. “Naturally, this (Western subject matter) brought about controversy,” Wakayagi noted, and to date the company’s “Carmen” and “Faust” have received only one performance.

Seiha Wakayagi has not confined its innovation to the repertory. Of the five major Nihon Buyo companies, it alone has departed from the centuries-old iemoto system, in which a grandmaster is empowered to certify performers and teachers. After World War II, the Seiha Wakayagi ryugi replaced the autocratic iemoto with a board that grants credentials by exam and consensus.

One consequence of this change, according to Masayasu Wakayagi, is greater artistic freedom. In the iemoto system,” he explains, “the iemoto has a certain style that is carried on by his followers. Seiha Wakayagi allows for more individuality.”

Several distinguished dancers and musicians from the Japanese troupe will appear in three performances this weekend at the Japan America Theatre along with members of the Los Angeles Seiha Wakayagi ryugi seen in its first large-scale public concert.

Masayasu Wakayagi will dance the role of the faithless husband in “Migawari Zazen,” a comedy of confused identity. Hisame Wakayagi, head of the Los Angeles ryugi, will do a puppet dance in “Yagura-no-Oshichi.” The rigors of travel permitting, 78-year-old grandmaster Kichisanji Wakayagi will perform a solo in plain kimono, an honor reserved for masters of the highest rank.

In the last three years local audiences have seen three Grand Kabuki tours and two odori dance festivals, as well as appearances by Noh and Bunraku troupes. Nonetheless, Masayasu Wakayagi believes some concessions are needed for foreigners. “Japanese language influences Japanese dance very much,” he explains, so for Western audiences he makes trims in material tied closely to texts.

Ironically, while classical Japanese theater arts are enjoying unprecedented exposure and popularity in the West, Wakayagi fears that the current generation in Japan is losing interest in its great theater tradition.

“To pass it down we must visit the schools,” he insisted. “The children do not even know Kabuki. They would rather be boogeying to Western rock.”