Japanese troupe will bring Imperial Court and folk traditions to Torrance.

An unusual sampling of traditional Japanese performing arts will be presented at Torrance’s Cultural Arts Center tonight and Saturday.

Five master musicians from Japan and 30 Los Angeles area musicians and performers offer a rare opportunity to see Imperial Court music and dance dating back to the 9th Century, in addition to kabuki music and dance from the 17th Century, said Mikko Haggott-Henson, the event’s principal organizer.

Kabuki theater arose as a form of entertainment for common people, whereas the combination of music and dance known as bugaku had been performed traditionally only for the imperial family.

“Usually, all these performances are separate,” said Haggott-Henson, president of the Japanese Traditional Performing Arts Organization, which is working with the Torrance Sister City Assn. to present the event.

The performances will be introduced by Michele Garza, manager of major gifts for KCET-TV. She has an extensive background in theater, dance and the Japanese performing arts.

“What is so unique about the Japanese performing arts is that they are centuries old and have remained virtually unchanged,” said Garza, who was raised in Torrance and lived in Japan for a year. “What you’re looking at is not only an art form, but also a part of the history of Japan.”

As part of the opening ceremony, master Katada Kisaku, one of Japan’s foremost classical percussionists, will play a welcoming call on the taiko, a large, barrel-shaped drum. Fujima Fujisumi, who has taught dance at local universities, will then perform an auspicious 13th-Century dance, called sanbaso.

The bugaku dance and gagaku music, the kind performed for the Japanese Imperial Court since the 9th Century, will follow the opening ceremony. The music will be performed by the UCLA Gagaku Ensemble under the direction of Togi Suenobu.

Next, an ensemble of Japanese and Japanese-Americans will perform two musical koto pieces. The koto is a long, rectangular wooden instrument, similar to a zither or a harp, played by plucking its 13 or more silk strings.

Kisaku then returns, joined by three other musicians, for a performance of percussion and flute music known as kabuki hayashi.

The program’s finale will be a kabuki play, featuring Madame Fujima Kansuma’s Los Angeles troupe. Kabuki, which means stylish and provocative dancing, combines choreographed movements and gestures, vivid and elaborate costumes, and stylized dialogue to tell a story.

The performers wear thick makeup designed to express their character. Members of Kansuma’s troupe said it takes nearly three hours to apply the makeup and get into their costumes.

Performers take the name of their teacher after years of training. At a rehearsal of the kabuki comedy, “Tsuri Onna,” translated as “fishing for a bride,” Fujima Kansumi (Yoshihara Michiko) said that even though the play is in Japanese, “There’s enough pantomime so that you can get the main idea.”

Fijima Kansuzu (Tachibana Miyako) said that as they grow older, many Japanese-Americans seem to grow more interested in their heritage. But as the daughter of Madame Fujima Kansuma, Tachibana said: “I was born into it.” Her son is now his grandmother’s youngest student.

These performances are especially significant because 1992 marks the 20th anniversary of the sister city relationship between Torrance and the Japanese city of Kashiwa, Torrance Mayor Katy Geissert said.

“The theater provides a fitting showcase for the public to view and better understand these ancient Japanese arts,” Geissert said.

What: Japanese theater, opening ritual and special performances.

Where: Torrance Cultural Arts Center, James Armstrong Theater, 3330 Civic Center Drive, Torrance.

When: Tonight at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m.

Admission: $10, $6 for students and senior citizens or $30 for admission and reception with the musicians.

Information: (310) 781-7171 or (310) 378-3550.