Asian Heritage Month, Kamigami No Uta

Students walking by the Multicultural Education Center on the University of Wisconsin- Oshkosh campus yesterday were treated to dances usually performed in Okinawa, Japan.

Four UW- Oshkosh students, Mayumi Yamasaki, Miyako Naka, Chie Takeno and Natsue Kariya, presented traditional dances of their homeland as part of the Asian Student Association’s Asian Heritage Month celebration, occurring the entire month of April. “I think it is important that people see what else is out there and experience other cultures,” said Ryan Pouros, one of the event organizers.

This particular part of the celebration is known as “Japanese Week.” The performance started with two women dancing the Yucathos, a traditional dance performed annually in Okinawa, Japan.

The dance involved drums and elaborate costumes of purple, white and black. As the two performers danced in precise circles around one another they beat on the drums in time with their steps. A CD player provided singing and a third drum, which is traditionally used with this dance. As the crowd of twenty-five people, including some families with their children, watched on the drum beats rolled between the surrounding buildings like thunder.

The crowd retreated inside to warm up and watch a presentation on the costumes the women would be wearing during the main event; the Kamigami No Uta (Songs of the Gods). The speaker explained that the blue floral costume she was wearing was not a kimono, but was in fact a yugata.

The kimono is much like the suit in America, worn by both men and women on formal occasions. For weddings a woman wears a white kimono, for funerals the garment is black. One of the more interesting features of the kimono is that when the sleeves are loose at the wrist it means that the wearer is unwed, after they get married the sleeves become short. According to the speaker a kimono is only worn once or twice a year since they cost between $10,000 and $12,000.

After the presentation the dancers again assembled outside in the chilly evening air. The four performers were barefoot in the green grass and, before the dance began, shivered trying to keep warm in their matching blue yugatas.

The music began and the four women began slow and graceful movements across the lawn, all in perfect synchronization. They provided song to go with their motions as another CD gave them a beat and musical accompaniment. The dance involved rotating positions in a circle and flurries of hand movements.

The crowd applauded the dancers as they bowed to the audience, finishing the performance with the same grace with which they began. Other upcoming events for “Japanese Week” include, Sumi-E Ink Painting tonight at 8 p.m. in Reeve Memorial Union 201. The ASA members who had planned the dance made sure to repeatedly mention that there would be karaoke in Reeve’s ballroom on Thursday night at 8 p.m.