心配された雨も昼前には上がり、東京からシテ方二人、大阪方面から囃子方四人の皆さんを迎えて、多賀あさひやでの能楽イベントが無事開催できました。当日参加の方もいらっしゃり、会場は大勢の観客でいっぱいになりました。
今回は「高砂（たかさご）」がテーマで、最初に鵜澤久先生、光先生による分かりやすい解説と実践がありました。また今年初めてお囃子に太鼓が加わったため、能における太鼓の意味や魅力なども話していただきました。鵜澤両先生、囃子方の先生方のユーモアを混じえたお話と観客を巻き込んでの体験実習で、会場は能の一般的なイメージとは違って和気藹々とした雰囲気に包まれました。２部で披露していただいた「高砂」の躍動感あふれる力強い舞囃子に観客は息を呑み圧倒され、最後の質疑応答では、お客様からの例えば何故能が約７００年に渡って生き延びてきたか、能における「間（ま）」とは何か、所属もそれぞれ違う能楽師たちが何故少しの打ち合わせだけでリハーサルもなく併せられるのか、など興味深い質問にも応えていただき、能についての知識や興味も深まりました。
肌寒いお天気でお客様の体調に支障がなかったか心配ですが、能楽師の皆様、観客の皆様、そして会場の設営から休憩時間、後片付けまで力を貸してくださったスタッフの皆様のお陰で、今年も大盛り上がりで能の会を終了できました。皆様、本当にありがとうございました。
Fortunately the rain which had been falling until the morning stopped at noon, and we could hold the Noh event with two Shite actors who were from Tokyo and four Hayashi-kata (musicians) from Osaka area. We had a full audience adding several participants who joined at site.
The theme of the event of this year was Takasago (one of the classic noh plays by Zeami) and noh master Hisa Uzawa and Hikaru Uzawa gave explanations and demonstrations about the theme. For several years, the musical instruments were flute (Noh pipe), small hand drum (kotsuzumi) and big drum (ohkawa), but this year, side drum (taiko) joined them. Therefore, they also explained the specific role of taiko and its appeal in the noh performance. Both Uzawa's and musicians' talk were sometimes funny and easy to understand to the audience. At the end of the first part, participants received lessons of noh chanting and several ways of interjected changing of small hand drum from noh players. In the second part, we appreciated the part of Takasago with full members. It was so energetic and overwhelming. Audience had a chance to ask questions to the noh players. There were many interesting questions, for example, why noh existed for almost seven hundred years in Japan, what "ma (pose)" means in noh play, why noh players are able to perform in perfect timing without rehearsing beforehand even though each one came from a different school and different place. The noh players answered those questions. We learned a lot of things about noh and drew more attention to it.
It was a little bit cold and I wished it didn't affect the audience's health. I thank all the noh players who gave such a great performance, I also thank all participants who gathered for this event. Lastly, I will express my gratitude to the staff who helped setting up the event place, working at the break time and returning the furniture to the original state. I couldn't have had such a successful event without those people's efforts.
