Sachiyo Ito’s Memoir: Chapter 12
In 2024 renowned dancer, dance educator, and choreographer Sachiyo Ito has been serializing her memoir on JapanCulture•NYC with monthly installments, each chapter revealing a different aspect of her early life in Tokyo and career in New York City.
Ito offers of a profound exploration of the experience of dedicating herself to traditional Japanese dance at an early age, arriving in New York City during the tumultuous ‘70s, and making a successful career in the arts. Each chapter offers a glimpse into the complexities that shaped her journey. It is a literary examination of not only Ito Sensei’s life, but of how New York City’s culture evolved over the decades and what sacrifices one must make to achieve a thriving career in the arts.
The memoir is an invitation to delve into the layers of a creative life and career that has spanned more than 50 years. As a work in progress, it is also an invitation for you to offer your feedback. Your insights will contribute to the evolution of this extraordinary work.
To read all the chapters, please click here. For more information about Sachiyo Ito, please visit her website, dancejapan.com.
REFLECTIONS
With the time of reflection upon us, I realize there are many types of reflections, from mental contemplations to physical reflections. I would like to explore a few of them, not only because it's the closing time of the year, but also because I wish to announce the upcoming subjects of my memoir in the new year.
Although not an elaboration on a reflection of the year 2024, this chapter will be a reflection on oneself and then on the universe that surrounds us.
Tsuki no Akari Wa Shimiwatari
In 2005, for the 50th anniversary concert of my dance debut, I created a dance entitled Tsuki no Akari Wa Shimiwatari (The Moonlight Penetrates Through), using music with the same title by Himekami.
Placing the moon image high above the stage, my hand gestures focused on mirroring myself as if using two mirrors, one in front and one in back. Then, I used hands to symbolize the two human beings in the story of the dance. Just as important as the hands were the shadows reflected on the stage floor, from time to time with one shadow overlapping the other. The shadows, the ephemerals you cannot possibly capture, were all needed to tell the drama of the dance.
During the 1950s at the dance studio of my childhood teacher, there was no mirror. My teacher’s thought was that you should not be watching yourself dancing. According to her, to be conscious of your reflection in the mirror was not a good idea. I understood then that watching is a mental process, and so such intellectual activity is not dancing. This led me to discover what I consider the ideal state of performance. The best performance is when you are not conscious of yourself: You forget yourself, forget that you are the dancer. For me, the best performance is when I am not aware of myself, but I am just being in the dance, the body moving without thinking, without being dictated to even by the melody and rhythm. For your own body knows them. No mirror, no reflection of oneself is to be found here.
However, if we go back in Japanese history, we find a contradictory theory advocated by Zeami, the 14th century dramatist. He calls his theory “Riken no Ken” (“Viewing Oneself as Distant View”). It espouses an objective view: to be conscious of oneself analyzing one’s own performance. Can these two idealistic states co-exist?
Or perhaps he was talking about an even larger framework, that of the universe, and us under the stars, the moon, and sun. I wonder if we can step back while dancing, observe ourselves from all-encompassing angles, with the universe itself acting as our mirror?
宇宙よりおのれを見よと
いにしえの釈迦、
キリストもあはれ教えきLook at yourself from the universe, just as taught by Buddha and Christ.
— 窪田空穂 Utsuho Kubota
Kubota’s haiku above shares his deep insight: Look at yourself as a part of, or from a bird’s-eye view of, the universe.
In contrast to the universe, humanity is so small, a tiny entity in the immeasurable universe that makes me feel faint, and our existence and the drama we create in our lives seems so small. Indeed, we are nothing but a speck of dust, even less than a speck of dust. { }
But often our dramas become so huge and tremendous, more than we can manage with our emotions. Then, here comes a question: Are we real, or in a dream, or nothing but dust? Are we watching shadows only, shadows we cannot possibly capture and hold, as in my dance?
Actually, here is another view we can explore. There is each individual’s unique universe that reflects himself, while on the other hand there is the universe that contains all that surrounds us, the whole of existence. The universe is composed of experiences, encounters, nature, smiles of children, my dog’s happy bark, the sun, the moon, and water. The universe is what nourishes us and what watches us. Will it expand year by year, or by the experiences we gain, or by what we learn? I ask myself, “Is that a beautiful one, the universe that reflects me?” Oh, I doubt that... But how could a universe so rich in stories and lovely moments be anything but beautiful?
After many years of creation, The Moonlight Penetrates Through comes to my mind as a new lens through which to view the end-of-year installment of my memoir: the hands, the mirrors, the reflection of myself, the other human beings, many other beings, the sentient and the non-sentient, and then the universe itself.
Now, take a big breath in and out. With a smile, let us welcome our new universe.
Wishing you all the brightest and most beautiful 2025!
Postscript
Sachiyo Ito will return with further chapters of her memoir in 2025, when she will discuss dance as a mirror reflecting culture, the backbone of her belief in dance for more than sixty years.
The posting of this chapter to JapanCulture-NYC.com was paid for by Sachiyo Ito and reprinted here with her permission. Susan Miyagi McCormac of JapanCultureNYC, LLC edited this chapter for grammatical purposes only and did not write or fact-check any information. For more information about Sachiyo Ito and Company, please visit dancejapan.com. ©Sachiyo Ito. All rights reserved.
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