My 30th Anniversary year with Groark ended wonderfully with our third appearance at the Japanese Ventriloquist Association (JVA) convention held in Tokyo at the National Youth Olympic Memorial Center (NYC). The JVA Convention attracted almost 200 ventriloquism enthusiasts from all over Japan for 2 days of tightly packed meetings, workshops, award ceremonies and performances. Featured foreign ventriloquists were Wendy Morgan from Great Britain, Don Bryan from Canada,  and Americans Judy Buch (CT), Dale von Seggen (CO), Valentine Vox and his wife Eyvonne Carter-Vox (NV), Buddy and Dianna Big Mountain (NM), and Groark and me (CA). Ikeda Takeshi was our host.

Saturday morning I conducted a workshop on how I developed Groark and his personality over the last 30 years. It was an opportunity to look back over the years and think about what I did to make Groark the strong character that he is. More than one person was surprised that I was able to maintain a program for over 40 minutes with just one puppet character, but that is the nature of working with a puppet that I cannot put down during the show.

On Sunday morning I participated in a panel discussion on using puppets and ventriloquism with special populations such as hospitals, senior centers, prisons, etc. The panel moderator was Iimuro Manami, a former police woman and crime prevention lecturer. On the panel was Hisashi Suenaga, director of the Japanese Puppet Therapy Association, Wendy Morgan who has done extensive work in British cancer centers for children, and myself, with loads of experiences in many special situations.

On Sunday afternoon Groark and I performed at the Family Show Concert. I told the story of how I met Groark, totally in Japanese. This was the third time I had worked with this translated script. I have been practicing it for the last month. I hired Sam Koji Hale to update the jokes and coach me on pronunciation. Kathleen Yoshiko Nomura, a Japanese ventriloquist, and Kazumi Yamaguchi, an interpreter with a good sense of humor, added some material at the last minute. I used a storybook with my notes taped inside as a prop for the performance.

The show was a HIT! Everyone understood my Japanese! No small feat for a foreigner! And they laughed at all the jokes, especially the ones added by Sam, Kathleen, and Kazumi. What a great feeling! To share the magic of Groark with an audience in their own language was a thrill! I smiled the rest of the day!

Kuruma Ningyo or “cart puppetry’ is a form of puppetry that predates the more widely known Bunraku puppet tradition in Japan. The puppets themselves are very similar in construction, size, and appearance to the Bunraku puppets.  However the kuruma ningyo are manipulated by a single puppeteer seated on a small, wheeled “cart” for mobility in making the puppet move.

Koryu Nishikawa is a fifth generation member of his family to master and promote this art form. I have an earlier post about the history of the art and puppets from October 2007 when Nishikawa-san toured the USA, including Hanford, CA. He was kind enough to invite me to visit his theater and studio when I told him I was coming to Japan.

On October 9^th my plan was to make my way to Hachioji, about 35 miles west of Tokyo, and visit Nishikawa-san by myself. I just needed to get through Shinjuku Station, arguably the busiest train station in the world, with dozens of different train lines. Easy!…Yeah Right! What was I thinking?

On the morning of the 9^th I mentioned to my new friends, fellow American participants of the Japanese Ventriloquist Festival, Judy Buch and her friend Atsuko Balon, both of CT, that I was going to see a master puppeteer at his theater. They asked if they could come along and I said that I thought that that would be fine. Good thing!

Atsuko Balon

Atsuko speaks and reads Japanese. She was a godsend for the day! She was able to get us from Shinjuku to Hachioji, and back, without a hitch. She interpreted for us during our visit with Nishikawa-san. She and Judy were great traveling companions!

Koryu Nishikawa, Judy Buch, and Randel at the Hachioji Kuruma Ningyo Puppet Theater.

We had a wonderful time with Nishikawa-san. He explained the history of kuruma ningyo and his family’s involvement over the years. He showed us around his theater, his puppet costume closet, and the special room where the puppet heads are stored. He demonstrated trick/transformation puppets, how the puppets were “loaded” onto the puppeteer, he even performed a flamenco dance with a beautiful Spanish dancer puppet that he made to demonstrate the flexibility and grace of the puppetry form. What a rare and special experience!

Koryu Nishikawa shows his puppet costume closet.

Nishikawa-san demonstrates a puppet whose face can transform from tacit to surprised with the flick of a switch on the handle. The original puppet face looks like the one on the top shelf to the right that I have indicated with an arrow.

The flamenco dancer.

I was invited to perform at the Japanese Ventriloquist Association Festival October 10-12. This is my fifth visit to Japan and my third visit to a JVA Festival. I was greeted at Narita Airport by a small group of JVA representatives including my friend Kathleen Nomura, a talented ventriloquist, dancer and koto player from Yokohama.

Randel and Kathleen Nomura at Narita Airport.

The JVA Festival was held at the National Youth Olympic Memorial Center or NYC next to the famous Yoyogi Park. Participants stay in the  dorms on campus that provide small, individual rooms.

Dorm Building D at NYC Tokyo

Room 628 – To the left is my closet & right is the bathroom.

The Hanford Sentinel, the major newspaper of Kings County (impressive, I know ;oJ) published an article about our recent trip to Manila and Singapore yesterday (Saturday October 3). Here it is:

Can you tell that this is the entrance to the Little India district of Singapore?