Japan spent more than two centuries in near isolation before opening its ports to the West in 1853, and the effects of the collision between Eastern and Western influences were just as profound as you might think.
“Still, to this day, we go through the crosscurrents of this integration,” says Nao Kusuzaki, the artistic director of Creative Minds Collaborative.
The dialogue between traditional Japanese and Western influences is reflected in the works of “Meiji Modern – Fifty Years of New Japan,” a monumental exhibition of approximately 175 objects from 1868 to 1912, a period known as Japan’s Meiji era, now on display at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. In tandem with the exhibition, Kusuzaki has created a new dance work, Meiji Dances, which will premiere at the museum on August 22.
Before the exhibition’s opening in Houston, Kusuzaki says that Lourdes Remond, the museum’s community engagement manager, reached out to Creative Minds Collaborative as a potential community partner.
“That idea of taking the new into the traditional world was very thrilling for me,” says Kusuzaki. “So, I pitched that idea, and they were excited to bring the dance element into the program.”
Kusuzaki looked to the artworks in the exhibition for inspiration, with one particular piece, a 1907 work called Temptation by Kaishu, inspiring her to create a narrative around it.
The hanging scroll depicts a Japanese woman, blindfolded and dressed in a traditional kimono, standing on the edge of a cliff as a man, representing the West, tempts her off the ledge. Above her, a Japanese goddess hovers while hungry ghosts watch on.
Temptation is a more obscure work, with Kusuzaki noting that this is the first time it’s been publicly presented, and she says its content runs counter to what she learned regarding the Meiji period.
“I was taught that Japan welcomed the change,” says Kusuzaki.
Kaishu, however, tells a different story in Temptation, which led Kusuzaki to dig deeper into history. She found that though the Japanese government embraced the changes of the era, it took more time for the people of Japan.
“Of course, there was hesitation in welcoming in new ideas,” says Kusuzaki. “How was it, realistically, trying to wear a dress instead of kimono? Having a table and a chair to sit on rather than on the floor? To have a different type of music or a different way of life? A lot of confusion in that era gets overlooked sometimes.”
In response, Meiji Dances begins with a more traditional Japanese scene featuring Japanese folk dance before leading into the introduction of the West, represented by a man carrying sheet music.
“I made him out to be a composer,” explains Kusuzaki. “He’s introduced into this Japanese scene and the Japanese woman becomes interested in the music sheet.”
Not only does music play a role in the narrative, set in modern-day Japan, but Kusuzaki says there is also a story in the music selected for Meiji Dances. The soundscape, arranged by pianist Kana Mimaki, who Kusuzaki calls “instrumental” in the selection process, seeks to blend Japanese folk and Meiji-era Japanese compositions with music imported from the West, like that of Camille Saint-Saëns.
“In this context, the music represents the new integrating with the traditional,” says Kusuzaki.
During the Meiji period, the Japanese were introduced to new instruments and even an expanded musical scale. Traditional Japanese music was often based on a pentatonic, or five-tone, musical scale, whereas Western music utilized an octatonic, or eight-note, musical scale.
“This was an eye-opening idea for the Japanese people at the time: There are more notes. There are instruments like piano, violin, flute that they had never seen before that they could create an orchestra out of,” says Kusuzaki. “So, through music, we use Japanese folk and the composers of the Meiji era who were influenced by Western music.”
The piece utilizes music from Meiji-era composers Kosaku Yamada and RentarÅ Taki, whose Minuet is said to be the first Western-influenced piano piece created. Both Minuet and Regret, Taki’s final composition, written only four months before his death at the age of 23 in 1903, will be heard in Meiji Dances.
“I really enjoyed his music and, through the simplicity, you can hear in the first song that this was something very new to him; piano was new. It’s not a very complicated piece of music, but by the end, you can hear Japanese melodies along with Western melodies,” says Kusuzaki. “As you listen, you can hear the Japanese and the Western influences combining into one song.”
Just as in the artworks on display in “Meiji Modern – Fifty Years of New Japan,” Kusuzaki sees the combination of the new and the traditional as examples of “taking what works and what is beautiful,” which she also tries to do through collaboration with different artists and musicians.
“They each bring their world and their viewpoints, and it allows me to be more open,” says Kusuzaki. “It sparks new ideas and conversations. So, in many ways, the ideas continue to expand, and the world continues to open up.”
Meiji Dances will premiere at 7 p.m. on Thursday, August 22, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1001 Bissonnet. For more information, call 713-639-7300 or visit mfah.org. The program is included with museum admission.
“Meiji Modern – Fifty Years of New Japan” will be on view until September 15, 2024.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
