Naoko Adachi writes:

Little did I dream that I would be coming to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2008 all the way from Tokyo. I didn't even know until 6 months ago that the world's largest annual art festival takes place there. Aseries of coincidences led me to where I am now.

I have been serving as a co-ordinator for the Japanese sword performance troupe Kamui and, as many of you can imagine, I've been overwhelmed by all the things which needed to be done in order to bring a performing company to Edinburgh. But I am grateful that I have been involved in this because the entire experience gave me a chance to see a whole new world of performance art, which I was not familiar with.

The series of coincidences started when I first came across Kamui's web site. After many years of training in Aikido (Japanese martial arts), I took an interest in handling weapons. I was searching the internet for a class where I could learn Tate or Tachimawari, which means samurai sword performance in Japanese. I would describe it as a mixture of sword martial arts and performance, although Kamui may say otherwise.

Kamui was offering workshops on a regular basis in Tokyo, so I went for a trial class at the end of 2006. I went with my son who was on his Christmas break. The workshop time conflicted with picking my son up from school during term-time, so I knew that I wouldn't be able to continue then. My son and I really enjoyed the trial class. We learned how to handle a sword and how to slash people - of course, usually only wooden swords are used. Also we were impressed by the way Kamui members died in a realistic and artistic way, which I have not been able to master yet.

But most of all, we were stunned to see their demonstration of sword fighting at the end of the class. I was anxious to learn sword fighting technique from them, but I knew my schedule would not allow me to. I was frustrated and almost losing hope. But I thought 'I've got nothing to lose'. I asked one of the members if there was any possibility that the workshop schedule could be changed. He said 'Oh, we are going to change it starting next month', which miraculously fitted my schedule. I instantly registered as a workshop student and have been training with them ever since.

A year and a half later, Kamui decided to go back to Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2008, but did not know how to deal with all the paperwork they needed to fill out in English since they were not English speakers. There I was, someone who had lived in the US for a total of 9 years and who speaks English. Coincidentally, I had been wondering what I could do to contribute to introducing traditional Japanese culture to an overseas audience. Living in the US helped me open my eyes and realise how unique and precious Japanese traditional culture is. I started almost to feel that it was my job to spread the word. But I didn't know where to start. So when this opportunity came up, I realised that promoting Kamui as a performing troupe would also help spread Japanese traditional culture overseas.

My work as a coordinator started in January 2008. I was overwhelmed by the amount of information such as the venue list, a couple of 50-page-long manuals (I translated one of them!), venue information and contracts. I also had to hunt for accommodation and help with publicity and so on, all of which made me realise how big the event was. Sometimes I had to make international calls to Edinburgh to make some things clear. All the people I talked to were very courteous and pleasant, which was encouraging. And e-mail and Skype were very useful. Calling Edinburgh from Tokyo through Skype cost only 2.38 yen (about £0.01p) per minute, which I think was a great deal.

As all of the paperwork and arrangements were finally coming close to being completed, I hoped that I hadn't forgotten to submit something. Kamui participated in Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2006 with another Japanese drum group. I asked one of the Kamui members, Mr Akiharu Tanaka, what he remembers most about that particular festival and what he anticipates this time. Here is what he wrote.

Akiharu Tanaka writes:

On 10 August 2006, I was at Edinburgh Airport waiting for my flight to Heathrow Airport. That was the year Kamui took part in Edinburgh Festival Fringe for the first time. After the whole run, I was scheduled to go back to Japan by myself earlier than the rest of the members since there was another job waiting for me in Tokyo.

Edinburgh Airport was totally packed with people on that day. I was stunned to see such a sight. I am used to seeing trains packed with people all the time in Japan, but I had never expected that I would run into something like that outside of Japan! But a taxi driver who drove me to the airport said something must be wrong, since the airport had never got crowded like that before.

I found out later that there had been an attempted terrorist attack in London. But nobody at Edinburgh Airport mentioned that at that time. Probably they wanted to avoid the commotion and anxiety, which I understand. But I was desperate as I was supposed to connect to a flight to Narita, Japan from London on that very day.

As I recall, flights to London were cancelled one after another. I lined up for two hours along with a big crowd of people to have my flight changed. But when I got to the airline desk, for some reason I was almost put into a flight to Frankfurt. I thought for a second, 'Sausages and beer may not be a bad idea', but you know, and I needed to go back to the country of sushi!

In the end, all the flights to London were cancelled, and an irritated airline staff member even yelled at me to 'Go home!' I wanted to argue with her by saying 'My home is Japan' but I couldn't, since I didn't speak English. She turned around and said 'If you want to go to London, you will have to take a train.' I walked out of the airport confused.

The Edinburgh sky was clear and blue, which comforted me and helped me think more positively. But I knew the weather in the UK changes quite continually. It could get cloudy and drizzly in any moment. I just hoped things would get better the next day. On the following day, Edinburgh Airport was still the same, packed with people. The only difference was that there were policemen with machine guns, and dogs sniffing for possible explosives. There was a great deal of tension in the airport.

But my biggest concern at that time was whether I could actually get on the flight I had made a reservation for the day before, after queuing for many hours. Fortunately, the reservation was confirmed, but I didn't have a chance to catch my breath. That was because I was told that for some reason, they had to put me on an earlier flight. I had to run as fast as possible to the gate to catch the airplane. By the time I got to the gate, I was out of breath and worn out. But at least, I got there just in time for the flight.

When I got on board, I said to myself in excitement 'Finally, I can go home!' After the plane took off, I saw the city of Edinburgh through the window. I stared at it as long as possible so that I wouldn't forget how beautiful it was. Then I closed my eyes in great relief. Suddenly, it came to me that I may have forgotten something in Edinburgh. But I told myself 'Oh well, I will worry about it later', and fell into a deep sleep.

When I look back on those days I spent in Edinburgh, I felt I was in a totally different world. There was a historical castle, which I usually only see in computer games, stoned roadways, blue sky, and white clouds. I loved the big pastures which stretched as far as the eye could see. I felt as if I was in a scenic wonderland. Everyday I experienced something new, and the whole time I had the feeling that I was in a dream.

Ever since I started to perform sword fights, I have been contemplating the reason why. I think the clue is somewhere in the distance waiting for me to discover. On the flight back to Japan, I had a dream in which I was running towards an indistinct light which I believed was a clue. But the light kept running away from me as I got closer.

Even after I came back to Japan, I couldn't forget the dream. Since Kamui is going back to the Festival Fringe 2008, I am hoping that I will be able to figure out what that ambiguous light was. It must be something which I forgot in Edinburgh the last time, something waiting to be discovered.

END

(c) Tanaka Akiharu & Naoko Adachi 1 August 2008

Kamui perform Samurai Spirit at Zoo Southside, 22:30pm, at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2008

Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012

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