This Halloween, get spooked by dramatic and haunting Japanese ghost tales performed by Brenda Wong Aoki with Emmy Award-winning Jazz composer Mark Izu, the taiko drums of Janet Koike & Kathryn Cabunoc, Anthony Brown on multiple percussion, Shoko Hikage on Koto, and Mas Koga on Saxophone and Shakuhachi.
In Japanese Noh theatre, the dead are more important than the living because the actions of the dead brought us to where we are today. Ghosts are usually upset females who won’t go peacefully into the night. The Japanese believe ghosts are people who have died with an unpaid debt. An unpaid debt is passed down for generations and grows like a snowball into an avalanche. Whole families, villages, countries live under the dark cloud of an unpaid debt, because by then, nobody knows how to fix it.
Storytellers help people remember the past, and ghost stories remind us that what remains after we are dead are the consequences of our actions.
This last MATCHA of the year also includes an art activity (make your own Noh mask), cash bars, docent tours and the exhibition Beyond Golden Clouds, which showcases dozens of large Japanese screens spanning five centuries. These masterpieces exemplify an ideal combination of function and beauty.
MATCHA: Ghosts & Golden Clouds
Thurs, October 28, 5-9 pm, $10 (includes entry to Beyond Golden Clouds)
Asian Art Museum
