"Looking for Kenji", Step one - for the CSWC Tokyo,

konzept and realisation: Jean Laurent Sasportes and Tetsu Saitoh
music composition: Tetsu Saitoh
music interpretation: Tetsu Saitoh (double bass), Naoki Kita (violin)
texte interpretation: Naoki Kita, Jean Laurent Sasportes
dance: Jean Laurent Sasportes
with the participation of my students of the CSWC
duration: about 40 mn.

Since I became Professor adjoint at the Center for Studies of the World Civilizations, a departement of the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Roger Pulvers became my director and very quickly a dear friend of mine. He is a great and very honest person and when he proposed me to make a piece about Kenji Miyazawa and his poems, I answered yes, entouthiastic about the proposition, but not knowing what was expecting me. Kenji Miyazawa's universe is hudge and deep and being myself a "gaijin" I quickly understood that this work was not an easy one at all. I would certainly not have been able to conclude this work without the great help of Roger himself, and among all of Tetsu Saitoh who share with me the concept and realization of this work.

about Roger Pulvers:
Roger Pulvers is an American-born Australian author, playwright, theatre director and translator living in Japan. He has published 40 books in Japanese and English and, in 2008, was the recipient of the Miyazawa Kenji Prize. In 2009 he was awarded Best Script Prize at the Teheran International Film Festival for “Ashita e no Yuigon.” He is the translator of Kenji Miyazawa, Strong in the Rain: Selected Poems.

about Kenji Miyazawa:
Miyazawa Kenji has transcended the generations to become one of Japan's most read and best loved authors. Born over a hundred years ago in 1896 in Iwate Prefecture, he was only 37 at the time of his death. Kenji's literary works received scant attention during his lifetime and only two books were published before his passing: a collection of children's tales entitled "The Restaurant of Many Orders" and the first section of his most famous work of poetry, "Spring and Ashura." The remainder of the great number of children's stories and poems that he left behind was edited and published only posthumously, after which the richness and depth of his art finally gained wide recognition.

The version of "Looking for Kenji" that we proposed at the CSWC, was composed of four parts:
- Indra's Net dance inspired from the story "Indra's Net"
- Haratai swords dance inspired from the poem "Hataratai kenpahiren"
- Morning of last farewell inspired from the poem "Eiketsu no asa"
- The Winds are calling by the Front Door inspired from the poem "The Winds are calling by the Front Door".

"Looking for Kenji", Step two - for the Cafe Ada Dancetheater, Wuppertal, germany,
 
On the March 11, 2012, we presented a new version of our work "Looking for Kenji". This premiere was for an European public an proposed as a memorial event in regard to the dramatical catastrophe which happened one year before in Japan and devasted the region of Tohoku with a force nine earthquake and a deadly tsunami, similar to what happened to this same region on Kenji's birthday in 1896. for more information, please forwards