Presented by OLTA, a Tokyo-based artist group that has developed humorous and provocative works through negotiating the systems of visual/performing arts and sociological/folklore fieldwork, The Japanese Ideology encompasses six chapters of a performative analysis of the everyday forms that the ideology takes. “There seems to be a kind of arbitrary emotion that dominates life in Japan today. […] It is up to us to take on this boring but very urgent duty of exposing the staging of this desperate and stupid tragicomedy in our present society, not just in Japan.” (Jun Tosaka, The Japanese Ideology, 1935) In The Japanese Ideology by OLTA, will this “boring” performance transform into an “interesting” one? Or will it “drag down those who think they have been freed from the Japanese ideology and pull them back in”? (Yoshimi Takeuchi, The Japanese Ideology, 1952)
 
Chapter 1:  Signi cance of Dream
Chapter 2:  Liberation of Gestell
Chapter 3:  Right of Death
Chapter 4:  Acquisition of Calm
Chapter 5:  Rebellion of Voice
Chapter 6:  Truth of Ideology
 
Text: Meguninja
Direction: Jang-Chi
Performers: Toru Inoue, Yuka Uchida, Kaoruko Oyama, Yuki Kikuchi, Takafumi Saito, Reiko Takayama, Yuka Nakagawa, Meguninja
 
Scenography: OLTA
Stage Design: Yoshiro Hasegawa
Music: Takako Minekawa, Toru Inoue
Illustration: Takafumi Saito
Costume: Toru Inoue
Lighting: Takayuki Fujimoto (Kinsei R&D)
Video: Yoshiro Hasegawa, Meguninja, Yuka Nakagawa, Rudo Takebe, Kazuhide Shibata
Projection: Ludo Takebe, Kazuhide Shibata(Kanagawa)
Sound: Semmei Kai, Sosaku Wakatsuki (WHITELIGHT.Ltd)
Promotional Design: Deokjun Yoon
English Surtitles: Kei Ota
Korean Translation: Keunha Cho
Direction Assistant: Ami Yoshida(Kanagawa)
Management: Kumi Hiraoka(Kanagawa), Yuko Takeda(Kyoto)
Commissioned and Produced by Yokohama International Performing Arts Meeting
Co-produced by ROHM Theatre Kyoto
Research Support: Tatsuki Hayashi, Nohana Izumikawa, Rika Uechi, Shohei Nakamura, Umihiko Matsuo (Okinawa), Deokjun Yoon, Keunha Cho (Korea), YCAM InterLab
Cooperation: Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]
Sound provider: Jun Tsutsui
 
YPAM2023 (https://ypam.jp)
Date: 2023.12.9(Sat)－17(Sun)
Venue: BankART Station
 
ROHM Theater Kyoto (https://rohmtheatrekyoto.jp/en/event/116257/)
Date: 2024.1.13 (Sat)、1.14. (Sun)
Venue: North Hall

Having researched the history of coal mines and miners in Hitachi, Ibaraki Prefecture, OLTA with this game / playing installation work (the experience can be completed with either one alone, in any order) questions the “gods” believed in and the “labor” dedicated to them in the present Japan, which has passed from the world of mythology to the age of modernization, and has been swept up in the postponed Olympics and the normalized state of emergency after the nuclear accident in Fukushima.
 
Game:
This is a game work that takes as its theme the social groups that supported modernization in the harsh labor environment of mining, and reads modern and contemporary history from the life and customs there, or from the traditions of festivals rooted in the land. The audience can download the game themselves and experience it using their own PCs. Players meet nine residents who are trying to organize a festival. Using the “Hitachi Mine” (closed in 1981), which was one of the largest copper mines in Japan, the mining city of Hitachi (Ibaraki Prefecture), which developed from the Hitachi Mine, and the “Hitachi Furyu Mono,” a giant float and karakuri puppet show, as specific clues, the player walks around the terrestrial world, simulating a different world of “exploring life in a mine. Once the exploration is complete, the festival begins. The floats respond to the player’s voice and proceed into the darkness of the underground world.
 
Land of the Living GAME〈TRAILER〉
https://youtu.be/DFJ_fhdqxBI
 
【Live talk①】Aida Family (Makoto Aida, Hiroko Okada, Torajiro Aida)
https://youtu.be/3K_v156Y_Ok
【Live talk②】Natsumi Aoyagi × Ryota Yamada
https://youtu.be/UqsQPD-WxBI
 
Playing Installation:
What kind of “mine” is the city in which we live? How do we use and are we made to use our bodies and words, where are we transported to, and what are we digging up and burying there as if that is what our lives are about? The audience inside the theater will be seated inside the installation, and the audience outside the theater will be looking inward through images, both experiencing a journey that opens up a new vision of nature/city/labor.
 
YPAM
https://ypam.jp/archives/dr76?lang=en
 
YPAM2021 Direction, KAAT Kanagawa Arts Theatre, Yokohama / Kobe Art Village Center, Hyogo / BUoY, Tokyo

Having researched the history of coal mines and miners in Hitachi, Ibaraki Prefecture, OLTA with this game / playing installation work (the experience can be completed with either one alone, in any order) questions the “gods” believed in and the “labor” dedicated to them in the present Japan, which has passed from the world of mythology to the age of modernization, and has been swept up in the postponed Olympics and the normalized state of emergency after the nuclear accident in Fukushima.
 
What kind of “mine” is the city in which we live? How do we use and are we made to use our bodies and words, where are we transported to, and what are we digging up and burying there as if that is what our lives are about? The audience inside the theater will be seated inside the installation, and the audience outside the theater will be looking inward through images, both experiencing a journey that opens up a new vision of nature/city/labor.
 
Date (UTC+9)
12.11 Sat 19:00
12.12 Sun 13:00
12.12 Sun 18:00
 
Venue
KAAT Kanagawa Arts Theatre, Middle Studio
281 Yamashita-cho, Naka-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa 231-0023
 
Language
Game: Japanese or English / Playing Installation: Japanese (English summary provided)
 
https://ypam.jp/program/detail/?id=land-of-the-living&lang=en