TIMELESS DANCE. "Passing the Fan," an exhibit currently on display at the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center in Portland’s Chinatown, focuses on nihon buyo, a traditional Japanese dance with roots in 16th-century Japan. The exhibit features costumes, props, photos, and more, from events such as Chisao Hata’s performance of "Barbed Blues" (above), a dance about the internment experience, and "Suisen Tanzen" (below) performed by Kazuko Kirkpatrick, left, and Kanhanae Fujima at Natsu no Odori in 1993. (Photos courtesy of Chisao Hata and Fujinami Kai)

From The Asian Reporter, V18, #12 (March 18, 2008), page 1 & 13.

By Josephine Bridges

Among the many fascinating items on display in the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center’s current exhibit, "Passing the Fan: Traditional Japanese Dance in Oregon," is the program from the first performance by Fujinami Kai — 50 years ago on March 22, 1958. March 22, 2008 might be an especially good day to visit, but you’ve got until April 27 to explore nihon buyo, a traditional Japanese dance with roots in 16th-century Japan and practitioners in contemporary Oregon.

Unlike kabuki, nihon buyo is practiced primarily by women, and "Passing the Fan" honors and celebrates the careers and teaching traditions of three women — Sahomi Tachibana, Kanriye Fujima, and Barbara Uyesugi — who, as master teachers (Sensei) of nihon buyo, brought the dance form to Oregon and have kept it flourishing for decades.

"Dance has been my life," says Sahomi Tachibana. Born Haruno Abey in 1924 in Mountain View, California, she was sent to Japan to study buyo at 11 years old. She received her natori, accreditation given to performers who have attained a high level of skill, and returned to California in November 1941, just prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Sent to internment camps in Tule Lake, California and Topaz, Utah along with more than 110,000 other people of Japanese ancestry, Sahomi Tachibana began her teaching career in these inhospitable locations, where she and her students staged grand performances. After the war, she moved to New York City, where she introduced Japanese dance to more than a million people in a Japanese-themed revue at Radio City Music Hall. She has been a resident of Portland since 1990, and it is here that she established Sahomi Tachibana Dance Studio, teaching buyo and traditional folk dances. Three of her students have attained natori.

Kanriye Fujima, born in Yamaguchi, Japan in 1923, began her dance studies at age six, took her natori with Tokyo’s Fujima School, and taught in Japan until coming to Portland in 1956. In 1960, she moved to Ontario, Oregon, where she makes her home today. As artistic director of Fujinami Kai, she travelled between the three school chapters in Ontario, Portland, and Spokane, Washington, teaching buyo to students of many cultural backgrounds for more than 50 years.

One of those students was Barbara Uyesugi, born in Tokyo, Japan. Though she had studied dance very little as a child in Japan, she developed an appreciation for traditional Japanese dance and culture when she moved to Portland in 1948. She studied for decades with Kanriye Fujima, assisting her during her stays in Portland, and attained her natori in 1983. Also known as Kanhanae Fujima, she is the current president of Fujinami Kai and gives dance lessons in the basement of her home.

A student of both Kanriye Fujima and Sahomi Tachibana, Chisao Hata, born in Des Moines, Iowa, has been a dancer from the age of five. She took her first lesson with Fujinami Kai after moving to Portland in 1978, but Chisao Hata has studied and taught modern dance, with a strong influence of Japanese dance, thanks largely to her studies with Sahomi Tachibana, whose "understanding of Japanese history, artistic expression, and an immense gracious spirit and generosity ... kept me involved in Japanese dance for many years."

The colors and patterns of the costumes in which these dances have been performed are nothing short of luminous. These gray days are a perfect time to feast your eyes on a red, green, and white kimono with gold metallic cranes. "The seams match," noted Linda Tanaka as she marvelled at the artistry evident in the kimono. There’s a sort of counterpoint in mood, though not in craftsmanship, in the form of a hot pink and fluorescent-green flowered kimono with big sequins at the floral centers. And that’s only the beginning, but you’ll have to see for yourself.

The Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center, located at 121 N.W. Second Avenue in Portland, is open from 11:00am to 3:00pm Tuesday through Saturday and noon to 3:00pm Sunday. For more information, call (503) 224-1458 or visit <www.oregonnikkei.org>.