DR. NAOHIKO UMEWAKA (JAPAN)
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DR. NAOHIKO UMEWAKA (Japan)

Dr. Naohiko Umewaka’s family lineage in the art of Noh dates back nearly 600 years. His great grandfather, Umewaka Minoru, is credited with saving Noh Theater from extinction during the Meiji Restoration in the 19th century. Noh literally means “potential.”  It is the oldest surviving form of classical Japanese theater. From the middle ages, aristocrats shaped Noh by shaping it to adhere to Zen-like principles of restraint and frugality of expression. Dr. Naohiko, trained by his father, the legendary Noh master Naoyoshi, has been performing since he was three, and played his first major role in Tsuchigumo at the age of nine. He has composed, choreographed, and directed a number of new Noh plays, including the Baptism of Jesus, which was performed on December 23, 1988, at the Vatican before St. Pope John Paul II. As well as performing with his troupe worldwide, he writes and directs new Noh plays as well as contemporary plays with Noh elements. He appeared as Emperor Hirohito in the 1995 film Hiroshima. Dr. Naohiko earned his Ph.D. in 1995 from the University of London and is currently a professor at Shizuoka University of Art and Culture in Hamamatsu, in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, where he does academic research on the concepts, philosophy, and internal choreography of Noh Theater.

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