Artist
Yae Yamamichi
Born in 1995, Kochi Prefecture. She has been familiar with Kabuki and Bunraku since childhood, studying gidayu shamisen under Yanotayu Takemoto from the age of six and hogaku-hayashi under Sako Tanaka and Yoko Mochizuki respectively from the age of ten. After attending the Music High School Attached to the Faculty of Music, Tokyo University of the Arts, she went on to graduate from the Department of Musical Creativity and the Environment of the Faculty of Music, Tokyo University of the Arts. She has been a member of Kinoshita-Kabuki since 2018. She is a recipient of the Creator’s Scholarship awarded by the Kuma Foundation.
She composes new songs of gidayu-bushi based on the motif of classic works and uses them to stage dramas and contemporary dance performances. Her work is characterized by a unique method of “classical collage” developed from her study of the yatsushi theater style of Chikamatsu Monzaemon, the author of jōruri Japanese classical dramas. Through her works, she revives the latent contemporaneity of the classics and provides opportunities to rediscover the familiarity of stories that are often considered a far remove from today. Representative works include “Illuminating Hokusai’s Works through Gidayu and Contemporary Dance” and “Shuten-dōji—Retold Through the Gidayu Shamisen and Contemporary Dance”.
In addition to actively providing music for other productions and collaborating with artists, she is involved in a wide range of activities to promote the classics, including cooperation with the writing of contemporary theater performances, writing columns about Kabuki plays, serving as an assistant instructor for courses, and leading workshops that offer the experience of traditional Japanese music.
