Celebrating Japanese culture, history
Vancouver’s Powell Street Festival welcomes international guests for a weekend of fun
A great way to keep an ancient tradition alive and well is make it appeal to a modern audience. One way to do that is to get it into a blockbuster comic-book movie and another is to show it off at a popular public event.
Japanese calligraphy artist Kisyuu has both of those tactics covered.
Living in Vancouver since 2007, the Japanese native saw her calligraphy art appear on a wall during the Yakuza scene in the Ryan Reynolds’ film Deadpool 2.
“That was really cool to see. I love the movie,” said Kisyuu, who took International Studies at the University of B.C. and currently works as a student-information support person at UBC.
While the Deadpool 2 nod is pretty great, the art in the film is static and Kisyuu’s artistic passion is not. For her calligraphy is performance art.
Kisyuu will be showing off her skills during the 42nd annual Powell Street Festival on Aug. 4-5 in Vancouver. A celebration of all things Japanese the festival is a Downtown Eastside tradition that this year boasts over 50 acts, including international guests from Japan, Taiwan and New Mexico.
At the mainstage area in Oppenheimer Park, there will be 24 food vendors and 34 craft vendors. For her performance Kisyuu cranks the music and brings out the big canvases and big brushes.
“People are like, ‘Oh, wow. That is quite different than what I expected,’ “said Kisyuu, who this time will be working to pre-recorded music.
In the past, she has been a vendor at that festival selling her work and doing on-thespot commissions.
“I think for me it is so important to be there and expose people, all kinds of people, to calligraphy because calligraphy is very old and a very important Japanese cultural art,” said Kisyuu, adding that it was fading from view in Japan as people started to type more.
Enter her high-energy art, and an old dog has some much-needed new tricks.
“It’s good to have tradition to preserve and keep, but also it is good to have change,” said Kisyuu, who has done corporate workshops for big names like Microsoft and Netflix. “Even if people can’t understand what I am writing it is OK. That is one of the things the performance does. Even if you are not familiar with the Japanese language I want people to still feel the excitement. Look at the brush movement and how it is dancing.”
For four-plus decades the Powell Street Festival has celebrated Japanese culture and more importantly exposed it to others. Last year, 17,000 people showed up for the two-day, annual event and organizers expect even more folks out this year.
“People are recognizing the need to celebrate identity and culture, and our festival does work hard to be inclusive,” said Powell Street Festival artistic director Leanne Dunic. “All the programming is free, so there shouldn’t be barriers to attendance.”
For a festival to last as long as this one has is quite an accomplishment. It takes clever curating and people, all kinds of people, to maintain this level of success.
“I think a big part of it is that it is an intergenerational festival,” said Dunic. “It started in 1977 and those people who started it still are involved, a lot of them. Their kids are involved and there are people who came as children are now volunteers or are on the board. We have connections to so many different ages and backgrounds of people.”
Keeping a festival alive also means keeping it fresh. A highlight in the what’s-new category for this year’s event is the festival launching and supporting a B.C. tour by renowned percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani.
The tour will see the gong master hit a handful of B.C. communities and teach the gong to different musicians.
“That is a really unusual and new thing for us,” said Dunic of the gong- engagement project that will see bands being formed in Vancouver, Whistler, Penticton, Kootenay Bay and New Denver.
It’s worth noting that there
are a handful of other sites — just short walks from Oppenheimer Park — that are hosting festival events. Included in those off-site presentations is a show at Centre A Gallery (268 Keefer St.) with works from international visual artists Chiharu Mizukawa and Nao Uda.
This festival has something for everyone.
“I would like to inspire people however we can. It is definitely something I try to achieve through my programming choices,” said Dunic.
Dunic points to Nakatani as someone who fulfils her programming philosophy.
“(Nakatani) really represents that,” says Dunic. “He is doing a solo show on the Saturday at Firehall Theatre and seeing him play, wow. He uses broken cymbals, all these things you wouldn’t think someone would use for percussion and it is so inspiring. On top of that he gets really involved with local musicians. To have that exchange of knowledge and then those musicians can go back and think about their musical practice. That’s great.”
For poet Soramaru Takayama the Powell Street Festival is a chance to leave the solitary life of a writer and engage with an audience and other artists. His Powell Street Festival performance will be supported by musicians Japanese shakuhachi flute performer Kofu and koto artist Vi An.
“My poetry performance style is sometime theatrical like a play, sometimes involving audience to complete the performance,” said Takayama. “For this year, I asked great musicians to help me make a fun stage. I plan to ask the audience to participate in one of my poems, too. Let’s make a poetry event fun together!”