Gertrude Yukie Tsutsumi

Japanese classical dancer
Headshot of a woman.

Photo by Kenneth Photography

Bio

Gertrude Yukie Tsutsumi, also known by her stage name Onoe Kikunobu, is one of the premier nihon buyo (Japanese classical dance) artists in Hawaii and has been studying the tradition for more than 50 years. Nihon buyo is a dance form that developed in the 17th century with roots in kabuki and noh, two styles of drama that include elaborate make-up and costumes.

Tsutsumi began training when she was eight years old at the Bando School in Honolulu. In 1956, she traveled to Tokyo to continue her dance education with Onoe Kikunojo I and was granted her shihan (master of dance diploma) a year later. She was bestowed the natori (professional name) of Onoe Kikunobu, which allowed her to open her own school and bestow professional names as well.

In 1964, Tsutsumi opened the Kikunobu Dance Company in Hawaii to teach a new generation of students Japanese classical dance, and as of 2014, 13 students under her tutelage have been recognized as master dancers. In addition to presenting concerts, Tsutsumi also choreographs new works for the students and holds workshops and demonstrations. She has collaborated with a number of local groups, including the Honolulu Theatre for Youth, the Mānoa Valley Theatre, and Kumu Kahua Theatre, helping support local playwrights in the process.

Since 1980, she has been a lecturer in the University of Hawaii's Department of Theatre and Dance, where she has been the principal dance and movement resource for their productions of Japanese kabuki theater with English translation. Tsutsumi continues to reach students not only in Hawaii, but also on the mainland United States at the request of several of her former students who now teach Japanese dance at universities and colleges throughout the country.

In 2002, Tsutsumi received a Folk & Traditional Arts Apprenticeship grant from the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. In 2004 she received the Silversword Award for Cultural Excellence from the Pan-Pacific Festival. Internationally, Tsutsumi received the honor of performing on the stages of well-known theaters in Tokyo such as the Kabuki-za, Shinbashi Embujo, and the National Theater of Japan in dance productions produced by Onoe Kikunojo I and Kikunojo II. In addition to running her dance company, Tsutsumi worked as an elementary school teacher for 30 years.

Interview with Gertrude Tsutsumi by Josephine Reed for the NEA
September 30, 2015

Edited by Holly Neugass

NEA: How would you describe traditional Japanese dance? What are its characteristics?

GERTRUDE TSUTSUMI: Well, the nihon buyo that I do stems a lot from noh and kabuki, which is the old, old traditional dances. We get some influences from old folk dances, and we use this inventory to choreograph modern things, but we keep very much to our tradition that's based on noh and kabuki.

NEA: To the casual observer it seems that the movements are very, very slow and very, very deliberate.

TSUTSUMI: Well, there are all kinds of dances—ones that are slow and deliberate and those that are fast-tempo and a lot of rhythm and footwork lifting them up.

NEA: You were raised in Hawaii. When did you first see traditional Japanese dance?

TSUTSUMI: My parents exposed me a lot—they introduced me to a lot of these artworks.

NEA: Did you know it was something you wanted to do?

TSUTSUMI: Yes. I was interested. Because otherwise I wouldn't have stuck with it this long. <laughs> I'd learned all throughout my school years, and when I got my teaching degree I decided I wanted to go to Japan to study further. So I waited for two years and got my professional leave and went for a whole year, and then another time another year, and ever since then it's been about every summer or winter vacation.

NEA: Tell me about that first trip to Japan. You went to Tokyo?

TSUTSUMI: Yes, I went to Tokyo, and it's a big city. It’s overwhelming, and you have to go according to their protocol and the protocol that goes along with the dance group.

NEA: Explain what the regimen was like for you when you went there. How did they teach you? Because there's a lot involved.

TSUTSUMI: The teacher I went to was very strict. I had learned dancing before, but the way I held my fan got fixed and after I learned that, it became very easy to use it. The fan didn’t manipulate you, but you manipulated the fan. And also the eye level has to change. My teacher said to look beyond the wall and not inside the building. Also, when you're standing in the back, if you're going to put an instrument down, that's not a place to rest. You have to be dancing all the time and things like that were a big change for me. Even walking—you have to breathe a certain way to come out smoothly.

NEA: What about learning about the hair, the makeup, the costume? Because that's a great part of the dance as well.

TSUTSUMI: Well, fortunately in Japan we had the costumer and the makeup artist and the wig person, so when we had a dance recital all you do was take your body there. Some people like to make their own faces up, though, so that's the difference when you do it in Hawaii. You have to cope with all of this problems. So when I have a concert, I try to make it as close as possible for my students to what I experienced in Japan. We save up a lot of money and invite the costumer, and he brings the costumes and dresses us. The wig comber comes with the wigs and a person who helps to do our makeup.

NEA: You earned a shihan when you studied in Japan, and that meant you were given a professional name. Can you explain the significance of that?

TSUTSUMI: There are two steps actually. You get a professional name, which makes you able to dance with that name. Then there's another level where you have to take a test, and that's when you get your shihan, the right to teach and give out names.

NEA: Does the name signify your style of teaching?

TSUTSUMI: It signifies a style of teaching of the Onoe school that I belong to, and my name stems from Onoe Kikunojo, so my name is Onoe Kikunobu. So wherever we give out names, you can tell from the stem of the words who your teacher was.

NEA: So it's almost like a family tree for dance.

TSUTSUMI: Yes, it's a family tree. You have the main teacher, the iemoto, and above him is what you call a soke. For us, the soke is the member of the kabuki family that established this style of dancing. He gave that to the first iemoto, who is my teacher, so my school is pretty young. Right now we're on the fourth iemoto and the third Onoe Kikunojo.

NEA: You opened a school in 1964 called Kikunobu, and it's a dance company actually. Tell me why you wanted to open a dance company in Hawaii.

TSUTSUMI: Well, we’re often asked to perform for people, and we're a company. I felt that the dancers would be more responsible about performing, and they would dedicate themselves to learning more and more if we became a coherent group.

NEA: When you are teaching do you find that this is a tradition that younger generations are interested in learning?

TSUTSUMI: Very few, and if they get interested sometimes it's the parents' influence. Once in a while you find a gem that will stay on, but many children start and then they get interested in a marching band and other kinds of club activities, or they go away to university to another state. The people I have and the ones who I've brought with me for this program have been with me for about 40, 50 years, so they've stayed loyal.

NEA: What does it feel like when you're dancing? What's the feeling that you have?

TSUTSUMI: Well, I forget about myself, and I put myself into the role or the meaning of what nature is supposed to show or what emotion is supposed to be given. So many times I don't think of what I'm doing, I'm thinking about what the dance is supposed to communicate to people.

NEA: You choreograph dances with a very old tradition, but you're also making it new. Talk about how you juggle those two things.

TSUTSUMI: Knowing a lot about the old traditional movements gives me material to work with. So I use this as an inventory and knit them into parts that may be for the contemporary dance. When I start to choreograph, it doesn't only stay within Japanese movements. I have my background material to fall on, which is what I use.

NEA: When you're choreographing Japanese dance specifically, do you have a story in mind or do you think of a feeling that you're trying to evoke?

TSUTSUMI: Well, most of the dances are based on our music that has a story that you can follow. You must be responsible for what you choreograph, because you don't want to choreograph something that is not telling the truth about the song. So we have a responsibility to be honest, and if we don't know, then we look it up.

NEA: You have been a lecturer at the University of Hawaii's Department of Theatre and Dance since 1980. Can you tell me about what you do there?

TSUTSUMI: Well, I retired. But I would show the students at the beginning what you do with their hands, legs, arms, and feet. I also taught them what the dance involves, like slapping or stamping and head movements. Then from that we get into a short dance at first.

NEA: They have kabuki theater with English, and you choreograph for that. Tell me about that.

TSUTSUMI: That is basically what I see on the regular stage. I use their material, so before the program the professor in charge always sends the students to my place for training in movement involving the Japanese kimono. They learn how to dress themselves and fold their clothes.

NEA: How is Japanese movement different from Western movement?

TSUTSUMI: For one thing, the rhythm that you dance to. Some things we can dance to one-two-three, two-two-three, or one-two-three-four, but many of our dances we can't do that. Japanese movement doesn’t use numbers. You have to know the music to feel the movements and know when to do something.

NEA: Does the costuming have any meaning?

TSUTSUMI: The costumes are designed for each specific dance so they have to have meaning that way. If your dance is about cherry blossoms, you would like to have something with cherry blossoms if it's possible.

NEA: What's at the heart of kabuki theater?

TSUTSUMI: To begin with, it's a traditional theater where the families go down the line, and they teach their students the traditional movements for the play. Many times the movements are already set, and they know exactly what to do because they've been watching their parents and they've been taught. Many times you have a production without having a director. If you're given a certain role, you know what to do. So when you put the play together, the actors know what to do and interact with each other. It's really non-directed; it's handed down traditionally.

NEA: In Japan, is Japanese dance in danger of being lost or is there more interest among younger people?

TSUTSUMI: Interest in traditional dances is sort of dying down. That's what I'm worried about. Many young people prefer the contemporary folks' dances or the modern Japanese dances, and so the area of traditional dances is sort of dying down. Even musicians are hard to find.

NEA: There's a kind of history of a nation or of a people I think that you can find in art or in culture that you don't necessarily find in books. Do you agree?

TSUTSUMI: Yes, I do. Many of our dances are so-called jidaimono, which are based on history. So you learn a lot about what happened, and many times the emotional side is shown and you learn a lot about the different parts of Japan and what the culture of that part is.

NEA: You have been given a National Heritage Fellowship award. What does this award mean to you?

TSUTSUMI: It was a big surprise and a big honor for me. I never believed I would be given such a prestigious award, but now that I got this I feel more responsible in making sure that the tradition is carried on and training my students to follow through.

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