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“I think that the Japanese culture is one of the very few cultures left that is its own entity. They’re just so traditional and so specific in their ways. It’s kind of untouched, it’s not Americanized.”

— Toni Collette

In addition to cultural exchange programs with musicians and artists invited from all over the world, Min-On has sponsored a comprehensive selection of concerts in Japanese traditional performing arts, such as Minyou (Japanese folk music), Nichibu (traditional dancing) and performances of Japanese traditional musical instruments, including the Taiko, Shamisen, Koto and Shakuhachi. Min-On has also developed an extensive network to promote wide-ranging music and theatrical performances unique to the Japanese cultural tradition—from Kabuki to Takarazuka musicals, from popular Kayo-kyoku to modern Japanese pop, from traditional Rakugo to modern Owarai talk shows—to as broad a range of Japanese audiences as possible.

Japanese Traditional Performing Arts Series
(136 installments)

Japanese Traditional Music Nagauta in 1974Japanese Traditional Music Nagauta in 1974 Japanese ArtJapanese Art
1970 Min-Bunren Folk Arts Association “The First Minyou Festival” (148 performances)
1972 Okinawa Song and Dance Group: “Inochi no Uta” (16 performances)
1973 Original Rokyoku performance “Wife in My Heart” (22 performances)
1974 Traditional Japanese Nagauta performance: “Minnano Hogaku” (13 performances)
1977 “Kikuno-kai” Japanese Dance Troupe: “Michinoku no Onna” (36 performances)
1980 Min-Bunren Folk Arts Association “Singing the Heart of Minyo” (28 performances)
1987 “Kodo” Japanese Taiko Drum Troupe performance (5 performances)
1988 Min-Bunren Folk Arts Association “The12th Minyou Festival” (15 performances)
1990 “Kikuno-kai” Japanese Dance Troupe: “Path of Wind” (10 performances)
1997 Min-Bunren Folk Arts Association “Naoyuki Harada and Wakatake” (23 performances)
1998 “Kikuno-kai” Japanese Dance Troupe: “Dancing the Heart of Japan” (2 performances)
2003 “Asuka-Gumi” Japanese Dancing Drum Troupe (35 performances)
2006 “Asuka” Japanese Dance Academy: “Taketori Monogatari” (3 performances)
2008 Japanese Koto Harp performance by Shoin Yamase VI (1 performance)
2009 “Hanayakara” Japanese Performing Art Show (29 performances)

Japanese Popular Music Series

Below is a sample from the hundreds of installments of this series.

Japanese ArtJapanese Art Shamisen ConcertShamisen Concert
1973 1st Long Recital: Noriko Awaya (43 performances)
1976 2nd Long Recital: Toshiro Konoe (58 performances)
1977 3rd Long Recital: Peggy Hayama (56 performances)
1978 4th Long Recital: Koichi Miura (48 performances)
1979 5th Long Recital: Yoshio Tabata (63 performances)
1980 6th Long Recital: Hideo Murata (81 performances)
1981 7th Long Recital: Chiyoko Shimakura (88 performances)
1996 Shinichi Mori concert tour across Kanto region (80 performances)
2003 Izumi Yukimura concert tour for the 50th anniversary of her debut (31 performances)
2005 Akira Fuse concert tour for the 40th anniversary of his debut (28 performances)
2006 Linda Yamamoto concert tour for the 40th anniversary of her debut (57 performances)
2009 Chikako Sawada with Akiko Kobayashi and Midori Kawashima (22 performances)
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