Dancers of Hanayagi Rokufukumi-kai perform at the Nisei Week Opening Ceremony on July 14 at JANM.
By GWEN MURANAKA
RAFU SENIOR EDITOR
“To continue this, that’s the important thing,” emphasized Nisei Week Choreographer Hanayagi Rokufukumi.
Subtle movements and grace define the dancing of Hanayagi Rokufukumi, who vividly remembers her first Nisei Week. Her given name is Sharon Asao and she recalled being a little girl, excited by the colorful spectacle and wanting to join in.
“Nisei Week came around and my mom had my brother in her arms and she said, ‘Oh, she can go join the public dance.’ I started from point one and I went all the way through the parade. My dad in the meantime was following me around, trying to pull me out of the parade,” she said.
Her enthusiasm for dance was apparent as her mom waited for her to finish the parade.
“Mom waited for me to the end. That’s when they said, ‘You know, she likes dancing’ — so much that my grandmother got me a teacher,” she said.
Hanayagi Rokufukumi wants everyone to feel that same joyous energy, so her dances for this year’s parade are meant to be easy to learn. The accompanying songs are Takashi Hosokawa’s “Wasshoi Nippon” and Fuyumi Sakamoto’s “Fuyumi no Soran Bushi.”
“They are upbeat … yet slow enough for everyone to catch on. In two days you’l know both dances right away,” she said. “You want the community to come out for the street dance. I would love to have more of the people who live around here to join the public dance but i had to make it simple enough for everyone to learn the steps.”
Nisei Week Choreographer Hanayagi Rokufukumi
Hanayagi Rokufukumi and her dancers have performed throughout Southern California and she even performed for former President Dwight D. Eisenhower during one of his California visits.
She describes the Hanayagi-Ryu style of dance as subtle. The wonderful tradition of Japanese dance in the Nisei Week Grand Parade means that each choreographer brings their own style and spin to the dances, with the same goal of delighting the crowds in Little Tokyo.
Hanayagi Rokufukumi was taught by the late Hanayagi Rokumiye and earned her shihan(teaching certificate) and senmombu(specialty instructor) degree from Grand Master Hanayagi Jusuke Ill. Working in the accounting department at Southern California Edison, she saved up her vacation time to go to Japan for the tests. The training in Japan was arduous, and she even developed shin splints due to the difficulty of the movements.
“Over here I’m taught to dance with my heel up; in Nihon they dance with your heel down. So I pulled a muscle back here. Luckily I had a month to recover. I did all kinds of soaking and asked my mom to send me some Ben Gay,” she said, smiling.
Joann Shin Cordeiro, Nisei Week Foundation president, praised Rokufukumi for her dedication to her art and to Nisei Week.
“We all come back and celebrate Japanese and Japanese American culture, but most importantly we celebrate community,” Shin Cordeiro said. “Now she is carrying on those traditions, teaching odori to the next generation. It really anchors us back to this community and Litttle Tokyo. She embodies the spirit of what Nisei Week is all about.”
The Nisei Week choreographer said that the stories the dances tell are important. She said she is hopeful that subsequent generations will continue to the traditions.
“Odori to me is teaching people what it is, it is more a cultural thing. I want them to know that this was part of your culture. There were fishermen and this is how they celebrated. There were tonosama(feudal lords) and this was how they walked,” Rokufukumi said.
“I wanted to basically teach everybody that this is you.This is part of youand anybody who wanted to learn about the Japanese culture. That’s how I felt and I still feel that today.”