Performing Arts and Healing in Japan and India
Kyoko Takahashi, Ferris University, Japan
Performing Arts and Healing in Japan and India (paper)
I have two research projects about the relationship between performing arts and health. The first is a study of dances that pray for the healing of smallpox in Japan and India, and the second is a study about a martial art called kalarippayattu in Kerala, South India. In this presentation, I would like to talk about the first study focusing on the differences and similarities between Japanese and Indian performing arts. In the study, I have compared Japanese dance with Indian dance using glyph notation analytic procedures. The study findings clearly showed that the worship for the God of Smallpox occurred in various regions, regardless of their historical and cultural backgrounds. In Japan, the manekite (a performance of arms and hands) by a female dancer represents her beckoning and exorcising the God of Smallpox who brings smallpox. The motion is considered to represent the purge of impurities (i.e., smallpox). In India, in contrast, a male dancer plays the God of Smallpox, using his legs and feet. By being the god himself, he proves his power of purities without the threat of death. Both types of dances are performed in a sacred place by women or scheduled castes who play a double role of bringing a curse upon people and guarding them from the illness.
Kyoko Takahashi has been a member of Ferris University, Japan since 2012, where she is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies, Faculty of Letters. Previously she was Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Organization for the Strategic
Coordination of Research and Intellectual Properties, Meiji University, and served as Assistant Professor in the Open Education Center, Waseda University. She completed her PhD at Ritsumeikan University and undergraduate and graduate degrees at Ochanomizu University.
Her areas of specialization are Dance and Anthropology and Sports Anthropology. Her research interests lie in the relationship between performing arts and health in Japan and India using anthropological research methods. She holds a coaching position for dance, ballet, and kalarippayattu at several universities, and gives lectures on The Body as Cultural Expression and the Anthropology of Dance, Health, and Sports. She has given presentations on Japanese dance as prayer for healing smallpox in Nigeria, Ghana, and Korea, and has published on glyph notation, kalarippayattu, and dances to pray for the healing of smallpox.