I waited for the performance to begin, sitting amid the audience of 30 people or so, packed into the ground-floor room of a new building in the sprawling, nondescript suburbs of Yokohama.

The building was like any other concrete utilitarian structure, common to the ubiquitous shopping streets scattered throughout Japan, but the performance space was unique. The cold, bare concrete floor and walls had been made comfortable and even handsome by an overlay of old wood recycled from Japanese minka farmhouses. Seasoned, dark-brown cherry wood was used to make a raised stage, and the audience sat along its edges, as if peering into the living room of an old Japanese house from the sunken ground floor. Large slabs of keyaki (zelkova) wood were set as steps onto the stage, and overhead cabinets of old paulownia wood, sanded down to reveal new surface layers, emitted fresh, fragrant odors.

The evening performance we all waited for was Tsugaru shamisen and te-odori dance.

A young man entered and began the characteristic vigorous plucking of the Tsugaru melodies. The usual taiko drum was replaced by congas, and the percussionist carefully juxtaposed the drums' expressive, exotic beats to the complicated rhythms of the shamisen.

What the audience really had come to see, though, was the te-odori dance, performed by a pair of much-talked about 16-year-old twins.

As the music played, the backstage door opened, and two young girls appeared. Instantly, a collective gasp spread through the audience. The girls were pure kogyaru type, looking straight off the streets of Shibuya -- not at all what's expected of Tsugaru folk dancers. They were dressed in fashionable underwearlike outer garments, their hair dyed blond and faces darkly tanned.

I too wondered why these chapatsu kids had invaded the elegant performance space, but my reservations faded the moment they stepped on stage. Expertly they danced to the rhythms of the Tsugaru folk songs, rhythms and steps they had learned from a master dancer from early childhood.

After intermission, they re-appeared in brightly colored kimono and parasols, and danced in a more orthodox, yet youthfully energetic style. They looked as much at home in kimono as in their kogyaru clothes, and they were as charming in the deft execution of the dance as, after the performance, in talking and joking with the audience between calls to their boyfriends on their cellphones.

Manabiya Yuzan Bo, where this performance took place, is a new live performance center in Yokohama which defies the ordinary. Michiyuki Ninomiya began this project as a labor of love. A salaryman for most of his life, he began learning noh chant and dance as a hobby in his student days. Realizing that through noh and the other Japanese performing arts one was able to attain a kind of relaxed concentration and gentle repose, he quit his company job at age 50 and invested his retirement funds in creating Manabiya as a way to share his love of the arts of Japan with the community.

This he does with great style and taste. Spending much effort, time and money, he found old Japanese-style houses which were to be torn down and salvaged their timbers to create Manabiya's interior. The resulting space artfully blends the old with the new, creating a sense of familiarity without the formal stiffness so often found in the "traditional."

The same is true with his presentations of hogaku. Whether it be conga drums with Tsugaru shamisen or Shibuya teenagers dancing to folk tunes, it is refreshingly entertaining and, most importantly, not forced.

Manabiya is more than just a space for watching, however. Ninomiya has put together an impressive array of classes and workshops which cover just about all aspects of Japanese culture: calligraphy, Buddhist sculpture, pottery, noh chant and dance, washi paper-making and soba noodle-making. At this point, most of the students are locals, but the live performances are beginning to draw audiences from the greater Tokyo-Yokohama area.

Manabiya usually offers two hogaku programs each month. Prices for both lessons and performances are reasonable. Show tickets include a drink.

Manabiya Yuzan Bo live: May 20, "Kamigata Mai (Jiuta dance) with Koto and Sangen (shamisen)," featuring dancer Kasato Yoshimura with Keiko Hamuro on koto and sangen. May 27, "Storytelling and Popular Japanese Songs from the Early 20th Century," sung by Maiko Ikeda and accompanied by Midori Kamozawa on Electone. June 17, "An Evening of Stone and Bamboo Flute," performance of ancient iwabue stone flutes and shinobue festival flutes by Kaon Kai. June 24, "Kyogen by Young Actors of the Okura School of Kyogen," featuring Sentaro Okura.

All performances begin at 7:30 p.m., doors open at 7 p.m. Admission 1,800 yen in advance, 2,000 yen at the door, except June 24: 2,200 yen in advance, 2,500 yen at the door. Seating is limited to 30 persons, so reservations are suggested.

From Yokohama take the Yokohama Municipal Subway Line to Nakagawa Station; from Tokyo take the Tokyu Den'en Toshi Line from Shibuya to Azamino, change to Yokohama Municipal Subway Line and go one stop. Manabiya is a three-minute walk from Nakagawa Station, next to the Central Fitness Club.

For reservations or more information, call Manabiya, (045) 913-2725.

A much more upscale and pricey venue has appeared in Tokyo's fashionable Odaiba area. Tribute to the Love Generation opened last month in Sony Corporation's new entertainment venture, Mediage, and is committed to offering some of the best of hogaku along with other types of world music. This month one of Japan's most innovative musicians, Yukihiro Isso, will present a mixture of East, East and West with the sounds of the noh flute, Indian tabla drums and violin.