The International House of Japan in Roppongi, Tokyo, will bring a 270-year-old genre of music to life when it presents "Song, Story and Shamisen: Tokiwazu and the Soul of Japanese Music" on Feb. 9. Tokiwazu, a type of music known mainly for providing the accompaniment to kabuki, dates from the mid-18th century. It attempts to capture the spirit of a premodern Japan when the theater and geisha entertainment industries flourished.
The concert, held in the refurbished IHJ hall overlooking its Edo-Period Japanese garden, will include traditional and contemporary tokiwazu music from the Living National Treasure and member of the Japanese Art Academy, Eiju Tokiwazu, among others. Explanation will be given in English and Japanese.
The concert takes place on Feb. 9 (7 p.m.) at Iwasaki Ko- yata Memorial Hall, International House of Japan, Roppongi 5-11-16, Minato-ku, Tokyo. Tickets are 3,500 yen to nonmembers (tel. [03] 3470-3211). The IHJ is a short walk from Exit 3 of Roppongi Subway Station on the Hibiya and Toei Oedo lines.
For more information, visit www.i-house.or.jp
