Performing on deserted beaches and in villages, temples, dockland warehouses and urban railyards, few theater companies can have traversed the range of landscapes and settings that have inspired Osaka-based Ishinha.
Yet though journeys real and imagined have been key themes in Ishinha's recent works, with the death of its founder and artistic director, Yukichi Matsumoto, in June at age 69, its members have decided the company, too, has sadly run its course.
Next month, however, with Matsumoto presiding in spirit, Ishinha (meaning "revolutionary or radical change") will perform its final piece, titled "Amahara" ("Heaven Field"), in the grounds of the eighth-century Heijo Palace in Nara.