TIME weaves a poignant tale inspired by Natsume Soseki's Ten Nights of Dreams. It revolves around a man who becomes obsessed with his deceased wife's grave, losing all sense of time until a white lily blooms on the tombstone, jolting him to realize that a hundred years have passed. Collaborating maestros Ryuichi Sakamoto and director Shiro Takatani conjure a dreamlike Noh theater experience that transports audiences beyond time. Set in a tranquil courtyard stage, partly submerged in a reflective pool, the dancer Min Tanaka and the shō virtuoso Mayumi Miyata. Ryuichi Sakamoto music, blending minimalist piano solos from async and the lush score from The Sheltering Sky, creates a timeless “operatic” masterpiece without libretto.

Premiere: 18 June 2021, Holland Festival, Gashouder, Amsterdam (NL).

Sound & Concept / Ryuichi Sakamoto

Tokyo-born Ryuichi Sakamoto made his solo debut with Thousand Knives and co-founded YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA (YMO). Post YMO, he continued to be active in multiple fields, and his film score works earned him a British Academy Award for Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence and an Academy Award, Grammy, and more for The Last Emperor. From 2000, he was committed to artistic venture, releasing async in 2017, and Ryuichi Sakamoto: async exhibition was organized to showcase the album  in various forms at the Watari Museum of Contemporary Art. He collaborated with Shiro Takatani on IS YOUR TIME at ICC, Tokyo in 2018.

Visual Design & Concept / Shiro Takatani

Shiro Takatani was born in 1963 in Nara Prefecture, Japan. In 1984, Takatani joined art collective DUMB TYPE and contributed to various productions performances and multimedia installations which were staged and exhibited in theaters, museums, and art centers around the world. In 1998, Takatani began producing his independent works alongside with DUMB TYPE projects with appearances at venues like Grec Festival Barcelona, Theatre der Welt 2008, Festival de Otoño Madrid, Festival de Marseille, New National Theatre Tokyo, and exhibitions at Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin, ZKM Karlsruhe, Centre Pompidou-Metz (France), Power Station of Art Shanghai, Sharjah Biennale (UAE).

Dancer / Min Tanaka

Capturing Min Tanaka 's essence in the realms of theater, dance, music, or art is a challenge. His avant-garde and experimental approach to dance is encapsulated by his aphorism: "I don't dance in a space. I dance the space." Beginning with his classical ballet and modern dance studies in 1966, he has honed a unique dance style since 1974. Tanaka made his debut in Paris in 1978, collaborating with numerous intellectuals and artists, resulting in over 3000 dances to date. In 2002, he ventured into film with The Twilight Samurai, leading to appearances in various Japanese and international films, dramas, and videos.

Shō Player / Mayumi Miyata

Miyata is a renowned artist responsible for the global dissemination of the traditional shō instrument. Beyond classical Gagaku, she has premiered contemporary works by composers like Toru Takemitsu, John Cage, Helmut Lachenmann, Toshio Hosokawa, and more. Miyata has graced the stage with numerous orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Opera Orchestra of Belgium, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre national de Lyon, Munich Chamber Orchestra, and many other top orchestras at home and abroad. She's been part of prestigious music festivals like Salzburg, Lucerne, and Tanglewood, performing recitals in cities like Vienna, Paris, and New York.

Dancer / Rin Ishihara

In 1994, she debuted in the music-image drama Hamlet: The Pale Cast of Thought. In 1996, she performed with Hideo Kanze, a prominent Noh actor, in Min Tanaka’s stage production of A Thousand Years of Pleasure. In 2006, she began a full-fledged solo career, and her ongoing series of works The Showa Era—What’s the Weight of Its Body? with music by Keiji Haino and choreography by Min Tanaka, has become one of her major works. She is Min Tanaka’s one and only “disciple” and concurrently his manager and producer navigating his projects together. She also participates in directorial aspects of his performances, such as joining his site-specific and improvisational dance project Locus Focus as a live sound operator.

TIME

by Ryuichi Sakamoto + Shiro Takatani

Sound & Concept / Ryuichi Sakamoto

Visual Design & Concept / Shiro Takatani

Dancer / Min Tanaka, Rin Ishihara

Shō player / Mayumi Miyata

Noh flute / Rokurobyoue Fujita, the11th grand master of Fujita School of Noh flute (recorded in June, 2018)

Lighting Design / Yukiko Yoshimoto

Media Authoring & Programing / Ken Furudate, Satoshi Hama, Ryo Shiraki

Costume Design / Sonya Park

Costume Production / ARTS & SCIENCE

Production Manager / Simon MacColl

Stage Manager / Nobuaki Oshika

Front of House Engineer / ZAK

Sound Technician / Takahisa ISHIDA

Lighting Technician / Seishiro OKUMURA

Produced by Richard Castelli, Norika Sora, Yoko Takatani

In co-production with Holland Festival - Amsterdam, deSingel - Antwerpen, Manchester International Festival, PARCO Co., Ltd. – Tokyo, National Performing Arts Center – National Taichung Theater

In collaboration with Dumb Type Office, KAB America Inc., Epidemic

Production & Tour Management / Richard Castelli, Florence Berthaud (Epidemic)