天下 (Tenka)

天下

as in “descent from heaven”, or “heavenly rule”

According to the Kojiki, and the Nihon Shoki, the Japanese imperial family is directly descending from Amaterasu and Susanoo. After reading that, I imagined how the spirit of Amaterasu would descent from heaven and continuously reincarnate from one emperor to the next. And then also, how the spirit or her wild and reckless brother Susanoo would accompany her, always reincarnating into the emperor’s historic counterpart. (From the early shamanic priestesses, to strong clan leaders like Soga no Umato, the shoguns and later the military leaders.)

So in this contemporary physical theatre performance, we pass all of Japanese history, from it’s mythological creation; the birth of Amaterasu and Susanoo; their descending from heaven through Ninigi and then passing through 2679 years and 126 individual emperors (and empresses) to arrive at more or less today.

For me personally it was a most interesting journey into the spirit of Japanese leadership. And I am highly indebted to my dear colleagues Megumi and Mayo who have been working to their utmost limits to help to create this performance.