Ghosts and Golden Clouds

In Noh theatre (classical Japanese music drama), Japanese ghosts are usually upset females. Portrayed without feet because they have lost their connection to the earth, they are so filled with love, jealousy or rage that they won’t go peacefully into the night. Japanese believe ghosts are people who have died with an unpaid on — “debt” or “obligation.” If not repaid, the debt is passed down for generations, growing with each one like a snowball into an avalanche. Whole families, villages, countries can live under the dark cloud of an “on”. By then, nobody knows how to fix it. BUT – storytellers can help people remember what happened in the past. Love stories soften our hearts. Tales of wonder awaken awe in the world around us. Ghost stories remind us that after we are dead, what remains are the consequences of our actions. Master storyteller Brenda Wong Aoki, Emmy Award-winning contemporary jazz composer Mark Izu, and an ensemble of percussionists and Japanese instrumentalists will perform absorbing rich and haunting tales of Japanese ghosts.