Japanese scholar and performer Yuko Eguchi visits the Valley this week to illustrate the arts of the geisha, the traditional entertainers of Japan. She performs kouta, short songs delivered with accompaniment by shamisen (a stringed instrument), and koutaburi, a dance style for kouta. The kouta’s form (a line of 5 syllables, then two lines of 7 syllables) is reminiscent of haiku. No matter the song’s subject, the most important aspect of performance, Eguchi says, is iroke, which she translates as sensuality or eroticism. Eguchi studies these forms as part of her dissertation research for her PhD in ethnomusicology at the University of Pittsburgh.
The day before Eguchi’s UMass performance she offers, at Western New England University, another Japanese tradition: the tea ceremony, an art she has practiced for two decades. Afterward, Eguchi discusses the meaning and import of tea ceremony.
Tea ceremony: Sept. 29, 4 p.m., Clark Reading Room, D’Amour Library, Western New England University.
Performance: Sept. 30, 7:30 p.m., $10-15, Bowker Auditorium, UMass-Amherst, fac.umass.edu.
