Morris Workshop in Kagawa

I am writing this blogpost on the Shinkansen bullet train travelling east to Kyoto. This morning I left Takamatsu, the principal city of the Kagawa Prefecture in the northeast of Shikoku Island, where I spent the last two days. Kagawa is famous for many things; its Buddhist temples, its delicious udon noodles, and providing the setting for Haruki Murakami's 'Kafka on the Shore'. Most importantly though—for me at least—it is the home of Sanuki Morris.

Sanuki Morris was formed in 2013 by Angela Fukutome who moved to Kagawa in 2008, but grew up in Prestbury near Macclesfield. (By coincidence, Macclesfield is also the location of my own morris side, Waters Green Morris!). After becoming acquainted with the thriving Irish music scene in Takamatsu—the city hosts an annual Irish festival as well as a range of classes and events—Angela decided that she wanted to learn a performance tradition that better reflected her own English background and heritage. Finding videos on YouTube of the John Gasson Jig Competition, held annually at Sidmouth Folk Week, she mooted the idea with whizz musician and stalwart of the Kagawa music community, Aya Akiyama. Aya was inspired by the LP, 'Morris On' (by Ashley Hutchings, Richard Thompson, Dave Mattacks, John Kirkpatrick and Barry Dransfield) and suggested that she and Angela begin performing some jigs together. For their first year, Sanuki Morris was a two-person outfit, with Angela dancing solo jigs and Aya playing concertina and accordion. By their second year, they had gathered a whole team of performers keen to give morris dancing a try! Now approximately ten persons strong, Sanuki Morris dance in the Fieldtown tradition and have appeared at numerous festivals, shopping centres and events across Kagawa.

The main motivation—or excuse!—for my visit (as if I needed one!) was to host a morris dancing workshop at a community centre in Angela’s home town of Shogisho. Sanuki Morris enjoyed a brief hiatus during 2017, so the workshop represented an ideal opportunity for the dancers to come together again to try out a few new dances. Without question, however, the privilege was mine, providing a perfect setting to meet the dancers and learn more about the group. (Watch out for my ‘Meet Sanuki Morris’ blog post coming in the next few days!)

Although Sanuki Morris performs a very English-identified dance, the group have embraced a range of uniquely Japanese elements. For example, the team are named for the former province of Sanuki—now known as Kagawa—where the Sanuki Mountains run along the southern edge of the border with Tokushima. At the same time, the sticks clashed by the dancers are not made from hazel or ash, as is common for morris sides in the UK, but instead re-purpose the distinctive rolling pins used to make udon noodles, for which the region is justly renowned. 

During the workshop, I taught two dances in the Adderbury tradition. The first was a stick dance called ‘Brighton Camp’ and the second a hankie dance, called ‘Haste to the Wedding’—both perennials of the Waters Green Morris repertoire (thanks guys!). It turned out that ‘Haste to the Wedding’ was the first hankie dance that Sanuki Morris had performed together as a side, but the members were so quick to pick up the stepping and figures that by the end they could perform both dances flawlessly! Music was very kindly provided by Isao and Masako Moriyasu, two Tokyo-based musicians who were in town after a fabulous house concert in Takamatsu the previous evening.

Before I arrived in Japan, I had heard about the wonderful hospitality shown towards visitors (it turns out that there’s even a name for it: ‘omotenashi'), but even I was not prepared for the spectacular generosity and kindness that I received everywhere in Shikoku. I’m grateful, in particular, to Sanuki Morris for their unerring patience with my many questions and endless photography!

There were too many wonderful moments in Kagawa to to fit into a single article, so I’ll be writing another post or two in the coming days. Just now though, I’m going to check out Kyoto!