![]() ![]() It features acrobatic stunts and comedic skits performed by highly trained macaque monkeys. Today, Sarumawashi is ranked alongside Noh and Kabuki as one of the oldest and most traditional of Japan's performing arts. Ancient Japanese chronicles refer to it as a form of religious ritual designed to protect the horses of warriors. ![]() Sarumawashi, literally "monkey dancing", evolved over a 1,000-year history in Japan. But despite their seeming differences, Watanabe links each subject through the commonalities between theatricality and portraiture, revealing the undeniable connection between appearance and performance. They also vary in subject from mask to monkey to human. These four distinctive traditions come from different regions of Japan and varied periods of history. In particular, his gaze was drawn towards the diverse modes of theater in Japanese culture: from the dancing monkeys of Sarumawashi, to the expressive masks of Noh, to the life-like puppets of Ena Bunraku, to the stylized human actors of Kabuki. But when he found himself drawn back to his first passion, he also felt a compulsion to return to his homeland. After studying photography at a university in Japan, Hiroshi Watanabe left the field and left the country, spending several decades in the United States working on TV production. ![]()
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