Mansai Nomura

A new documentary film on traditional culture, planned and produced by the Pola Foundation for the Promotion of Traditional Culture, has been completed. The 50th film presents the essence of Kyogen, which transcends the generations of Mansaku Nomura, Mansai and Hiroki, spanning three generations of father and son.

The story revolves around an unusual family led by rich widow Mrs. Hondo, who stays at a luxurious hotel where Suguro stays in Wagayama Prefecture. She would act like a tyrant around her children who were afraid of her and were at her beck and call, or we could say under her control. Unfortunately, a tragedy strikes the Hondo Family while on a hike. Mrs. Hond,o who was supposed to be taking a rest on the way to the shrine, is dead. Kawahara Daisaku, the chief of the local police station, asks Suguro to help with the investigation of Mrso’sHondo’soinvestigationstigatione.

“You understand, don’t you? If it comes to this, I’ll have no choice but to kill.” The great detective Suguro Takeru (Nomura Mansai) picks up these disturbing words that are unbefitting for his location – a hotel along the Kumano pilgrimage route in Wakayama Prefecture that he is visiting for a vacation.

Documentary by film director Isshin Inudo on three generations of the Nomura family of the Izumi school of Kyogen: Mansaku Nomura (89), Mansai (54), and Yuki (20). Summer of 2020. Yuki is to play an important role in the future of Kyogen. He will play four roles in "Nasu Yoichi Narrative". His father Mansai and grandfather Mansaku continue to rehearse. Mansai, as artistic director of the theater, is searching for the performing art of the Corona disaster for the sake of his family. Mansaku talks about his current state of mind in light of the hardships he endured during the war. And then, Hiroki's big day arrives. What is in store? This is a new documentary that makes the most of the 8K capabilities to convey the physical presence of each of the three generations and the details of their movements.

Japanese television adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel 'The Murder of Roger Ackroyd'.

March 1952, the only doctor in the village Shiba had found a dead body of Sanako. The cause of death is overdose of sleeping pills. Sanako had been suspected for killing her own husband so Dr. Shiba’s sister Kana is guessing that she has committed suicide due to being tormented by killing her husband. Everyone who was in Mr. Kuroido’s house is the suspect, including all the members of Kuroido family, butler, secretary, maids, etc. The Detective Suguro (Hercule Poirot) will investigate the case. Dr. Shiba will be assisting him. As things are searched by them, a shocking fact has been brought to light…

The three generations of the Nomura family - Mansaku, Mansai and Yuki - who carry the 650-year history of Kyogen and pass it on to the future, perform the ultimate difficult piece, Sanbaso, in Paris. The film follows the 'challenge' of the three generations of the Nomura family, each of whom is living in the present.

Kyogen performer Nomura Mansai's speciality, Sanbaso, is said to be the oldest form of Shinto ritual in Japan's performing arts. On the occasion of his 50th birthday, Mansai took up the challenge of fusing tradition and technology with the help of media artist Daito Manabe and others to see how he could delve deeper into this "Sanbaso" and see if a new form of expression was possible. The programme will take up the challenge of fusing tradition and technology. The programme follows the trajectory of the project and explores the roots of what "Sanbaso" is all about.

In the late 16th century, after the death of Nobunaga Oda, Hideyoshi Toyotomi takes power. The age of war is about to end, but Hideyoshi Toyotomi's rule makes life difficult for the people. Monk Senko Ikenobo is a master of flower arrangement. He prays for peace in the world and tries to give hope to the people with flower arrangement. He becomes good friends with Rikyu. Rikyu is a monk and a politician. He has the most profound influence on chanoyu. Rikyu is forced to commit hara-kiri by Hideyoshi Toyotomi’s order. Monk Senko Ikenobo challenges Hideyoshi Toyotomi.

Kyogen performers Mansaku Nomura, Mansai and Yuki, three generations of father and son! Kyogen is a human comedy! What is the goal of the father and son Kyogen performers who live in the traditional arts?

The programme closely follows the birth of a new 'Macbeth' and his journey around Shakespeare. Kyogen actor Nomura Mansai and Shakespeare, and the similarities between them, are explained in an easy-to-understand way, and we come into contact with the art created by the two talents who have fused together over a long period of time.

Kyogen performer Mansai Nomura is taking on the challenge of various attempts to convey the appeal of Kyogen, a traditional art form with a 600-year history, to the modern age. While carrying the weight of the Nomura family's legacy, which was spun out by his father Mansaku, a living national treasure, and others, he has been lightly expanding his field of activity to appear in films and dramas and stage productions. These various activities are nothing other than the path of Mansai Nomura, a kyogen performer who conveys the appeal of kyogen with its profound expressive power to the present day. Through the figure of Mansai, who is always creating new challenges, this programme introduces the appeal of the "traditional Japanese performing arts" in the "present".

In the year 1590, the mighty warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi is close to fulfilling his ambition of unifying all of Japan under his banner when he comes across unexpected resistance in the form of a floating fortress known as Oshi Castle. Narita Nagachika, a frivolous hedonistic fellow and unlikely candidate for the position of rebel general, finds himself in charge of defending the castle. His odds? An army of 500 men to combat Toyotomi Hideyoshi's army of 20,000.

MEMORIES OF ORIGIN: Hiroshi Sugimoto was first broadcast on Japan’s program WOWOW in December 2010 and follows 200 days in the life of the contemporary artist. The Director’s Cut of this documentary was expanded from a TV program which was nominated for the International Emmy Award for Art in 2011.

The drama stars Beat Takeshi as General Hideki Tojo, who served as Prime Minister of Japan during World War II and was later executed as a war criminal. The story's theme is said to be a look at how the Pacific War began, focusing mostly on the three month period between the Imperial Conference (Gozen Kaigi) on September 6, 1941, and the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

A story about a masked samurai who takes sides with the good and wipes out the evil. In the late Edo period in Kyoto, samurai are killing each other because of the differences of their beliefs in the Tokugawa shogunate, and commoners are struck with terror. Kurama Tengu, a masked samurai, appears on the scene and helps innocent people from trouble.

Kyogen actor Nomura Mansai's eldest son, Yuki (3 years old at the time), was chosen to play the role of a child monkey in the kyogen play Utsubo Saru, and together with Mansai's father, Mansaku, the three generations of the family made their first appearance on the stage. The first half of the programme is a documentary following Yuki as he trains for the traditional performance, and his father and grandfather as they strictly instruct him.

A group of demons in the ancient Japanese capital of Heian is dismembering members of a family of Japanese nobles.

Oedipus, a prince of Corinth, was prophesied to "kill his father and marry his mother." To avoid the fulfillment of this prophecy, he went on a wandering journey, drove off the monstrous Sphinx in the kingdom of Thebai, and became the king of Thebai. Oedipus takes the former king's wife, Iocaste, as his wife and lives happily ever after, but a few years later, a plague of evil strikes the kingdom of Thebai. In order to save his kingdom, Oedipus asks for an oracle and follows its oracle to find the cause of the death of the former king Laius, but in the course of his investigation, the tragic truth is revealed...

During a dark time in the Heian period, when evil forces threaten the kingdom, the emperor relies on the Onmyoji to keep the supernatural forces in line. But as political events become highly charged, friction within the order leads to betrayal. Now, Seimei (Mansai Nomura), a talented member of the clan, must face down his master, Doson (Hiroyuki Sanada), in the hopes of restoring peace to the kingdom.

This film is the memoirs of Takasugi Shinsaku about the life of his great teacher Yoshida Shoin. Yoshida Shōin (吉田 松陰, 1830-1859) was one of the most distinguished intellectuals in the closing days of the Tokugawa shogunate. He devoted to developing many Ishin Shishi who made an outstanding contribution to the Meiji Restoration. At least two of his students, Takasugi Shinsaku and Itō Hirobumi later became famous, and virtually all of the survivors of the Sonjuku group became officers in the Meiji Restoration. Takasugi led rifle companies against the shogun's army when it failed to conquer Chōshū in 1864, rapidly leading to the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Ito Hirobumi became Japan's first prime minister. His admirer, Maebara Issei, was later killed rebelling against the Meiji regime. He is now enshrined in Setagayaku-（世田谷区）Tokyo, Japan.

The 56th NHK Asadora Renzoku Drama is Agri. Story's settings include Okayama and Tokyo (Ichigaya). This renzoku chronicles the life of a Showa period hairdresser, and is based on a true life story of Moshizuki Agri. Agri has worked for over 70 years as a beautician. She is a successful business woman who survived the war by becoming a farmer. During the war, going to the beauty salon was considered a frivolity, so many such businesses went bankrupt as Japan suffered from the energy spent as all the yen was fueled into the war effort.

The story takes place during the Muromachi period of Ancient Japan, in the midst of the Ōnin War. The main character in the series is Tomiko Hino, a historical figure with a bad reputation because of her actions to rebuild Kyoto after the Ōnin War.

With Ran, legendary director Akira Kurosawa reimagines Shakespeare's King Lear as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan. Majestic in scope, the film is Kurosawa's late-life masterpiece, a profound examination of the folly of war and the crumbling of one family under the weight of betrayal, greed, and the insatiable thirst for power.