Asia Colaboration Perfomance : Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and India
“Endless Bridge – Mahabharata 1.5” karya Hiroshi Koike
About Mahabharata by Hiroshi Koike
I started up Mahabharata Project in 2013 in Cambodia and Vietnam where they faced huge tragedies in recent days Asia. Then, I made Mahabharata until the end, Part 4. This is a seven-year continuous creation project. Every year, the story progressed in India, Japan, Indonesia and Thailand, then we toured 19 cities in Asia. After the creation and performances in Yogyakarta this year, next year we will combine Part 3 and 4 in Japan and then perform the whole Mahabharata in Tokyo and Okinawa next July right before 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
On March 11th, 2011, Japan faced a big tragedy, earthquake and tsunami as natural disaster and nuclear power plants’ explosion in Fukushima as manmade disaster. I was really shocked and this disaster became my huge turning point. I thought we had to stand on Zero point again. Therefore, I dissolved my company, Pappa Tarahumara, which I established in 1982, then created 55 productions and toured 35 countries in South and North America, Europe and Asia. One year after that disaster, I initiated Hiroshi Koike Bridge Project. At the same time, I started up Mahabharata Project in order to search what is Human and Human’s possibility.
Looking around all over the world, we notice we have a lot of problems, for example, isolation, poverty, refugees, war, hatred, discrimination, big gap between the rich and the poor, exiles and enormous power. It’s so difficult for us to imagine how to manage this kind of world after we had strong scientific technology and nuclear weapons.
However, we must develop and build our inside up for children all over the world to protect their lives.
Though Mahabharata has a very old and long story, when we check the details, we can notice our present world has a strong similarity with Mahabharata world.
At last: Why did I start Mahabharata project? The answer is due to Krishna, the incarnation of God Vishnu. Why did Krishna make traps in the Kurukshetra War? For Pandu? Can you think about this issue by yourself?
Profil Hiroshi Koike
Hiroshi is Director, writer, choreographer, and president of Performing Arts Institute.
Born in Hitachi city, Ibaraki prefecture, he graduated from Hitotsubashi University. He established the Performing Arts Group Pappa TARAHUMARA in 1982. Since then he has worked on the production, directing and choreography of all 55 works beyond genres such as drama, dance, art and music. In 2012, the following year of the big earthquake on 11th of March in Japan, he launched Hiroshi Koike Bridge Project, and has been working on collaborative projects with three ideas of education, dissemination and creation based on creativity. He has produced 15 works in various places in Asia until now.
His shows are presented in over 40 countries so far. There are many creative works with artists in the world, and he had many workshops in Japan and abroad for both professional artists and general public. He has served as an Artistic Director for Tsukuba Cultural Foundation, Asian Performing Arts Forum Chairperson, Committee Member of Japan Foundation (2005 – 2011). He published “Long Goodbye,” “Listen to the body,” and“What’s Performing Arts?” In 2018, he published his first collection book of his work “The Journey to the Night and the End of the World.”
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