Dream of Takarazuka: 9 & 10
Oct. 10th, 2010 03:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ekusudeiI have to admit, hearing so much about the strictness of TMS before, I'm more surprised by what she got away with than anything else. ;)
9 ~*~ My Time as a Yokasei
For the yokasei of Takarazuka Music School, there is a correct way of doing things. Things have probably changed slightly now, but back then the following is what we were told:
1. If your hair is long, wear it in braids, and bangs are not permitted. ---Not one strand of hair can hang down over your forehead. Meaning your head was covered in bobby pins. Hair clips and ribbons were completely forbidden.
2. Make-up was restricted to events or functions.
3. For the school uniform, the skirt length should be just above your knees. White socks folded in three, in the winter gray high-socks. Shoes were leather flats without any decoration.
4. During rehearsals, we wore black or navy-blue leotards, and heavy black tights.
5. When commuting to school, a black satchel or Hankyu Department Store paper bag.
6. Inside the school, say "excuse me" (shitsurei shimasu) when entering a room, and "excuse me" (shitsurei shimashita) when exiting, and walk around the edges of the hallways and stairwells in single file.
7. When you speak to a honkasei about some business or to apologize, stand before the honkasei room, and when someone makes eye-contact, call out "excuse me" (shitsurei shimasu) to them to catch their attention. When making an apology, the words you speak are already decided. ---In other words, if no one will make eye-contact you must simply continue to stand and wait.
8. Outside of the school, on the street keep your eyes lowered, and walk in file along the edges. On the train, take the very last car and you must stand. Whenever you meet an upperclassman, you must call out "good morning" (ohayou gozaimasu) to them in a big voice, or "good work today" (otsukaresama deshita).
9. When not in school, only a short skirt. ---At the time long skirts and pants were in fashion.
Furthermore, stores you could not enter, how to clean, how to live in the dorms, how to use the rehearsal rooms, even nicknames, etc.; there are so many I can't remember them all.
The only saving grace was that this was a two-year school, and so after the honkasei graduated these rules would no longer apply,---the honkasei who created these rules rarely followed them themselves---so we really only had to hold the course for one year.
But according to one of my classmates whom I became friends with: "This is nothing!"
It seems that the dormitory of the school she had gone to was even stricter, and there was always someone above you. Not knowing, I bowed to her superior judgment!
At a glance I seemed the happy, mature, unlikely to draw attention type, so I escaped my first year without angering anyone.
There were a few defiances of the rules during my year as a yokasei that I can't forget, even now.
An appalling defiance of the rules was waiting outside of the stage doors for the upperclassmen to emerge after seeing a performance, and as a bonus even getting a star's signature1.
One more bonus was was that I was seen by a honkasei, but to forestall anything, I apologized: "I was asked to by an upperclassman and I couldn't refuse, so I'm sorry." With that it ended without her becoming angry at me. I'm sorry!
And other things, like safely wearing pants and sunglasses and being bowed to by a honkasei, making my ballet teacher cry; those sorts of things that you'd expect from the leader of a group of juvenile delinquents.
Back then my good friend Tako-chan and I were smoothly breaking the prohibitions, but it was always Tako alone who got into trouble.
"It's nice for you, Natsume, even though you do worse things than me you never look the type to." To this very day, it seems she carries a grudge about this.
During that period, although I should have angered the upperclassmen, been put through the wringer, cried, and cultivated an enduring willpower, I was not blessed (?) with these experiences, and developed a personality without willpower......
10 ~*~ Determined Goofing-Off
Otherwise, school life was quite enjoyable.---Leaving home early in the morning when it was still dark to clean the school was the only arduous thing---.
Music School lessons were from Monday to Saturday, and Saturday was a half day.
Ballet and Japanese dance were 90 minute lessons, subjects that we had every day, with three students to a teacher. The others, depending on the contents, varied from an hour to 90 minutes.
We had ten minute breaks between, and were practically doing quick-changes changing from our leotards into our kimono.
Over summer holidays there were supplementary lessons, and even though the subjects were different, it was similar to a regular school.
But there were many extracurricular lessons, and we went to many places to sing in chorus or solos.
Japanese dance, ballet, vocal, drama, piano, shamisen, etc.; other than ballet they were new to me. In drama class I said my first otokoyaku line. I felt somehow both embarrassed and happy. For Japanese dance I also didn't know how to walk, and I loved shamisen class.
Every day passed in a flash, and during after-school hours when everyone simultaneously spent their time in individual lessons, I and my remaining friends determinedly goofed-off.
It was our daily routine to ride the roller coaster at Family Land2, eat okonomiyaki, or go to see a movie or concert.
Like a ladybug, when I saw those rehearsing, I thought that even if they did so it would do them no good, and I felt sorry for them.
Because, at any rate, although all I did was play, at the end of the year I had the nice result of being third in my class.
After the third trimester exams, I became first without any effort. So life looked sweet.
Here, again, I had forgotten how to exert myself.....
*
With the difficult yokasei period behind me, in the second year of Music School, when I became a honkasei, the world became Heaven, without a fear.
The new school dormitory was built, and I who had spent so long boarding with my aunt moved into the dorm, and began goofing off with my friends in earnest.
I played cards into the middle of the night and skipped school, I grew out my nails and had them manicured, I wore make-up, I lied about my grandmother becoming ill and went home to Tokyo.... (See what would happen if I said grandma was ill was my mother's suggestion.)
My classmates spoke ill of me and were always angry.
But, among the teachers I was still an honor student with good grades.
During this period where I was so wrapped up in skipping, only my desire to stand on the stage grew stronger day by day.
I wanted to graduate without further delay.
Every day during the after-school period I ran to the Grand Theater and would watch the same show again and again. I envied everyone who appeared in the performances.
Particularly when the upperclassmen who had graduated a year above me appeared, I wondered why I couldn't be there where they had gone before me, and I suffered over what couldn't be changed.
At last, the long-cherished day when I could appear in the Grand Theater came.
Before graduation, we put on the Bunkasai.
As one of the honors students---at the time I was second, but first of the otokoyaku---I was the Bunkasai star.
After all was said and done, after the period of school, Takarazuka was the world of otokoyaku.
I played a main role in every scene.
Without feeling any fear or difficulty on the stage, it was a completely satisfying Bunkasai.
The Bunkasai was in four acts and:
Act one was Japanese dance, and I played "Green Pines" on the shamisen.
Act two was vocal, and several people acted out "The Lady of the Camellias", among them, I sang Armand (the lead man)'s song.
Act three was a play, and I played Romeo in "Romeo and Juliet".
Act four was a revue, and I performed in good places in every scene.
The admission fee for the Bunkasai was taken for use in the performance, while costumes, scenery, lighting, and orchestra all belonged to the Revue, and production, direction, and choreography was all done by the school teachers.
Many of the Revue staff also worked on it, and with greasepaint and makeup, wired with mikes, I felt completely like a star.
Hey, I even, for the first time in my life, received a fan letter.
(1) "getting a star's signature" -- In this period (early 70s), it was quite possible for fans to ask stars for their signatures. But I suspect TMS students weren't supposed to go to demachi, which is what she got into trouble over.
(2) "Family Land" -- Takarazuka Family Land was an amusement park and zoo which closed in 2003. The land is currently occupied by Garden Fields and other new structures.
9 ~*~ My Time as a Yokasei
For the yokasei of Takarazuka Music School, there is a correct way of doing things. Things have probably changed slightly now, but back then the following is what we were told:
1. If your hair is long, wear it in braids, and bangs are not permitted. ---Not one strand of hair can hang down over your forehead. Meaning your head was covered in bobby pins. Hair clips and ribbons were completely forbidden.
2. Make-up was restricted to events or functions.
3. For the school uniform, the skirt length should be just above your knees. White socks folded in three, in the winter gray high-socks. Shoes were leather flats without any decoration.
4. During rehearsals, we wore black or navy-blue leotards, and heavy black tights.
5. When commuting to school, a black satchel or Hankyu Department Store paper bag.
6. Inside the school, say "excuse me" (shitsurei shimasu) when entering a room, and "excuse me" (shitsurei shimashita) when exiting, and walk around the edges of the hallways and stairwells in single file.
7. When you speak to a honkasei about some business or to apologize, stand before the honkasei room, and when someone makes eye-contact, call out "excuse me" (shitsurei shimasu) to them to catch their attention. When making an apology, the words you speak are already decided. ---In other words, if no one will make eye-contact you must simply continue to stand and wait.
8. Outside of the school, on the street keep your eyes lowered, and walk in file along the edges. On the train, take the very last car and you must stand. Whenever you meet an upperclassman, you must call out "good morning" (ohayou gozaimasu) to them in a big voice, or "good work today" (otsukaresama deshita).
9. When not in school, only a short skirt. ---At the time long skirts and pants were in fashion.
Furthermore, stores you could not enter, how to clean, how to live in the dorms, how to use the rehearsal rooms, even nicknames, etc.; there are so many I can't remember them all.
The only saving grace was that this was a two-year school, and so after the honkasei graduated these rules would no longer apply,---the honkasei who created these rules rarely followed them themselves---so we really only had to hold the course for one year.
But according to one of my classmates whom I became friends with: "This is nothing!"
It seems that the dormitory of the school she had gone to was even stricter, and there was always someone above you. Not knowing, I bowed to her superior judgment!
At a glance I seemed the happy, mature, unlikely to draw attention type, so I escaped my first year without angering anyone.
There were a few defiances of the rules during my year as a yokasei that I can't forget, even now.
An appalling defiance of the rules was waiting outside of the stage doors for the upperclassmen to emerge after seeing a performance, and as a bonus even getting a star's signature1.
One more bonus was was that I was seen by a honkasei, but to forestall anything, I apologized: "I was asked to by an upperclassman and I couldn't refuse, so I'm sorry." With that it ended without her becoming angry at me. I'm sorry!
And other things, like safely wearing pants and sunglasses and being bowed to by a honkasei, making my ballet teacher cry; those sorts of things that you'd expect from the leader of a group of juvenile delinquents.
Back then my good friend Tako-chan and I were smoothly breaking the prohibitions, but it was always Tako alone who got into trouble.
"It's nice for you, Natsume, even though you do worse things than me you never look the type to." To this very day, it seems she carries a grudge about this.
During that period, although I should have angered the upperclassmen, been put through the wringer, cried, and cultivated an enduring willpower, I was not blessed (?) with these experiences, and developed a personality without willpower......
10 ~*~ Determined Goofing-Off
Otherwise, school life was quite enjoyable.---Leaving home early in the morning when it was still dark to clean the school was the only arduous thing---.
Music School lessons were from Monday to Saturday, and Saturday was a half day.
Ballet and Japanese dance were 90 minute lessons, subjects that we had every day, with three students to a teacher. The others, depending on the contents, varied from an hour to 90 minutes.
We had ten minute breaks between, and were practically doing quick-changes changing from our leotards into our kimono.
Over summer holidays there were supplementary lessons, and even though the subjects were different, it was similar to a regular school.
But there were many extracurricular lessons, and we went to many places to sing in chorus or solos.
Japanese dance, ballet, vocal, drama, piano, shamisen, etc.; other than ballet they were new to me. In drama class I said my first otokoyaku line. I felt somehow both embarrassed and happy. For Japanese dance I also didn't know how to walk, and I loved shamisen class.
Every day passed in a flash, and during after-school hours when everyone simultaneously spent their time in individual lessons, I and my remaining friends determinedly goofed-off.
It was our daily routine to ride the roller coaster at Family Land2, eat okonomiyaki, or go to see a movie or concert.
Like a ladybug, when I saw those rehearsing, I thought that even if they did so it would do them no good, and I felt sorry for them.
Because, at any rate, although all I did was play, at the end of the year I had the nice result of being third in my class.
After the third trimester exams, I became first without any effort. So life looked sweet.
Here, again, I had forgotten how to exert myself.....
*
With the difficult yokasei period behind me, in the second year of Music School, when I became a honkasei, the world became Heaven, without a fear.
The new school dormitory was built, and I who had spent so long boarding with my aunt moved into the dorm, and began goofing off with my friends in earnest.
I played cards into the middle of the night and skipped school, I grew out my nails and had them manicured, I wore make-up, I lied about my grandmother becoming ill and went home to Tokyo.... (See what would happen if I said grandma was ill was my mother's suggestion.)
My classmates spoke ill of me and were always angry.
But, among the teachers I was still an honor student with good grades.
During this period where I was so wrapped up in skipping, only my desire to stand on the stage grew stronger day by day.
I wanted to graduate without further delay.
Every day during the after-school period I ran to the Grand Theater and would watch the same show again and again. I envied everyone who appeared in the performances.
Particularly when the upperclassmen who had graduated a year above me appeared, I wondered why I couldn't be there where they had gone before me, and I suffered over what couldn't be changed.
At last, the long-cherished day when I could appear in the Grand Theater came.
Before graduation, we put on the Bunkasai.
As one of the honors students---at the time I was second, but first of the otokoyaku---I was the Bunkasai star.
After all was said and done, after the period of school, Takarazuka was the world of otokoyaku.
I played a main role in every scene.
Without feeling any fear or difficulty on the stage, it was a completely satisfying Bunkasai.
The Bunkasai was in four acts and:
Act one was Japanese dance, and I played "Green Pines" on the shamisen.
Act two was vocal, and several people acted out "The Lady of the Camellias", among them, I sang Armand (the lead man)'s song.
Act three was a play, and I played Romeo in "Romeo and Juliet".
Act four was a revue, and I performed in good places in every scene.
The admission fee for the Bunkasai was taken for use in the performance, while costumes, scenery, lighting, and orchestra all belonged to the Revue, and production, direction, and choreography was all done by the school teachers.
Many of the Revue staff also worked on it, and with greasepaint and makeup, wired with mikes, I felt completely like a star.
Hey, I even, for the first time in my life, received a fan letter.
(1) "getting a star's signature" -- In this period (early 70s), it was quite possible for fans to ask stars for their signatures. But I suspect TMS students weren't supposed to go to demachi, which is what she got into trouble over.
(2) "Family Land" -- Takarazuka Family Land was an amusement park and zoo which closed in 2003. The land is currently occupied by Garden Fields and other new structures.
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no subject
Date: 2010-10-10 06:33 pm (UTC)I love all the silly fannish "bad" things she did. <3
no subject
Date: 2010-10-11 05:30 am (UTC)*Trying to picture Natsume-san as a delinquent playing cards, skipping the school and breaking the rules*
no subject
Date: 2010-10-11 01:49 pm (UTC)xD;;;;
She was pretty energetic.
TMS rules are super strict x.x. I wonder how those girls survived through.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-11 01:33 pm (UTC)