What's in a name?

A question I often get is why Shinmachi doesn't have its own sim. After all, Shinmachi literally translates as 'new town' and by choosing such a name, surely the group would have at least a 1/4 sim dedicated to the recreation of its namesake.

Well, Second Life is a complicated world. Shinmachi started off as a full homestead sim at a place called Harborside; the buildings were simple and the landscaping ... well, nonexistent; it was pretty much a flat land with a pond, but it was our first home. We had our own kabuki theater, courtesan residence, market area and even a few buildings open for rent. This Shinmachi at Harborside was a labor of love and a small scale version of the pleasure district it was named after.

One day, the leasing company accidentally deleted the sim. To this day I have no idea how that happened, but months of work (including some of my treasured Rumi instruments) was suddenly gone. The company apologized profusely and offered to give us a few days free at a new sim to compensate us for the disruption. The leaders at the time came to the conclusion that if the company was unable to figure out how one of their sims was deleted, what will stop them from accidentally deleting another one?

So, we improvised and a few days later we opened a temporary location at Sorrento Moon. This place was also a recreation of the real Shinmachi, though on a far smaller scale than Harborside. We kept our kabuki stage, made a smaller courtesan residence, had only a few market stalls and a pond (of course). We downsized even more with our move to Keisei, where Shinmachi was simply a rather large courtesan residence. By this time we realized that Shinmachi had become more of a conception, an idea which led our group then and continues to guide us today.

Though our name suggests a full town, Shinmachi of SL focuses on recreating different aspects of the real district, and not on making a full version of it in this virtual realm. In short, we're not a town nor are we a pleasure district; we're a performance and role-playing group that hopes to preserve some of the culture from its namesake in a virtual sense.

Four Seasons Pictures!

As promised, here are a few pictures from the Four Seasons performance. Enjoy! Special thanks to Kaminari Mai for taking these shots!

This is me (Okamisan Aisya) sitting on a bench in the front of the stage. I was narrating for the show; it was our longest performance ever (roughly one hour and forty five minutes). 

The first half of the performance featured a humorous exchange between two priests; their laughter awoke two rather larger butterflies (the young girls dancing in red) and dozens of others (the actual butterflies) all of whom were hiding in the grass. Tomesode Shinzo Hamayu and Yakusha Kara played the butterflies while Oiran Kaminari and Furisode Shinzo Umeko were the priests.

The second half of the performance was based on the songs of ‘Lady Midnight,’ or Zi Ye. "The History of the Tang states that her songs were sung with intense grief, and the music to which they were set was supposed to have been deeply plaintive" (quote from The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry edited by Tony Barnstone and Chou Ping). We separated these songs into four seasons, each representing a different phase of a woman's experience in love. Spring, played by hikikomi kamuro Medusa-chan, enjoyed a series of firsts with love and was the epitome of youthful optimism. 

In summer, she experienced passionate love; the songs here were focused on the physical expression of their amorous feelings, yet never became explicit or inappropriate for the audience. Above you see, Jinchi-san, the co-leader of Shinmachi, as Summer. 

Towards the end of summer, there were hints that not all was right with their romantic relationship. Umeko-chan sat alone, despondent, wandering about the location of her lover and why he's left her. 

Above is a long-shot view of all of the seasons together. During winter, the woman succumbs to her intense sorrow; the snow serves as a outward manifestation of the chaos swirling in her mind brought on by her grief. Oiran Kaminari Mai returned to the stage to play the heartbroken Winter. 

All in all, it was a great show. It's one of my favorite performances, highly emotional and utilizes the joys of SL (like, the ability to control the weather) wonderfully. 

Special Performance

So sorry for the late posting! We were working out a few kinks for an upcoming show! This Sunday, at 3pm slt we will be presenting a special, extended version of our highly emotional performance called "Four Seasons."

You can see the advertisement for it below. Next Monday, lag providing, there will be pictures in case you can't attend!

The Shinmachi Troupe of Entertainers are proud to present "Four Seasons" at Old Europe Village for its Spring Market Fair. 

Sunday, March 17th, 2013
From 3pm slt - 5pm slt

Four Seasons is a three part production, loosely based on Lady Midnight's "Songs of the Four Seasons" and influenced by the imagination of the Shinmachi Troupe. Beginning with a charming exchange between two traveling priests, the show moves seamlessly to the dance of the butterflies and concludes with a woman experiencing love in four seasons. In addition to a specially designed stage just for the performance, we will be sharing music and dance as we present one of the largest performances for our group.

Please join us on Sunday, March 17th at 3pm slt. You don't want to miss it!

Contact Aisya Destiny or Up4 Dawes for more information. Click here to learn more!

More Pictures!

Yesterday afternoon we continued our serious on youkai, yurei and other supernatural beings of Japanese folklore with an adaptation of "The Ghost Who Was Foiled." The story tells of a wandering ronin samurai who planned on spending the night at a temple. His sleep is disturbed when a woman's ghost attempted to sneak past as she made her way into a nearby village. The samurai stealthily followed the ghost and watched as she went inside a small house. Inside, the ghost was hanging herself, reenacting the manner of her death and attempting to convince the living woman inside to join her in this suicide attempt. 

Aikiki-chan played the ronin, who was successful in preventing the living woman from committing suicide.

Medusa-chan, in the red kimono on stage, played the ghost who was foiled. The ronin also made off with her rope, preventing her from trying to convince anyone else to die as she did. Legends say she still wanders the village, looking for the samurai and her rope.

Also, we redecorated the Yukaku Ryukin in Aosagi of Kurogawa Machi. You should stop by and check it out!

Kabuki!

The Shinmachi Kabuki Troupe is the often overlooked side of our Second Life group. It's probably because the oiran and tayuu side is the most obvious part; there's a well developed training program and opportunities for RP and performance on a daily basis. Plus, you're more likely to recognize a courtesan as she wanders the paths of Maruyama and Kurogawa Machi than an actor (whom is typically not wearing a full costume or the distinguishable kabuki makeup).

Our kabuki troupe has a less formalized training regiment and fewer performances. But, the kabuki and noh productions the directors develop far exceed the regular, bi-weekly shows for courtesans.

So what makes them so special? Our regular shows typically take two or three weeks to prepare. The kabuki and noh productions can take several months. There's a lot more detail to consider, beyond the regular requirements of a show. The combination of mood, music, dialogue, costume, stage design - all are given greater consideration. The script alone will take at least a month to perfect and it often changes during rehearsals.

That's right, rehearsals. As in more than one. Most of our courtesan performances have one run through, which tends to be rather informal. One of our kabuki will have multiple practice sessions, ranging from the initial informal to the final full dress rehearsal. And its a little hard to coordinate these with RL schedules, which slows down the production process. While the kabuki arm of Shinmachi may be quiet, they're typically hard at work behind the scenes bringing fantastic shows to SL.

You can see all of our kabuki and noh productions in our repertoire on our website and we currently have a brand new kabuki in production right now. We can't wait to bring it to you!

Fox and the Tanuki

Yesterday evening we had our first performance of our youkai, yurei and other supernatural beings series. We decided to kick things off with a cute show that pitted the tricky fox against a cunning tanuki. Aikiki-chan, the fox, and Medusa-chan, the tanuki, did their best to resemble the magical beings with appropriate ears and tails. You can check out the pictures below!

I thought holding a show late in the evening (7:30pm slt, which is 10:30pm eastern time) would result in a small audience, so we performed in the Yukaku Ryukin at Aosagi. I was mistaken - the place was so crowded I had to rez several extra cushions! I guess it was because of the holiday... There are a few people off to the right who sat on the bench, too!

Aikiki-chan played the fox (on the left) and Medusa-chan was the tanuki. The basic plot of the story was that the two were trying to see who was the best at transforming.

A shot of Aikiki-chan doing her best to bring home a win for Team Fox. 

 A closeup of Medusa-chan (and her tail) trying to win for Team Tanuki. 

It was a pretty fun show and we're looking forward to continuing the series in two weeks. Hope you can join us then. Thanks once again to everyone who came to enjoy our evening show ^_^

Spring already?!

Spring has always been a season of renewal for Shinmachi. In the four years its been around, we've always been quiet once the first snow fell. But when the ice begins to melt and those first flowers bloom, the group becomes more active and invigorated. And I, for one, am excited to start wearing my spring kimono!

Okay, so it may not be spring in North America or Europe, where most of our members are from; but we use an old Japanese calendar for our group. This lunar based one was introduced in the middle to late 1600s and was used until the late 1800s. We've never been really strict on the era we focus on with our courtesan and actor role playing, except to say it encompasses a few hundred years ranging from the early 1600s to the middle 1800s. 

Roughly 200 hundred years is a lot to cover in a RP group, but there's a method to our madness. The abilities, appearances, and artistic accomplishments of courtesans differed greatly from era to era. People join Shinmachi for a variety of reasons; some really enjoy the tayuu and kabuki connection, so that's why we begin in the early 1600s, when the courtesans performed on stage. That's about the time the real Shinmachi opened, so it makes sense.

Many students join to wear oiran kimono and hair; the yoko hyogo style with all of the hair combs and long, dangling chains and the large box obi are preferred to the less ornate style of the tayuu. These early keisei had simpler hair, smaller obi and less extravagant kimono. So, we stretch our focus to include the years when those were popular, namely the 1800s.

Shinmachi focuses on the 1600s - 1800s for our RP, which fits really well with the use of the lunar calendar. While you may think its winter (or summer, depending on your hemisphere), we're basking in the rejuvenating warmth and beauty of spring in SecondLife. Why don't you join us?