UBASUTE

About the show

According to an old Japanese legend, during times of famine, children would lead their elderly mothers out of the villages into rugged terrain and abandon them there. While there is no historical evidence for this practice, it has become deeply embedded in the cultural memory of a society currently grappling with an aging population. Tourists book tours to sites where Ubasute (literally: "abandoning an old woman") is said to have taken place. Yet, the folklore also includes the figure of the Yamauba—an old woman dwelling in the mountains with magical powers, whose vengeance for her ostracism is feared. When so-called "Yamanba Gals" appeared on the streets of Tokyo around the turn of the millennium—young women who styled themselves in defiant opposition to feminine beauty ideals and were consequently reviled as vulgar hags—another female figure emerged to haunt people’s dreams. What happens to a society when—unlike in the Grimm fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel—it is not parents who abandon their children, but children who abandon their parents? Satoko Ichihara explores this question by layering various mythical narratives and inviting them to interrogate one another. A playwright, director, novelist, and the artistic director of the Kinosaki International Arts Center (KIAC), she is one of the most provocative young feminist voices in the contemporary Japanese art scene. Her stirring, fearless, and sensually exuberant theatrical explorations of social ills—brimming with both wit and pain—are currently taking international festivals by storm.