Interview:
Inside Japan Selection
SETAGAYA-SILK — Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter
Tokyo Sisters Association, known as a theatre company under the name Setagaya Silk, has been producing original theatre since its founding in 2008. The company has staged works both in Japan and abroad. In recent years, it has focused on outdoor performances, children’s theatre, and international collaborations. Artistic director HORIKAWA Honoh oversees every aspect of the creative process as playwright, director, dramaturg, choreographer, composer, and set designer.
One of the company’s signature productions is Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. Inspired by Owara Kaze no Bon, a traditional festival in Toyama Prefecture, the work shows women dressed in white kimono with woven straw hats that conceal their faces, portraying the course of a woman’s life. Combining live painting, storytelling inspired by rakugo, poetic monologues, and original choreography rooted in Japanese classical dance, the performance draws audiences into a distinctive theatrical world.
Portraying a woman's life through traditional Japanese techniques
The inspiration of the piece came from an Owara Kaze no Bon poster that Horikawa saw fifteen years ago. The sight of dancers with faces hidden beneath woven hats struck her as both mysterious and eerie.
The idea of turning this into a theatre piece did not come easy. The turning point came at the 2016 Avignon Festival, when three performers dressed in white kimono and straw hats showcased a short performance. It gained attention day and night, with many people stopping to watch. This convinced us to create a full-length stage piece using this iconic motif in a meaningful narrative, a production that can be shared around the globe.
We decided to create a story on the life of women. It was inspired from two particular sources. The first is Simone de Beauvoir’s Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, a story that follows the life of a woman. The second is a medical book describing the physical changes women experience throughout their lives (found during a visit to the gynecologist).
Chinese natural philosophy divides life into four stages: Blue Spring (birth to teens), Red Summer (20s to 30s), White Autumn (40s to 60s), and Black Winter (70s and older). The title alludes to these seasons since the story portrays a woman’s life.
Throughout the performance, women boldly navigate through hardship, and the dismay of aging. The story is told in both a beautiful and comical manner. Performers repeatedly change roles while their faces remain hidden, representing not a single individual but many women. It portrays how every person is shaped by the countless people they have encountered throughout life.
The work critiques how women, who hold within them the potential to become anything, are cast in roles defined by others. At the same time, it is a tribute to women, celebrating the women who have endured love, menstruation, childbirth, aging, and the pressures of patriarchal society.
Japanese techniques are employed throughout the performance. For example, the narrator draws ink paintings inspired by Japanese calligraphy. In the cherry blossom scene, the stage is transformed with live paintings of the trees. Behind the narrator, performers sit formally while expressing scenes through pantomime and gesture, just like rakugo, Japan’s traditional storytelling art. The choreography incorporates movements inspired by Owara Kaze no Bon, reimagined through Horikawa’s own background in Japanese traditional dance. However, the musical score consists entirely of works by Bach. Familiar classical music accompanies performers in kimono moving through humorous choreography, creating a surprising contrast that makes this show so charming. Expressive physical movement, richly composed ensemble scenes, and carefully crafted lighting combine to produce the work’s striking visual beauty.
Ma, is the Japanese aesthetic of nothingness within space (location, gap), time (timing, tempo), and relationships (between the self and the other) where new things can be created.
Horikawa comments:
“In my work, I pay great attention to ma. This is why movements often appear unnaturally slow. I carefully place the performers in the large empty space, often creating scenes in which almost nothing occupies the stage. This resembles the aesthetic sensibility found in ikebana, the art of Japanese flower arrangement, where empty space is as meaningful as what fills it.
I feel that ma is one of the sensibilities shared throughout Japanese culture. When I taught theatre in Bordeaux, many students struggled to understand the concept. One even asked if it was like the space between a sniper and his target.
Japanese culture has long valued the ability to create space and time themselves. I want to make audiences sense the presence of something even when nothing is visibly there on the stage. I hope the audiences can experience the ma in the show.”
Performing in spaces beyond conventional theatres
When Setagaya Silk was founded in 2008, its artistic style differed from what it is today. Early productions, while incorporating physical performance, relied heavily on dialogue. Following Horikawa’s year abroad in 2015/16, where she studied language and drama, the artistic focus shifted toward storytelling driven less by words and more by movement and imagery.
Since then, she has pursued an aesthetic centred on ma, based on the Japanese artistic senses of “something existing in nothingness,” creating pieces that use minimal words. Horikawa describes her work as “art that makes you chuckle.” Rather than presenting definitive interpretations, the productions capture small moments from everyday life and leave audiences free to discover their own meanings.
Since becoming an incorporated association in 2017, Tokyo Sisters Association has actively pursued international collaborations. The company co-created the children’s production The Mysterious Shadow with Swedish artists, and collaborated with Indian artists on children’s adaptations of the Japanese folktale Princess Kaguya. Horikawa has also worked extensively in opera as an assistant director alongside internationally renowned directors including Naomi Kawase, Satoshi Miyagi, and Oriza Hirata, working on productions in Japan, Belgium, and France.
Setagaya Silk’s productions have been staged in a wide range of locations far beyond conventional theatre venues,from mountains and lakesides to traditional houses, Kabuki theatres, ski resorts, and tennis courts.
These performances in diverse locations have led the company to take an interest in the people and the place where works are performed. “Where do the audience members come from?” “How has the place shaped their lives?” Setagaya Silk tries to answer these questions and adapt the work to the local culture and environment. Alongside Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, the solo performance Fires on the Plain (Nobi) has also been staged in different regions.
“Fires on the Plain (Nobi) is based on the novel depicting a Japanese soldier wandering across Leyte Island in the Philippines during the final stages of the Second World War. Driven to starvation, he descends into madness, killing others and even contemplating cannibalism. In the ninety-minute solo performance, the actor must confront both the physical and psychological demands entirely alone. That solitude mirrors the endless isolation experienced by the soldier himself. We have revived the production every year since 2024, and it is also available for streaming on U-NEXT.”
Productions that are not confined to Japanese culture
Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter was previously scheduled to tour Russia, but the performances were cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and subsequent political circumstances have prevented the project from being staged in the country. The company is now actively pursuing international touring once again, particularly hoping to present the work in France, the place of the initial inspiration. Then, continuing on to other international festivals and theatres abroad where gender is a popular topic of discussion. Rather than traditional theatres, the production is ideally suited for simple art galleries or black-box spaces measuring at least eight by eight metres. It can also be adapted for outdoor performance. The company intends to continue recreating the work according to each venue and environment. Looking further ahead, Setagaya Silk envisions licensed productions performed by local artists around the world. Most performers in the original production are dancers rather than specialists in Japanese dance. Aside from wearing kimono, the performance does not require strict mastery of traditional Japanese movement. Thus dancers from diverse cultural backgrounds have the potential to perform the work. Ultimately, the company hopes to collaborate with local theatres by licensing the production to resident dancers, actors, and musicians, allowing Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter to develop new interpretations shaped by different cultural contexts.
Alongside the international development of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter and continued revivals of Fires on the Plain (Nobi), Horikawa is currently developing a new immersive theatre project set in a hospital.
“The idea came after accompanying someone to a hospital stay. I was disturbed by how some of the doctors spoke harshly to patients, and how the nurses addressed adults as though they were children. I want to create a performance that reflects on this discomfort from multiple perspectives. Audiences will move through consultation rooms, corridors, back of house, and other hospital spaces. The backgrounds and circumstances of each patient and medical staff will gradually become clear, and I hope that the audience’s own feelings will slowly unravel throughout the experience.”
Original Text by Momoko Kawano
Translated by SOIL Team
