Ashizawa Jin is an illustrator/columnist who seems to have worked for GRAPH since the 1960s (yes, you read that right). His interview column gets a new title every year but usually the format is fairly similar. The 2019 column, which featured musumeyaku only, was called The Lovely Flowers Bloom. This interview with Umino Mitsuki was published in the April issue.
The Lovely Flowers Bloom #3 – Umino Mitsuki
Ashizawa: You’ve kept up such remarkable work lately, Umino-san. What was your start in the arts?
Umino: My older sister started taking ballet in Kindergarten, so then it ended up with us doing it together, and I started going to a ballet studio once I reached elementary school.
Ashizawa: And you liked doing things in front of people, is that right.
Umino: I loved it. So much so that in Kindergarten I would rush to be in the center, even though that wasn’t the spot I was supposed to be in (laughs).
Ashizawa: How did you encounter Takarazuka?
Umino: There was a Takarasienne who came from our ballet studio, so I heard about Takarazuka that way and decided to aim for it.
Ashizawa: And I’ve heard that you were a fan of Toono Asuka at that time.
Umino: That’s right. She’s so talented and able to play so many different roles, but I especially admired Toono-san for playing strong-willed women. I’m rather weak and pessimistic, so I’m jealous of cool, strong women (laughs).
Ashizawa: But you must have stood out ever since you were in the Music School; after all, you were selected to play young Andre in The Rose of Versailles: Oscar and Andre during only your second year in the company.
Umino: Not at all! When I was a Lower Student my grades were only a few places from the bottom, I really couldn’t do anything.
Ashizawa: When you reached ken-4, you were chosen to play the junior heroines for Guide to the Future, Layla, and for PUCK, Hermia, correct?
Umino: I kept getting big roles that I couldn’t do with my current skill, so I felt a lot of pressure and felt like I had to make sure I wasn’t being a burden to everyone else, so I was really pushing myself. Though I was really happy to get the roles, I was working furiously every day.
Ashizawa: But your competitive spirit is strong, then?
Umino: I think I have a surprisingly stubborn side to me. I like the saying ‘carrying out my first intentions’, and once I decide something I want to make sure I do it, no matter how hard it is…even though I’m weak-willed (laughs).
Ashizawa: By ken-5, when you were playing Olympe in 1789 (in the role switch with Saotome Wakaba), did you feel at home as a musumeyaku?
Umino: I felt like my way of performing was starting to take shape, but it was my first time getting such a major role in a main cast, and it was a switch role, so I was really worried about it. I watched Saotome-san’s performances closely, and while I learned a lot I was troubled at the same time. I felt like if I didn’t make sure of my own style and performance it would all be wasted.
Ashizawa: And what was your ideal model as a musumeyaku at that time?
Umino: Naturally, since I admired Toono-san, I felt like even more than the traditional musumeyaku who decorate the otokoyaku, cool musumeyaku who could stand onstage even all alone were so wonderful.
Ashizawa: By the time you played the role of Flaemchen in Grand Hotel you were performing very ably.
Umino: That’s a role I’d love to play again if I had the chance. It was really difficult, and there were aspects of it I couldn’t quite absorb…
Ashizawa: In that junior performance you played the heroine, Grushenskaya (main cast: Manaki Reika), and in the next junior performance, ALL FOR ONE, you played the unique role of Countess Montpensier (main cast: Saou Kurama).
Umino: That was a role where I had to shed something inside myself or I couldn’t do it. It was a role that needed laughter and passion, so as I was learning so much from Saou-san, I spent a lot of time working on creating the foundation of the role, like the mood and timings of the lines.
Ashizawa: I suspect you enjoyed being able to perform such a sexy role?
Umino: That’s right. I’d always thought I wanted to play a villain or a sort of odd role, and then once I was given the role of Hellawes, the minor demon, in La Legende du Roi Arthur, I discovered how fun it is to play quirky roles. My roles help me vent so many feelings (laughs).
Ashizawa: When you’re stressed about creating one of your roles, how do you deal with it?
Umino: Naturally I consult with the play director and the people I am acting with, but I also ask my classmates about things a lot. Each and every one of my classmates are so individualistic, so I’ll ask each one lots of detailed questions; I rely on my classmates so much.
Ashizawa: You’re the type to concentrate and push yourself while perfecting your role, aren’t you.
Umino: If I don’t I won’t be able to do it. My intuition isn’t great, and I can’t act without knowing what I’m doing, so if I don’t really move my emotions I won’t be able to do anything.
Ashizawa: When you played Zelda in THE LAST PARTY last year it was like you were a brilliantly blooming flower.
Umino: That role was the biggest turning point for me. Up until then, I had generally worked out everything in my roles by myself. I couldn’t act unless I had worked out ‘at this line I feel this way, and then it changes to this’ completely in my head. But at this time I was able to relax and go with my feelings together with my partner, I suppose. The lead, Tsukishiro-san, is a very natural kind of actor who doesn’t become her role but more like ‘the role comes to her’. She said if I fixed things too much, it would make barriers between us, so let’s break down those barriers. Director Ueda Keiko and Tsukishiro-san workshopped things for me so many times, and as I talked with them a lot, I gradually was able to open the doors to my heart, and I felt like a new version of me was born. Though I stressed a lot before I was able to break out of my shell, it was a performance that brought so much fullfilment for me, to the point that I didn’t even want closing day to come.
Ashizawa: You opened this year with Anna Karenina in Bow Hall. What were the hard parts about playing Anna?
Umino: In this play, though Anna loves Vronsky (Miya Rurika) determinedly, but she also loves her husband Karenin (Tsukishiro) and her children in different ways. I worried over how to express those different loves to the audience. I struggled with how to rank those loves, and wondering what feelings Anna would say the lines with–though when I read the original book and watched films I felt like I understood, when it came to acting it out myself it was so hard… She has so many different emotions, and when she’s with Vronsky she thinks only of him, but she still has feelings towards her husband and children. ‘How am I supposed to get all this across in a short scene’ I thought… Since it was a play that wouldn’t come together unless that could be seen clearly, I really struggled with that.
Ashizawa: In the upcoming production, Unmatched in Dreams and Reality, you play Yoshino Dayuu, correct. I look forward to a glamorous performance.
Umino: Thank you very much, I want to do my best.
I was startled to hear of Umino’s partial absence1 since she had been through so many shows in good health, but it was a relieve to see her unchanging smile face to face. Her skills increase their shine with each production, and while she has a musumeyaku’s aura, she is blooming as a new kind of flower. Though she says her pessimistic personality hinders her as a stage performer, perhaps it is specifically because she is grappling with this that Umino Mitsuki shows such depth of presence.
1 – During rehearsals for the then-upcoming production, Umino was announced out of the accompanying revue due to injury, but still performed as scheduled in the play.