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 2018 column was called Heartpounding and Exciting, and this interview with Amahana Ema was published in the December 2018 issue.
Heartpounding, Exciting #11 – Amahana Ema
Amahana Ema hides a cheerful nature behind a gentle mask. With her charm she is well furnished with the attributes of an otokoyaku star, and now she is becoming a new force supporting the rest of Star Troupe. What role will she do next, and what kind of otokoyaku will she grow into? I wait for the day when Amahana creates her own world on the huge stage.
Ashizawa: When I saw you play the lead role of Kirino Toshiaki (main cast: Hokushou Kairi) in One Samurai from Kagoshima‘s junior performance, I thought “Oh! A great otokoyaku has appeared.”
Amahana: No~, that’s too much. Thank you so much.
Ashizawa: You’re the picture of a Takarazuka otokotaku, with sweetness and energy.
Amahana: Huh, really!? I’m so happy.
Ashizawa: You were ken-5 back then, but now it’s around the time when your inner otokoyaku will have solidified, right.
Amahana: I wonder..there are still a lot of things I don’t understand. But back then, Michiko-san’s (Hokushou) Kirino was amazing, so it started with imitating Michiko. Director Saitou also gave me guidance, and it felt like it was thanks to everyone else that I was able to perform.
Ashizawa: But you still performed a strong-willed yet cheerful Kirino, didn’t you?
Amahana: Somehow the feelings of a character in a Japanese-style show came to me naturally, and maybe he resembled me personally. People keep telling me “You’re always smiling so cheerfully,” so (laughs).
Ashizawa: Maybe that verve came out on stage. For your first lead role, you performed quite solidly.
Amahana: I might have looked that way, but actually I was so nervous I was trembling like a leaf (laughs).
Ashizawa: Since it was a Japanese-style show, the costumes and wigs must have given you a bit of a boost as well.
Amahana: That’s certainly part of it. I think costumes are really powerful. But Kirino-san also has scenes where he isn’t wearing the wig, and I have to use my natural hair shows, so I had a really hard time rearranging my hair. I was so sweaty, so I struggled to get it into the ‘regent’ (laughs).
Ashizawa: The next show, THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL, was a famous two-act production, so playing the lead role of Percy (main cast: Kurenai Yuzuru) in the junior performance must have been a lot of pressure.
Amahana: It was. It’s a famous show, and it was Sayumi-san’s (Kurenai) debut show, which was another big thing. And on top of that, in the previous production [in Star Troupe] Sayumi-san had played the junior lead. It’s a really important show to Star Troupe, so I felt the burden of ensuring I didn’t ruin the feelings everyone held towards the show.
Ashizawa: You might have been overthinking some things.
Amahana: Back then, I felt like I had lost to myself. It was my second time being given a lead role, which also added a lot. I’d felt the difficulty and responsibility of doing a lead role the first time, so I felt a huge amount of pressure to do better the second time.
Ashizawa: And what did you do to resist that pressure?
Amahana: My co-star, Marguerite (main case: Kisaki Airi), was played by my classmate Arisa [Hitomi], and that was such a big help. It was her time being paired up with me since transferring troupes and coming to Star Troupe, but when I was stressing out she would reach out to me and say “Are you okay?”, which was so reassuring.
Ashizawa: But thinking about it now, even your struggles from back then must have been a valuable experience?
Amahana: During that ken-6 year, I didn’t know what kind of otokoyaku I wanted to become any more, and I was worrying over it the whole time. But I think it was because of all those worries that when I reached the turning point of ken-7, I was able to think about things in a new way. I guess I was able to fully digest those concerns within myself, so now I can think about how I want to keep doing my best.
Ashizawa: Before and after [THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL], you played Hashimura Santarou in Blazing Wind and Hirate in Aterui, and then at the start of this year, you played Yasujiro (main cast: Kurenai) in the junior performance of ANOTHER WORLD, so it’s a lot of Japanese-style shows.
Amahana: There are a lot. If you count my junior roles, I’ve played warriors from the fall of the shogunate era, to young heirs from Edo-era Kansai, so when it comes to Japanese-style shows my repertoire of roles is too broad (laughs).
Ashizawa: Speaking of that young heir from Edo-era Kansai, you seemed to be enjoying yourself playing Yasujirou (laughs).
Amahana: Ahh~, that role was so incredible that it seemed like only Sayumi-san could do it, so I thought the only thing for me was to put everything behind me and perform with my all.
Ashizawa: It opened with a clapper entrance1.
Amahana: It made me so emotional. The second the curtain opened, the audience was like ‘Wah~!’ and beaming as they applauded. That outlook was so sparkling and beautiful. It was a Japanese-style show, so I had to laugh in a refined way, but in order to make it look even a little showier, during standby we all were telling ourselves “Let’s do our best with the same energy in our hearts that we’d have if we were busting a gut laughing!”
Ashizawa: And how did it feel to enter through the lift into the middle of that?
Amahana: The lights were strong enough to make me dizzy (laughs). But it made me happy to be under them, and I was happy to be on stage with everyone. For previous junior performances, I’d been waiting on standby all by myself under the stage, so I’d hear my own opening announcement, and when the audience applauded I’d think “Thank you!” and bow my head all by myself (laughs).
Ashizawa: When do you feel ‘I’m definitely an AB type’?
Amahana: Maybe the way I feel completely different at the theatre and at home (laughs). At the theatre I never feel tired or frazzled, I’m just bursting with energy. But when I get home it’s like a switch just flips off (laughs). Also, even when I’m totally focused on my performance onstage, there’s like a calm self somewhere else. I’ll suddenly start worrying about something completely different.
Ashizawa: Maybe you have too many things to think about?
Amahana: Sometimes I’ll have a bit of a breakdown. I won’t be able to tell which are my real thoughts, but I’ll think ‘both of them are me’… Also, I’m really affected by my roles. When I did Percy I was high-strung, but when I was Yasujiro I turned into a laid-back person (laughs).
Ashizawa: What’s your biggest issue as an otokoyaku currently?
Amahana: Let me think. Sometimes I’ll have girly gestures come out by accident, which is frustrating. There are moments I’m not fully absorbed in being an otokoyaku. Also, there are ways in which I haven’t fully settled how to display myself in revues. I have to work on conceptualizing myself, but recently I’m struggling a lot wondering if the way I’m approaching the audience is correct or not. Since my year level has gone up, I hope to express myself in a way that makes people think “Amahana-san was assigned to that scene because she’s the one for it.”
Ashizawa: Diaoming in Thunderbolt Fantasy, the show that is going to run in Taiwan later, is a villain, correct.
Amahana: It was the first time in my life I played a villain. But maybe you could call him an un-hateable villain? (laughs) I was playing a villain together with Arisa, but unlike Arisa who has previous villain experience, I didn’t know how to express things. You utilize the whites of the eyes for intensity, things like that, so the way you direct your sightline is totally different as well. That was hard for me, so I’d get corrected with “Pii (Amahana), those are flirty eyes.” (laughs) But I love villains, so I’d love to try playing a villain like Terry Benedict from Ocean’s 11.
Ashizawa: What are you looking forward to about the Taiwan run?
Amahana: You hear a lot that the reaction from the foreign fans is huge. We create our stage performances together with the fans, so I’m really excited to see what happens when we go overseas.
Ashizawa: In December you have the Takarazuka Special, correct?
Amahana: It’s my first time being able to participate, so I’m so excited! I’m happy to get the chance to perform with my classmates in other troupes. Akatsuki-kun in Moon Troupe and I are telling each other “We can perform together!” (laughs).
Ashizawa: It’s going to be like a class reunion (laughs).
Amahana: I want to give it my all while remembering old times with my classmates!
1 – A style of opening nihonmono shows where the lights come on to a full stage accompanied by the sound of a traditional Japanese wooden clapper.