Ashizawa Jin is an illustrator/columnist who seems to have worked for GRAPH since the 1960s (yes, you read that right). His interview column generally gets a new title every year but has been fairly consistent format-wise in recent years. I’m giving him his own tag in the Staff category since he is one of the few interview conductors to be credited by name in the publications.
This interview with Kisaki Airi was published in the July 2017 issue of GRAPH and seems to have been recorded during the production of The Scarlet Pimpernel.
Time to Soar! #6 – interview with Kisaki Airi
Though Kisaki Airi gives the impression of being ‘a cute person’, when she was playing Marguerite (in The Scarlet Pimpernel), she seemed like a different person, giving off a mature aura. She is the Top Musumeyaku of Star Troupe. She fits with Kurenai Yuzuru wonderfully as her partner, and her gorgeous aura is shining more and more.
The role of Marguerite in The Scarlet Pimpernel is such a significant one, and I looked forward to seeing how a cute and charming person like you would perform it, but you pulled off your weighty task with aplomb.
It was my first time being able to be in a position like that, and I’d never had so many songs to sing before, so really, for me personally…it was rather a startling experience ‘firsthand’, if you will… (laughs). I was getting strict instructions from Director Koike, so no matter which scene I pushed through desperately with all my energy.
How did it feel on the first day of the Grand Theatre production when you were coming down the Grand Stairs in the parade?
I was so terribly nervous, and I had a quickchange and things too, so I was so full of the things I had to do that I didn’t have a spare moment. Recently I’m finally able to look around at more things. I was really just trying to survive every day (laughs).
It seems like it must have been hard to deal with the hoopskirt dresses.
This is my first time wearing dresses with such a big hoopskirt. In the rehearsal, I just had the frame, but when I wore the real costumes for the first time in the dress rehearsal all the fabric was so heavy, and the whole weight of it came on my lower back, and even if I was just taking one or two steps I’d trample the hem or trip on it, so it was so hard! It really made me think about how much presence I need to have in the role. Right now I feel like my back is a bit more accustomed to it, and I’m consciously trying to walk beautifully as if I’m floating, but when I’m thinking about that sometimes it will cause a hitch in the acting, so it’s still difficult.
Your debut production was also The Scarlet Pimpernel (Moon Troupe), correct? What did you do in that?
The debut rockette. I was ranked 17th in the class, and everyone through the 16th ranked member was able to appear in the play. But starting with me we didn’t… So I was in the dressing room the whooooooole time (laughs). But, in the junior performance, I was able to play a citizen, and I loved the spirited citizens, so becoming one of them is a really happy memory for me.
Your first time acting together directly with Kurenai was when you played her wife in Jean-Louis Fargeon (Bow Hall/Nippon Seinenkan Hall), so what was your impression of Kurenai then, and what do you feel now is her appeal?
Aaaah~, to me she was a ‘Super senior’, so I felt nothing but nervousness, and I was only ken-3 so I didn’t have any skills or experience, so the only thing I felt I could to was follow Kurenai-san. We had acting scenes with just the two of us together, so I was desperately trying at least not to be a burden on Kurenai-san as the star. After that we’ve been together many times, and then and now, she has a huge love, maybe, a big heart where she’s accepting of anything. When I’m worrying about something or stuff like that, she’ll say “You can tell me anything any time”, but even before I go to her, she’ll have seen through everything (laughs). If we’re acting she’ll say “This bit seems pretty hard, huh”, and go through it with me as many times as it takes, and I’m so grateful for how thoughtful she is all the time. She’ll tell me she wants to have a relationship where we can both trust each other, so I’m focusing on that every day.
Even though you’re from Kawanishi (Hyogo Prefecture), apparently you entered the school without knowing much about the Takarazuka Revue.
That’s right. I’m ashamed to say it, but I was unbelieveably clueless; I even thought I could go to the Takarazuka Music School as well as attending a mainstream highschool (laughs). Even once I passed the exams, my home was closeby so I could have commuted, but during the entrance orientation they talked about the dorms, and I didn’t know anything I asked my classmate next to me whose name I didn’t even know yet ‘Are you staring in the dorms?’ and she said ‘Yes, since I’m from Tokyo’. And that was actually Kano Maria (laughs). So then I felt like I might as well do that too, so my dorm life began. I think it was because of those two years that I started to understand Takarazuka.
Your time as a Lower and Upper student must have been hard?
I had taken piano, and also ballet, since I was a little girl, but I had only just made it along, so when I entered the school and heard my classmates saying “I was entering competitions,” I stopped wanting to go to class due to my own inability. Everyone was just so incredible, and I was always such an inferior student. Since I’d studied piano, I was first place only in that subject, and so because of that I somehow managed to get decent grades (laughs). In the second half of my Lower Student year, there was some event for the Upper Students, so I finally got some kind of goal, or I could see something of why I entered the school, so starting then I began to enjoy it more little by little.
You had three heroine roles in junior performance, with your first being Diana (main cast: Yumesaki Nene) in The Lost Glory, followed by Caterina (main cast: Yumesaki) in Like a Black Panther, at ken-5, and Sara (main cast: Hinami Fuu) in Guys and Dolls at ken-6.
As soon as I was assigned to Star Troupe I started helping out Yumesaki-san, so I was always able to watch her rehearsing the whooooole time from close up, and I learned an amazing amount from that. I yearned to be like her: ‘She’s so wonderful, she’s so beautiful’. I was so happy to be able to perform a role from a senior who I worshipped like that, but ‘Yumesaki’s role’ equalled ‘heroine’, so I was really desperate. I feel like by the time I did Sara I was a little more relaxed and was able to act a bit better.
In the Drama City/Akasaka ACT performance Catch Me If You Can, you had the heroine role of Brenda.
It was my first time having a long solo, but singing all alone in the silence made me too nervous to bear at first. As the days went on I think I was able to understand the atmosphere of the space more. A junior performance is one time only, so there’s no time to achieve that breathing room, I realized that when you do it over and over it will start to come unconsciously.
Your musumeyaku classmates such as Sakihi [Miyu] and Kano [Maria] started prominent activities early on, so I assume that was highly motivating for you.
I feel now, as I always have, ‘they’re so amazing~’. I have only respect for them. Of course, I also feel I need to do my best, and now that I’m in the same position as Sakihi and Kano, who I used to support and say ‘You’re incredible! You can do it!’, I felt so much nervousness born from that.. But the other day the two of them came to see me perform and told me ‘You were good’, so I was happy.
Your role of Takeshita Hisa in Samurai THE FINAL was your first time being in a Japanese-style play, correct?
That’s right. It was full of firsts for me. The script was in Kagoshima dialect, so since I was from Kansai region it was easier for me to get used to it than the Tokyo residents, but when I was speaking the Kagoshima dialect I realized how poor my speaking abilities in Standard Japanese were. It was so easy for me to get into acting in Kagoshima dialect, which is similar to Kansai dialect. In the junior performance I played the Troupe Elder, Mari [Yuzumi]-san’s role (Lady Oogyuu), and it was totally made up of things I needed to learn, so I was able to study her close up each day. Whether it was my makeup, or how to wear the costumes, she gave me so much advice.
And then you also have the Takarazuka Traditional Dance Recital in October.
I learned Japanese dance in the Takarazuka Music School, and there was also a Japanese dance portion in the exams1 at ken-1, ken-3, and ken-5, so I think I just have to do my best while remembering those times. The recital will overlap with the performances of Berlin, My Love and Bouquet de TAKARAZUKA but…I’ll summon up my Japanese spirit (laughs).
And before that, in July and August, you have a revival production of Om Shanti Om (Umeda Arts Theatre).
The first time it was so hard for me to perform the double role of Shantipriya and Sandy, but this time I hope I will have grown a few levels. I want to bring my experience as Marguerite to make Shantipriya more mature, and I want to give Sandy the feel of a country village girl.
What kind of performer are you aiming to be in the future?
Of course, this is as a Takarazuka Musumeyaku, but also as an actress, I want to be able to live through my role in the performance starting tomorrow. I want to put in the effort so that during each and every performance, I can to live in that role, and polish it until the final performance while constantly improving.
1 – The post-debut exams, which are very important in determining which junior actresses will get better roles and promotions.