{"id":609,"date":"2017-11-01T21:21:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-02T03:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/?p=609"},"modified":"2021-01-09T22:39:44","modified_gmt":"2021-01-10T05:39:44","slug":"takarasienne-talent-showcase-may-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/2017\/11\/01\/takarasienne-talent-showcase-may-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Takarasienne Talent Showcase! – May 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In this feature from\u00a0Kageki,<\/em>\u00a0several siennes talk about skills they have that they don\u2019t get to show off on stage. The May 2017 issue featured Kozakura Honoka, Suou Mahiro, Hoshibuki Ayato, and Saezuki Runa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Kozakura Honoka, Star Troupe: Hyakunin-Isshu1<\/sup><\/em>
Ever since I was a little girl it\u2019s been a family tradition, when the relatives all gather for New Years\u2019, to all put on kimono and play Hyakunin-Isshu together. When we would play 1-on-1, since my grandmother was a really strong opponent, my boy cousin, my little brother, and me would make a team to battle her. In order to beat my grandmother I would practice the whole year with my dad (laughs). At first I preferred the pictures of princesses printed on the cards rather than the verses, so I would play looking at those, but then my dad told me \u2018why don\u2019t you try learning some of those poems on the cards?\u2019 and because of that, I first learned the poem by Ise no Taifu, and before I knew it I had memorized all 100 poems. As I\u2019ve grown up, it\u2019s not just the competition that I find appealing, but also the refined atmosphere of olden-days Japan. I find it very relaxing to look at the cards and listen to the poems, so even currently I\u2019ll still lay out the cards at home (laughs). I\u2019d be really happy if a lot of people became interested in Hyakunin-Isshu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suou Mahiro, Moon Troupe: Karate<\/em>
When I was in first grade, I began taking karate at my grandfather\u2019s recommendation. I continued until my middle-school graduation, prior to entering the Revue, and I passed the ranking exams. Rather than combat with an actual opponent, I preferred displaying ‘forms\u2019 against an imaginary opponent, since it is a matter of how quickly and skillfully one can perform the move. There\u2019s no specific conclusion, but I feel there\u2019s a lot of value and enjoyment in the pursuit of improvement. When I was doing it, I\u2019d participate in joint training camps for many different karate schools, so I\u2019d get up early to go running in the mountains, practice with students from other skills, and lots of stuff like that. I feel like it was a really valuable experience for me. They say karate trains all three aspects – heart, skill, and physicality, so it doesn\u2019t just strengthen your muscles or whatever, but also trains the spirit. Therefore, since it is really exhilarating and also teaches beneficial self-defense skills, I recommend everyone try it! You won\u2019t regret it (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hoshibuki Ayato, Cosmos Troupe: Badminton<\/em>
I started in 4th grade of primary school. Even though there were a ton of clubs available, for some reason badminton appealed to me so I joined that one. I would go to inter-school matches and regional tournaments, and I remember once I was defeated just one game away from winning a tournament and was so disappointed I cried (laughs). In order to prepare for the TMS entrance exam I didn\u2019t join any clubs in middle school, but when I had time for it I would play badminton with my little brother. While I\u2019ve had less opportunity to play since joining the Revue, a few years back during a national tour everyone in the cast went to a sports facility, and I really enjoyed the chance to play again after so long. Currently I\u2019ll sometimes do rallies with the junior actresses, and sometimes we\u2019ll get really serious about it (laughs), so I\u2019m really enjoying it. The exhilaration of doing a smash never gets old, and I like playing around with everyone, and even if I totally miss I find myself smiling so I think even that is one of the appeals of badminton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saezuki Runa, Flower Troupe: Italian<\/em>
Due to my father\u2019s work, we lived in Milan, Italy, from when I was 3 years old to 10 years old. Since I went to primary school at the British School located nearbuy, I became able to speak both English and Italian. Even Italian kindergarten kids are little gentlemen – they all open doors for their mothers or compliment a little girl wearing a new hair accessory – those lovely aspects of the culture left a big impression on me. After joining Takarazuka, I went on a trip to Florence, and when I went to a gelato shop and ordered in Italian, the shopkeeper said ‘you can speak Italian?!\u2019 and got kind of excited. Even now, if I spent several hours with an Italian, I think I\u2019d be able to manage an everyday level of conversation. Italian pronunciation is simple and close to Japanese, and Italian culture is really appealing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1 – This is a matching game, also known as\u00a0karuta,<\/em>\u00a0using cards printed with a famous anthology of 100 poems by 100 Heian-era poets. (It\u2019s the subject of popular anime\u00a0Chihayafuru<\/em>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this feature from\u00a0Kageki,\u00a0several siennes talk about skills they have that they don\u2019t get to show off on stage. The May 2017 issue featured Kozakura Honoka, Suou Mahiro, Hoshibuki Ayato, and Saezuki Runa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[20],"tags":[13,360,134,42,169,144,170,168],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":610,"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609\/revisions\/610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}