Yusuke Ito will display his extraordinary skills with the kendama in two special performances and workshops at Tokyo Street, Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, on 22 March.
Kendama is a traditional cup-and-ball game comprising a ball attached by string to a spiked base, which holds cups of different sizes. The goal is to catch the ball in one of the cups, or spike the ball by landing its hole on the pointed end. While the basic premise seems simple, it takes extreme levels of precision and endurance to pull off any of the thousand variations of tricks.
Ito will show audiences why he is the only person in the world to play kendama professionally. Having picked up the hobby at the age of seven, he enrolled in a kendama dojo and subsequently set the Guinness World Record of seven and a half hours for longest game played. The ten-time national champion broke his own record several years later.
Upon graduation from university, Ito decided to devote himself exclusively to kendama. In addition to the 300 shows and workshops he presents annually in Japan, he regularly tours Europe and the United States, two of the fastest growing fan communities outside of his home country. Ito is also a member of Waonwagi, a three-man troupe that merges kendama with traditional Japanese music instruments.
Prior to Malaysia, he will perform three shows and conduct two workshops at Universiti Brunei Darussalam as part of Japanese Cultural Week.
Date: 22 March 2015 (Sunday)
Time: 4.00 p.m. & 6.00 p.m. Each performance will be followed by a workshop.
Venue: Tokyo Street, Pavilion Kuala Lumpur
Admission: Free
To register for the workshop, please visit Eventbrite. Spaces are limited to 30 pax per workshop on a first-come first-served basis.
Walk-in registration is applicable to the first 30 people to register for each workshop.
For more information, please contact the Japan Foundation Kuala Lumpur at 03 2284 6228.
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