Buried TeaBowl a new solo work in progress 2021

photo by Vikk Shayen

Yumi's new solo work Buried TeaBowl, a work in progress, Aug 2021

Buried Tea Bowl  is a new solo interdisciplinary work in development by Yumi Umiumare, bringing together dance, text, song and poetry with tea ceremony to create an intimate and epic work with both live and digital iterations.

Buried Tea Bowl channels the character of Okuni, a Japanese female shaman who initiated Kabuki during the Edo period (1600s). Kabuki comes from the word ‘Kabuku’, meaning bent or out of the ordinary, and was regarded as a subversive non-art form, passionately expressing ugliness and beauty. Later women were banned from performing Kabuki – the male performers who took over the art form can be seen as the first Japanese Drag Queens. Even though she was one of the most powerful female figures in theatre history, not many people know about Okuni, even in Japan.

Combining Yumi’s practice of Japanese tea ceremony, which flourished at the same period as Okuni was alive, she is choosing the ‘tea bowl’ as a creative metaphor of precious sacred female power which was buried under history.

Creative Team for Creative Development 2021
Created and Performed by Yumi Umiumare

In collaboration with 

Cinematographer/ Editor : Takeshi Kondo
Composer/ Sound Designer : Dan West
Dramaturg : Maude Davey
Provocateur : Moira Finucane
Vocal Artist : Emma Bathgate
Shamisen Artist : Noriko Tadano
Photographer : Vikk Shayen
Producer : Kath Papas productions

This project has been assisted by 
The Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body

City of Darebin, Cultural Infrastructure Grants

Abbotsford Convent Foundation, Pivot 2021