Lone Wolf or Team Player

Last night, my husband and I went to a solo puppet show. Are we interested in puppet shows? Not actually, but the actor's performance is exceptional to me. He is Norisawa. http://www.puppet-house.co.jp/nori/sawa.htm#norisawa Because he was...my homeroom teacher at high school!

When I entered a private protestant girl high school in Sapporo, I was a fussy little girl. I wanted to go to another public school, but I failed it out. That private girl school was kind of insurance for me, so I didn't feel good to go there.

However, after I go to the school and met my homeroom teacher, Norisawa, for the first time...my high school days became colorful to me. First of all, even from the first day of the school, he already knew each one's first & last names. He talked to each one, looking at each one of 40 little girls' faces. I asked him why, then he said, "you know, it's first time for me to be a homeroom teacher! You all are my first students! I was very excited, and asked my wife to read each one's name, and I tried to pick the name's photos from your entrance applications! Actually I kind of awful of remembering girls' names, so I should do that!"

But even for me, one of the girls, it seemed very hard to remember 40 girls' names perfectly. He didn't seem to have any troubles with calling our names correctly, that showed us how he had worked hard to do a "karuta" game to memorize our names. I felt sorry for having thought, " I don't want to go to this school!"

He was a very interesting art teacher. On the entrance ceremony day, he showed some puppets (later, I knew those his handmade puppets were praised very much from European artists)to us and our parents. "I'm a teacher, and actually, I'm also an amateur puppet actor. I do perform regularly. They are from my show, "Macbeth," as you know, a Shakespeare's play. In Japan, puppet show sounds like for kids, but I do it for mostly adults." He performed a little for all of us. I wondered, how many high school teachers does perform a puppet show in front of students and parents? I started to like the shcool, where he belongs.

Since then, it became my regular thing to stop by Norisawa's office after school. I told my complains for school or my parents like a fussy kid, and he started to talk about himself, too. "Teacher's job is great, and other teachers' of this school are also great...but I feel like I don't belong here sometimes. I enjoy being with all of you, so I can't explain why."

One year and a half later, Norisawa made his biggest decision of his life. He got a scholarship from the government, and went to France to study puppet theater major, and he was immediately selected to be a professional puppet performer, and sent to Czech Republic, where puppet performances are very popular. As a 16-years old girl, I was very sad that my most favorite teacher was leaving the school, but somewhat I understood he finally found where he belonged to.

Years later, I visited Czech with my family, before I got married, to see Norisawa. When he came to Sapporo to perform, I went to see his performances. But after I got married, I moved to Tokyo, then America, so I didn't have a chance to meet him even we have been contacting each other via e-mail sometimes.

Last night, he performed in Tokyo, and the time I could introduce my husband to Norisawa finally came! But I was a bit worried. My hubby has been in the busiest season of his job, so even last night, our 10th marriage anniversary night, he needed to stay up all night at the office to finish his job. Norisawa's performance was the night after...can he really come?

Also, my hubby is a conservative guy who "belongs to" a conservative Japanese company. On the other hand, Norisawa' performance is...so artistic that he has been praised to get so many awards in Europe, but can a conservative Japanese guy understand puppets' artistic world?

My hubby was very nice to make it last night. All the time during the performance, I looked at Norisawa how to perform, and my hubby how to react, one after the other, like a tennis judge.

Norisawa's solo performance seemed like a lots of energy. Sometimes he jumped & did somersaults, shouted... He did emceeing all the times to explain about his performances (most puppet shows don't have lines,) trying to make the audience laugh often, so, his stage was like a sort of "standing comedian show" sometimes.

I was wondering, how he hasn't changed since we met for the first time. His voice, his appearance... nothing has changed. When I was 16, he was 29...so, how old is he now? 39? ...Am I miscalculating??

During his performance, I noticed half of his performances also hasn't changed. He has been doing some same performances for 20 years!! But he has many fans & been asked by so many countries to come to perform...because of his art. I was also wondering how hard to do the same thing so many years. Even I say, "same," they are not the"same" for him. He must have modified those performances sensitively, I guess the process sound hard to do.

Eventually, my hubby enjoyed Norisawa's performance. He was just amazed there is such a person in the world. The one who left his country, to seek where he belongs to (In Japan, most people don't understand the art of puppet performances, but in Czech, people do!) get the jobs by his ideas & art, work by using just his voice & body.

Having seen Norisawa and my hubby talking, I felt that was a kind of "a mysterious encounter of a lone wolf (Norisawa) and a team player(my hubby.)" Of course I know Norisawa should become a team player when he makes a stage, and my hubby might become a lone wolf when he should insist what he believes in at his company.

But basically...the way of living as an individual artist, or as an employee of a company... Which one would you prefer?? If you become a individual player, you might be able to do what you want to do, but you can just rely on yourself. If you are a team player, sometimes you should do something reluctant for your company, but sometimes you can lean on where you belong to.

Maybe, just each of us know which one is better for ourselves, like when Norisawa decided to leave Japan.

After my hubby praised Norisawa's stage, he talked by himself.

"So, that was artistic...the art is difficult!!"