FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 26, 2002

Japanese Doll Play Returns to College

Handmade dolls are used to express and preserve Japanese culture, traditional folklore

IRVINE, CA—The Kayama Doll Play Group will present traditional Japanese doll plays at Irvine Valley College on Saturday, October 12, from 10:45 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in Room A-212. The group consists of women who want to preserve Japanese culture in America by telling stories either in Japanese or in English using unique puppet-like dolls.

Each doll is hand crafted using Styrofoam and clay and is clad in the traditional kimono. The dolls are a traditional medium for expressing Japanese heritage.

The founder of the group, Isoko Kayama, began the group sixteen years ago when she realized her son might not learn some of the fundamentals of Japanese culture.

“I was watching him play with his friends and I felt he was missing out of traditional Japanese. I thought that creating plays in Japanese was the best, fun way for the children to remember Japanese folklore,” she said.

Now the all-volunteer group performs about once a month in events throughout the Southland. The ten mothers who make up the group write their own scripts and produce a new play every year, while one of Kayama’s friends writes original music to accompany individual tales. They also produce English versions of the plays. Among the plays they have produced are “The Weaver and the Shepard” and “The Rolling Rice Ball.”

The Japanese Doll Play Group performs as part of “Introduction to Japanese Culture,” a language and culture class offered at IVC. “This is a great opportunity for anyone interested in Japanese culture to get a glimpse of a wonderful art form,” said Fumiko Ishii, who teaches the course each Saturday at the college.

For more information, contact Ishii at (949) 727-6432.