Aichi Triennale

Launched in 2020 by Chinen Akane to perpetuate the works of Chinen Seishin (1941–2013), whose “Human Pavillion” was the first play by an Okinawan playwright to win the Kishida Kunio Drama Award. Premiered by theater group Sozo in Koza (Okinawa City), the play’s starting point is the “Human Pavilion incident” of 1903, when humans were displayed at the Academic Human Pavilion on the periphery of Japan’s Fifth National Industrial Exhibition in Osaka. Interweaving Japanese language with Okinawan and Uchinaa-Yamatoguchi (a hybrid of the two) in an experimental screenplay, this play is a monument in the history of Okinawan drama. Classical musician Chinen Akane’s AKN PROJECT performs her father’s play as “Human Pavillion – A Comedy” following a broadcast under COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, and a theater performance in 2022 at the Naha Cultural Arts Theater NAHArt marking the fiftieth anniversary of the “Reversion” of Okinawa to Japan.

Selected performances

2022

“Human Pavillion – A Comedy,” Naha Cultural Arts Theater NAHArt (Okinawa, Japan)

2021

“Human Pavillion – A Comedy,” Online Streaming