Johanna Gernbacher has been living in a Zen temple in Nagaoka while studying utai, shimai and mask carving with Udaka Michishige in Kyoto since April 2012. She performed the kuse and kiri sections of Yuki in the student recital on the Yamatoya Noh stage before Udaka-sensei’s performance of Sesshoseki in November 2012. Johanna has been developing quickly as a shite and as a mask carver, and Udaka- sensei hopes she will continue her training and come back to Kyoto soon. She has now returned to Berlin where she will continue to study Noh, joining forces with other INI members in Germany.

This January Johanna visited Kyoto and it was nice to catch up! We went to the utaizome performance celebrating the new year at the Kongo Noh theatre, which was showing the seasonal decorations. We hope to see Johanna again soon!