The announcement that the 48-year-old — who performs below the stage identify “La Yunko” — was awarded the honour on the closing ceremony of August’s “Cante de las Minas” pageant within the southeastern city of La Union was met with a combination of applause and a few jeering.
“I used to be very shocked, I couldn’t imagine it. I believed it however I didn’t imagine it,” she advised AFP by telephone from the southern metropolis of Seville, the place she has lived for over twenty years when requested about her response to getting the award.
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Hagiwara, who was born in Kawasaki close to Tokyo, stated she didn’t discover the jeers as a result of she “went clean” when her identify was introduced because the winner.
“After I dance, I do not assume I’m a foreigner, that I’m Japanese. I do not assume that. It does not happen to me. I’m merely on stage, I hearken to the guitar, the singing and what I really feel I categorical in my dancing,” she added.
Created in 1961, the “Cante de las Minas” pageant is taken into account to be the world’s most necessary annual flamenco pageant. It options prizes for greatest singing, guitar taking part in and musical instrument efficiency along with dance.
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Critics had been unanimous of their help for Hagiwara.
“I preferred her greater than her rivals for 3 causes: her classicism, the truth that she didn’t dance for the gallery, that’s, for the general public, and, lastly, her good coaching,” flamenco critic Manuel Bohorquez wrote in on-line newspaper Sevilla Information.
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‘Lifestyle
Hagiwara stated she grew to become fascinated by flamenco — a centuries-old artwork type that mixes rhythmic hand clapping, stamping toes and impassioned singing — at age 14 when she watched a gymnastics championship by which a Spanish competitor used the style’s guitar music.
“I cherished the flamenco guitar, the sound and the melody, the rhythm,” she stated.
There was no web on the time to assist her discover her new curiosity, so she went to a store that rented data and borrowed the one accessible flamenco CD.
The announcement that “La Yunko” was awarded the honour on the closing ceremony of the “Cante de las Minas” pageant within the southeastern city of La Union on August 10 was met with a combination of applause and a few jeering. (Picture by CRISTINA QUICLER / AFP)
“I listened to it, however there was no guitar, it was simply singing,” she recalled.
“Flamenco performers usually have a really hoarse voice, very deep, and it scared me,” she added whereas laughing.
Hagiwara went on to check pedagogy at Waseda College in Tokyo, the place she joined a flamenco membership, and began to take flamenco classes.
However she felt she wanted extra.
In 2002 she determined to take the dramatic transfer the world over to Seville, capital of the southern area of Andalusia and the cradle of flamenco, to pursue her ardour.
She made the transfer regardless of objections from her mother and father.
“In Japan, you’ll be able to be taught method, choreography, however, after all, flamenco is tradition, it is a lifestyle,” she stated.
“My father acquired very, very indignant. He didn’t communicate to me for 3 months. And my mom stated ‘how shameful, how shameful’,” Hagiwara stated.
READ ALSO: Spain’s flamenco costume, an Andalusian basic evolving with vogue
Tradition shocks
In Spain, she devoted herself to flamenco, studying to bounce with the most effective lecturers, grew to become fluent in Spanish and married an Andalusian man from the coastal city of Tarifa.
She progressively made a reputation for herself as a performer in Seville, and has additionally taught flamenco.
As is the case with many foreigners, she was shocked at first by the energetic approach locals talked to one another.
“I believed everybody was preventing!” Hagiwara stated.
There have been different variations.
“In Japanese tradition, we place lots of worth on hiding the sensation, and in flamenco, it’s a must to present it. In Japan it’s for the within, and in flamenco it’s for the surface,” she stated.