KOCHI: When Hisayo Watanabe took a break from her 90-minute practice session, she was all misty-eyed. The 70-yearold Japanese woman was fine-tuning herself for her dream Mohiniyattam solo performance with a live orchestra on the home turf of her guru Kalamandalam Kalyanikkuttiyama on Monday. This is the 30th year of her tryst with the dance form. Her love affair with Mohiniyattam began when she saw Deepthi Omcherry Bhalla’s performance at Tokyo. At Deepthi’s behest, Hisayo came to meet Kalamandalam Kalyanikkuttiyamma and became her disciple in January 1988. “Mohiniyattam has a close resemblance to Nihon Buyo, a Japanese dance form,” said Tateo Watanabe, her writer husband who stepped in as the translator.
Their love for India brought the couple close, who married 15 years ago. “It was a very late marriage,” said Hisayo Watanabe, who was a librarian at a research center attached to a Buddhist temple in Tokyo. Another interesting facet of her days as a student of Mohiniyattam is that she has been tutored by three generations of the Kalyanikkuttiyama’s family- Kalyanikkuttiyama, her daughter Sreedevi Rajan, granddaughters Smitha Rajan and Sandhya Rajan. “During those days, I used to take a bus from the Grand Hotel to Tripunithura to attend classes,” Hisayo said. According to Sreedevi Rajan, Hisayo’s dedication towards the dance form made her an extraordinary student. “She is always ready to correct herself without any hesitation,” said Sreedevi Rajan. Hisayo, who used to take breaks from her job at a regular interval to learn the dance form, has a 10-member Mohiniyattom group at Yokohama where she lives. They perform it with the support of a recorded orchestra.
“Though she has many limitations, especially of age and language, Hisayo was a passionate student. She is quick to grasp the intricate steps and mudras. Her passion is evident in her performance,” said Smitha Rajan who brings out an old but tidy notebook of her student to explain Hisayo’s zeal. Teaching Hisayo Mohiniyattam had been a difficult task since she didn’t know English. “However, she is well versed in mudras and we were able to converse using mudras. We even use mudras for our day to day communication,” said Sandhya. Performing at Nrithyakshetra, Warriam Road at 6.30 pm on Monday, Hisayo Watanabe will be fulfilling a dream.