English Title: South Japan / Disappearing into the Desert
Japanese Title: 火の島 / 砂漠に消える
Romanized Title: Hi no Shima / Sabaku ni Kieru

Troupe: Snow
Year: 1961
Performances: Takarazuka Grand Theater, 08/01 - 08/31; Tokyo Takarazuka Theater, 11/02 - 11/26
Shinjin Kouen Performances:

South Japan

Based On:
Author/Director: Watanabe Takeo
Composer: Sakai Kyou, Tsutsumi Gorou, Nakai Mitsuharu, Totoki Kazuo
Choreographer: Miyoshi Sakuko
Conductor (Takarazuka):
Conductor (Tokyo):

Disappearing Into the Desert

Based On:
Author/Director: Kikuta Kazuo
Composer: Irie Kaoru, Nakamoto Kiyozumi, Kawasaki Tsuneo, Terada Takio
Choreographer: Oka Masami and Sasaki Kazuo
Conductor (Takarazuka):
Conductor (Tokyo):

Available on DVD: No


South Japan

Role	Cast
Solo Singer (Hoso-Odori)	Kamo Sakura
Solo Singer (Bo-Odori)	Akashi Teruko
Solo Singer (Ohara-bushi)	Kamo Sakura
Student A	Akashi Teruko
Student B	Kamishima Youko
Student C	Satomi Chihiro
Student A's mother	Ooji Michio
Solo Singer (Kusakiri-Bushi)	Awaji Michiko
Solo Singer (Shunga-Shunga)	Hime Yumiko
Solo Singer (Cycad)	Kamo Sakura
Solo Singer (Cloth weaving)	Awaji Michiko
Male Dancer (Harvest)	Tatsuki Noboru
Female Dancer (Harvest)	Mitaka Keiko
Solo Singer (Bull Fight)	Akashi Teruko

Disappearing Into the Desert

Role	Cast
Anglei Levi	Akashi Teruko
Gaby Durand	Kamo Sakura
Jean Delanoi	Kasugano Yachiyo
Hassim	Tatsuki Noboru
"G"	Miyoshi Sakuko
G's sweetheart	Mitaka Keiko
Paul Delrand	Ooji Michio
Jalam	Maho Shibuki
Laga	Chichibu Mihoko
Bar keeper	Ruri Toyomi
Nadia (Arab Girl)	Nobe Sayuri
Singer	Awaji Michiko
Singer	Maki Katsumi

WARNING!! MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!

The Takarazuka Dance Theatre is collecting, editing, and staging the series of "Japanese Folk Dances" comprising old folk songs and dances still being sung and performed in various parts of Japan.

This is Collection 4, dealing with ancient songs and dances found in the southern part of Kyushu, particularly in Kagoshima Prefecture, the southernmost district of Kyuushu. It contains a number of peculiarly characteristic local folk songs and dances, hereditary and handed down from ancient times, which were collected and aptly arranged by Takeo Watanabe, Takarazuka's expert choreographer, and others especially dispatched to Kagoshima for that purpose.

Situated on the southernmost tip of Kyuushu, Kagoshima Prefecture is known for Mt. Sakurajima, an active volcano which faces the city of Kagoshima, the capital of the prefecture across Kagoshima Bay, which holds Satsuma and Osumi Peninsula on its right and left.

Extending further southward from Kagoshima Bay, are Yakushima, Tanegashima, Amami-Oshima, and innumerable other small islands, facing Okinawa islands to the south.

Being located so remotely, Kagoshima Prefecture abounds in a number of unfamiliar folk songs and dances.

Scene 1. The Island of Fire
Unfamiliar old folk songs and dances, collected from various localities in Kagoshima Prefecture, are introduced. Shown first will be the Taiko Odori or the Dance of Drum, which is found in Kamiyamada, Izaku, and Ijuin districts. This is followed by the Hoso-Odori or Dance of Smallpox, Danced with the popular prayers that the plague be driven away, and the Bo-Odori or Dance of the Pole, noted for its lively rhythm. Lastly, the gay and sprightly Ohara-bushi and Han-ya-Bushi dances are introduced.

Scene 2. Satsuma Ogojo (or Lasses)
A comic piece performed by three students of the defunct Seventh High School in Kagoshima city, and four Satsuma Ogojo or maidens, who are traveling venders of the famous Sakurajima radishes carried on their heads. One of the students is reminiscent of his native island, and sings the Song of Okkanjo (or mother).

Scene 3. The Green Island (Tanegashima)
Memories of the students' boyhood days. The beaches of Tanegashima. Children are gathered there to greet their mother expected to return on a canoe. The mother brings something nice to the children.

Scene 4. Kusakiri-Bushi (Grass Cutting)
With the accompaniment of a song sung by a girl, carrying a basket on her back, sixteen maidens of Tanegashima perform the Dance of Kusakiri (or grass cutting), holding a sickle in their hands.

Scene 5. Big Sea Turtles
As children dig a big hole on the sandy beaches of Tanegashima and hide themselves in it, four sea turtles appear and lay eggs in the sands. The children entertain the turtles with sake (Japanese rice wine), and dance a dance of joy. While singing they release the turtles into the sea.

Scene 6. August Dances Approaching Near
Songs and dances handed down in Amami islands, dealing with Shunga-Shunga (white lilies), the harvesting of cycad fruits and banana, are introduced. A song of reeling and a scene of cloth weaving are also introduced.

Scene 7 Harvest
Ten males, with a couple of male and female in the center, unfurl the Dance of Harvesting, in which they are shown storing the harvest rice ears in a Takakura, or high floored warehouse, a peculiar structure found in Amami.

Scene 8 August Dances
First, the bull fight, for which Amami is noted, is introduced, and the gay August Dances are performed by many males and females. This represents one of the peculiar annual events followed at Sani, Kasari town on Amami-Oshima island.

---

Casba in Algere, a desert town full of intrigues, poverty and all kind of lewdness and immoralities; a horrible town, from which nobody may escape safe and intact, once he steps in. That's Casba.

In the home of Hassim, a jeweler, located in the interior of Casba, a white man was seen sitting with his eyes filled with despair. The name of the man was Angelic Levi. A year ago, he was a cheap painter in Paris. He was madly in love with Gaby Durand, the beautiful fashion model and their love romance eventually culminated in a happy marriage.

Vast money, however, was needed for marrying Gaby. Angelic was too poor to prepare it. In his embarrassment, he was helped by a man called "G", who accommodated the money badly needed by him. Angelic was much pleased in hi thought that he could marry the girl with his money. Without any suspicion, he borrowed the money from the man, unaware of the fact that a terrible trap was in store for him.

On the third day after his marriage, he found himself being chased by the Paris police as a suspect in a bank robbery.

"G" showed up again as his helper. Under the man's advice, he was to go to Algeria and hide there for just several days, waiting for his suspicion being cleared up. Promising Gaby, his beloved wife, that he would come to Paris in five days by all means, he sailed across the Mediterranean Sea.

The first five days passed along after Angelic found himself in Casba in Algere, and a week slipped away. Half a year and a fully year passed by and now, he knew that it was utterly impossible for him to return to Paris any longer. For, he was no under the complete sway of "G", or a Nazi spy. Any attempt to free himself from the ominous hands of "G" would mean immediate death.

On the other hand, Gaby, his wife who was left alone in Paris made up her mind to follow her husband whom she could not forget and determined to go to Algeria.

But alas, as she reached the Paris railway station, she was already under the sharp eyes of the police as well as Nazi spies.

Gaby, through an accidental coincidence became friends in Marseilles, with Jean Delanoi, a young Paris architect, hailing from a renowned old family, who boarded the same train with her. He, too, was on his way to Algeria at the request of the French Government, to engage in certain architectural work there.

That Jean was sharing the trip to Algeria greatly encouraged Gaby, who otherwise would have felt herself helplessly desolate and solitary.

When they reached the Algerian port there was Jamal, an Arab native who was a henchman of "G" to receive them.

The Nazi spy network was no less intricate than the Casban labyrinth. It employed a number of Arab natives. Jamal, one of them occupied an important post and his lover, Laga likewise was an active female spy, keeping watch on Angelic.

Paris police had dispatched a veteran detective, Paul Deltrand to Algeria, to keep watch on the movement of Angelic, and to find out the truth of the bank robbery. Deltrand had infiltrated into Casba, too.

Activities by these persons gradually disclosed the truth of the whole affair, and the inevitable consequence was that Angelic was to be inescapably pursued by police. In the meantime, indications showed that spy "G" had directed Jamal to kill Angelic.

Laga, who had by this time comet o secretly love Angelic, knew of her lover's sinister designed and in an attempt to recuse Angelic out of the impending peril, took him to a castle deep in the desert. It was too late, however; "G" was there to ambush Angelic. Paul Deltrand, the detective from Paris and Gaby, Angelic's wife, were also there.

Seeing Gaby after a long separation, however, Angelic could not address to her even a word.

Praying for the happiness of Gaby and Jean, Angelic alone, disappeared beyond the deserts.


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