Kaori Orita's life is divided into two main chapters. Born and raised in a rural area of Japan, she decided in 2015 to emigrate to Argentina to fulfill her great dream: to sing tango. While adapting to a new culture had its ups and downs, her first experiences as a singer in the milongas porteñas confirmed that she had made the right decision.
Kaori is a kind, friendly and smiling woman. She is proud to talk about her history and her heart is divided between two lands: Japan and Argentina. She keeps the Japanese cordiality and solemnity but she moves like a porteña in Buenos Aires. She took style classes with renowned interpreters such as Sandra Luna and Lidia Borda and today she sings with different tango orchestras. Her presence on the Buenos Aires stages is noticeable: her wardrobe combines the elegance of tango with typical elements of Japanese culture.
Being a peasant in Japan
She lacked nothing in her native Kagoshima, in the south of the island. Her life was going along comfortably, she had a job, a partner and a family, and nothing seemed to anticipate Kaori's great existential change. Her family worked in the fields and Kaori was expected to follow the family farming tradition. But something told her that she had to make a change. Leaving Japan to start a new life in South America was a decision she pondered for a long time. First, a month-long vacation to get to know the land where the tango Kaori loved so much was sung. The city of Buenos Aires dazzled her: Corrientes Avenue, the milongas of Palermo, the food and, above all, the idiosyncrasy of Buenos Aires. "As a tango dancer, Buenos Aires was the city of my dreams and I came with great enthusiasm". On that first trip, Kaori fell in love with tango and returned to her country with more concerns than certainties.
When she returned to Japan, she found herself feeling divided. The routine in Osaka no longer fulfilled her spirit and she spent her time thinking about what it would be like to change her life completely for the dos por cuatro. Kaori learned to tango more than ten years ago. The embrace, that trademark of tango dancing, was significant in experiencing the cultural change Kaori needed: "In Japan I felt very sad, because there is a lot of distance and we never hug. In the first dance class she realized that this was what she was looking for.
Kaori felt that dancing tango filled her emotional void. That was what prompted her to leave her comfort there and look for that new way of living life in Buenos Aires.
Argentine Tango in Japan: A Century of History
The ties between Japan and Argentina have a long history: the Japanese community in our country is the third largest in Latin America. Tango, an artistic expression that is part of the cultural heritage of humanity, has been a driving force in this exchange that has built bridges between the two cultures.
Baron Tsunayoshi Tsunami Megata was a pioneer of the introduction of tango in Japan at the beginning of the 20th century. In the 1920s, the aristocratic Megata lived for many years in the Paris of the Belle Epoque. During his Parisian stay, he learned to dance tango at the Cabaret El Garrón where Manuel Pizarro's orchestra performed, and became an excellent dancer. When he returned to Tokyo, Baron Megata set up a dance academy where he taught our music to the Japanese aristocracy and published Un método para bailar el tango argentino.
Already in the 1940s, the Orquesta Típica de Tokio became a pioneer in the diffusion of tango in Japan. Then, in the 1960s, the multiple visits of Argentine orchestras -with great exponents such as Francisco Canaro, Horacio Salgán and Roberto Goyeneche-, consolidated the presence of tango among the Japanese amateur public. Today, in the 21st century, several artists -orchestras, soloists, singers- regularly travel to the country of the Rising Sun to show the current sound of Argentine tango.
When it comes to explaining why tango is so well received in Japan, Kaori outlines an extremely interesting hypothesis. "In Japanese culture it is almost forbidden to show emotions and it is seen as bad if you show a lot of what you feel. We have to keep it inside. Tango, on the other hand, shows and says everything. When we dance or sing, we feel something very deep and connect with our emotions. That's why we like tango so much". Japanese culture attaches great importance to manners, decorum and cordiality, and tango allows us to swing between the closeness of bodies and the solemnity of elegance.
Life in Argentina
Currently, Kaori is taking singing lessons with the renowned Lidia Borda. As a good disciple, she learns much more than vocal technique with her teacher. Borda insists and emphasizes that, beyond working on her interpretation, expressiveness and diction, what she has to achieve is authenticity in her singing. And being authentic means not forgetting her origins. "I know well that there are a lot of very talented singers and I learn from them all the time. But, perhaps as a Japanese woman myself, I feel like a tango singer because I have learned a lot about Argentine culture and how to express myself through the genre."
Kaori knows that being Japanese and a tango singer makes her unique. Show after show, milonga after milonga, she knows she is making great strides in the art of singing Buenos Aires city music. A few days ago she shone at the "Buenos Aires Celebrates Japan" event with a packed Avenida de Mayo listening to her singing her versions of tangos, including her version of "Gricel" translated into Japanese.
SOURCE: LA NACION