Noda is a playwright, director, and actor, and the artistic director of Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre. He launched his first theatre company, Yume no Yuminsha (Dreaming Bohemian) and creating many works to much acclaim. In 1993, he established a production company called “Noda Map.” Since then, he has presented a succession of major hits. He has adapted Kabuki plays and directed productions, in a so-called “Noda-style Kabuki.” Noda is also actively involved in international productions, working with actors all over the world. He led “Tokyo Caravan,” a project developed jointly by different genre of artists, such as actors, musicians, Japanese traditional performing artists, through a cultural “inter-mixture” workshop.

Reijiro Tsumura is a Kanze-ryu Shite-kata (performer of the Kanze school of Noh), and Chief Representative of the Kanze-ryu Ryokusenkai (Noh group), and he has been designated as an Important Intangible Cultural Asset (general Noh category). He was born in the city of Kita-Kyushu in 1942. While at Hitotsubashi University, he studied under the pioneering female Noh actor, Kimiko Tsumura, then later under Yoshiyuki Kanze (second). For over 30 years he has continued to perform in the Ryokusenkai regular programs and Koganei Takiginoh programs and others, as well as in Sendai, Fukushima and Sado. Unwilling to stick to the classics, he has also produced works, performed overseas and collaborated many times with theater and dance. Last year the documentary film Traveling by Leaps and Bounds: Portrait of Noh Actor Reijiro Tsumura was released.

In the late 1980s, a group of musicians rose from the Tokyo street/club scene, and called themselves, “Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra.” The band’s popularity has grown exponentially, having earned credibility and the reputation for their one and only “Tokyo Ska” music. They have appeared at various world-famous festivals such as: Glastonbury, Eurockeennes, Bonnaroo, and were the first Japanese acts to perform on the main stages of Coachella and Vive Latino in recent years.