Messages for the 35th Anniversary-Kagurazaka Session House

Messages for Session House's
35th Anniversary

To mark the Session House 35th Anniversary Festival - Memory and Future - (19-27 September 2026), we are sharing a message from our director Naoko Ito, together with messages from people who have been part of Session House over the years.

On Reaching Our 35th Anniversary

Naoko Ito, Director of Session House

35th Anniversary Festival schedule

We have arrived at a "today" we could never have imagined.

We set out in the middle of the collapse of the bubble economy, not knowing whether there would even be a tomorrow. We had no experience and no connections - all we had was our resolve.

"A place where we rediscover the appeal of a small space, where we can see each other's faces and feel each other's breathing, and where performers and audience can spill over into one another."

That is what Takashi Ito wrote in the "Session House Appeal" when we founded Session House.

What followed was a long run of twists and turns - days unlike anything I had known in my life until then.

I had been an ordinary lover of dance; now I was tossed about by the storm called dance, until I could no longer tell whether I loved it or not.

And yet - 35 years!

The architect who designed Session House sent us off saying, "A building is made by the people who gather in it," and "Think of it as setting sail in a boat made of mud." Session House did not sink. It still stands here today.

Its heavy concrete walls, which have soaked up the sweat of dancers, performers and staff, are still firmly bearing the weight of this 35th year.

Fifty years ago, when I had just started dancing and was full of high spirits, I saw a performance that took hold of my heart - I was so excited I felt I had "met the gods." Now those dancers, Akira Kasai and Setsuko Yamada, dance toward the future.

The young people who were captivated by their talent have grown up and are entrusting the future to the next generation of dancers. Dancers and staff who have shared the hard times and the good dance and create the present together.

I can only be grateful for the joy of greeting such a "today."

And above all, to the people of this neighbourhood who have welcomed and supported us!

The bonds nurtured by the town of Kagurazaka have reached all the way into its traditions, linking eras and linking people, and a "today" far beyond anything I could have imagined is here, now.

To everyone who has come to watch, who has supported us, and whom we have met along the way - thank you.

It is my wish, and the wish of all the staff who have built this place with me, that someone will carry this "today" on to a "today" many years from now.

In the Showa era we ran on, believing that "tomorrow will be better than today." Rather than simply repeating that momentum, I pray that the aspirations of dancers who still hope for a good future will shape a new era.

Naoko Ito, Director, Session House