Travel around around 150 km northwest from the hustle and bustle of Kyoto and another, far more peaceful world awaits in the compact onsen (hot-spring) town of Kinosaki nestled on the Sea of Japan coast in a quiet corner of the largely rural city of Toyooka in Hyogo Prefecture.
This picturesque setting has long drawn poets, writers and painters to its many °ù²â¨°ì²¹²Ô (traditional Japanese inns), restaurants and bathhouses, which are clustered along a small canal running beside the narrow main street. Now though, this bucolic locale may be in for a pleasant shock, courtesy of one of Japan¡¯s leading dramatists.
While it may seem like something that just popped into Oriza Hirata¡¯s hatsuyume (first dream of the year, which is said to foretell the future), the 55-year-old playwright and director tells The Japan Times that his vision to create ¡°an Asian version of the Avignon Festival Fringe¡± is something that he has been working on ¡°for years.¡±
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