2007-08-12
Japanese Doctoral Student Can Play Wayang Kulit
JAPANESE doctoral student Togari Yasuko speaks fluent Malay. She is now learning to make wayang kulit and to play its unique music from a master at Kampung Laut, Kelantan.
The 38-year-old is so fascinated by the art of shadow play that it as the subject for her doctorate degree’s thesis on the relationship between cultural policy and performers. 
Yasuko was the one manning the wayang kulit booth at the exhibition on the nation’s national treasures.
Yasuko studied at Universityi Malaya for two years in the early 1990s, and worked in Bangi from 1999 to 2003.
She first came to know about the wayang kulit while she was working there, and helped to sew the puppet figures as a pastime.
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