Japan Society Presents Dance Production Based on Mishima
The Seven Bridges
Saturday, November 15 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, November 16 at 2:30 p.m. — Followed by an Artist Q&A
Japan Society – 333 E. 47th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues)
Admission: $48 | $36 Japan Society members
Japan Society’s Fall 2025 Yukio Mishima Centennial Series: Emergences continues with the world premiere dance production of The Seven Bridges (Hashi-zukushi). A vibrant new work for all ages from the Tokyo-based dance company CHAiroiPLIN with choreography by company founder Takuro Suzuki is based on a lesser-known short story of the same title by Yukio Mishima.
The Seven Bridges. © Photo by HARU
About The Seven Bridges
CHAiroiPLIN (a tongue-in-cheek amalgamation of Charlie Chaplin’s name and the Japanese word chairoi, meaning “brown”) is acclaimed for converting great authors’ novels into disarmingly enchanting yet satirical performances, appropriate for all ages, told almost entirely through movement. In this work, founder and choreographer Takuro Suzuki and company take on Yukio Mishima’s suspenseful and humorous short story. Following a fanciful superstition that crossing seven bridges without conversing with anyone on a full moon night will make their wishes come true, four women occupying different positions of wealth and societal status set out on a journey under the watchful gaze of the Moon. As distractions and mishaps befall the women, their race to the end of the seventh bridge becomes increasingly fraught—who, if anyone, will be able to make it to the end, and for what kind of wish? With spirited, arresting and slapstick movement set to an impressive range of high-energy music encompassing Daft Punk, Balkan brass band Fanfare Ciocărlia, eccentric original songs performed live, and more, Suzuki and CHAiroiPLIN infuse unbridled charm into Mishima’s compact reflection on ritual and desire.
The Seven Bridges. © Photo by HARU
Yukio Mishima’s short story “The Seven Bridges” was originally published in Japan in 1956. Two years later, Mishima himself developed this story into a dance drama. While CHAiroiPLIN’s entirely original work reflects their own signature gleefully absurdist style, the company has deliberately adapted a narrative which Mishima himself envisioned as uniquely appropriate for the dance stage.
This program is presented by Japan Society as part of Carnegie Hall’s Spotlight on Japan. Recommended for ages 7+. Performance runs approximately 55 minutes. To purchase tickets, please visit Japan Society’s website. Ticketholders will also receive complimentary, same-day admission for one person to Chiharu Shiota: Two Home Countries, on view at Japan Society Gallery through January 11, 2026. To view the exhibition, please show ticket/receipt to the Welcome Desk for free admission before the performance.
About CHAiroiPLIN
CHAiroiPLIN is a Tokyo-based dance company founded by the dancer/choreographer Takuro Suzuki. Made up of a combination of theater performers and dancers, the company incorporates an expressive variety of forms fusing dance, dialogue, singing, onomatopoeia, and other creative elements. They aim to create highly entertaining and narrative-driven dance performances that can be enjoyed by audiences of all ages.
Since its establishment in 2007, CHAiroiPLIN has received numerous awards for its ongoing “Dancing Literature” series, which adapts modern and classical Japanese literature and plays ranging from novels to manga, rakugo (traditional comedic storytelling) and folktales, utilizing idiosyncratic and stylized body movements and expert choreography. Some notable productions include Fantasy Stone (based on Shigeru Mizuki’s manga), which was awarded the Audience Prize in the 1st Sengawa Drama Contest; Market, a winner of the NEXTREAM21 Dance Festival All Genre Dance Contest; and Friends (based on an absurdist play by the acclaimed Japanese dramatist Kobo Abe), a winner of the Grand Prize at the Young Directors Competition.
Takuro Suzuki © Courtesy of CHAiroiPLIN
About Takuro Suzuki
Takuro Suzuki was born in Niigata Prefecture in 1985. He studied theater, pantomime, and dance at Toho Gakuen College of Drama and Music, led by world-renowned Japanese director Yukio Ninagawa. After graduating, he continued to present public performances that spotlight new possibilities of combining dance and theater. He aims to create works incorporating a variety of dance, dialogues, singing, and Japanese onomatopoeia that can be enjoyed by children and adults alike.
Suzuki founded the dance company CHAiroiPLIN in 2007 and has been a primary member of the dance company CONDORS since 2011. He choreographs and has appeared in NHK’s hugely popular weekly children’s program Miitsuketa! (“Found it!”) and created choreography for the television programs Touken Ranbu and Bungo Stray Dogs. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the New Artist Award from the Agency for Cultural Affairs Arts Festival, the Yokohama Dance Collection EX Honorable Mention and was a finalist for the Toyota Choreography Award. In 2015, he was selected as the 2015 Ambassador of Cultural Exchange in East Asia, and he received the New Artist Award in the Dance Division from the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology in 2024.
About Yukio Mishima
Born Kimitake Hiraoka, Yukio Mishima (1925-1970) was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, ultra-nationalist, and leader of an attempted coup d'état that culminated in his suicide. Mishima is considered one of the most important postwar stylists of the Japanese language. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times in the 1960s. His works include the novels Confessions of a Mask, Life for Sale, and The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea as well as the plays My Friend Hitler, The Lady Aoi, and Madame de Sade.
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Mishima’s birth, Japan Society has hosted a compelling roster of new productions and U.S. company premieres throughout the fall. More than half a century since Mishima’s last published work, he continues to inspire artists in the 21st century. Japan Society Artistic Director Yoko Shioya remarks, “This series revitalizes Mishima’s contributions to the world of the arts through a slate of brand-new commissions and premieres adapting his writings, as well as a historic U.S. debut for a revered Noh company. This series not only recognizes Mishima’s critical legacy, but the ongoing current influence of this essential post-war author on artists today.”
The Series launched in September with Yukio Mishima’s KINKAKUJI, a Japan Society world premiere commission adapted for the stage by Leon Ingulsrud and Major Curda from Mishima’s novel Kinkakuji (The Temple of the Golden Pavilion) with scenic design by internationally acclaimed visual artist Chiharu Shiota. The series continued in October with Le Tambour de Soie (The Silk Drum), co-created by Yoshi Oida and Kaori Ito, both headlining artists in France’s performing arts’ scene. This work mixes contemporary dance with exquisite movement adapted from Noh into a dark and seductive piece of dance-theater, based on Mishima’s adaptation on the traditional Japanese Noh classic Aya no Tsuzumi.
Following the world premiere of The Seven Bridges (Hashi-zukushi), the Series culminates with Mishima’s Muse – Noh Theater on December 4 through 6, featuring the momentous U.S. debut of the distinguished Hosho Noh School performing a set of plays which Mishima later adapted, including Aya no Tsuzumi, Aoi no Ue, and the original kyogen (comedic) play Busu, adapted by Mishima into a modern English comedy.
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