Sakura Circus in Takamatsu

Since last November and until mid-February, the Sakura Circus is calling Takamatsu its home, and I went yesterday.

Believe it or not (I find it hard to believe myself), but I don’t think I had been to a circus in about 40 years. I loved circuses as a child, and I have many memories of going with my parents, but the teenage years came, and I lost interest. Also, I think circuses just became less popular. And then between life in the US and in Japan, occasions to go became scarce despite a certain revival of the art.

Anyway, there’s a circus in town for four months. I went yesterday and it was fantastic. It made me regret not going for so many years.

A few words of context about the Sakura Circus. If I understand correctly, it’s a relatively new circus that started touring Japan only four years ago. It’s owned by a Nippo-Colombian family, the Colombian side of the family having its roots in the circus world for several generations (I think I saw 120 years written somewhere).

Most of the artists are from South America. Oh, and the circus has no animals, which was a big concern of mine, as animal rights are pretty much non-existent in Japan and in circuses (I can’t imagine a Japanese circus using animals, honestly, and that’s why I haven’t really tried to go to one since I moved here).

I don’t have much more to say except that if you’re in Kagawa, just go. You’ll thank me later.

For some reason, it has some pretty unique cars parked in the front and decorated with the circus’s colors and logo. I don’t really care about cars, but if you do, these pictures are for you.

Okay, I just said that I didn’t care much about cars, but if common cars looked more like the one below, maybe I’d be interested:

 

I really liked the light works. It’s not something we often pay attention to during such a show, but somehow I did, and I loved it.

 

The show started with one of the most terrifying circus acts, in my opinion, the Wheel of Death!

I wish I had taken better pictures, but during the whole thing, I was mostly torn between awe and horror. So you’ll only have one from the very beginning and one from the end of the piece. Overall, I didn’t try to take too many pictures. I made a conscious decision to limit the number of pictures I took in order to pay more attention to what was in front of my eyes and not through a lens. After all, most of the acts were not that unique, but seeing them live instead of on a TV screen made a world of difference, especially being so close to the performances.

One person, I wish I took better pictures of is the man on the floor in the picture above. He took part in many acts (three or four) and he was amazing. If I understand correctly, his name is Alan David Martinez, he’s the eldest (maybe) son of the owner, and in 2020 he won a Golden Clown in Monte-Carlo with his brother for this amazing act. (Golden Clowns are basically the Oscars of circus)

 

Clowns were funny and had many mini acts in between different acrobatics.

 

This Nippo-Russian duo, Konstantin and Misako, were simply stunning. I think this video is pretty similar to what they did yesterday.

 

Sure, Darling‘s (that’s her name) act is not death defying like the previous ones, but it’s no less impressive.

 

Contortionists always amaze me and scare me to death.
I think it’s the first time I see a live performance, and she was out of this world.
(and if I understand right, she’s the daughter of two other performers)

 

These three guys are not a permanent fixture of the circus. They’re part of a Malambo group called Universo Gaucho and they’re spending extended time in Japan with the Sakura Circus.

 

 

 

This kid is also mind-blowing. I think he’s the contortionist’s brother (circus really is a family affair). You can see more of him on his Instagram account. You will have noticed that I link to a lot of Instagram accounts, it’s so that you can have a clearer idea of what they do; a simple picture is not enough.

 

One of the clowns is also an amazing juggler. As always, here is his Instagram (funny how different he looks without make-up)

 

Why are so many circus performances so terrifying? And why do I love them, anyway? (He’s Krugman Gomez and you can follow him there.)

 

There were a few more performance, including a flying trapeze finale, but as I said earlier, I focused more on enjoying the show and not so much on taking pictures.

I’ll definitely try to return before they leave, and if you’re in the area, you should go pay them a visit too (they’re in Takamatsu until February 11th, I’m not sure where they’ll be next)

 

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