Over the past decade, Japanese theatre has become increasingly popular in the West. A mix of historical appreciation and unique creative practices have drawn new audiences to explore traditional genres like Kabuki and Noh. Plus, there are different modern performances with a blend of Western and Japanese storytelling.
This interest has catapulted a new wave of Japanese creatives into the spotlight, with one of the most exciting being Michinari Ozawa. An award-winning playwright, director and actor, Ozawa has enraptured Japanese audiences with the humour, emotional weight and physical storytelling of his shows. His talent has made him a crossover star, with his latest show Our Cosmic Dust being shown in English for the first time in London. But what drives Ozawa to be so creative and how did he develop his style of scriptwriting and directing? Let’s explore what makes him the new face of Japanese theatre.
Early breakthroughs
Born in 1985 in Kyoto, Ozawa had a creative spark early on in life which led him into acting. Through hard work and determination, he became a member of the acclaimed playwright Kokami Shoji’s theatre company – The Third Stage Theatre Company (also known as Daisan Butai). Ozawa was selected out of 2000 auditioners and distinguished himself through the physicality of his acting, which involved quick reflexes and fast emotional switches on stage. With his adaptability, Ozawa was able to shift between roles of different genders and ages.
Yet Ozawa knew he could be more than an actor. There was more creative fire in him to become multi-disciplinary in his approach to Japanese theatre.
In 2013, he set up his own theatre company called EPOCH MAN, which led him to write, direct and perform in productions created by his company. For every performance, Ozawa has a penchant for choosing actors and staff he appreciates outside of EPOCH MAN. He brings them into the fold to bring his visions to life.
What is Ozawa’s creative style like?
Image credit: Pamela Raith.
Ozawa’s approach to developing theatre productions is a blend of modern and traditional elements. His signature style is minimalist yet playful. Often, he reduces the colour palettes on stage to black and white to spark the imagination of the audience and achieve emotional pathos.
He is a creator of space, i.e. presenting a blank canvas for the audience on stage and letting them fill in the gaps. Ozawa does this through a combination of puppetry, LED/video projections, animation, hand-drawn images and physical performance.
Myths Reimagined: A Tradition with a Twist
There are shades of traditional Japanese aesthetics in Ozawa’s work. For example, one of his most stirring performances was a homage to the Japanese folk tale Tsuru no Ongaeshi (The Crane Who Returned A Favour).
In the folk tale, an old man saved a crane trapped in a hunter’s net and it flew away. That night, a beautiful girl knocked on the home of the old man and his wife and asked for shelter from the snow. The elderly couple agreed to let the girl stay and soon they adopted her as their daughter.
The girl took to weaving a special cloth for the elderly couple, which sold for a high price. In return, she asked them never to watch her while she was weaving the cloth. The couple broke their promise by peeking into her room and saw that the girl had been the crane in disguise and weaved with her own feathers. Even though she wanted to stay, the crane couldn’t because its true identity had been revealed. The tale ended tragically with the crane flying away, never to return.
By choosing to focus on this tale, even in a modern format, Ozawa called back to centuries of Japanese theatre traditions like Noh and Kabuki. Those classical genres have presented Japanese legends and folk tales for new generations, updating them to fit with the times.
Ozawa’s inclusion of puppets in his shows is also a nod to Bunraku. This traditional style of Japanese puppetry brought together chanters, puppeteers and shamisen players. The result was an immersive experience of timeless human themes like grief, love and loss. Those themes could be expressed in the sophistication of the puppets, which were built to convey complex emotions in their faces and movements.
Ozawa has taken those long-established genres and made them his own. Therefore, his creative style can be described as honouring tradition, while blazing a new path forward with modern media technology.
Ozawa’s signature performances
Rebuild of Maybe (2022)
Ippontōchō-zu by Hara Zaichū
In 2022, Ozawa produced a modern interpretation of The Crane Who Returned A Favour as a one-man show. While the original themes of lost love and generosity were intact, Ozawa went with a different approach than the sombre and serious tone of the original folktale. He did this by presenting the play through the lens of a woman living alone in Tokyo and offering a more colourful city background than the rural setting of the folktale.
During production, three boomboxes were placed on stage to create a soundscape of raw emotion. Rapid costume changes of kimonos provided an entertaining and surreal dance of transformation.
It was this bombastic performance that earned Ozawa and EPOCH MAN new recognition in Japan and followed in the footsteps of Noh and Kabuki with the bright costumes and haunting storytelling.
Our Cosmic Dust (2025)
Our Cosmic Dust is one of Ozawa’s finest works in the sense of it being a technical and creative delight for audiences. It’s a triple-award-winning show that won the Outstanding Theatrical Production, Outstanding Director and Best Actress categories at the prestigious Yomiuri Theatre Awards. The show follows the story of a curious boy called Shotaro who is on a mission to find his father in the stars. His mother accompanies him on a surreal journey into the cosmos and they face obstacles that challenge their relationship as much as it brings mother and son together.
At its heart, Our Cosmic Dust is about the idea of ‘where do people go when they die?” In life, there is no single answer to that question and the same is true of the play. Each character arrives at their own conclusion as to what meaning there is to be found in the afterlife.
In developing the show, Ozawa was passionate about exploring the ideas of meaning and purpose beyond death. In an interview with London Box Office, he said, “it all started when I thought about what show I could create by combining LED display technology with puppetry. Combining these two polar opposite forms seemed like a journey delving into the unknown…I think children hold a richer imagination than adults. On the death of his father, Shotaro is forced to face the unknown of death. How can he come to terms with his new reality? How can he find answers? By telling this story through the eyes of a child, I believe adults might find a way to move forward when facing the loss of a loved one.”
Our Cosmic Dust has certainly been a hit in Japan and the show is being performed in English for the first time in the UK in 2025. Ozawa has teamed up with British-Japanese theatre maker Susan Momoko Hingley to translate the show. Ozawa also told the London Box Office that he was nervous initially with the Japanese to English translation.
“At first, I felt perplexed by the cultural and linguistic differences. But when I noticed everyone laughing and feeling moved during our initial script workshop, I realised that actually anyone in the world can have a similar emotional response to a story.”
“Rather than asking what I want the audience to take away from it, I’m looking forward to finding out how the audience will perceive this show. People who come from different backgrounds, who eat different foods and who carry various sensitivities and emotions have gathered to make the UK version of Our Cosmic Dust.”
Book your tickets to Our Cosmic Dust at Park Theatre
Our Cosmic Dust is being performed at the Park Theatre in London between the 23rd June – 5th July. And since its debut, the show has received high praise:
“Creativity is at the heart of Our Cosmic Dust…The small but effective space at Park Theatre is used in a way I haven’t seen before…With video design from Eika Shimbo, a large screen projects the cosmos and itself comes to life through animation and drawings, all through the eyes of a child. The use of Shotaro’s drawings and scribblings on this backdrop is one of the inspired touches that makes Our Cosmic Dust truly shine.” – Allthatdazzles.co.uk
“Writer and director Michinari Ozawa’s use of the art form here [puppetry] creates a gentleness which makes it easier to approach the heavy themes of death and bereavement in his story….It’s ethereal in its examination of loss irrespective of the fact that space is a central theme here – a theme which only accentuates these ideas further.
Elka Shimbo’s video design and animations are sensational on the giant LED screen at the back of the stage, possessing a magnitude reminiscent of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time as it becomes a massive planetarium. Just like the other elements of subjectivity…each character finds their own unique and charming constellations from the stars above them.” – Liamodell.com
Experience the magic of Michinari Ozawa’s ethereal storytelling for yourself. Our Cosmic Dust has two showings between Thursday and Saturday. The first is at 3 PM and the second is at 7.30 PM, with each performance being an hour and a half.
