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| | Ai-en |
 | | In this production, he will unveil a masterwork with Nara, Kentoshi (Japanese mission to Tang Dynasty China), and pipa (Chinese lute, in Japan pronounces biwa) as its keywords, which is a summation of his past efforts. |
 | | This is a gem of an opera with a view of court life in ancient Japan and China, and a most treasured piece of pipa music never before allowed to have been performed out of court, as woven by the story. |
 | | In the mid-eighth century, Ono Kiyoto, a Kentoshi member, receives a strict order from Empress Shomyo of Japan to bring back without fail a pipa music entitled “Ai-en,” which Princess Kohki of the Tang dynasty reserves only for the initiated. |
| www.nntt.jac.go.jp /english/season/opera_2005_6/e_ai-en.html (269 words) |
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