[KineJapan] English-language benshi?

[quentin turnour]

I'm a bit slow, so have only just stumbled across NHK World's 2021, 2-part How to Watch Ozu program, part of their J-Flicks magazine series on Japanese cinema. It's still on their on demand site at How to Watch Ozu - J-FLICKS | NHK WORLD-JAPAN On Demand. Great to seeMarcus introducing Ozu's visual style to English speaking audiences. But I was also very curious to see benshi Koyata Aso performing in English to short sections of two of Ozu's 1933 features,非常線の女 / DRAGNET GIRL and出来ごころ / PASSING FANCY. 
I’m unfamiliar with Ms. Koyata, and (although it’s no doubt been done) it’s the first time I've seen or heard a Japanese professional benshi giving a reasonably 'traditional' performance in English.   
There’s always ex-Japan forays into English-language benshi performances; Joseph L. Anderson’s are best-known, and it happens in the 'neo-benshi' experimental theatre margins. But I'm also aware of well-trod arguments that as a vernacular performance art these can never be 'authentic', and that a " traditional' performance in English" is a sort of contradiction in terms.

Anyone on the list familiar with Ms. Koyata's live performances in Japanese - or at greater length in English, if she has done this in Japan outside of the NHK World staging? She's got an extensive Japanese and English on-line presence, and a website 「麻生やた★子やた本舗」 – 活弁士　麻生八咫・麻生子八咫の公式サイト whose name indicates the preference she makes clear in the NHK program: for term活弁 /katsuben rather than 弁士 /benshi ( Joseph Anderson's preference also).
I'm putting this out with a little hesitation, aware I may be inviting inappropriate comment on the tight world of the Japanese professional benshi biz. So thoughts off list as well as on appreciated. 
Quentin Turnour, National Archives of Australia / Cinema Reborn Film Festival

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