A Fan through the Ages: Layers of Adaptation in SITI Company’s Hanjo

Abstract

The love tale of Hanjo, presented by SITI Company in New York in 2017, traces its history back through the plays and dramatic treatises of Yukio Mishima and Zeami Motokiyo to a young maid (and eventual poet), Ban Jieyu, in ancient China. Informed by Andrew Sofer’s theory of the prop, this article uses the story’s central metaphor of a fan – which, like the protagonist, is cherished in summer but loses its value in autumn – to trace the tale’s adaptations, illuminating how with each reworking the central prop gains ever more complex meanings. As the tale undergoes numerous treatments, the original heteronormative context of Ban Jieyu’s romantic relationship becomes increasingly less straightforward as Mishima introduces taboo eroticism and SITI Company plays with gender roles, suggesting a woman with multiple non-normative possibilities for love. By analysing the evolution of Hanjo’s fan, this essay extends Sofer’s theory to consider the possibilities of a prop whose signification is not limited to a specific historical period but takes on new meanings when staged within a postdramatic production.