Assimilation of Asia: On Okawa’s Revenge and Nayotake

Abstract

This paper examines Okawa’s Revenge (1941), written by Kaoru Morimoto, and Nayotake (1944), written by Michio Kato, as significant cases of the “adaption of tradition into modern theatre” in Japan during World War II, and elucidates the role of “Asia” in dramaturgy in Japan during the same period. The direction of the relationship between Japan and Asia in the former drama is opposite to that in the latter drama. A Ryukyu dance suite was translated into Okawa’s Revenge as a modern drama. Similarly, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, which is said to be an oldest tale in Japan, was translated into Nayotake as a modern drama. And also, the heroine, Nayotake, does not argue equally with a man, but she realizes that she is incompetent in the face of the transcendental power beyond her, and she follows the transcendental power without fighting against it. The idea of Nayotake is positively understanding the “weakness” of herself. It differs from that of a strong woman described by Morimoto in Okawa’s Revenge, a woman who logically confronts a man.