Performance as Apology: Deconstructing the Legacy of the Japanese Empire in Shin’ya Eiko’s Shinsetaryon

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores the historical narrative of Zainichi Koreans in the Japanese actress Shin’ya Eiko’s solo performance of Shinsetaryon in an attempt to reflect on the decolonisation process between Japanese and Koreans in postwar Japan. In Shinsetaryon, the Zainichi Korean protagonist, Sin Yŏng-suk, narrates her life story interwoven with historical incidents in Japan and Korea during and after Japanese colonial rule. I argue that Shin’ya treated her performance as an apology for her ignorance of the plight of Zainichi Koreans, who have struggled politically and socially in both imperial and post-imperial Japan. She continually revised the script to include her growing understanding about unseen others in the narrative, positing herself as an aggressor who did not completely understand the formerly colonised Koreans. Through these revisions Shin’ya clarified her sense of distance from the Zainichi Korean protagonist, which was essential if her performance was to constitute an apology. She also challenged the idea of the linguistic hierarchy between the Japanese and Korean languages, which is a legacy of Japan’s assimilation policy during the colonial period. In doing so, Shinsetaryon suggested the possibility of remembering the Japanese empire in multiple ways without assimilation between the former coloniser and the colonised.