Japanese Theatre Research Articles

Donald Keene

Donald Keene of Columbia University is an important translator of Japanese plays and culture whose work in literature has been important to the establishment of Japanese theatre studies in the US academy.

Andrew T. Tsubaki

Andrew Tsubaki’s touring productions using nō and kyōgen techniques, his lectures, and his teaching at the University of Kansas and beyond were important avenues for alerting American scholars and students to traditional Japanese theatre forms.

Founders of the Field: Japan Introduction

Any foray into the historiography of Japanese theatre written by Western theatre historians confronts the political and social interactions of both Japan and the United States, specifically the ending of the sakoku period in Japan and the Occupation and Cold War positioning of Japan after the Pacific War. This introduction will give the reader a basic overview of some of the major thematic concerns involved in the writing of Asian theatre history, as well as historicize the Occupation and Cold War eras in which many of the first generation Asian theatre scholars were writing and teaching in the American academy.

Asian Shakespeare 2.0

Asia. An impossible interpellation. --Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (2006: 121) How many ages hence Shall this our lofty scene be acted over, In states unborn and accents yet unknown! --Julius Caesar 3.1.112-114 (Shakespeare 2005) The age of Asian Shakespeare 2.0 has arrived. It is an age in which performing Shakespeare in Asian theatrical styles generates incredible artistic and intellectual energy. It is an age in which certain Asian theatrical practices are foreign at home and abroad, while Shakespeare is proclaimed, once again, the bearer of universal currency. It is an age in which Asian performance and Shakespearean interpretations foster symbiotic and antithetical relationships with equal force and ever-increasing pace--fueled by the efficacy of virtual media (video sharing and social networking sites among them) and by rapid localization of globally circulating goods, ideas, and art works. Neither Asia nor Shakespeare has unified identities in any meaningful sense or even consolidated economic interests. Rather, they are defined by remarkable internal divisions and incongruities. The last two decades of the twentieth century marked the first phase of sustained study of Asian Shakespeare performance as a marginalized cultural phenomenon (Leiter 1986; Kennedy 1993; Brown 1999). The present time is defined by the rise of Asian Shakespeare 2.0 as both artistic and intellectual paradigms. As theatre artists challenge fixated notions of tradition, critics are no longer confined by the question of narrowly defined cultural authenticity. More notable productions are emerging across Asia, and these productions are being archived, read closely, and used as case studies in the classroom. Stage directors such as Ninagawa Yukio, Oh Tae-suk, Ong Keng Sen, and Wu Hsing-kuo reached diverse audiences through new strategies to bring together different cultural contexts and genres. A wave of new English-language scholarship since 2000 also put Asian Shakespeare performance in the spotlight (Trivedi and Minami 2010; Kennedy and Yong 2010; Huang and Ross 2009; Huang 2009a, 2009b; Lee et al. 2009; Dionne and Kapadia 2008; Chaudhuri and Lim 2006; Trivedi and Bartholomeusz 2005; Minami, Carruthers, and Gillies 2001). But there are critical gaps to be filled in research on the topic. First of all, the two-way traffic of intercultural exchange has not been addressed adequately. Important in their own right, questions such as is it that endures when [Shakespeare] is deprived of his tongue? dominated the research in the 1990s and continue to guide certain inquiries today (Kennedy 1993: 17; Kennedy and Yong 2010: 21), and the sea change occurring within Asian performing traditions has taken a back seat to what has been perceived as more urgent questions on Shakespeare's place in the modern world. Scholars are now seeking answers to how Asian Shakespeare formulates firsthand experience rooted in Asia (Trivedi and Minami 2010: 6). This special issue adds to the scholarship on global Shakespeare and Asian theatre's relationship to Anglophone cultural texts. As an Asianist and Shakespearean constantly moving among a number of fields that do not usually talk to one another, I am very grateful to Kathy Foley and Asian Theatre Journal for giving me this opportunity to edit this issue and put on several hats at once. The selection of essays has been consciously designed to include historical as well as contemporary work and to highlight diverse geographical areas even as some articles and interviews cover the usual suspects, such as Japan. Supplemented by reviews of performances, an exhibition, online resources, and books, as well as artists' reflections on their own works and an interview, these articles contextualize the arrival of Asian Shakespeare 2.0. Kathy Foley attempts to draw lines of convergence among what, at first glance, are disparate companies: an emerging troupe (Naked Masks) in Bangkok that tries to make Shakespeare a Thai contemporary, the work of a Balinese-influenced American company (Shadowlight) working in the shadow medium, and a Japanese theatre group (Setagaya) led by a traditionally trained kyogen actor. …

The Story of Breakthrough of ‘Ataka’ :Transformation from Traditional Japanese Theater to a Movie

The Story of Breakthrough of ‘Ataka’ :Transformation from Traditional Japanese Theater to a Movie

Performing the Precarious. Economic Crisis in European and Japanese Theatre (René Pollesch, Toshiki Okada)

Performing the Precarious. Economic Crisis in European and Japanese Theatre (René Pollesch, Toshiki Okada) Prof. Dr. Katharina Pewny (bio) In the last decade, the “precarious” – meaning the uncertain, unstable – was conceived as a theoretical concept in philosophy, sociology, and art theory. The changing working conditions in the New Economy, the worldwide economic crash in the autumn of 2008 and the increasing poverty are frequently staged in contemporary theatre, performance, and dance. Texts and stagings of Berlin-based author and director René Pollesch and Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner and the Farewell Speech (2009) by Tokyo-based author and director Toshiki Okada are performances of the precarious that stabilize the unstable ground of precariousness, at least temporarily. 1. Academic and Activist Discourses on the Precarious The word “precarious” can be traced back to the French adjective précaire, which in turn originates from the Latin word precarius, meaning “sensitive, difficult” (Pewny 2009:30–47[? 2011? ein 2009 ist nicht angegeben, DF). In 2004, Judith Butler launched an influential discourse on vulnerability as a human ontology of precariousness (Butler 2004). Her thoughts have been referenced in theatre and dance studies and in performances that deal with war and other traumatic events (Burt 2008). The term “precarious”, as it has been developed in activist and sociological discourses, includes several aspects. It embraces human vulnerability arising from unsecured, precarious working conditions within current economic developments, as well as bodily vulnerability. A person living under precarious conditions is subjected to changes within her working and living conditions that she does not have power over. Despite all their political, social, and economic differences, the “multiple loci of Europe” (Chakrabarty 2000:17) provide comparatively wealthy and secure contexts of living—at least for those who hold a European passport. However, the economic shift from Fordism to post-Fordism from the 1970 s onwards set a destabilization of living and working conditions in motion. An increasing number of people, also from what was formerly known as the “middle class”, conduct free-lance work and therefore live under precarious conditions (Bologna 2006:97–106). Precarious working and living conditions can mean discontinuities of income, of social security, of legal status, and thus of planning one’s life and future. Unstable working situations, such as part-time employment and free-lance work, are thus being called “precarious” work. For the most part, precarious work is not backed by institutional resources and power mechanisms and it also lacks institutional rites de passages such as celebrations for starting a new job, work anniversaries, and retirement. Changes in precarious working situations have to be experienced and lived through individually rather than collectively. Precarity is a new norm that has moved from the peripheries of (European) societies to their centres. Many temporary work situations demand skills traditionally important for work in the arts, such as creativity, [End Page 43] excellent self-performativity and flexibility. This is an aspect of the dialectic entanglement that art and work have been engaged in since the early 1990 s: aspects of free time and “play” increasingly enter the working environment of the New Economy (Haunschild 2009:153). The theatre, in particular, has become paradigmatic for precarious working and living conditions. Because “play” differentiates the performing arts from other art forms, “the connection of play and work in the theatre serves as an exemplary standard” (ibid. 154). Simultaneously, there are increasing demands on those working in the arts and especially theatre to conform to the laws of the market. Therefore, the work of theatre makers and performers serves as a model of precarious working life, not only for other freelance academics, cultural workers, and artists in the New Economy, but also far beyond that. Consequently, people living under precarious conditions have started to discuss their living and working situations in publications, in visual media, on the Internet, and at public gatherings. The French writers Anne and Marine Rambach’s book Les Intellos précaires initiated debates on precariousness in 2001 (Rambach 2001). They spread rapidly from France to other Midand Western European countries such as Germany, Spain, and Italy. In 2003, the German-Swiss theorist and artist collective Kleines postfordistisches Drama released the video Kamera läuft (Camera rolling, in...

Matsumoto Koushiro VII's Study of “Hensô”

Matsumoto Koshiro VII (1870-1949) is now remembered for his authentic rendition of kabuki classics. However, in his youth, he was interested in Western culture and learned English, Western dance and the violin. Worthy of special mention is his experiments with Western make-up, which he learned from Making Up (Witmark & Sons 1905), a stage make-up manual by American actor James Young.Koshiro had photographs of his wearing Western make-up taken and published themin Japanese theater magazine Engei Gaho serially, under the title of “henso”. Literally meaning “to change one's looks,” “henso” can imply more than changing one's appearance by putting on make-up. I would argue that Matsumoto's engrossment in Western make-up prefigured the subsequent development of interest in facial expressions as an acting technique, which was advocated by theatre theorists and practitioners who had seen or studied Western theater in early twentieth century Japan. The irony with this is that, while those who emphasized the importance of “hyojyo” - a rarely used word then meaning facial expressions - and sought guidance for Koshiro's “henso” series pursued a new style of acting to get rid of old kabuki, Koshiro studied Western make-up for his acting in kabuki theater.Koshiro's photos have not been fully appreciated because his experiments with Western make-up were considered an amateurish hobby. However, considering the influences his study had on shingeki actors - he taught Western make-up methods at Tokyo Haiyu Yoseijo, a training facility for shingeki actors - it is necessary to cast a new light on Koshiro, who is usually understood as a superb Meiji-era kabuki actor endowed with a beautiful body suitable for kabuki classics. Certainly, he was a pioneer in modernizing kabuki acting as well as a mediator between kabuki and modern Japanese theater.

Kissing the mask: beauty, understatement, and femininity in Japanese Noh theater: with some thoughts on muses (especially Helga Testorf), transgender women, Kabuki goddesses, porn queens, poets, housewives, makeup artists, geishas, valkyries, and Venus figurines

Kissing the mask: beauty, understatement, and femininity in Japanese Noh theater: with some thoughts on muses (especially Helga Testorf), transgender women, Kabuki goddesses, porn queens, poets, housewives, makeup artists, geishas, valkyries, and Venus figurines

The City as Stage, The Audience as Performer.

The Japanese performance group Port B, established in 2002 by director Akira Takayama, has often worked on forgotten or unknown aspects of the city of Tokyo without using professional actors, but ordinary people who are related to each theme of the performance. Its early works were performed in theatres or in other buildings, but since 2006, the group has been mainly conducting “tour performances” which do not keep the audiences in a conventional theatre but rather take them outside.Although the history of modern theatre since the beginning of the 20th century includes many examples of performances which have been held outside conventional theatres, Port B's “tour performance” follows a unique approach. The audience, either in small groups or even individually, visits various locations, always following different sources of information. Therefore, it takes part in the same performance at a different time. Each member of the audience is guided to forgotten or unknown places within the city where s/he discovers something, e.g. a new fact, or someone related to the theme of each “tour performance.” Moreover, participants are required to talk with group members or those people related to the performance theme in certain places. Port B's works transcend the conventional dualistic theatrical constellation such as stage and audience or performer and audience. The “tour performance” turns the perspective of the audience completely around , while the audience eventually revises her or his own image of the city.The effect of this revision has ever been increased since the project Compartment City Tokyo (2009), because contemporary phenomena of the city of Tokyo are made the subject rather than simply its history. Port B's audience individually watches interviews on DVDs that have been conducted with ordinary people - including children and non-Japanese residents - and is encouraged to talk to some of these people. As a result, s/he gains the impression that s/he is also an element of the city, not as a passive audience member, but as an active performer. Moreover, by using social networking services such as Twitter and Facebook, Port B's recent “tour performance” refer to today's urbanized living conditions in our era of media technology. In this context and in terms of the reversed relationship between performer and audience, Port B's “tour performance” can be called a Brechtian Lehrstuck for the 21st century. This treatment of the audience is very original and this is what distinguishes Port B from most current Japanese theatre groups, which make neither its audiences aware of current social and political issues nor encourage them to be proactive as a performer themselves.

The future possibilities of inter-Asian theatre research

Looking to the future, it is my view that Japanese theatre research needs to concentrate its efforts on scholarly exchanges with research communities in other Asian countries or cities.

From Wooden Masks to Stone Statues: The Influence of Traditional Japanese Theater on Daimajin (1966)

From Wooden Masks to Stone Statues: The Influence of Traditional Japanese Theater on Daimajin (1966)

Esotropia in Kabuki Syndrome

Kabuki syndrome is a mental retardation-malformation syndrome affecting multiple organ systems. The typical facies resembles the make-up worn in Japanese Kabuki theater. Although there are several clinical findings, the ocular findings affecting vision have been underreported. The current patient shows esotropia and previously unreported nummular corneal opacities.

Treasuring the secret within: Grotowski and the flower

In Eugenio Barba and Nicola Savarese's 1991 publication The Secret Art of the Performer, the faces of two of Jerzy Grotowski's actors, Zbigniew Cynkutis and Ryszard Cieslak, sit side by side with a Japanese Noh mask (1991, p. 118). In a subsequent section Antoni Jaholkowski (also a member of Grotowski's company) is captured in a strenuous position from the training exercise ‘the cat’ (p. 202). This photograph of Jaholkowski is in close proximity to a picture of the fundamental body position kamae used in Noh and Kyogen. In an earlier chapter an image showing the technique of walking used by the actors in Grotowski's Akropolis is preceded by a series of photographs of the sliding step (suriashi) common to several forms of Japanese theatre (p. 120). Barba's anthology of performative knowledge juxtaposes two traditions which are both centuries and continents apart but which somehow share the same enduring preoccupation with the body's ability to go beyond itself, to perform ‘miracles’. This paper examines a potential turning point in Grotowski's quest to create descriptors which signify the ontology of his performer. In drawing on particular concepts from Noh theatre during his Objective Drama phase, Grotowski appears to effect a significant paradigm shift. This study examines how such descriptors may contribute to a reappraisal of Grotowski's performer during the Theatre of Productions phase.

Beckett, Yeats, and Noh: as Theatre of Evocation

In , the ritualistic movements of M1 culminate in his conjuring of a woman who quotes from “The Tower,” the poem in which W. B. Yeats, who was profoundly influenced by Japanese noh theatre, evokes a number of ghosts. In this study, I demonstrate that Beckett was influenced in his writing of both by the highly stylised noh – the noh of dreams and phantoms – and Yeats's experience of noh.

The Rise and Fall of Dionysus: Suzuki Tadashi and Greek Tragedy

TheRiseandFallofDionysus: Suzuki TadashiandGreek Tragedy MARIANNE MCDONALD Ç vJuzukiTadashi is often called"Japan's bestknown director."1 WhenI first beganwriting aboutSuzuki's workat thebeginning ofthe1990s,there was hardly anything inEnglish except hisowntranslated book,TheWayof Acting, apartfrom notesin variousprograms. Now there aremajorbooks,andnoworkthat claims tocover Japanese theatre comprehensively can omithim.Paul Allainin his The Artof Stillness (2002) devotesa lot of attention to Suzuki'sactingtechnique and spaces;Ian Carruthers and TakahashiYasunariin The Theatreof Suzuki Tadashi (2004)offer a comprehensive treatment ofthehistorical development ofSuzuki's work.2 Thesebookscomplement each other well. From renting a facility abovetheMonChéri coffee shopin Tokyoin the 1960s,and forming his first company, the WasedaShôgekijô (Waseda Little Theatre), Suzuki went onto spearhead majortheatres inthree locations inJapan(Toga, Mito,and Shizuoka)withthehelpof thegreatarchitect Isozaki Arata. In1974,hebecame artistic director ofIwanami HallinTokyo, buthewasnotthat happy with thecity. He associatedhimself withToga in 1976 and formed SCOT (Suzuki Company ofToga).In 1989,Suzuki left Togato be theartistic director fortheActing Company Mito'sTheatre (A.T.M.),butthen moved ontobethedirector ofShizuoka's Performing Arts Center (S.P.A.C.) in1995.Ineachcase,he gottempting offers hecouldn't refuse. IntheUnited States, he hastaught attheUniversity ofCalifornia inSanDiego(intermittently inthelate1970sandearly '80s);theUniversity of ARION I7.3 WINTER 2OIO 56 THE RISE AND FALL OF DIONYSUS Wisconsin atMilwaukee(1980-84); theJulliard School,New York (1981-83) and Columbia University. In 1992 he cofounded SITI (theSaratogaInternational TheatreInstitute) in SaratogaSprings inNew YorkwithAnnBogart. BesidesJapanesetraditionaland moderntheatre(includingJapan 'sown absurdists likeBetsuyakuMinoru) and the variousmartialarts,majorinfluences on SuzukiincludeAntoninArtaudand histheatre ofcruelty, Jerzy Grotowski and his poor theater,and Samuel Beckett - to say nothingof what he learnedfromhis theatrical hosts,such as France's Jean-LouisBarrault,England's PeterBrook, and Greece's TheodorosTerzopoulos.Suzuki'sdramaalso echoesaspects of Brecht'sVerfremdungseffekt (alienationeffect),besides his own stylizationderived in part fromthe traditional Japanesetheatre. DisillusionedwithAmericanrealisttheatre(Arthur Miller et al.), and also thenaturalist imitations of westerndrama performed by the Shimpa/Shingeki (New Theatre) movementsince the late nineteenth century, he turnedto the Greeksforinspiration, particularly the plays of Euripides, which show charactersas victimsof a chaotic universe. Greekdrama,likeJapaneseNoh, features maskedmale actors ,a chorusoffering commentary, and fluteand drummusic . Bothcreatereligiousdrama (gods appear in both) and define maninrelationto lifeand deathand hisvariousobligations to government and family.Both advocate insight into "what is," particularly seeingclearlyone's limitations and dutiesto thegods,country, and family. Actorsin Greek tragedy and Noh dramasharea sortofdivinepower,one inspiredby Dionysus,theotherinvokingchthonicdeitiesby stampingon thewooden floor(whichhad hollowscreated byinverted bowlsto increasetheresonance). 3This also had religious significance, sinceearlierstamping ritualswereemployedto appease theonryô,or recently dead.4 Bothforms oftheatre showedpeak moments inthelivesof theirheroesand heroines, who weredefinedbywhat some wouldsee as absurdacts.Poetry and musicwerethewaysof Marianne McDonald 57 communication: these canbestconvey theephemeral distillationof "whatis" andtheillusions ofperception. TheJapanese have an expression, ichigo, ichie: "one time,one meeting," which describes thetransient moment inwhich life andperception consist. Theatre andpoetry attempt tocapture this. BothGreek tragedy, particularly Euripides, andJapanese Nohdramashowed thelimitations of"rationalism" oranything resembling logical positivism. Movement wasas importantas wordsfortheaudience, andsilence couldreveal the most eloquent moments. Thisrelationship between theactors andtheaudience waswellcovered byZeami.5 Suzuki sawa development intheWest from Greek tragedy to Beckett, as inJapanthere was from Noh dramato the workofBetsuyaku andMurakami. He assimilates thatdevelopment intohiswork.As a director heis a type ofmidwife , giving birth tonewversions ofwhatpeoplehadcome toviewas traditional. Somesaythat histrue originality isinhisacting technique, TheSuzuki Method, which isnowtaught around theworld. Thistechnique combines bodycontrol withscuttling and stamping that reinforces man'slinktotheearth ("thegrammarofthefeet "),and exercises intheuse ofthebodyto create imaginative shapes that explore itslimitations andcapabilities . There isalsogreat emphasis onbreathing. Theancient Chinese artofQigongandtraditional martial artsnot onlyemphasize theconnection totheearth, butalsoseethe breath as thesource oflifeandenergy (ki)9 anditsfocusin thelowercentral body, thehara,is essential forharnessing one'sforce. Stamping grounds theactorandreinforces the relationship totheearth; ithelpsbalance, something essentialnotonlyto theatre butthemartial arts.The Suzuki method developsfootwork and thestrength of thelower bodyas wellas breathing techniques andconcentration. For instance, Shiraishi Kayokowasaskedhowsheso seamlessly transformed herself from theoldqueenHecubatotheyoung virgin Cassandra inTheTrojanWomen, andsheanswered, "I change thewayI breathe."6 Itisa modern useofNohand 58 THE RISE AND FALL OF DIONYSUS Kabuki techniquesand traditional martialartsthatprovide energyand originality to modernperformances of drama, and theseare fundamental to theSuzukitechnique. Justas his performedtheatreis based on pre-existing work, one can see how the physical techniques Suzuki teachesare based on thoseofNoh, Kabuki,and themartial arts.However,I thinkhe also learnedmuchfromthephysical theatreof JerzyGrotowskiand, later,Theodoros Terzopoulos ,who also subjectedthebodyto vigoroustraining, to thepointof exhaustion;bothdevelopedtheirtechniques as alternatives to thepopularand conventional theatre they knew.In additionto the use of...

T. Tokunaga, The 20th Century of Japanese Theater, “Shibaikoya”

T. Tokunaga, The 20th Century of Japanese Theater, “Shibaikoya”

Road Show (review)

Reviewed by: Road Show Alisa C. Roost Road Show. Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by John Weidman. Directed by John Doyle. Public Theater, New York City. 6 December 2008. Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman have collaborated on three of the most unusual musicals—Pacific Overtures, Assassins, and Road Show—all of which deal with the negative impact of elements of the American Dream, a theme Sondheim has interwoven into many of his shows. Sondheim and Weidman and their directors also have experimented with techniques unusual for the commercial musical stage, including Brechtian alienation and traditional Japanese theatre conventions. Pacific Overtures explores the effect on Japan when the United States demanded access to trade. Featuring two Japanese characters influenced by American culture, it allows the audience some of the traditional pleasures of emotional identification. Assassins, a meditation on the dark side of the American Dream, examines the motivations of presidential assassins. The main characters reveal their passionate and intellectual underpinnings, thus giving the show surprising moments of emotional resonance. A few group numbers delve into the societal conditions the motley characters share, but the beauty of the individual solos is more chilling. When John Wilkes Booth sings his magnificently evil thoughts, the moments create a weird dissonance between his passionate commitment (and the beautiful music) and his horrific acts. Unusual in its subject material, Assassins is one of the more successful uses of Verfremdungseffekt in the American musical theatre: enticing audiences into identifying with the passions of the characters, and then being utterly repelled by that identification. [End Page 624] Click for larger view View full resolution Michael Cerveris (Wilson) and company in Road Show. (Photo: Joan Marcus.) Road Show tells the story of two antagonistic brothers at the turn of the last century as each pursues his own version of the American Dream. Road Show has had three major incarnations with three different directors. In 2000, the show (then known as Wise Guys and directed by Sam Mendes) applied a light touch; Nathan Lane and Victor Garber sparkled with vaudevillian humor and witty repartee. The various issues relating to the dark side of the American Dream percolated without a particularly didactic edge, while humor, wit, and charisma drove the show. The second act had not been finished by the beginning of the run, leaving only delicious possibilities. With a phenomenal cast in an unusually small theatre, Wise Guys allowed Garber and Lane to pull the audience into their camaraderie. Their charisma may have overshadowed the work itself, but, to my mind, it remains the most successful version of the show. In 2003, Harold Prince collaborated with Sondheim on Bounce, for which a cast album is available. In the post-9/11 environment, the show became larger, with more focus on the broad scope of the brothers’ lives without focusing on a specific theme. Strongly plot-based with little character introspection, the Mizner brothers had more romance (heterosexual for Wilson, homosexual for Addison) and more of a happy ending. The show touched on a variety of themes: sibling rivalry, dueling visions of the American Dream, artistic passions, and the interplay of various forms of capitalism with art and con games, but it never explored any single theme to satisfaction. In 2008, John Doyle directed a sparse production of the piece, now titled Road Show, tightly focused on the economic themes. Serendipitously timed, the show premiered in the midst of the economic meltdown. Early in the show, the boys’ father tells his sons that their choices will be “determining what kind of nation we’ll be,” forging a life from the riches of nature and their own determination. Wilson (Michael Cerveris) embodies the “cocaine-fueled con game” of unregulated capitalism under the Bush administration, dabbling in anything that could gain him wealth or notoriety, feeding his drug habit and ego. The Boca Raton housing crisis, a major plot point in the show, comments on our recent disastrous economic bubbles. In sharp contrast, Addison Mizner (Alexander Gemignani) serves as an archetype for what many see as the upside of capitalism; his round-the-world tour is a subtle history of Western colonialism, for he visits only former colonies. Unlike his country...

Performance Review Essay: Japanese Theatre in Los Angeles

Performance Review Essay: Japanese Theatre in Los Angeles Kevin Wetmore Jr. Shochiku Grand Kabuki—Chikamatsu-za. By Chikamatsu Monzaemon. Directed by Nakamura Ganjiro III. Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, Los Angeles. 22June 2005. Blood! Love! Madness!By Nakamura Kichizo, Kikuchi Kan, and Shimizu Kunio. Directed by Brent Hinkley. Ivy Substation, The Actors’ Gang, Los Angeles. 14October 2005. Hiroshima Maiden. Created by Dan Hurlin. REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theatre), Los Angeles. 5November 2005. In Mark Jacobson’s 1991 novel Gojiro,the eponymous lizard, clearly based on Tōhō’s Gojira(Godzilla), decides to attack and destroy Los Angeles, only to be defeated by the scope of the city: “It was the sprawl that did it, that L.A. whizzing by: the overwhelming sameness, the diffuse repetition. It dulled all passion, doused every fire. Ever spreading, the city was an amorphous sweep without a vital organ or center at which a determined Destroyer could aim . . . [I]n what amounted to a perfect defense against exactly the attack the monster envisioned, the town had no cherished emblem of itself beyond its very vagueness” (Jacobson 1991: 172). Unable to do to Los Angeles what it has done to Tokyo countless times, the monster instead capitulates to the seductions of the city and becomes a movie star. This scenario is a telling metaphor for many things Japanese that enter the City of Angels: unable to remain as they are and change the city, they change themselves and become part of the culture already present, an [End Page 159]assessment that holds true to varying degrees of three Japanese or Japanese-inspired productions in Los Angeles: one kabukifrom Japan, one an American production of three shingekiclassics, and an American fusion production utilizing bunraku-style manipulation and other forms of puppetry to tell the story of one of the Hiroshima Maidens. As with Gojiro,the American location in general, and the Southern California location in particular, transform the performance experience, sometimes to the benefit of performance and audience experience and sometimes to the detriment of both. (Interestingly, when Hollywood had the opportunity to remake the Godzilla story in its own image in 1996, it was to New York to which the giant radioactive lizard went, regardless that the West Coast was much closer to Godzilla’s Pacific origins. It was apparently much easier to attack Manhattan, filled with recognizable symbols, than Los Angeles, even in an American film). These productions are also unique in that they form a continuum of connection between East and West that require us to reevaluate what is meant by “Asian theatre” in general and “Japanese theatre” in particular, especially when performed outside the culture that produced them. What is it that makes a particular theatre Asian? The ethnicity of the performers? The culture of origin? The subject matter? The claims of the producers? If an American company performs a play set in Japan, about Japan, written by a Japanese playwright, with a multiethnic company for a multiethnic audience, is it solely an American play, or is the production inherently multicultural? The globalization of culture allows for American theatre artists to seize upon elements of both traditional and modern Japanese theatre and present them in new American contexts while making claims of authentic Japaneseness. For the purposes of this review, I am interested in how this “Japaneseness” is made manifest within productions, how it is marketed to American (specifically Southern Californian) audiences, and how, if at all, the stated authenticity is accurate. As part of their 2005 tour of the United States and the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, the Shichiku Grand Kabuki performed in Los Angeles at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts. Living National Treasure Nakamura Ganjirō III’s Chikamatsu-za presented Boshibari(Tied to a Pole) and Sonezaki Shinjō(Love Suicide at Sonezaki), the former being a dance play based on the kyōgenoriginal, adapted for kabukiin 1916 and the latter being one of Chikamatsu Monzaemon’s (“Japan’s Greatest Playwright,” proclaims the program) best-known plays. Nakamura played the geisha heroine Ohatsu, a role he used to play opposite his father Nakamura...

1954: Selling Kabuki to the West

In the face of an increasingly communist Asia, the Japanese government worked in 1954 with American kabuki aficionados and the Azuma Nihon Buyo Company to market kabuki to the United States as an aggressively capitalistic, inherently democratic, brilliantly theatrical form. In doing so, they were not only selling kabuki, but also selling Japan, a former enemy, as a political and military ally. Several strategies were employed to do so: the endorsement of literary and dramatic celebrities, emphasis on exoticizing and feminizing the onnagata role while simultaneously downplaying the homoeroticism, and focus on kabuki as business. Therefore the first “kabuki” brought to the United States was the Azuma Company, which presented a mixture of buyo and kabuki. The group was led by a female dancer and deemphasized the more challenging aspects of traditional kabuki. The Americans promoting the tour also had an ulterior motivation: to offer a new model to an American theatre grown stale on naturalism in the postwar period. Kevin J. Wetmore Jr. (PhD, University of Pittsburgh) is an associate professor of theatre at Loyola Marymount University. He is the editor of Revenge Drama in European Renaissance and Japanese Theatre (New York: Palgrave, 2008), the coeditor of Modern Japanese Theatre and Performance (Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2006), and the author of other books and many articles on Asian, African, and cross-cultural theatre.

Paris and the Quest for a National Stage in Meiji Japan and Late-Qing China

Two models in late nineteenth-century Paris foreground the ideological and dramaturgical connections between colonial nationalism in the West and theatre’s role in nation building in Meiji Japan and late Qing China. The first involves manifestations of French nationalism after the Franco-Prussian War as witnessed by Japanese and Chinese diplomats in the 1870s, in particular the Paris Opéra and a panorama titled The Siege of Paris. Such firsthand experiences led to an effort to create national theatres out of traditional theatrical forms. The second instance involves two French colonial war plays seen in 1893 by the Japanese new drama star Kawakami Otojirō, who subsequently appropriated them to stage the First Sino-Japanese War, thus providing a blueprint for performing nationalism in the burgeoning Western-style theatres in Japan and China. Siyuan Liu is a Franklin Fellow and visiting assistant professor at the University of Georgia. He received his PhD in theatre and performance studies from University of Pittsburgh and has published several research articles on modern Chinese and Japanese theatre in Theatre Journal, Asian Theatre Journal, and Text & Presentation.