Traditional Japanese Theater Research Articles

Abstract #1324566: Kabuki Syndrome Associated With Congenital Hypothyroidism: A Case Report

Kabuki syndrome is a rare congenital anomaly that was first described in 1981. The designation comes from the facies of patients resembling those of Kabuki traditional Japanese theatre makeup. Its frequency is estimated at 1:32,000. It is a multiple malformation syndrome characterized by distinctive facial features, growth delay, and other symptoms affecting different systems, such as gastroesophageal reflux, upper respiratory infections, hypothyroidism, renal abnormalities, as well as dental and skeletal abnormalities.

Techno-Tradition: A Foray into Technology-Integrated Traditional Japanese Theatre

Traditional Japanese theatre is a broad category that usually refers to noh, kyōgen, kabuki and bunraku. These genres formed from the fourteenth through seventeenth centuries, and are still regularly performed. Despite the many significant roles of technologies in these genres today, their increasing presence in the genres and myriad manifestations are seldom discussed. This article is an initial examination of the presence and significance of new technologies and new media in the traditional Japanese theatre ecology, focusing on developments in the past two decades including the staging of a ‘fusion noh’ with holograms as performers, to the later kabuki and bunraku plays performed with vocaloid, as well as Virtual Reality noh. By examining select case studies and focusing on the technological aspects of traditional theatre, we hope to bring focus to a critical development in traditional Japanese theatre and open further discussions about this phenomenon. We also wish to widen discussions regarding the parameters delineating what constitutes ‘traditional’ when speaking of Japanese theatre genres.

On the organization of sound space in "The Tidings brought by Mary" by Paul Claudel, 1912 edition

The article examines the words and the meaning, as well as the dramaturgy of sound in the first edition of the mystery "The Tidings brought by Mary" by Paul Claudel. Understanding the synthesis of verbal and vocal intonation leads the author of the article to discover new ways of solving the problem of stage music in mystery drama by Claudel. The discrete nature of the design of the sound space of the mystery in the first edition represents the concept of separately performed fragments, in which the episodes integrated into the action in liturgical Latin are united by a common spiritual meaning. At the same time, the design of the sound space in the 2nd scene of Act III (the dramatic climax, the sacred space of the mystery) is characterized by novelty. Based on the interaction of theatrical-dramatic and musical structural elements, the composition of the scene is subordinated to the principle of end-to-end, continuous vocal-dramatic development of the action. Conclusions are drawn: during the 1910s, Claudel's idea of music in mystery drama was transformed - instead of musical fragments of an "applied" nature, a new compositional idea of stage music arose. The lyrical intonation of the author's voice is found in the sound space of the work. The mirror of Claudel's mystery reflects the principles of sound design of dramatic productions of traditional Japanese theater (Bunraku, Kabuki, Noh), as well as images of poetry of China and Japan. In the sound of the "The Tidings brought to Mary", the semantic and dramatic functions are performed by the verses of the songs "Oriole sings" and "Margarita, clear May!" performed by children's voices. Claudel's mystery drama formed a new understanding of the universal meaning of the mystery in the twentieth century.

SCENOGRAPHY AND COSTUME IN JAPANESE KABUKI THEATER: TRADITIONS AND MODERNITY

Abstract. The article explores the history of traditional Japanese Kabuki theater, the stages of its formation and the basic principles of dramaturgy in retrospective and in modern times, the role and symbolic value of costumes, as well as the general features of theater performances. The modern trends of the theater were analyzed and issues of the space of its scene were investigated. Obvious conservatism of kabuki and its fundamental dissimilarity to the theater of the European model were noted. The process of evolution of the Kabuki theater was studied, which responding to the challenges of modernity, acquires new elements and features, together give rise to the fundamentally new phenomenon in the theatrical art. It has been determined that the logic of construction and development of the theater and stage space in Japanese traditional Kabuki theater derived from the need for specific interaction between the performer and the audience. With the formation of the theater, its audience expanded at the same time, in particular due to the privileged strata. The premises of theater and its stage also evolved. Eventually, the design features of Kabuki theater space became not only a prominent element in the interaction between the performers and spectators, but also an important factor that predominantly determined the characteristics of dramaturgy. In Japanese Kabuki theater, such methods as makeup, hair pieces and costumes are simultaneously those means of expression that are necessarily included in the process of staging a performance, and determine its content and storyline, as well as determine the nature of the performer’s acting. These means are kind of sign and symbolic system, which has to be read by the spectator in order to fully understand the nature of performance. The peculiarities of the costume allow us to read in advance nature of the character in performance, to guess his or her actions, etc. The peculiarity of Kabuki is that the play script is dictated by the performers themselves, but not by the scriptwriter. The director as an independent figure in Kabuki theater comes to the first plan only in the modern era, and it is mostly characteristic of innovative and experimental theaters. It is worth noting that given the challenges of modernity, Kabuki still acquires new elements and features, together generating a fundamentally new phenomenon in the art of theater, and in general, Kabuki remains a traditional theater.

El 'hagoromo' de Zeami en las prácticas interartísticas brasileñas

Este artículo estudia la ‘tropicalización’ de las representaciones transculturales occidentales del Noh, forma teatral tradicional japonesa, desarrollada por algunos de los escritores y artistas brasileños contemporáneos más importantes. El trabajo se centra, así, en las intrincadas relaciones intertextuales e interartísticas establecidas entre Haroldo de Campos (São Paulo, 1929-2003), Hélio Oiticica (Rio de Janeiro, 1937-1980), Nuno Ramos (São Paulo, 1960) y Zeami Motokiyo (Japón, 1363-1443). Para ello, realizaremos, por una parte, un análisis crítico de las especificidades y contribuciones de la heterodoxa, creativa y tranformativa ‘transcreación’ del poeta concreto y traductor Haroldo de Campos del Hagoromo (El manto de plumas), una de las más populares obras Noh, atribuida a Zeami Motokiyo, en la encrucijada entre diferentes formas artísticas y literarias. Por otra parte, examinaremos la asociación literaria y performativa que Campos y Oiticica invocan entre los parangolés (la famosa serie de obras del artista carioca) y el hagoromo, así como las relaciones entre el hagoromo y la escritura y pintura experimental de Ramos.

Japán első színésznőképzője

Az 1868-as Meiji-megújulás követően a nyugati kultúra beáramlásával a modern, nyugati értelemben vett naturalista dráma is megérkezett Japánba, s kihívás elé állította a hagyományos színházi műfajokat. A radikális reformtervezetek mellett felmerült az igény a nők színpadon való megjelenésére is, mely 1629 óta tiltva volt az országban. Az új, modern színházat meghonosítani vagy épp csak a kabukit megreformálni kívánó műfajok, így a shinpa és a shingeki is már alkalmaztak színésznőket előadásaikban. Felmerül azonban a kérdés, hogy honnan érkeztek ezek a színésznők, s milyen színpadi oktatásban részesültek. Kawakami Sadayakko, akit Japán első színésznőjeként tartanak számon, és a 19–20. század fordulóján férje, Kawakami Otojirō társulatában amerikai és európai turnékon vett részt, a Franciaországban látott színészakadémiák mintájára 1908-ban létrehozta a Teikoku Joyū Yōseijot, vagyis a Birodalmi Színésznőképző Intézményt, ahol kizárólag fiatal lányokat oktattak a színpadi megjelenésre.

Nanako Nakajima in Conversation with Yvonne Rainer

‘Nanako Nakajima in Conversation with Yvonne Rainer’ was the document used during the lecture-conversation event that was held on 28 January 2019. Nakajima's innovative project ‘Performative Exhibition of Yvonne Rainer's Work’ was held at the Kyoto Art Theater (Shunjuza) from 11 - 15 October 2017 in collaboration with the postmodern choreographer and filmmaker, Yvonne Rainer, a co-founding member of the Judson Dance Theater in New York. Nakajima examines how various dramaturgies related to ageing and dance were interwoven into this exhibition in order to go beyond the typical dance presentation in a museum. Moreover, to reverse the current ‘dancing museum’ trend, this project revived the postmodern works of Rainer and combined their dramaturgical qualities with those of the traditional Japanese theatre for the purpose of connecting the past with the present. Nakajima explained her attempt to utilise archival materials to represent the postmodern oeuvre to the audience in Kyoto. She reconstructed stage sets and props of Rainer's legendary piece to demonstrate the working process on stage. Professional dancers of different ages and with varied training backgrounds were also employed to re-perform Rainer's seminal work of Trio A, including a Noh performer in his 80s. Inspired by the Noh performer in Trio A and Yvonne Rainer's Trio A Geriatric Version, Nakajima built up a dance dramaturgy and spectatorship of ageing, engaging with the premise of Trio A and the aesthetics of the Noh theatre. Nakajima's lecture was followed by a conversation with Yvonne Rainer, which revealed the condition and aesthetic prejudice of dancers regarding ageing in the American postmodern dance context that Rainer had been confronting. Rainer also discussed her private stories with the legends of American modern dance such as Ruth St Denis and Martha Graham by continuously returning to her own past and allowing her past to return to her.

A History of Japanese Theatre ed. by Jonah Salz

Reviewed by: A History of Japanese Theatre ed. by Jonah Salz Kathy Welch A History of Japanese Theatre. Edited by Jonah Salz. Cambridge University Press, 2016. Cloth $155.00, Paper $34.99, eBook $28.00. 589 pages. Jonah Salz’s award-winning book, A History of Japanese Theatre, will prove helpful to theatre generalists, Asian theatre specialists, and college instructors in search of a comprehensive text for a Japanese theatre course or supplementary materials for a more general course. In his foreword, the late eminent Asian theatre scholar James R. Brandon, to whom the book is dedicated, states that since the only other complete history of Japanese theatre in English is over two decades old, “This is the right book at the right time” (xxviii). One need only scan the book’s final list of reading recommendations and note that 24 of the 38 entries were published since 1990 to realize how critically this volume was needed. A History of Japanese Theatre is comprised of holistic essays by over 50 specialists, presenting diverse perspectives in an expertly edited format. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 covers traditional theatres, including ancient and medieval genres such as kagura, noh, kyogen, kabuki, and bunraku. Part 2 covers theatre that began in the modern era, defined as starting in 1868 with Emperor Meiji’s reign and the subsequent Western influence on Japanese culture. Part 3 is comprised of several sections examining topics crossing historical and stylistic boundaries such as theatre architecture, criticism, and interculturalism. Interludes, as well as short “Spotlight” and shorter “Focus” pieces, are peppered throughout the three main parts, highlighting important artists, significant productions, and minor or related art forms. Theatre in Japan has retained its potency due to the intellectual, spiritual, emotional, and even physical pleasure it stimulates [End Page 132] in audiences. Despite a great depth of critical and historical scholarly investigation, A History of Japanese Theatre never loses sight of theatre’s aptitude for pleasure. Descriptions of representative plays, interviews with theatre practitioners, and scores of production photos and prints elicit an appreciation for this in the reader. A great strength of the book is its structure. Salz is a leading scholar of kyogen and Japanese interculturalism as well as a theatre practitioner, and he has gathered an impressive international cadre of contributing editors and over fifty authors, each a specialist with a unique perspective on their topic. The authors are a mix of established and early career scholars; for some, this is their first publication in English. Each author has penned a standalone article on their topic. This is a useful feature for teachers looking for supplementary course readings. It also means that occasionally introductory concepts are repeated, which might seem tiresome for someone reading the book cover to cover. This, however, is not the case. The authors’ unique approaches to the material result instead in greater insight. For example, several articles describe the hanamichi, a pathway that runs from the stage through the audience in kabuki theatres. Alison Tokita, a scholar of Japanese music traditions, discusses its use as a device for dramatically depicting a character’s journey, while Japanese theatre specialist Julie Iezzi describes the intimacy the hanamichi creates between the audience and the actor performing on the pathway. Professor of architecture Shimizu Hiroyuki traces the hanamichi’s development, giving historical and cultural context to the relationship between actor and audience that it promotes. Revisiting the hanamichi in each of these articles deepens the reader’s understanding of this particular staging feature. In Salz’s chapter “Traditional Meta-Patterns,” he describes how traditional Japanese theatre divides visual and audio elements into separate channels. Bunraku audiences, for example, “receive the simultaneous, multi-channel performances by storytellers, musicians, puppets and manipulators, comprehending the visual and aural codes according to their own proclivities and competencies” (378). Salz has arranged the articles in A History of Japanese Theatre in a comparable way to create a similar gestalt. Each expertly written article illuminates the others and the reader is empowered to discover connections and trends throughout the collection. Among the final chapters of the book, David Jortner’s “English Language Scholarship: A Critical Overview” demonstrates the necessity for...

A hagyományos kabuki és a shinpa háborúja a 19–20. század fordulóján

After the Meiji restoration 明治維新 (1868), Western culture flooded intoJapan. This effect not only changed the political, economical and social lifebut also caused an enormous shock in people’s everyday life. The absolutelydominant and traditional Japanese theatre, the kabuki was no exception tothis tendency either. At the beginning kabuki was planned to be reformed inorder to cope with the new challenges, but eventually it could not be renewed.In addition, a new theatrical genre was born in the 1880’s, which defined itself in opposition to kabuki. The new school, called shinpa, applied severalmodern techniques, therefore it became extremely popular with the audience.This study focuses on the vivid competition, or even ‘battle’, of the kabukiand shinpa at the beginning of the 20th century.

Routledge Handbook of Asian Theatre ed. by Siyuan Liu

Reviewed by: Routledge Handbook of Asian Theatre ed. by Siyuan Liu Claudia Orenstein ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF ASIAN THEATRE. Edited by Siyuan Liu. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2016; pp. 578 Routledge Handbook of Asian Theatre is a prodigious volume offering a comprehensive overview of the field of Asian performance within South, East, and Southeast Asia. The book importantly fills a gap in resources on Asian theatre by providing a sophisticated introduction to the material that places traditional theatrical forms, from a wide range of Asian cultures, alongside substantive coverage of modern and contemporary movements and practices, while also giving focus to significant theoretical topics. Editor Siyuan Liu assembles established researchers and up-and-coming scholars for a combined expertise and depth of knowledge that allows this book impressively to summarize and define the vast terrain of material that constitutes the current scholarly understanding of the field of Asian theatre. Liu divides the book into four parts: "Traditional Theatre in Asia," "Dimensions of Traditional Asian Theatre," "Modern Theatre in Asia," and "Perspectives of Modern and Contemporary Asian Theatre." Each part contains several chapters, with each chapter, in turn, comprised of a number of essays focusing on the chapter's given topic within a specific country. The essays within a single chapter are not always consistent in their approach, with some offering strong theoretical perspectives and others reading more as straightforward summaries of history, facts, and trends. The first part covers territory familiar to anyone who has spent time in this field, with chapters focusing on traditional theatre forms in India, China, Japan, and Indonesia. Each offers historical context for understanding performance in the region, as well as detailed descriptions of significant traditional arts, such as kathakali, kunqu, noh, kabuki, and wayang wong. Forms that are less frequently addressed also find a place here, such as India's bhavai, a rural tradition primarily from Gujarat, consisting of short plays and skits; and ankiya nat, short dramas from Assam promoting Vishnu worship. Inclusion of these lesser-known arts expands the limited perspective often offered by introductory or summary texts. Colin Mackerras's chapter on "Traditional Chinese Theatre" and Jonah Salz's on "Traditional Japanese Theatre" are particularly strong, offering engaging, informative narratives and thematic views on the arts they describe. Mackerras, for example, has sections on "Ideology of Theatre: Purpose and Censorship" and "The Social Context" that steps away from strict history and description of performance practices to provide deeper insights into understanding Chinese performing arts, an approach that might have enriched some other chapters that predominantly detail specific traditions. While the volume's first part introduces traditional Asian theatre geographically, the second part focuses on specific elements of traditional Asian arts: dance, music, masks, puppets, costume and makeup, and architecture and stage. This setup gives full attention to components that are prevalent within and central to Asian forms. Chapters devoted to dance and puppetry, for example, allow for many lesser known forms to find representation here and demonstrate how these arts both intersect with theatrical traditions and form their own significant realms of activity across Asia. However, this editorial decision has its disadvantages. Because the chapters in part 2 investigate elements of some of the traditions introduced in part 1, related materials are located in different sections of the book, and readers must search through different chapters to gain a full understanding of the topic. For example, while kabuki's history and general aesthetics are introduced in the first chapter on Japan, kabuki dance, costume, and stages are each explained in different chapters within part 2. While there are benefits to seeing these aspects of kabuki alongside those in other Asian forms, it renders each part's treatment of kabuki incomplete. Part 2 also contains sections on regions like Korea, Tibet, Uyghur, and parts of Southeast Asia not introduced in the first part. The authors for these sections, therefore, must not only focus on the particular element in question, but also provide comprehensive introductions to their regions. The dance section has essays on both Southeast Asia and Cambodia (in Southeast Asia), which the chapter introduction identifies as a "case study," although it is not clear how this section is different from others, and there...

A History of Japanese Theatre ed. by Jonah Salz

Reviewed by: A History of Japanese Theatre ed. by Jonah Salz Deidre Onishi A History of Japanese Theatre. Edited by Jonah Salz. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016; pp. 590. Why read a history of Japanese theatre? And why read this one? Samuel Leiter has written eloquently in several books on Japanese theatre, including his Historical Dictionary of Japanese Traditional Theatre and books specifically about kabuki. Karen Brazell contributed analyses and texts with Traditional Japanese Theatre: An Anthology of Plays. What makes A History of Japanese Theatre unique is the comprehensive examination of playwrights, performance, and criticism replete with creative insight and information on traditional forms, as well as an extensive discussion of modern and contemporary works. It is in this comprehensive treatment of Japanese theatre that readers see the synergy among social, religious, and artistic changes from ritualized performance to ultra-realistic censures of Japanese politics. In doing so the book is useful for readers interested in performance from Western, Asian, African, and Middle Eastern cultures, and those interested in the eccentricities that define social interactions with art. Salz notes in the introduction that “this book aims to give full weight to this rich range of performance, tipping the normal scholarly balance toward the neglected modern, and from literary analysis to performance” (xxxviii). The book hits the mark. The authors come from across all disciplines and performance forms. The topics include the standard major forms like noh, kyogen, bunraku, and kabuki, but with a new perspective. For example, instead of merely another chapter on kabuki, Julie Iezzi focuses on its performances of superheroes and femme fatales. Other chapters cover playwriting, theatre architecture, and theatre criticism, including a particularly interesting discussion by Nakano Masaaki titled “Modern Criticism: Wrestling with Western Realism.” There are “interludes” that focus on unique topics, such as Suzuki Masae’s look at Okinawan theatre. The final section, “Intercultural Influences,” examines intercultural influences on Japanese theatre, including a chapter titled “Seven Stages of Shakespeare Reception” by Daniel Gallimore and Minami Ryuta. In addition, Salz contributes chapters on “Traditional Training Internationally” and “Intercultural Theatre: Fortuitous Encounters”—areas in which he has firsthand knowledge. Finally, it is a joy to have a foreword by the recently deceased James Brandon and an epilogue by Eugenio Barba, both experts in their respective fields as scholars and practitioners. The book includes several helpful sections and many photos showing moments of performance. It begins with a timeline by Rachel Payne showing the development of Japanese theatre forms, with indicators for when the form was in its infancy, at its height, and in decline. There are inserts titled “focuses” and “spotlights” that provide succinct explanations and reevaluations of events, performance elements, and people. An insert on Mishima Yukio by Laurence Kominz made everything else I have read on Mishima make sense. Downplaying his ultra-nationalistic character, Kominz emphasizes Mishima’s creativity and daring. The book is filled with such revelations. Each astute analysis of performance forms, such as kagura, katari, and Okinawan theatre, as well as contemporary theatre, reveals the fascinating story of how Japanese society was embraced by some artists and felt the lash of criticism by others. For example, in the Okinawa kingdom, theatre and dance was used by the bureaucracy to create performances of Okinawan legends to impress envoys from China. Postwar, Kinoshita Junji’s A Japanese Called Otto critically examined Japanese fascism and the push of the military into China. The culmination of such diverse research is that the volume clarifies the relationships among the forms and between theatre and society. We learn what the people did, not only what they wrote. For undergraduates, the progression of the essays provides the necessary foundation for understanding the composite elements and social implications for each of the forms. While many instructors do not have the luxury of devoting an entire semester to Japanese theatre, the book is worthwhile to require for theatre and performance studies students, because it offers many examples of writing about theatre, as well as stories of the geneses of performance. It [End Page 174] is an ideal reference book to have on reserve for students. The writing is consistently energetic; reading one chapter readies the reader for the next...

The Anime Paradox: Patterns and Practices through the Lens of Traditional Japanese Theater by Stevie Suan (review)

The Anime Paradox: Patterns and Practices through the Lens of Traditional Japanese Theater by Stevie Suan (review)

Onna Mono : The “Female Presence” on the Stage of the All-Male Traditional Japanese Theatre

As is well known, traditional Japanese theatre has been customarily a male domain, with women physically absent for the most part. The representative classical genres: nō, kyōgen , kabuki, and bunraku are performed only by men. The aim of this article is to look for and map a trajectory of the “female presence” on this predominantly all-male public stage, by exploring a phenomenon that has been largely overlooked: female versions of the popular all-male performing arts since medieval times, including reworking stories of the most prominent masculine heroes in kabuki. It could be argued that this practice did have a lasting presence in Japanese popular culture well into the twentieth century. I have come to denote this type of female-centered performances within the androcentric traditional Japanese theatre discourse as onna mono (おんなもの “female things”)—an expression that I would like to propose here as a general term inclusive of all related art forms.

Two intercultural performances: Double Nora and Resurrection Day

I have so far directed two plays of Ibsen as the intercultural performance, that is, the collaboration of the modern theatre with noh , a traditional Japanese theatre, which was established as an artistic theatre form in the 14 th century. The first production was Double Nora , based on A Doll’s House , which premiered at a noh theatre in Tokyo in 2005, and the second was Resurrection Day , based on When We Dead Awaken , performed at the Ibsen Festival in Tokyo in 2010. In both productions, professional noh and modern theatre actors appeared together in their own acting styles. At the Ibsen Conference in Tromso in June 2012, brief scenes of the two productions were shown. But here in the present article the performances are partly described, and the interactive relationship between different acting styles of noh and modern theatre is examined. A new and difficult experiment of Resurrection Day was to try a conversation between the main noh actor and the modern actress. The experiment was possible because the performance took place not on a noh stage in a unique form but on an ordinary stage in a modern theatre. Thus, some problems involved in the intercultural performance of Ibsen are investigated.

Dziecięce i młodzieńcze fascynacje Tanizakiego Jun’ichirō światem teatru kabuki

In this article I focused on introducing the writer’s earliest fascinations with traditional Japanese theater such as kabuki (it can be translated as ‘the art of singing and dancing’) and other theatrical performances he witnessed in temples and shrines of Tokyo in late years of 19th century. Tanizaki, born into merchant’s family in Tokyo, was educated from his early childhood by his mother and grandfather – who both shared a refined taste, with respect to traditional Japanese culture ad especially Japanese theater. This article is based on Tanizaki’s essays, memoirs where he describes his interest and passion for theater in great detail. These essays and memoirs are an indispensable and significant source of knowledge of the subject in question.

The “Performance” of Kyōgen.

Abstract By bringing Schechner’s analytical concepts of ‘script’, ‘theater’ and ‘performance’ (2003) to bear on the analysis of a contemporary performance of Kyōgen, a form of traditional Japanese theatre, and by examining the play and interplay of these three dimensions through Turner’s theory of ritual (2005), I will discuss how performances of Kyōgen present notions and topoi of individual and collective well-being and may actually contribute to a state thereof. In doing so, I aim to arrive at a better understanding of what the notion of well-being may mean for Japanese people.

A Study on the Information of Joseon Tongsinsa (The Korean Delegations to Japan) and Traditional Japanese Theater(Joruri, Kabuki) - Focusing on the Parade of Joseon Tongsinsa-

A Study on the Information of Joseon Tongsinsa (The Korean Delegations to Japan) and Traditional Japanese Theater(Joruri, Kabuki) - Focusing on the Parade of Joseon Tongsinsa-

The “Performance” of Kyōgen.

By bringing Schechner’s analytical concepts of ‘script’, ‘theater’ and ‘performance’ (2003) to bear on the analysis of a contemporary performance of Kyōgen, a form of traditional Japanese theatre, and by examining the play and interplay of these three dimensions through Turner’s theory of ritual (2005), I will discuss how performances of Kyōgen present notions and topoi of individual and collective well-being and may actually contribute to a state thereof. In doing so, I aim to arrive at a better understanding of what the notion of well-being may mean for Japanese people.

Is the Onnagata Necessary?

Is the Onnagata Necessary? Samuel L. Leiter Before I respond to Frank Episale's essay on English-language writing about the onnagata, I must by way of full disclosure mention that Frank (whom I will refer to by his first name, if I may) was a student of mine at the CUNY Graduate Center in a class that covered traditional Japanese theatre. My memory is uncertain, but I believe this essay was submitted in an earlier form during the course. Frank's essay ventures to do something tricky, that is, to survey the English-language literature about kabuki, a theatre form whose principal research is published in Japanese. This means he must not only be very familiar with kabuki, but with the principal scholarship about it in English, at least since World War II. That body of writing, while substantial, is not overwhelmingly so, and serious treatment of the onnagata in particular is not abundant, so examining what is available should not be excessively demanding. Regardless of the comment by Julie Iezzi that Frank quotes, however, to the effect that one no longer needs to know Japanese to do research on kabuki because so much is now available in English, I would argue that the project of doing such research without Japanese requires extreme caution. Writing about kabuki in English is not the same as writing about it in Japanese because the readership is different and scholars often adjust what they write to make room for differences in cultural assumptions. Moreover, a critique of the English literature on a narrow subject like this should be supported by some knowledge of how the subject is dealt with in the language of the culture concerned. [End Page 112] Before I get to the crux of my response, which concerns comments Frank makes about my own writing on the onnagata, I would like to address some technical issues. First, Frank notes that Iezzi's comment ignores non-English-language prewar literature on kabuki and then he proceeds to vaguely sketch in the nature of that literature, but he offers few specifics and no documentation of sources, so his references are unclear. I also question the reason for his mentioning in this context of Pound, Fenellosa, and Yeats, who had nothing to do with kabuki. I should add, though, that Yeats knew a little more about nō than just its masks. The first performance of his At the Hawk's Well in 1915 had the services of the gifted Japanese dancer and choreographer Michio Itō. Helen Caldwell (1977: 44-45) points out that, despite Itō's minimal knowledge of nō (he hadn't seen a performance since he was seven), his newly discovered appreciation of nō chanting (utai), which he heard performed by two Japanese artists in Pound's flat, and his background in kabuki dance, were of considerable assistance. Again, regarding early Western exposure to kabuki, Frank's brief overview never specifically mentions the extremely influential visits to America and Europe, beginning in 1899, of Kawakami Otojirō and Kawakami Sadayakko. They have been the subject of a great deal of English-language writing scholarship, most recently Joseph L. Anderson's remarkably detailed Enter a Samurai: Kawakami Otojirō and Japanese Theatre in the West (2011), although that tome probably appeared after his paper was already written. But Leslie Downer's Madame Sadayakko: The Geisha Who Bewitched the West (2003) is certainly significant. Most importantly, in the context of discussion about not only Sadayakko, to whom it devotes half its space, but of actresses challenging the ingrained tradition of men playing female roles, Ayako Kano's brilliant Acting like a Woman in Modern Japan: Theater, Gender, and Nationalism (2001) is crucial, because it employs the feminist discourse about which Frank is so concerned. I bring these omissions up because the Kawakamis' performances, while not pure kabuki, were deeply imbued with kabuki conventions, including the onnagata, who performed in the same plays with Sadayakko and who many early foreign critics took for real women (advertisements even preceded their names with "Miss"). The meat of Frank's essay lies in his dispute with scholars such as myself for our failure to go beyond "essentializing" the nature of...

Ningyō: An homage to the films of Kawamoto Kihachirō

ABSTRACTThis article provides a personal as well as scholarly exploration of the short films, and two longer films, by puppet animator Kawamoto Kihachirō (1925–2010), with special attention to the influence of conventions from traditional Japanese theatre and doll ceremonials in Japan. Select themes in the films (such as weaving, archery, transformation, union between souls) are highlighted, leading to a longer discussion of two Kawamoto films: Dōjōji (1976) and Shisha no sho/The Book of the Dead (2005). The article also offers a journey through the exhibition galleries of the Kawamoto Kihachirō Puppet Museum in Iida City, Nagano prefecture.