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- Convenors:
-
Tove Bjoerk
(Saitama University)
Takayuki Hioki (Meiji University)
Mayumi Tsuda (Keio University)
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- Chair:
-
Tove Bjoerk
(Saitama University)
- Format:
- Panel
- Section:
- Performing Arts
- Location:
- Auditorium 5 Jeanne Weimer
- Sessions:
- Friday 18 August, -
Time zone: Europe/Brussels
Short Abstract:
The panel looks at how Kabuki fighting scenes changed from transcending supernatural barriers to showing geographical borders as the idea of the ‘other’ changed from the early modern to modern era by looking at the acting of Ichikawa Danjūrō II, and the works of Santō Kyōzan and Takeshiba Kisui.
Long Abstract:
Kabuki developed during the early modern period, a period which was marked by relative peace, however, on the Kabuki stage epic fights continued.
This was partly because playwrights borrowed material from medieval warrior tales, but the fighting scenes also worked as markers of perceived borders between the known and the 'other.' This panel explores how Kabuki changed its perception of borders over time.
First, we look at how actor Ichikawa Danjūrō II staged Chinese warlord Guan Yu in 1742. Guan Yu’s ‘Breaking through Five Barriers’ scene was later published in two commemorative books. Here, Danjūrō II, as Guan Yu, is depicted breaking down the barriers to enlightenment in the other world. This presentation will discuss how the borders of this world and the other world were overcome in Kabuki by using exotic elements from classical literature in fighting scenes.
Secondly, we will consider how Kabuki and the Edo printing media dealt with the Russian attack on Japan in 1806 and 1807. The Tokugawa government heavily censored material dealing with the incident, and violence depicted in popular media came under scrutiny too. This presentation shows how the printed media overcame the censorship on depicting war and violence by using Kabuki actors’ portraits as its illustrations, by looking at how author Santō Kyōzan employed the play ‘The Golden Gate and the Paulownia Crest’ in 1810.
Thirdly, we analyze the play ‘The Beginning of Shin-Fuji at Meguro,’ first performed in 1893. The hero explores the Kuril archipelago and interacts with the Ainu people, and the play displays the Japanese imperialism amounting to the Russo-Japanese war in 1904 and this presentation will discuss how Kabuki dealt with the rising militarism at the border to the modern era, while exploring the earnest attempts of Kabuki playwrights and actors to depict the customs of the ‘alien’ Ainu people correctly.
Finally, we will discuss how the liminality of the struggles on the Kabuki stage and in the printed media changed from depicting supernatural to displaying geographical borders, as the perception of the ‘other’ among early modern and modern Kabuki audiences changed.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 18 August, 2023, -Tove Bjoerk (Saitama University)
Paper short abstract:
This presentation analyses Ichikawa Danjūrō II's enactment of Guan Yu on stage and how the struggles on stage were continued in commemorative publications after his death to discuss how the exotic literary figure functioned as a tool for transcending supernatural borders.
Paper long abstract:
During the Kyōhō Reforms, the import ban on foreign books was relaxed which sparked an interest in the Chinese classics which influenced not only the intellectual elite, but also the fighting scenes on the Kabuki stage.
During the preceding Genroku era, fighting scenes were often staged as dances where a deity appeared to save the day at the end, but in the Kyōhō era, these grandiose fighting scenes took a more intellectual approach. Ichikawa Danjūrō II (1688-1758), the most influential actor of this era, was a prolific reader. From his diary, we know that he also had a keen interest in the Chinese classics, had access to the Chinese versions and possessed several Japanese translations. Probably because of this, from the late 1730s, he increasingly borrowed its heroes to lend glamour to various Japanese warriors.
In this presentation, I will, based on Danjūrō II's diary records consider how he performed third century warlord Guan Yu's 'Breaking Through Five Barriers' from the novel 'Romance of Three Kingdoms,' successfully borrowing from the Chinese classics to enhance the splendor to 12th century Japanese warlord Iga no Mori's fighting in the play 'Loading the Ship with Sacred Treasures and the Chronicle of Great Peace' (艤貢太平記 Funayoso-oi mitsugi Taihei ki, 11th month, Nakamura za) in 1742. The scene was so successful that it was, after Danjūrō II's death, published in the commemorative books 'Guan Yu Breaking Through Five Barriers' (関羽五関破 Kan'U goseki yaburi, 1775) and 'Seven Times Breaking Through the Five Barriers' (七廻五関破 Nana meguri goseki yaburi, 1764). Here Danjuro II, as Guan Yu, is depicted breaking down the barriers to enlightenment in the other world.
This presentation will be based on the diary of Danjūrō II, the Actor's Reviews commenting on his enactment of Guan Yu, and the post-mortem publications, and will discuss how the borders of this world and the other world were transcended on stage and in print by using literary exotic elements of otherness in Kabuki fighting scenes.
Takayuki Hioki (Meiji University)
Paper short abstract:
This presentation will analyse the kabuki play ‘The Beginning of Shin-Fuji at Meguro (Yamabiraki Meguro no Shin-Fuji),’ in 1893. This play describes the adventures of Ezo explorer Kondō Jūzō, and reflects Japan-Russia relations and the increase of interest in “alien” people in the Meiji Era.
Paper long abstract:
‘The Beginning of Shin-Fuji at Meguro (Yamabiraki Meguro no Shin-Fuji)’ is a Kabuki play written by Takeshiba Kisui (1847-1923), a leading disciple of a playwright Kawatake Mokuami, and first performed in 1893. This play was based on the adventures of Kondō Jūzō (1771-1829), a retainer of the Tokugawa Shogunate who explored Ezo (current Hokkaido) and the Northern Islands. Although the latter half of the play is allotted to an episode of a murder case caused by his son, the first half describes Jūzō’s adventure at the Iturup Island, one of the islands now disputed by Japan and Russia.
In the beginning of the play, Kondo redraws the border between Japan and Russia by pulling out a Russian territorial monument and fighting against a brown bear, and the Ainu people. In the following scene, “iomante,” an Ainu ceremony in which a brown bear is sacrificed and its “kamui (spirit)” is sent back to “kamui mosir,” the world which the Gods live in, was represented on the stage.
The play was performed again in 1902, two years before the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, and at that time, the play was retitled to ‘Glorious Japanese Weather and the Spring Thaw of Russian Land (Nihonbare Roryō no Yukidoke).’
This play reflected the will of expansion of its territory by the Empire of Japan and an increase of interest in the “alien” people, including Ainu. In the play, traces that the playwright and the actors made efforts to describe Ainu custom comparatively realistically can be found. On the other hand, the fighting scene was obviously influenced by the famous battle scene between a superhero Watōnai and a tiger in Chikamatsu Monzaemon’s masterpiece ‘The Battles of Coxinga (Kokusen’ya Kassen),’ first performed as a puppet play in 1715.
By examining the conflicts described in this play, I will show one example how Japanese people in the Meiji Era understand and represent “alien” people.
Mayumi Tsuda (Keio University)
Paper short abstract:
The Khvostov Incident led to strict censorship on illustrations depicting violence, so the publishers started depicting the scenes of struggle through the lens of Kabuki actors. This presentation analyses how Santo Kyōzan used this method in 1810.
Paper long abstract:
The Khvostov Incident, in which Russian ships attacked Japanese bases in Sakhalin and Iturup in 1806 and 1807 had a shocking impact on early modern Japanese society, and the Tokugawa government, fearing internal unrest, forbade details of the incident to be published in any form.
After this major incident, a special censorship department was created for entertainment reading materials in Edo. Before then, it was possible to depict Russians, for example, in Nansenshō Somahito's ‘Vendetta of the Felicitous Ship Touring the Islands’ (敵討嶋廻幸助舟 Katakiuchi shimameguri Kōsukebune), but it was no longer possible to do so. In addition, the Tokugawa Shogunate considered the violent content and brutal illustrations that were popular at the time to be problematic, and publishers, authors, and illustrators were forced to refrain from doing so from 1808 onward.
As a result, the publishers turned from depicting bloody scenes realistically, and instead used portraits of Kabuki actors, depicting them in old-style mie poses to accentuate that the illustrations are depicting the Kabuki stage and not reality. This presentation will examine the actual situation in the middle of the Bunka era, a period of confusion due to censorship and self-restraint, by focusing on a handwritten draft of the Santō Kyōzan's gōkan book ‘The Color Picture alanquin Returning Home’ (戻駕籠故郷錦絵 Modorikago kokyō no nishiki-e).
The book, which makes extensive use of portraits of actors, uses as its narrative framework the Kabuki play ‘The Golden Gate and the Paulownia Crest’ (楼門五三桐 Sanmon Gosan no Kiri), featuring warlord Hideyoshi Toyotomi, which was performed at two theaters in Edo in March 1810. Toyotomi Hideyoshi was a difficult subject to handle, as evidenced by the fact that a picture book about him that had been popular in 1804 was out of print while the Tokugawa shogunate was shaken by foreign threats. This presentation will based on the analysis of this book consider what matters were required for censorship and self-restraint on the Kabuki stage and in the printed media.