Paper short abstract:

This paper will reconsider the context of performing arts through war by focusing on the relationship between Tsukiji Little Theater and Hiroshima, thus centering on the fact that they had given three regional performances in Hiroshima and that a member lost his life in the atomic bombing in 1945.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will focus on the performances outside of the Tsukiji Little Theater to reconsider the diverse activities of this theater as a theater company and its influence in the interwar and postwar periods. Many previous studies on Tsukiji Little Theater have been conducted. However, the actual situation of performances outside the theater, especially in regional areas, has not been sufficiently clarified. This paper aims to provide the external theater performances of the company considering the Hiroshima performance as a touring performance.

First of all, Tsukiji Little Theater provided over 100 performances outside the theater. The first time the company performed outside the theater was in 1925. They began to perform in regional areas after their performances in Nagoya and Takarazuka. After that, the company performed the following three times in Hiroshima. Haruko Sugimura, who would go on to become one of Japan’s greatest actresses, made her first appearance at the Tsukiji Little Theatre in 1927, and her inspiration came from seeing the Hiroshima performance. Not only Sugimura, but the influence of the Tsukiji Little Theater, a Tokyo-based theater company, on people living in rural areas was significant and extended to the interwar and postwar periods.

Hiroshima has had a strong connection with war since the Meiji era, as it was the birthplace of Kaoru Osanai, one of the founders of the Tsukiji Little Theater, and his father was an army doctor.　

Hiroshima is well known as the city where the atomic bomb dropped in World War II in 1945. As symbolic damage in Japanese theater, Sadao Maruyama, who had been an actor at the Tsukiji Little Theater, had just toured Hiroshima in 1945 as part of a wartime theater unit and lost his life in the atomic bombing. This tragedy was described in a play by Hisashi Inoue after the war and is still often performed today.

In brief, this paper will attempt to reconsider the context of performing arts through war by focusing on the relationship between Tsukiji Little Theater and Hiroshima.