- Convenor:
-
Akihiro Odanaka
(Osaka Metropolitan University)
Send message to Convenor
- Discussant:
-
Katherine Saltzman-Li
(University of California, Santa Barbara)
- Format:
- Panel
- Section:
- Performing Arts
Short Abstract
This panel will discuss how the Japanese theater criticism was transformed in the early 20th century when kabuki found the European theater. The Japanese reception of the Western theatre could be biassed by the kabuki’s notion of theater.
Long Abstract
Since the Meiji Restoration, the modernization of Japanese theater was made through kabuki; Shakespear’s plays were adapted to kabuki as early as in the 1880s because kabuki was a widely accepted theatre form for ordinary people. Then, in the late 19th century, some Japanese had a chance to see the Western stage abroad; such were Kawakami Otojirō and his wife Sada Yakko who toured in U.S and Europe with the plays featuring samurai’s seppuku, Shimamura Hōgetsu who first staged Ibsen’s Doll’s House after his stay in London and Berlin, or Osanai Kaoru, founder of Tsukiji Shōgekijō, who is known for having met Konstantin Stanislavski.
What is interesting with these pioneers of the Japanese modern theatre is that they were familiarized with kabuki, and they had even affection for it, contrary to today’s stereotyped image that they fought against the age-old theatrical form. It is reasonable to assume, consequently, that they tried to understand the Western theater with the eyes to kabuki, as the latter was the only available theatrical reference to assimilate the foreign theater.
The concern of the present panel lies in the process how the modern theater criticism in Japan was formed by the interaction of the criticism of kabuki and that of Western theater. For this purpose, we will focus on three people: Miki Takeji (1867-1908), Osanai Kaoru (1881-1928), and Iwata Toyo-o (1893-1969): Miki is a brother of famous Mori Ōgai, known for having established the modern kabuki criticism. Osanai, notwithstanding the reformer of shingeki (new theater), was a great amateur of kabuki. Finally, Iwata, co-founder of shingeki troop Bungakuza, loved the French theater during his stay in Paris, however, his theatrical background belonged to kabuki.
These people represent the three generations through which the modern Japanese theater criticism reconciled the traditional way of seeing theater with the idea of new theatrical form imported from the West.
| Abstract in Japanese (if needed) |
Accepted papers
Paper short abstract
The purpose of this presentation is to discuss the modernization of kabuki theatre criticism by tracing the work of its central figure, Miki Takeji (1867–1908).
Paper long abstract
Miki Takeji (hereafter abbreviated as Takeji) was the younger brother of the renowned literary figure Mori Ōgai. While studying medicine at the University of Tokyo, he highly appreciated kabuki and yose entertainment. Takeji began writing theatre reviews during his student years. From 1892, he joined the editorial staff of the magazine Kabuki Shinpō and in 1900, he committed himself to launching the magazine Kabuki. Takenji was both an editor and a theatre critic. While his reviewing style, which interpreted the play script and then evaluated the acting and direction, seems orthodox by today’s standards, this approach brought a turning point to kabuki criticism. This is because, prior to Takenji, theater reviews had not progressed beyond the realm of “hyōban-ki” (actors reputation and ranking lists).
Kabuki criticism originated in the late 17th century with the “hyōban-ki”. The primary aim of these publications was to rank actors according to their acting skill; “hyōban-ki” remained leisure books for connoisseurs. Kabuki criticism prior to Takeji belonged to this tradition of “actor reputation records”, which clung on “master craftsmanship” or “connoisseurship”. This is why Takeji is regarded as the pioneer of modern drama criticism.
Takeji also belonged to the intellectual circle centred on Ōgai, having the knowledge of Western theatre introduced by Ōgai and others. He was involved in translating Western plays. This background possibly explains why he viewed kabuki with objective eyes, being consistently in the realm of “amateur”.
To further deepening our understanding of Takeji's achievements, we could compare his approach to kabuki with that of Aiba Kōson (1855-1922), a writer and theater critic who belonged to the former generation.
Different from Kōson, Takeji endeavored a difficult task of ‘recording kabuki’s kata (form). It was his familiarity with Western drama that led him, conversely, to document its formalistic aspects, respecting the uniqueness of Japanese theatre. As a result, Takeji’s own style of kabuki criticism, combining the analysis of play structure and the documentation of kata was born. My presentation will also examine the background from where the motive for recording kata emerged.
Paper short abstract
The present paper discusses the way of Iwata Toyo-o’s seeing French theater; Iwata stayed in Paris from 1922 to 1925, and left detailed notes of the plays he saw. I will treat the possible influence of kabuki criticism on Iwata’s theater notes.
Paper long abstract
Iwata Toyo-o (1893-1969) is known today, under the pseudonym of Shishi Bunroku, as a novelist describing the life of middleclass people before and after WW II. Before becoming a popular writer, he studied French theater in the early 1920s. He is also known as a co-founder of Bungakuza, one of the most renowned shingeki troops.
While Iwata was in Paris, he kept the notes of about 230 stages. His theater notes give strong impression by the zeal for recording everything he saw: stage design, costume, make-up, gesture, voice-tone, besides play’s subjects, plots, and characters. Apparently, Iwata did not follow the traditional Western theater criticism found in newspaper and journal.
What made Iwata’s distinctive way of observing theater? We should keep in mind, in this regard, that he knew nothing about Western theater before he came to Paris; he was a great amateur of kabuki, and was thought to be familiar with kabuki reviews in Engei Gahō (Illustrated Journal of Stage), launched by Miki Takeji.
Iwata’s way of describing the French theater resembles to Engei Gahō’s popular column “shibai mita mama (the stage as it was seen)”; the column featured a detailed description of stage as if the reader had been placed in the theater. Interestingly, Iwata is not the one whose style of writing about Western theater reminds of “shibai mita mama.” Japanese theater amateurs who went abroad, such as Shimamura Hōgetsu and Osanai Kaoru, left the memoirs in the same vein.
Kamiyama Akira, authority of modern kabuki studies, indicates that “shibai mita mama” represented a different culture of seeing theater, which was initiated by Miki’s kabuki criticism. According to Kamiyama, they found joy in seeing details of the stage production while play’s plots and characters were set aside. My paper will analyze how Iwata, based on such kabuki’s way of seeing theater, developed his criticism of the modern French theater
Paper short abstract
This paper examines the process by which Osanai Kaoru, a pioneer of modern Japanese theatre, changed his recognition of kabuki by way of his encounter with the Western theatre, in particular, the Moscow Art Theatre, the Ballets Russes, and Max Reinhardt.
Paper long abstract
Osanai Kaoru (1881–1928) is generally recognized as a pioneer of shingeki (modern theatre) in Japan. He paved the way for reforming the Japanese theatre, starting from the foundation of Jiyū Gekijō in 1909, which realized the first productions of Henrik Ibsen’s plays in Japan, to the inauguration of Tsukiji Little Theatre in 1924. The latter produced a number of newly translated Western plays. Through these activities Osanai succeeded in conceptualizing shingeki as an independent theater genre which resembled neither kabuki nor shimpa, a hybrid of kabuki and the Western theatre.
Osanai, however, cherished an extensive knowledge of kabuki and he never lost contact with it. His close friendship with kabuki actor Ichikawa Sadanji II eloquently tells such situation. In fact, Sadanji II became the co-founder of Jiyū Gekijō. Moreover, Osanai composed plays for kabuki and even directed them. Along with the enlightenment of shingeki, he continued to write reviews and critical essays on kabuki.
Based on these backgrounds, the present paper clarifies how Osanai’s recognition of kabuki evolved as a reflection of his encounter with the Western theatre. The turning point was his eight-month journey to Russia and Europe from 1912 to 1913; he saw the productions of the Moscow Art Theatre, the Ballets Russes, and the practice deriving from Max Reinhardt. He directly got in touch with the frontline of contemporary European theatre.
Such experience urged, as it seems, a fundamental change to his view of the Western theatre and kabuki as well; before the journey, Osanai criticized kabuki primarily from the dramaturgical concern, referring to Western playwrights such as Shakespeare. After the “event,” however, his critiques of kabuki increasingly focused on its visual elements such as make-up, costume color and stage design. Following Osanai’s writings on kabuki, we could see he envisioned a larger picture of shingeki than it was, which was not realized by his death. In his last days, kabuki, seemingly an old-fashioned exotic theatre, could be compatible with the Western avant-garde theatre.