Paper short abstract

In the wake of revelations of abuse perpetrated by the late idol producer Johnny Kitagawa, this paper outlines and evaluates current efforts towards safeguarding the next generation of idol performers in Japan and beyond, incorporating insights from history, survivors and policymakers.

Paper long abstract

Content warning: This paper contains general discussion of child sexual abuse as a societal phenomenon.

In 2023, a BBC documentary investigating allegations of child sexual abuse against the late Japanese idol producer Johnny Kitagawa prompted many more survivors to come forward. Acknowledging past failures, agency that used to share his name has now rebranded itself, and is overtly committed to becoming a sector leader on the prevention of the recurrence of such abuse. But why are so many children and young people working as idols in the first place? And now the attention to Kitagawa’s abuse has died down, is enough now being done to safeguard the idols of the future?

This paper will begin with a brief social history of youth and popular music in postwar Japan, and the development of idols as a distinct style of production and performance. It will then draw out the sociohistorical roots for the persistence of key barriers to improving the safeguarding of children and young people in Japan’s entertainment industries, based on interviews conducted by the author and co-researcher Professor Kaori Suetomi with survivors and policymakers in Tokyo in the summer of 2024.

It will conclude by evaluating the safeguarding potential of a new voluntary system for checking the criminal records of those working with aspiring idols in Japan (the “Japanese DBS” system). This paper has implications for the study of child performer regulations across East Asia (such as “fostered idols” in China, and the management of K-pop idols), and argues that policy reforms to protect children and young people who perform as idols cannot happen without a consideration of the specific sociohistorical context of youth and popular music performance.

Paper short abstract

Music education centred on socialist revolutionary songs in a Chinese school in postwar Yokohama shaped diasporic youth identities. Through collective and performative singing, Maoist repertoires fostered political belonging and communal ties among second and third generation Chinese in Japan.

Paper long abstract

Following the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, ideological divisions emerged within the Chinese diaspora in Japan between supporters of the PRC (Mainland-oriented groups) and supporters of the Republic of China (Taiwan-oriented groups). These tensions culminated in the 1952 schism of the Chinese School in Yokohama. In the aftermath of this split, the Mainland-oriented Chinese school introduced music education programmes centred on songs that praised socialist New China, such as ‘Labour Is the Most Honourable’ (Laodong Zui Guangrong), which were widely used in the PRC to inculcate socialist values among youth. With the onset of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, this musical repertoire shifted further toward explicit veneration of Mao Zedong and Maoist ideology. For example, ‘Songs of Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong’, which were melodic settings of passages from the Quotations of Chairman Mao, became central to music education and extracurricular singing activities. These songs mirrored those employed in mainland China as tools for ideological education, indicating a transnational circulation of revolutionary musical practices. Drawing on school newsletters and interviews with graduates of the mainland-oriented Chinese school in Yokohama, this paper examines how ‘New China’ songs functioned within music education and collective musical activities, and how they shaped the identities of Chinese youth living in Japan. Particular attention is paid to the school choir, whose members participated in Japan’s communist singing movement (utagoe undō), forming musical solidarities that initially transcended nationality and ethnicity. However, during the Cultural Revolution, the choir increasingly distanced themselves from Japanese communist movements and became more deeply aligned with the glorification of the Maoist regime. By focusing on second- and third-generation overseas Chinese, this study argues that singing practices associated with a distant ‘homeland’ played a crucial role in community formation and identity negotiation. The paper argues how music served as an educational tool, an ideological medium, and a means of articulating belonging within the complex sociopolitical context of postwar Japan.

Paper short abstract

In Golden Age ningyō-jōruri, Act III forms the emotional core of jidaimono history plays. Focusing on works attributed to Namiki Sōsuke, this paper shows how recognition often arrives too late to enable meaningful action, thereby intensifying rather than resolving the tragic situation.

Paper long abstract

Ningyō-jōruri puppet theatre, the direct ancestor of modern bunraku, also provided a substantial portion of the kabuki repertoire. Its Golden Age, marked by the creation of successive hits, is generally acknowledged to have occurred in the Dōtonbori district of Osaka in the early eighteenth century.

In Golden Age jidaimono history plays, Act III conventionally functions as the emotional and dramaturgical centre of the five-act structure shaped within the Takemoto tradition and exemplified in the works of Chikamatsu Monzaemon. While this act typically culminates in a pathos-driven climax, the operation of tragic recognition within Act III has not been systematically theorised in studies of jōruri tragedy.

Focusing on works attributed to Namiki Sōsuke (1695–1751), this paper introduces the concept of tragic recognition as a tool for analysing Act III in Golden Age jōruri. Drawing on close textual readings, it argues that Sōsuke developed a distinctive dramaturgical mode in which recognition does not lead to moral clarification or restorative resolution, but instead produces a belated awareness of irreversible constraint arising from an earlier misdeed. In these scenes, knowledge arrives too late to enable meaningful action, intensifying rather than resolving the tragic situation, even where characters briefly articulate forms of spiritual acceptance.

Through analysis of Act III episodes from Sōsuke’s early play Seiwa Genji Jūgodan (1727) and the mature work Yoshitsune Senbonzakura (1747), the paper identifies recurrent formal features of this tragic mode, including delayed recognition, retrospective narrative framing, and the ethical ambiguity of substitution and sacrifice. Whereas the Sushi-ya scene from Yoshitsune Senbonzakura remains central to the modern bunraku and kabuki repertoire, the Nemonogatari scene of Seiwa Genji Jūgodan survives only in textual form and is no longer performed.

By foregrounding tragic recognition as an analytic category, this paper clarifies the dramaturgical function of Act III in Golden Age jōruri and Namiki Sōsuke’s substantive contribution to the development of early-modern Japanese tragic form.

Paper short abstract

This paper examines rakugo as a performative practice in which humor is produced through timing, pauses (ma), and embodied narration rather than verbal punchlines alone. Focusing on live performance, it analyzes how voice, gesture, and audience co-presence shape comic effect.

Paper long abstract

Rakugo is commonly described as a form of comic storytelling or oral narrative, and scholarly discussions have often focused on its plots, stock characters, or verbal punchlines. Such approaches, however, tend to overlook the fact that rakugo is first and foremost a live performance, in which humor unfolds in time and depends on the shared presence of performer and audience. This paper approaches rakugo from the perspective of performance analysis, asking how comic effect is produced through timing, pauses (ma), and embodied narration rather than through language alone.

The analysis is based on selected contemporary rakugo performances and concentrates on the performative means available to the rakugoka: vocal modulation, rhythmic pacing, minimal gesture, and the disciplined use of stillness. Particular attention is given to pauses and moments of suspension, which structure audience expectation and play a decisive role in shaping the reception of the ochi. In this context, the punchline is treated not simply as a verbal twist, but as the endpoint of a carefully calibrated temporal process.

The study employs a qualitative research approach based on the primary observation of recorded and live Rakugo performances. The research focuses on the physical bases of Rakugo and the way performers use the restricted prop set (sensu and tenugui) when seated and other subtle body and vocal changes to generate multiple characters. The study describes humorous mechanisms that generate amusing effects through silence, anticipation, and time delay rather than through obvious performance of comic actions.

This paper highlights timing and pause as the main analytical categories to provide an understanding of rakugo that is complementary to text and linguistic analysis. It demonstrates that rakugo is a particularly evident instance of humorous performance that is based on rhythmic patterns and physical control and the live performer-audience communication in Japanese performing arts.

Paper short abstract

Using Yorushika as a case study, this paper examines how international fans contribute to the global circulation of Japanese music through translations, covers, and interpretations, acting as cultural mediators who reduce linguistic and cultural barriers and enable engagement with Japanese content.

Paper long abstract

This study contributes to cultural, fan, and Japanese popular music scholarship by examining the creative practices of the transnational fandom surrounding Yorushika, a Japanese pop-rock duo formed in 2017 whose members remain anonymous. With Japanese-only social media, high-context lyrics, and limited physical media distribution, Yorushika did not initially appear to target overseas audiences. Their music relies heavily on complex, multimodal storytelling that requires access to multiple media forms and high levels of Japanese language literacy, which would seem to limit engagement by non-Japanese fans. Nevertheless, the band has gained increasing international recognition since the COVID-19 pandemic.

This shift can be attributed to a combination of factors: Yorushika’s presence on streaming platforms that were widely used during this period, early collaborations with the anime industry, and, most significantly, the efforts of overseas fans. Fannish engagement, visible in discussions of narrative interpretations, accounts of personal experiences related to the music, and the exchange of recommendations, often provides the initial encouragement for new listeners to engage more deeply with Yorushika’s work. In this process, fan productions become the primary mediators of Japanese language and culture.

Drawing on qualitative research that includes an open-ended questionnaire and a series of in-depth interviews with self-selected members of Yorushika’s international fan community, the study examines how practices such as instrumental and vocal covers, lyric translations, and interpretive essays have facilitated the band’s global reach. Fan activities play a fundamental role in the growth of this border-crossing fandom in two key ways: by disseminating Yorushika-related content and by reducing the cultural distance between the artists’ work and non-Japanese audiences. The latter is particularly important, as understanding Yorushika’s complex storytelling requires specific linguistic and cultural knowledge.

The paper presents empirical data on how international fans discovered Yorushika, the factors that transformed casual listeners into fans, and the role of fan-produced content in shaping engagement. In doing so, the study highlights how fans act as cultural agents in the global circulation of Japanese popular music that is primarily intended for local audiences.

Paper short abstract

This paper examines “world music” as a framework shaping modes of listening in Japan since the 1980s. Focusing on Ainu musician OKI, it traces shifts in how vernacular music is framed in the Western-influenced Japanese popular music industry, from exoticised authenticity to reflexive recomposition.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines 'world music' in Japan as a cultural framework through which vernacular musics have been classified, performed, and reconfigured from the 1980s to the present. Rather than treating world music as a transient boom or a stable genre, the paper approaches it as historically situated modes of listening and representation whose effects continue to shape contemporary musical practices.

Japan’s engagement with world music developed within a distinctive historical and geopolitical context, informed by Western Orientalism, imperial hierarchies, and its ambivalent self-positioning between 'the West' and 'Asia'. For Japanese audiences long accustomed to Western classical and popular music since the modern period, world music provided a framework through which musics marginalised in the Western mainstream, including Japanese music, could be heard as 'exotic'. Japanese folk songs, ritual and religious music, and contemporary performances using traditional instruments were juxtaposed and staged within a global soundscape, with music festivals playing a crucial role in mediating live encounters with perceived cultural differences. While the category of world music facilitated the circulation and recognition of diverse musical practices, it also reproduced asymmetrical relations of authenticity, exoticism, and cultural authority. These tensions did not dissipate with the decline of the boom but instead informed subsequent transformations in musical practices and reception.

Focusing on developments from the boom period to the present, the paper highlights a shift from labelling towards reworking and recomposition. To illustrate this argument, the paper examines the case of OKI, an Ainu musician active from the world music boom to the present, showing how earlier framings that emphasised ethnic authenticity within world music circuits have given way to more reflexive engagements foregrounding mediation, authorship, and contemporary creativity.

By tracing these trajectories, the paper posits that world music in Japan should be understood not as a concluded historical episode but as an evolving cultural framework. In this respect, the paper contributes to Japanese studies by situating world music within the context of Japan’s postwar cultural history. It demonstrates how global musical categories were selectively appropriated, institutionalised, and reworked within Japan’s specific social and cultural conditions.

Paper short abstract

I present a thematic analysis of Yuasa’s 1961 electroacoustic adaptation of the noh play Aoi no Ue based on Tale of Genji. As a noh-trained composer, his alterations of the play and use of electronics dramatizes the play’s poetry and subtext while transmitting noh’s aesthetics to modern ears.

Paper long abstract

Aoi no Ue is a classic Japanese noh theatre play attributed to Zeami that dramatizes a famous episode from The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu. Between 1957-1961, composers Jōji Yuasa, Toshiro Mayuzumi, and Michiko Toyama adapted this play into electroacoustic music. As the only one trained at a noh school (Hōshō), Yuasa’s adaptation is important for its transmission of noh’s traditional aesthetics and performance practice. This article presents a thematic analysis of Yuasa’s 1961 adaptation of Aoi no Ue, created at Sogetsu Art Center with sound engineer/inventor Zyunosuke Okuyama and the renowned noh actors/descendants of Zeami, the Kanze brothers Hisao, Hideo, and Shizuo. I create a transcript using recordings of Yuasa’s adaptation and traditional performances of Aoi no Ue by the Kanze, Hōshō, Komparu, and Kita schools, the National Noh Theatre of Tokyo’s performance guide of this play, and translations of The Tale of Genji. I argue that Yuasa’s alterations from the play’s text and selective use of audio processing techniques (e.g. looping, pitch shifting, reverb) dramatizes the play’s poetry, tragedy, and subtext from two chapters of Genji, and with sensitivity to noh’s traditional aesthetics (e.g. ma, yūgen, jo-ha-kyū). I use examples including Yuasa’s integration of diegetic sounds (e.g. owl calls) described in Genji, his composition of additional electronic instrumental sections that follow the internal workings of noh music, and the focus of his electroacoustic processing on noh songs (utai) and drum calls (kakegoe) in contrast to his omission of drums (ōtsuzumi, kotsuzumi, and taiko), flute (nohkan), and dialogue (e.g. mondô). I categorize Yuasa’s adaptation as a “Noh-Expansion” alongside Yokomichi Mario’s The Hawk Princess (1967) as opposed to a “Noh-Inspired work” by virtue of preserving noh’s internal elements and traditional aesthetics whilst changing some external elements. Created amidst Yuasa and Hideo Kanze’s avant-garde cinema projects in the 1960s, Yuasa advanced Hideo Kanze’s vision for revitalizing classical noh by expanding its traditional practice, aesthetics, and sound world with a cinematic dimension of electroacoustic processing techniques and sounds for modern audiences.

Keywords: joji yuasa, noh-expansion, tale of genji, intercultural music, electroacoustic music

Audio-visual requirements: audio-visual content via slideshow from my laptop

Paper short abstract

This presentation analyzes the mutual portrayal of Japan and South Korea in local musicals, focusing on how these representations shape national perceptions. It addresses historical tensions and evaluates musicals' potential to enhance mutual understanding through cultural representation.

Paper long abstract

This presentation examines portrayals of Japan in South Korean musicals and of South Korea in Japanese musicals. Combining music, text, and image, musicals emerged as a powerful soft-power instrument that forms the image of the Other among local and foreign audiences. The presentation centres on how Japanese and South Korean musical theatre becomes a performative platform for cultural auto-images (self-images) and hetero-images (images of the Other) in connection with Japan–South Korea relations, which have been characterised by a colonial past, wartime antagonisms, post-war identity building, as well as the contemporary pop culture exchange. Through a comparative approach, drawing on elements of imagology and collective memory theories, by examining several musicals featuring explicit or implicit references to their respective neighbouring countries, I will aim to explore technical and artistic differences in the conditions of articulation of the historically shaped images of the Other. I will also argue that although Japanese and South Korean musicals reinforce several stereotypes, they also prove that well-implemented auto- and hetero-images may favourably influence the image of a given nation.

Paper short abstract

Noh is a classical Japanese art where chanting conveys narrative. Though its notation system dates back centuries, it has been understudied due to Western influence. This paper reconsiders Noh notation as integral, tied to embodied practice, linguistic structure, and cultural tradition.

Paper long abstract

Noh is a classical Japanese performing art in which narrative is conveyed through melodically inflected chanting performed by actors and a chorus. The notational system for this chanting developed from the fourteenth century, when Zeami systematized Noh theory, and by the Edo period had largely assumed the form still used today. Despite this long history, notation for narrative genres has rarely been treated as a subject of scholarly inquiry and has remained marginal in both research and education.

This neglect is often explained by the assumption that Noh notation provides little concrete information about pitch and functions merely as a mnemonic aid. More fundamentally, it reflects the impact of cultural policies since the Meiji period, which promoted Western music and Western-based models of arts and music education. Over time, these policies contributed to the devaluation of traditional Japanese vocal practices and their associated notational systems.

This paper reconsiders Noh notation as an integral element of narrative performance rather than a secondary aid. Noh chant is transmitted through embodied pedagogical practices in which performers trace goma (sesame-shaped neumes) with hand gestures while chanting. These notational signs are internalized and embodied by performers, demonstrating their close connection to musical and narrative cognition.

The paper further situates Noh chant within the linguistic structure of Japanese, in which consonant–vowel syllables encourage the clear articulation of each unit in narrative delivery. This mode of articulation, shared with ritual recitations such as Shinto norito, corresponds closely to the syllable-based structure of Noh notation. By integrating perspectives from performance studies, linguistic analysis, and modern cultural history, this presentation contributes to broader discussions of narrative, notation, and embodiment in Japanese studies.

Paper short abstract

This paper analyzes waterborne gagaku performance, its sound and impact on ancient court society. Examples are drawn from pictures and diaries of government officers from the eleventh to the fourteenth century, and thus, this paper relies heavily on earlier studies in philological history.

Paper long abstract

Ancient Japanese picture scrolls feature a special pair of boats used for waterborne musical performances, called “dragon and fowl heads” (竜頭鷁首) because of the beautiful sculptures of those imaginary creatures on the bow of each. Focusing on these “dragon and fowl heads,” this paper describes the event, its sound, and its impact on ancient court society. Examples are drawn principally from pictorial materials as well as descriptions in the diaries of executive government officers from the eleventh to fourteenth century.

First, to consider the illustrated scroll “Komakurabe gyōkō emaki” in which characteristic representations of two surviving gagaku performance genres, tōgaku and komagaku, are depicted: the dragon image, musicians in red-colored costume, and left-side location are iconographic of the tōgaku genre, which pairs up with the similar komagaku genre, characterized by the green color, Chinese phoenix, and right-side location that appear on the other, fowl head boat. Separately, though, picture scroll “Nenjūgyōji emaki” and an entry from the diary Taiki—both from the twelfth century—depict a scene in which the dragon head boat only carried dancers and made no music.

Next, an emperor’s visit at the mansion of Fujiwara no Michinaga (966–1028), a very influential statesman, is analyzed. In Michinaga’s diary Midōkanpakuki as well as Shōyūki by Fujiwara no Sanesuke, we see that musicians were situated apart from the dancers in a very different location. While the dancers performed on land, their musical accompaniment was played from a boat on the water. At a nighttime feast, lower ranking performers afloat and higher ranking nobles on land played the same pieces together, yielding various visible and audible effects in a magnificent contrast of art and nature. Considering its social impact, the approach and proximity of music from the boats is highly significant as an artistic device introducing a sense of unity—a rare experience in the highly class-conscious court of the time.

Paper short abstract

The paper compares Zeami Motokiyo (1363-1443) and Abe Kobo (1924-1993) as representatives of classical and modern Japanese theatre, focusing on their actor training theories. Through analysis of their writings, it identifies similarities in their views while acknowledging fundamental differences.

Paper long abstract

The paper compares two major figures of Japanese theatre: Zeami Motokiyo (1363–1443) and Abe Kōbō (1924–1993), representing classical and modern theatrical traditions respectively. Zeami is widely regarded as the most important figure in classical Japanese theatre and is often referred to as the "father of nō". In addition to his work as a performer, he developed the theoretical foundations of the genre, describing key aesthetic concepts such as yūgen (subtle profundity), myō (mystery), or monomane (imitation), as well as the notion of transmitting the flower, which describes the actor’s process of artistic development and mastery of stage techniques.

Abe Kōbō, on the other hand, is commonly associated with shingeki, a realist theatrical movement influenced by European playwrights such as Henrik Ibsen, Gerhart Hauptmann, and Anton Chekhov. However, this classification is only partially accurate. While his early plays of the 1950s and 1960s display realist elements, they also incorporate anti-realist features, including non-human characters and disruptions of linear time and space. In the 1970s, Abe moved decisively away from realism toward a form of visual theatre in which spoken language functioned as one expressive element among others, alongside sound, movement, and projection. During this period, he founded his own theatre troupe and developed a distinctive actor-training system, later articulated in a series of essays. Interestingly, the theatre Abe created in the 1970s often resembled the performances and aesthetic approach of post-shingeki creators, who themselves drew inspiration from classical Japanese theatre. Yet, Abe was never associated with the post-shingeki movement and consistently denied ever being influenced by classical Japanese art.

The paper analyzes key aspects of acting training in the theoretical writings of Zeami and Abe, identifying points of convergence in their thinking while accounting for the fundamental differences between their theatrical and philosophical frameworks.

Paper short abstract

This paper examines Japanese-Brazilian Noh performance through Haroldo de Campos' transcreation theory, arguing that intercultural Noh creates hybrid theatrical forms through productive cultural friction rather than mere adaptation of traditional Japanese aesthetics.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines the intercultural dialogue between Japanese Noh theater and Brazilian performance traditions through the lens of transcreation—a concept developed by Brazilian poet and translator Haroldo de Campos that moves beyond fidelity-based translation to embrace creative recreation across cultural boundaries. Drawing on performance analysis of contemporary Noh adaptations in the Japan-Brazil cultural corridor, this study demonstrates how traditional Japanese theater generates new theatrical languages when transplanted into Brazilian cultural contexts.

With the world's largest Japanese diaspora community and over a century of sustained cultural exchange, Brazil represents a unique case study for examining intercultural performance. Using Yuri Lotman's concept of the cultural semiosphere as theoretical framework, this paper analyzes how Noh's core aesthetic principles (particularly yūgen) undergo semiotic transformation when rendered through Brazilian cultural codes.

The paper focuses on the Noh adaptation Jigoku no Mon wo Tataku Otoko (地獄の門を叩く男, The Man Who Knocks on the Gates of Hell), examining how Japanese artists negotiate fundamental tensions between preserving Noh's ritualistic elements and creating culturally resonant works for audiences unfamiliar with Japanese contexts. Key questions include: How do performers embody Noh’s codified movements while incorporating local gestural vocabularies? What happens to Noh's Buddhist philosophical underpinnings—particularly concepts of hell and karmic retribution—when transposed to predominantly Catholic cultural frameworks? How do the profound linguistic differences between Japanese and Portuguese affect the delivery and reception of utai (chanted verse)?

Through close analysis of specific performance moments, directorial choices, and artist testimonies, this paper argues that transcreation—rather than adaptation—better describes the creative processes at work in Japanese-Brazilian Noh. These performances do not simply "translate" Noh for Brazilian and Japanese audiences; they create hybrid theatrical forms that exist in liminal spaces between cultures, generating new aesthetic possibilities through productive cultural friction while honoring the depth of traditional Noh practice.

This research contributes to broader conversations in theater and performance studies about intercultural performance ethics, postcolonial approaches to traditional Asian performing arts, and the role of embodied translation in contemporary performance practice.

Paper short abstract

Compares Kabuki onnagata gait shaped by geta-based footwear with Jingju qiaogong (raised footwear simulating women’s bound-feet movement). Examines femininity as trained locomotion and contrasts the technique’s afterlives: continuity in Kabuki versus rupture and re-authorization in post-1949 China.

Paper long abstract

Kabuki onnagata and Jingju female impersonation both render femininity persuasive through disciplined lower-body training, yet scholarship often treats their “female-likeness” chiefly as a matter of visual style or gender ideology. Taking the feet as its point of departure, this paper examines how footwear-mediated footwork and gait function as micro-techniques of gendering across two performance systems. In Kabuki, onnagata movement is shaped by wooden clogs (geta) and their role-specific variants; femininity is articulated through step size, weight transfer, and the disciplined management of posture in motion. These techniques are intensified in pleasure-quarter role types, where courtesan pageant conventions choreograph erotic status through elevated footwear, patterned walking, and deliberate pauses and poses.

By contrast, I analyze qiaogong (the “qiao” technique) in Jingju as a footwear-based platform that is both narrowly defined and broadly generative. Qiaogong employs raised footwear (“qiao”) that simulates women’s bound-feet movement, yet it underwrites an entire movement ecology: it governs ordinary walking and swaying, structures circular stage steps, and can extend into acrobatic or combative sequences. Performers may also deliberately display the footwear as part of the character’s legibility. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, qiaogong’s visibility and legitimacy diminished sharply. Because it evokes late-imperial gender norms, it became implicated in the post-1949 repudiation of “feudal” bodily practices. Its recent reappearance has been accompanied by a framing that valorizes virtuosity and heritage, with publicity and reception materials foregrounding qiaogong as a demanding technique and a legible index of historical femininity.

Placed side by side, Kabuki and Jingju show how cross-gender technique acquires distinct afterlives under different institutional conditions: continuity stabilizes footwear-conditioned gait as routine craft in Kabuki, while rupture and later re-authorization render qiaogong a recovered and revalued technique in modern China. This comparison reframes debates on onnagata and the Chinese female-impersonator (nandan) tradition as a concrete question of embodied knowledge: how do performers learn to persuade audiences through the feet, and how do institutions decide which gendered techniques are ordinary, controversial, or “treasured”?

Paper short abstract

This paper analyses radio broadcasts and public performances to examine how the biwa and koto were utilised in distinct ideological roles during the Asia-Pacific War. Taking a comparative approach, it reveals how references and narratives were selectively constructed through music.

Paper long abstract

During the Asia-Pacific War, art and media functioned as a key medium through which ideologies were articulated and disseminated to and among the population of Japan and its colonial territories. Specifically, music served as a potent medium for affect and memory. The roles of instruments historically associated with Japan's ancient history have received less attention than military songs and Western-style compositions, which have been the main focus of current musicological studies. This paper aims to fill this research gap by analysing the biwa and koto as contemporary musical actors in wartime media and performances.

Focusing on radio broadcasts and public performances from the late 1930s to 1945, this paper adopts a comparative approach to analyse how these two instruments were framed and mobilised in distinct ideological roles. Drawing on broadcast programming, public performance records, contemporary commentary, and audio-visual resources, the paper explores how meanings were constructed not only through sound but through the implied contexts and narratives that these instruments carried, as well as the institutional contexts in which they appeared. The biwa, with its frequent associations with narrative performance and historical warfare storytelling, was positioned as a sound conduit to heroic individuals of the past and used to inspire ideas of heroic sacrifice, bravery, and national destiny. In contrast, the koto interacted more with moralised and gendered representations of daily life, operating more in relation to ideas of domesticity and aesthetic discipline.

Rather than treating the biwa and the koto as embodiments of an unchanging tradition, this research argues that they functioned as contemporary instruments whose meanings were actively and selectively shaped within wartime ideological frameworks. The paper also reflects on how these wartime structures continue to influence contemporary perceptions of the biwa and koto, contributing to enduring assumptions about their historical and cultural significance.

By foregrounding the biwa and the koto within wartime culture, this paper contributes to broader discussions of the use of media and art in modern Japanese ideology, highlighting the complex ways in which cultural experiences and understanding were moderated under conditions of wartime mobilisation.

Paper short abstract

This presentation analyzes AKN PROJECT’s 2025 revival of Human Pavilion – A Comedy, arguing that spatial reconfiguration and a reinterpreted ending transform the play from a self-critical satire of discrimination imposed on Okinawa into a comedy that ironically laughs at Japanese society as a whole.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines the 2025 revival of Human Pavilion – A Comedy by AKN PROJECT, originally written by Okinawan playwright Seishin Chinen and first performed in 1976. Since its premiere, Human Pavilion has been staged primarily in Okinawa by the theatre collective Sōzō and has been widely understood as a comedy intended to offer a self-critical satire of the history of recurrent discrimination and domination imposed on Okinawa by the Japanese mainland. In contrast, the AKN PROJECT version fundamentally repositions the work both aesthetically and politically.

The 2025 production, presented not only in Okinawa but also as part of the Performing Arts Program of the international arts festival Aichi 2025, introduced two crucial changes. First, the audience configuration was transformed from a traditional proscenium stage into a distorted circular theatre-in-the-round that places the audience in close proximity to the stage, destabilizing conventional relationships between stage and spectators. Second, although the script remained unchanged, the final scene acquired new layers of meaning through staging and performance choices. This paper argues that these two interventions shift the play’s comic focus from “laughing at Okinawa” to “laughing at Japanese society,” expanding the scope of its critique from a regional to a national framework.

This transformation is deeply connected to the historical context of 2025, which marks eighty years since the end of the Second World War for Japan, while wars, genocide, and the global acceleration of discrimination and division persist worldwide. To clarify why a play written shortly after Okinawa’s reversion to Japan continues to resonate today, this paper reviews the political and social conditions of Okinawa from 1976 to the present, paying attention to both continuity and stagnation.

Finally, by drawing on Henri Bergson’s theory of comedy and laughter (Laughter, 1900), the paper analyzes the comic mechanisms of Human Pavilion. It demonstrates how laughter operates not as mere humor but as a critical force that reveals rigidity, structural asymmetries of power, and the ethical position of the spectator, enabling the play to address contemporary audiences within Japan and beyond.

Paper short abstract

This paper traces the origin and historical development of the blind biwa tradition in Japan and examines the relationship between the heike zatō and mōsō groups, with particular attention to Heike-related tales that became a central component of the repertory of blind biwa players in Kyushu.

Paper long abstract

The tradition of performing songs and narrating tales to the accompaniment of lute-like instruments has existed on the Asian continent since ancient times. However, the pathways through which biwa-accompanied storytelling was transmitted to and established in Japan remain unclear. Literary and historical records begin to mention blind biwa players, known as biwa hōshi, only from the Heian period onward, leaving earlier stages of this tradition largely undocumented.

Biwa hōshi were not solely performers who recited narrative works such as Heike Monogatari and Sōga Monogatari; they also fulfilled a wide range of ritual and religious roles. These included fortune-telling, spirit pacification, and practices connected to the veneration of water and earth deities, situating biwa hōshi at the intersection of storytelling, ritual practice, and local belief systems. Over time, two distinct groups of blind biwa players emerged from this broader tradition: heike zatō and jijin mōsō. Biwa hōshi active in urban settings, organized under tōdō-za, a professional guild of blind performers established in Kyoto, increasingly systematized their activities and developed biwa performance into a specialized performing art. In contrast, mōsō, who remained primarily in rural communities, preserved older shamanistic and religious practices and maintained close ties to local ritual contexts.

According to a traditional account, the blind biwa tradition in Kyushu originated in the second year of the Empō era (1674), when Funahashi Kengyō traveled from Kyoto to Kumamoto at the request of Lord Hosokawa. During his stay, he performed Heike recitations and composed several narratives based on local historical events, which he subsequently transmitted to local blind biwa players.

This paper traces the origin and historical development of the blind biwa tradition and examines the relationship between heike zatō and mōsō. Particular attention is given to Heike-related tales, which became an essential component of the repertory of blind biwa players in Kyushu, highlighting how shared narrative materials were adapted to differing social, religious, and performative contexts.

Paper short abstract

I explore two local genres in Kyoto, related to Buddhist performance culture: nenbutsu kyōgen and rokusai nenbutsu, within the systems of power and representation, demonstrating how the communities on the city's margins have used performance as an identity formation tool and social empowerment.

Paper long abstract

Spanning centuries, the deep-rooted relationship in Asia between political power and performing arts is multifaceted, and Japan is no exception. Kyoto, the political and cultural center for most of history, has developed a complex performance culture, closely interwoven with societal power relations. From the eighth century onwards, the imperial court adopted as its representative art the solemn bugaku dances, introduced from the continent and exhibiting Chinese and Indian influence. From the fourteenth century onwards, the samurai aristocracy similarly developed their own representative form - the noh drama, to display cultural sophistication and aesthetic sensibility, equaling imperial court culture. In the premodern period, kabuki evolved as the prevailing entertainment, representative of the blooming merchant class, whose increasing influence also found expression in the exquisite cultural performance of Gion festival.

Simultaneously, Kyoto was likewise the birth place of several folk genres, created by communities on the city's margins. This paper focuses on two forms, originating in the nenbutsu "Buddhist prayer" performance, conceived as a means to communicate the Buddhist faith to the common people in early medieval time. The first is nenbutsu kyōgen - short comic plays, pantomimes or with spoken lines, staged by troupes associated with three temples: Mibu, Seiryōji, and Senbon Enma-dō. The second is rokusai nenbutsu - dances, accompanied by chanting of prayers that gradually incorporated various performative elements, thus evolving into rokusai geinō. Currently, fourteen troupes are active but many more existed until the early twentieth century when rokusai was very popular in agrarian neighborhoods. It is predominantly staged during Obon in August and frequently includes door-to-door ritual performances, aiming to secure ancestors' protection and bring prosperity for the community. Both nenbutsu kyōgen and rokusai have intentionally referenced stories and acting patterns used in the somber noh dramas and the comic interludes kyōgen in the same playful manner, typical of kabuki. I explore these two genres within the systems of power and representation, arguing that the marginal communities have used performance not only for entertainment but also as an important identity formation tool and social empowerment within the rich cultural milieu of Kyoto.

Key words: performance, empowerment, Kyoto

Paper short abstract

This research examines onnagata performances of the Buddhist goddess Benzaiten through pictorial sources and actor critiques, focusing on movement, pose, and costume to show how male actors embodied sacred femininity in early modern kabuki.

Paper long abstract

Kabuki emerged in early modern Japan as a popular urban performing art, profoundly shaped by earlier theatrical traditions, including noh, which maintained close ties to Buddhist ritual and embodiment practices. Kabuki performers developed techniques that vocally and physically imitate Buddhist deities. The well-known kabuki striking pose mie, for example, can be traced to the stylized imitation of Deva King statues. Meanwhile, kabuki only has male performers. Within the all-male system, onnagata actors, who specialized in female roles, played a central role, making their performances particularly significant for both theatre studies and gender analysis. This research focuses on the onnagata enactments of Benzaiten, a Buddhist goddess associated with music, martial prowess, and fertility, examining how male actors embodied a divine feminine figure on the kabuki stage.

Drawing on pictorial materials and actor critiques (yakusha hyōbanki), this study analyzes onnagata performances through two modes of imitation commonly applied to Buddhist deities: vocal expression and physical embodiment. While vocal imitation is frequently discussed in evaluations of male-role performances, onnagata acting was rarely assessed in vocal terms. As a result, this research foregrounds bodily movement, pose, gesture, and costume as primary sites of analysis. By examining how onnagata physically articulated Benzaiten’s divinity, this study reveals how Buddhist imagery, gendered performance, and theatrical aesthetics intersected in early modern kabuki. The performance of Benzaiten demonstrates that onnagata acting was not merely a representation of femininity, but a complex imitation of sacred presence negotiated through male bodies on the public stage.

Paper short abstract

On 18 June 2023, a nō drama, Midare Wagō, was staged at the National Theatre in Warsaw. It was a so-called hiraki mono spectacle, in which one of the Hōshō school nō artists achieved her full potential. The author examines rites of passage in nō theatre from an anthropological perspective.

Paper long abstract

On June 18, 2023, the rarely performed nō theatre drama Midare Wagō was staged at the National Theatre in Warsaw. The paper’s author and Takeda Isa, a nō actress of the Hōshō school, were responsible for staging the play, which was performed for the first time outside Japan. Wagō (Harmony) is one of several unusual versions (kogaki) of the Midare play by an unknown author. Within the Hōshō school, it is an essential rite of passage (hiraki mono), through which a nō performer achieves full artistic potential and begins a fully "adult" chapter of professional activity within the guild. A hiraki play is technically and psychologically highly demanding, requiring much practice and the cultivation of the proper attitude towards the stage and other members of the organisation. The term hiraki mono is paired with the term narai, which denotes plays and performances that require special permission. Narai for the shite kata actors representing all five schools includes Shakkyō (Stone Bridge), Dōjōji, Midare (or Shōjō Midare), Okina, and Obasute, the latter usually realised during the last period of artistic development. For the waki kata performers, these are Chōryō (General Zhang Liang), Dōjōji, and Sumidagawa – by Kanze Motomasa (1394?-1432). For kyōgen actors, the hiraki-status dramas include Tsuri gitsune (The Fox Hunter) and Hanago (Flower), among others. For the hayashi kata musicians, it would usually be Zeami’s play Kiyotsune and, again, Dōjōji by Kanze Nobumitsu (1435 or 1450 – 1516), especially its ranbyoshi section, with very irregular patterns and changing tempo. Performers spend their lifetimes practising narai in accordance with their stage careers and ages. It is the initial performance of a narai piece, which will be treated as a hiraki; the performer's status is elevated if he or she is able to complete it. For this presentation, the author interviewed nō artists - shite and waki actors as well as musicians - asking them about the nature of hiraki stage rituals. The author wishes to examine the rites of passage in nō theatre from an anthropological perspective. These considerations will be supplemented with an analysis of contemporary nō’s gender policy.

Paper short abstract

What happens if we read the cataclysmic historiography of Japan's lost decades, 1990s-2000s, as a period of prolific, compelling, radical, and revolutionary women artists, who played the interdisciplinary fields of performance, installation, and media with targeted social and political objectives.

Paper long abstract

What happens if we claim that the cataclysmic historiography of Japan's lost decades of the 1990s to 2000s is a period of prolific, powerful, evocative, compelling, impassioned, risky, radical, and revolutionary women artists, who played the interdisciplinary fields of performance, installation, and media with targeted social and political objectives and actions. The Kobe Earthquake, the financial meltdown and stagnation, loss of lifetime employment (for men), the Aum cult poisoning attack, and the trial concerning homosexuality, can be placed in contrast to the private and individual deepening of the women's movement along side the developing internet/media arena. This presentation will contextualize and describe the works of several women artists who are central to this expanded historiographic archive. These women created works that refused the categories and (largely economic and male) critical conversations on art-making practices and values. Counter to the labels of "quiet theatre," "recessionary," "junk," "cool," "flat," or "lost generation," these women exploded the time-space of theatrical materiality with their bodies, acts and media, which demanded their spectators' affective social engagement. Among others I consider the early works of Shiota Chiharu's video performance art, Kisaragi Koharu's performance plays, Yubiwa Hotel Shirotama Hitsujiya's performance art, and Kurosawa Mika's butoh-dance art. I describe how the "event-moment" surrounding each artwork intersects with the style, media, place, audience, and body politics of each artist. I argue for a performance studies archive that explodes the still-life of "lost decades," cutting through the corrosive layers of patterned narratives and, in contrast, animates a mutable, unstable even volatile expedition through the "lost and found" art works of these decades of experiment women artists. This presentation is part of the Performance Archive Project: Expanded Practices through a Cooperative International Performance Studies Archive.