⃝論文⃝

Cultural Assimilation of American Child
Drama Concept by Shoyo Tsubouchi:
The Formation Process of the First
Treatise on Child Drama in Japan

Takeo FUJIKURA
Abstract
Shoyo Tsubouchi was the first person in Japan to acknowledge the educational value of drama by and for children. His concept of “Kateiyo Jigogeki” or“Child Drama for Domestic Presentation” was one of the earliest and most influential theories affecting the development of Japanese child drama. It was a childcentered, process-oriented, drama activity utilizing age-appropriate materials. It
was designed to be performed by children with only family members as the sidecoaches and audience.
Many of his ideas were drawn from American predecessors such as Alice
Minnie Herts, George P. Baker, and G. Stanley Hall. Armed with their empiricalknowledge and scientific rationalizations, Tsubouchi created his unique configuration of child drama for domestic presentation.
This paper examines the formation process of Tsubouchi’s child drama concept, “Kateiyo Jigogeki” or “Child Drama for Domestic Presentation” with reference to how each element of his concept was invented, or imported, and shapedby social, cultural or historical conditions. I will also examine the sources thatserved as Tsubouchi’s inspiration and reference. My examination will focus on
three main categories: inception of child-participation drama, the age-appropriate content, and the new configuration, namely, child drama for domestic presentation. By investigating the original source of each element, and comparing itto the final outcome in his concept, I will show the motivations and expectations
behind his child drama theory.

Dr. Shoyo Tsubouchi (1859-1935) was a revolutionary theorist, acritic, a playwright, a director, a teacher, and above all, a distinguished75

Takeo FUJIKURA：Cultural Assimilation of American Child Drama Concept by Shoyo Tsubouchi: The Formation Process of the First Treatise on Child Drama in Japan

Shakespearian scholar. He is recognized as the person who endowed
the novel with an independent aesthetic value in Japan with his 1885
literary theory, Shosetsu Shinzui (The Essence of the Novel). As a passionate theatre pioneer, in 1906, he organized Bungei Kyokai, the firstliterary society of Western drama in Japan. Later, in 1909, he reorganized the group into the second Bungei Kyokai and started a theatretraining conservatory that incorporated Western acting techniquesthrough which he introduced Shakespearian and Ibsenian plays to theJapanese stage. In addition to these achievements, he translated thecomplete works of Shakespeare for the first time in Japan. He is far
more often recognized for these accomplishments than for his endeavor
in the field of child drama.
Nevertheless, he was the first person in Japan to acknowledge theeducational value of drama by and for children. He formed an original
concept called “Kateiyo Jidogeki,” or “Child Drama for Domestic Presentation”, one of the earliest and most influential theories affecting thedevelopment of Japanese child drama. It was a child-centered, processoriented, drama activity utilizing age-appropriate materials. It was
designed to be performed by children with only family members as the
side-coaches and audience. These were totally unprecedented factors ofchild drama in Japan.
During the Taisho New Education Movement, new ideas and concepts were imported from the West and assimilated into unique Japanese products. Tsubouchi's concept was no exception and many of his
ideas were drawn from American predecessors. This paper examines
the significance and the context in which Tsubouchi assimilated American predecessor's works in the field of child drama and modified their
theories to accommodate Japanese values. I will explore the ideas behind Tsubouchi’s child drama concept, “Kateiyo Jidogeki” as culminatedin Jidokyoiku to Engeki (Child Education and Drama) with reference to
how each element of his concept was invented, or imported, and shapedby social, cultural or historical conditions. I will also examine the sources that served as Tsubouchi’s inspiration and reference.
My examination will focus on three main categories: the inception76

Waseda Global Forum No. 6, 2009, 75–106

of child-participation drama, the age-appropriate content, and the new
configuration, namely, child drama for domestic presentation. By investigating the original source of each element and comparing it to thefinal outcome in his book, Jidokyoiku to Engeki, I will show the motivations and expectations behind his child drama theory.
Tsubouchi started devoting his energy to the development of childdrama in 1921 at the age of 62. For the first time, Tsubouchi statedwhat the ideal child drama should be in two of his 1921 articles, “Engeki
to Seinen Kyoiku” (Drama and Youth Education) and “Bunkaryoku
Toshiteno Dowa Oyobi Dowajutsu” (Children’s Folklore and the Storytelling Technique for Cultural Enrichment). Tsubouchi, declaring his
intention to bring drama into the school setting, maintained that dramafor children must be “pure, harmless, and sound, but at the same timeit should not be too didactic or a simple reinforcement of ‘shushin’ (moral
education); it always had to maintain an aesthetic quality” (“Engeki to
Seinen” 491). He also insisted upon child participation: “a child dramathat can be performed by children in such places as home, kindergarten, elementary schools, and women’s high school” or “a child dramathat can be easily executed by children themselves … within the homesetting” (“Bunkaryoku” 447).
These articles demonstrate that Tsubouchi sensed that the time
was ripe for him to embark on his child-participation drama activity,
once thought of as infeasible.1 In the Meiji Era, there was considerable
prejudice and discrimination against dramatic activity. 2 Theatricalpresentation was often associated with such notions as corruption anddegradation and often became the target of government censorship andthe subject of public controversy. Ordinary people were skeptical about
those who associated with dramatic activity. They would associate suchdramatic behavior as acting on a stage, putting on rouge, and making
an affected voice with insincerity, pretentiousness, and immorality.
Certainly the society had changed by the end of the Meiji Era (1912)
with an influx of new Western thoughts and the awakening of Japanese
self-identity. Yet these remarks also suggest that Tsubouchi was still
cautious about the inception of his activity. He contended that, because77Takeo FUJIKURA：Cultural Assimilation of American Child Drama Concept by Shoyo Tsubouchi: The Formation Process of the First Treatise on Child Drama in Japanof the existing social prejudice against drama, if the child-participation
drama was to be realized, it would need to assert “new content and a
new configuration that were totally different from the prevalent fixed
Japanese notion of drama” (“Engeki to Seinen” 490).
The two conditions that Tsubouchi proposed in order to bring drama
into educational settings, the new content and the new configuration,
were the most essential constituents of Tsubouchi’s ideal child drama.
The new content was age-appropriate drama that contained material
supported by prevalent child psychology, and the new configuration,
child participation drama within a domesticated configuration whereinits content was protected and nurtured. With these primary qualities inmind, he finally embarked on his child drama dissemination.
Tsubouchi’s concept of child drama developed into a lecture titled“Lecture for Waseda Women’s Higher Education” in 1922. From thislecture came his text Jidokyoiku to Engeki (Child Education and Drama), the first treatise on child drama in Japan. The ideas in this work
were developed through five main articles: 1) “Engeki to Seinen Kyoiku”(Drama and Youth Education) in January 1921, 2) “Bunkaryoku Toshiteno Dowa Oyobi Dowajutsu” (Children’s Folklore and the StorytellingTechnique For Cultural Enrichment) in September 1921, 3) “Shin Fujin
no Shigoto toshiteno Katei Geki” (Domestic Drama Activity as a Mission for New Women) in February 1922, 4) “Jido Geki no Sanshurui”(Three Kinds of Child Drama) in September 1922, and 5) “Kyoikujo ni
Okeru Yugi no Shokunou” (Educational Significance of Play Activity) in
September 1922.
Most of Tsubouchi’s basic principles for his child drama theory were
presented in small increments with some concrete ideas within thesearticles. However, such concepts as the domestication idea were still being developed. Nevertheless, Tsubouchi did have a basic outline of his
notion of child drama. Tsubouchi had borrowed and incorporated muchof the empirical knowledge and other theories accumulated by American predecessors to bolster his original ideas. Thus, such concepts aschild-centered orientation and age-appropriate content were delineatedwith concrete examples and rationalizations.
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Out of these borrowings came Tsubouchi’s unique scheme of domesticated child drama, the child drama practiced in the closed home-setting
involving only family members as the side-coaches and audience. This wasby far the most unique strategic contrivance Tsubouchi developed wherein
he attempted to protect the purity and legitimacy of child drama from not
only the censorship of the government but also from the prejudiced notionof adult drama. This idea seems to have been partly inspired by Partridge’s
and Wyche’s concept of family storytelling. Most importantly, the gradualshift, and frequent oscillation of Tsubouchi’s definition of this domestication concept becomes a key to understanding his intention as well the consequences of his attempts.
Tsubouchi’s New Child Drama Concept and Its Goal
In his 1922 article, “Jido Geki no Sanshurui” (Three Kinds of Child
Drama), Tsubouchi discussed the ultimate goal of his child-participating drama endeavor. He insisted that it was to “contribute to both theformation of the future culture of the nation and to nurture the emotional cultivation of children by fostering their innate artistic impulse
and creative instinct in the right direction” (471). With this statement,
he defined the crucial difference between the prevalent child drama designed only for children’s appreciation and his ideal child-participating
drama. Tsubouchi contended that while the first dealt with “children
simply as a passive audience, giving them temporary, shallow entertainment and inculcating morals and knowledge in them,” his childdrama would “let them actively participate in the learning through selfinitiated activity” (471).
Here a clear influence of Alice Minnie Herts’s theory in Children’s
Educational Theatre is reflected. Tsubouchi’s concept of nurturing the“emotional cultivation of children by fostering their innate artistic impulse and creative instinct in the right direction” along with the concept of encouraging children’s learning in “the self-initiated operation”
clearly resonate with Alice Minnie Herts’s notion of dramatic instinct
wherein she stated:
79

Takeo FUJIKURA：Cultural Assimilation of American Child Drama Concept by Shoyo Tsubouchi: The Formation Process of the First Treatise on Child Drama in Japan…dramatic instinct is a primitive impulse, so deeply rootedthat its fostering in the right direction may be organized to any andevery educational result. I saw the great opportunity not to impose
upon people an ideal from without, but to help people to create an
ideal from within. (4-5)
Tsubouchi was incorporating Herts’s idea of triggering children’s instinctive impulse without any inculcation of adult morals or ideals. Although his child-centered policy was not new in his educational career3,
Tsubouchi, for the first time, began using such terms as “innate artistic
impulse,” or “creative instinct.” It is quite probable that Tsubouchi,
being cautious of the Japanese prejudice against the word “drama,”
preferred to use terms such as “artistic impulse,” or “creative instinct”
instead of “dramatic instinct.”4 Thus, although the child-centered approach was not new to Tsubouchi, his methodology was certainly reinforced by borrowing the idea and vocabulary from Herts.
He then proceeded to explain his goal that starting from the principle of operating in the home-setting wherein children could be easily
engaged in simplistic dramatic activity, constantly avoiding adults’ intervention, and gradually “it [ideal child drama] should be directed toward holding an event such as a garden pageantry or family pageantry”(“Jido Geki no Sanshurui” 472-3). He maintained that this corresponded to his former vision of a pageantry movement, which he hoped to see
promoted, because it demanded “a cooperative engagement” and thus it
was “an all family engaging aesthetic operation” (473).
Thus, Tsubouchi’s original ambition for the pageantry movement
coincided with his child drama wherein he attempted to familiarize
ordinary people with dramatic events by exposing them in intimate
dramatic context dealing with local history and events. By doing so, he
attempted to reunite contemporary people in a dramatic cooperative
cultural venture. Western liberal ideas which encouraged individualism
were then a threat to the traditional Japanese family ethics and grouporiented culture.5 As a man strongly influenced by Confucianism, which
encouraged the cooperative harmony of society, Tsubouchi constantly
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questioned and lamented this prevalent individualistic behavior and attitude of Japanese society.
This dismay can be seen in his 1922 article, “Kyoikujo ni Okeru
Yugi no Shokunou” (Educational Significance of Play Activity).6 In thisarticle, Tsubouchi lamented the backwardness of the Japanese people
who were preoccupied with their individualistic affairs and materialistic pursuits: “how to succeed in the society, how to choose a marriage
partner, how to manage a newly-owned house, and the like” (402). He
deplored the fact that as compared to “the heatedly debated contemporary social issues like class, labor, and sexual or gender problems, children are left out” and insisted that social reformation has to begin with“directing the future beings [children] in the right direction” (403).
Thus, one of his main goals of child-participating drama can be defined
as an attempt to regain the value of community spirit via the collaborative
nature of drama. This was his expression as a Confucian advocator, whotreasured the preservation of peaceful harmony in society.7
There is one more significant incident to be noted as a key to understanding Tsubouchi’s dramatic venture with children. Tsubouchi began
his child drama endeavor right after he suffered disappointment in his
experience with professional Kabuki actors for his Kabuki innovationin 1920. Clinging to conventional methodology, those actors not only
failed to understand Tsubouchi’s efforts in theatre innovation but evenrebelled against his new style of direction, interrupting the production
with hooting during the performance of his new Kabuki script Nanokorino Hoshi Tsukiyo (Farewell at the Moonlight Night) on May 26, 1920.
According to Tsubouchi’s diary on the day he saw the performance,
he wrote that he, “fled the theatre after the second act. My last hope
was thwarted” (Shoyo Nikki: Taisho 9 - Showa 11). After this disappointment, Tsubouchi felt an urgency to lay a strong cultural foundation and “cultivate people’s discriminating taste” (Kikuchi, Gedai 3-4).
It is evident that his child drama endeavor was also a step toward
exposing children to dramatic experience before they encountered conventional theatrical style namely kabuki; he also hoped that this rather
generic educational purpose would prime the Japanese public for future81

Takeo FUJIKURA：Cultural Assimilation of American Child Drama Concept by Shoyo Tsubouchi: The Formation Process of the First Treatise on Child Drama in Japantheatre innovation. Indeed, the ultimate goals of this child drama endeavor were multifold.
Tsubouchi defined the ideal design of his child participation concept
in “Jido Geki no Sanshurui” (Three Kinds of Child Drama). He statedthat his concept was not just limited to children’s participation as actors and actresses on stage. Everything regarding the production had to
be devised “out of children’s own initiative” (470-471). By “child-participation drama,” he meant to include children in all aspects of stage production just as Alice Minnie Herts attempted with her children in theChildren’s Educational Theatre. Herts had also stressed the importanceof regimented group work wherein children experience various aspects
of production, ranging from acting parts to being stage hands.8
In addition, Tsubouchi insisted that once children grow out of theintroductory phase, “even the script itself could be created by the children with a few suggestions from adults and, if necessary, could belater modified by adults to produce it” (471). It is quite remarkable thathe even aimed at inducing children’s initiative to create drama itself.
He saw child participation, as a holistic process through which children
would learn multiple aspects of life. He insisted that even the performance itself should be done in closed settings so that children would
not be trapped in their exhibitionism and would “enjoy the process”(“Kateiyo Jidogeki ni Tsuite” 194). It is clear that by child-participation
drama, Tsubouchi was envisioning an integrated process-oriented education in the multiple disciplines of theatre production.
Although Tsubouchi’s design for children’s script writing seems
overly idealistic at first glance, he was conscious of its difficulty, later
saying, “Despite the ultimate ideal, for the time being the script will
have to be created by adults” (“Jidogeki no Sanshurui” 473). He also
acknowledged that temporarily there had to be some side-coaching ofadults for other aspects as well, because children were not at all accustomed to participating in drama. He advised how to initially approachchild drama:
Parents and elder siblings should simply explain the meaning82

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of the play and leave the rest to the children teaching neither aboutline-delivery nor gestures. (“Bunkaryoku Toshiteno Dowa Oyobi
Dowajutsu” 448)
With parents and elder siblings as side-coaches, Tsubouchi hoped toget children acquainted with expressing themselves at an early age. In
this respect, he was realistic about the condition of contemporary Japanese children in that they were not yet ready for total independence.
Furthermore, we can speculate that one of the major intentions behind
his new configuration of child drama, the domestication concept, wasto protect them from the preconceived notion of dramatic activity. This
will be discussed later in the section on the domestication concept.
The New Content: Age-appropriate Content
As Tsubouchi stated in one of the earliest declarations of his childdrama practice, one of the most necessary elements of this innovative child drama was “the new content” (Tsubouchi, “Engeki to Seinen
Kyoiku” 490). With this proposal, Tsubouchi encouraged playwrights
for young audiences to pay attention to child psychology. Referring specifically to the book Adolescence by G. Stanley Hall, he demanded that
playwrights acquire a broad understanding of children’s psychologicaldevelopment and give special consideration to each specific age group(444).
Thus, the main pillar of “the new content” of his child drama canbe defined as age-appropriate content in age-appropriate languagewith consideration given to children’s cognitive level and interest as
endorsed by the knowledge of child psychology. Certainly, StanleyHall’s genetic psychology, especially the elaboration of stages of childperception development explained in Adolescence, seemed to have been
Tsubouchi’s original source for age-appropriateness. Nevertheless,when he elaborated on the concrete content of the age-specification issue, Tsubouchi resorted to Storytelling in School and Home by Emelyn
N. Partridge and George E. Partridge, and Some Great Stories and How
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Takeo FUJIKURA：Cultural Assimilation of American Child Drama Concept by Shoyo Tsubouchi: The Formation Process of the First Treatise on Child Drama in Japan

to Tell Them by Richard Thomas Wyche. These two books had been influenced by Hall’s genetic psychology; the authors specifically attribute
their inspirational source to it (Partridge “Preface”; Wyche 70). Tsubouchi’s frequent allusion, especially to the Partridges’ book, without
necessarily directly quoting it, is noteworthy.
For example, drawing on the Partridges’ suggestions in their book,
Tsubouchi described the appropriate theme for each age group. He contended that from age 4 to 5, “Such stories as fairy tales, wonder tales,
and nature-personified tales are most appropriate”; however, aroundage 7 to 11 or 12, “The vocabulary can be increased” and its content
should be derived from “myth, legend, and historical stories with relatively realistic and yet simple storylines.” He maintained that whenchildren reach the age of 13 to 14, “romantic stories with some life
complications” hold the stage. He also suggested for this age group “theworld’s great epic poems, harmless heroic stories, higher myth withspiritual meaning, impressive lessons from history, or great biographical stories” (444-5).
After the publication of Hall’s Adolescence in 1904, the view ofchildren’s developmental growth in perception of and interest in theworld was incorporated into many fields related to children. Naturally
this age-specific categorization, in general, was prevalent and widelyused among the followers of Hall’s genetic psychology, namely the proponents of Recapitulation Theory.9 Another book Tsubouchi referred
to, Katherine Dunlap Cather’s Educating By Storytelling, followed thesame developmental categorization for suggesting stories for children,
namely, “Rhythmic,” “Imaginative,” “Heroic,” and “Romantic Period”(Cather v). Nevertheless, it is worth noting that Tsubouchi’s wordingof each suitable kind of literature as well as its order almost exactly
corresponded to what the Partridges suggested in their book. Both Partridges’ and Tsubouchi’s stages go in order of “the imaginative age (age5-6 on),” to “the period of heroic story (from age 7 to 12),” and then to“adolescence（from age 13）” (Partridge 72-75).
A close examination of Tsubouchi’s diary and his personal copy of
the Partridges’ text further demonstrates the Partridges’ influence on
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Tsubouchi. According to Tsubouchi’s diary, the article, “Bunkaryoku
Toshiteno Dowa Oyobi Dowajutsu,” was completed on July 31 in 1921.
Three days before this, on July 27, 1921, Tsubouchi wrote, “Read abook on storytelling by American writers. For the article of The Japanese Woman. Partridge’s Storytelling in School and Home” (Tsubouchi,
Shoyo Nikki: Taisho 9 - Showa 11). Thus, without doubt, Tsubouchi had
referred to Partridge’s book before writing this specific article for The
Japanese Woman.
The Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum at Waseda University carries Tsubouchi’s own book collection in a special section.
Among them is the Partridge book that he actually used in the abovementioned article. On the pages where the Partridges elaborated on
characteristics of each age group and its appropriate literature, his
handwritten comments both in English and Japanese are extensive.
For instance, pages 72 to 76 are the main pages in which the Partridges
elaborated on this developmental issue. Following Tsubouchi’s handwritten notes in order, the comments translate, “rhythmic, three to four
years old,” “repetition of phrase and idea;” “five or six years old,” “fairy
tales;” “seven to twelve years old,” “realistic stories;” “fourteen years
old,” “higher myth,” “epic story,” “biographical stories,” “can be subjective.” These notes suggest that Tsubouchi himself was processing theinformation of these developmental stages and their appropriate literature (72-76). This demonstrates the degree to which the Partridges’
elaboration on age-appropriate literature impacted Tsubouchi.
In fact, allusion to this specific part was to be repeated later in the
beginning of Chapter 1 of Tsubouchi’s Jidokyoiku to Engeki. He began his book discussing the characteristics of each era, alluding to the
Recapitulation Theory of Stanley Hall, as stated by the Partridges in
Storytelling in School and Home (Jido Kyoiku to Engeki 13-15). Since
Tsubouchi had been an advocate of age-appropriate educational materials for a long time, this specific indication of perceptional bearings bychildren in each developmental stage as well as the concrete examplesof respective literature supported by child psychology must have beenquite appealing to him. Tsubouchi’s article unveils the influence of the85Takeo FUJIKURA：Cultural Assimilation of American Child Drama Concept by Shoyo Tsubouchi: The Formation Process of the First Treatise on Child Drama in Japan

Partridges and Wyche. This influence will be discussed later in the section of “The New Configuration of Child Drama.”
In addition to elaborating on the age-appropriate content for hischild drama, Tsubouchi also limited the target age for his child drama
to pre-adolescence.10 One possible reason for this age limit was to avoid
potential problems arising from romantic relationships between boys
and girls. Tsubouchi maintained that “one has to make sure that he iswell prepared to grapple with the issue with much consideration anddiscreetness …” (“Engeki to Seinen Kyoiku” 491). Thus, he was awarethat by beginning drama activity with pre-adolescent children in theirhome setting, it was much safer and easier to minimize any potential
for romantic complications.
This speculation concerning Tsubouchi’s age limitation for his dramatic activity is further endorsed by a particularly distressing experience just before he had embarked on his child drama activity. When hestarted his acting school for adults within the Second Literary Society,
Tsubouchi had exerted strict rules to ban romantic relationships between the actors and the actresses. However, it turned out that thechief director of the Society and Tsubouchi’s favorite pupil, Hogetsu Shimamura, became romantically involved with the lead actress, Sumako
Matsui. This relationship caused a discord within the group leading to
the dissolution of the society in 1913 and ending with Matsui’s suicide
in 1919 after Shimamura’s death from influenza the previous year. Hersuicide caused a huge scandal widely reported in Japanese magazinesand newspapers.
Considering this painful experience just before he embarked on thechild drama endeavor, it seems clear that Tsubouchi wanted to avoid
the potential of romantic scandal in dramatic activity while emphasizing drama’s educational aspects.
The New Configuration, The Domestication Concept Called “Kateiyo
Jidogeki”: Its Inspirational Source, Objectives, and Strategic Ambition
In a 1921 article, “Bunkaryoku Toshiteno Dowa Oyobi Dowajutsu”
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for the magazine, The Japanese Woman (vol.9: 2), Tsubouchi for the
first time elaborated on his new configuration of child drama, the domestic drama concept. As was the case of age-appropriateness, themajor thrust of this article seemed to rely on Emelyn N. Partridge andGeorge E. Partridge’s Storytelling in School and Home, and Richard
Thomas Wyche’s Some Great Stories and How to Tell Them.
First, he discussed styles of storytelling and suggested that there
should be a clear distinction between and, therefore, a different method
for the school settings where stories were told to several people, and thehome setting where stories were told to one or a few listeners. Pointing
out the lack of this kind of research in Japan, Tsubouchi suggested that
it was the home storytelling style that would be of great importance inthe future (445). Expressing his hope that many people would actively
engage themselves in this “home designed” storytelling, he described
the process:Sustaining the aesthetic quality, it [storytelling] should be accompanied with sincere and serious intention, and yet at the sametime, it should maintain the merciful loving quality of parents andguardians, rather than the quality of skillful execution. It shouldbe accompanied by the qualities of intimacy, tenderness, without
much worry about making mistakes, being laughed at by children,or temporary loss of dignity. … The storyteller herself should also
be enjoying it without self-consciousness, and the moral of the story
should not be imposed but it should be naturally felt….The voiceand the gestures should be natural without any conscious deliberation... (446)This was the first proclamation of artistic engagement in a closed
home setting on which Tsubouchi overtly elaborated; it was to become
the essence of his domestic drama theory.
This closed home-oriented artistic engagement was the result of
his process-oriented search for the dissemination of dramatic usage foreducational purposes. In essence, Tsubouchi was attempting to make a87

Takeo FUJIKURA：Cultural Assimilation of American Child Drama Concept by Shoyo Tsubouchi: The Formation Process of the First Treatise on Child Drama in Japan

clear distinction between the method of public storytelling, the conventional open drama performance that had been categorized as the business of outcasts, and a new method of storytelling, which would be a reconfiguration of drama performance in a more personal way, closed offfrom the public within the home setting between parents and children.
He was trying to promote drama’s educational value without causing
friction with the societal view at large, or with the authorities, specifically the Ministry of Education, under the Emperor-centered nationalistic policy of his day.
Among the ideas on educational drama assimilated into Japanesecontext to fit the ideological conditions, this domestic drama concept
was probably the most unique one. In order to examine the essence of
his domestic drama concept, attention must be paid to Tsubouchi’s assertion in Chapter 7 of Jidokyoiku to Engeki. In Chapter 7, he responds
to all the possible negative concerns about conducting of child dramaand gives practical detailed advice for the child drama activity.
There are five main concerns that Tsubouchi anticipates frompeople in the society based on both his research on American situations
and with his personal experience, which he lists in Chapter 7. Whilesome clearly correspond to the concerns and solutions expressed by
Herts and Baker in The Children’s Educational Theatre, the particularsolution for the risk of children’s development of self-conceit and pretentious mannerism bears Tsubouchi’s own unique idea, the domestication of drama. Thus, the ultimate goal of his domestication concept isexpressed here.
The first concern Tsubouchi anticipates from people is that children
might develop an urge to become professional actors and actresses. As
the second concern, he speculates that people will worry that children
might consider only trivial occupations when they grow up after being
introduced to the lavish and flippant nature of drama. These two concerns are exactly the same questions which at first directors of the Educational Alliance posed when Herts announced her plan to undertakethe child drama activity (Herts 14). As to the children’s developing thedesire to become professional actors and actresses, Baker also takes it
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up as one of the three “reiterated objections” people usually have when
they hear about children’s production of the plays of Shakespeare (Herts
113-114).
In response to these concerns, Tsubouchi draws on Baker’s assertion that serious productions demand much “assiduity, patience, andcreative imagination” (Herts 114-5). Tsubouchi, thus, stresses serious
drama’s rigorous discipline which most children will realize and giveup their dream of becoming professional. He then insists that for thisreason the drama operation has to be “serious with the guidance of an
appropriate competent coach,” unlike “conventional trivial dissipation[drama activity] which is merely meant for pleasure-seeking” (Jidokyoiku to Engeki 133). Basically this answer is the same logical extension of
Herts.
Tsubouchi’s third concern is that people might fear that children
will get into the habit of conventional actors’ pretentious mannerisms
of insincere and indecent behaviors (128). This kind of concern, whereinpeople associate drama and actors with pretentiousness, insincerity,
and affected mannerisms can be described as a typical Japanese reaction against Kabuki infused conventional drama from a Confucian
based perspective.
The fourth concern Tsubouchi anticipates is that children might
become conceited and vain. As the fifth concern, Tsubouchi anticipatesthat people will worry that children will end up being puppets as a result of parents’ and teachers’ inculcation of their conventional opinions.
These last two concerns along with the previously discussed concern
about children’s desire to become professional performers are expressedas the three “reiterated objections” in George P. Baker’s article, “The
Educative Value for Children in Acting Shakespeare’s Plays” in The
Children’s Educational Theatre (113-114). For these two “objections,”
Baker suggests “educative coaching,” wherein a coach should attempt to“draw out the children as thinkers, to help them to express their ideasof the emotions of others” (114).
Following Baker’s answer, Tsubouchi attempts to appease the concern for the issue of children’s becoming puppets of their leaders, insist89

Takeo FUJIKURA：Cultural Assimilation of American Child Drama Concept by Shoyo Tsubouchi: The Formation Process of the First Treatise on Child Drama in Japaning upon his ideal child-centered style of coaching. However, in contrast
to Baker’s suggestion, for the concerns about the third and fourth issues, namely children becoming affected and conceited, Tsubouchi’s answer takes on a different direction. He attributes this potential negative
result to the nature of drama’s product oriented operation (Jidokyoiku
to Engeki 135). Denouncing the careless open performance, Tsubouchi
insists upon dramatic discretion wherein parents and other coaches
facilitate children’s drama with a process-oriented focus in order to prevent the feared outcome. What becomes clear here is that Tsubouchi’s
main rationale for his domestication idea is to prevent children’s development of these traits which have been especially associated with
Kabuki theatre, and therefore with such words as “corruption,” and“vulgarity.”
To further explain his rhetoric on the domestication, Tsubouchi also
sends out a warning against parents’ “infusing the conventional concept
or acting and directing methods” (Kateiyo 193). He is striving to avoid
having the parents interpret Tsubouchi’s dramatic activities in theirconventional Kabuki idioms by emphasizing the importance of children’s unforced creativity. Tsubouchi tenaciously gives such detailed
warnings to his readers in order to protect his drama from foreseeable
criticism as well as from the contamination of his ideal concept by practitioners themselves. It is evident that he is aware that these conventional Kabuki-based theatre concepts have been such a strong cultural
norm among the contemporary Japanese people that his idealistic goals
are not easily accomplished without much precaution.
Tsubouchi makes every effort to establish drama as a valid educational tool by eradicating its negative image in a closed setting, taking
precautions not to evoke any government censorship. Thus, his domestication concept can be called his own method to adapt American educational drama into the uniquely conditioned Japanese society, to copewith social prejudice against conventional theatre, and also to seclude
children from the conventional shackles of Kabuki theatre.
It seems reasonable to conclude that the Partridges’ and Wyche’s
ideas contributed to Tsubouchi’s concrete ideas. For instance, Izumi
90Waseda Global Forum No. 6, 2009, 75–106

Ogino speculated that Tsubouchi’s inspiration for the domestic drama
concept came directly from the Partridges’ primary valuing of the storytelling exercise between parents and children at home (Ogino 10).
Other supporting elements substantiate her contention. For example,
the Partridges certainly stressed the then neglected importance of family education through storytelling in Chapter XIII of their book titled“Educational Storytelling.” Two sections are worthy of attention:
Especially in the home should it [storytelling] be emphasized
more than at present is done. …One might go so far as to say thatthe parent who does not know how to bring to the child the lessons of
the race through the story is not completely a parent …The child is
now too completely given over to the school, and the parent has trusted
too much to books to give him culture. (82, Italics in original)
In another section, they wrote:
The home, too, …has another opportunity which must be largely wanting in the school. In the home, storytelling may be applied tothe individual needs of the child…Any parent who is equipped witha reasonably wide variety of stories for children, should be able toapply his knowledge to some extent to the needs of the child as anindividual. (83)Thus, the Partridges regarded home education through storytellingas a “wholesome and vital part of the relation of parent and children”(82). On these pages of Tsubouchi’s personal copy of the Partridges’
book, he handwrote several comments both in Japanese and in English.
One of them translates, “Leaving everything to school and printing materials” right next to the first quote, side-lining the whole paragraph,and another translates “School vs Home” next to the second quote
underlining “the individual needs of the child” (82). These comments
clearly indicate the great influence that Tsubouchi’s domestic drama
concept derived from Partridge’s writings. This initial inspiration was
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Takeo FUJIKURA：Cultural Assimilation of American Child Drama Concept by Shoyo Tsubouchi: The Formation Process of the First Treatise on Child Drama in Japan

eventually elaborated on and incorporated into Tsubouchi’s domestic
drama concept.
As Mark A. Jones contended, many parents of elementary school
children were obsessed around this time with the idea of making theirchildren superior students (yutosei), especially those from schools in
metropolitan areas where the majority of families came from a new
middle class stratum (Jones 121). Jones went on to state that theseparents found this “a way to express important parts of middle-classcultural identity - its promotion of educational achievement as a social
ideal, the close connection between ‘ability’(jitsuryoku) and ‘hard work’(doryoku), and the importance of nurture over nature in the quest for
educational success” (121). Elementary school children were constantly
pushed to achieve academic success at school. Jones reported that suchterms as “superior” (yuto), “superior student” (yutosei), and the termsof meritocratic evaluation became common language. The word “yuto”
was for the first time included in such dictionaries as the 1921 revised
edition of The Gensen Encyclopedia (121). This exemplifies how academically stressful elementary school life was. As an educator in thisperiod, Tsubouchi must have found much truth in the Partridges’ remarks; Tsubouchi found in the home a source to supplement what waslacking at school.
Many of the key words and phrases which Tsubouchi used within
the first proclamation of his domestic concept, such as “aesthetic quality,” “sincere and serious,” “the moral should not be imposed,” and “natural gestures” match the Partridges’ description of the methodology andessence of storytelling. In particular, they value “the aesthetic aspect”
of the storytelling and repeatedly mention its importance in their book.
In describing the nature of story, the Partridges strongly insisted “Thestory is serious in its intention. It is the heart of a people…” and it is “anessentially religious attitude” and “a reverence” that one finds in thestory (7). These words were later echoed in Tsubouchi’s insistence on
the “sincere and serious” intention of his ideal child drama. Both Partridges and Tsubouchi also insisted that “What is precisely wrong” was“to strive to point a moral,” and that “To stop and interpose a moral, or92

Waseda Global Forum No. 6, 2009, 75–106

any personal interpretation” was “the worst of all intrusions” (36-37).
As to gestures, they told the readers that “…there must be perfect naturalness on the part of the teller” (37-38). It is evident that these beliefs
corresponded to what Tsubouchi had envisioned as an ideal dramatic
education. It is possible that Tsubouchi, finding much resonance in thePartridges’ philosophy, was to a certain degree borrowing the vocabulary from their book. These key words and phrases were underlined by
Tsubouchi himself in his own copy of the Partridges’ book.
Ogino pointed out Tsubouchi’s handwriting read, “Yoki hito,” or“An admirable person,” on the shoulder of a seemingly Partridge-likefigure who was reading a story to children on the front page picture of
Tsubouchi’s preserved book, Storytelling in School and Home (10). The
picture and Tsubouchi’s handwriting clearly depict what he was envisioning: a family’s intimate gathering wherein a mother told stories tochildren with a sincere and honest attitude. Tsubouchi was attempting
to incorporate this intimate, informal and affectionate give and takeas the new style of child acting, thus divorcing its image from the entrenched notion of the “business of outcasts”.
Thomas Wyche’s book, Some Great Stories and How to Tell Them,is also echoed in Tsubouchi’s article of his first proclamation. Wyche’s
name was mentioned in the articles as well as in others such as “JidoGeki no Sanshurui” (444). As to the issue of styles of storytelling that
Tsubouchi pointed out in his article, it was Wyche’s book that introduced different styles of storytelling in various settings. In the chapter
titled “Stories in The Home and Social Circle,” Wyche, too, insisted
upon the significance of storytelling at home:
It is in the home that we come into the sweetest and divinest
relations with children and with one another. …There are many
homes that cannot afford libraries and the rich adornments of art,
but no home is so humble that parents cannot gather the children
around the fireside on a winter’s evening or about the doorsteps in
the twilight of a summer’s day and tell them stories. (70-71)

93Takeo FUJIKURA：Cultural Assimilation of American Child Drama Concept by Shoyo Tsubouchi: The Formation Process of the First Treatise on Child Drama in Japan

After asserting the importance of intimate relations in the homesetting and representing the nostalgic image of family storytelling,
Wyche described an ideal image and environment of family storytellingwhen he stated that “a simple fireside is a greater stimulant to the creative imagination than the wealth of a palace” (71). As if appropriating
this allusion into the Japanese cultural setting, Tsubouchi suggested,
after the proclamation, that what he envisioned in this home storytelling was a style “modified from a great grandmother’s traditional way oftelling the stories of Momotaro and Kachikachi Yama11 in the family kotatsu” (446). The kotatsu12 is often the center of domestic life during thewinter months; families huddle around the kotatsu to enjoy food andconversation, keeping their legs and feet warm under the cover. In thissense, the kotatsu is the Japanese equivalent of an American fireplace. Obviously, this image finds an echo in Wyche’s ideal image of storytelling.
It is interesting that Tsubouchi derived many of these ideas fromstorytelling books that were influenced by the then prevalent genetic
psychology of G. Stanley Hall. As Thomas Postlewait contended, “…
human motivations are seldom monistic, are usually mixed, often contradictory, and sometimes unconscious” (164). It is difficult to pin down
one’s motivations for some specific remarks or comments, and I believe
there are many clues to understanding Tsubouchi’s domestic drama
conceptualization; however, it is my contention that his encounter withstorytelling books such as the Partridges’ Storytelling in School andHome and Wyche’s Some Great Stories and How to Tell Them influenced the development of his domestic drama concept. Hence, the inspiration came from multiple sources.
As the years passed, Tsubouchi’s definition of his domestication
concept, and his justification for it, went through various transitions.
When Tsubouchi first introduced his domestication concept in the 1921
article, “Bunkaryoku Toshiteno Dowa Oyobi Dowajutsu,” he was not
limiting the environment of children’s dramatic activity to the homesetting. Rather, he announced his intention to bring drama activity
into the school setting by changing its content and configuration when
he described, “I want dowa-geki, or child drama, that can be easily per94

Waseda Global Forum No. 6, 2009, 75–106

formed by children in such places as home, kindergarten, elementary
schools, and women’s high schools” (447-8). With this rather broad definition, Tsubouchi assigned both parents and older siblings as preparatory facilitators/side-coaches of children’s creative activity. However, at
this point, Tsubouchi was not excluding school settings as long as thedrama was engaged in an intimate manner in a setting closed from apublic audience.
In his 1922 article, “Shin Fujin no Shigoto Toshiteno Katei Geki,”Tsubouchi began to re-direct the focus of his child drama activity as a
mission for women, especially for young mothers. In the article, Tsubouchi encouraged women to participate positively in art and education.
He referred positively to the situation in the United States wherein
women were more actively involved in art and education as compared topolitics and economics. He suggested that women were more “suited to,”and, therefore, could be expected to advocate positively in, such fields
as art, welfare, and education, as opposed to the fields of politics, labor
movements, or social issues (3). With this assertion, Tsubouchi’s “Child
Drama for Domestic Presentation” was further defined as specificallywomen’s work within the home setting. This was a clear shift of focus
both with the facilitating agent and the location of its execution.
Finally, according to the content of Tsubouchi’s three day lectures
published as The Lecture for Waseda Women’s Higher Education in
November 1922, the central focus shifted slightly again from that ofwomen to “katei kyoiku,” or “home-education.” Although women still remained important agents, the central key word for his rationale of childdrama had become home education.
To reiterate, initially Tsubouchi’s intention was to bring drama into
the educational setting with facilitation at home by parents and older
siblings. Then the facilitating agent shifted to women which moved
the location of domesticity to the home setting, and finally he definedhome education as the most intrinsic element. Gradually, the school
environment was excluded and women and home education became thekey words. An examination of these key concepts further reveals someof the reasoning behind his newly formed dramatic concept as well as
95

Takeo FUJIKURA：Cultural Assimilation of American Child Drama Concept by Shoyo Tsubouchi: The Formation Process of the First Treatise on Child Drama in Japansome of the socio-cultural factors that influenced the formation of his
concept.
Role of Women in Tsubouchi’s Child Drama
In regard to Tsubouchi’s new focus on women, Ogino contended that
“Tsubouchi had answered to the call of women who were rapidly beginning to gain power,” (11) pointing out a series of featured articles titled“Kotoshi no Fujinkai wo Furikaette” (Looking Back On; This Year’s
Women’s Society) in the Kokumin Shimbun (Kokumin Newspaper) from
December 16 to 26. The last issue of the article concluded:
On the whole, there has never been a time when women had
been so active in the society as a result of the trend that allowed
their improved position. It is an inevitable outcome that suchphrases as “Women’s Culture” have gained enough popularity to
become a trend phrase. (“Genwakutekina ‘Bunka’ go ni youte”)
I agree with Ogino’s perspective in that Tsubouchi was well awareof women’s advancement in the society and attempted to incorporate
their energy and refocus it to his dramatic endeavor. As Tsubouchi
reported in “Shin Fujin no Shigoto toshiteno Katei Geki”, while researching the child drama movement he had discovered that the biggest part of the child drama movement in the United States, including
the publication of books on the subject, had been conducted by women.
This discovery must have given Tsubouchi the impetus to call for Japanese women’s participation. Tsubouchi introduced many drama related
books written by women, starting with Allis Minnie Herts’s book, in order to encourage Japanese women to participate in promoting the childdrama movement in Japan.13 Praising these women’s accomplishments,
Tsubouchi insisted that there was some aspect in the quality of their workthat “demonstrated women’s excellence over men.” (“Shin Fujin” 4).
There are two other possible factors that support this interpretation of Tsubouchi’s call for women. In contrast to his previous positive96

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perspective of women given the context of Tsubouchi’s time, the second
factor, ironically, can be traced to a negative attitude toward the changes of the Japanese society, especially to the rapidly advancing positionof women. Because the Meiji ideology of “enrichment of the nation andstrengthening of the army” was successfully realized after World War
I, Japanese society was experiencing an intense economic and cultural
prosperity. Minami in his book Taisho Bunka (The Taisho Culture)stated:The role of women in the family was drastically changing because of the streamlined household lives. … in general, women
were no longer confined within the household for the rest of theirlives and started working outside in society. Around this time, someof the women even started working in areas that had been regarded
as men’s territory. (255)
Liberal ideas current at the time, such as the women’s liberation
movement and the reformation of household culture, and related ideas,such as contraception and free love, were feared by the government as athreat to traditional family ethics and culture. Minami contended:“Indeed, these liberal aspects of the women’s culture would leadto the denial and rejection of both the traditional patriarchal family
and household ideologies…. Tsubouchi’s preaching on the importance of domestic culture was the articulation of his disapproval ofthis tendency.” (261)
Minami’s words demonstrate the nationalistic and chauvinistic aspect behind Tsubouchi’s idealism. It also suggests Tsubouchi’s cleverly
contrived strategy to connect women /mothers and the domestic drama
ideal discussed in the previous article.
At the same time, Tsubouchi’s attitude demonstrates his Confucianism influence with which he held the maintenance of a harmonious social order as the first and foremost priority. In fact, the women’s97

Takeo FUJIKURA：Cultural Assimilation of American Child Drama Concept by Shoyo Tsubouchi: The Formation Process of the First Treatise on Child Drama in Japan

voices were clearly beginning to be heard in a political context and it
had sometimes gone as far as inciting riots.14
As Tsubouchi stated in “Shin Fujin no Shigoto toshiteno Katei
Geki,” he was discouraging women from getting too involved in fields
like politics because “Women tend to be easily swept by emotional urges” (3). This remark clearly suggests his disapproval of recent trends
wherein women’s voices started to cause social unrest.
The third factor relating to Tsubouchi’s attitude toward women
can be traced to his upbringing. The impact of his mother’s upbringing seems to have influenced his own household art education. Because
Tsubouchi had been familiarized with theatre so naturally from anearly age by his mother, mothers’ educating children through art was
something very familiar and natural for him. According to Tomita, “He[Tsubouchi] hired several art masters to teach his son and other young
residents almost every day in his house, and he himself passionately
watched and cheered, though he himself did not participate” (Nihon
Engeki 124). It is reported that after every lesson, he would, with his
wife’s assistance, let their children review everything they studied thatday until late at night (Tsuno 34).
In contrast to his conservatism about women’s role in society, it was
extremely liberal for a professor to be engaged in the art practice withhis wife at home. Again, here, a mother’s mission as a home educatorand the domestic drama concept were tightly unified. Tsubouchi’s focusof his child drama as a woman’s mission was the result of an accumulation of social, cultural, and historical inducements.
Significance of Home Education in Tsubouchi’s Child Drama
Today, the word “katei” (home) is a commonly used word that refers to any family or home, usually centering on husband and wife, orparent(s) and child/children. It is generally acknowledged by many
people in Japan to be of ancient origin. However, as Eric Hobsbawm
contended, “‘Traditions’ which appear or claim to be old are often quite
recent in origin and sometimes invented” (1). In fact, “katei” was an in98

Waseda Global Forum No. 6, 2009, 75–106

vented word formed through various negotiations. The genealogy of theword “katei” reveals that it was an unfamiliar concept to the Japanesepeople until the late 19th century. As Jordan Sand maintained in his
book, House and Home in Modern Japan, “The notion of ‘home’ as an
intimate space sequestered from society and centered on parents andchildren was alien” to the early Meiji people and that it came from “[the]Victorian language of domesticity” passed down from such sources as
Anglo-American texts and by Christian missionaries (21-22). Naturally,
the term was infused by Christian ideology and represented the locus
for Christian-toned moral nurturing as well as for a private and intimate joyful family gathering. Sand went on to contend that the word
“katei” was invented as the result of “linguistic naturalization” of the
English word “home” wherein the new style of domesticity was interpreted and modified by Meiji Era’s social reformers to “suit their own
circumstances” (22).15
Through the long process of confrontation and negotiation between
the native feudalistic and foreign concepts of the family, conciliatory
ground was eventually discovered and Christian social reformers began
to modify the priority of “katei” to fit Japanese circumstances. The proponents of “katei” began, as Sand pointed out in the case of Yoshiharu
Iwamoto, a contributor for Tokutomi’s Katei Zasshi (The Family Magazine), “to stress the importance of the home as an educational environment for children” (24). Within this concept of “katei” as an educational
environment, the significance of “katei” was stressed as the locus of
moral meaning eliminating much of its Christian ideology. In place ofgender role, the woman assumed the responsibility of both academic
and moral mentor. Thus, “katei” became the center of child educationand the mother was the domestic manager of the child’s education. A
natural extension to the concept of “katei” was the concept of “katei
kyoiku” (home education), which became an important issue around theturn of the century.
Interestingly, “katei kyoiku” was, as Ueno contended, “used as acounter concept to school education in contemporary discourse” and it“was not usually discussed independently from school education” (134).
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Takeo FUJIKURA：Cultural Assimilation of American Child Drama Concept by Shoyo Tsubouchi: The Formation Process of the First Treatise on Child Drama in Japan

This concept of “katei-kyoiku” as a supplemental positioning is an important clue to understanding Tsubouchi’s motivation for developing his“Domestic Drama Concept.” Ueno maintained that home was functioning as the school’s supplemental counterpart in two contexts, its content
and its approach. Content-wise, home education was functioning as amoral or emotional supplement to the school’s knowledge accumulation
orientation. In its approach, “katei-kyoiku” was cultivation of the individual as opposed to the school’s group discipline orientation (134).
The Partrideges’ remarks on the nature of home story-tellingin Story Telling in School and Home and Tsubouchi’s hand writtencomments on his copy of Partridge book reveal that the three had assumed the same rhetoric on home’s supplemental value to the school
education. The Partridges were insisting on the importance of parents’“imparting to the child great racial lessons” (82) and answering to theindividual needs of the child at home, which the school was not capableof doing (83). Tsubouchi’s words also indicated his endorsement of thePartridges’ idea. This is further evidence that their suggestions played
an important role in inspiring Tsubouchi’s concept of domestic drama.
For Tsubouchi, the katei environment was appealing for his ideal
drama activity. The mothers in “Shin-Chukanso” (New Middle Stratum) katei were usually full-time housewives who could afford to commit themselves to non-profit activities like Tsubouchi’s idealistic childdrama unlike the then typical husbands who provided the family’s financial support working full time.
Most importantly, these were young mothers, usually in a nuclear
family living separately from their older generations. They could accept his ideas without the conventional prejudice towards drama incomparison to previous generations which had had only access to Kabuki and other limited conventional stylized dramatic forms. In otherwords, these mothers in katei were a timely and pertinent audience
for Tsubouchi’s ideal concept. For Tsubouchi, the dissemination of hischild-participating drama that once had looked impossible had assumed
potential for acceptance.
Tsubouchi, after a long modification of drama education in the100

Waseda Global Forum No. 6, 2009, 75–106

school setting, finally had discovered seemingly secure and promisingground in “katei,” a supplemental counterpart of the school setting,from which he thought he could launch his child drama activity into
the Japanese society. By defining it as a closed activity within family
members, Tsubouchi was positioning the drama as a part of “katei kyoiku,” or “home education,” that was then being pursued by educationconscious mothers.
However, at the same time, elementary schools, especially in the
major cities, were functioning like prep schools for advancing to thenext level of schooling. This tendency was induced by the middle classassumption that better school education promised better positions insociety. Mark Jones revealed the main concerns of these parents: “Thetwo most regularly asked questions at elementary school parent-teacher meetings were how to achieve entrance into middle school or girls’
higher school and how to make the child review at home” (139). In otherwords, middle class parents, with their strong belief in a meritocratic
rise in the society, and with education as a tool, saw “katei” as a counterpoint to the school wherein entrance examination-oriented preparation was the focus. Jones reported about these enthusiastic mothers:
While the formal connection between family and school occurred only a few times a year, enthusiastic mothers, seeking tolearn the secrets of educational success by observing child andteacher, also practiced “the school visit” (gakko sankan) on a moreregular informal basis. …Mothers of the day imagined the school tobe an extension of the home - a “second home” (besso) or “one’s own
property” (wagamono) - and integrated the school into their everyday routine. (140)Thus, even though on the surface the “katei kyoiku” (home education) was thought to be compensating for the rigidity of the school education, many education-conscious parents were striving to make “katei
kyoiku” a reinforcing extension of formal school education. For Tsubouchi, at least conceptually, katei was an ideal environment to pursue
101Takeo FUJIKURA：Cultural Assimilation of American Child Drama Concept by Shoyo Tsubouchi: The Formation Process of the First Treatise on Child Drama in Japanhis drama activity purely for an educational purpose. At the same time,
it is also true that “katei kyoiku”, was not so strictly censored and controlled by the government, as compared to the school environment.16
Therefore, looking at it from another angle, “katei” could be read as acover, a secure space for Tsubouchi to start dramatic experimentation
with little government surveillance.
Conclusion
Tsubouchi rigorously attempted to stress the educational effects ofdramatic activity by modifying its configuration and content in orderto dodge both the social criticism and government intervention arisingfrom conventional prejudice against drama in Japan. As exemplified
by such American authors as Alice Minnie Herts and Constance D’arcyMackay, American child drama was forming its foundational definition emphasizing both “education and social ends” in the early 1900’s(van de Water, 81). Drawing upon this American definition，Tsubouchi
strove to legitimatize children’s dramatic activity to “education andsocial ends” by incorporating American predecessors’ theories, domesticating the activity within the home setting, and excluding commercial
theatre for children.17
Although I show only some of the examples in this paper, while
many of their theories and ideas have been directly introduced withappropriately paraphrased narratives and Japanese examples, some ofthem were reinterpreted with the Japanese indigenous idioms. Some of
the borrowed ideas bear quite a different connotation from the original
sources when translated into Japanese. Besides this rather inevitableconsequence of cultural assimilation, Tsubouchi also consciously attempted to adapt American theory into an original configuration to fit itin the Japanese social context dodging both the social criticism and government intervention arising from conventional prejudice against drama in Japan. The result was the domestication of child drama activity
wherein the stress was put more on its process and sincere disciplinary
aspect. Thus, Tsubouchi’s child drama for domestic presentation was
102

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invested with a strategy derived from his experience as both a school
teacher and a theatre practitioner.
It is true that due to his lack of practical drama experience withchildren, there were enormous gaps and contradictions between his ideals and the reality.18 Nevertheless, his endorsement of child-participation drama in “Kateiyo Jidogeki,” along with his later demonstrational
performances all over Japan, eventually provided courage and authority to many Japanese teachers who insisted upon drama’s educational
value. As a result, there occurred an impressive school drama trend inJapan around this time, though most of the school performances were
far from Tsubouchi’s ideal child drama.
Another important aspect of the school drama trend triggered by
Tsubouchi’s endorsement was that, because of his new alternative, thedomestication idea, child drama which had long been discussed only
within the dualism of right and wrong, finally began to be perceived
as having a variety of alternative forms and choices. Various teacherswith their own eclectic perspectives were empowered to make various claims about the educational potential of their drama. As a result,many heated debates about child drama unfolded in newspapers andmagazines. Thus Tsubouchi’s “Kateiyo Jidogeki” was an important reenforcing impetus for early developments in the Japanese child drama.

1

2
3

4

Sazanami Iwaya (1870-1933), in his article, reported on his discussion with Tsubouchi
about the possibility of practicing the child drama by children already in late 1800s.
Nevertheless, at this point it was, as Iwaya stated, “infeasible” (“Doitsu no Otogishibai”
3). Obviously, there had been a crucial social condition, a strong antipathy against theatrical activity under which the materialization of ideal child drama was not realistically feasible. For further discussion, refer to Fujikura, “Reevaluation” 41-42.
For further discussion, refer to Fujikura, “Reevaluation”18.
Tsubouchi’s policy both in ethics teaching and the Reader creation endeavor in the late
1890s indicated that his educational principle toward children, including age specificappropriateness and his preference of child-centered approach over imposition of knowledge, had been already established. For further discussion, refer to Fujikura, “Reevaluation” 51.
Later in Child Education and Drama, Tsubouchi began to use “dramatic instinct.” Thus,
we can sense the development of Tsubouchi’s determination and his confidence so as to103

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5
6
7

8
9

10

11
12

13

14

15
16

17

18

104

be more direct about his belief in dramatic education.
For this discussion, refer to Fujikura, “Reevaluation” 27.
“Yugi” in Japanese means pastime activity or play game, which can be interpreted as
dramatic play only on a very rudimentary level.
Some of Tsubouchi’s former students including Shiko Tsubouchi maintained, that theultimate principle of Tsubouchi’s ethics teaching as well as his own life philosophy lay
in “the preservation of harmonious society based on Confucian ideology” (Inagaki andOka 323-327). Thus, it is quite probable that this principle of “preservation of a harmonious society” would dictate Tsubouchi’s decision making to a great extent.
For details of Herts’ production configuration see Chapter IV of The Children’s Educational Theatre.
G. Stanley Hall’s Recapitulation Theory was an extended version of the Recapitulation
Theory originally formulated by Ernst Haeckel, who asserted that embryological development repeats the developmental history of the species; thus, “Ontogeny recapitulates
phylogeny.” Drawing on this theory, Hall theorized further that child development, too,
repeated the development of the human species wherein a child crawls on all-fours,
gradually walks upright, then plays, engages in artistic activity, and refines his/her social behaviors.
Curiously, Tsubouchi defined “specific target age” different from article to article. It iseither “under ten” (“Engeki to Seinen Kyoiku” 492), or from “four or five years of age toseven or eight” (“Bunkayoku Toshiteno Dowa Oyobi Dowajutsu” 447) or “from four orfive to thirteen or fourteen” (“Jido Geki no Sanshurui” 470-471). Nevertheless, it wasalways before adolescence.
Momotaro (The Peach Boy) and Kachikachi Yama (The Mountain KachiKachi) are theoldest and among the most popular Japanese fairy tales.
The “kotatsu” is a small table with a heavy quilted cover that extends to the floor. A
heavy dining surface holds the cover in place and underneath the table sits a heating
device, usually charcoal.
These books included Fairy Tale Plays by Mrs. H. Bell, Dickens’s Dramatic Reader by
Fanny Comstock, Dramatic Stories by Ada Skinner, Little Playbook by Katherine Lord,
Little Plays by Lena Dalkeith, Fairy Plays for Children by Mabel Goodlander, Historical
Plays by Amice Macdonnel, and Book of Plays for Little Actors by Johnston & Barnum(Tsubouchi, “Shin Fujin no” 4)
For example, one of the most notable rice riots that broke out in July 1918 was initiatedby fishermen’s wives in a northern fishing village, Uozu, Toyama Prefecture. Angered bysharp increases in rice prices and rumors of rice merchants’ hoarding amid the post-war
inflation, fishermen’s wives marched to the rice merchants and demanded reasonable
rice and even succeeded in interrupting rice ship transportation from nearby harbors.
For further discussion on the discourse of “katei,” refer to Fujikura, “Reevaluation” 99.
After Tsubouchi’s Reader creation, the government, in pursuit of ideological control,
began a State-designated textbook system by which all the existing textbooks including
Tsubouchi’s were excluded for school use in 1903. Since then, freedom in the creation of
textbooks was totally taken away from individual publishers.
In Chapter 4 of Jidokyoiku to Engeki titled “Jidogeki no Shinka” (Evolution of Child
Drama), Tsubouchi faithfully translated Chapter I of Mackay’s book, “The Developmentof Child Drama,” wherein she established the above specific narrative. Tsubouchi wove
the Japanese counterparts into the translation of the child drama history and consequently perpetuated Mackay’s narrative.
For gaps and contradictions, refer to Fujikura, “Child Drama” 117.

Waseda Global Forum No. 6, 2009, 75–106

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