Deutsches Institut für Japanstudien
German Institute for Japanese Studies

DIJ Forum
Thursday, 23 May 2019, 18.30h – 20.00h

Androids and Virtual Reality – Simulations ofthe Human in Japanese Theatre
Mari Boyd, Sophia University, Tokyo
M. Cody Poulton, University of Victoria, Canada
Contemporary artists are increasingly creating works that lack the presence of the human, as if toimagine a posthuman world, a posthumous world, a world without us. Such posthuman use of androids
draws attention to the significance of negotiating different states of perception and transcending
established value systems to sustain a viable position in a global world. But the human instinct to create
images of ourselves is still strong, as we see not only in the androids used in the robot theatre ofIshiguro Hiroshi and Hirata Oriza, but also in such popular virtual idols as Hatsune Miku. Prof. Mari Boydwill situate the new 21st century development in Japanese robot/android theatre in two contexts: first, thekarakuri (trick) automata popular from the 17th century and, second, the present national push inbranding Japan as a society 5.0, i.e. a technology-based society emerging through the fourth industrialrevolution. She will then introduce the collaborative theater performance series by playwright-director
Hirata Oriza and robotics scientist Ishiguro Hiroshi to focus on the plays Sayonara (2010) and ThreeSisters, Android Version (2012). Prof. Cody Poulton will examine the Vocaloid character Hatsune Miku
and the impact it is having on popular culture with examples from two productions: Shibusawa Keiichirō’s
opera, The End (2013) and the “ultra-kabuki” Hanakurabe Senbonzakura (Battle of Wits and The
Thousand Cherry Trees, 2016).
Mari Boyd is Professor Emerita at Sophia University, Tokyo. With a research focus on modern Japanesetheatre including material performance, she is the author of The Aesthetics of Quietude: Ōta Shōgo andthe Theatre of Divestiture (Sophia U.P. 2006). She has contributed numerous articles to Japanese andEnglish language periodicals and books on Japanese theater and is currently preparing a monograph onmaterial performance. She is also on the Committee for the ENGEKI: Japanese Theatre in the New
Millennium anthology series (Japan Playwrights Association, 2016-2019) and her recent translation for it isKurō Tanino’s Avidya―The Dark Inn.
M. Cody Poulton is Professor of Japanese literature and theatre in the Department of Pacific and AsianStudies at the University of Victoria, Canada, where he has taught since 1988. Active as a translator ofJapanese fiction and drama, he is author of Spirits of Another Sort: The Plays of Izumi Kyōka (2001) andA Beggar's Art: Scripting Modernity in Japan, 1900-1930 (2010). He is also co-editor, with Mitsuya Moriand J. Thomas Rimer, of The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Drama (2014) and a contributingeditor to The Cambridge History of Japanese Theatre (2016).
Following the talks and comments, the floor will be opened for a Q&A session. The event will be held in
English. It will be followed by a small reception. Admission is free, registration is required atforum@dijtokyo.org or https://dij.tokyo/forum
Venue: German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ), Jōchi Kioizaka Bldg. 2F, 7-1 Kioichō, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 1020094, Phone: 03-3222-5077
For directions visit dijtokyo.org/access