Theatre Yearbook 2020
Theatre in Japan
Published in March, 2020
Japanese Centre of International Theatre Institute (ITI/UNESCO)
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under the Program for Nurturing Upcoming Artists Leading the Next Generation

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Foreword
The Japanese Centre of International Theatre Institute has become a public interest incorporated foundation and is a member of an international network comprised of National Centres
and professional organizations in approximately ninety countries and regions constituting theInternational Theatre Institute (ITI), which is a non-governmental organization under the umbrella of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The preamble of the UNESCO Constitution begins with the famous phrase “sincewars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must
be constructed”. In Article 3 of the standing rules of the Japanese Centre of International
Theatre Institute, it is stipulated that the purpose of the Centre is “to contribute to the development of culture and realization of peace in Japan by deepening mutual understanding
and facilitating the creations and exchanges of theatre and dance based upon the purpose of
the UNESCO Constitution”.
Creation and appreciation of theatrical and dance performances encourage us to take interest in one another and think about people and society by sharing time and space together.
Even in today’s society, where electronic media have dramatically increased the volume andspeed of the distribution of information, the role of theatre and dance that help us gain
multifaceted and deep insights will not diminish. Their role will rather increase all the more.
The Japanese Centre has continued to publish the Theatre Yearbook since 1972. Startingfrom 1997, it has been published in two parts, namely ‘Theatre in Japan’ (English version) for
readers outside Japan and ‘Theatre Abroad’ (Japanese version) for domestic readers. From 2011,
the Centre has been commissioned by the Agency for Cultural Affairs to carry out the publication project under the ‘Program for Nurturing Upcoming Artists Leading the Next Generation’.
Furthermore, reading performances have been presented every year since 2009 to introduce remarkable plays from around the world as part of research and study activity topromote international theatrical exchange. In 2016, the ‘Theatre Born in Conflict Zones’series was held for the tenth consecutive year and two new plays from Israel/Germany andCanada were translated and introduced to Japan for the first time.
Thus the publication of the ‘Theatre Yearbook’ has laid a firm foundation for actual
activities to gain knowledge of the relationship between Japan and the world, to deepen mutual understanding by positioning Japan within the global network, and to realize culturaldevelopment and peace.
We look forward to your continued support and cooperation with the activities of theJapanese Centre of ITI in the years to come.
March 27, 2020
In commemoration of World Theatre Day

Nagai Taeko
President
Japanese Centre of International Theatre InstituteCONTENTS
005 Shots from the Performing Arts in Japan in 2019

The Japanese Performing Arts in 2019038 Noh and Kyogen Oda Sachiko053 Kabuki Mizuochi Kiyoshi
065 Bunraku Kodama Ryuichi
078 Musicals Hagio Hitomi
088 Contemporary Theatre Yamaguchi Hiroko
099 Children’s and Youth Theatre Ota Akira
109 Japanese Classical Dance Hirano Hidetoshi
121 Ballet Urawa Makoto
130 Contemporary Dance and Butoh Tsutsumi Hiroshi
143 Television Dramas Nakamachi Ayako

Developments in Japan and Overseas
154 A Theatre that Continues to Challenge—The Rebirth of PARCO Theater / Sugiyama Hiromu
164 “The-Show-Must-Go-On”—In Memory of Johnny Kitagawa / Hayashi Naoyuki
174 The Era of Okada Toshiki—Performing Arts in the 2010s / Uchino Tadashi

Special Feature
185 ‘Theatre Born in Conflict Zones 11’ A Girl’s Struggle Reflect Our Current World—The Dramatic Reading of Liberian Girl / Hamada Motoko
198 Companion Volume ‘Theatre Abroad 2020’ in Japanese
200 ITI Centres

Names are presented in the style of the person’s country of origin.
For Japanese names, the order is family name followed by given name.
Play titles and company names include those supplied directlyby the respective companies and are not the responsibility of the translator.

日本の
舞台芸術
を見る

Shots from the Per forming Ar ts in Japan
in 2019

Noh and Kyogen

Motomezuka Kagawa Seiji © Yamaguchi Hiroko

Ukifune Asami Masakuni © Tojo Mutsuko

Izutsu (The Well) Tomoeda Akiyo © Maejima Yoshihiro

Noh and Kyogen

Rashomon Tonoda Kenkichi © Narita Yukio

Soraude (The Brave Coward) Nomura Man (front) © Yoshikoshi Ken

Uchizata (The Trial Rehearsal) (from the left) Nomura Mansaku and Nomura Mansai © Masakawa Shinji

Futaribakama (Two-in-One Hakama) (from the left) Yamamoto Rintaro, Yamamoto Tojiro, Yamamoto Noritoshi© Yoshikoshi Ken

Kabuki

Himejijo Oto ni Kiku Sono Ishizue (Protecting the Foundationof Himeji Castle and its Clan) Onoe Kikugoro© National Theatre

Igagoe Dochu Sugoroku — Numazu
Nakamura Kichiemon (right) Nakamura Karoku (left)© Shochiku

Koibikyaku Yamato Orai — Fuin Giri(Breaking the Seals) Kataoka Nizaemon (left)
Kataoka Takataro (right) © Shochiku

Tsukiakari Mezasu Furusato — Fuunji-tachi (Heroes of Turbulent Times) © Shochiku

KabukiEhon Ushiwakamaru (Ushiwakamaru’s Picture Book) Onoe Kikunosuke (left) Onoe Ushinosuke (center) © Shochiku

Meiboku Sendai Hagi Nakamura Shichinosuke (center) © Shochiku

Kaze no Tani no Nausicaä (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind)
Onoe Kikunosuke © Shochiku

Shinpan Oguri Ichikawa Ennosuke (right) Bando Shingo (left)© Shochiku

Bunraku

Imoseyama Onna Teikin (Husband and Wife Mountains, a Moral Guide for Women — Imoseyama)© National Theatre and Ningyo joruri Bunraku-za

Kanadehon Chushingura Act III (The Treasury of 47 Loyal Retainers — The Fight in the Palace)©National Bunraku Theatre and Ningyo joruri Bunraku-za

Kanadehon Chushingura Act VII (The Treasury of 47 Loyal Retainers — The Gion Ichiriki Teahouse)© National Bunraku Theatre and Ningyo joruri Bunraku-za

Kanadehon Chushingura Act IX (The Treasury of 47 Loyal Retainers — Yuranosuke’s Villa in Yamashina)© National Bunraku Theatre and Ningyo joruri Bunraku-za

Bunraku

Ichinotani Futaba Gunki — Kumagai Jinya (A Chronicle of the Battle of Ichinotani — Kumagai’s Battle Camp)© National Theatre and Ningyo joruri Bunraku-za

Hibariyama Himesute no Matsu (Mt. Hibari and the Pine of the Abandoned Princess) Princess Chujo by Yoshida Minosuke© National Theatre and Ningyo joruri Bunraku-za

Musicals

FACTORY GIRLS — My Story Amuse, Inc. © Oka Chisato

One Fine Day conSept © Ando Takeshi

Musicals

Che Guevarra Takarazuka Revue Moon Troupe © Takarazuka Revue Company

An American in Paris Shiki Theatre Company © Shimosaka Atsutoshi

Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 © Toho Theatrical Division

The Broadway Musical Pippin Japanese version 2019, Fuji Television/Kyodo Tokyo/Watanabe Entertainment © GEKKO

Musicals

West Side Story © WEST SIDE STORY in STAGE AROUND production committee Photo by Tanaka Aki

Man of La Mancha © Toho Theatrical Division

Contemporary TheatreⓒNODA・MAP
Q: A Night At The Kabuki NODA MAP © Shinoyama Kishin

We Know Nothing Nitosha © Homma NobuhikoContemporary Theatre

Guards at the Taj New National Theatre, Tokyo © Miyagawa MaikoThree Winters Bungakuza Atelier Showcase © Miyagawa Maiko

CHIMERICA Setagaya Public Theatre/Pasona Group © Hosono Shinji

Sweat Seinenza Theatre Company © Sakamoto Masafumi

Contemporary Theatre

Tokyo Adult Theatre Club vol.1 Life, Too Giga Long © Hikiji Nobuhiko

All People Are Average People Match Point © Takeda Mayuko

Greeks Kanagawa Arts Theatre (KAAT) © bozzo

1986: The Möbius Loop from Fukushima Trilogy DULL-COLORED POP © Shirado Ryouji

Children’s and Youth Theatre

Baby Theatre Project Kuuki (Air) Japan Union of Theatrical Companies for Children and Young People ©M. Zakrzweski

The Small Sea Art Workshop Sunpucho © Matsuura NorikoCircus Lights La Strada Company © Studio Horiike

The Oil-Hell Murder Puppet Theater La CLARTE © Tajima Satoshi

Japanese Classical Dance

Mizukagami (The Water Mirror) Inoue Korin (right) and Inoue Mameryo (left) © National Theatre

Sari Yuku Koya (The Theater Goes Away) Fujima Kiyotsugu © Yokoyama Hajime

Kitsune Kuzunoha (Fox Kuzunoha) Bando Fukiko © Mai Video

Ryukyu Buyo Kashikaki Chinen Masaru © Motohashi Ayumi (STAFF TESS)BalletSylvia Inoue Ballet Company © Matsuura Ayako (STAFF TESS)Don Quijote Ballet Chambre Ouest © Kobayashi Masayuki

Madame Butterfly K-Ballet Company © Seto Hidemi

Yoshida Miyako’s retirement performance Last Dance
The Mirror Walkers (Yoshida Miyako and Irek Mukhamedov)© Hasegawa Kiyonori

BalletThe Sleeping Beauty (Morishita Yoko)
Matsuyama Ballet ©AI

Romeo and Juliet Sadamatsu Hamada Ballet © Furuto Eiji (Tess Osaka)

Contemporary Dance and Butoh

Hearing the Voice of the Sea of Life National Theatre © National Theatre

Arc Sankai Juku © Sankai Juku

Contemporary Dance and Butoh

Forgetful Angel – Paul Klee’s Hand Teshigawara Saburo and Sato Rihoko © Miura Mariko

Rhymes of Soil Kitamura Akiko Cross Transit project © Daido Hiroyasu

phantom idevian crew © Kaneko Manaho

Don’t Stop Me Now Condors © HARU

Contemporary Dance and Butoh

Experimental Dance vol.1 R.O.O.M. Noism1 © Shinoyama Kishin

no room Hala Saori © Kimura Kazuhei

日本の
舞台芸術
を知る
Th e J a p a n e s e Pe r fo r m i n g A r t s
i n 2019

NOH and KYOGENNoh and Kyogen

Veteran Performers Reveal Modernity
in the Classics
Oda Sachiko
The Barrier of Abstrusity
A perennial issue within classical performing arts is its
abstrusity. Amongst those arts, the Noh theatre, originating in theancient Muromachi era, presents particular challenges such as its
masks and ancient language which make it hard for audiences to038

make out the words, whilst physical action is limited. One need not
be a neophyte to find oneself at a loss, as to what to look out for,and how. In addition, performances are strictly once-only events—
if you miss something, you have missed it for good. Performances
are on the increase, yet there is a struggle to draw audiences,perhaps with the exception of programmes presented by the
National Noh Theatre. The general audience base is fixed andaging, representing a long-standing point of concern which has
remained unresolved.
What can the Noh theatre do, to overcome the barrier of abstrusity, and to appeal to a wider audience? One solution to aiding theaudience’s comprehension has been the introduction, since 2006,of Japanese and English subtitles at the National Noh Theatre,
which last year celebrated its 35th anniversary. The use of subtitles

has also been spreading to other theatres such as the Kyoto Kanze
Association, and the Yokohama Noh Theatre. Further, performing
organisations and individuals have been diligent in their efforts to“modernize the classics,” as seen in the year-on-year increase inworkshops and pre-performance talks, along with innovative projects, collaborations and joint performances with other genres. To
take an example from November-December 2018, the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre presented 3D Noh Extreme, an event experienced
through 3D glasses, presenting Noh in an altogether new light. The
use of moving images remains an unknown quantity, yet there isroom here for development in the future.
Among the new programmes which stood out in 2019, there is039

ESSENCE Noh (presented by the Nohgaku Performers’ Associationand the Japan Nohgaku Association as a pre-event for the Tokyo
Olympics and Paralympics, addressing 4 themes including physical and multilingual accessibility (July 31st and August 4th); theNational Noh Theatre’s Showcase (including commentary, subtitles
in Japanese, English, Chinese, and Korean, and one number apiecefrom Noh and Kyogen, from July to August 2019), and Kyoto
Kanze Association’s Interesting Museum of Noh presentation,
Mansion of Horror: You’ll Never Get Out! (July 27th). Each of thesewas aimed at encouraging people to attend the Noh theatre in alaid-back spirit. In the midst of this trend, focusing on a relaxed,easy-to-understand presentation, the most eye-catching offerings
were those which achieved that “modernization of the classics,”
through the very manner in which they were performed. And each
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NOH and KYOGENof these was given by veteran performers more than 70 years old.

A Private Confession
Firstly, there is the shite protagonist Kagawa Seiji (b. 1944) of
the Kita School. In 2019 he performed 10 leading roles, elsewheremaking his mark as jigashira chorus leader, playing a key role inupholding the edifice of the Kita School. As of several years ago,
the Kagawa Seiji Recital over which he presides has increased its
performances to twice yearly, in Spring and Fall, and this year heperformed the leads in the 16th performance of Motomezuka(April 6th), and the 17th performance of Higaki (Cypress Fence,
September 14th). While each of these were very well received, I040

would like to focus on Motomezuka for the way in which it shedlight on a work for contemporary times.
The protagonist in the shocking story of Motomezuka is themaiden Unaiotome, who, unable to choose between two suitors,
resorts to suicide by drowning, only to descend to hell where she is
faced with eternal suffering for her deeds. Many in a modern audience may question why the girl must meet such an appalling fate,whilst a reading of the original text does not seem to yield a satisfactory answer. We might consider this a “barrier of abstrusity.” To
perform Motomezuka in the present day is to face up to thisquestion.
In sum, Kagawa played a girl who is trembling at her own sin.
Set in early spring in the village of Ikuta, girls are picking springshoots, and then exit the stage leaving the protagonist who leads amonk to Motomezuka, the maiden’s grave, and there begins to tell
the old legend. This scene, simply titled “A Story,” is without
hayashi instrumentalists or jiutai chorus, and features only theprotagonist, delivering something close to ordinary dialogue:“once, there lived a girl here named Unaiotome…” yet from his
center-stage seat, Kagawa’s voice was startlingly quiet. The audience seemed to strain their ears, and the hushed scene dropped
into another level of quietness. Then, with an upward stretch,
Kagawa continued: “that Mandarin Duck on the Ikutagawa
River…,” and with this sighting of the bird, a sense of realism
emerges, as though the maiden’s tale is not some ancient legend,
but something occurring here and now. With the death of the041

Mandarin Duck as a turning point, a text that began as a thirdperson narrative is transformed into the first person: “it was at thattime, that I thought….” The dramatic structure—this switch inperspective from “her” to “I,” simultaneous to the switch from past
to present tense, is expressed in the intensity of the gaze directed
toward the bird, and the precision of the erect, upper-body posture.
To put it another way, one could say that it was the acting which
instigated events in the present moment.
Kagawa’s acting is recognized for its clarity and beauty ofform, yet even more effective was the inwardly vanishing quality of
his voice. This scene is the maiden’s own confession of sin. A confession is not something to be made in a bold, declamatory voice.
The voice starts hesitantly, as if checking itself, until eventuallyreaching a pitch of intensity. I have seen many Motomezukas, yet
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NOH and KYOGEN

this is the first in which that devastating movement of the heartleading to watery suicide is expressed with such rawness. Facedwith a girl suffering such depth of guilt; the sheer authenticity ofthis leaves no room for outside perspectives to penetrate the worldof the story—including such contemporary questioning, as “whatwrong has she done?” With every intention not to harm others,
and to do good, still our actions can unexpectedly turn into sin.
One was left truly convinced that what happened to that girl could
happen to anyone, that this was the Karma of human beings.
Rather than explaining or interpreting the story, the approachof instead delving deeply into the heart of the character andembodying its sentiments; this was seen also in Higaki, as well as042

in Nonomiya (The Wildwood Shrine, November 6th). Whilst one’s
heart was deeply touched by the human attachments and deeds
depicted in these performances also featuring Kagawa, it is not to
say that he brought any special innovations here, in the acting or
the staging. These unique performances were born as the result of adeep reading of the text; re-examining the received wisdom on its
interpretation, then utterly embodying its meaning. This is an
example of “modernizing the classics” not through adding anything extra, but achieved simply through a natural process of
methodical work.

Modified Staging
There is an approach to modernizing the classics which differsfrom the example above. To illustrate this, let us consider Asami

Masakuni (b. 1941). This year saw Asami give a large number of
performances, mostly of the highest order. In contrast to theunderstated and delicate Kagawa, Asami’s performances are lively
and f lorid. In his costumes too, he demonstrates a unique andexacting approach. He resembles Kagawa in his deep reading of ascript and his consideration of form, yet beyond this the two menpart ways—Asami tends towards readily altering conventions of
direction, make-up, costume, and form.
For example, in Ukifune, performed at his own recital(November 26th), he boarded an on-stage boat, which is not
something that would ordinarily be used. This would be theboat which Nioumiya boarded to accompany Ukifune across the
Ujigawa River, in the Uji Jujo (Ten Chapters in Uji) from the Tale043

of Genji, on which this Noh play is based. In the second half heemerges wearing a scarlet hakama with his hairpiece let down at
the sides, cutting the figure of a distracted noblewoman. This is
not an arbitrary choice, but necessitated by faithfully following
the text. Elsewhere, in the second half of Kinuta (The Fulling Block,February 6th) after the wife’s ghost confronts her husband with thewords “Even in your dreams, would you not consider my pain?”a funereal flute is heard; in Saigyozakura (Saigyo’s Cherry Tree,
June 6th), the shite protagonist’s line “Stay! Stay a while!” is spoken
instead by Saigyo, the waki counterpart, as a means of rationalizing the text, whilst in Kazuraki (Mount Kazuraki, December 14th)
the nochi-site second-half protagonist wears a snow-white garment
like that of a snow queen. Each of these are prominent directions
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NOH and KYOGEN

and innovations which provoke a jolt of surprise, lending at times
a sensuality to these performances which is unrivalled. As a result,however, there are passages where Asami’s intentions and alterations become so prominent as to undermine the overall balanceof the whole. To give an example, in a special Candlelight Performance of Obasute (The Old Mother Abandoned, October 14th)
at the Yokohama Noh Theatre, the final scene from the line “Ah!
Would I could return to that Autumn of old!” portrays the trembling heart of the abandoned old woman with strong, large-scale
acting, which could not help but seem abrupt in contrast to thehushed progress of the drama until that point.
044

Other Performances in Noh and Kyogen
So far, I have discussed the modernization of Noh throughcontrasting approaches to the works. Whilst there may be arguments for and against Asami’s novel stagings, he and Kagawa aresimilar insofar as they have released the works from a fixed perspective of a “correct” way of performing and seeing—here iswhere their route toward modernization is seen.
Elsewhere there have been many fine performances by veteranperformers, yet if I were to single out the best among these, it would
have to be Izutsu (The Well, November 3rd) by Tomoeda Akiyo (b.
1940). A particular highlight was the culminating scene in which
he peers down the well, then gazes up into the distance as thoughsending his thoughts across the farthest reaches of time, with thewords “how nostalgic….” There was dignity in his straightness ofposture, and the feeling of nostalgic longing, which is the main
theme of Izutsu, seemed to permeate the stage. To me, this felt likeit was the sorrow of eternally losing the most important person in
one’s life, though others may see it differently. It is rare to find aperformance where the life experiences of each individual in theaudience can freely overlap and be felt; by the minute subtlety ofthis acting—blink and you miss it—the audience’s imagination isaroused. The actor’s voice achieves the illusion of being heard as themain character’s very own voice—this quality of realism, I would
like to note, is shared with Kagawa.
Umekawa Minoru (b. 1948), who in recent years has become
somewhat less steady on his feet, has increasingly been seen using awalking stick on stage—reconciling this with the exigencies of the045

text. Though it is a shame he was not able to demonstrate the fullrange of his powers, when taking turns as jigashira, he treated us tosome musically and dramatically first-rate recitation.
Back on the stage following a period of illness is the waki actor
Tonoda Kenkichi (b. 1959)—displaying remarkable growth andmaturity in his art—he appears like a new man. The former strain
in the body has disappeared, instead imbuing scenes with qualitiesof stillness and softness, as seen in his sanbanmemono roles which
require the utmost refinement in dance. Further, in Rashomon(December 21st), given at the 3rd edition of the Shimogakari
Hosho School’s Noh Programme, Tonoda gave a powerful performance as Watanabe no Tsuna, a waki counterpart on the level of aprotagonist, making a strong impression on his stage comeback.
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NOH and KYOGEN

Under the sponsorship of a waki school, this company is an ambitious one, presenting Noh plays in which the waki are prominently
featured, and thus gauging the diligence with which that art isbeing studied and transmitted.
In Kyogen, numerous great performances were seen, centringon the unflagging art of 3 individuals above the age of 80, eachbearing the status of Living National Treasure. Among their successors, too, we have seen steady growth. Nomura Man (b. 1930)
delighted us with the free flow of his refined wit in such works as
Soraude (The Brave Coward, October 14th) and Kuriyaki (Roasting
Chesnuts, October 27th), whilst Nomura Mansaku (b. 1931) broke
new ground with an unadorned performance of Sanbaso, without046

mask or costume and in an abbreviated Kagura rendition, on theauspicious occasion of his beiju, 88th birthday. Memorable, too,
was Uchizata (The Trial Rehearsal, April 18th), which dramaticallyillustrated how personality can be transfigured in the space
between fiction and reality. Yamamoto Tojiro’s (b. 1937) performances of Futaribakama (Two-in-One Hakama) including at the
Hosho Association’s Special Spring Programme (March 24th) saw
him take the role of the father, with a changing roster of counterparts. In each case, he showed the capacity and flexibility to adapt
to his co-star, and to allow them to shine.
What unites these three great performers is the naturalness
and immediacy with which they bring the personage of each role
to life. They conceal their art. The selfhood of the performer ishidden, merging into that of the character, giving the impression of

an exact overlap between the two—this could be called the mark ofgreatness in traditional Noh and Kyogen acting.
In relation to this, Nomura Mansai’s (b. 1966) performances attimes suggest a quality of detachment from the role; there is acertain criticality. Mansai has been appointed Chief Executive Creative Director charged with overseeing the opening and closing
ceremonies at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics—a rolein which his directorial talents should be on full display. At thesame, one looks to him with keen anticipation, to bring fresh newqualities of acting to Kyogen performances of the future.

Reports
What follows is an outline of significant events in 2019, with047

brief comments:• Performances marking a new national era

The Yokohama Noh Theatre hosted a two-part Special-themed
performance, Enthronement—Performing Arts to Celebrate theCoronation, bringing together works and celebratory pieces relating to the Imperial House of Japan. Part 1 (June 2nd) focused on
Ryukyu Buyo (traditional Okinawan dance), followed by Part 2(July 20th), which featured a performance of Taiten, a Noh playwhich was premiered in 1915 to celebrate the enthronement of theEmperor Taisho, in a revised edition by Nishino Haruo, with
Katayama Kuroemon assuming the lead role. The original Taisho
edition was also performed, with Yamashina Yaemon as the lead
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NOH and KYOGEN(May 6th, October 20th). In addition, Kyoto Takigi Noh presented
two performances of Heian, the 1963 revision of the original
Taisho edition of Taiten (June 1st, 2nd).
• Young performers featured

From March through December, the Cerulean Tower Noh
Theatre hosted Shibuya Noh, a series commemorating the 30th
Anniversary of the Tokyu Corporation’s Bunkamura performing
arts complex. Each of the 7 evenings in the series had its own
theme, featuring young shite masters in their 30s and 40s, who
mingled with audience members in post-performance events.
048• Revival: 33rd Tokyo Edition of the Kongo Norihisa Recital (July 9th)

Not part of the standard repertoire and exclusive to the Kongo
school, Susuki (Pampas Grass) was given a revival performancefeaturing Kongo Norihisa as shite, using Yuki no Ko-omote, a mask
representative of the Kongo School which is said to have been afavorite of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the great feudal lord of the 16th
century.
• Overseas Performances- Japonismes 2018: Souls in ResonanceThis series, which began in July 2018, continued into 2019 witha sequence of Noh and Kyogen performances given over 5 days
(February 6th–10th) in Paris, by a troupe led by Asami Masakuni.
An authentic stage was constructed, including a covered bridge

passageway, whilst subtitles, pre-performance talks, and workshops for middle and high school students were offered. Asami,
Umekawa Minoru, and Nomura Man were awarded the Ordre desArts et des Lettres by the French Government.
- Tessen-kai Noh Theater Association stages European tour of new NohpiecesFrom September 17th to October 1st, a troupe led by Shimizu
Kanji visited Vienna, Paris, and Warsaw, giving the world premiere
performance of At Jacob’s Well, a work by Diethard Leopold (President of the Austrian-Japanese Society) with dramaturgy and aJapanese script by Oda Sachiko and Shimizu Kanji as shite, along049

side works including Tada Tomio’s new Noh piece Holy Mother in
Nagasaki.

Awards- Imperial Prize and Japan Art Academy Prize, 2018: Kamei Tadao(otsuzumi hip-drummer, Kadono School, b. 1941)- Kyoto Prefectural Culture Award’s Distinguished Service Prize
2018: Inoue Hirohisa (shite, Kanze School, b. 1955)- Kyoto Prefectural Cultural Encouragement Award 2018:
Shigeyama Sennojo (Kyogen performer, Okura School, b. 1983)- 40th Matsuo Performing Arts Prize: Nomura Man (Kyogen performer, Izumi School); Hosho Kazufusa (shite, Hosho School, b.
1986)- 49th JXTG Music Award (Hogaku Japanese Traditional Music
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NOH and KYOGEN

category): Kanze Kiyokazu (shite, Hosho School, b. 1959)- Order of Culture 2019: Nomura Man (Kyogen performer, Izumi
School, b. 1930)- 41st Kanze Hisao Memorial Hosei University Noh Theatre Award
2019: Yamamoto Noritoshi (Kyogen performer, Okura School, b.
1942); Kobayashi Kenji (Professor Emeritus, National Institute ofJapanese Literature, b. 1953)- 29th Saika Award 2019: Udaka Michishige (shite, Kongo School,b. 1947)- Commissioner for Cultural Affairs Award 2019: Awaya Tatsuzo(shite, Kita School, b. 1928)
050

Succession of stage nameTeshima Michiharu (Kongo School, b. 1939), becomes Teshima
Yazaemon.

In Memoriam- Izumi Yoshio (shite, Kanze School, 93 years old, d. January 13th)- Asami Masataka (shite, Kanze School, 93 years old, d. February
4th)- Tabikawa Masaharu (President, Nohgaku Pro, Inc., 63 years old,d. March 2nd)
- Tanimura Ichitaro (shite, Kanze School, 85 years old, d. June 30th)- Shigeyama Sensaku (Kyogen performer, Okura School, 74 years
old, d. September 21st)- Domoto Masaki (dramatist, director, 85 years old, d. September
23rd)- K izuki Takayuki (shite, Kanze School, 80 years old, d. October
23rd)- K anze Motonobu (otsuzumi drummer, Kanze School, 88 years
old, d. November 10th)- Inoue Kikujiro (Kyogen performer, Izumi School, 77 years old, d.
December 5th)
- Yokoyama Haruaki (kotsuzumi drummer, Ko School, 84 years
old, d. December 26th)
This concludes this brief overview of Noh and Kyogen in 2019.
Space did not permit the inclusion of the numerous performances051

worthy of mention. Further, due to the author being resident inTokyo, the focus was skewed towards performances in the capital,
whilst coverage from the Kansai region was sparse. No doubt, there
have been many significant omissions. For this, I ask for forgiveness, and for further details, would humbly refer the reader to the
Nohgaku Times, a monthly magazine published by Nohgaku
Shorin, inc.

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NOH and KYOGEN

Oda, Sachiko
Researcher of Noh and Kyogen. Doctor of Letters. Graduate of Hosei University
Graduate School of Humanities. Primary research themes including history of
Noh and Kyogen direction, and Noh and Kyogen works themselves. Active at
the intersection of research and the stage, including performance criticism,
lecturing, commentary, and as a dramaturg for revivals and historicalperformance.
(Translation: Lingua Guild)052

KabukiVigorous Performances by Senior andMature Actors and a Wide Variety of
New Plays
Mizuochi Kiyoshi
There were three striking features of the kabuki world in 2019. 1)
The senior actors exemplifying kabuki at its best were all healthy
and active and presented superb performances. 2) The middle
group of mature performers and young actors presented very053

ambitious productions. 3) There was a wide variety of new plays.
First, the senior actors of kabuki had major productions that
represented the best of kabuki acting in the Heisei era. Sakata
Tojuro, who has become 88 years old, is the oldest still active actor
in kabuki and he performed the dance Sakae Kotohogu Fuji no
Suehiro (“The Crane and the Tortoise” to Celebrate Tojuro Becoming88) to commemorate this age (in Japan, the age “88” is referred toas “beiju” and is considered to be particularly auspicious). He performed this dance at the Shochiku-za Theater in Osaka in January
and at Kabuki-za in Tokyo in April. The second oldest actor is
Onoe Kikugoro (78), who appeared at the National Theatre in
January in a revival of the play Himejijo Oto ni Kiku Sono Ishizue(Protecting the Foundation of Himeji Castle and its Clan). Then at
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KABUKI

Kabuki-za, in February he appeared in Kurayami no Ushimatsu(The Tragedy of Ushimatsu), in April he played the role of the young
masterless samurai Shirai Gonpachi in Suzugamori (Banzui Chobei
and Gonpachi) and then in May, the role of Tatsugoro in Megumi
no Kenka (The Fight of the Firemen and the Sumo Wrestlers), in
October, the role of Sashichi in Omatsuri Sashichi and the role ofShinza in Kamiyui Shinza (Shinza, the Barber), all roles thatshowed his mastery of portraying the gallant spirit of the commoners of the city of Edo. Matsumoto Hakuo (78) performed two classical roles he has not played in a long time, with his performancefor the first time in 47 years in Ichijo Okura Monogatari (The Taleof the Mad Courtier Lord Okura) at Kabuki-za in January and his054

performance in Moritsuna Jinya (Moritsuna’s Battle Camp) for the
first time in 28 years at the National Theatre in December. But healso performed the lead role and directed The Man of La Mancha,
in a play which he has made his own as he has performed it for fifty
years. At Kabuki-za Nakamura Kichiemon (75) performed the roleof Mitsuhide in Ehon Taikoki (A Picture Book of the Taiko
Hideyoshi) in January, the role of Kumagai in Kumagai Jinya(Kumagai’s Battle Camp) in February, the role of Chobei inSuzugamori in April, the role of Kajiwara in Ishikiri Kajiwara(Stonecutting Kajiwara) in June, the role of Jubei in Numazu andthe role of Matsuomaru in Terakoya (The Village School) in September as part of the commemoration of the hundredth anniversary of the death of his great-grandfather Nakamura Karoku. And
at the National Theatre in November, he revived Koko no Yushi

Musume Kagekiyo (Kagekiyo, the Forlorn Hero and His Daughter).
Kataoka Nizaemon (75) performed major roles both in his family’s
style of Kansai kabuki and classical Edo kabuki roles. At Kabuki-za
he performed in Moritsuna Jinya (Moritsuna’s Battle Camp) in
March, in Sanemori Monogatari (The Tale of Sanemori) in April,
the role of Chubei in Fuin Giri (Breaking the Seals) in June, the roleof Benkei in Kanjincho (The Subscription List) in September, therole of Tomomori in Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura (Yoshitsune and theThousand Cherry Trees) at Shochiku-za in July, and the role ofJujibei in Hikimado (The Skylight) at Misono-za in Nagoya in
October. Bando Tamasaburo (69) has been active in both teaching
young actors so that they can perform major classical roles for the
first time, and he has also created ambitious new productions. He

055

performed the role of Akoya at Minami-za in Kyoto in March andKabuki-za in December. Akoya is considered to be one of the pinnacles of the art onnagata (female role specialist) acting because
the actor must combine dramatic acting with extremely difficultmusical performances on three instruments. Not only did
Tamasaburo present consummate performances himself, he has
also taught the role to the young onnagata Nakamura Baishi andNakamura Kotaro. In addition to the classics, Tamasaburo also
created new productions at Kabuki-za like Shinpan Yukinojo Henge(The New Revenge of Yukinojo) in August and an adaptation of thestory by the Grimm brothers, Honcho Shirayukihime Monogatari(The Japanese Snow White) in December.
Among actors in their fifties and sixties, onnagata Nakamura
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KABUKI

Tokizo and Nakamura Jakuemon showed their skill playing major
female roles supporting the top class of male actors. Nakamura
Karoku and Nakamura Matagoro also appeared together with theother members of the Nakamura Kichiemon family, displaying
their acting skills in supporting male roles. Nakamura Ganjiro andNakamura Senjaku worked to preserve their distinctive Kansai
style of kabuki which is a specialty of their acting family, playing awide variety of major roles. Nakamura Shikan played many majorroles in jidaimono history plays with the role of Dosetsu in
Hakkenden (The Eight Dog Warriors) in April at Misono-za andTokichi in Kinkakuji (The Golden Pavilion) in June at Hakata-za,
Tokubei in Tenjiku Tokubei (Tokubei and the Tale of Exotic Lands)
056

in October at the National Theatre, and Kiichi in Kikubatake (The
Chrysanthemum Garden) in November at Kabuki-za. Ichikawa
Chusha appeared at Kabuki-za in August in Shinpan Yukinojo
Henge playing 5 roles, and in December in Tanuki (The Badger). He
also played Naosuke in Yotsuya Kaidan (The Ghosts of Yotsuya) at
Minami-za in September.
The second distinctive feature of 2019 is that actors in theirforties and younger were also very active. Kataoka Ainosuke
appeared in full-length plays with popular appeal and played
Goemon in Kinmon Gosan no Kiri (The Thief Ishikawa Goemon
and the Great Gate) at Shochiku-za in January, Koi Tsukami(Wrestling with the Carp) at Hakata-za in March, Shino in
Hakkenden at Misono-za in April, and Iemon in Yotsuya Kaidan

at Minami-za in September. Matsumoto Koshiro also challenged
himself with a wide variety of roles ranging from roles for which
his acting family is famous, to major classical roles, to the Kansai
wagoto style (although he comes from the Edo/Tokyo tradition),
new plays and adaptations of stories from other genres to create
a new image for the acting name of Koshiro. At Kabuki-za, inJanuary he played Izaemon in one of the most famous plays in
the Kansai kabuki style, Kuruwa Bunsho (A Letter from the Pleasure Quarters) in a production using the Kiyomoto style of musicrather than Tokiwazu, which is most often used in Kansai-style
productions of this play. In March he played Benten Kozo in
Shiranami Gonin Otoko (The Five Thieves), in June he appeared057

as the protagonist Kodayu in a new play by Mitani Koki, Tsuki
Akari Mezasu Furusato (The Light of the Moon and Longing forHome), in August he played the villain Nikki Danjo and evil ladyin-waiting Yashio in Meiboku Sendai Hagi (The Troubles in the
Date Clan) and Yajirobei in a newly written version of Tokaidochu Hizakurige (Shank’s Mare), in September he played Chobei
in Banzui Chobei, Genzo in Terakoya and Benkei and Togashiin Kanjincho, in November he appeared with his son Ichikawa
Somegoro in Renjishi (Father and Son Lion Dance) and Togitatsuno Utare (The Sword Polisher and the Vendetta). Then in December at the National Theatre, he appeared in Komori no Yasu (Yasu,
the Bat), a kabuki adaptation of Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights. At
Kabuki-za, Ichikawa Ennosuke appeared for the first time in therole of Bencho in Odosha (Yaoya Oshichi at the Kisshoin Temple)
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KABUKIin January, in March he played Matahei’s wife Otoku in Keisei
Hangonko (Stuttering Matahei), in April he appeared in Kurozuka(The Demoness of the Black Mound), a dance that is a specialty of
his acting family, in June he played Shozo and Ekaterina (Catherine the Great) in Mitani Koki’s new play, in August’s Hizakurige
he appeared as Kitahachi at the same time as he also directed theplay. Then in October and November, at the Shinbashi Enbujo,
he directed and starred in Super Kabuki II Shinpan Oguri (New
Version of Oguri Hangan). Onoe Shoroku appeared in many roles
with powerful characters. He appeared at Kabuki-za in February in
the roles of Gonta in Sushiya and Shinsuke in Meigetsu Hachiman
Matsuri as part of a program in memory of his father, Onoe Tat058

sunosuke I, in May he played the roles of Kudo in Soga no Taimen(The Soga Brothers Meet Their Enemy) and Togashi in Kanjincho, in
October he played Osho Kichisa in Sannin Kichisa (Three Thieves
Named Kichisa), and in December, he played Tonbei in Yaguchino Watashi (The Yaguchi Crossing). Onoe Kikunosuke appearedat the National Theatre in January in Himejijo as an onnagata in
the roles of Otatsu and Kojoro and then in April in Seki no To(The Snowbound Barrier) by contrast, he played a male role withthe larger-than-life villain Sekibei. At Kabuki-za, in February heplayed Yoshitsune in Kumagai Jinya and at the Dangikusai (Festival Celebrating Danjuro IX and Kikugoro V) in May, presented
his son Ushinosuke for his first appearance on stage in Ehon
Ushiwakamaru (Ushiwakamaru’s Picture Book) and played the roleof Yoshitsune in Kanjincho and danced Musume Dojoji (The Girlat Dojoji Temple). In December at the Shinbashi Enbujo he bothplanned the project and played the lead in a staging of Miyazaki
Hayao’s manga Kaze no Tani no Nausicaä (Nausicaä of the Valley ofWind). Ichikawa Ebizo is scheduled to take the name of Ichikawa
Danjuro XIII Hakuen in 2020, the top name in the Ichikawa family
and Edo kabuki. In May at the Dangikusai he played Benkei inKanjincho, probably the single most important play for the tradition of his family, but at the same time, he has taken his own individual path. In January at the Shinbashi Enbujo, he played five roles
in Banzui Chobei, Kasa Uri (The Umbrella Peddler), Natorigusa
Hanano Juichidai (Eleven Generations of Famous Flowers),
Shunkan and Kagami Jishi (The Kagami Lion Dance). Then in
July at Kabuki-za, in the evening program, he appeared in Hoshi

059

Awase Jusandan (Thirteen Stars Meeting) in which he appearedin thirteen roles from Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura (Yoshitsune andthe Thousand Cherry Trees), switching from one role to another,and in the matinee program, he appeared in Suo Otoshi (Dropping
the Coat) and Uiro Uri (The Medicine Peddler). He has also produced many performances featuring the actors in his family as wellas tours throughout Japan. In January at the Shinbashi Enbujo,
Nakamura Shido played Tadanobu in Torii Mae (In Front of theGate of the Fushimi Inari Shrine) and in August at Minami-za, he
performed in something billed as “Cho Kabuki (Super Kabuki)”where the latest technology was used to have him appear with avirtual character Hatsune Miku in Hanakurabe Senbon Zakura (ACompetition of Flowers: A Thousand Cherry Trees). In October, heTheatre in Japan

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KABUKI

played the sumo wrestler Nuregami in the Naniwa Ura (The Back
Street of Osaka) and Hikimado scenes of Futatsu Chocho Kuruwa
Nikki (Two Butterflies in the Pleasure Quarter).
Among young actors in their thirties, because Nakamura
Kankuro was appearing as the lead in NHK’s annual historical
Taiga Drama, aside from appearing at Konpira Kabuki in April as
Gonta in Sushiya and in the dance Takatsuki, he did not appear onstage. In November after filming ended, he returned to the stage
with the temporary theater Heisei Nakamura-za, which was set upon the site of Kokura Castle in Kyushu where he performed in thedance Omatsuri (The Festival) and the roles of Ryosuke and Hyobu
in Ogasawara Sodo (The Disturbances in the Ogasawara Clan).
060

Kankuro’s younger brother Nakamura Shichinosuke showed
his technical and artistic mastery in a great variety of roles. At
Kabuki-za, in January he performed the role of the courtesan
Yugiri in Kuruwa Bunsho and in July he played Masaoka in
Meiboku Sendai Hagi. In September at Minami-za, in Yotsuya
Kaidan he played three roles, Oiwa, Kohei and Yomoshichi. In
November at the Heisei Nakamura-za he played Ofune in Yaguchino Watashi, Umegawa in Fuin Giri and Odai-no-Kata and Okano
in Ogasawara Sodo. Finally, in December at the Shinbashi Enbujo
he performed the role of Kushana in Kaze no Tani no Nausicaä.
Onoe Matsuya was the head of the troupe at Asakusa Kabuki in
January and performed in Yoshikata Saigo (The Death of Yoshikata)and as Goro in Soga no Taimen. Then at Kabuki-za, he appeared in
Gosho no Gorozo in May, Kotobuki Shiki Sanbaso in June andplayed a rare onnagata role with Ojo Kichisa in Sannin Kichisa.
Finally, in December, at the Shinbashi Enbujo, he played Yupa inKaze no Tani no Nausicaä. Nakamura Baishi took on major roles
with an appearance at the National Theatre in April in Seki no To
in the roles of Princess Komachi and the courtesan Sumizome
actually the spirit of the cherry tree, then at Kabuki-za in October,he played Ojo Kichisa in Sannin Kichisa, and then in December hetook on the role of Akoya. Bando Minosuke played the title role in
the new kabuki play dramatizing the popular manga Naruto at
Minami-za in June. Nakamura Kazutaro played Koharu in
Kawasho (The Kawasho Teahouse) a key scene from Chikamatsu
Monzaemon’s Shinju Ten no Amijima (The Love Suicides at Amijima)
and an important part of his family’s tradition of Kansai kabuki in

061

January at Shochiku-za, Ofune in Yaguchi no Watashi at the
National Theatre in June and Princess Yuki in Kinkakuji at
Minami-za in December. The next younger generation of actors
like Onoe Ukon, Nakamura Kotaro, Nakamura Hayato andNakamura Yonekichi are gaining stage experience and are very
promising as well.
The third topic is that there were many new kabuki plays withrich variety. In June at Kabuki-za, there was a play written andstaged by playwright and scenario writer Mitani Koki, Tsuki Akari
Mezasu Furusato based on a section of the manga Fuunji-tachi(Heroes of Turbulent Times) by Minamoto Taro. It is the story of
the ship Shinshomaru that was blown away in a storm in Suruga
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KABUKIBay in 1782 and the 17 people on it. After 8 months of drifting it
reached an island that was considered Russian territory, but starvation and despair meant that already one of the people on the ship
had died. The 16 remaining refugees went from place to place inRussia for ten years and in the end, only two managed to return toJapan. Mitani used traditional kabuki techniques, but combined
them with his own comic touch. The Cho Kabuki presented at
Minami-za in August featured the virtual character Hatsune Miku
appearing together with kabuki actor Nakamura Shido. The
program included two pieces written by Matsuoka Ryo, Imayo
Kabuki Odori (Modern Kabuki Dance) and Hanakurabe Senbon
Zakura. The dance featured the woman who is said to have origi062

nated kabuki, Izumo no Okuni and her lover Nagoya Sanza with
Miku as Okuni and Shido as Sanza. The play was based on the
kabuki classic Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura and featured Shido as
Tadanobu and Miku as two characters that in this version of thestory are called Hatsune Miku and Miku-hime. The scene where
the two fight with an evil dragon depicted by using cutting-edge
visual technology was especially interesting. Shinpan Yukinojo
Henge presented at Kabuki-za in August was based on the story ofa kabuki onnagata who wanted to avenge the unjust death of his
father, but instead of focusing on this revenge story, the emphasis
was on Yukinojo’s difficulties as he advanced in the way of kabuki
acting. Super Kabuki II Shinpan Oguri presented at the Shinbashi
Enbujo in October was a reworking of Oguri, the retelling of thestory of Oguri Hangan with a script by philosopher and historianUmehara Takeshi and created by Ichikawa Ennosuke III, which
premiered in 1991. Using Umehara’s script as a starting point,
Yokouchi Kensuke wrote a new text and it was staged by thecurrent Ennosuke and Sugihara Kunio. While the original Oguri
showed Oguri Hangan, the hero of medieval Sekkyo Bushi ballads,
as a man forced to wander by his pursuit of ideals, the new version
shows Oguri as a man absorbed in love of himself, but after becoming a living corpse by being cursed with leprosy, actually finds joy
by discovering his love for the people close to him. This production
was distinguished by using projections on stage. Honcho
Shirayukihime Monogatari presented at Kabuki-za in December
was a kabuki version of Grimm’s fairy tale Snow White. The script
was by Takeshiba Jun’ichi and the staging was by classical Japanese063

dancers Hanayagi Juo and Hanayagi Jusuke. The center of the playwere the dialogues between the mother asking who is the mostbeautiful in the world and the spirit of the mirror. The sevendwarfs were played by child kabuki actors and the entire play was a
kabuki fantasy. The production of Kaze no Tani no Nausicaä staged
at the Shinbashi Enbujo in December was actually based on
Miyazaki Hayao’s full-length manga rather than the anime, which
only showed a small part of the total story. The script was by Niwa
Keiko and Tobe Kazuhisa and was in six acts split into two programs matinee and evening and it was directed by the man known
as G2. The story is set a thousand years in the future when humanbeings are driven by unlimited desire and the poison produced bya weapon called the God Warrior burns the earth and turns it into
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KABUKIa wasteland full of toxic gases. The story focuses on the young girl
Nausicaä who lives in the Valley of Wind close to the desolation
and after many travails, finds the way to purify the world. The
story was interesting with many plot twists and a rich variety ofcharacters and the staging used kabuki acting, music and costumes. The story treated important contemporary themes like thenuclear threat and destruction of the environment. In addition,
there was the production of Naruto in June at Minami-za, which
was first presented the previous year, which was a kabuki version of
the popular manga. Also, Komori no Yasu presented in December
at the National Theatre was a revival of a kabuki adaptation ofCharlie Chaplin’s movie City Lights which first was staged in the
064

1930’s with a script by Kimura Kinka.
Mizuochi, Kiyoshi
Born in 1936 in Osaka. Graduated from Waseda University Faculty of Literature,
specializing in Theatre. From 1970 he was in charge of the Theatre section for
the Arts and Cultural News department of the Mainichi Shinbun and served as
vice-chairman for that newspaper as well as having been a member of the
Editorial Board and also a special committee member before his retirement.
Currently he is Affiliate Member of the Editorial Board. From the year 2000, he
was a professor at J. F. Oberlin University, retiring in 2007 as Professor Emeritus.
His writings include: Kamigata Kabuki (Kyoto-Osaka Style Kabuki), Bunraku, Heisei
Kabuki Haiyu-ron (Essays on Kabuki Actors Today) and others.
(Translation: Mark Oshima)Bunraku

The Borderline Between Celebratory
Rituals and the Change ofGenerations
Kodama Ryuichi
In bunraku puppet theater in 2019, one of the biggest events was
the designation of narrator Toyotake Sakitayu as an Intangible
Cultural Property or “Living National Treasure” by the Japanese
National Cultural Agency. This is, of course, a sign of honor, but is065

also intended to support artists in the traditional arts so that they
can pass on their skills to the next generation.
At present, in bunraku, shamisen player Tsuruzawa Seiji, puppeteers Yoshida Minosuke and Yoshida Kazuo are Living National
Treasures. Among narrators, Toyotake Shimatayu has been designated a Living National Treasure, but has retired from the stage.
That means that Sakitayu will be the only narrator who is a Living
National Treasure who is still performing on stage. The Japanese
government gives the designation of Living National Treasure, butthere is another honor that comes from within the bunraku world.
Although Sakitayu has just been designated a Living National
Treasure, he has long been a kiriba gatari, narrator for kiriba (final
climax of a scene). In fact, at present, he is the only narrator withthis designation.
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BUNRAKU

Toyotake Sakitayu was born in 1944 and started studying to
be a narrator in 1953. He was a student of the most famous narrator of the 20th century, Toyotake Yamashiro-no-Shojo, and under
the influence of his father, Takemoto Tsunatayu VIII, developed astyle that aimed at the most orthodox approach. It goes without
saying that from a very early age, people expected Sakitayu to
become a leader of the bunraku world. It was only natural that hewould be designated a Living National Treasure someday. But there
is an element of chance in being designated Living National
Treasure and it can be affected by the number of people that can be
designated in specific categories and the preferences of the people
who happen to be on the selection committee at the time. Even so,
066

it must be said that for Sakitayu to only become a Living National
Treasure at the age of 75 is far too late.
For example, Sakitayu’s father Takemoto Tsunatayu VIII, whodominated the postwar bunraku world, was at the peak of his
powers in his 50s. Takemoto Koshijidayu IV, who was famous forhis painstaking and exacting performances, retired at 76 when hefelt he was not physically able to perform at the standard he set forhimself. At the same time, Takemoto Tsudayu IV, who was famous
for the power of his performances, could only maintain thatextraordinary power until he reached his 60s.
Considering these artists, one would wish that Sakitayu could
have been designated a Living National Treasure much earlier, forexample, fifteen years ago. Then, he definitely would have been able
to create an “Age of Sakitayu.” One reason that this did not happen

was the presence of the late Takemoto Sumitayu who continued toappear on stage until very shortly before his death at the age of 90.
This made this period in bunraku less an overlong spring and more
like an overlong autumn. The fact that the committee, which
bestows the designation of Living National Treasure, did not consider the consequences of their action and failed to create the next
generation of bunraku artists must be judged a terrible lost opportunity. When he was designated a Living National Treasure,
Sakitayu said that he wanted to do what little he could to pass on aproper understanding of the art of chanting. Sakitayu’s great rival
as a narrator was Toyotake Rodayu V, who died while still relatively young, leaving Sakitayu to struggle on alone like a solitary
sumo yokozuna. One can sense the pain and difficulty of his strug-067

gle and hope that with his new status Sakitayu will be able to complete his mission to transmit the proper understanding of bunraku
chanting.
However, Sakitayu has not been in the best physical conditionin the last few years and this has led to very unusual ways of distributing the parts that he performs in the program. For example, in
May in Tokyo in the full-length performance of Imoseyama Onna
Teikin (Husband and Wife Mountains: a Moral Guide for Women),
Sakitayu performed the kiriba section of the Shibaroku Sumika(Shibaroku’s House) scene, but instead of Sakitayu beginning in
the usual place, the previous narrator continued for much longer
than usual before Sakitayu began narrating, shortening the sectionthat he had to perform and lightening the load. So, the previous
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BUNRAKU

narrator Oritayu performed the manzai section of the scene, but
his part of the act was longer than usual. Or in October at NHK
Hall there was a special joint performance of bunraku and kabukiof the Kawatsura Hogen Yakata (The Battle Camp of Kawatsura
Hogen scene of the play Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura [Yoshitsune andthe Thousand Cherry Trees]) with kabuki actor Onoe Kikunosuke
V. Certainly, the NHK Hall itself is a space much too large forgidayu chanting, the music of bunraku, but, still, it was very difficult for the audience in the hall to hear Sakitayu. In contrast,
when the performance was broadcast, the chanting was picked
up properly by the microphones and the recording had the proper
audio balance. A collaboration between kabuki and bunraku is
068

very rare and the last time the Kawatsura Hogen Yakata scene was
performed in this way was in 1961 when Tsunatayu VIII collaborated with kabuki actor Nakamura Kanzaburo XVII. The last timethat Sakitayu himself collaborated with kabuki was in 1990 when
he performed at the Nakamura-za theater in Osaka together with
Nakamura Kankuro V (later Kanzaburo XVIII). It is unfortunatethat despite the rarity of this kind of collaboration, this performance failed to attract much attention.
Now that Sakitayu has been designated a Living National
Treasure, this would be a good opportunity to rethink the systemof selecting kiriba gatari narrators, since Sakitayu is the only narrator with that designation. From outside the bunraku world, it is
impossible to know how they are selected or who has the right tomake the selection, but as it said in the Asahi Shimbun on May 26,

“The term kiriba gatari should be understood in general as recognizing the skills of the top narrator of the time.” So, the standardof top narrator should relate to the narrators of the present timeand, no matter how wonderful, it is not relevant to compare thenarrators of today to the famous narrators of the past. No matter
who you refer to, they have no more significance than university
professors have for children. If we place Sakitayu (age 75 / careerof 66 years) in a separate category, the most obvious candidates tobecome kiriba gatari narrators would be Toyotake Rodayu (age 72/ career of 52 years) and Takemoto Tsukomadayu (age 70 / careerof 50 years) who is taking the name of Takemoto Shikorodayu in
2020. If you take as your standard the narrators who are given069

the most important sections of plays, that would be Takemoto
Chitosedayu (age 60 / career of 41 years) and Toyotake Rosetayu(age 54 / career of 35 years). They will certainly be the center of thebunraku world and cannot be ignored. If there is no new designation of kiriba gatari narrators, the term itself might disappear. For
example, in the past, there was a special status for narrators calledmonshita (i.e. “below the crest of the troupe”). The aforementioned
Yamashiro-no-Shojo was the last monshita, but after he retired in
1959, no one was considered suitable to be designated monshita. So
this term and rank itself disappeared. If there is not a more aggressive push to designate new kiriba gatari narrators, there is the riskthat this position might soon be as dead as monshita.
In 2019, there was a full-length production of Kanadehon
Chushingura (The Treasury of 47 Loyal Retainers) to celebrate theTheatre in Japan

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35th anniversary of the opening of the National Bunraku Theatre
in 1984, but instead of a full-length performance over one day split
over matinee and evening performances, the performance was split
into three month’s programs with one half of each month’s production being given over to one third of Chushingura. In April
there was the Great Prologue to Act IV and the ritual suicide of
Enya Hangan, July focused on the love story of the retainer Kanpei
and the lady-in-waiting Okaru with Act V through Act VII, andNovember completed the story going from Act VIII to Act XI withthe scenes at Yuranosuke’s snow covered villa and the retainers’
attack on their enemy. This approach has been used many times inkabuki, but is unheard of in bunraku. As might be expected, this070

resulted in many problems and since the relevant sections werespread out over different programs, this made the depiction ofsome characters seem shallow since the relevant portions were not
performed in the same program. However, in a standard fulllength performance, there is a limit to how many sections an individual narrator can do in one day. But by dividing the performance
into three sections, it was also possible for Sakitayu to perform
both Act IV and the Miuri (Going to the Brothel) section of Act VI
and for Rosetayu to perform the attack in the palace scene fromAct III and Kanpei’s suicide in Act VI. That this was possible
should be counted as one of the major pluses of dividing the playinto three.
However, this unorthodox division of the play into three programs also made several more things possible. For example, it waspossible to present scenes that would ordinarily be cut in order tomake the length of the program acceptable to modern audiences,
as well as to use these scenes as an opportunity for innovation.
For instance, the Rikiya Shisha (Rikiya, the Emissary) section of
Act II, which is usually omitted, could be presented. Also, therarely staged Act X that is usually performed in the adaptation
by 20th-century shamisen player Nozawa Matsunosuke, was performed in a revival of an older version, reconstructed by Nozawa
Kinshi on the basis of old scores. Another benefit was that with an
ordinary full-length performance, the same puppeteers would play
the same roles for the entire performance. Ordinarily, Yoshida
Tamao would play the key role of Yuranosuke, the leader of thevendetta, for the entire play. But by dividing it into three, there071

was a rare opportunity for Kiritake Kanjuro to play Yuranosuke in
Act VII.
Now of course, one of the distinguishing features of bunraku
is that it fundamentally emphasizes full-length performances
while kabuki just stages the most popular scenes. But by dividing
Chushingura into three parts, there was the rare phenomenon offull houses for bunraku in Osaka. Even though bunraku usuallysells out in Tokyo, in Osaka there are often empty seats. In fact,
in November, there was even the issuance of commemorativeenvelopes to celebrate these full houses. This does not necessarilymean that there should be more full-length performances divided
into three, but it does mean that serious thought must be devoted
to thinking about why there were such good houses for this
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particular program.
Also with regard to full-length programs, in May at the
National Theatre in Tokyo there was a full-length performance of
Imoseyama Onna Teikin. In fact, this was the first production since1998 to begin with the Great Prologue set in the imperial palace.
Similarly, in recent years it has become common to divide the playwith Acts I and III in the matinee focusing on the Romeo and Juliet
story of Koganosuke and Hinadori and Acts II and IV focusing on
the vanquishing of the villainous Iruka in the evening program. In
the mid-1970’s, this practice was introduced to make sure that theappearances of the two major narrators of the time, Koshijidayu IV
and Tsudayu IV, were balanced between the two programs. But
072

this year, the play was presented with the acts in the original order.
It goes without saying that this is the way it should be performed.
The climax of Imoseyama is the eponymous third act scene
Imoseyama where two separate musical ensembles are employed:“Se Mountain,” to the audience’s right, which presents theworld of men with the lead characters of Daihanji and his son
Koganosuke, and “Imo Mountain,” to the audience’s left, which
presents the world of women with the characters of Sadaka andher daughter Hinadori. This year the two musical ensembles were
led by Chitosedayu (Se Mountain: Daihanji) and Rosetayu (ImoMountain: Sadaka) who both put their all into powerfully narrating this scene. Compared to the first time when these narrators
took these roles in April 2016 at the National Bunraku Theatre,even though they have still not completely made these roles theirown, their performances have strengthened to give a sense ofobjectivity. The opportunity to face these extremely difficult pieces
is an important part of training artists and in the future, rather
than lamenting that the performers of today do not have the powerof the great artists of yesterday, it will probably become increasingly necessary to give the artists of today opportunities to take onthese big pieces. When the younger members of the company performed Acts II and III of Ichinotani Futaba Gunki (A Chronicle of
the Battle of Ichinotani), it was apparent how far away the goal wasfor these performers, but taking on these masterpieces full on timeafter time is the only way that they will be able to reach this goal.
In the same manner as the newly orthodox full-length production
073

of Imoseyama in May with the acts staged in the right order, a fulllength production of Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura is scheduled in
Osaka in April that begins with the Great Prologue. This ambitious
approach to programming is very praiseworthy.
In December it was announced that Takemoto Tsukomadayu
would take the name of Takemoto Shikorodayu with performances
beginning in January 2020 in Osaka and continuing with the February performances in Tokyo. This marks the first appearance ofthe name Shikorodayu in 80 years. The previous Shikorodayu is
known from many pre-war SP recordings and his performancestyle comes from a time when gidayu chanting was still popular
entertainment in vaudeville halls. Today, bunraku is dominatedby the serious artistic style of Toyotake Yamashiro-no-Shojo, butwhen showing that gidayu chanting originally contained a wide
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variety of styles, most often the previous Shikorodayu is presented
as a contrast to Yamashiro-no-Shojo. To revive a name with roots
going back to the last days of the Edo period (17th–19th century)
provides a concrete sign of the passing down of bunraku tradition,and certainly this name taking is something to be celebrated. And
as I noted before, Tsukomadayu is one of the most senior chanters active today and it is to be expected that his art is reaching
maturity. But at the same time, this name-taking would be evenhappier if it could be celebrated together with the shamisen player
he long performed together with, the late Living National Treasure
Tsuruzawa Kanji VII who died in 2018. In any case, it seems alittle late for a name-taking to have to wait until someone is in074

his 70s. Seen in a broader context, this is another sign that efforts
to keep the structure of bunraku strong and facing the future are
lagging behind.
One other thing about name-taking, from the standpointof the audience, it is difficult to know what issues are involved,
but with the Shikorodayu name-taking it is similar to Takemoto
Mojihisadayu taking the name of Toyotake Todayu last year. Whatever the reasons, it is disquieting that there are these occasions
when performers are taking new names that are unrelated to theirteachers. The name Todayu is unrelated to any of the names heldby Mojihisadayu’s teacher Sumitayu and the name Shikorodayu
has nothing to do with Tsukomadayu’s teacher, Tsudayu. The “tsu”
of “Tsukomadayu” is the first character in his teacher’s name.
(There is a certain connection to the previous Shikorodayu, in thatthe father-in-law of the teacher of the new Shikorodayu, Tsudayu
IV, was Tsuruzawa Kanji VI, and Kanji VI was originally paired
as a shamisen player with the previous Shikorodayu. Through thisconnection, when the previous Shikorodayu died, custody of thename was given to the Tsuruzawa Kanji family.)In addition, Takemoto Chitosedayu and Toyotake Rosetayu
are two narrators that will be the pillars of bunraku in the future,
but they both still use the same names that they have had sincenearly the beginning of their careers. The position of an artist helps
to determine the quality of his art and receiving a distinguishedartistic name helps to pull up an artist. So, we should all recognizethat this is for the sake of bunraku and consider appropriate artis075

tic names for these performers. Since the September performances,
Rosetayu has not been well and has been absent from the stage. He
is one of the most important members of the bunraku company
and we hope that he will recover soon and that he will take goodcare of himself and his physical condition.
In addition to his activities in regular performances ofbunraku, Rosetayu has also revived and performed neglected
pieces as with Hime Komatsu Ne no Hi no Asobi (The Princess Pineand the Play on the Day of the Rat) (February 19) and Hana no Ani
Tsubomi no Yatsufusa (The Brother of the Flowers and the Eightfold
Bud) (May 29), which is a gidayu version of the epic novel
Hakkenden (The Eight Dog Warriors). Both revivals were withshamisen player Nozawa Kinshi and received a lot of attention.
Also, Tsuruzawa Enza composed music for a revival of Shusse
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Kagekiyo (Kagekiyo Victorious) (featuring Miwatayu and Rosetayu
and others, May 29). These two projects attracted large audiences
and it is to be hoped that the National Theatre will respond to
public interest by incorporating such productions into the regularbunraku season. Rodayu is second to Sakitayu in rank and participated for the first time in the productions of bunraku with newstaging by architect and designer Sugimoto Hiroshi and performedin the New York production of Sonezaki Shinju (The Love Suicides
at Sonezaki). But more important than that, Rodayu performed theentire act of Kumagai Jinya (Kumagai’s Battle Camp) in Osaka(August 17) and Tokyo (September 26), work on a scale befitting
his status. The first half of his performance was slightly tentative,076

but the second half was full of power. As expected, the charactersof Kumagai and Midaroku were perfectly suited to Rodayu’s
quality of voice, but what was particularly striking was that the
dialogue of Yoshitsune was strong and heroic. To be able to narrate
an entire kiriba section is the work of a true narrator and we lookforward to the achievements of these narrators as they progress on
the path of their art.
The puppeteers are headed by three talented and dependable
artists: Yoshida Kazuo, Kiritake Kanjuro and Yoshida Tamao.
Also, Yoshida Minosuke’s performance as Princess Chujo (February, Tokyo) was exquisitely beautiful.

Kodama, Ryuichi
Born in Hyogo Prefecture in 1967. Professor at Waseda University. In charge ofvarious exhibitions at the Waseda University Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre
Museum and from 2013, Vice Curator. Specializes in research and criticism ofkabuki. Edited, Nohgaku Bunraku Kabuki, co-edited, Saishin Kabuki Daijiten(Newest Kabuki Encyclopedia). Writes reviews of performances of kabuki for the
Tokyo edition of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.
(Translation: Mark Oshima)

077

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MUSICALSMusicals

Original Musicals Stood Out
Looking Back at 2019
Hagio Hitomi
Musical performances have recently increased in number but
many of them are revivals of successful productions. These are thesafest options in terms of drawing a large audience. On the other
hand, many original musicals were presented in 2019 as well andthat is a delightful trend. They demonstrate a rich variety of subject
078

matter, creative process and format. It would be going too far to saythat the age of original musicals has arrived but the trend could
certainly be felt.

FACTORY GIRLS -An Inspirational and Highly-CommittedMusical
FACTORY GIRLS—My Story (FACTORY GIRLS—Watashi ga
egaku monogatari) (planned and produced by Amuse, Inc.) was themost impressive production of the original musicals. The theme isquite striking. The story is set in America in the nineteenth
century. It is about women workers in a spinning factory, who try
to organize a labour union. The main character Sarah (played by
Yuzuki Reon) works under harsh conditions and realises thatwomen are discriminated against more than the men who do thesame work. She makes friends with Harriet (Sonin), the chief
editor of a booklet written by female workers. She starts writing
articles for the booklet to share her thoughts but becomes aware ofa gap between her own ideas and the objective of the booklet. On
the one hand, the booklet was non-controversial but on the other
hand, it dampened the women’s awareness of their rights. Sarah
eventually takes action to form a labour union for female workers.
Gender discrimination is still a deep-rooted issue. Women
today have to raise their voices, saying ＃MeToo. The story,
although set in the nineteenth century, strongly criticizes thecurrent era. The conflict between Sarah and Harriet represents the079

long-standing differences in awareness among women. The theme
was rather unusual for a musical but perhaps in today’s world, it is
not so surprizing. Although there is room for refinement, it was abrave story and also moving. I hope it will be further polished andrevived in the future.
How FACTORY GIRLS was produced is also interesting. It isbased on the music and lyrics of Creighton Irons and Sean
Mahoney, which have never been performed in the US. The producers acquired the production rights and asked Itagaki Kyoichi towrite an original script in Japanese and to direct it. While he wasworking on the script, new numbers were written and added. In
other words, an unfinished piece was completed in Japan. This
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method of production will probably become more common in
the future.

A Wide Variety of Original Musicals
There were other impressive original musicals. One is based ona Korean film titled One Day (2017)(directed by Lee Youn-Ki)
adapted into a Japanese musical with the title One Fine Day(Itsuka—One Fine Day) (planned, produced and presented by
conSept). Based on the storyline of the film, the director Itagaki
Kyoichi wrote the script and lyrics and the music director Kuwabara
Mako composed the music.
080

It is a fantasy depicting the interaction between the main character who is a widower (Fujioka Masaaki) and a woman in a vegetative state (Minamoto Maho), communicating on the conscious
level. The drama is about rebirth and also deals with the issue of
euthanasia. Kuwabara’s music was appealing and Fujioka drove thestory forward with his grounded singing and subtle acting.
The all-female Takarazuka Revue Company’s original musical
Che Guevarra dealt with a subject matter that was unusual for
their shows. It is based on the true story of Che Guevarra. Che
Guevarra (Todoroki Yu), who used to be a doctor, meets Castro inexile in Mexico and they fight for the Cuban revolution together.
The life of the protagonist living for his ideal was dramatically
depicted and the piece turned out to be like a typical Takarazuka

show. It was written and directed by Harada Ryo and the music
was composed and arranged by Tama Shoichi.
Frida Kahlo—Broken Pillar (Frida Kahlo—oreta shichu)(produced by TipTap) is a biographical musical about the Mexican
female painter Frida Kahlo. It is an original musical written by
Ueda Ikko and the music was composed by Ozawa Tokifumi. Frida
looks back at her life during her last years and the plot develops at agood tempo, using plenty of flash backs.
The Phantom and the Detective (Kaijin to Tantei)(produced by
PARCO, KAAT [Kanagawa Arts Theatre], Amuse and WOWOW)
081

is a new musical based on Edogawa Ranpo’s novel Kaijin niju
menso (The Fiend with Twenty Faces). The Phantom (Nakagawa
Akihiro) and the great detective Akechi Kogoro (Kato Kazuki)
fight over a well-bred young lady (Ohara Sakurako). It was a tourde-force production directed by Shirai Akira, with Mori Yukinojo
writing the script and lyrics and producing the numbers, Sugimoto
Yuji composing the music, Shima Ken serving as the music director and Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra playing the theme music.
Musical adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays were noticeable
too. Rock Opera R & J (presented by Nelke Planning) is a story
about Romeo (Sato Ryuji) and Juliet (Naka Bambi) set in the near
future. The production written and directed by Suzuki Katsuhide
and composed by Oshima Goro was full of bawdy energy. In
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Hamlet (planned and produced by Hakuhinkan Theatre and
M.G.H.), starring Yada Yusuke and written and directed by Ogita
Koichi, the focus was on the relationship between Hamlet andGertrude (Ayaki Nao). The music (la malinconica and Fukui
Sayuri) seemed quite challenging.
Another production based on a famous classic was Oliver
Twist (co-produced by Hyogo Performing Arts Center and Arcs
International). As is well known, Dicken’s novel became a musicaland a very famous film (Oliver!). However, this was a new production written and directed by Kishimoto Kouki, with the music
composed by Kojima Ryota, who was also the music director. The
082

character Fagin (Fukui Ki-ichi) was played with unusual warmthand it felt fresh.

New Musicals and Masterpieces from Broadway
The major trend in the Japanese musical world is to present
Broadway musicals translated into Japanese while they are still
fresh but in 2019, there were not so many of these types as in previous years. In the era of multinationalism, cost-efficiency must be
calculated and borne in mind. Among new Broadway musicals, An
American in Paris (produced by Shiki Theater Company) andNatasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 (produced by Toho)
were prominent. An American in Paris is a stage adaptation of amusical film (1951) using music composed by Gershwin. The original movie is a jazzy love story but in the stage version, the scars ofWW2 and racism are integrated into the story. Christopher Wheeldon’s choreography (he also directed the musical) calls for highly-experienced ballet dancers and it seemed a difficult piece topresent in Japan.
However, Shiki Theater Company boldly took on the challenge. They auditioned some candidates from outside the company
to find the cast. The production was a replica of the Broadway
version and beautifully presented. However, they seemed to havedifficulty in attracting a large audience to the show, probably
because the musical was not very well-known. Perhaps only Shiki
could have put on the piece because they have plenty of resources.
083

Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 is a musical basedon Tolstoy’s War and Peace. It started off at a restaurant theatre off
Broadway and the drama takes place among the audience. When it
was presented in Japan, the seating area of the theatre was changed
significantly to make this possible. Inoue Yoshio and Ikuta Erika
performed well in the Japanese production.
In my opinion, many productions proved that the standard ofacting in Japanese musical theatre has improved. Pippin was one ofthem. It seemed adventurous to present the Broadway revival
version of Pippin directed by Diane Paulus with a Japanese cast.
The drama depicting the journey and growth of Prince Pippin wasframed by a circus troupe and the cast was required to do acrobatic
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performances including trapeze acts. The difficult part of Pippin’s
grandmother (double cast) was played brilliantly and compellingly
by Nakao Mie and Maeda Beverly, who were both over seventy
years old. The MC called Leading Player was played by the singer
Crystal Kay and it was her first time to perform in a musical. As inher case, the musical actors nowadays come from a wide rangeof backgrounds.
West Side Story, a landmark musical, is presented as a series
at IHI Stage Around Tokyo where the seating area revolves 360
degrees. It started as a touring production in summer, followedby three seasons with a Japanese cast that will run for almost084

ten months in total. The direction of the tour version and theJapanese-cast version are basically the same. There is no reconciliation between the rival gangs in the last scene. The ending isperhaps a reflection of the present world but I personally felt thatsomething was missing.
There were two productions of another legendary musical On
the Town. One was presented by Takarazuka and the other was an
opera version produced by Sado Yutaka. Leonard Bernstein’s musicand Jerome Robin’s original choreography are appealing but thedrama itself seems outdated. Bold changes might be necessary butthat is unlikely due to the rights. On the Twentieth Century, a 1970s
Broadway hit musical, was also put on by Takarazuka. It is a slapstick comedy with Cy Coleman’s appealing music and was turnedinto a sumptuous production, which was perfect for Takarazuka.
The other legendary musical is Man of La Mancha starring the
Kabuki actor Hakuo. It was premiered in Japan in 1969 when hewas still named Somegoro, revived when he succeeded to the nameKoshiro, and again in 2019 after he inherited the present name
Hakuo. He set a record of playing the leading role in Man of La
Mancha 1,300 times,

Other New Musicals and Topics
The Man Who Laughs is based on Victor Hugo’s novel. It waspremiered in South Korea and the creative team is made up of
085

Americans. The book was written by Robert Johanson, lyrics byJack Murphy and the music by Frank Wildhorn. There was room
for improvement in the script of the musical that premiered inSouth Korea in 2018 and in Japan in 2019. The Japanese version
was directed by Ueda Ikko and I could tell that he had struggled
throughout the piece.
The off-Broadway musical The Story of My Life (lyrics andmusic by Niel Bartram, book by Brian Hill) was another musicalthat came to Japan via South Korea. With two actors, it follows twochildhood friends from their childhood up to the present. It camefrom Korea in the same format and in the same way as Thrill Me.
There was also the world premiere of La Tempesta. It is a new
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piece written by Tom Jones, who wrote the book for the offBroadway masterpiece Fantasticks. As indicated in the title, it is amusical adaptation of The Tempest. The longtime friendshipbetween the director Katsuta Yasuhiko and Tom Jones made it possible to present the musical in Japan very quickly.
Back Beat is Ian Softley’s stage adaptation of the film with thesame title that came out in 1994. It was a play with music rather
than a musical. It premiered in Glasgow in 2010, depicting theBeatles when they were living in Hamburg before they becamefamous. It was translated and directed by Ishimaru Sachiko andput together very well.
086

There are an increasing number of musicals from countries
beside the US and also those that have been discovered. Amongthem was a French musical titled Don Juan. It was premiered by
Takarazuka in 2017 and directed by Ikuta Yamato. He also directed
the new 2019 production of Don Juan, starring Fujigaya Taisuke,
who belongs to Johnny and Associates.
Johnny and Associates is now a great source of talent, indispensable for musicals. Johnny Kitagawa, who founded and led thecompany, passed away in July. He produced many hit musicals andshows, from Shonentai’s original musical series Playzone in the
1980s to the recent big hit Endless Shock.

The genre of 2.5-dimensional musicals has also produced
many young musical talents, almost as many as Johnny and
Associates, and is still very active. The number of 2.5-dimensionalmusicals and their audiences are growing. The standard of the performers’ acting skills is on the rise as well. In addition, a newtheatre called Brilla Hall opened in Tokyo in November and it will
be another venue for musicals. The musical market shows no signof slowing down in the immediate future.
Hagio, Hitomi
Hagio Hitomi is a film and theatre critic. She started her career as a newspaper
journalist and has written reviews for Tokyo Shimbun as well as column series
and articles for musical magazines. She has written books such as Musical ni
Tsuretette (i.e. ‘Take me to the musicals’), Les Misérable no Hyakunin (i.e. ‘A Hundred
People of Les Misérable’) and others. She has also edited and written Broadway
Musical, Tony sho no Subete (i.e. ‘All about Broadway Musicals and the Tony
Awards’), Pro ga eranda hajimeteno musical eiga: Hagio Hitomi best selection 50 (i.e.
‘Your first musical film selected by a professional: Top 50 by Hagio Hitomi’)

087(Translation: Sumida Michiyo)

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Contemporary Theatre

Standing as Individuals,
Crossing Bridges
Yamaguchi Hiroko
It was a year that saw a series of incidents where public funding forthe arts was stripped away.
In September, the Agency for Cultural Affairs decided to withdraw its subsidy grant of around ¥78 million for Aichi Triennale
2019. After the international art festival opened with such exhibits088

as a video work in which a printed image of Emperor Hirohito isburned, the executive committee office received not only protests
but even threats. It was then decided by the organizers to close partof the exhibition venue temporarily. The nominal reason for the
grant withdrawal was an issue related to the paperwork submitted
by the triennale organizers. Though the grant withdrawal was criticized by many individuals and groups as an infringement upon
freedom of speech, the government has yet to explain clearly theprocess that led up to the decision or who was ultimately responsible for it.
Likewise, the Japan Arts Council withdrew its subsidy for thefilm From Miyamoto to You (Miyamoto kara kimi e) because amember of the cast was convicted of a narcotics offense. In September, the organization revised its guidelines allowing grants anddecisions to be withdrawn in cases when something is deemed“inappropriate in terms of the public good.” There are strong concerns, however, over how arbitrarily “public good” will be interpreted. In fiscal 2019, the council provided 172 grants for contemporary theatre that totaled around ¥297 million.
At a contemporary art exhibition organized by an institution
in Vienna, a work was exhibited in which the artist impersonatedthe prime minister, Abe Shinzo, leading the Japanese embassy toretract its endorsement of the exhibition from the program of
events officially marking 150 years of bilateral diplomatic ties
between Japan and Austria. A Liberal Democratic Party memberof the Diet had apparently contacted the Ministry of Foreign
089

Affairs about the matter.
Now the longest-serving prime minister in Japanese constitutional government history, Abe is eager to give preferential treatment to “supporters” and “friends” when it comes to how the stateis run. Those in power consider what they deem good to be in the
public and national interest, wielding power in such a way that may
warp freedom of expression. To objections, they give no responseor adequate explanation. This political modus operandi unprecedented in the postwar era is widening social divisions and fermenting an atmosphere whereby people hesitate to give an opinion thatdiffers from that of those in power. In the midst of this, what cantheatre do?

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Opposing Totalitarianism
Written, directed by, and starring Noda Hideki, Q: A Night At
The Kabuki matched the music of the British rock band Queen witha story that imagines what might happen if the two protagonists ofRomeo and Juliet did not die. Set during the time in Japan when the
Genji and Taira clans were at war, Jurie of the Genji and Romio of
the Taira appear in both their young and grown-up versions. Oneof the ways in which Noda’s signature entangling and layering ofmultiple elements emerged here was in the use of names. Echoing
Shakespeare’s original “doff thy name,” Jurie tells Romio to“discard your name.” What “name” means here is “family” or090“clan.” This is a barrier to love; something that divides. But in thesecond half of the play, the nameless Romio is sent off to fight in abattle and perishes in a cold and desolate land. A name here
denotes the dignity of the individual. Once that is lost, we are swallowed up by totalitarianism. In the dark ending of the play, there
was anger at how people are forced to die as “unknown soldiers.”
We Know Nothing (Watashitachi wa nanimo shiranai), written
and directed by Nagai Ai, portrayed the women who worked at themagazine Bluestocking (Seito) in the 1910s. The twentysomething
Hiratsuka Raicho, teenaged Ito Noe, and others who strove tothink for themselves, to stand on their own feet, were played byactors of corresponding ages as they confronted head-on love,marriage, abortion, and chastity. The struggles they faced in life
because they were women, the difficulties of challenging

conventional society as individuals, poignantly brought home how
astonishingly little things have changed today, one hundred years
later.
Dealing with Kobayashi Takiji, a writer active a little afterBluestocking, Suite Massacre (Kumikyoku gyakusatsu) left a firm
and renewed impression. Premiered in 2009, it was the last play by
Inoue Hisashi. Director Kuriyama Tamiya’s staging remainedlargely the same for this revival. However, the portrait of
Kobayashi, who eventually lost his life at a time when freedom ofspeech and expression was violently suppressed, resonated with
our situation in the Japan of 2019, when the unflinching will of awriter and the determination of those who supported him shone091

through even more strongly.
Beginning with three thematically linked plays about “theindividual and the whole,” Ogawa Eriko’s second season as artistic
director of the New National Theatre, Tokyo also surely reflected
the times. Of the plays, Guards at the Taj, written by Rajiv Josephand directed by Ogawa, was superb. Two young guardsmen serving
the Mughal Empire are torn between their duty to obey orders andtheir freedom of spirit. Their strife converged with the situation in
Japan today.

Crossing the Bridge into the World andEncountering Others
When our mind wanders to strange and unknown lands, ourworld expands. Excellent plays in translation can offer encounters
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with people far away.
Directed by Matsumoto Yuko of Bungakuza Atelier Showcase,
Tena Štivičić’s Three Winters depicted the modern history of
Croatia through one family. How could people live amidst suchsocial tumult? This was a first-rate play filled with warmth.
In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell and the Cold War came to an end.
In Beijing, protests demanding democratization were quashed by
the army during the Tiananmen Square Incident. Lucy Kirkwood’s
Chimerica deals with this event, shuttling between New York in2012 and Beijing in 1989 to weave a thrilling tale of the fates of an
American photographer and his friend, a young Chinese man.
Kuriyama Tamiya’s directing was dynamic and deft. Kuriyama092

also directed A Doll’s House, Part 2 by Lucas Hnath. Set fifteen
years after Ibsen’s original play ended, Nora has now returned
home, where a war of words unfolds with her husband, daughter,and wet nurse in a drama where each character’s emotions, values,and view of humanity is brought into sharp relief.
Seinenza Theater Company’s production of Sweat, written by
Lynn Nottage and directed by Ito Masaru, vividly evinced theprocess by which grave social divisions appear through a portraitof the people working at a car factory in the American state ofPennsylvania. The audience was left with a lucid sense of the social
circumstances that produced the Trump presidency.
Held in Japan for the first time since 1999, the 9th Theatre
Olympics took place in August and September. Hosted also at theAlexandrinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia, the theme was“Creating Bridges.” With Suzuki Tadashi as artistic director for theJapanese part, the event brought artists from sixteen countries andregions to Toyama Prefecture in Japan to present thirty works.
In the fall, Tokyo Festival continued with Miyagi Satoshi as
general director for the second year running. Though not an especially unified event, given that it bundles together various otherevents and organizations such as Festival/Tokyo and Toshima City,
the choice of overseas productions like History of Violence (directedby Thomas Ostermeier) from the Schaubühne Berlin and, from
Russia, the Red Torch Theatre’s production of Three Sisters(directed by Timofey Kulyabin) performed entirely in sign language, left a strong impression. This year also saw the launch of the093

World Competition section of the festival, featuring groups fromsix regions around the world and asking audiences to consider
what makes a “superior work of art.”
Written and directed by Okada Toshiki from the novel by Thai
writer Uthis Haemamool that took him half a lifetime to complete,and performed in Thai, Pratthana – A Portrait of Possession(Puratana: Hyoi no potoreto) received its Japanese premiere after its
first staging in Bangkok and then performances in Paris in 2018.
Intermixing a personal tale of love affairs with the recent history ofThailand and its currency crisis and military coups, this was adensely packed, four-hour epic.

Kanagawa Arts Theatre’s Rich and Vibrant Creativity
Mitani Koki enjoyed his usual success with two plays that he
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wrote and directed: Soldiers of Fortune on a Moonlit Course forHome (Tsuki-akari mezasu furusato fu’unjitachi), a new Kabuki
play, and The Loves and Sorrows of Sherlock Holmes (Ai tokanashimi no Sharokku Homuzu), telling the jauntily funny yet sadstory about how the lead character became a master detective.
Matsuo Suzuki started a personal project, Tokyo Adult Theatre
Club, writing, directing, and starring in Life, Too Giga Long
(Inochi, giga nagasu). This two-hander about an elderly motherwith dementia and her son, an unemployed, middle-aged alcoholic
depicted their relationships with a female college student making a
documentary film about them as well as the student’s instructor.
Though reflecting the so-called “8050 problem” of the recently
094

growing numbers of middle-aged shut-ins who live off their elderly
parents’ pensions, the main focus of the play was the mother andson who eagerly perform for the camera as “problem people” andthe way that society views them. It was a play that conveyed a senseof maturity on the part of the writer, affirming while wryly laughing at the folly of humankind that must endure such incredibly
long, “giga” lives in what is called the age of longevity.
The up-and-coming Yokoyama Takuya wrote All People Are
Average People (Hitowamina, hitonamino) (directed by MatsumotoYuko), set in a care home for the physically disabled, sincerely portraying things that are hard to talk about, not least the harshworking environment of the staff and the issue of sexuality and thedisabled, though doing so also with humor.
Among theatres, Kanagawa Arts Theatre (KAAT) staged apacked and successful lineup: Sartre’s No Exit (Huis Clos), directedby the theatre’s artistic director, Shirai Akira; Kinoshita-Kabuki’s
Sesshu Gappo ga Tsuji (Itoi Version) (Itoi-ban sesshu gappo gatsuji), adapted and directed by Itoi Yukinosuke; Tada Junnosuke’s
double staging of Waiting for Godot by Beckett; Dr. Hoffmann’s
Sanatorium: Kaf ka’s Fourth Novel (Dokuta Hofuman nosanatoriumu—Kafuka daiyon no chohen), written and directed by
Keralino Sandrovich; The Greeks, an epic staging of ten Greek
tragedies directed by Sugihara Kunio; and Kaison the Priest of
Hitachi (Hitachi bo Kaison), written by Akimoto Matsuyo anddirected by Nagatsuka Keishi. What this superb series of productions relayed well was both the relationship of trust that exists
between the artists, centering on Shirai, and the approach that

095

KAAT employs—namely, attempting to share the inherent fun oftheatre that lies in discovering something onstage.

Continuing to Confront the 2011 Earthquake andFukushima Disaster
Eight years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake.
With his company DULL-COLORED POP, Tani Kenichi staged
his Fukushima Trilogy (Fukushima sanbusaku) in full. Following
on from the first part, 1961: Sun Rising in the Night (1961-nen: Yoru
ni noboru taiyo), which was premiered in 2018 and dealt with theprocess that led up to the construction of a nuclear power plant, hedirected the second part, 1986: The Möbius Loop (1986-nen:
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regional government, and the third, 2011: The Words That Want to
Be Told (2011-nen: Katararetagaru kotobatachi), which examinedpeople whose lives were destroyed by the nuclear accident. It was acompelling work full of power.
Having relocated to the city of Minamisoma in Fukushima
Prefecture, Yu Miri specially revised her play Still Life (Seibutsuga),
first staged in 1990, for a production she directed with local highschool students in 2018. Subsequently revived in Tokyo this year, it
was a delicate depiction of life and death. Un bel dì vedremo (Aruhareta hi ni), written by Yu and directed by Maeda Shiro, toured
three prefectures in the Tohoku region of Northeast Japan.
Love U (Rabuyu), written and directed by Kuwabara Yuko for096

her company, KAKUTA, told the story of emotionally damaged
people who form a kind of family that is destroyed by the 2011 disaster. Though lacking a happy ending, the love that ties people
together was nonetheless warmly conveyed to the audience.
Written and directed by Akahori Masaaki, Beautifully, Lushly(Utsukushiku aoku) was set in a town in the aftermath of the disaster. With a rich sense of life, it portrayed the people living in the
midst of the threat posed by nature. World of One (Sekai wa hitori)
was a musical written and directed by Iwai Hideto, featuring two
men and a woman who grow up while experiencing various setbacks. Though it did not directly reference the 2011 disaster, theanecdotes that cast a shadow across the whole play could be interpreted as a criticism of our current society that avoids thinking
about and scrutinizing the nuclear accident that befell Fukushima.

Inheriting and Developing the Work of Predecessors
The year also robustly demonstrated that people are taking on
the work of the previous generation of artists. Old plays by Kara
Juro continued to be revived. His company, Kara-gumi, went backto his 1985 play Vinyl Castle (Biniru no shiro) and brushed it up
into a striking production, directed by Kuboi Ken and Kara. Itssensitive portrayal of the love between a man and woman who
cannot touch directly saw the company enter new territory. Nina’s
Cotton (Nina no wata), written by Fujita Takahiro about the life of
Ninagawa Yukio and directed by Inoue Sonsho, was performed by
Saitama Gold Theater and Saitama Next Theatre, the companies
097

that Ninagawa developed.
In memory of the late Asari Keita, Shiki Theatre Company andAsari Office staged a series of five productions, four of which weremusicals. For the first time in twenty-six years, Shiki Theatre
Company produced a new work, the family musical The Cat That
Taught the Gull to Fly (Kamome ni tobu koto o oshieta neko). The
company has started to reveal a new direction in which creative
talent is placed at the fore.
One of the artists who participated in the performing arts
section of the Aichi Triennale mentioned at the start of this article,
the director Takayama Akita set up the J Art Call Center as part ofthe efforts to fully reopen the exhibits at the festival, whereby

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artists would be on hand to answer complaints by telephone andspeak to the callers on an individual basis. In operation for a week,
it received around 350 calls. Even though people’s views were notin agreement, Takayama said it still led to a significant amount of
dialogue. Setting up the stage that was the call center and the theatrical means that was the exchange of actual voices created acircuit of communication.
Theatre could bridge people with differing ideas. We can see ahope in this.
Yamaguchi, Hiroko
098

Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun. Born in 1960, she graduated from the
Department of Science at Ochanomizu University. In 1983, she joined the Asahi
Shimbun newspaper. Over the course of her career, she has worked at its Tokyoand west Japan (Fukuoka) branches, and Osaka head office. She is a reviewer
and reporter on cultural news, in particular theatre. She has also served on thepaper’s editorial board and as an editorialist. She co-wrote Ninagawa Yukio’s
Work (Shinchosha).
(Translation: William Andrews)

Children’s and Youth Theatre

Towards the Unknown Future
Ota AkiraTYA Inclusive Arts Festival 2019
Those working in the field of theatre for children and young
people in Japan were by and large spending the whole year preparing for the 20th ASSITEJ World Congress and International
Theatre Festival for Children and Young Audiences. ASSITEJ was
founded forty years ago and the world congress to be held in Japan,
which has been a long-held dream for the Japan Center of ASSITEJ,

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will be the largest-ever international performing arts festival forchildren and young people. In February 2018, the Asia TYA Festival in Japan 2018 was held to create a system for receiving cooperation from other Asian countries by deepening the relationshipbetween Japan and Asia prior to the large-scale congress. With thisin mind, in January 2019, Inclusive Arts Festival 2019 was held toprepare for opening a new gateway. Holding these two festivals
must have been great experiences that paved the way for the
success of the first ASSITEJ World Congress organized in Japan.
TYA Inclusive Arts Festival 2019 was held from January 14 to
20 at the National Olympics Memorial Youth Center and fifteen
productions were performed thirty-eight times. The word
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CHILDREN’S and YOUTH THEATRE“inclusive” means “comprehensive” and “encompassing” and globally it is a word that means “art that everyone can appreciate”.
“Everyone” refers to those “treated equally without prejudice
regardless of disability, sexuality, or difference in culture or ethnicity”. It was the first time in the field of performing arts for children
and young people in Japan that a festival with this kind of theme
has been held. “Disabilities and art” was featured at the festival andworks of art for children and young people by the disabled or forthe disabled from Japan and around the world were shown.
As a side note, at ASSITEJ, the International Inclusive Arts
Network (IIAN) is taking an active role in this field. The objective
100of IIAN is to give every child, regardless of whether they are disabled or not, equal opportunities to experience art. It also aims toshare the various therapeutic effects of art and richness of expression. It further aspires to expand its activities to share with people
around the world, especially children who are the bearers of the
future, that the world is full of diversity through the arts.
In the world today, where priority is given to the economy,
we seldom hear the voices of socially vulnerable people. What
performing arts can provide to children, what we can do withthe disabled, and activities to create a future with diversity,
abundance, equality and peace were seen at the festival. The fiveforeign productions invited to the festival will be introduced in thefollowing paragraphs.

The first was Daryl Beeton’s A Square World from the UK. The
performance of the artists in wheelchairs made the audience feel“the world will change by changing the way you look at things”.
One day, three good friends, who spent a lot of time together, aresuddenly separated into the categories of “able child” and “unable
child”. They still want to be together and start changing the “squareworld” they live in by trying various approaches. The original
music, the simple set and the non-verbal performances (without
using dialogue) stretched the audience’s imagination. The production received the highest evaluation among all the works that were
presented at the festival. It will be invited to ASSITEJ World
Festival in 2020 and will also tour around Japan.
101

The second was the installation Frame by a Scottish group led
by Ellie Griffiths. A documentary film depicting autistic children
spending time inside a white room that they decorated is screened
in a room, itself decorated by Japanese nursery-school toddlers,
where the audience sit on chairs they created themselves to watch
the piece, experiencing a unique view of the world.
The third piece was Four Go Wild in Wellies performed by
Indepen-dance, also from Scotland. It was a cute non-verbal contemporary piece, shown inside a tent, performed by a company
that includes dancers with Down syndrome. They also held aworkshop in which the participants experienced what it was like toexceed their age. They could feel what it was like to go through
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physical changes that could happen to anyone regardless of disabilities and the workshop was very well received.
The fourth piece was Dis_Sylphide presented by Per.Art & Saša
Asentić from Serbia, created by eleven dancers with various kindsof disabilities. Halfway through the show, members of the audience
were called on to the stage to improvise a scene, which created avery solemn atmosphere.
The fifth piece was FTH:K’s What Goes Up from South Africa
and sign language was used in the performance. The performers’
passion to learn Japanese sign language was gratifying. Seeing a
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child with hearing impairment watching the show and reacting inthe same way as other members of the audience and experiencing
how the performers’ passion was coming across was extremely
encouraging and made us feel their commitment, which in turnhelped us to think further about what “inclusiveness” is about.
The Japanese participants also had very unique features.
Ukiyoe: Hokusai was a piece performed by actors with hearing
impairment inside a space like an office, Deaf Puppet Theater
Hitomi presented Hako/Boxes A Music Box of Grandpa (Hako/Box
Jichan no orugoru G♪), company ma×Wawacinema presented a
non-verbal performance Small House (chiisana ie) that everyone
could enjoy and Gekidan Africa put on ○△□ Circle, Triangle andSquare (○△□ chan). Baby theatre pieces were also performed,

which included Grego Musical Puppets’ Hello☆Babies and Baby
Mini Theater by Japan Union of Theatrical Companies for Children
and Young People.
The two “multisensory theatre” pieces for autistic children andchildren with severe disabilities that drew most attention were
Theatre Planning Network’s Dancing in/with White Books (Shiroi
hon no naka no butokai) and Art Workshop Sunpucho’s The Small
Sea (Chiisana umi). These children seldom had chances to experience theatre in a relaxed mood up till now and these kinds ofpieces have become a worldwide trend, perhaps because the time isripe and there is a growing social need. At the TYA Inclusive Arts
Festival 2019, the creators of theatre for children and young people

103

faced the reality that theatre for disabled children will be inevitablein the future.
Another new idea was attempted at the festival. Sign language
interpreters were provided to all the lectures and workshops. This
attempt was very well-received by audiences with aural disorders
as they could visit the festival whenever they had some free time,
without having to worry about making prior reservations, something which is still very rarely possible. Their positive feedback was
absolutely delightful and encouraged the organizers to gradually
increase these opportunities.

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A New Trend“Inclusive” performances are expected to increase in the worldof Japanese theatre for children and young people. In this respect,
Theatre Planning Network, which updates its repertoire every year,
and Art Workshop Sunpucho based in Sendai are pioneeringgroups in Japan. For one show, they invite six pairs of audience
members. These audience members, however, need helpers andcannot come to the venues on their own. Therefore, “Access
Coordinators” give support from the moment they make reservations up until the time they arrive at the theatre on the day of theperformance. In addition to spending lots of time and effort on
creating the performances, they try to provide the utmost care on104

the day of the show. I think their attitude is worth following andwill spread in the future.
Likewise, “Baby Theatre” is another genre that is recently
receiving great attention. In addition to prenatal training, performing arts are beneficial for babies and infants, which is a factwhich has been proven by brain science. The need for performing
arts for zero to two-year-old toddlers before they acquire language
has gained recognition. Baby Theatre started in Europe overtwenty years ago and is spreading, led mainly by ASSITEJ. It has
also developed in Japan in a unique way and the Japan Union of
Theatrical Companies for Children and Young People was recently
inaugurated and is actively working on Baby Theatre Projects.
During the past three years, they have collaborated with foreignartists to create new pieces and have produced Baby Space with the
Serbian director Dalija Acin Thelander, Kuuki (Air) created with
Polish director Alicja Morawska-Rubczak and designer Barbara
Malecka and Baby Mini Theatre comprised of fifteen mini-sizedworks created with the South Korean director Jackie E. Chang.
Baby Mini Theatre, which delivers simple and convenient
shows with a short running time and is easy to tour, using propsthat can be carried in one bag and can be put on at a reasonable
cost, is a gradually growing genre, which also receives support
from the government. Similarly to art for the disabled mentioned
before, when presenting theatre for babies, attention has to be paid
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to the arrangement of the performance space and staff to take careof the babies. There is an urgent need to train personnel to run
Baby Theatre projects and to develop facilities to present them. The
Baby Theatre Project, which has been implemented at seven locations in Tokyo as well as in Kochi, Fukushima and other prefectures, has shows put together with lectures and workshops, inorder to create the environment required to accommodate Baby
Theatre performances in various regions. It is a miraculous form of
performing arts for zero to two-year-old babies that can only be
experienced for two years of a child’s life and is probably going tobecome a greater trend in theatre for children and young people.

Works that Drew Attention
Lastly, I would like to introduce some works that were talked
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about in 2019. Theatre Urinko’s Watashi to watashi, boku to boku
(i.e. “I and I, me and me”) (written and directed by Sekine Shin-ichi)
positively dealt with the subject matter of LGBT, which is becoming
a new trend, and shared with children the notion of living together,respecting each other’s differences. Puppet Theatre Hitomi-za’s
Fair, then Partly Piggy (Hare tokidoki buta) (book and direction
by Nishigami Hiroki) is a puppet play based on a popular picture
book. Three actors manipulated the puppets multifariously, saying
the lines as well, giving children the wonderful experience of using
their imagination and having dreams. La Strada Company’s Circus
Lights (Circus no hi) is a nonverbal show drawing on two clown
characters and it was chosen as a Child Welfare Cultural Property
106

recommended by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in
2018. The brilliant piece performed with great skill was lyrical andit felt like reading a children’s picture book. Kazenoko Theatre
Company Kyushu’s Haihai goron (i.e. crawling, rolling over) was
also selected as a Child Welfare Cultural Property recommended
by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in 2019. It is a Baby
Theatre show in which the audience can relax in a space that feels
like being surrounded by music, rhythm and soft fabric. KAAT’s
Two Minute Adventure (Nifunkan no boken) (originally written by
Okada Jun and directed by Yamamoto Suguru) was produced asa “KAAT Kid’s Programme” and has been turned into an annual
series hiring directors who have been active. It was directed by the
popular author of children’s books Yamamoto Suguru, who used
a lot of animation to provide expression in a unique way. OPPEL

and the Elephant (Oppel to zo) to commemorate Puppet Theatre
PUK’s ninetieth anniversary was created by the entire troupe andtheir performance showed the real strength of the long-establishedpuppet theatre company. Puppet Theater La CLARTE’s The OilHell Murder (Onna goroshi abura no jigoku) (adapted by Yoshida
Kiyoharu and directed by Fujita Asaya) won the Grand Prix in
the Theatre Category (in the Kansai region section) of the Agencyof Cultural Affairs National Arts Festival 2019. It was acclaimed
for reviving the world of Chikamatsu Monzaemon in the modern
world and finding unanticipated appeals of the play threedimensionally, using three sliding stages.
107

Towards the Unknown Future
From May 14 to 24, 2020, The 20th ASSITEJ World Congress and International Theatre Festival for Children and Young
Audiences, the New International Performing Arts Festival forChildren and Young People will be held mainly in Toshima ward
and Adachi ward. Some one hundred productions, including
twenty-five international productions, five Japanese productions
and other quasi-invited works will take part. In an aim to realize asociety in which “no one is left out”, over a hundred participating
countries will share the changes in the environment surrounding
children and culture as well as challenges from their respective
situations and take a firm step together to “begin a journey” to findsolutions and move toward an as-yet-unknown future.

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CHILDREN’S and YOUTH THEATRENow everyone must have realized that we cannot create aprosperous society merely through economic activities. Fromancient times, we have looked at the inner nature of human beings,
depicted the future and have accumulated and inherited culture
and wisdom through the arts. When children and culture meet,they create our future.
Ota, Akira

108

Since he joined Tokyo Engeki Ensemble in 1996, he has produced most of thecompany’s productions. He has held many lectures and workshops as the
director in charge of developing human resources at Japan Union of Theatrical
Companies for Children and Young People. In 2004, he studied at the youth
theatre department (Unga Riks) of Sweden’s National Touring Theatre(Riksteatern) for a short period under the Agency for Cultural Affairs Program ofOverseas Study for Upcoming Artists. He holds many positions and is currently
the Secretary-General of the Japan-Korea Theater Communications Center.
(Translation: Sumida Michiyo)Japanese Classical Dance

A Time for Innovationin Japanese Classical Dance
Hirano Hidetoshi
One of the new activities of the reorganized Japanese National
Agency for Cultural Affairs (Bunkacho), the government agency
that is in charge of Japan’s art and culture, is the Nihon Haku
(Japan Cultural Expo) with the theme of “Japanese people andnature: the continuing ‘beauty of Japan’ from the Jomon period tothe present.” This should be closely related to Japanese classical109

dance since dance is an important element of Japanese traditional
culture. With this theme as its motto, the national government,
local governments and private groups and enterprises are all
working together to advance art forms that embody this “beauty ofJapan,” aiming at passing this down to the next generation for creation of art in the future.

1. The Allure of Japanese Classical Dance
Responding to this invitation, the National Theatre sponsoreda recital of Kyomai (Dance of Kyoto) (November 29 and 30) withthe purpose of “taking the Nihon Haku project as an opportunity to create the contents of cultural resources.” Since 1974, theNational Theatre has only had performances exclusively devoted to
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kyomai four times. This year, it moved the Mai no Kai: Keihan no
Zashikimai (Dance Recital: Dances for the Banquet Chambers of theGeisha Districts of Kyoto and Osaka) from its usual spot in November and held it in August instead, so that it could hold the kyomai
performance for the first time in 21 years. Under the leadership ofInoue Yachiyo V, the head of the Inoue school of dance, which is
the only dance school of kyomai, this performance was a fine onethat was indeed appropriate to be part of Nihon Haku.
I believe that the heart of Japanese Classical Dance depends
on three pillars: 1) the traditional culture of the Japanese languagethat developed in a unique way through waka poetry, monogatarinarratives and zuihitsu essays. 2) The traditions of the floats and110

decorations for religious ritual in furyu. 3) The tradition of women
performing otoko mai (dances by a woman in male costume) exemplified by the performances of the medieval shirabyoshi and Izumo
no Okuni, the woman who pioneered kabuki dance. Taking a broad
view of cultural policy since the time Western culture was introduced to Japan to the present, from prehistoric times, through theEdo period, but also through the modern era to the present, thesethree pillars have always continued to be the support of cultural
creation. When Japanese Classical Dance is a part of Nihon Haku, itreally should be on the basis of these three pillars.
The Kamigata (the region around Kyoto and Osaka) dance
culture represented by kyomai developed out of a fusion of traditional Japanese linguistic culture and Japan’s view of gender. It is agenre performed exclusively by women supported by being a partof the culture of the geisha district with a unique training system
which f lourished into the modern age. Inoue school “kyomai”
probably developed its allure with the aesthetic leadership of thegenerations of heads of the school. Inoue Yachiyo I (1767–1855) andInoue Yachiyo II (1770–1868) were dancing teachers in the geisha
district and added expressive techniques from the dances of theclassical noh theater and the ningyo joruri puppet theater. Inoue
Yachiyo III (1838–1938), both maintained the innovations of her
predecessors and organized it into a dance school and also took thedances from being performed exclusively in the banquet chambersof the geisha districts by staging recital performances in theaters
as well.
To take the current performance as an example, the jiuta

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dance Masazuki (The New Year’s Moon) (composed by TsuruyamaKoto) is often performed as a solo dance, but this time there were 4
dancers and 4 singers and shamisen players along with a sou koto
zither. The Inoue school uses the Yanagawa shamisen, a type ofshamisen developed in the early Edo period by Yanagawa Kengyo
with a narrow neck and thin wooden body which produces akasokeki (“delicate”) sound. The dancers wore red aprons like thenakai attendants at a restaurant with one end of the apron tucked
up. This careful attention to little touches in the costumes gave avery sophisticated air to the dance. The lyrics depict the time oftaking off the shime sacred ropes at the end of the New Year’s
season, but combine this with the feelings of a woman waiting for alover. This was combined with the graceful movements of theTheatre in Japan

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female dancers as they expressed these emotions.
Mizukagami (The Water Mirror) featured 2 dancers and 4
singers and shamisen players with the addition of the bowed kokyu
fiddle. This time the performers were in the formal costume of theGion geiko with the Kyoto version of the traditional Shimada hairstyle and the eri collar lining of the kimono twisted in one place toreveal a touch of red behind the white eri. The text exemplified theplayful use of language and is based on one of the most traditional
themes in Japanese art and literature of the Omi Hakkei (Eight
Views of Lake Biwa) which is a list of the iconographic beauty spots
around Lake Biwa, which becomes a giant water mirror. This iscombined with the feelings of a woman in love. The dance was112

choreographed by either the first or the second Inoue Yachiyo andthe delicate sound of the Yanagawa shamisen evoked the intimate
atmosphere of the banquet chamber. The addition of the bowed
kokyu and the use of fans at the lyrics, “An evening when thewinds of Yabase blow on the snow of Hira” made for an exquisite
atmosphere.
Finally, although this is not actually a dance, the performance included the Te-Uchi (Hand Clapping) under the title ofKuruwa no Nigiwai (The Liveliness of the Pleasure District). Thisrhythmical ceremony originates in demonstrations during the firstkaomise performances of kabuki in Kansai when a group of fanswould praise a favorite actor. In Inoue school, this is transformed
into a rhythmical musical stage performance where the dancers
with dancing names play wooden clappers and sing and play theshamisen. As they enter along the hanamachi runway and go to themain stage, the impact is overwhelming. There are several songs
that are performed as a part of this and these songs themselves area precious cultural heritage.
Also, at the National Theatre, as a special performance in May,
there was Kamigami no Zansho–Dento to Sozo no Awai ni Mau(Afterglow of the Divine–Dancing Between Tradition and Tradition,
May 25) as a joint production with Arts Council Tokyo. This was
the first performance in the Echoing–Words–Body series which aims
at, “a broad range of encounters with the attractiveness of dance
going beyond boundaries between genres.” The program featured
Japanese Classical Dance and the nagauta piece Okina-Senzai113

Sanbaso (with Onoe Bokusetsu as the Okina, Hanayagi Juraku as
the Senzai, and Wakayagi Kichizo as the Sanbaso), odissi Indian
Classical Dance, the Turkish sema (Whirling Dance of Mevlana),
and a new work of Contemporary Dance, Inochi no Umi no Koe ga
Kikoeru (Hearing the Voice of the Sea of Life), which was performed
to the music of Mahler’s 5th Symphony and a choral reading of theancient Japanese chronical Kojiki. The tickets for this presentation
sold out very quickly, so I was not actually able to see it, but considering that the theme of the Nihon Haku is “the beauty of Japan,”the positioning of the Okina-Senzai-Sanbaso, the fact that Japaneseclassical dance, which depends on the physical transmission of
the expressive techniques embodying the three pillars that I listed
above–that Japanese classical dance was treated as being the sameas Western dance and the values presented in the Contemporary
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Dance means that it was a presentation that went against all thegoals of the Nihon Haku. I can’t help but think that this is something that they must rethink seriously before the next season.

2. The Allure of Individual Japanese Classical Dancers
In recent years, the calendar of Japanese Classical Dance has
been overwhelmingly dominated by recitals sponsored by theJapanese Classical Dance Association and the National Theatre.
Events sponsored by the Japanese Classical Dance Association
include a competition to train young dancers, the Shinshun Buyo
Taikai (New Year’s Japanese Classical Dance Recital), a performance where senior dancers perform, including the directors of114

the Japanese Classical Dance Association, the Nihon Buyo Kyokai
Koen (Japanese Classical Dance Association Performance), and the
Nihon Buyo Mirai-za (Japanese Classical Dance Future Theater)that creates new pieces. In addition, there are various recitals sponsored by the Tokyo and Kansai branches of the Japanese Classical Dance Association as well as the branches in the prefectures
throughout Japan. The National Theatre sponsors the Hanagata
Meisaku Buyo Kanshokai (Young Dancers Performing Masterpiecesof Japanese Classical Dance), and the Mai no Kai–Keihan no
Zashiki Mai mentioned above.
In recent years, there have been few striking recitals sponsoredby individual dancers, but in 2019, there were three dancers withrecitals that participated in the annual arts festival sponsored by
the Japanese National Cultural Agency. One is Fujima Kiyotsugu

who performed the new piece Sari Yuku Koya (The Theater Goes
Away) (October 31, Kioi Hall Small Theater, Kakeikai: Fujima
Kiyotsugu Recital). The scale of his dance was very impressive. After
dancing the nagauta piece Shiki no Yamanba (The Mountain Hag
in the Four Seasons) as a suodori in formal kimono without stage
set or stage costume, he presented this play. Set in 1945 as Japanis about to lose the war, a kabuki onnagata female role specialist
chats with the theater’s stage manager and they recall the days ofglory of that theater. It was accompanied by gidayu narrative music(Tsurusawa Sansuzu, composer and shamisen player and chanter
Takemoto Koshiko) which was used not as the accompaniment
to a dance, but like the takemoto in a kabuki play, describing the115

scene and the emotions of the characters, which set off the dancers
splendidly. The onnagata actor describes the many vicissitudes in
his life by comparing it to Yamanba. Finally, Kiyotsugu performs
the Yamanba dance that he learned from his onnagata teacher. At
this point, the line between Kiyotsugu himself and the role he wasplaying became indistinct and it was a deep and moving moment.
Bando Fukiko presented Kitsune Kuzunoha–“ShinodazumaKo” (Fox Kuzunoha–Based on “A Contemplation of the Fox Bride of
the Shinoda Forest”). (Direction and original work by Fujita Asaya,
arrangement, script, choreography and main role by Bando
Fukiko, dance supervision by Bando Kozue. November 6, Small
Hall of the National Theatre.) This was based on the one-man show
Shinodazuma Ko by the theatrical artist Nakanishi Kazuhisa,
which was a play based on Fujita Asaya’s literary historical essay,
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Setsuwa ni Miru Iruikon–“Shinodazuma” Ko no Shiten (Marriages
Between Animals and Humans as Seen in Setsuwa Stories–from the
Point of View of the “Fox Wife of the Shinoda Forest”) included in‘Kabuki Monthly’ July 1976, which Fujita himself reworked into aplay, 13 years after the appearance of the essay. In this performance, Bando Fukiko transformed this story into a piece told by asolo dancer. The creation of a new theatrical work with a story told
through dance was very interesting, but the dance itself did notalways match the music and unfortunately, there was not always athrough line through the piece. But I also strongly felt her desire to
grapple with new pieces like this and she will be a JapaneseClassical Dancer to watch in the future.
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One more dancer to introduce is Fujima Makinosuke withthe shinnai piece Kotobuki Neko (The Auspicious Cat), lyrics by
Kazu Hajime, composed by Shinnai Tagatayu, flute and percussion
composed by Tosha Roei, choreographed and danced by Fujima
Makinosuke, October 19 Nihonbashi Kokaido (Nihonbashi Gekijo)
at the Gin’enkai recital. This is a piece that was composed in 2005
by Shinnai Takeshi (now Tagatayu) at the age of 18 under the title
shinnai joruri: Maneki Neko (Good Fortune Cat). When it was performed as a dance the following year choreographed by Fuji Michie,
its title was changed to Kotobuki Neko. Makinosuke first performed
it in 2006. I felt Makinosuke’s talent in reshaping the story into theformat of a rakugo comic storyteller telling the story and the choreography of the dance. The dance was very witty and celebrated cats
as a sign of good fortune as a kind of advertising spiel and list of

various kinds of cats. The only thing that was unfortunate is that it
was danced to recorded music rather than a live performance.
In 2019, other dancers that were notable included Nishikawa
Minosuke, Wakayagi Kichizo, Wakayagi Soju, the father and son
Saruwaka Kiyokata and Seizaburo, and Hanayagi Juraku. They
also have had solo recitals, but often these recitals are producedwith the support of their schools of dance. If the aim is to invigorate the world of Japanese Classical Dance, the best way might befor the schools of dance to support the creative activities of performers like the three mentioned above.

3. O ther Topics, The Renovation of Japanese Classical
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Dance
As head of the Ichikawa school of dance, media favorite
Ichikawa Ebizo had a recital commemorating the name-taking ofpeople in his family heading the school and did it as a commercial
theatrical event. At the Ichikawa Kai (August 3–12, Bunkamura
Theater Cocoon) there was name-taking of three people, Ebizo’s
aunt Ichikawa Kobai became Ichikawa Juko I, his sister Ichikawa
Botan became Ichikawa Suisen IV and his daughter Horikoshi
Reika became Ichikawa Botan IV. The program began with
Kotobuki Shiki Sanbaso with Ichikawa Ebizo as head of the
Ichikawa school of dance as Okina, Juko as Senzai and Suisen as
Sanbaso. Then the noh actors Katayama Kuroemon, Umewaka
Kisho and Kanze Yoshimasa alternated in appearing and presented
a portion of a noh play. Then Ebizo’s children appeared with his
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son Horikoshi Kangen in Tama Usagi (The Rabbit in the Moon)and his daughter, the new Botan in Hane no Kamuro (The Kamuro
Courtesan Apprentice at New Year’s). Finally, Suisen appeared inMusume Dojoji (The Girl at Dojoji Temple). In kabuki, there areusually large numbers of priests, but in this production, there were
just two, played by prominent members of other schools ofJapanese Classical Dance, Nishikawa Minosuke and Hanayagi
Juraku in the first half of the run and Fujima Kanjuro and Onoe
Kikunojo in the second half of the run. It was a great success andthe tickets sold out immediately. This was a joint production of the
Ichikawa school of dance and the theater where it was presented,
Tokyu Bunkamura. It was very unusual to present a dance recital118

as a commercial production since usually with dance events likename-takings and memorial performances, the theater just rents
out the space and a recital is almost exclusively for other dancers inthe school and friends and family of the dancers.
In 2019, one striking event in the dance world were two dance
recitals that were billed as Memorial Recital Commemorating the50th Anniversary of the Death of the 2nd Head of the Hanayagi
School, Hanayagi Jusuke II and the 13th Anniversary of the Deathof the 3rd Head of the Hanayagi School, Hanayagi Jusuke III. One
was sponsored by the Hanayagi School of Dance K.K. (July 29, 30,
Kabuki-za). The other was held the previous year (November 26,
2018, Kabuki-za) after Hanayagi Takahiko became independentof the Hanayagi School and established his own school of dance,
the Toshiyagi School, in May and he became the head of the schoolunder the name Toshiyagi Takahiko. The sponsor of the firstrecital, Hanayagi Jusuke V, wrote in the program that in the 4 years
since becoming head of the school, “I realized what extraordinary
efforts must have been involved in establishing the school andmade me have renewed gratitude for their efforts.” In other words,
he made the key purpose of a school of dance the preservationof the tradition of the past. Schools of dance are a necessary evil
to preserve the art of the past. Seeing that after over ten years of
struggle over who would succeed as head of the Hanayagi School,
Hanayagi Takahiko had to establish his own school Toshiyagi,
the fact that Takahiko was still so attached to the tradition of the
Hanayagi School made me feel even more strongly that the organ119

ized dance schools are meaningless with regard to new creation.
At the 76th session of the largest national dance competition in Japan the All Japan Dance Concours (sponsored by
Tokyo Shinbun, March 24 – April 5, Meguro Persimmon Hall),in the traditional section of Division 1 (aged over 16), ryukyu
buyo (Traditional Okinawan Dance) took first and second place.
Ryukyu buyo had participated before, but this was the first timeever that they received a prize. This made me think that we must
rethink the official definition of what can be considered to be“Japanese Classical Dance.” ryukyu buyo is one important form of
traditional dance in Japan and since 2017, the Japanese government
has recognized it as an important Intangible Cultural Heritage
along with kabuki buyo, kyomai and kamigata mai. However,probably, the Japanese Classical Dance Association has never
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considered ryukyu buyo to be a form of Japanese dance. I strongly
believe that since the Japanese Classical Dance Association prides
itself to govern all that is Japanese Classical Dance as a form ofJapanese traditional culture, for the purpose of the further development of Japanese Classical Dance, it is necessary to reconsider
the possibility of admitting people involved with ryukyu buyo.
The dance boom in Japan is extraordinary. For a long time,
Japanese Classical Dance has been fixed in its attention to thepresent. I would like the people associated with Japanese ClassicalDance to treat the works of the past as a resource to be used, notthe be all and end all. Then I would like them to be a part of theJapanese dance boom.
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Finally, the 2018 Art Encouragement Prize awarded by the
National Cultural Agency went to kyomai’s Inoue Yasuko and the2019 Prize for Excellence went to Fujima Kiyotsugu.
Hirano, Hidetoshi
Nihon buyo (Japanese classical dance) critic. Born in 1944 in Sendai andgraduated from the theater division of the literature department of Waseda
University majoring in kabuki. Worked for a publishing house as an editor forsuch periodicals as Okinawa Performing Arts, the quarterly journal Folk Performing
Arts, and the monthly magazine, Japanese Music and Classical Dance. Then as a
critic, his interest has been in investigating the art of physical expression. He is amember of advisory committees for the Japanese Cultural Agency and theSociety for the Advancement of the Arts in Japan. In 2016, his book Critique:
History of Japanese Physical Expression – Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Period(Nihon Buyo-sha) was published.
(Translation: Mark Oshima)

BalletStaying Afloat in the Midst of Turmoil
Urawa Makoto

The Influence of Society on Ballet in Japan
2019 was a rough year for Japan on several fronts. The rift with
the Korean government widened and there were many domestic
political scandals. The tax hike and the ongoing trade friction
between US and China have worsened the situation for businesses
and have had an impact on household budgets. As climate change
continued to wreak havoc in many parts of the world, Japan suf-

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fered another heat wave in the summer and Tokyo metropolitan
area and the eastern part of the country were hit by a succession ofmega-typhoons.
While the nation has been preparing for the 2020 Tokyo
Olympics and Paralympics and Japanese athletes have demonstrated their prowess in rugby, tennis and other sports, dancecompanies are cutting back on their budgets and keeping a low
profile. During the year, many performances had to be cancelled
due to the series of mega-typhoons and the unavoidable suspension of transport services. These extraordinary events have madethe dance industry realise that the social problems could no longer
be ignored.
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The drop in the young population due to a low birth rate
(lesson fees and performance tickets are important sourcesof income for ballet companies in Japan) is gradually widening
the gap between the best and worst performing companies andregions, in the already threatened dance industry. Regional disparity is a huge issue in Japan. While some areas have seen wider
audiences, such as the major cities of the metropolitan region,
together with the three main cities in Western Japan (Kobe, Osaka,and Kyoto), as well as Nagoya and its surrounding cities, the otherregions have suffered greatly in terms of population, economy andinfrastructure in spite of strenuous efforts to revitalize them. As
a result, the dance companies in these regions are experiencing
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significant difficulties.
In general, the dance companies in Japan, and especially theballet companies, are concentrated in the major cities. In theregions, even in cities where the population exceeds a million,
there are almost no professional dance troupes. Some companies
in the regions invite renowned male dancers or choreographers totake part in their performances. Some of this year’s performanceswere outstandingly good, but most of them were simply not goodenough. Even in the metropolitan area, some medium-sized dancecompanies cancelled performances or scaled them down to showcases. I would like to pick out some of the most noteworthy andimpressive performances.

The Metropolitan Companies’ Fight for Survival
Firstly, I would like to talk about ballet companies in Tokyo,
where fifteen troupes present their own versions of The Nutcracker
at the end of every year, something very rare in the rest of theworld. The National Ballet of Japan, Matsuyama Ballet, Asami
Maki Ballet Tokyo, The Tokyo Ballet, and K-Ballet Company presented both new and classical productions throughout the year. On
the other hand, Noriko Kobayashi Ballet Theatre, Tokyo City
Ballet, Star Dancers Ballet, and NBA Ballet Company actively followed their own paths. Inoue Ballet Company invited the young
and aspiring Ishii Ryuichi to choreograph their new piece Silvia.
Tani Momoko Ballet Company presented a revised version of La
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Bayadère, directed by their new artistic director Takabe Hisako,
which met with great acclaim. In addition to their usual theatre
program, Ballet Chambre Ouest hosted Kiyosato Field Ballet, an
outdoor performance, in Yamanashi prefecture during thesummer. This 2019 production, their thirtieth, attracted large audiences from all over the country. Japan Ballet Association, thenational organization for ballet, put together a cast of first-rateballet dancers in a fully-fledged production featuring talented choreographers, both Japanese and foreign. And this year Shinohara
Seiichi’s choreography of Swan Lake showed flashes of highly original inspiration.
Despite the difficult conditions, many companies took on new
productions. K-Ballet Company, led by Kumakawa Tetsuya,
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presented Carmina Burana with the maestro Andrea Battistoni,followed by Madame Butterfly, their first Japanese-themed production. These two newly-choreographed productions, which ran from
September to October, attracted a lot of attention. Tokyo Ballet
Company took on Le Corsaire for the first time this year. They also
hired the world-renowned contemporary dancer and choreographer Teshigawara Saburo for their piece Remains of a Cloud (Kumo
no nagori). Their revised version of The Nutcracker, choreographedand directed by their artistic director Saito Yukari, had a clear
concept and was a huge advance for the company.
The major ballet companies worked very hard to attract new124

audiences, get more funding, and increase the number of productions. In spring and summer, Tokyo Ballet Company held various
public events outside their regular performance schedule, whichwere well attended by many families in the region. Tokyo City
Ballet also held promotional events in Koto ward where they arebased. Many companies have reshaped their fan bases to raise
more money. For example, Asami Maki Ballet Tokyo invites celebrity guests to its fan events.
More and more companies are performing outside of Tokyo.
The National Ballet of Japan, Matsuyama Ballet, K-Ballet Company
and other companies performed nationwide, and more companies
traveled abroad this year. Asami Maki Ballet Tokyo performed
Asuka in Vladivostok, Russia, in January and interacted with thelocal people. In June and July, Tokyo Ballet Company went on theirannual European tour with the piece The Kabuki. In July, Star
Dancers Ballet attended the Japan Expo in Paris. Commissionedby the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the company presented Dragon
Quest, a piece that transformed role-playing games into ballet.
Also in July, a small company called Okamoto Rumiko Ballet
Studio traveled to Vladivostok and performed Requiem, a piecebased on a mass murder case that occurred at Tsukui Yamayuri-en,
a care home for people with disabilities. In August, Matsuyama
Ballet performed at a pre-event celebrating the Seventieth Anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The
piece was called The White-haired Girl (Hakumojo), which they125

had already presented in China a number of times in the past.
Every year, many young talents graduate from ballet schools
attached to the ballet companies. More companies are setting up
satellite companies, called “junior companies”, to give young performers the opportunity to perform onstage. Such companies
include Asami Maki Ballet Tokyo, which has used this system for along time, K-Ballet Company, Tani Momoko Ballet StudioCompany, which is collaborating with art universities, Tokyo City
Ballet and Star Dancers Ballet.
And next, let me discuss the dancers. Yoshida Miyako is totake up the post of artistic director at The National Ballet of Japan
starting from Season 2020/2021. She retired from dancing after her
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performance Last Dance, hosted by NHK (Japan Broadcasting
Corporation) in August 2019. She starred in Frederick Ashton’s
Birthday Offering (Tanjobi No Okurimono) together with membersof The National Ballet of Japan and other top dancers based in andoutside Japan, and she also danced with her former co-member
Irek Mukhamedov at The Royal Ballet in Peter Wright’s The Mirror
Walkers. The performance was documented and broadcast on
NHK and viewers were moved by her integrity. Morishita Yoko,
who joined Matsuyama Ballet long before Yoshida, danced threemajor Tchaikovsky ballet pieces including Sleeping Beauty, as wellas Giselle, last year. She also starred in a new piece choreographedby Shimizu Tetsutaro. When you consider the amount of work that126

went into this program, it is hard to believe that she is over seventy
years old. The National Ballet of Japan did not go outside theirusual repertoire this year, but their range of dancers is extending
year by year.

Dire Situation in the Regions Despite Valiant Efforts
Although some progress was made by companies based inTokyo, in regions such as Kansai (Western Japan) and the Nagoya
area, not many original works were staged, compared to previous
years. Homura Tomoi Ballet Company based in Osaka and boasting a long tradition, maintained its usual output, while Jinushi
Ballet Company’s Little Mermaid, scaled up from the version premiered three years ago, was a significant achievement. Noma Ballet
Company has been presenting classical ballets newly interpreted byNoma Kei. This year’s Giselle, also choreographed by her, was anintelligent and highly innovative piece. Soda Ballet, led by Soda
Shizuko, invited Ijima Nozomi, a principal dancer at Houston
Ballet, to perform the lead role in Giselle. Nakano Mitsuko collaborated with her son Nakano Yoshiaki, a principal dancer at Pittsburg Ballet Theatre, to present both classical and contemporary
pieces. In Kyoto, Ryuko Arima Memorial Kyoto Ballet hosted
Giselle featuring Karl Paquette, an etoile of Paris Opera Ballet; his
farewell performance. By coincidence, two companies presented
Giselle in the same year. In Kobe, Sadamatsu Hamada Ballet has
been very active, putting on classical and contemporary productions including a revival of Romeo and Juliet, choreographed by127

Sadamatsu Shoichiro. Hatano Sumiko Ballet Studio presented asequence of pieces choreographed by Fukagawa Hideo. However,my impression is that regional companies in general staged lessproductions with fewer performances. I hope that this trend is only
temporary.
In Nagoya, by contrast, where a major theatre refurbishment
took place, there was a slight improvement compared to the year
before. Matsuoka Reiko Ballet Company maintained their highstandard, and the long-established Ochi International Ballet rallied
strongly with Ochi Kumiko’s Romeo and Juliet. Yoko Tsukamoto
Theatre de Ballet Company trusted to Fukagawa Hideo’s choreography. Setsuko Kawaguchi Ballet presented a powerful Giselle.
Sumina Okada Ballet, which mainly deals with classics and presented The Nutcracker this year, is making a steady progress.
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Other notable performances were few, but we should mention
La Sylphide by Morita Yuki Ballet from Hamamatsu city, and apiece by Midorima Ryoki from Okinawa who performed in Tokyo
for the first time in two years.

Japan Targeted by Foreign Companies
As usual, many foreign companies came to Japan this year.
We had Eifman Ballet for the first time in twenty-one years, andNetherland Dans Theatre (NDT) for the first time in thirteen
years. NDT seemed to have gained a new identity since Jiri Kylian’sera. The National Ballet of China came to Japan for the first timeand attracted a lot of attention. Mega-companies like The Royal
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Ballet, as well as smaller troupes also came to Japan featuring
renowned dancers such as Manuel Legris and Alessandra Ferri.
Productions featuring dancers from internationally-known balletcompanies such as Paris Opera Ballet stood out. Independent productions featuring foreign-based Japanese dancers are being put
on in cities like Tokyo, Yokohama and Osaka. Foreign choreographers are giving a number of workshops and classes in Japan, andmore and more ballet companies abroad are looking for Japanese
students interested in attending their short-term programs andsummer schools. Japan is becoming a target for the foreign
ballet companies.
The number of ballet competitions has continued to rise and it
is now over a hundred. Many have been cancelled, suspended andshortened, but new ones are still being organized and Japanese
dancers are taking part in competitions abroad. These competitions can be a pathway to foreign ballet schools and for this reason
they are popular with young dancers interested in working withcompanies abroad. Although foreign companies are having a hardtime just like their counterparts in Japan, more and more of them
are seeking marketing opportunities here.
Taking all this into consideration, it would be fair to conclude
that Japan is still a “ballet nation” in spite of negative factors suchas the low birth rate and the widening gap between the rich andthe poor.
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However, we cannot ignore the impact of the 2020 Olympics
and Paralympics. Many ballet companies are already having difficulties preparing for next summer, which will be a crucial period
for all of them.
Urawa, Makoto
His real name is Ichikawa Akira. He is a former professor of Culture Studies at
Shoin University. He has written articles for newspapers and magazines asadvisor and dance critic to The Association of Public Theaters and Halls in Japan.
He has been a member of various committees such as the Agency of Cultural
Affairs. He has also been on the judging panel of many dance competitions.
(Translation: Ishikawa Mai, Donncha Crowley)

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Contemporary Dance and Butoh

The Lack of Dance Literacy in Japan
Tsutsumi Hiroshi

People in Japan have never been so keenly alert to their culturalenvironment as in 2019.
At the arts festival Aichi Triennale, the exhibition After‘Freedom of Expression?’ (Hyogen no Fujiyuten—Sonogo) was cancelled temporarily due to defamatory attacks online, as well as aflood of complaints and threats by phone. Government comments
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on the issue amounting to an act of censorship led to the Agency
for Cultural Affairs withdrawing an already-promised grant. Subsequently, Vienna Art Exhibition, Kawasaki Shinyuri Film Festival, and the Japan Arts Council, which canceled the grant to thefilm Miyamoto (Miyamoto kara Kimie), also voluntarily gave
ground in view of the political atmosphere and a few complaints
from the public.
These problems shared the same cause: lack of cultural literacy. Principles of law were ignored, and the discretion of organizations was disregarded. People didn’t look at the context or at thebackground of the work; they simply condemned it and even called
it toxic. As a result, it was not just the freedom of expression of theartist, but also the freedom of the audience to see art, that wasaffected. And some demonstrators actually took to the streets toprotest against “killing culture”.
Luckily nothing like this happened in the dance field, but it
could happen at any time. Our society in general lacks culturalliteracy, and dance is no exception. People are not necessarily
familiar with this particular art form and its context can be easily
misunderstood.

Pioneers of Butoh Still a Force
Here is a good example. The founder of butoh dancing, Hijikata
Tatsumi (1928-1986) practiced a style called “ankoku butoh” (whichliterally means “dance of darkness”) that focused on the dark side131of the human body. He used indigenous Japanese body gestures andthe rural landscapes of the Tohoku region as motifs. However, nowadays butoh is often linked in people’s minds to naked bodies, whitebody paint, the obscene, the grotesque and the gruesome; which is
not everyone’s cup of tea. Sixty years have passed since the birth of
this style. At one time, people worried that butoh might not survive,
but first generation butoh dancer Kasai Akira, and the second generation Maro Akaji and Amagatsu Ushio have created new pieces
and their creative appetite shows no signs of flagging.
Kasai Akira adapted Shibusawa Tatsuhiko’s novel The Voyage
of Takaoka Imperial Prince (Takaoka Shinno kokaiki) into a dance
piece. In the Afterglow of the Devine—Dancing between tradition
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and creation (Kamigami no zansho—dento to sozo no awai nimau—) hosted by the National Theatre, he presented the world
premiere of Hearing the Voice of the Sea of Life (Inochi no umino
koe ga kikoeru), a dance piece in which the performers read theRecords of Ancient Matters (Kojiki) as a group. This was a spectacular piece combining ballet, butoh and eurythmy.
Maro Akaji, who received the Taneda Santoka Award in 2018,
premiered Notare ● (the meaning of ● is left for the audience tointerpret) with his own group Dairakudakan, honoring the life of awandering free-verse Haiku poet, Taneda Santoka, who was notafraid of dying like a dog.
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Amagatsu Ushio, the leader of the group Sankaijuku, presented
their first new piece in four years called Arc (Arc hakumei hakubo).
However, he himself was ill, so this was Sankaijuku’s first piece
without Amagatsu, giving young butoh dancers a great opportunity
to develop their craft. The two “arcs”, which can be seen as symbolsof the sun and the moon, slowly traverse the backdrop throughout
the piece. The dancers respond to the movement of the heavenly
bodies, enacting a scene of cosmic providence on stage. This piece
represented the culmination of all their work up to now.

Three Characteristics of Japanese Contemporary DanceJapanese contemporary dance, which arose in the 1990s,
differs from butoh dance in terms of background and contexts andhas three main characteristics.
1. A rtists are independent, and do not defer to authorities ororganizations.
2. A rtists have their own dance language and choreographymethods.
3. Artists use forms of expression that are accessible to people
both inside and outside Japan.
Prior to that, the teacher-pupil relationship was still deeply
rooted in the vertically structured Japanese dance industry. Japan
Ballet Association and Contemporary Dance Association of Japan
were national organizations and winning at competitions hosted bythem was crucial to acquiring status as a dancer. But the structure133of these organizations was deeply hierarchical, so their teacher-pupil
relationships sometimes influenced the results of competitions.
From the 1980s to the 1990s, artists began distancing themselves from these authorities and organizations to put on independent productions for a wider and more general audience. They
also toured abroad and held workshops open to everybody.

Teshigawara Saburo: A Watershed Moment
Teshigawara Saburo, who was awarded the Bagnolet International Choreography Award in 1986, has all three of the aforementioned characteristics. He was a pioneer in the Japanese contemporary dance world. He uses relaxation and breathing techniques
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to release tension from the body and to feel the surrounding
environment with his skin, so that eventually the texture of theatmosphere affects his improvisational movements. He taught thismethod, which he developed himself at workshops, and greatly
influenced the younger generation. Teshigawara changed the whole
dynamic of the dance scene and started a new era.
In 2019, Teshigawara presented a revival of Cinnamon, and premiered Forgetful Angel (Vergesslicher Engel)—the Hand of Paul Klee
(Wasureppoi tenshi Paul Klee no te) at Theater X (Cai). In his Update
Dance series, he presented ten pieces, including body print blue
chronicle, a hypothetical, introspective “body record” of the blind
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dancer Stuart Jackson, with whom he collaborated in Luminous, andalso Sato Rihoko’s first solo piece IZUMI (i.e.Fountain) choreographed by Sato herself. The Tokyo Ballet, which celebrated its
fifty-fifth anniversary this year, commissioned him to choreograph a
new piece, Remains of a Cloud (Kumo no nagori). It is based on
Fujiwarano Sadaie’s traditional thirty-one syllable poem; “It is hard
to know which cloud, but a cloud must have blown the smoke of myfriend. The smell of a citrus flower lingers in the sunset”. The poem
laments the death of his close friend, evoked by the scent of the citrus
flower; it could be said that this piece is also a sort of “body record”.

Artists that Emerged in the 1990s
After Teshigawara, a succession of young artists appeared
throughout the 1990s one after another. Many of them learnedballet as children but dropped out of the ballet world without being
recognized, or began dancing at the end of their teens, which is
generally considered too late. These artists didn’t embrace theorthodoxy of the time and did not rely on traditional methods andvocabularies. They came up with their own original movements,
combining release and floor techniques, and contact improvisations, which were all still new in Japan at that time.
Kitamura Akiko introduced the idea of a “grid system”
to her work with her own company Leni-Basso (1994-2009) inwhich dancers run along an imaginary grid on stage while doing
contact improvisations. After the company dissolved, she used
combat-style contact improvisation, which she took from the old135

Asian martial arts, to develop dance scenes. Recently, she has beenworking on her Cross-Transit Project which involves researchof traditional Asian dance, music, ritual and martial arts in different regions and collaboration with local artists. In 2019, she
presented Rhymes of Soil (Ryojin no uta), the last chapter of thisproject. Ryojin, which means “the dust on the beam” is based onan old Chinese historical story: once a beautiful song moved thedust that had settled on a beam. She invited composer and musician Mayanglambam Mangangsana from Manipur (Northeastern
India) to be dramaturg using the traditional musical instrument
called the “pena” and traditional songs. Dancers took turns toimprovise vocally (mimicking tabla and using children’s wordplay; a technique used in punglon, a type of Manipuri dance) and
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exchanged swift and sinuous steps with bare feet.
Ide Shigehiro presented phantom (gensoshindo) with his group
idevian crew. He also presented Gimmicks which he choreographedfor dancers based in and around the Kyushu area. This piece wasrevived at Kitakyushu Performance Arts Center, and also in
Miyazaki and Kumamoto prefectures. Ide exaggerates people’s
everyday movements, including habits and gestures, into dance
motifs. His choreography sometimes matches the rhythm of themusical phrase, but may also avoid the beat. The element of instability combined with the interactions produce an exquisite groove,
which is unique, cool and ironic.
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The group Condors led by Kondo Ryohei presented Like a Virgin,
a limited performance in Saitama, and went on a national tour with
Don’t Stop Me Now. For the opening performance of the newly
opened Brilla Hall (Toshima Arts and Culture Theatre), he created adance show called Bridges to Babylon together with 180 Toshima citizens. Condors uses loud rock music spiced up with refreshing andliberating dance. Their pieces include a sort of game of charades withlive music, puppet theatre and video. They are extremely entertaining
performances with lots of harmless humor and they have been
popular among children and adults for a long time now.
Physical theatre company GERO led by Ito Kim presented What
Are You to Me? (Anatawa watashino nannano?), Dance and Chorus

Without Scores by 100 people (Hyakunin de suru gakufu no nai
gassho), Dance and talk? or Talk and dance? (Odottekara shaberuka,
shabettekara odoruka). Voice, speech, body, and movement arebroken down and reconstructed in a performance full of absurdity.
Onodera Shuji’s Company Derashinera had been working on
stage adaptations of novels recently, but the piece presented in 2019
called Keep it simple–Mitate (Mitateru) wasn’t based on a novel.
They went back to the company’s roots and focused on nonverbal
physical expression.
Nibroll led by Yanaihara Mikuni premiered Drama Queen
137(Higekino hiroin). They came up with a new style of dance bycasting five actresses with minimal dance technique to play therole of a “tragic” heroine who constantly complains about theinjustice of modern society and her own misfortunes.
Strange Kinoko Dance Company announced their disbandment right at the moment when the Heisei era ended and Reiwa
began. This company, famous for its cute, upbeat dance that does
not stick to any specific choreography system, was active for thirty
years, performing not just in theatres but also in cafes, galleries
and even outdoors. Many of their fans were loath to accept it.

Post 2000: The Role of the Public Sector is Questioned
Japanese contemporary dance was supported by the Mecenat
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in the 90s, and by public venues and grants in the 2000s. After the
bubble burst, Mecenat gradually went downhill, but the numberof public cultural facilities grew, grant options expanded andart-related non-profit organizations became more prominent.
The most notable example of a publicly funded group is Noism,
a residential dance company at Ryutopia Niigata City Performing
Arts Center. Kanamori Jo is the artistic director of the theatre.
Fifteen years after its founding in 2004, the company was almost
forced to close due to the city’s financial crisis and a new mayor.
Their contract was eventually extended to August of 2022, but only
on condition that they improve their current situation. They were138

required to change their name to Noism Company Niigata, topromote the city worldwide, to contribute more to the surrounding
region, to hold more classes for students and citizens, to invite guest
choreographers from outside the company, and to hire additional
staff to avoid overwork.
To commemorate their fifteenth anniversary in 2019, Noism
revived Mirroring Memories (winner of the Mainichi Art Award2018) in its Nigata premiere, and presented Fratres 1 for the firsttime. They also premiered R.O.O.M., Mirror in the Mirror as part oftheir Experimental Dance Series Vol.1. These were all medium-sized
productions, but the idea was to enlarge their repertoire and makeit easier to tour around the region and overseas. They also presented a double bill consisting of new pieces, one choreographed byKanamori and the other by Mori Yuki. Mori stepped down as theartistic director of Theater Regensburg Tanz in Germany andmoved his base to Japan.
At TPAM 2019, ANTIBODIES Collective led by Higashino
Yoko and Kajiwara Toshio presented Cassette 100. This piece is a
re-creation of a multimedia performance premiered in Manila bycomposer Jose Maceda in 1971. A hundred participants walked
around the high-ceilinged foyer of Kanagawa Arts Theatre eachplaying ethnic music on a cassette player. Many theatre producers
from overseas greatly enjoyed it. They also returned to Inujima in
Okayama prefecture with their piece Entropical paradise—2nd
Chapter— (Entropy no rakuen dai nisho). An event called Dance

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Truck Tokyo was organized by Japan Dance Truck Association forwhich Higashino acts as a representative. This took place at fivedifferent locations in Tokyo using a shipping container as a theatre
and featuring different artists each day. They are planning toperform in fifteen different locations within Tokyo prefecture
including the islands up until the fall of 2020.
Suzuki Yukio presented The Promise of Stars (Hoshi noyakusoku), a piece created by middle and high school students in aworkshop hosted by Yamato Art Culture Hall. In Life Spins, Time
Flows (Jinseiwo tsumuguyoni tokino nagarewo kizamuyoni) producedby Sagamihara Culture Foundation, Suzuki gave a one night only
performance on the rooftop of a department store that was scheduled
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to close. This performance beautifully concluded the shared historyof a store and a community.
Kitao Wataru not only put on jungle-concrete-jungle! with his
own group Baobab, but also presented a showcase Tokyo Dig/Risethat originated in a workshop hosted by Tokyo Metropolitan
Theatre. He also acted as a director of Kichijoji Dance Rewrite
Vol.1, a project aimed at revitalizing the next generation of contemporary dance artists which was hosted by Kichijoji Theatre.
Since 2010, publicly-funded or co-sponsored productions havebecome more prominent, while the number of independent produc140

tions has decreased. Fewer subsidies are granted to contemporary
dance projects, and the contemporary dance boom which was at its
peak in the 2000s is now fading, and artists are having a difficult
time attracting audiences. Even choreographers who won competitions or were successful overseas cannot sell enough tickets. They
have no choice but to raise money through crowdfunding. Someartists are not willing to put on a show unless they get a grant.

Social Trends and Dance Style
There are now fewer opportunities for artists to create pieces
suitable in scale for theatres. Instead, they present their pieces,which are likely to be site-specific, at theatre festivals.
Kamimura Megumi presented her piece Strange Green Powder

as part of F/T 19, which was performed in a tearoom in a Japanesegarden. This subtle performance improvises physically on the preparatory ritual and the allusive “mitate” style of the tea ceremony.
Saori Hala who is based in Berlin, presented no room in theformer Ex-Noguchi Room and its garden, designed by Isamu
Noguchi and Taniguchi Yoshiro, a historical building located on the
Mita campus of Keio University. This was a pre-event of Dance New
Air 2020. The piece questioned the identity of artists by comparing
Hala’s own life with the life of Isamu Noguchi, who wrestled withthe problems of his mixed nationality and copyright difficulties.
Tokikatachi led by Obana Aiko presented an interactive perfor-

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mance where performers walk around all three floors of an empty
building as part of Bakurocho Art Project Beyond Façade. The performers communicated with the audience non-verbally in thisbuilding, in what was once a wholesaling district. Performers andthe audience shared the shadowy space vacated by the wholesalers.
So, dance is always affected by the social background of theperiod. The artists I mention here are interested in freeing themselves from dance itself as opposed to showing off their dance techniques in theatres. Fortunately, audiences are mostly generous
enough to try to see the piece for what it is without bias, to understand the intention of the artists and to absorb the dancers’ physical awareness. Although lack of literacy rarely leads to abusive or
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insulting language, most of these works are difficult to explain orverbalize and are therefore less likely to win proper recognition.

The Need for Dance Literacy
In the case of Aichi Triennale, a courageous program, to which
a positive public reaction was anticipated, was confronted with “artphobia” provoked by a spate of internet trolling which resulted inconflict and divisions. The incident set a bad example of a publicorganization easily giving into threats. Shortly before the closing of
the exhibition, Takayama Akira, one of the artists participating in
the festival, came up with the idea of setting up the “J Art Call
Center” where artists could personally answer phone calls from the142

general public. In my humble opinion, the host organization shouldhave prepared for such an eventuality from the beginning.
Art museums and theatres should play a permanent role ineducating their audiences in art literacy. In that sense it could also
be said that the dance field is not sufficiently serious about educating its audience and fanbase.
Tsutsumi, Hiroshi
Born in 1966 in Kawasaki. He graduated in theatre studies in the department ofliterature at Bunka Gakuin. He is an editor, theatre critic, and digital marketer. He went
freelance after working as editor for art magazine art vision, entertainment magazine
apo, theatre magazine Engeki Book and play script magazine Serifu No Jidai. His
editorial work includes The Revival of the Acharaka Theatre (Acharaka Saitanjo) by
Soratobu Kumonouedan Goro-ichiza, performing arts magazine Bacchus, Performing
Arts in Contemporary Germany (Gendai doitsu no performing arts), Peter Brook’s The
Road to “Battlefield” (Peter Brook— “Battlefield” sosaku no kiseki) and more.
(Translation: Ishikawa Mai, Donncha Crowley)Television Dramas

TV Dramas Raising Questions
about Our Mindset
Nakamachi Ayako
Tension Created in Original Scenarios of Mystery Dramas
In 2019, a mystery drama produced from an original scriptand delivered simultaneously on SNS and VOD attracted attention.
Your Turn to Kill (Anata no ban desu, i.e. ‘It’s your turn’) (NTV)
was neither based on a novel nor a manga but it was the viewers
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who solved the mysteries and guessed the perpetrator (referred toas ‘examine’) on SNS, which created excitement for them. The newlywed couple Tezuka Shota (played by Tanaka Kei) and Nana
(Harada Tomoyo) move to a new apartment and get involved in amurder game. It begins as a small talk at the monthly residents’meeting and those who are involved get killed one after another.
This drama series was broadcast for six months although mostseries usually conclude in three months. One of the main characters, Nana, is killed in the last episode of Season I and the theme of
Season II is “revenge”. Many characters appeared in the series andsomeone was killed every week. It was an entertainment proactively arousing the viewers’ interest through SNS and this new
approach drew attention. Conceived and planned by Akimoto
Yasushi, script by Fukuhara Mitsunori.
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Mr. Hiiragi’s Homeroom (3-nen A-gumi: Ima kara mina san wa
hitojichi desu, i.e. ‘3rd Grade A Class–You’ve now been taken
hostage’) (NTV) was an original mystery drama set at a highschool. The homeroom teacher Hiiragi Ibuki (Suda Masaki) takes
his students hostage and barricades himself inside the school forten days, just before their graduation. Hiiragi makes his students“take this class” in order to think for themselves and find out thetruth about the death of their classmate (Kamishiraishi Moka) who
committed suicide six months ago. The teacher relentlessly questions his students who avoid looking at the truth and their dialogue
is full of tension. The setting is quite extreme such as threatening
to blow up the school building or that giving the wrong answer
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means someone has to die but it passionately raises a question thatthe young people of today should be confronting. The script was
written by Muto Shogo. The series won the Grand Prize of the
Drama Series category and Suda Masaki won the Prize for Best
Leading Actor of the Tokyo Drama Awards 2019. Suda also won
the Individual Award in the TV category of the 56th GalaxyAwards (the programme dele was also considered).

Dramas Set in Workplaces Depicting Recent Work Styles
Different ways of thinking among generations often create
dramatic situations at work. ‘The Work Style Reform Bill’ was partially put into effect in April 2019 and brought about major changes
in people’s mentality, especially regarding the long-hour working
environment. The Tuesday Drama Series No Working After Hours!

(Watashi, teiji de kaerimasu, i.e. ‘I’m Going Home at a Fixed Hour’)(TBS), aired from April, highlighted the confusion and the different ways of thinking among working people. The secondary title ofthe first episode was “For the Era of a New Working Style! The
Woman Who Always Left Work at the Fixed Hour”. Higashiyama
Yui (Yoshitaka Yuriko) is a software development director. She finishes work at the fixed hour and enjoys her time after work at her
favourite restaurant. She gradually changes the mindset of her
co-workers and clients who cannot break away from the practice ofworking long hours and from power harassment. The heroine’s
easy-going mode of living was suggested to the viewers. Based on
the novel by Akeno Kaeruko, the script was written by Okudera
Satoko and Shimizu Yukako. The drama series won the Monthly

145

Galaxy Award in June 2019.
The heroine showing her resolute attitude at her workplace inDrama 10: We Can’t Pay You for This! (Kore wa keihi de ochimasen!,i.e. ‘Cannot spend company expense on this!’) (NHK) was exhilarating. Moriwaka Sanako (Tabe Mikako) works in the accounting
department of a company making soaps and bath salts. She performs her role, processing each account by making precise judgements. By doing so, she cuts through each section’s old ways of
doing things, which eventually eases the rigid organizational
climate. Based on Aoki Yuko’s manga We Can’t Pay You for This!
Ms. Morikawa of Accounting Department, the script was written by
Watanabe Chiho, Fujihira Hisako and Hiruta Naomi.
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An excellent drama depicting the realities and difficult situations that the staff of television companies experience also
attracted attention. The HTB 50th Anniversary Drama: Channeru
wa sonomama! (i.e. ‘Stay tuned!’) (Hokkaido Television) is basedon the manga with the same title by Sasaki Noriko, who gatheredmaterials from Hokkaido Television to write the story. Yukimaru
Hanako (Yoshine Kyoko) is a less-than-able reporter, who has justjoined the news department of the Hokkaido Hoshi Television. She
exerts herself in a bold and dashing manner, which is her own
unique way of doing things. Her demeanour was depicted vividly
in the drama. The script was written by Mori Hayashi. The drama
won the Grand Prize in the TV Drama category of the Awards
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presented by The National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan in 2019.
Srou na bushi ni shitekure-Kyoto satsueijo rapusodi (i.e. ‘Make
it a slow warrior – Kyoto Studio Rhapsody’) (NHK) was about creating a period drama using NHK’s state-of-the-art equipment suchas drones and high-speed cameras that were brought on location. It
was a piece of entertainment shown in the style of behind-thescenes drama. The passion of the actors and the staff’ struggling
with the latest technology was conveyed in a refreshing tone andmanner. Minamoto Takashi both wrote and directed this drama,
which won the 74th Agency for Cultural Affairs National Arts
Festival Award for Excellence in the TV Drama category in 2019.

Looking at the Essence of the Characters’ Loose Bonds
There were appealing TV dramas that made us look at things inour daily lives that are important for us and gradually changed ourway of thinking. Drama 24: What Did You Eat Yesterday? (Kinou
nani tabeta?) (TV Tokyo) depicted the everyday life of the lawyer
Shiro-san (Nishijima Hidetoshi) and the hairdresser Kenji (Uchino
Seiyo), who are lovers living together, focusing on them sitting
down at the dinner table. Shiro-san is passionate about cooking
dinner and when the two men have dinner together, they show their
deep affection for each other. Fulfillment and warmth could be felt
from the depiction of their everyday life. The script based on the
manga by Yoshinaga Fumi was written by Adachi Naoko.
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The Tuesday Drama: You and I on G String (G sen jou no anata
to watashi) (TBS) portrays the traumas, confusions and hesitationsof the twenty-five year old office worker Kogure Yaeko (Haru), theforty-one year old housewife Kitagawa Yukie (Matsushita Yuki), thenineteen-year old college student Kase Rihito (Nakagawa Taishi)
and the instructor Kuzumi Mao (Sakurai Yuki), who have met at aviolin class run by a musical instrument store. They cannot find away out of their adverse situations and what the characters go
through in their minds is depicted at a slow pace. The script was
written by Adachi Naoko based on a manga by Ikueumi Ryo.
The same goes for Saturday Drama:If Talking Paid, My Story isLong (Ore no hanashi wa nagai) (Nippon TV). The protagonist
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Kishibe Mitsuru (Ikuta Toma) is a thirty-one year old ‘NEET’ (i.e.
Not in Education, Employment or Training) and lives with hismother Fusae (Harada Mieko). He quits university and starts
running a coffee shop, which has been his dream, but it does notwork out. He has not had a regular job for six years. It is a domestic
drama that begins when his elder sister Akiba Ayako (Koike Eiko),
her husband Koji (Yasuda Ken), and their young daughter Harumi(Kiyohara Kaya) return to their mother’s house to live together fora while. Driven by his strong-minded elder sister, Mitsuru’s pointless arguments heat up. Through their dialogues, their true feelings
slip out and Mitsuru and the other members of the family slowly
find a chance to move forward. It was a drama series using an orig148

inal script. Each episode was thirty minutes long and two episodes
were broadcasted every time. The script was written by Kaneko
Shigeki, the chief producer was Ikeda Kenji and the producers wereHazeyama Hiroko and others.
There were other dramas about slowly moving through life.
One of them was The Man Who Can’t Get Married Yet (Madakekkon dekinai otoko)(Fuji TV, starring Abe Hiroshi, script by
Ozaki Masaya), which was remade after thirteen years. The otherproduction that also attracted attention was Friday Night Drama:
Nagi’s Long Vacation (Nagi no Oitoma) (TBS, starring KurokiHaru, based on Konari Misato’s comic book, script by Oshima
Satomi), depicting a heroine who quits her job because she is tiredof trying to fit in by adjusting herself to the people around her andmoves to the suburbs.

Having the Strength to Venture into Social Issues
There were some excellent television dramas dealing withcurrent themes and social issues. The NHK Special Drama: Phone
Fraud Children (Sagi no ko) (NHK Nagoya) was produced throughcarrying out in-depth interviews about an actual case. The portraits of both the perpetrator and the victim of the fraud weredepicted, highlighting the unconscious sense of guilt in the juniorhigh school child who was responsible for the scam, the young
people who are at the centre of an unequal society, and also themisery of the victims. The structural aspects of a complicatedcrime, the multilateral depiction and the critical spirit stood out.

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(It was written by Takada Ryo and directed by Kawakami Takeshi.
This production won the Excellence Award of the Single Drama
category of Tokyo Drama Awards 2019, The Best TV Drama Awardof the Programme category of the 45th Hoso Bunka Foundation
Awards and the Encouragement Prize of the TV category of the56th Galaxy Awards.
The Saturday Drama: Swindle Detective (Sagideka) (NHK) also
dealt with fraud cases. Imamiya Karen (Kimura Fumino), a detective working for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, is incharge of bank transfer fraud cases and is busy charging fraudgroups. The details of the cases and the systematic approach of thecriminal gangs had a sense of reality and the characters who were
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trying to make their way in the modern world were appealing as
well. (The script was written by Adachi Naoko. The drama won theGrand Prize in the TV Drama category of the 74th Agency for
Cultural Affairs National Arts Festival and the Encouragement
Prize of the 57th Galaxy Awards for the first half of 2019.)
The Saturday Drama: Digital Tattoo (NHK) depicted people
who were driven into the corner due to defamation or having theirpersonal information spread on the internet. The script was written
by Asano Taeko and it won the Award for Excellence in the Television Drama category of the 74th Agency for Cultural Affairs
National Arts Festival (2019).
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There was also a growing interest in sports during 2019. The
Rugby World Cup was held in Japan, stirring excitement and thenational team’s slogan “one team” became a buzzword. Sunday
Theatre: No Side Manager (No Side Game) (TBS, script written by
Ushio Kentaro, based on the novel by Ikeido Jun), depicting therebirth of a corporate rugby team, was broadcast just before thegames and drew attention. In addition, the historical drama series
Idaten: Tokyo orinpikku banashi (i.e. ‘Idaten: A Tale of the Tokyo
Olympics’) (NHK, script by Kudo Kankuro) was also aired, depicting the history until the Tokyo Olympics was held in 1964, as astep toward the upcoming Tokyo Olympic Games in the summerof 2020.

Nakamachi, Ayako
A professor of Nihon University College of Art. She works as a member of theSelection Committee of the Executive Committee of the Agency for Cultural
Affairs National Arts Festival Awards and the selection committee of broadcastrelated awards including International Drama Festival’s Tokyo Drama Awards.
She has written critical essays, mainly about television dramas, for newspapers
such as Ano dorama, kono serifu (i.e. ‘That drama, this line’) for Nikkei Shimbun
and ‘Antenna’ for Yomiuri Shimbun. She has also written books including
Nippon no terebi dorama nijuichi no meizerifu (i.e. ‘Famous lines from twenty-one
Japanese TV dramas’).
(Translation: Sumida Michiyo)

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DEVELOPMENTS IN JAPAN and OVERSEAS

154

Former PARCO Theater Photograph provided by: PARCO Co., Ltd.
Photographer: Nishimura Atsushi

Theatre Topics

A Theatre that Continues to Challenge—The Rebirth of PARCO Theater
Sugiyama Hiromu
The Scramble Intersection in Shibuya is in a festive mood, packed
with young people on days when the national football team ofJapan wins a match at the world cup. People also gather there forHalloween wearing original clothes and again on New Year’s Eve.
In recent years, many foreign visitors flock there to take selfies. The
area is now known as a meeting spot for young people but fiftyyears ago, it was a quiet town where Shibuya River flowed and residential areas co-existed with red-right districts and restaurants.
Shibuya changed drastically when the Tokyo Olympics took
place in 1964. The Olympic Village was built in nearby Yoyogi
Park. The swimming competition and basketball games were held
at Yoyogi National Gymnasium and weightlifting events at Shibuya
Public Hall, and the public broadcaster NHK began to relocatefrom Uchisaiwaicho to Shibuya. PARCO Theater (called Seibu
Gekijo up until 1985) opened in 1973, the year NHK completed
relocation. Politics was the centre of focus back then. Shinjuku wasthe centre of youth culture, where modern theatre productions
155

were performed by Shingeki (i.e. ‘new theatre’) troupes such as
Bungakuza and Mingei Theatre Company as well as undergroundtheatre groups. In Ginza and the adjacent Hibiya area, Kabuki and
Takarazuka’s revue shows were presented. Shinjuku and the
Ginza-Hibiya areas were the two main theatre hubs during thattime but when PARCO Theater opened, the theatre map started
to change.
One of the main driving forces was the ‘Saison Culture
Initiative’, suggesting a new lifestyle to many young people who
were looking for something new by organizing cultural infrastructure and PARCO Theater took a central role. They used pop TV
commercials and posters for advertisement and also opened affiliated facilities nearby, namely PARCO Museum, Cine Quinto and
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Club Quattro to promote what is now called “edgy” culture in thefields of fine arts, movies and music. PARCO Theater also experimented with various kinds of projects besides theatre. In addition
to putting on the latest plays written by Abe Kobo and Yamazaki
Masakazu, they produced ‘Music Today’, which was planned,
organized and supervised by contemporary music composers,
Takemitsu Toru and Takahashi Yuji, and became a series. Their
programme was full of variety and it included concerts, ballet andcontemporary dance performances and fashion. Going to Shibuya
meant you could get in touch with something new and stylish. The
young generation responded to this strategy.
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Even from a theatrical point ofview, the plays they presented wereunique. PARCO Theater produced
new plays to find new theatre creators and set a new trend. A music
theatre production written by Inoue
Hisashi and directed by Kimura
Koichi attracted tremendous interest. This was followed by premieresof notable pieces such as Yabuhara,
the Blind Master Minstrel (Yabuhara
kengyo)(1973), which was invited to
the Edinburgh Festival, Shakespeare
Yabuhara, the Blind Master Minstrel (1973)

in the Twelfth Year of the Tempo Era

(Tempo juninen no Shakespeare)(1974), which included all thirty-seven plays written by Shakespeare, and Ame (i.e. ‘rain’)(1976),
which was a play about people getting tied up by power throughconflicts created by words, all of which are known by theatre fanstoday. PARCO Theater also brought on board the standard-bearersof the underground theatre movement, who had presented ambitious and controversial plays one after another in tent theatres andsmall theatres, and presented Terayama Shuji’s The Miraculous
Mandarin (Chugoku no fushigi na yakunin)(1977) and Duke
Bluebeard’s Castle (Aohigeko no shiro)(1979), Tsuka Kohei’s The
Day the Atomic Bomb is Dropped on Hiroshima (Hiroshima ni
genbaku o otosu hi)(1979), The Story of Shitaya Mannencho (Shitaya
mannencho monogatari)(1981) written by Kara Juro and directed

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by Ninagawa Yukio, and Tango at the End of Winter (Tango fuyuno
owarini)(1984), written by Shimizu Kunio and directed by
Ninagawa Yukio.
This trend accelerated when PARCO Space Part 3 opened
nearby in 1982. At Parco Space Part 3, Miyamoto Amon, who
was still unknown, directed Ich bin Weill (1989) and when it was
well-received, he was offered to direct musicals at PARCO Theater.
He presented Astaire by Myself (1990) and Girls Time (1995)
among other productions, which lead to his Pacific Overtures on
Broadway (2004). The playwright Mitani Koki also started off at
PARCO Space Part 3 with The Gentle Twelve (Juninin no yasashii
nihonjin)(1992) and Dah! Dah! Dah! (1993), and later on made his
debut at PARCO Theater, which then became his home ground.
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He wrote new plays for the theatre
starting with No Exit! (Deguchi
nashi!)(1994), followed by Nobody
Else But You (Kimi to nara)(1995)
and By Myself (1997). Academyof Laughter (Warai no daigaku),
which was premiered at Aoyama
Round Theatre in 1996 and wasrevived at PARCO Theater in 1998.
Mitani has written a total of twenty-three plays produced by PARCO
Academy of Laughter (1996)

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Theater. Even after 2000, PARCO
Theater continued to commission

young theatre people for its projects; namely Nagatsuka Keishi’s
My Rock’n Roll Star (2002), Kudo Kankuro’s Dumb Beast (Donju)(2004), Horai Ryuta’s LOVE 30 (LOVE 30 Otoko to onna no
monogatari ‘Ani eno dengon’)(2006), Motoya Yukiko’s [I’m] Happy,[This is] Fantastic, Thank You, Really! (Shiawase Saiko Arigato
Majide!)(2008), Maekawa Tomohiro’s Enter Through the Narrow
Gate (Semaki mon yori haire)(2009), Iwai Hideto’s A Recluse Wants
to Go Outside (Hikky, sotoni detemitano) (2012) and Nozoe Seiji’s
My Hole, His Hole (Boku no ana, kare no ana)(2016).
Another major characteristic was that PARCO Theater boldly
took on the challenge of presenting foreign plays regarded as difficult to put on at other theatres. The most impressive play was Mart
Crowley’s The Boys in the Band (1983), which is about gay men whogather at a birthday party one night, portraying their solitude, alienation, self-hatred and other dark sides of the humanmind. It was premiered on Broadway in1968 and was made into a movie in 1970
but when you think about the social conditions back then in Japan, it is easy to
imagine how much courage it took topresent a play with a homosexual man as
the central character. The audience supported the production and it was followed by Martin Sherman’s Bent and

The Boys in the Band (1983)

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Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song Trilogy in
1986, and the series was regarded as ‘a gay trilogy’.
PARCO Theater also premiered Neil Simon’s plays in Japan.
Quick to recognise the Broadway-hitmaker, the theatre presented
The Odd Couple (1979), Chapter Two (1981) and I Ought to be in
Pictures (1982) in a row and created a Neil Simon boom. It also
turned the spotlight on the richness of Irish theatre through presenting Martin McDonagh’s black comedy titled The Lieutenant ofInishmore (2003), which was directed by Nagatsuka Keishi, as wellas Pillow Man (2004) and The Beauty Queen of Leenane (2007).
Caryl Churchill’s Cloud 9, which has a strong social message, wasalso presented at PARCO Theater, revived several times at PARCO
Space Part 3 and then mounted at PARCO Theater again in 1995,
making the play into a memorable long-term commitment. It also
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presented numerous stimulating productions to the Japanese audience, including Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are
Dead (1985), David Mamet’s American Buffalo (1986) and a Sam
Shepard season consisting of Buried Child, True West and Fool forLove (1986).
During the economic boom in the 1980s and the first half ofthe 1990s, PARCO also started inviting companies from abroadsuch as the Georgian State Theatre, Merce Cunningham Dance
Company, Theater Na Yugo-Zapade and Oleg Tabakov Theatre
from Moscow, Mokwha Repertory Company from South Korea
and the Shanghai Kunqu Opera from China. The most impressive
foreign company was Cricot 2 led by Tadeusz Kantor based in160

Krakow in Poland, which presented its masterpiece The Dead Class(1982) and Let the Artists Die (1990), and seeing those productions
was enthralling, never to be forgotten. PARCO Theater also invitedCompagnie Philippe Genty’s puppet shows, which portrayeddream worlds by integrating pantomime, puppet shows and circus
acts. The company’s performances were well received and it was
invited back to Japan several times, making a unique achievement
for PARCO Theater.
Meanwhile, the two-hander musical Show Girl (1974) and thereading of Love Letters (1990) were small in scale but should be
mentioned because they created new trends in the Japanesetheatre scene. Show Girl was a stylish love story performed by
Hosokawa Toshiyuki and Kinomi Nana with music, dialogues
and dance. Fukuda Yoichiro wrote, devised and directed the showand his sophisticated taste alongside Miyagawa Yasushi’s exquisite choice of music created a show full of fun and surprises. It
was put on every year for sixteen years until 1988 and now Mitani
Koki has succeeded Fukuda to write and direct the show with
Kabira Jay and Sylvia Grab forming the duo. Love Letters is a
simple show with an actor and actress sitting on chairs andreading A. R. Gurney’s script written as letters that they wrote toeach other. It has been performed with different cast every timeand has been kept fresh as the actors only do one read-throughbefore performing the play, which has been performed 467 times
over twenty-six years (including readings at venues other than
PARCO Theater). Aoi Yoji translated and directed the play but
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Let the Artists Die (1990)Show Girl (1974)
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after he passed away, Fujita Shuntaro took over his place and has
been directing it since 2017. It is needless to say that this longlasting project was the beginning of ‘dramatic reading’, which has
become very popular nowadays.
Unlike star-led productions, in which the cast is decided by the
top star, or plays performed by theatre companies, which prioritize
some other logic, the producers of PARCO Theater produced showswith the interest of the piece itself in mind, which is the essential
model for theatre-making, and this was a significant turning point.
Moreover, PARCO Theater was unique in that it carried on its
endeavor to create new types of plays for the audience. In otherwords, they presented a consistent image by putting on pieces that162

matched their policy, welcomed by curious young people andcreated the atmosphere of Shibuya. It is not too much to say that
Shibuya was formed through a culture emanating from theatre.
PARCO’s competitor Tokyu Group, which also owns a railway
company and a department store, opened theatre facilities one after
another in Shibuya. The first one was a large-scale cultural complex
called Bunkamura that opened in 1989, containing Orchard Halland Theatre Cocoon. Cerulean Tower Noh Theatre followed in 2001
and then Theatre Orb in 2012. In this way, they have enhanced theirimage as a cultural provider. The Tokyu Group has undoubtedly
been inf luenced by the Saison Culture, and Shibuya has now
become one of the hubs for theatre performances.
Public theatres, namely Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre that

opened in 1990, Saitama Arts Theater that opened in 1994, and the
New National Theatre, Tokyo and Setagaya Public Theatre that
opened in 1997, have continued to create new productions byappointing directors as their artistic directors. The theatre distribution map is about to change once again but even though thetheatre closed in 2016, PARCO Theater’s production team has
staged Mishima Yukio’s The Sea of Fertility (Hojo no umi) in 2018and has continued to present stimulating pieces such as Ferdinand
von Schirach’s court drama Terror (2018), Lucy Kirkwood’sChildren (2018), which reminds us of the Fukushima Nuclear
Power Plant incident, and Lucas Hnath’s A Doll’s House, Part 2(2019), which is a sequel to the modern classic play. As long as they
stick to their challenging policy, they will keep providing topics

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and expectations, since PARCO Theater has no small role to play in
the Japanese theatre scene.
Sugiyama, Hiromu
A theatre journalist. He was born in Shizuoka in 1957. He joined Yomiuri
Newspaper in 1981. For around thirty years until 2017, he wrote theatre articles
and reviews as well as running the Yomiuri Theatre Awards. He is also thedirector of the Association of Japanese Theatre Companies and a member ofthe selection committee of Hayakawa Tragedy and Comedy Award.
Visuals of flyers provided by: PARCO Co., Ltd.

(Translation: Sumida Michiyo)

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Playzone 1986-2014 Thank you! Aoyama Theatre (July 2014, Aoyama Theatre)

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Theatre Topics“The-Show-Must-Go-On”—In Memory of Johnny Kitagawa
Hayashi Naoyuki

On July 9, 2019, Johnny Kitagawa, the CEO of major entertainment
company Johnny & Associates and a producer of numerous idols,
passed away. He was eighty-seven years old. He hardly everappeared in front of the press while he was alive but his death
attracted a lot of media coverage.
Johnny Kitagawa produced young boys that could sing anddance, who were a new type of idols. He nurtured popular boy
bands beginning with Johnny’s, followed by Four Leaves, Tanokin
Trio, Shibugakitai, Shonentai, Hikaru Genji, SMAP, Tokio, V6,
Kinki Kids, Arashi and others. At the same time, he was a producer and director who brought about enormous changes in theJapanese musical industry. He was involved in theatre for morethan half a century. In April 1965, some members of Johnny’s performed in Flaming Curve (Hono no kabu), written and directed by
the novelist Ishihara Shintaro and presented at Nissay Theatre. In
1963, two years previously, My Fair Lady was presented at Shinjuku
Koma Theater. It was the first Broadway musical to be shown inJapan. He pioneered musical theatre in Japan, when it was not a165

popular genre.
Johnny Kitagawa was born in Los Angeles, USA. He became
interested in show business at an early age and when he returned toJapan after the Korean War, he formed a boys’ baseball team called
Johnny’s at Washington Heights, a housing complex for the US
military, where he lived. One day, on his day off, he went to see themusical film West Side Story with four boys in the team. He wasentranced by the movie and in 1962, he founded Johnny &Associates with the four boys and entered the world of entertainment. The name given to the first group he produced was Johnny’s.
It was the 1960s, when Japan was recovering from devastations ofwar, the economy was growing rapidly and people were seeking
affluence. This was how the history of Johnny & Associates began.
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In 1966, Johnny’s performed in Treasure Island (Takarajima)
written and directed by Ishihara and presented at Nissay Theatre.
Johnnys’ letterzine ‘J&M’, which started in 1967, stands for“Johnnys and Musicals”, showing the passion he had for musicals
even back then. The four members of Johnny’s went to the US andtook voice and dance lessons and learned their trade, so to speak.
In 1967, Johnny Kitagawa wrote and presented Sometime,
Somewhere‑The Story About the Four Leaves (Itsuka dokokade‑Four Leaves monogatari). The stars of the show became the group
Four Leaves that was formed after the Johnny’s. In 1969, Four
Leaves Young Surprise ‘The Boys’ (Four Leaves Young Surprise‘Shonentachi’) was premiered and it became the origin of The Boys
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(Shonentachi) which continued to be performed for over fifty years.
Shonentai’s original musical Playzone was launched in 1986and performed annually at Aoyama Theatre. At the beginning,
Johnny Kitagawa was purely a producer and invited directors fromoutside the company but he later wrote and directed the shows
himself. In 1990, he asked Ninagawa Yukio to direct Hamlet, as aplay within one of his shows. He began to collaborate with
Ninagawa Yukio, who had already won high acclaim outside Japan.
Okamoto Ken-ichi, Kimura Takuya, Okada Jun-ichi, Morita Go,
Ninomiya Kazunari, Matsumoto Jun and other talents who belong
to Johnny & Associates played the leads in Ninagawa’s productions.
Ninagawa’s intense directions helped them grow as actors. It wasJohnny Kitagawa who had paved the way for them.

Shonentai starred in Playzone until 2008 and they were succeeded by Imai Tsubasa and other junior casts for fifteen years
until Aoyama Theatre closed in 2014. There was another series
titled Show Play (Show Geki), in which Shonentai starred in 1992,
Sakamoto Masayuki, Inohara Yoshihiko and Okada Jun-ichi in
1997, Takizawa Hideaki in 1998 and Domoto Koichi in 1999. Thenat long last in 2000 came Shock, which was written, devised anddirected by Johnny Kitagawa, starring Domono Koichi, and premiered at the Imperial Theatre. The Imperial Theatre is the hub
theatre for Toho Co., Ltd., a major entertainment company inJapan, and it is a theatre just as prestigious as Kabuki-za. It gives
stage actors special status to star in a show at the Imperial Theatre.
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Millennium Shock (November 2000, Imperial Theatre)
Photograph provided by: Theatrical Department of Toho Co., Ltd.

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Some people objected putting on a Johnnys’ show at the Imperial
but it proved to be extremely popular and the tickets were sold out
straight away after they were put on sale. The quality of the production itself was very high and they soon stopped criticizing. It has
been performed over 1,700 times as of 2019 and has become aregular show. Johnny used to say, “Keep on doing what you think isgood. Just do your own thing and it will be wonderful,” and his
belief was unshakeable.
In 2004, Dream Boy was launched, starring Takizawa. At
present, Shock, Johnnys’ Island, and other Johnnys’ shows are presented at the Imperial Theatre for four to six months of the year. In
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Johnny’s King & Prince Island (December 2018, Imperial Theatre)
Photograph provided by: Theatrical Division of Toho Co., Ltd

Takizawa Kabuki (April 2010, Nissay Theater)© Shochiku Co., Ltd

2006, Toho’s rival Shochiku alsopremiered Takizawa Enbujo starring Takizawa at Shinbashi Enbujo
and the show with a Japanese traditional taste was presented anu mber of t i mes. T h is show
evolved into Takizawa Kabuki in2010 and became a regular show at
Enbujo from 2014. Moreover,
A.B.C-Z Johnnys’ Legend (ABC-za
Johnnys densetsu) and The Boys(Shonentachi) was presented at
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Nissay Theatre and Johnnys’ Ginza
was presented at Theater Creation.
Nowadays you can see a Johnnys’show somewhere in Tokyo every
month of the year.
Johnny & Associates acquired
its own theatre called the Globe Tokyo. The theatre that opened in1988 during the economic bubble, was handed over to Johnny &Associates in 2002 and is now run by a group company. In 2004, aseason of West Side Story was presented at the Globe with Higashiyama Noriyuki and Nishikiori Kazukiyo of Shonentai and Sakurai
Sho and Matsumoto Jun of Arashi playing the lead. Johnny Kitagawa had finally realized his dream of forty years to present West
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Side Story.
His passion for creating stage productions that no one has seen
before was quite extraordinary. When Shock was premiered, heinsisted that the actors should not just fly on stage but also above
the audience. Holes were made in the ceiling of the Imperial
Theatre urgently to make it happen. He went to Broadway and Las
Vegas to see shows and when he found a staging that inspired him,
he would pay an expensive license fee to use it in his own shows.
He was among the first to introduce large-scale LED Vision andprojection mapping, and his ability to predict future trends was
remarkable. “If there is one minute you don’t like during the three170

hour show, you’ll get your money back.” He was quite confident
that the audience would enjoy his shows.
Ninagawa Yukio, who it was said would throw ashtrays at
actors during rehearsals if he did not like the way they performed.
was forced to admit, “I can’t do that” when he saw Domoto Koichi
fall down twenty-two steps in Shock. Johnny Kitagawa’s staging
was fraught with danger but it must have been because there was a
deep trust between him and Domoto Koichi that made it possible
to work together at this level. Extraordinary staging and gimmicks
fraught with hazards such as trapeze, sword-fighting under an
artificial waterfall using tens of tons of water and playing Japanesedrums while spinning 360 degrees were Johnny Kitagawa’s ideas.
His freewheeling “anything goes” thinking combined the East andWest. “I don’t want to do what’s already been done in other musicals or stage shows. Other people’s ideas belong to them and I don’t
want to mix them up with my ideas.” He did indeed come up withgenius ideas.
His unshakable belief was ref lected in his shows. Johnny
Kitagawa returned from the States during the war and lived in
Osaka but when the air raids intensified, he evacuated to
Wakayama Prefecture. He saw burnt ruins and many corpses.
Drawing on his experiences, he depicted war scenes in The Boysand Johnnys’ Island, and had the boys play the parts of kamikaze
pilots. He belonged to a generation with actual experience of war
and while he presented spectacular shows, his focus was always on

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conveying the tragedies of war and the preciousness of peace.
In September, a memorial event was held at the Tokyo Dometo mourn his death. 3,500 people who had worked with him and88,000 fans paid floral tribute. The leaflet handed out to those who
attended carried this message from Johnny. “Although there aresadnesses in the world, our shows shall always end happily because
I want the world to have a happy ending.” He wished for a peacefulworld from the bottom of his heart.
Johnny Kitagawa always stayed in the background but in 2003,
he received the Special Award of Kikuta Kazuo Theatre Awards for“his great passion and outstanding achievements in the world of
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show business over many years”. In 2011, he was certified by the
Guinness Book of Records for holding the world record in two categories, which were for producing the most concerts and for producing the most No. 1 singles, and again in 2012 for producing themost chart-topping singers.
Johnny Kitagawa made a significant contribution to the worldof musicals by attracting new audiences. Musical audiences werelimited for a long time until he had the idea of casting idols, who
attracted a wider public. At first, people came to see their favourite
idols but the more shows they saw, the more interested they becamein theatre and in musicals. Cutting-edge staging grabbed their172

attention and would not let go, and they kept on coming for more.
Johnny & Associates is now one of top three crowd-pulling entertainment companies besides Takarazuka Revue Company and
Shiki Theatre Company, and it has also produced numerous
musical actors.
Johnny Kitagawa often insisted that “the show must go on”,
which was also the theme of some of his shows including Shock.
The show must go on no matter what and even after his death, hisshows did indeed go on.
Higashiyama Noriyuki co-directed Johnnys’ Island in 2018and Domoto Koichi worked on the script and staging of Shock.
Takizawa retired as a performer but became a producer and thevice president of Johnny & Associates, succeeding Johnny Kitagawa
as the director of Takizawa Kabuki. He had created the necessary
environment for his shows to continue after his own departure.
Shortly after his death, ongoing productions such as Dream Boy
and Johnnys’ Legend were billed as “planned, written and directedby Johnny Kitagawa”, thus carrying on his vision. When Endless
Shock was presented from February 2020, he was credited as“Eternal Producer”. He was the very embodiment of “the show
must go on”.
Hayashi, Naoyuki
In 1978, he joined Nikkan Sports Newspaper, where he is mainly in charge oftheatre and entertainment. He is on the selection committee of the Agency for
Cultural Affairs National Arts Festival and Tsuruya Nanboku Memorial Award. He
is an experts committee member of Japan Arts Fund Management Committee
and a member of the committee for training programmes at the National
Theatre, etc. He is also a member of the Japan Theater Arts Association.

173(Translation: Sumida Michiyo)

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174

Ground and Floor (2013) Kyoto Experiment 2013, Kyoto Prefectural Citizens’ Hall Alti
©Shimizu Misako

Theatre Topics

The Era of Okada Toshiki– Performing Arts in the 2010s
Uchino Tadashi
When we consider the development of Japanese-language performing arts during the ten years of the 2010s, we can think of theperiod as the aftermath of the so-called 3.11 - the Great East Japan
Earthquake that occurred on March 11, 2011 and the accident at
the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant that was caused by theearthquake. As of December 10, 2019, 15,899 people were dead,6,157 seriously or slightly injured, and 2,529 reported missing
because of the quake. It goes without saying that the earthquake
and the nuclear accident had a great impact on the lives of so many
people. The Fukushima nuclear accident is described as an accident
here, but in connection with the historical political issue of thesafety of nuclear power plants, which had been a problem since theend of World War II, it not only created many evacuees, but also
led to anti-nuclear power movements involving a wide range of citizens and anti-government movements.
In the midst of these turbulent times, the performing arts in
the Japanese-speaking world showed several characteristic trends
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in response to 3.11., and to some visible changes in socio-culturalliving environments. One of them, of course, is how to deal withthe problems of the earthquake. In conjunction with this, the question is how to think about the nuclear accident. Therefore, as amatter of course, many works were produced that dealt directlywith the theme of community reconstruction and/or how to deal
with the loss and those left behind in the disaster. With the passageof time, this kind of awareness of direct reference to the disastertended to fade away, but even at the end of the 2010s, a masterpiece
was created that baldly challenged the issue of the nuclear power
plant accident from a historical perspective based on careful andmeticulous research: Tani Ken’ichi’s “Fukushima Trilogy,” consisting of three full-length plays, 1961: The Sun Rising at Night, 1986:
The Mobius Strip and 2011: Words Waiting to be Spoken. Tani
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recently received the 64th Kishida Kunio Drama Award for thetrilogy. In a broader context, the decade witnessed the emergenceof a large volume of work that can be called “plays of social critique” from the viewpoint of ordinary citizens, in conjunction withthe rise of historical revisionism and economic inequality insociety. These plays were often highly praised by basically liberal
theatregoers in Japan.
What about the reexamination of the form of theatre itself,
which had already shown this trend since the 2000s and is generally considered to have responded to the changing times, the era
known as globalization? This is an attempt to reexamine the forms
176of theatre that are inseparably related to the changes in everyday
life experiences, conscious or not, where the Internet has become
part of the environment and social media has become a majormeans of communication for many people. Could it be said that
this trend has accelerated since 3.11?
The artists, mainly born in the 1970s, who started their careers
in the first decade of the 21st century, became the generation that
felt a moral necessity to respond to 3.11., and I would argue that
their methodological explorations have been deepening, albeit insmall numbers, in terms of their theatrical experimentation. Representative examples include Okada Toshiki (1973–), a playwrightand director of Chelfitsch; Tanino Kuro (1976–), a playwright anddirector of Niwa Gekidan Penino; and Yanaihara Mikuni (1971–),

a dancer, choreographer, playwright, and director of Nibroll.
Although these artists share a certain degree of similar aesthetic sentiments, their artistic outputs and political consciousness
are quite different and should be discussed separately. However,
due to the limited number of pages in this article, I would like toreview the work of Toshiki Okada as an excellent example of thecultural and political characteristics of Japanese-language performing arts in the 2010s.
Okada, who won the 49th Kishida Kunio Drama Award for
Five days in March (2004), is known for his actors’ unique acting
style. Five days in March portrays a young couple who just keep

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having sex at a love hotel in Shibuya before and after the US Invasion of Iraq in 2003. It is an ambitious work to depict the psycho-physical realities ofyoung people, being sensitive to the geopolitical
position of the nation ofJapan at the time of its
premiere, while they feel
politically helpless. The
theme and the narrative
were not only felt to be“real” to the younger generation of the audience

Five days in March (2011) Kanagawa Arts Theatre ©Yokota Toru

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members. The performance itself harbored the discovery of an
innovative method of acting that could be called the grammar of
the new performance style Okada created with the actors: the newand precarious relationship between the words of the play and theactors’ bodies.
Actors just talk in their everyday colloquial language withseemingly undisciplined, somewhat sloppy gestures. Okada’s
acting theory, which is sometimes called “super-colloquial theatre,”
was nothing but an acute approach to the contemporary sense ofbody and language in the socio-cultural living environments of thepeople, where disciplinary power transformed itself into adminis178

trative power in the age of globalization and neo-liberalization.
The dramatic text is sometimes written in the third person, as in anovel, while the characters speak in the present or past tense.
However, despite these complicated narrative techniques, Okada/
Chelfitsch’s acting body was simply undisciplined from a traditional perspective, so his activities attracted small yet fervent attention from the peripheral sectors of theatre professionals. The mainstream was more annoyed, saying, “That’s not theatre.” Okada
nevertheless came to be commissioned works by public theatres
such as the New National Theatre and the Setagaya Public Theatre.
For the New National, he presented Enjoy in 2006 (written anddirected by Okada) and directed Tatoo, written by Dea Loher, in2009. For the Setagaya Public Theatre, Okada directed Friends by
Abe Kobo in 2008. Those were, according to Moriyama Naoto, “themanifestations of strong expectations to do ordinary theatre” (*)
for Okada, which he would turn down eventually after those
attempts. He never continued his interest in works that relied on
domestic, conservative notions of theatre.
That was because Five days in March had its first overseas performance in 2007 and made a big break in continental Europe.
After that, Okada was able to continue his creation in the formof international joint productions; that is, without necessarily
needing Japanese funds. This is where the market of performing
arts as cultural capital unique to continental Europe can operate
and where their exponents compete for a wide variety of theatricalaesthetics as a result of globalization. The old orientalism was no179

longer needed for the intellectually mature continental multiculturalism of Europe. Okada’s work, which intuitively grasped something universal about globalization, was enthusiastically accepted
as being extremely fresh (= “universal”), regardless of the localityof Japan or the Japanese language. The first international
co-production was Free Time(2008), written and directedby Okada and performed inJapanese by KUNSTENFESTIVALDESARTS (Brussels),
Wiener Festwochen (Vienna),
and Festival D’automne (Paris).

Free Time (2008) SuperDeluxe ©Yokota Toru

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3.11. had a great influence on Okada, as it did on other artists.
He left Tokyo and moved to Kumamoto because of the earthquake
and the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident. The influence of thiscan be seen clearly in Present Location, premiered in 2012, which
was a rather obvious reflection of the nuclear accident issue, and in
Ground and Floor (2013), he took up the issues of the dead and theliving in general, rather than the dead in the disaster. At that time,the desire to question the formal aspects of the performance itself
was temporarily abandoned, and the direction was changed toshare his own unique world view with the audience, using the here
and now of theatre, while redefining the meaning of fiction anddrama in theatre, and utilizing the unique acting method that had
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already been established. It was followed by Super Premium Soft W
Vanilla Rich (2014), which tackled the problems of labor and economic disparities at convenience stores as a unique institution in
Japan, and Time’s Journey Through a Room (2016), which cameback to the issues of the earthquake and the dead. Almost all theseworks became possible with the international joint production creation scheme and were performed both in Japan and abroad.
Okada’s name spread beyond Europe in the meantime andthere were international joint productions such as Zero Cost
House (text only, 2012) with Pig Iron Theatre Company (the US)
and God Bless Baseball (written and directed by Okada, 2015), thefirst Japan-South Korea joint production for him as the opening
program of the Asian Cultural Center (Kwangju/South Korea),one of the largest cultural complexes in Asia. With Pratthana – A
Portrait of Possession (composed and directed by Okada, 2018),
based on the novel by Thai novelist Uthis Haemamool, his activities in Asia are also expanding. The work was in the Thai language,
premiering in Bangkok, and later touring to Paris and Tokyo.
In Germany, where Okada was highly regarded, his collaboration with the Münchner Kammerspiele, a municipal theatre with along history, has had historical significance. At the beginning,
there was a German version of Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner, and theFarewell Speech. After that, Okada continued to present the theatrewith new work for three consecutive years, including Nō Theater
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God Bless Baseball (2015) Festival/Tokyo15, Owlspot Theatre ©Usuyama Kikuko
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DEVELOPMENTS IN JAPAN and OVERSEAS(2017), No Sex (2018), and The Vacuum Cleaner (2019), all written
in German and performed by the theatre’s ensemble actors. The
last work, which focuses on the problems of hikikomori and aging,is currently invited to Berlin’s Theatertreffen. This is a prestigious
festival held in Berlin every year, at which only ten productions
from more than 400 works in German-speaking regions are
selected to be presented each season (scheduled for May 2020). This
is indeed a historical achievement.
In contrast to Okada’s exceptional achievements overseas,
many of the performing arts in the Japanese-speaking world have,over the past 10 years, become inward-looking, parochial and
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self-evident. Younger artists are very conscious of the issues Japan,

Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner, and the Farewell Speech (2016)
Münchner Kammerspiele, Kammer2 ©Julian Baumann

The Vacuum Cleaner (2019-2020) Münchner Kammerspiele, Kammer1 ©Julian Baumann183

as their immediate living environment, is facing: an ever-lasting
economic recession, a declining birth rate and an aging population. These are so overwhelming for them that it is unthinkableand even unethical to go beyond the national and/or geopoliticalborders for the global and the universal. There is a strong tendency
among artists working in Japan to start from their immediacy,
their very small locality. This locality is sometime misunderstoodas “resistance” not “retrogression.” However, this sometimes leads
to a series of critical thinking practice as theatre which may leadto the spheres of the universal, where a serious analytical view of
locality at a very close distance is the key. This is what Okada did
with Five days in March. That is why, in the next ten years that havealready begun, though it may sound paradoxical, we must keep
paying closer attention to the practitioners whose actions wage
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very limited local “warfare” and resistance.
Reference* https://www.wonderlands.jp/archives/12201/

Uchino, Tadashi
Uchino received his Ph.D. in Performance Studies from the University of Tokyo(2002). He was a professor at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at the U.
of Tokyo and is currently a professor at Gakushuin Women’s College. Uchino’s
major writings include: The Melodramatic Revenge (1996), From Melodrama to
Performance (2001), Crucible Bodies (2009) and The Location of J Theatre (2016).
(Translation: Uchino Tadashi)

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SP ECI AL F E AT URE‘Theatre Born in Conflict Zones 11’

SPECIAL FEATURE

Liberian Girl (from the left) Kane Suzuki, Kawabe Kunihiro, Nagatomi Chiaki, Isoda Mie,
Okuda Ippei, Yoshino Yoshiko

Special Feature‘Theatre Born in Conflict Zones’

A Girl’s Struggle Reflect Our Current World—The Dramatic Reading of Liberian Girl186

Hamada Motoko

During wartime and conflicts, it is not just the soldiers fighting on
battlefields who become victims. Needless to say, wars and conf licts should never happen but once they start, civilians also
become victims. Sexual violence toward women is a serious
problem not only during times of peace but also in times of war. It
is said that sexual assaults on women first drew attention during
the war in former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
In 2018, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to a doctor fromthe Democratic Republic of Congo, who had fought against sexual
violence in conflict, and also to a human-rights activist, who cameback alive after being sexually abused by the soldiers of the IslamicState (IS). They were chosen for their efforts to end the use of sexual
violence against women as a weapon of war and armed conflict,which showed the strong resolution of the international society.
Adding fiction, the horrifying realities of violence and injustice that go unchecked and punished in conflicted countries are
depicted in Diana Nneka Atuona’s immersive play Liberian Girl(2013), set during the First Civil War in Liberia (1989-1996). Translated by up-and-coming Odashima Soshi and directed by Inaba
Kae of the theatre company Bungakuza, it was presented as areading performance. The play with anguished cries of various
people around the fourteen-year old girl Martha scattered here and187(from the left) Nagatomi Chiaki and Isoda Mie
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SPECIAL FEATURE

there had a strong impact. It was also the first play written by the
Nigerian writer born in the UK.
Some people might not be familiar with Liberia. The media
often covers the Middle East as a conflicted zone but African countries are seldom mentioned.
Liberia was founded in the nineteenth century by slaves who
were freed and had returned from the US. The country namecomes from the English word “liberty” referring to “freedom” thatthe former slaves had achieved themselves. However, the confrontation between the indigenous tribes and the American Liberians
188

called “Americo-Liberians”, who are descendants of the freed
slaves, created a complicated situation and in 1980, soldiers fromlocal tribes launched a military coup. The civil war began when theAmerican-Liberian Charles Taylor rose up against them and this isthe backdrop of the play.
During the civil war that continued on and off for fourteen
years since 1980, over 200,000 people were killed and a million
people became evacuees and refugees. Moreover, 15,000 children
fought with weapons as child soldiers and there were over 40,000
cases of sexual violence toward women.
The set for the reading only had chairs lined up in a row. The
actors of Bungakuza wearing black clothes hummed as theyentered the stage and started talking. As they spoke each wordwith articulate diction and changed the tone of delivery, clear
images were formed in our minds, taking the audience towartime Liberia. The skills of the actors of Bungakuza, known asa theatre company placing importance on “text”, worked well forthe reading.
The web of confrontation in Liberia’s civil war was very
complex. During the time of the story, the Mano ethnic group,
which the character Martha (played by Isoda Mie) belongs to, iscracked down by the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) led
by Charles Taylor, although they used to join forces. Martha soon
has to go to ‘Sande Bush’ in order to go through a rite of passage into

189

adulthood but she does not want to give up going to school despite
the wish of her grandmother Mamie Esther (Yoshino Yoshiko).
The conversation between
the grandmother and granddaughter is interrupted when
their friend Amos (Kawabe
Kunihiro) comes along and tells
them that the rebels are coming.
T he sit u at ion women faceduring civil war is summarizedin Amos’s words, “How manystories have we already heard

Yoshino Yoshiko

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about the evil things the rebels, allsides, have been doing to ouryoung daughters, eh?”
Martha dresses up as a boy to
Kawabe Kunihiro

prevent being raped and heads
toward Monrovia, the capital of
Liberia, with her grandmother but
when they reach the checkpoint,
they are stopped by NPFL’s childsold iers na med K i l ler (Ka ne
Su zu k i) a nd Double Trouble

190(Okuda Ippei) and are separated
from each other. Ironically, Martha
is mistaken for a boy and recruited
as a child soldier. The wheel ofKane Suzuki

fortune starts to spin and the story
unfolds around Mar t ha, now
called “Jack”, surging with scenes
full of tension.
The cruel and insane characters of Killer and Double Trouble,
who could rape women or commit
murder at any time, were depictedvery vividly. They made us feel

Okuda Ippei

uncomfortable not only because of their behaviour but because thetranslator Odashima chose words spoken by today’s young people,
which made their dialogue sound very realistic. Suzuki and Okuda
delivered the lines dynamically and made the characters even more
powerful and real.
Martha has no idea what they would do to her when they findout that she is a girl. In order to survive, she has to behave like them.
However, another girl named Finda (Nagatomi Chiaki) is brought
along by force and ironically becomes yet another timebomb
for Martha.
If it was just an accusation of “war crimes”, a docudrama

191

would be all that was needed. But the author Atuona, in her wellcrafted debut work, questions violence and sexuality through thewavering identity of Martha, who disguises herself as a boy and isfeeling as though she is walking across a minefield. The scene inwhich Killer prompted Martha to rape Finda is symbolic. Woman’s
status is described in lurid detail from woman’s standpoint.
In another scene, the apparition of the grandmother Esther
appears and criticizes Martha for turning into a child soldier.
Martha’s pang of conscience and conflict are reflected in a skillful
way, adding depth to the story. Isoda delicately expressed how
Martha’s feelings had changed and made the audience feel empathy
for her.
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The play ends with a glimpse of hope. The story about civil war
in a distant country resonated deeply inside the Japanese audience’s
heart, perhaps because Martha symbolizes not only the people suffering from war but also the people who are oppressed by tyranny
and discrimination. The boys, high on drugs given to them andfilled with hatred toward the enemy instilled by the adults during
military training, are also victims of the distorted world.
It also raises the question whether people can kill others in thename of war in order to protect themselves. Or whether we canmaintain our humanity no matter what the situation may be. The
play asks cutting and universal questions.
192

Before the reading started, Michael Jackson’s Liberian Girl
(recorded in the album BAD) was played in the venue. The title ofthe play comes from this song and in the emotional love song, hesings, “You came and you changed my world”. The world does notchange that easily. However, it will not change unless you reallywant to change it.
As a related project, a public talk was held before the reading
performances of Liberian Girl. The title was “Contemporary
Theatre in Israel—Looking at Motti Lerner’s The Murder of Isaac”
and Professor Murai Hanayo of the Faculty of Arts and Letters at
Kyoritsu Women’s University (specializing in Theories of Western
Theatre and Israeli Theatre Studies) was invited to give a lecture.

Since the nation was founded in 1948, Israel has been in conflictwith Palestine.
The Murder of Isaac (premiered in 1999 at the Municipal
Theatre of Heilbronn, Germany) is a play about the assassination ofthen Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in November 1995 by a
far-right Jewish fundamentalist. In 1993, peace negotiations
between Palestine and Israel were under way following the historic
Oslo Accords but the death of Rabin set back the peace efforts. The
Murder of Isaac has a double structure of a play within a play.
Inmates in a state-run PTSD rehab centre for the Israeli Defense
Forces try to get to the bottom of Rabin’s assassination by putting193

on their own play.
Professor Murai explained about the origin and developmentof Israeli theatre culture in order to introduce the background of
The Murder of Isaac. Theatre culture developed in Israel after thefounding of the nation, getting through a series of wars, and it wasalso interesting to learn that theatre served as means to underpin
the country’s existence. In addition, after the activities of Oded
Kotler in the 1970s, public theatres have been seeking commercial
success since the late 1980s. The professor also reported that plays
dealing with Palestine had been excluded from the Acco (Acre)
Theatre Festival in recent years, which is a worrying situation.
When President Trump relocated the US Embassy to Jerusalem,
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he clearly showed that he was in favour of Israel, and since then, we
have no clue as to whether Israel and Palestine will reach a peaceagreement. To add to it, there is growing tension between the US
and Iran since the beginning of 2020, and the situation in the
Middle East remains unpredictable.
The Murder of Isaac deals with a sensitive issue that came as a
big shock to the Israelis. Therefore, it has not been presented in
Israel yet although it was performed in the US and Germany. The
Murder of Isaac will be introduced to Japan at the ‘Theatre Born inConflict Zones 12’ scheduled in December 2020 and the reading
performances will surely become a rare and precious opportunity
194

to present the play for a live audience. In theatre, contradictions
and absurdities in the world that are not conveyed through news
coverage can be brought to light through individuals. This kind of
approach is only possible through theatre and it is something tolook forward to.
Hamada, Motoko
She joined The Mainichi Newspapers in 1989. After working in the Arts andCulture Department of Osaka Head Office, she moved to the Arts and Culture
Department of Tokyo Head Office. She is in charge of contemporary theatre
and entertainment. Besides writing dramatic reviews, she currently contributes
articles for ‘Hibikore kangeki’ carried in the evening paper’s arts and culture
corner and also web articles for ‘Butai juo tokidoki naname’. She studied at
Rothberg International School at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1995
to 1996.
(Translation: Sumida Michiyo)
Photographs taken by: Ishizawa Chieko (including the photograph on p185)

About the ‘Theatre Born in Conflict Zone’ series
The centres of the International Theatre Institute (ITI) around the world
have carried out projects called ‘Theatre Born in Conflict Zones’ as
an attempt to build peace through theatre. The Japan Centre of ITI
embarked on the ‘Theatre Born in Conflict Zones’ project in 2009 as partof the study and research for the publication of Theatre Yearbook. The
series has continued for eleven years and twenty-six prominent plays
not yet known in Japan have been introduced through translation,
reading performances, lectures given by the authors, etc. The plays
have been published from the third year of the series. If you wish to
get hold of the booklet carrying the translation of Liberian Girl, pleasecontact the Japan Centre of ITI.

195

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SPECIAL FEATURE‘Theatre Born in Conflict Zones 11’<<Reading>>
December 13-15, 2019 at Atelier West, Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre
Title: Liberian Girl
Written by Diana Nneka Atuona
Translated by Odashima Soshi
Directed by Inaba Kae (Bungakuza)
Cast: Isoda Mie, Yoshino Yoshiko, Nagatomi Chiaki, Kane Suzuki, Okuda Ippei,
Kawabe Kunihiro and Yokota Eiji (voice only)*All of them are members of Bungakuza.

Post-performance Talks
Moderator: Seki Tomoko
December 14: Inaba Kae, Odashima Soshi

196

December 15: I naba Kae, Odashima Soshi, Okano Hideyuki (speciallyappointed lecturer of the Faculty of Applied Sociology at Kindai
University/ researcher in the fields of cultural anthropology,
armed conflict and civil war)

LectureDecember 12, 2019 in Room 1204 of the Main Building at the Ikebukuro
Campus of Rikkyo University
Theme: “ Contemporary Theatre in Israel—Looking at Motti Lerner’s The
Murder of Isaac”
Lecturer: Professor Murai Hanayo of the Faculty of Arts and Letters at Kyoritsu
Women’s University (Theories of Western Theatre and Israeli TheatreStudiesInterviewer: Otani Kenjiro (stage director/ leader of ‘company ma’)

Japanese Centre of International Theatre Institute
President

Nagai Taeko

Vice-Presidents

Abiko Tadashi
Yoshiiwa Masaharu

Managing Director Sota Shuji
Directors

Ataka Risako
Ito Hiroshi
Ozasa Yoshio
Odagiri Yoko
Kasuya Haruo
Kida Yukinori
Sakate Yoji
Shindo Yoshikazu
Nakayama Kaori
Nomura Mansai
Hayashi Hideki
Bando Tamasaburo
Hishinuma Yoshiaki
Matsuda KazuhikoMiwa Elica
Wazaki Nobuya

Auditors

Kishi Masato
Kobayashi Hirofumi

Advisers

Otani Nobuyoshi
Kawamura Junko
Sakomoto Jun-ichi
Tanokura Minoru
Nagae Iwao
Nomura Man
Hatano Yoshio
Hori Takeo
Matsuoka Isao197

(As of March 27, 2020)

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Companion Volume‘Theatre Abroad 2020’(Japanese)
These articles do not appear in‘Theatre in Japan 2020’.

198

World Theatre Day Message by Shahid Nadeem

Theatre in Asia and Africa
China

The Potential of Peking Opera----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tamura Yoko

South
Korea

Interests in Debate and Process-Based Theatre----------------------------------------------------- Lee Seong-Kon

Laos

Dynamism Born from the Fusion of the Traditional and the Contemporary

Iran

The Iranian Theatre That Never Stops in Tehran------------------------------------------------ Naghmeh Samini

South
AfricaThe Significance of Popular Theatre------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kusunose Keiko

LebanonMonodrama, or Theatre in a Time of Crisis------------------------------------------------------------------ Abido Bacha

IsraelAt a Crossroads, Seventy Years on From Israel’s Founding----------------------------------- Murai Hanayo------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Olé Khamchanla

Theatre in the Americas and Oceania
USA

An Overview of the State of the Performing Arts in New York and America----- Shioya Yoko

BrazilBrazilian Theatre and the Impact of the New Government’s Policies------ Maria Fernanda Bomero

New
Zealand

At the Intersection of Culture: Performing Arts by Maori, Pacific Islander Migrants, andAsian Migrants------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kosugi Sei

Theatre in Europe

199

UK

The Principles and Reality of the European Family--------------------------------------- Motohashi Tetsuya

Ireland

Portrayals of Women and Multidisciplinary Adaptations-------------------------------- Sakauchi Futoshi

Germany / Opposition to and Acceptance of Multiculturalism, a Continuing Conflict
Austria / ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hagiwara Ken
Switzerland
FranceA Lingering Disquiet: The Trigger for the Future?---------------------------------------------------- Fujii Shintaro

GreeceClassical Theatre Ten Years on from the Financial Crisis------------------------------------ Yamagata Harue

Macedonia I Am Not Wild Flesh, Theatre Is No Twig in the Wind-------------------------- Ivanka Apostolova Baskar
RussiaYear of Theatre 2019: The Enduring Power of Theatre--------------------------------------- Shinozaki Naoya

Developments in Japan and Overseas
Round-Table Discussion: Performing Arts Across Borders—Looking Back on International Exchange during the Thirty Years of the Heisei Era———————————————— Sato Maimi, Miyagi Satoshi and Nakamura Akane (Moderator: Date Natsume)

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ITI Centres (as of 27th March, 2020)

200

Americas

AfricaArgentina
BrazilCuba
MexicoUSA
Venezuela

Algeria
Benin
Botswana
Burkina Faso
Cameroon
Central African Rep.
Chad
Congo Dem. Rep.(Kinshasa)
Congo Rep.(Brazaville)
Egypt
Ghana
Ivory Coast
Madagascar
Mali
Mauritania
Morocco
Niger
Nigeria
SenegalSierra Leone
Sudan
Togo
UgandaZimbabwe

EuropeArmenia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Belgium(Flanders)Belgium(Wallonia)
Croatia
CyprusCzech Rep.
Estonia
Faroe Islands
FinlandFranceGeorgia
Germany
GreeceHungary
Iceland

Italy
KosovoLatviaLuxembourg
North Macedonia
MonacoMontenegro
Netherlands
Romania
RussiaSerbiaSlovakia
Slovenia
Spain
SwedenSwitzerland
TurkeyUK

ArabAlgeria
Egypt
Iraq
JordanKuwaitMoroccoOman

Palestine
Saudi Arabia
Sudan
Syria
UAE
Yemen

Asia PacificArmenia
Azerbaijan
Bangladesh
China
Georgia
India
Indonesia
Iran
IsraelJapan
South Korea
Mongolia
Philippines
RussiaSri Lanka
Vietnam

201

The list of ITI Centres is updated as needed on the ITI website below.
International Theater Institute ITI / Institut International du Théâtre ITI
Office at UNESCO UNESCO, 1 rue Miollis, 75732 Paris Cedex 15, France
Headquarter in Shanghai 1332 Xinzha Road, Jing’an, Shanghai 200040, China Tel: +86 (0)21 6236 7033
info@iti-worldwide.org / www.iti-worldwide.org

Theatre in Japan

Theatre Yearbook 2020

東宝演劇

https://kageki.hankyu.co.jp/