General meeting on April 11, 1973.

Developments in Japan and Overseas

What We Learned Digging ThroughRare Materials from the Early Days of
the ITI Japanese Centre

185

2023, the fiftieth anniversary of the first issue of
the Theatre Yearbook, as a gateway
Sota Shuji (Managing Director and Secretary General, Japanese Centre of International Theatre Institute)

The March 2023 publication of Theatre Yearbook 2023, a fiscal 2022 projectof the Japanese Centre of International Theatre Institute, marks fifty years
since publishing the first issue in this series, Theatre Yearbook 1973 (notingthat in 1972, the year before that first issue, we published its predecessor,
the International Theatre Materials Collection). Taking that as an opportunity, the Yearbook editorial board decided to go back another twenty or so
years before that inaugural publication and reacquaint ourselves with thesituation and historical development of international performing arts
exchange in the Japanese Centre’s earliest days.
Theatre in Japan

Theatre Yearbook 2023

DEVELOPMENTS IN JAPAN and OVERSEAS

Naturally, many aspects of those days cannot be uncovered from surviving
materials alone, but through that effort, we hoped to clarify in concreteterms the impact that the global exchange of theatre and dance that
resumed after the Second World War has had on the establishment anddevelopment of contemporary theatre and dance in Japan.

Establishment of ITI Headquarters and the Japanese Centre
The International Theatre Institute (ITI), a worldwide network of professional
theatre and dance organizations, was founded shortly after the Second World
War, in 1948. Prior to that, there were discussions at a 1946 UNESCO conferencein Paris of creating an international theatre organization, and after a 1947 preparatory meeting in Paris by prominent theatre professionals from around theworld, those from 28 countries gathered in Prague for the foundational general
meeting in 1948. The history of the ITI Japanese Centre began three years later,in 1951.
186

The San Francisco Peace Conference, which stipulated the postwar settlement between Japan and the Allied Powers, occurred in September of the same
year. The Peace Treaty entered into force in April 1952, but the Japanese Centre
had already begun its activities as a member of the ITI’s global network prior tothat date.
From the perspective of today’s readers, it may seem completely natural for
Japan to be treated as a member of the international community, but by keeping
in mind the postwar environment and Japan’s status as a defeated nation, one
realizes that it was a completely different world in those days.
The direct impetus for the Japanese Centre’s founding came in 1950 when
Kitamura Kihachi1, who later became one of our founding sponsors, attended the1950 PEN International Congress in Edinburgh as a Japan representative, learned
about the ITI, and on his way home, stopped to meet the ITI Secretariat in Paristo obtain more information. The playwright André Josset (1897–1976), then secretary general of the ITI, asked Kitamura to establish a Centre in Japan.
After returning to Japan, Kitamura consulted with the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and the Ministry of Education (External Relations and UNESCO

Division and Art Division, Minister’s Secretariat) regarding the establishment of
the Japanese Centre, and the following year, on May 24, 1951, we came into
being. The founding sponsors were Kawabata Yasunari, Kawatake Shigetoshi,
Kitamura Kihachi, and Kubota Mantaro. Takahashi Seiichiro 2 was appointed as
our first president and Kitamura Kihachi as director general.
Immediately after completing the procedures for establishing the JapaneseCentre, Kubota Mantaro attended the Fourth ITI World Congress in Oslo in
June 1951 as the Japanese Centre representative, and Japan’s membership was
approved there.
The Founding Prospectus of the Japanese Centre places Japan as a representative of one side of theatrical exchange between East and West, and this Oriental
versus Occidental framework clearly shows the nature of cultural exchange inthose days.

Activities in the Japanese Centre’s first decade
The activities of the ITI Japanese Centre in the first decade after its founding187

can be seen in its newsletter, ITI News. Starting with its first “Vol. 0” in 1951,
which contained the organization’s Founding Prospectus, ITI News issues were
published at a relatively steady pace until 19613.
Early ITI News issues indicate that at the time, in response to the activities of
ITI centers around the world, there was extensive promotion of International
Theatre Month events in Japan with the cooperation of major domestic theatresand entertainment companies4. There were also discussions of cooperation forthe publication of Le décor de théâtre dans le monde depuis 1935 [Theatricalscenery in the world since 1935] (1956), which was being edited and published by
the ITI headquarters in Paris, with the Japanese Centre responding to publisher
requests for stage set diagrams and photographs.
At the time, the Paris headquarters provided us with the periodicals
Le théâtre dans le monde [World Theatre] (quarterly) and World Premières(monthly). A few copies of these publications are preserved in the current
Japanese Centre office.
ITI News issues often included a “Correspondences with the Secretariat”
Theatre in Japan

Theatre Yearbook 2023

DEVELOPMENTS IN JAPAN and OVERSEAS

column that noted daily communications, notices, and requests sent to the Secretariat from the Paris headquarters and other national ITI Centres, and what theJapanese Centre was able to do in response. For example, we responded to questions from the Paris headquarters regarding the current situation in Japan for aninternational survey on the role of theatre in youth education, and in response toa request from the UK Centre, we airmailed International Theatre Month pamphlets and posters from the Kabuki-za and other theatres. ITI News No. 30 states:“In April, we responded to a questionnaire from the Paris headquarters regarding state subsidies for theatres. Our response was later published in the first issueof the ITI newsletter International Theatre Informations.
We also received inquiries from individual theatre-related organizations
through ITI Centres in their respective countries. ITI News No. 28 (April 1960)
reports that Laurence Olivier Productions inquired about Mishima Yukio’s
Tropical Tree, and after contacting Mishima, we made arrangements for a synopsis and translation. This shows how even in its early days, the Japanese Centre
188

served as a window for access to the performing arts in Japan.

ITI News at the founding of the ITI.

An International Theatre Month pamphlet.

ITI Japanese Centre’s involvementin the first overseas Noh tour
One of the earliest postwar examples
of a Japanese performing troupe traveling overseas was the participationof a Noh troupe in the 1954 Festival
Internazionale del Teatro. This wasmade possible when the Festival,
through communications with theJapanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs,

A letter from John Gielgud, sending
his congratulations regarding
International Theatre Month in Japan.

requested the participation of Japanesetheatre troupes. Apparently, the Japanese Centre started receiving requests
for delegates of Japanese performance
troupes from as early as 1951, the year
we were founded.

189

The Noh performance was realized
in 1954, when a fifteen-member troupe,
including Kita Minoru and the Second
Generation Kanze Yoshiyuki, participated in the Festival. ITI News Nos. 12
and 13 describe in detail how that eventcame about and reports on the perfor-

January 8, 1952 issue ofWorld Theatre, with features on
pantomime, Nordic theatre, etc.

mances there.
The first Festival d’Art dramatiquede Paris in 1954 (organized by the city ofParis and held at the Théâtre SarahBernhardt) also involved the ITI headquarters in its operations, and records

World Premières No.
41 (Jan/Feb 196 4),
with World Theatre
Day messages from
Laurence Olivier andJean-Louis Barrault.

show that the Festival requested the participation of a Japanese theatre group.
The Festival and its second occurrence
Theatre in Japan

Theatre Yearbook 2023

DEVELOPMENTS IN JAPAN and OVERSEAS
A brochure regarding Noh troupe participation in the 1954 Venice Biennale.

in 1955 were extremely successful. After that, it became known as Théâtre desNations, a name that embodies the postwar atmosphere for deepened understanding of foreign countries through culture5.

ITI and Théâtre des Nations
Following the extremely successful Festival d’Art dramatique de Paris events in
1954 and 1955, the creation of the Théâtre des Nations was proposed in 1955 at190

the 6th ITI World Congress in Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia, in 1955 (ITI News No.
16). The Théâtre des Nations, which became the ITI Headquarters’ best-known
project worldwide, was recognized as a cutting-edge event leading international
theatrical exchanges in that period. A look at the groups appearing shows participation by the most famous theatre companies and directors from each country,
including Italy’s Piccolo Teatro (Giorgio Strehler), Germany’s Berliner Ensemble(Bertolt

Brecht),Laurence

Olivierand Peter Brook from England, Ernst
Ingmar Bergman from Sweden, and the
Living Theatre from the United States.
In November 1956, Théâtre desNations general director A.-M. Julien
visited Japan for an observational tour
on his way back from the First World
Conference of the ITI in Bombay, and a
Letter and brochure from A.-M. Julien regarding
hosting of the Théâtre des Nations, July 10, 1962.

Noh troupe led by Kita Minoru
attended the following year’s festival.

A period of inactivity
The Japanese Centre’s ITI News was published for ten years following its inception, culminating in the publication of its No. 31 issue in 1961. Unfortunately,
publication ceased after that. This was likely due to the December 1960 death ofKitamura Kihachi, who had served as director general since the organization’s
founding, resulting in a stagnation of administrative functions.
Looking at subsequent developments, ITI News No. 32 was published on a
one-off basis in 1965, after a blank of approximately four years since its previous
issue. However, that revival was short-lived. After that one issue, the newsletter
again entered a hiatus; the next reprint would not come until 1971.
So far, we have found no documents that allow speculation on the circumstances during this period, and the cause of that long gap in Japanese Centre
activities in the years around 1965 remains unknown.

Cooperation with two international symposiums
As described in the previous section, the 1960s was a period of stagnation in

191

Japanese Centre activities. In fact, since the 1961 cessation of ITI News’s publication, the only clue regarding the status of such activities can be found in the
one-off October 1965 issue of ITI News No. 32.
Articles in that issue indicate that two major international UNESCO-related
conferences were held in years before and after its publication (1963 and 1968),
and that the ITI Japanese Centre cooperated with these conferences.
First, in November 1963, the Japanese National Commission for UNESCO
hosted the International Symposium on the Theatre in the East and the West inTokyo. Symposium representatives included Eugène Ionesco and more than forty
other theatre professionals from twenty-one countries. Its theme was “MutualAppreciation of Eastern and Western Cultural Values.” The Japanese National
Commission for UNESCO issued proceedings for that symposium in 1965.
Next, the Cultural Conference on Mutual Influences between Japanese andWestern Arts was held in Tokyo and Kyoto in 1968 (as described in the first issueof the ITI Bulletin in 1971), with discussions in four categories: literature, music,architecture, and theatre. The National Commission for UNESCO published
Theatre in Japan

Theatre Yearbook 2023

DEVELOPMENTS IN JAPAN and OVERSEAS

proceedings of that meeting in English and Japanese in 1969. Unfortunately, specifics regarding the Japanese Centre’s cooperation are not clear.

Role as a delegate organization
for the Tokyo Noh Troupe’s performances in Europe and the U.S.
Although it is unclear how this is related to the above two international conferences, in 1965, the Japanese Centre and the Kanze Noh Theater sent a 28-member“Tokyo Noh Troupe” to various European countries and the US. This was alarge-scale tour, including visits to six European cities (Athens, Ulm, Vicenza,
Rome, Paris, and Dusseldorf) and one U.S. city (Seattle).
According to ITI News No. 32, the Japanese Centre was involved with theTokyo Noh Troupe as its “delegating organization” (i.e., the entity responsible forproject implementation). However, as mentioned above, that 1965 issue of ITI
News is the only one published during the period, so no existing documentsallow us to determine the situation before and after, making it difficult to explore
192

the situation at the time in further detail.

Possible temporary external support and a second suspension ofactivities
However, considering the two above-mentioned international symposiums heldaround 1965 and our serving as the delegating organization for the Tokyo Noh
Troupe, we can speculate that the Centre was expected to play a role in promoting such large-scale projects, and thus that there was some form of external
support, and that this manifested as the Japanese Centre’s revival specifically atthat time.
Afterward, however, the ITI Japanese Centre again entered a long period ofinactivity. ITI News was later renamed ITI Bulletin, the first issue of which was
published in March 1971. There was thus a second gap of about four and a halfyears after the publication of ITI News No. 32 in October 1965.

Festival Mondial du Théâtre de Nancy, featuring contemporary
Japanese theatre
After the Théâtre des Nations, which was founded in the 1950s and quickly
gained international fame, the Festival Mondial du Théâtre de Nancy, led by Jack
Lang, became the driving force behind international theatrical trends from themid-1960s to the 1970s. That festival was held in the northern France town ofNancy starting in 1964 as the Festival Mondial du Théâtre Universitaire, gaining
worldwide acclaim through a series of productions by the leading-edge theatrecompanies of the time. Jack Lang was a major politician who later served as
Minister of Culture in the Mitterrand administration, leaving a significant markon the development of French cultural policy that extends to the present day.
April 1971 appearances at the Nancy festival included the Seinenza Theatre
Company, Tenjo Sajiki, and the Youkiza Puppet Theatre from Japan, as well as
productions by Robert Wilson, Tadeusz Kantor, and Augusto Boal. The Japaneselearned about many European avant-garde theatre troupes during this period,and many Japanese contemporary theatres started receiving invitations to

193

theatre festivals throughout Europe. More than any other theatre festival, theNancy festival played a major role in this process.
The first issue of the new ITI Bulletin (March 1971) noted that Lang asked
the ITI Japanese Centre to provide arrangements for staff members coming toobserve Japanese theatres from December 22, 1970 to January 17, 1971, which
we did. At the time, there were also plans for Japan to “host” the Nancy festival,and Lang himself visited Japan in August of that year (ITI Bulletin No. 4, September 1971)6.

Reconstruction of the Japanese Centre
As described above, the Japanese Centre was inactive for about ten years before
and after 1965, but its participation in the Festival Mondial du Théâtre de Nancy
seemed to provide an impetus for its reorganization. On December 12, 1970, theCenter elected playwright Hojo Hideji, then president of the Japan Theatre Arts
Association, as its director general and held a reorganization meeting. Documents from that period show that the Japanese Centre was largely inactive in the
Theatre in Japan

Theatre Yearbook 2023

DEVELOPMENTS IN JAPAN and OVERSEAS

four immediately preceding fiscal years (1967–1970) (ITI Bulletin No. 1).
Interestingly, at the time of this “reorganizational meeting,” the JapaneseCentre had 874 registered members, of which 28 attended the meeting and 561
sent proxies. That is remarkably higher enrollment, nearly three times, over ourcurrent (fiscal 2022) membership of just over 200. This suggests that there wassome sort of initiative by the board members and others at that time, who likely
lobbied leading industry associations, and that the members of those associations
joined en masse due to that top-down approach.
The 1971 restructuring of the ITI Japanese Centre got underway with ageneral assembly in December 1970. At that time, we obtained cooperation fromleading companies in the theatre and broadcasting industries. We also caught up
with dues to the ITI headquarters, which had been in arrears for several years.
(Even so, ITI Japanese Centre’s financial base remained fragile, and there was
uncertainty regarding whether sufficient financial resources would be available
for its future operations.)
194

Three main post-restructuring projects and the first issue of theTheatre Yearbook (1973)
At around this time, the Agency for Cultural Affairs began subsidizing ITIJapanese Centre projects. This allowed three activities related to international
exchange in the field of theatre to be carried out on a regular basis as majorannual projects: “editing and publishing the Theatre Yearbook,” “holding international theatre exhibitions,” and “lectures on international theatre.” Further,very impactful projects started undergoing development with the cooperation ofexperts in various fields who became involved as board members.
ITI Bulletin No. 1 (March 1971) notes that the business activities of the U.S.
Centre and those in other countries inspired the Japanese Centre to start publishing its Yearbook. The publication of our Yearbook itself has a pre-history: thefirst issue was published in March 1972 as the International Theatre Collection,
but renamed the following year as the Theatre Yearbook.
In the beginning, Yearbook pages introducing overseas performing arts toJapanese readers covered only the US, the UK, France, Germany, and otherdeveloped countries. We began covering China in the 1980s, South Korea in the
1990s, and since the 2000s we have expanded our coverage to include countries
in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and other regions that we had previously
neglected. All told, the 51 issues of the Theatre Yearbook from 1973 to 2023 haveintroduced works and news from 87 countries and regions.
Initially, introductions of “Japanese performing arts” to the rest of the world
were dominated by traditional performing arts such as Noh and kabuki, but the
Yearbook introduces contemporary theatre in general, including modern-realist
shingeki and avant-garde works. In 1983, we started introducing television andradio dramas, in 1984 we added butoh and other forms of contemporary dance,
and in that fashion, Yearbook’s contents have continually changed with the times.
In addition, since the 1997 edition, Yearbook has been published in two volumes:
one in Japanese and one in English.

SummaryThis article traced the history of the Japanese Centre from its founding immedi-

195

ately after the Second World War, through a period of stagnation in the 1960s,
and finally to its reconstruction period in the 1970s and the start of the Yearbook project.
If one is to understand current trends in world theatre and the impacts thatJapanese traditional, contemporary, and avant-garde theatre has had on theworld, it is vital to know the roles played by the Japanese Centre and the ITI
Headquarters, the longest active NGO among UNESCO organizations in thefields of theatre and dance.
For the first time, we have dug through materials from the earliest days ofour organization, allowing us a glimpse of the history of theatrical exchange
between Japan and other countries that had previously remained unknown tothe public. Taking this initiative as an initial first step, I hope we can continue totrace the changes of the times and to further deepen our awareness of the significance of international exchange NGOs in the cultural sphere.

Theatre in Japan

Theatre Yearbook 2023

DEVELOPMENTS IN JAPAN and OVERSEAS

Author’s note
In this article, we showed how the Japanese Centre was closely involved in the overseas
performances of Noh troupes on two occasions, in 1954 and 1965. By contrast, Shochiku,
at the request of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, took full control of organizing
overseas Kabuki tours, realizing and overseeing the success of many overseas performances.
This is briefly described in a report by Kawatake Toshio in International Theatre Yearbook
1973.
1 Kitamura Kihachi (1898–1960) was a director, playwright, theatre critic, and translator.
After graduating from Tokyo Imperial University with a degree in English literature,
he joined the Tsukiji Shogekijo Theatre in 1924, where he translated and directed many
plays. Together with his wife, actor Murase Sachiko, he formed Geijutsu Shogekijo
Theatre in 1937. After the war, he worked to rebuild shingeki theatre as permanent
secretary of the New Theatre People’s Association, and in 1951 he founded the JapaneseCentre of International Theatre Institute, of which he became director general. His
publications include Expressionist Drama, An Introduction to Directing, and a collectionof plays, Beautiful Family.

196

2 Takahashi Seiichiro (1884–1982) was an economist. After graduating from Keio
University with a degree in political science, he studied the history of economics in
England and returned to Japan to teach at his alma mater. 1947, as Minister of Educationin the Yoshida Cabinet, he enacted the Basic Act on Education and the School Education
Act. Internationally known for his collection and research of ukiyo-e prints, he served as
director of the Japan Art Academy and the Tokyo National Museum, and in 1951 becamepresident of the Japanese Centre of International Theatre Institute. His works include
A Study of the Economic Theory of Mercantilism and Two Hundred and Fifty Years of
Ukiyo-e.
3 There is no mention of “ITI News” in Nos. 0 or 1; that name was first used in issue No. 2.
4 When it was first founded, International Theatre Month was supported by a wide rangeof theatre-related organizations, from major entertainment companies to student
and amateur theatre troupes. As an annual International Theatre Month event, it
was customary to hold an onstage opening ceremony before the start of a Kabuki-za
performance.
5 The Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt was known as the Théâtre des Nations from 1879–1898 andfrom 1957–1967, so that name can refer to the theatre or the theatre festival, dependingon the context. The name was changed from Théâtre des Nations to Théâtre de la Ville in1968, and retains that name to this day.
6 This concept was conceived by Wakabayashi Akira (1926–2013), founder of theInternational Youth Theatre Center (KSEC) and an actor and director affiliated with the
Bungakuza, but the project was never realized.

Sota, Shuji
In 1980, Shuji Sota joined Toho Co., Ltd., where he worked in publicity and advertising forstage performances. Since 1990, he has led projects for international exchange in theperforming arts at the Japan Center, Pacific Basin Arts Communication. In 1995, he wasinvolved in the launch of the Tokyo International Performing Arts Festival (now Festival/
Tokyo) and the Tokyo Performing Arts Market (now YPAM), and has since been in charge of
their administrative offices. He has been a professor at Atomi University’s Faculty ofManagement since 2002, and served as the secretary general of the Japanese Centre of ITI
since 2009 and as its managing director since 2013.
(Translation: Tony Gonzalez)

197

Theatre in Japan

Theatre Yearbook 2023