Theatre
Yearbook

国際演劇年鑑 2015

2015

日本の舞台芸術を知る

Theatre Yearbook 2015
Theatre in Japan
Published in March, 2015
Japanese Centre of International Theatre Institute (ITI/UNESCO)
c/o Kokuritsu Nohgakudo (The National Noh Theatre)
4-18-1 Sendagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 151-0051, JAPAN
Tel: +81-(0)3-3478-2189 / Fax: +81-(0)3-3478-7218
mail@iti-j.org / http://iti-japan.or.jp© Japanese Centre of International Theatre Institute 2015
All rights reserved. Requests for permission to reproduce material
from this work should be sent to the Japanese Centre of International Theatre Institute.
Commissioned by the Agency for Cultural Affairs,
Government of Japan in the fiscal 2014
under the ‘Program for Nurturing Upcoming Artists
who lead the next generation’.

Editor-in-chief Tanokura Minoru
Director in charge Sota Shuji
Editor Nakajima Kana
Editorial Staff Iki Terumi, Goto Ayako, Sakurai YumikoTranslation William Andrews, James Ferner,Mark Oshima, Sumida Michiyo
Proofreading Tove Bjoerk, Yamashita Yoko
DTP Staff Nakamura Tomoko
Art Direction and Design Kubo Saori
Plate-making Yubido Co., Ltd.
Printing Sankyosha Co., Ltd.
Binding Wincam Co., Ltd.

Printed in Japan

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 a hundred countries and regions constituting
the International Theatre Institute (ITI), which is a non-governmental organization under theumbrella of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The preamble of the UNESCO Constitution begins with the famous phrase “since wars
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”.
Theatre and dance are excellent media that enable us to take interest in one another andthink about man and society by sharing time and space together. Even in today’s society, where
the means of communication have developed and the volume and speed of distributing information have increased dramatically, the role of theatre and dance that help us gain multifaceted anddeep insights will not diminish.
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 the research and study activity to promote international theatrical exchange. In 2014, the ‘Theatre Born in Conflict Zones’ series was carriedout for the sixth consecutive year and three new pays from UK/Israel, Pakistan and Nigeria (anexcerpt) 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 on the relationship between Japan and the world, to deepen mutual understanding by positioning Japan within the global network, and to realize cultural development
and peace.
We look forward to your continued support and cooperation to the activities of the Japanese Centre of ITI in the years to come.
March 27, 2015
In commemoration of the World Theatre Day
Nagai Taeko
President
Japanese Centre of International Theatre InstituteCONTENTS
5 Shots from the Performing Arts in Japan in 2014

The Japanese Performing Arts in 2014
034 Noh and Kyôgen Nishi Tetsuo
043 Kabuki and Bunraku Mizuochi Kiyoshi
053 Musical Hagio Hitomi
061 Contemporary Theatre Yamaguchi Hiroko
070 Children’s and Youth Theatre and Puppet Theatre Yokomizo Yukiko
080 Japanese Classical Dance Hirano Hidetoshi
090 Ballet Urawa Makoto
098 Contemporary Dance and Butoh Tsutsumi Hiroshi
108 Television and Radio Kotaki Tetsuya

Developments in Japan
119 Kabuki’s Tours Abroad / Iizuka Misa
125 The History of Takarazuka Revue Company’s International Tour / Ishii Keifu
133 Hosting the Vietnam Performing Arts Specialists Middle Term Invitation Program / Yokobori Fumi
139 Report on the 1st ITI World Theatre Workshop:Peking Opera and Nihon buyô / Hishinuma YoshiakiSpecial Feature
145 A Report on ‘Theatre Born in Conflict Zones 6’ / Yoshiiwa Masaharu

154 Companion Volume ”Theatre Abroad 2015” (Japanese)
156 I T I National Centres

N.B. Japanese names are basically written in Japanese way :family names come first and given names second.

日本の
舞台芸術
を見る

Shots from the Per forming Ar ts in Japan
in 2014

Noh / Kyôgen

Kanze Tetsunojô, Ren’niku Kobo, Contemporary noh play Shi-Kôtei (The First Emperor of China) © Maejima Yoshihiro

Umewaka Genshô, The Ohtsuki Noh Theatre Public Interest Incorporated Foundation
Sekidera Komachi (Komachi at the Sekidera Temple) © Moriguchi Mitsuru

Kagawa Seiji, Eguchi (Eguchi the Courtesan) © Ishida Yutaka

Shigeyama Shime, Shigeyama Sensaku IV one-year Memorial Program of Kyôgen
Kuriyaki (Roasting Chestnuts) © Yoshikawa Nobuyuki

Noh / Kyôgen

Shigeyama Yoshinobu,
Futari-bakama (Two-in-one-Hakama)© Chuzaburô -Kyôgen-kai

Shigeyama Sengorô, Shigeyama Sensaku IV
One-year Memorial Program of Kyôgen
Makuramonogurui (Grandfather in Love)© Shigeyama-Kyôgen-kai / Kawanishi Yoshiki

Komparu Sôemon XXII, Sekine Shôroku Sangju Memorial Program of Noh
Iccho Yugyo Yanagi (The wandering Priests and Willow) on September 28th, 2010 © Maejima Yoshihiro

Mishima Gentarô, Ukai (The cormorant fisherman)© National Noh Theatre

Kunikawa Jun, Utaura (Poem Divining)© National Noh TheatreKabukiKanadehon Chûsingura (The Treasury of Loyal Retainers)
Sakata Tôjûrô, Matsumoto Kôshirô, Nakamura Kichiemon, Nakamura Senjaku © Shochiku

Okazaki-act in Igagoe Dôchû Sugoroku (Revenge at Iga Pass, The Okazaki Village scene )Nakamura Kichiemon, Nakamura Karoku © National TheatreKaidan Chibusa-Enoki(The Ghost of Chibusa-Enoki)Nakamura Kankurô(Kabuki-za Theatre)© Shochiku

Kaidan Chibusa-Enoki (The Ghost of Chibusa-Enoki) Nakamura Kankurô, Nakamura Shidô (Rose Theatre New York)©Heisei Nakamura-za New York Tour Executive Committee

KabukiSuper Kabuki II Sora wo Kizamumono (Etching the Sky) Ichikawa Ennosuke, Sasaki Kuranosuke © Shochiku

Kotohoide Mimasu Kagekiyo (Long Live General Kagekiyo of the Mimasu-crest) Ichikawa Ebizô © Shochiku

Kanjincho (The Subscription List) Ichikawa Somegorô © Shochiku

Bunraku

Takemoto Sumitayû VII on his Retirement Stage, Sakuramaru seppuku nodan (Sakuramaru’s Suicide) section
from Sugawara denju tenarai kagami(The Secrets of Sugawara’s Calligraphy)© National Bunraku Theatre cooperated by NPO Ningyo Joruri Bunrakuza
Mutsumi-kai

Futatsu Chôchô Kuruwa Nikki (Two Butterflies in the pleasure Quarters)© National Theatre cooperated by NPO Ningyo Joruri Bunrakuza Mutsumi-kai

Honchô Nijûshikô (The Twenty-four Dutiful Sons) © National Theatre cooperated by NPO Ningyo Joruri Bunrakuza Mutsumi-kai

MusicalOffice Miyamoto Co., Ltd., The Beautiful Game © Miyagawa Maiko

Fuji Television Network, Inc. / Kyodo Tokyo Inc., THE FULL MONTY © taro

Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, Inc. /HoriPro Inc. / Yomiuri Shimbun,
Love Never Dies
© Watabe Takahiro

TOHO CO., LTD. Theatrical Division, Lady Bess © TOHO CO., LTD. Theatrical Division

Contemporary Theatre

Nitosha, Ogai’s Mystery © Honma Nobuhiko

SPAC - Shizuoka Performing Arts Center, Mahabharata – Nalacharitam © Atarashi Ryota

Seinenza Theater Company, Chi no Chibusa (Breasts of the Earth) © Sakamoto Masafumi

Paradox constant, Showa Restoration © Watanabe Ryuta

Contemporary Theatre

Ishinha,Perspective play
© Inoue Yoshikazu

Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre×Myeongdong Theater in Seoul Hanshin (Half Gods) © Okammoto Takashi

The Foundation for Child Well-being / Aoyama Round Theatre Yuzora harete – yoku kaki ku kyaku(A Clear Evening Sky: Peter Piper Picked a Peck) © Hikiji Nobuhiko

Saitama Next Theatre, 2014, “Caligula “ by the pale boys and girls © Hosono Shinji

Children’s and Youth Theatre / Puppet Theatre

Puppet Theater Hitomi-za, Beauty and the Beast © Tasaka Haruo

Theater Company Dora, Ayanasu (Woven) © Ichii RyoPuppet Theatre Puk,
The Tiger’s Lullaby(Tora-no-komori-uta)© Puppet Theatre Puk

Theatre Tampopo Educational Drama Research Assoc.,Inc, Kasane-chan ni Kiite Mina (Go Ask Kasane) © Yamazaki Kazuo

Japanese Classical Dance

Azuma School, Azuma Setsuho, Kiyomoto Tamausagi (The Rabbit in the Moon) © Video Photo Saito / Shimizu Satoshi

Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, The Japanese Classical Dance with Orchestra vol.2 Lilac Garden © Tokyo Bunka Kaikan

Miyagi Nôhô, From Ryukyu Dance–Seven Dance Repertorie of
Traditional Women’s Dances
Yanagi (Willow)© Yokohama Noh Theatre / Kanda Yoshiaki

Fujima Etsuko, Nagauta
Makasho (The Begging Monk)© Video Photo Saito

BalletJinushi Kaoru Ballet Company,
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves© Office Obana

Tetsuya Kumakawa K-BALLET COMPANY, Tetsuya Kumakawa K-BALLET COMPANY 15th Annivrrsary La Bayadére © Ogawa Shunki© New National Theatre, Tokyo
The National Ballet of Japan, The Sleeping Beauty © Shikama Takashi

DANCE for Life Executive Committee, DANCE for Life 2014 Shimomura Yurie Ballet Recital The Fisherman and His Soul
© Tsukada YoichiContemporary Dance / Butoh

Dairakudakan Temptenshiki, Mushi no hoshi-Space insect © Kawashima Hiroyuki

Momoko Shiraga (Direction, Choreography) + Yuko Mohri (Stage Design) + Yasuno Miyauchi (Music) ,The Rite of Spring © Kataoka Yohata

Saburo Teshigawara +KARAS, Sleep © Abe Akihito

Noism1×Noism2, CARMEN © Kishin ShinoyamaContemporary Dance / Butoh

idevian crew, ZUAN © Nosaka Marie

Mikuni Yanaihara project, The Cherry Orchard © Kataoka Yohata

CONDORS, GIGANT © HARU

KAORI SEKI Co.PUNCTUMUN, Miroedetut © Matsumoto Kazuyuki

Contemporary Dance / Butoh

crewimburnny, nuuuuuuuuuu© Amemiya Yukitaka

Constitution, direction :Min Tanaka Appearance:
Dance group by the citizen,
KUUKIGAKORONDA! (The Air Fell)© Yoshioka Shigeru

Cultural Centre of Fujimi city Kirari Fujimi
Min Tanaka solo dance,
Sluffing into a cloud afloat

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 2014

NOH and KYOGENNoh and Kyôgen
Living National Treasure,
Person of Cultural Merit, Arts Academy Award
Nishi Tetsuo
In 2014, the designation, ‘Important Intangible Cultural Property(Living National Treasure)’ was extended to both Umewaka Genshô
and Mishima Gentarô. These two nominations bring the total
number of persons designated from the world of nohgaku to 41, of
which 13 are currently living.
Umewaka Genshô is a shite actor of the Kanze School. He wasborn in 1948, and he became Umewaka Rokurô, the 56th head of the
034

Umewaka family. He is the second son of Umewaka Rokurô the 55th,
and he studied with his grandfather, Umewaka Minoru II as well as
his father. In 1986, he was awarded the Ministry of Education’s Award
to Newcomers for the Encouragement of the Arts, and in 1998, theJapan Art Academy Award, having previously been awarded theKanze Hisao Memorial Hôsei University Noh Theatre Award in
1995. He is a member of the Japan Academy of Arts.
Mishima Gentarô, is a Taiko-drum player of the Komparu
School. He was born in 1936, as the eldest son of Mishima Tarô. He
studied with his father as well as Maekawa Sôkan, Komparu SôemonXXII and Kakimoto Toyoji. In 2010, he was awarded the Saika Awardof Hôsei University.
The designation, Person of Cultural Merit was extended to
Hôshô Kan. Hôshô Kan was born in 1934 and is a waki actor of the
Shimogakari Hôshô School and its 12th leader. He is the eldest son ofHôshô Yaichi and studied with Hôshô Shin, as well as his father. He
has received the Japan Art Academy Award, and the Kanze Hisao
Memorial Hôsei University Noh Theatre Award. He has also been
designated, ‘Important Intangible Cultural Property (Living National
Treasure)’ and is a member of the Japan Academy of Arts.
The 2013 Agency for Cultural Affairs’ Arts Festival Prize for
Newcomers went to Shigeyama Yoshinobu. He was born in 1982 andis a kyôgen actor of the Okura School. As the eldest son of Shigeyama
Chuzaburô IV, he was instructed by his father. He was given thisaward for his performance in Futaribakama (Two-in-one-Hakama) in
the Chuzaburô Kai.
The Japan Art Academy Award was awarded to Kagawa Seiji. He
was born in 1944, and is a shite actor of the Kita School. He studied
with Kita Minoru XV and has been recipient of the Ministry of Edu-035

cation’s Award to Newcomers for the Encouragement of the Arts andthe Kanze Hisao Memorial Hôsei University Noh Theatre Award
among others.
This past year’s Kanze Hisao Memorial Hôsei University Noh
Theatre Award was given to Kunikawa Jun and Takakuwa Izumi.
The Saika Award was given to the Kita School Oshima Noh
Theatre. The Saika Award was established with an endowment fromthe Hattori Memorial Hôsei University Fund and it honors persons
or organizations who have made great contributions to nohgaku in
one of three aspects: as a person of merit, as one who has made asignificant contribution towards the propagation of nohgaku or
towards its development.
Kunikawa Jun was born in 1948 and is an Ôtsuzumi-drum playerof the Takayasu School. He studied with Yasufuku Haruo. He is also

Theatre in Japan

Theatre Yearbook 2015

NOH and KYOGEN

a part-time Lecturer at the Tokyo University of the Arts and an
instructor at the National Noh Theatre.
Takakuwa Izumi was born in 1956 and is a nohgaku critic. She is
the Head of the Intangible Cultural Properties Section of the
National Research Institute for Cultural Properties. She completed amaster course at the Tokyo University of the Arts, and received her
doctorate at the Graduate School of Waseda University.
The Kita School Ôshima Noh Theatre is a noh theatre with acapacity 420 persons, located in Fukuyama City in Hiroshima
Prefecture. The Ôshima Noh Stage was first built in Fukuyama Cityin 1914 but it was destroyed by fire in an air raid during the WorldWar II. Following that, reconstruction began in 1948, and the newtheatre was completed in 1965. In addition to their regularly scheduled programs of noh, they conduct numerous activities in order to036

propagate nohgaku.
As a continuation of the programs of noh to bring aid to thevictims of the Great Tohoku Earthquake of 2011 the following charity
programs were held on the 11th of March:
Kawamura Kazushige performed Tsunemasa, Kae no Kata (Variations of General Tsunemasa), and Sugiura Toyohiko performed
Shôjô Midare (Wild Shôjô Spirits) amongst others, at the Kyoto
Kanze Kaikan and Ôtsuki Bunzô performed Tôgan koji (The Lay
Monk of the East Coast) at the Ohtsuki Noh Theatre. Further,
Kanze Kiyokazu performed Sei Paoro no Kaishin (The Conversion
of Saint Paul), a repeat performance of the newly written noh playwhich premiered in 2012, and bunraku chanter Toyotake
Hanafusadayû and shamisen player Tsuruzawa Seitomo contributedwith a performance of Iesu Kirisuto no Shôgai (The Life of Jesus

Christ) at the Kanze Noh Theatre.
The Tessenkai Nohgaku Kenshûjo at Aoyama held their 30th
Anniversary Special Program during the year. Noh performances
included Shimizu Kanji in Tomonaga (General Tomonaga, April 26th),
Kobayakawa Osamu in Shunkan (Monk Shunkan, April 27th), Uzawa
Hisa in Nonomiya/Gasshôdome (Holy Signs at Nonomiya Temple,
April 28th), Nishimura Takao in Kinuta (Washing Clothes, September 27th), and Shibata Minoru performed in Hanagatami (Flower
Basket, September 28th). The stage of the present Kenshûjo was transplanted from the Tamagawa Noh Theatre, which was first removed
from its original home and then in 1983 brought to Aoyama.
The nohgaku performances at the Hakkô ceremony, called
Tonomine Sarugaku, were held at the Tonomine Temple in Sakurai
037

City, Nara Prefecture. These have been held every year on October
13th and 14th, since the end of the Muromachi period. The four
nohgaku groups (Komparu, Kongô, Kanze, Hôshô) would each give
performances and the distinguishing features of the program is thatit includes the contests of newly written noh plays, so called ‘shinsaku noh’. The event has received special attention due to the great
influence it had on the later generations of nohgaku. On May 13,
2014, the Tonomine Danzan Shrine held ‘Danzan Noh’ with the
Danzan ceremony where programs such as Okina (Old Man) were
performed by Ôtsuki Bunzô, Kayoi Komachi (Visiting Komachi) by
Umewaka Genshô.
This past year had numerous performances of shinsaku noh,including both first performances and repeat performances. Kanze
Yoshimasa performed Tajima mori (Lord of Tajima, March 1st,

Theatre in Japan

Theatre Yearbook 2015

NOH and KYOGEN

Toyo-oka City Municipal Plaza) and Umewaka Genshô Kurenai
Tennyo (Crimson Celestial Maiden, March 2nd, Nagoya Noh
Theatre). This is new noh play written by Miuchi Suzue, and based on
the girl’s comic Garasu no Kamen (Glass Mask), first performed in2006 at the National Noh Theatre’s Special Program. The script wasby Ueda Shinji (Takarazuka Theatre Company), and the play was
directed by Umewaka Genshô.
Further, the contemporary noh play Shi Kôtei (The First
Emperor of China) was staged by Kanze Tetsunojô on March 20th at
the National Noh Theatre. The play was written by Naka Tarô, anddirected by Okamoto Akira from the theatre company Ren’niku
Kobo, and the noh chants were compose by Umewaka Genshô. The
author, known for his refined, sophisticated style, was born in 1922,
and is considered a modern poet.
038

Also Choritsushi (The Piano Tuner) was performed on October
13th at the Shinjuku Gyôen English Garden by Kanze Tetsunojô,assisted by presenter Maya Kyôko and pianist Koyama Michie. Kato
Shingô staged a new version of Masakado (General Masakado) on
October 27th at the Kikkokai event at the National Noh Theatre.
This play was written by Kobayashi Yasuharu and directed by
Umewaka Manzaburô, this was the repeat performance of a piecethat was premiered in 2013 in Bando City, Tochigi Prefecture, thehome province of general Taira no Masakado.
Among reconstructed noh works there was a performance of
Yoshinogoto (The Koto-harp from Yoshino) on June 15th by
Katayama Kuroemon at the Kyoto Kanze Kaikan. The performance
was supervised by Nishino Haruo, with the noh chant provided by
Mikata Ken and the choreography by Katayama Kuroemon. In theplay is similar to Yoshino tennin (The Angel at Yoshino), a celestial
being carrying a Koto-harp appears at the Yoshino mountain, having
been drawn there by the cherry blossoms.
Tenko (The Celestial Drum), a futuristic noh play, was performed
as a part of the Bungaku-za’s program from October 24th to November 2nd at the Kinokuniya Southern Theatre. It was composed by
Aoki Go and directed by Takahashi Masanori, with Sakaguchi
Yoshisada, and Minami Takuya as its main performers. It is a contemporary play inspired by the classical noh play Tenko, constructedaround the drama between the father and the son in the piece.
Next, considering performances of major works, the important
play Dojoji (The Dojoji Temple Bell), which marks the ‘coming of age’039

for a noh actor, was performed for the first time by a number ofactors, but also a considerable number of veteran actors also gave it
repeat performances. The following is a list of these performances,including both first performances and repeat performances listedwith the actor who performed the shite role (variant performance
names are omitted).
Yamashina Yaemon (February 1st), Awaya Akio (March 2nd), Sakai
Otomasa(March 9th), Yamaguchi Goichirô (March 20th), Higashikawa
Takashi (March 23rd), Tomoeda Takehito (June 21st), Kanze Kiyokazu (July20th), Nagata Katsumi (November 29th), Shibata Minoru (November30th), Suzuki Keigô (December 20th), Umano Masaki (December 20th).

The specially taught pieces, the so-called ‘naraimono’ include theespecially important ‘old woman plays’ and performances of these arelisted below, followed by the name of the actors who played the shiterole (variant performance names are omitted).

Theatre in Japan

Theatre Yearbook 2015

NOH and KYOGEN— S otoba Komachi (Stupa Komachi) – Tomoeda Akiyo (January 25th), Sekine
Shôroku (March 23rd), Takahashi Hiroshi (October 5th), Takeda Naohiro(December 23rd).
—O mu Komachi (Parrot Komachi) – Ôtsuki Bunzô (February 22nd), Umewaka
Kishô (March 15th), Kanze Kiyokazu (April 5th), Katayama Kuroemon(September 15th), Umewaka Chôzaemon (November 8th), Inoue Hirohisa(November 30th).
—O basute (Abandoned Old Lady) – Fujii Tokuzô (June 8th), Asai Fumiyoshi(November 1st), Reisaburô Nagayama (November 15th), Kongo Hisanori(December 6th).
—H igaki (The Cypruss Fence)– Yamamoto Nobuyuki (May 30th).
— S ekidera Komachi (Komachi at the Sekidera Temple) – Umewaka Genshô(March 22nd), Umewaka Manzaburô (September 21st).

There were many programs of noh and kyôgen offered in memory ofdeparted performers. Below are some of them in chronological order:040— Shigeyama Sensaku IV one-year Memorial Program of kyôgen(February 15th ad 16th, at the Kongô Noh Theatre), starring
amongst others Shigeyama Sengorô in Makura Monogurui (Grandfather in Love).
— Yamaguchi Iwao 33rd Memorial Noh program (March 21st, Ôhori
Kôen Noh Theatre), in which Yamaguchi Goichirô performed
Dojoji.
— Umewaka Kichinojô V 3rd Memorial Noh (March 29th, Kanze
Noh Theatre), where Umewaka Naoyoshi performed Sanemori(General Sanemori).
— I V Memorial Program in remembrance of Shigeyama Sensaku(June 7th, Oe Noh Theatre). Amongst other performers, Shigeyama
Shime performed Suô-otoshi (The Dropped Robe).
— Nakamori Shôzô 7th Memorial Program (June 15th, at the
National Noh Theatre), where Nakamori Kanta performed Kinuta,

Azusa no De (Washing Clothes, The Azusa Tree Version).
— Wakebayashi Kôichi 1st Memorial Noh (September 23rd, Kyoto
Kanze Kaikan). Wakebayashi Michitaka amongst others performed
Yoshino Tennin.
— Adachi Reiko Memorial Noh (September 29th, National Noh
Theatre), where Uchida Yoshiko performed Motomezuka (The
Motomezuka Hill).
— Fujita Daigorô 7th Memorial Noh (November 10th, National Noh
Theatre). Kanze Kiyokazu and Kanze Tetsunojô performed Shôjô
Midare, Okitsubo/Sô no Mai (Wild Shôjô Spirits, The Sake Jar/Twin
Dance Version ) and others.
— Shigeyama Sensaku IV one-year Memorial Program of kyôgen(November 13th, National Noh Theatre) at which Shigeyama
Sengorô performed Makura Monogurui, Shigeyama Shime per041

formed Kuriyaki (Roasting Chestnuts).
The following is a list of performers of Nohgaku who passed away in2014.
—Ô e Teruo (January 6th) Komparu School Taiko Player, 80 years old.
— Sugiura Genzaburô (January 14th) Kanze School Shite Actor, 79 years old.
— Uzawa Ikuo (January 17th) Kanze School Shite Actor, 74 years old.
— Tsuchida Kiyoshi (January 18th) Kanze School Shite Actor 77 years old.
— Gokita Takekazu (January 18th) Kanze School Shite Actor 92 years old.
— Komparu Sôemon (March 11th) Komparu School Taiko-drum Player and 21stleader, 89 years old. Important Intangible Cultural Property (Living National
Treasure)— Kawamura Haruo (March 19th) Kanze School Shite Actor, 88 years old.
— Kuramoto Masa (March 24th) Hôshô School Shite Actor. 83 years old.

Theatre in Japan

Theatre Yearbook 2015

NOH and KYOGEN—T eshima Kunzô (May 9th) Kongô School Shite Actor. 83 years old.
—E ndô Rokurô (March 21st) Kanze School Shite Actor. 88 years old.
—H iratomi Nobuyoshi (June 7th) Kanze School Shite Actor. 86 years old.
—O kumura Fukuko (July 23rd) Kanze School Shite Actor. 93 years old.
—H osono Hiromi (August 23rd) Hôshô School Shite Actor. 87 years old.
—K
 ô Masanori (August 24th) Kô School Kotsuzumi-drum Player. 73 years old.
—S himizu Toshinobu (August 30th) Takayasu School Waki Actor, 89 years old.
—M
 izukami Terukazu (October 12th) Hôshô School Shite Actor. 71 years old.
— Komparu Kunikazu (December 11th) Komparu School Taiko-drum Player 57
years old.

Nishi, Tetsuo

042

Nishi Tetsuo is a nohgaku critic born in 1937, graduated from Saitama University.
He was employed at Tokyo-dô shuppan and has held positions as adjunctinstructor at Musashino University, Department of Literature and at Bunka
Gakuin. He is also a review board member of the Agency for Cultural Affairs Arts
Festival Nohgaku Department/Theatre Department, a board member of theArts Encouragement Classical Arts Department/Theatre Department and Japan
Arts Encouragement Society (National Noh Theatre) Advisory Panel. He is a coauthor of Nohgaku Daijiten (Encyclopedia of Nohgaku, Chikuma shobô).
(Translation: James Ferner)

Kabuki and Bunraku
The World of Kabuki – a Year of Fabulous
Displays of the Coming Generations
The World of Bunraku – Sumitayû’s Retirement
Performance Breaks Sale’s Records
Mizuochi Kiyoshi
Throughout last year in kabuki, the big stars were mostly in good
health, giving us the benefit of their matured technique as they performed the roles that they are famous for. Meanwhile, the mid-level toyounger actors below the age of 40 were also making considerable
achievements, taking on many ambitious roles and first-time roles.
043

The Kabuki-za, the home base of kabuki, celebrated the first
Anniversary of its reopening in April. Although the explosion of popularity that occurred at the time of the opening has died down somewhat, with all the fine programs being staged every month, audience
numbers have stabilized and the tally for ticket sales reached an
impressive total of two million by November.
The New Year’s program brought together many of the biggest
stars such as Sakata Tôjûrô, Matsumoto Kôshirô, Nakamura
Kichiemon and Nakamura Baigyoku in a performance of KanadehonChûshingura (The Treasury of Loyal Retainers) act IX, which madeit a grand occasion. In February, mid-level stars such as Ichikawa
Somegorô, Onoe Shôroku, Onoe Kikunosuke and Nakamura
Shichinosuke performed Kokoro no Nazotokete Iroito (The Coloured
Thread Unriddling the Mysteries of the Heart) by Tsuruya
Nanboku, and Shiranami Gonin Otoko (The Shiranami Five) by

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Kawatake Mokuami, giving us the brilliance and energy suitable forthis middle generation.
In March and April, the scheduled name-taking program ofNakamura Fukusuke who was to become Nakamura Utaemon VII
was postponed due to Fukusuke’s poor state of health and theprogram was changed to the Hô-ô (Phoenix) Festival, a commemoration of the 100th year anniversary of Shôchiku’s direct managementof the Kabuki-za. The phoenix is the official crest of the Kabuki-za. In
March, there was a rich performance of Kanjinchô (The SubscriptionList) with Nakamura Kichiemon as Benkei, Onoe Kikugorô as
Togashi and Sakata Tôjûrô as Yoshitsune. In April, Sakata Tôjûrô, thekabuki elder who turns 82 this year, played the role of O-Hatsu inSonezaki Shinjû (The Love Suicides at Sonezaki), announcing it would
be the last time he performed this role. The character, O-Hatsu is a 19044

year-old girl, a role that Tôjûrô first performed at the age of 21, andthat he has continued to perform for 60 years, amounting to over
1,200 times.
In May, at the Dangiku Festival, which also served as a one-year
memorial for Ichikawa Danjûrô XII, Ichikawa Ebizô played Benkei
in Kanjinchô, a role that his father was well known for. In June,
Kataoka Nizaemon, who had been forced to take time off due toillness, returned with a reconstruction of O-Matsuri (The Festival). In
July, lead actors Bandô Tamasaburô and Ichikawa Ebizô performedin Natsumatsuri Naniwa Kagami (The Summer Festival at Naniwa)
and Tenshu Monogatari (The Castle Tower). In the August, at the‘Nôryô (summer festival) Kabuki’, Bandô Mitsugorô and Nakamura
Hashinosuke appeared in a program of mid-level stars such as Nakamura Kankurô, Nakamura Shichinosuke and Nakamura Shidô performing the Kaidan Chibusa Enoki (The Ghost of Chibusa Enoki),which they had performed in New York in July, in a program thatthey called: ‘Gaisen (triumphant return) Kôen’, which proved quite
popular.
In the September, Shûzan Festival, Nakamura Kichiemon performed Hôkaibô (The Unruly Monk) as well as the role of Mitsuhide
in Ehon Taikôki (The Tycoon’s Exploits) act X, together with Kataoka
Nizaemon, Nakamura Karoku and Ichikawa Somegorô. In October,the memorial program for Nakamura Kanzaburô XVII and XVIII
was held. These memorial programs are normally meant to honor the
departed performer and it is customary for his descendants or students to perform roles that he was famous for and that have passed
down to them. In this way, the audiences can see how the art ofkabuki is transmitted from one generation to the next. In thisprogram there was a lineup of pieces that the departed stars had been045

famous for, which went on throughout the day and evening. The
eldest son of Kanzaburô XVIII, Nakamura Kankurô performed
Mitsugi from Ise Ondo Koi no Netaba (The Massacre at Ise Pleasure
Quarters); the second son, Nakamura Shichinosuke performed
O-Mitsu from Nozakimura act in Shinpan Utazaimon (New Editionof Beggars’ Songs); and the brothers performed together in Iwashiuri
Koi no Hikiami (The Sardine Seller’s Net of Love), written by
Mishima Yukio, which both Kanzaburô XVII and XVIII had been
known for. Also in the November star-studded program, which was amemorial program for Matsumoto Hakuô I, his eldest son,Matsumoto Kôshirô and his second son Nakamura Kichiemon supported his grandson Ichikawa Somegorô as Benkei in Kanjinchô.
Matsumoto Kôshirô performed general Kumagai in Kumagai Jinya(At the Kumagai Warcamp) act from the Ichinotani Futaba Gunki(Chronicle of the Battle at Ichinotani), and Nakamura Kichiemon

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performed Ii Tairo (Lord Ii). All of these were roles that Hakuô waswell known for.
At the National Theatre’s New Year’s program, Onoe Kikugorô
staged his reconstruction of the piece Sanzen Ryô Haru no Komahiki(Three thousand Gold Coins and a Horse), and in March, Nakamura
Tokizô played the role of Kirare O-Tomi (Cutting O-Tomi) from theplay Yowa Nasake Ukina no Yokogushi (Small Mercies and Betrayals),a piece that his grandfather had been famous for. In October, Futatsu
Chôchô Kuruwa Nikki (Two Butterflies in the Pleasure Quarters) wasstaged with Matsumoto Kôshirô and Ichikawa Somegorô in the lead.
In November, Meiboku Sendai Hagi (The Trouble in the Date Household) was performed by Sakata Tôjûrô, Nakamura Senjaku, Nakamura Hashinosuke, Nakamura Baigyoku and Nakamura Kanjaku inthe central roles. In December, the reconstructed Fujikawa (Crossing046

the Border at Fujikawa), Takeyabu (In the Bamboo Grove) andOkazaki (The Okazaki Village) sections of the play, Igagoe Dôchû
Sugoroku (Revenge at Iga Pass) were performed for the first time in 44
years. Nakamura Kichiemon and Nakamura Karoku together gave anespecially fine performance of the Okazaki act.
At the New Year’s performance at Shinbashi Enbujô, Ichikawa
Ebizô performed Kotohoide Mimasu no Kagekiyo (Long Live General
Kagekiyo of the Mimasu-crest), which incorporated the works Kan’u(General Kuan Yü), Kamahige (Sickle Beard), Kagekiyo (General Kagekiyo) and Gedatsu (Jailbreak) from the Kabuki Juhachiban collection.
The script was by Kawasaki Tetsuo and Matsuoka Ryo and FujimaKanjûrô directed. The Kabuki Juhachiban is a collection of 18 playsthat had been made famous by Danjûrô I to IV and compiled by
Ichikawa Danjûrô VII in the 19th century. Many of the plays included
lack actual scripts, and this piece, although technically a reconstruc-tion, was composed as a new work.
In March, Ichikawa Ennosuke staged a work entitled Sora wo
Kizamumono (Etching the Sky) in his Super Kabuki II program,which was written and directed by Maekawa Tomohiro. Super
Kabuki was created by the preceding Ennosuke (currently En’ô) andis a modernized contemporary kabuki dance drama that, while basing
itself on the traditional techniques of kabuki, draws upon the newest
stage machinery, lighting and music.
In June, a new production of kabuki was staged at the modern
Theatre Cocoon, directed by Kushida Kazuyoshi and featuring
Nakamura Kankurô, Nakamura Shichinosuke and Onoe Matsuya in
Sannin Kichisa (Three Thieves Named Kichisa). At Meiji-za, Ichikawa
Somegorô pitted his artistry against that of Ichikawa Ennosuke.
Somegorô performed a special program composed of acts fromamongst other Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura (Yoshitsune and a Thousand

047

Cherry Trees) and the spectacle Date no Jû Yaku (Ten Flamboyant
People) in May, and in November Ennosuke performed amongst
other pieces Shitennô Momiji Edoguma (The Temple of the Four Deva
Kings and the Red Maple Make-up of Edo). Apart from the kabuki
programs in Tokyo, there were also programs held in Osaka at the
Shôchiku-za in January, April, July and October, in Kyoto at the
Minami-za in March, September and December, in Fukuoka at the
Hakata-za in February and June and a star filled program was held in
Nagoya at the Municipal Hall in October.
Along with these programs at the large venues, there were also
tours of the regional venues, with each performer organizing theirown program. Furthermore, with many of the younger actors participating in stage performances in other genres, the popularity of kabuki
continued to grow as it developed in a diversity of ways.

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The activities of the mid-level generation of stars such as
Ichikawa Somegorô, Onoe Kikunosuke, Ichikawa Ebizô, Ichikawa
Ennosuke and Onoe Matsuya clearly stood out, and what was noteworthy was how the kabuki scene, on the whole, seemed to be moving
ahead towards the next generation.
In bunraku, the eldest of the Tayû (the narrating chanters) andtheir leader, Takemoto Sumitayû VII announced his retirement,
giving as his reason his advanced age of 89. Programs to commemorate his retirement were held in April, at the Bunraku Theatre in
Osaka and in May at the National Small Theatre in Tokyo. In
November he was awarded the Order of Cultural Merit, an award of
the highest honor. After Sumitayû, the second oldest in line,
Takemoto Gentayû IX also announced his decision to retire in the048

summer due to failing physical stamina. Combined, they have servedin the lists of bunraku for 68 years. As a result, in one fell swoop theTayû camp had to make its change to the next generation of performers. Meanwhile, there has been a decrease in the amount of funds
received from Osaka in the form of subsidies.
The National Bunraku Theatre in Osaka, the home base ofbunraku, held its four regularly scheduled programs over the courseof the year along with one appreciation workshop for beginners. As
this year marked the 30th anniversary of the opening of the theatre,
the programs throughout were called ‘Commemorative programs’.
The New Year’s program had Ninin Kamuro (The Two Girl Attendants to a Courtesan), Genpei Nunobiki no Taki (The Nunobiki Waterfall), and Keisei Koibikyaku (The Amorous Courier) in the matineeand Men uri (The Mask Peddler), Chikagoro Kawara no Tatehiki(Modern Flamboyant People at the Riverbed) and Dan-no-ura KabutoGunki (The Battle of Dan-no-ura) in the evening. In April, to commemorate the retirement of Sumitayû, the work, Sugawara Denju
Tenarai Kagami (Sugawara’s Secrets of Calligraphy) was performed inits entirety over the matinee and evening programs. The matinee partbegan with the great prelude, Ôuchi (At the Imperial Court) and went
to Shôjô Nagori (Saying Farwell) of act II and the evening part wentfrom Kurumabiki (The Cart Pulling) in act III to Terakoya (The
Temple School) in act IV. Sumitayû’s chanting in the Sakuramaru
Seppuku (Sakuramaru’s Suicide) section electrified the audience.
Perhaps because this was Sumitayû’s final performance and also
because of the famous work on the program, ticket sales reached arecord 93.2%, the highest since the theatre opened. In June, the Workshop for the Appreciation of Bunraku was held in both the afternoon
and in the evening with performances of Dango Uri (The Dumpling
Seller), a lecture: ‘Welcome to Bunraku’, and Sanjûsangendo Munagi

049

no Yurai (The Ridge Pole of the Sanjûsangendo Temple). In contrast
to last year, this year there was vigorous promotion activity in theschools beforehand and the happy result was an audience packed to94.5% capacity. In July, the three-part summer program was held, thefirst part being for parents and their children with performances ofKaminari Daiko (The Thunder Drum), a lecture called ‘What is
Bunraku?’ and Saiyûki (Journey to the West), the second part featured
the famous works Heike Nyogo ga Shima (The Heike Clan and theIsland of Women) and Yari no Gonza Kasane Katabira (Gonza theLancer), and part three, the ‘Summer Late Show’ with a performanceof Onnagoroshi Abura no Jigoku (The Woman-killer and the Hell ofOil). This program also saw audience numbers rise above those of lastyear.
In November the matinee featured a performance of Futatsu

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Chôchô Kuruwa Nikki that had previously been performed in Tokyoand in the evening was a performance of Ôshû Adachigahara (The
Adachi Plain in Ôshû) in its entirety, though ticket sales left something to be desired. Along with the regular programs, in July, there
was a ‘Su-Jôruri no Kai’, a program featuring only chanting. The year
as a whole saw a record number of theatregoers, 100,000 higher thanthe previous year.
At the National Small Theatre in Tokyo there were four programs held. In February there was a three-part program, part one
having performances of Shichifukujin Takara no Irifune (The Seven
Gods of Fortune) and Chikagoro Kawara no Tatehiki; part two had aperformance of Somemoyô Imose no Kadomatsu (The Love of Osomeand Hisamatsu) and part three featured Goshozakura Horikawa
Youchi (The Cherry Trees of the Imperial Palace) and Honchô Nijû050

shikô (The Twenty-four Dutiful Sons). In May, to commemorate Sumitayû’s retirement, the first part staged performances of Zôho,
Chushingura (Supplement to Chushingura), Koinyôbô Somewake
Tazuna (The Two-colored Reins), and Sanjûsangendô Munagi no Yurai
and the second part featured Onnagoroshi Abura no Jigoku. Sumitayû,as did his father Sumitayû VI, performed Kutsukakemura (The Kutsukake Village) from Koinyôbô Somewake Tazuna as his farewell tohis bunraku activities.
In September, there was a program in three parts, part one a performance of Futatsu Chôchô Kuruwa Nikki held in conjunction with
the October program of kabuki. Part two had performances of Ômi
Genji Senjin Yakata (The Battle of Sakamoto Castle), and Hidakagawa
Iriaizakura (The Cherry Trees along the Hidaka River) and part three
featured the first performance of a work entitled Farusu no Taifu,
based on William Shakespeare’s Henry IV and The Merry Wives ofWindsor with the script by Kawai Shôichirô and editorial supervisionand music by Tsurusawa Seiji. This work depicts the absurd tales ofthe mishaps of the pot-bellied, lustful epicurean, Farusu no Taifu (Falstaff), and in the end, his expulsion by the prince who had been his
close companion. Ishii Mitsuru created the flamboyant scenery andoriginal costumes, and puppeteer Kiritake Kanjûrô worked the main
character in an entertaining performance. In December, the matinee
and evening both had performances of Ninin Sanbasô (Two Sanbasô)
as well as a lecture ‘The Charm of Bunraku’, and Ehon Taikôki. In theevening there was a program featuring mid-level performers with
Meiboku Sendai Hagi and Kamikojitate Ryomenkagami (The FaithfulWife). Audience numbers in the Tokyo programs have continued toincrease from before, but this year’s May program honoring Sumitayû’s retirement, was completely sold out in advance. December also051

recorded a full house and the other two programs surpassed the 80%
mark in ticket sales. In October, a program of Su-Jôruri (only chanting) was held.
The camp of the Tayû-chanters has a new leader in Toyotake
Sakitayû. With his recovered health, his precise chanting, developed
through his study of the texts, shone remarkably. Toyotake Shimatayû
showed a mastery of expressing the affections of his characters. Midlevel chanter, Toyotake Hanafusadayû portrayed characters from historical dramas with dynamic expression and Takemoto Chitosedayû
displayed great skill in delivering a sensitive chanting tone. Takemoto
Mojihisadayû, student of Sumitayû, showed his strength with hissolid chanting. In terms of age, the next generation is led by Toyotake
Rosetayû, who has developed in his ability to chant in important situations. Among the younger performers, Toyotake Sakihodayû, Toyotake Yoshihodayû have stood out. But, be that as it may, the TayûTheatre in Japan

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KABUKI and BUNRAKU

camp on the whole, has thinned out.
Among the Shamisen players, Tsurusawa Seiji tops the list with afull corps of capable talent among the mid-level and younger players.
There are also Tsuruzawa Enza, Nozawa Kinshi, Toyozawa
Tomisuke, Tsurusawa Seisuke and following them Tsuruzawa Tôzô.
The elder of the Shamisen players, Tsuruzawa Kanji is also in good
health giving much depth to the group.
Among the Puppeteers, the elder Yoshida Minosuke and Yoshida
Bunjaku are in good health and displaying an art hammered out toperfection, but due to their age they are no longer able to overextend
themselves and so the mid-level performers, Kiritake Kanjûrô,Yoshida Kazuo, Yoshida Tamame have been taking on some of themain roles. Kazuo in the female, Tamame in the male roles, both play
to their strengths, and Kanjûrô possesses the versatility to handle052

both types of roles. Also, they are followed by Yoshida Tamaya,
Toyomatsu Seijûrô and the younger Yoshida Ichisuke, Yoshida
Kôsuke and Yoshida Tamaka are all gaining in strength as well. For
bunraku, the year presented a number of challenging issues to be
dealt with but then things steadily returned to normal.
Mizuochi, Kiyoshi
Born in Osaka in 1936 and graduated from Waseda University, Faculty of
Literature specializing in Theatre. From 1970 he was been in charge of theTheatre section for the Arts and Cultural News department of the Mainichi
Shimbun and served as vice-chairman for that newspaper as well as being amember of the editorial board and special committee member. He is now anaffiliate member of the editorial board. In the year 2000, he was appointed
professor at Obirin University, retiring in 2007, and is now Professor Emeritus of
the same university. His writings include Kamigata Kabuki, Bunraku, Heisei
Kabuki Haiyûron and others.
(Translation: James Ferner)

MusicalSuccessful Premieres
Hagio Hitomi

In Japan, an array of musicals was presented in 2014 and it was, so to
speak, a good harvest year. Other than remounts, there were a large
number of Japan premieres, making it this year’s trend. There weresome impressive works among these premieres and it was gratifying
to see how well they were executed.

The Beautiful Game made anew
The most impressive musical that I saw this year was The Beautiful Game. It is an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, with the script and053

lyrics written by Ben Elton, originally first staged in London in 2000.
In Japan, it was first performed in 2006, starring Sakurai Sho. When it
was revived Japan in 2014, however, they used the version revised forthe premiere in Canada, which had been retitled The Boys in the Photograph. In other words, the revival in Japan was based on the revised
version, and also had a new direction and cast. The Japanese title andthe setting, however, remained the same. It turned into an enormously
appealing musical, owing to the fact that the latter half of the story
and part of the music had been changed as well as the novel direction
and casting.
The story was set in Belfast in Northern Ireland between 1969
and 1970. It was a time when the IRA was intensifying its terrorist
campaigns. Against such social backdrop, two football mates werecaught up in the confrontation between the Catholics andTheatre in Japan

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MusicalProtestants, and for that reason, they were torn apart. John (played byBaba Toru) was a hopeful ace striker and people expected him to join
a professional team but his life got off the track after helping his
friend, who had joined the IRA, get away from it.
It was also an ensemble piece about young people. The main plot
was the love story between John and Mary (played by Otsuka
Chihiro), interwoven with subplots such as the story of a young Protestant man called Del (played by Hirakata Genki) and a young
Catholic woman called Christine (played by Frank Rina), who weregoing to immigrate to the U.S., as well as the tragic ending of thesweet love story between the slow-paced Ginger (Fujioka Masaaki)
and Bernadette (Noda Kumiko).
The theme of ‘conflict’ was brought out through the sophisticated dramaturgy. The stage was set between two blocks of audience054

seats and it was devised so that the audience would also be drawn intothe ‘conflict’ taking place right in front of them as the actors performed in the auditorium and the aisles as well. Moreover, the news
video projected onto the screens on both sides of the stage created asense of urgency. The stories of the past were presented as themes oftoday, making it into a thrilling and heartfelt musical.
The choreography by Shinkai Eriko was also appealing. There
were Irish dance elements as well as dynamic dance numbers full offootball movements. Not only was the choreography fantastic but it
also helped to express the themes. The dramatization, full of inspirations, was carried out by Fujita Shuntaro, who had taken on the challenge of directing a musical for the first time. Both he and the choreographer Shinkai are indeed very promising artists.
In the original version of the musical, a sad and yet beautifulsong titled Our Kind of Love was sung as the theme number. In thenew version, however, The Beautiful Game and The Boys in the Photograph were chosen as theme numbers. Part of the melodies of theoriginal theme number were still there, but the music itself, given a
new title and different lyrics, had been turned into the title number ofLove Never Dies, which is also a Lloyd Webber musical that premiered
in London back in 2010.
The Japanese version of Love Never Dies premiered in 2014 as
well. It was based on the 2012 Australian version directed by Simon
Philips, which was by far better than the original London version.
The story is the sequel to the blockbuster musical Phantom of the
Opera. It is based on the novel The Phantom of Manhattan written byFrederick Forsyth, who wrote it so that it can eventually be adapted
into a musical that would be the sequel to the Phantom of the Opera.
However, in the initial musical adaptation process, in which Lloyd
Webber also took part in creating the script, both the set up and the055

story were different. Ten years has passed since the last scene of theprequel and the character of Phantom (played by double-cast Ichimura Masachika and Kaga Takeshi) had become an impresario on
Coney Island in the suburbs of New York, which was made possible
through the cooperation of Madame Giry. The story unfolded after
the Phantom’s beloved Christine and her husband Raoul visits theisland with their son Gustave.
In the Philips version, however, the excessive music had been
simplified and the order of the musical numbers had been changed aswell, which brought out a color that was different from the original
version. By cutting the explanatory opening scene and starting fromTil I Hear You Sing sung by the Phantom instead, it became clear that
he loved Christine not only as a woman but also as a musical soulmate. As a result, the focus of the story shifted to the Phantom

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Musicalpassing on his musical spirit to the young Gustave. In the original
version, however, it was only the Phantom’s obsessive and delusionary
love that could be felt. Besides the strength of the dramaturgy, themagical and gorgeous costumes and set designed by Gabriela Tylesova
were also extremely appealing and effective for the piece.

A Cavalcade of Topical Musicals
Apart from the two musicals mentioned above, imported musicals premiered in Japan one after another, starting from the beginningof 2014. International productions of The Full Monty (January) and In
the Heights (April) had come on tour to Japan in the past, but thistime, they were translated and performed in Japanese. The otherJapan-premiere musicals presented in 2014 were Musical Sherlock
Holms—The Secret of the Anderson Family (January), Love Never Dies
056

(March), Adams Family (April), Sister Act (June), Catch Me If You Can(June), Carmen (June), Jeeves and Wooster (July), Black Mary Poppins(July), Title of Show (August), On the Town (September), 110 in the
Shade (October) and First Date the Musical (November). As one may
notice, new musicals were mounted almost every month.
Additionally, there were revivals of past productions with newstaging and new cast such as I DO! I DO! (August) and The Two
Gentlemen of Verona (December). Also, Napoleon, the Man Who
Never Sleeps and Lady Bess were original musicals that premiered inJapan, created in collaboration with artists from abroad. It did truly
seem like a cavalcade of epic and topical musicals were performed
during 2014.
I would like to mention a few impressive works among them.
Firstly, Full Monty, which was originally adapted from a film into a
Broadway musical. In the Japanese version, the leading role wasplayed by Yamada Takayuki, who appealed to the audience with hissinging, dancing and acting so good it was hard to believe that thiswas his first musical. In the Heights also came from Broadway and it
was a heart-moving story about the kindness of the people living in a
town made up of Latino immigrants. It was an enjoyable show, as
TETSUHARU’s staging and choreography created the atmosphere of
the town and there were also many dance numbers performed by theentire cast.
Adams Family, Catch Me If You Can, On the Town, 110 in the
Shade and First Date were originally presented on Broadway, while
Title of Show was originally presented off Broadway. In Adams Family,
Hashimoto Satoshi captivated the audience not only with his skills asa performer but also with the charm of his warm personality thatcame through in his acting. The cast members playing the supporting057

roles were also perfectly cast, and Shirai Akira’s staging that created arelaxed and fun atmosphere, which went well with the piece.
On the Town and 110 in the Shade are musicals that premieredover fifty years ago. In On the Town, Sakamoto Masayuki, Nagano
Hiroshi and Inohara Yoshihiko, the so-called ‘Tonisen’ (20thCentury) of the boys band group V6, were perfect for their roles, andit was indeed an enjoyable show. As for 110 in the Shade, it was performed in a small space with only a few cast members. The text andlyrics were translated by the director Katsuda Yasuhiko, who knows
the work very well, and the turmoil taking place around the heroine(played by Miyauchi Rie), who does not give up her dreams despite
the fact that she was caught up in the boring reality, was depicted
light-heartedly, leaving a good feeling after seeing the show.
First Date is a new musical that premiered on Broadway in 2013.
It did not run for long in the U.S. but in Japan, the story with many

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MusicalJewish-related materials was turned into an endearing love comedy
with universal themes. The skillful performances of Nakagawa Akira
and Niizuma Seiko, who played the two leading roles, also gave lotsof momentum to the show. Title of Show that originated off Broadway had a small cast and only the performances of the four castmembers (Urai Kenji, Kakizawa Hayato, Tamaki Nami and Sato
Hitomi) making great efforts left an impression.
Jeeves and Wooster is an early work by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It
was probably introduced to Japan because of its recent revival in
London. Nothing new was found in the typical British comedy featuring the duo of a stupid master and clever butler, but I was surprised at how good Wentz Eiji was despite the fact that he wasplaying the leading role in his first musical. I hope he will perform in
more musicals.
058

International collaborations on the rise
Napoleon, the Man Who Never Sleeps (presented by Takarazuka
Revue, January) and Lady Bess (April) were both directed by Koike
Shuichiro, who also wrote the book for the former. Napoloen, the Man
Who Never Sleeps was a new musical made in partnership with Gérard
Presgurvic, who also composed Roméo et Juliette: de la Haine àl’Amour, but it was a pity that the music lacked originality and was
also excessive. On the other hand, Lady Bess was created by the same
writer-composer duo as Elisabeth. Michael Kunze wrote the lyrics andscript, while Sylvester Levay composed and arranged the music. It wasa story depicting the Virgin Queen Elizabeth I during her childhoodand the production was organized in a sound way, focusing on her
coming of age.
Sherlock Holmes and Black Mary Poppins were both originallyfrom South Korea. The Korean musical scene is very active at the
moment and young talented creators appear one after another, but if I
were to make a remark, in most of them, the weaknesses in the script
stood out. It may be for that reason that these two musicals had toundergo drastic embellishments when they were adapted for Japan,
and were as a result upgraded to an exceeding level. The same
approach would probably be required in the future when musicals
originating in Korea are presented in Japan.
There were also excellent remakes and revivals. I DO! I DO!
was one example of the former, which was successful due to themeticulous staging by Okochi Naoko. It was a paean to life depicting a couple from the time they just got married until their autumnof life. The image of the couple may seem somewhat old fashioned
for us today but the soundscape helped to understand the period of
their story. Also with the help of the outstanding performance of059

the cute comedienne Kiriya Hiromu, it turned into a delightful
musical comedy.
As for revivals, Thrill Me was mounted for the third time. Thistime, the director Kuriyama Tamiya made alterations in detail. As it
was triple cast, I was not able to see all the cast combinations but I
was once again impressed by Onoe Matsuya’s singing and acting.
Flowers for Algernon, which was another musical that was revived,
was also memorable due to the fact that the piece had further deepened owing to the great improvement in Urai Kenji’s acting.
Other memorable musicals include Daddy Long Legs (March),
Miss Saigon (from July to August) and Mozart (from November
to December).
Lastly, I would like to briefly touch upon the original Japanesemusicals staged in 2014. The TS Musical Foundation is a group that

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Musicalhas been putting on original musicals almost once a year and in 2014,it produced Familia-April 25th, the Day of Birth directed by Sha
Tamae. I must also not forget to write about a similar group called
Musical-za that revived Himeyuri, an important piece in its repertoire,as well as mounting new musicals like QUOVADIS.

Hagio, Hitomi
She became a film and theatre critic after working as a newspaper journalist, andwrites stage reviews for The Tokyo Shimbun and serial columns in musicalmagazines. She has written books including “Take Me to the Musicals” and “100People Working on Les Miserables”, and ”Tony Awards” and “My First MusicalFilm -- 50 Best Musicals Selected by Hagio Hitomi”.
(Translation: Sumida Michiyo)

060

Contemporary Theatre
Female Playwrights Shineat a Turning Point in History
Yamaguchi Hiroko
2014 saw Japanese society seem to reach a historical turning point. In
July the Abe government gained Cabinet approval for authorizing theuse of collective self-defense, in a complete 180-degree reversal of what
successive Cabinets had always previously judged forbidden under
Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan. And then at the barely contested Lower House election, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party
obtained a two-thirds majority, with the Prime Minister then suggesting his willingness to change the Constitution. Meanwhile, the gov-

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ernment and TEPCO continue to move towards re-starting thenuclear power plants that opinion polls show over half of the public
are against.
How is one to face up to this? Here the serious creativity of playwrights, especially female ones, shined.
Leading playwright Nagai Ai (b. 1951) wrote and directed Ougaino kaidan (Ogai’s Mystery) for her company Nitosha.
Based on historical records of how novelist Mori Ogai’s opinion
was sought by both defendants and the government in the 1910 HighTreason Incident, the play examined Mori’s conflict as both afree-spirited writer and also an elite member of the military, and thuspart of the Establishment. While a light-hearted comedy set in his
home with his clashing mother and young wife, the suggested themes

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are deep. Ultimately, Mori takes the side of the authorities and hehears the voice of Elise, his lover when he was studying in Germany
he later rejected, echoing in his ear: “Traitor.” When the authorities
are suppressing thinking and ideas, can people fight against it? This
question was a vivid one for contemporary audiences.

Breakthrough of the 1970’s Generation
Playwrights from a later generation also presented powerful new
plays.
Set in the near future, Boots on the Underground (Rinkogun) by
Shimizu Yayoi (b. 1979) was about young people conscripted by alottery into a “special peace support corps” in order to boost Japan’s
Self-Defence Forces, and the heavily disabled youth who gets selected
for it by mistake. The funny but chillingly real play dealt with a wide062

range of issues, including rights for the disabled, poverty among theyoung, and the army.
Nogi Moegi (b. 1977) wrote and directed Showa Restoration forparadoxconstant, a fantasy story also about soldiers, and the brotherof the Prime Minister and two police guards who are erroneously
shot during the February 16 Incident (an attempted military coup in1936), but inexplicably cannot be killed. Superbly balanced between
the serious and the strange and funny, the play brought out thesorrow of the young caught in the middle of the contradictions of
the army.
Setoyama Misaki (b. 1977) wrote both the script and directed
Mienai kumo (Invisible Clouds) for Minamoza. This stage adaptationof the German novel Die Wolke portrayed children fleeing from radiation released by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, vividly zeroing in oncontemporary Japan’s post-Fukushima dilemmas. Yamaya Noriko (b.

1976) also wrote a faithful play, Shirotae no haru, chigiri ki na (ALovers’ Promise in a White Spring), for Ring-Bong, examining Korea
during its time as a Japanese colony.
Theatrical Group EN staged a series of new plays by threefemale writers. Hatsuhagi no hana (First Flower of the Fall) by Naito
Yuko (b. 1975), Kuchiru manimani (Adrift to Decay) by Kuwabara
Yuko (b. 1976), and Sasayakidani shirubaa dansei gashou-dan (Sasayakidani Silver Male Choir) by Sumi Hiromi (b. 1974) depicted thegeneration of the playwrights’ parents. Kuwabara was also acclaimed
for staging Atoato (Trace), which she wrote and directed for her own
company, KAKUTA.
Both emerging and established talents continued to attract attention in directing.
There were many successes, such as Kamimura Satoshi (b. 1979),
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who staged Sartre’s The Condemned of Altona (New National Theatre,
Tokyo), Alexi Kaye Campbell’s The Faith Machine (Bungakuza Atelier
no Kai) and Wajdi Mouawad’s Incendies (Setagaya Public Theatre).
Mori Shintaro (b. 1976) showed his skills with productions of Richard
Bean’s The Big Fellah (Setagaya Public Theatre) and William Gibson’s
The Miracle Worker (Horipro), while Ogawa Eriko (b. 1978), who isalso an established translator, directed Martin McDonagh’s The Lonesome West (Sis Company) and Nick Payne’s Constellations (NewNational Theatre, Tokyo), and Nozoe Seiji (b. 1975) likewise gave us
an interesting production of Vigil by Morris Panych (New National
Theatre, Tokyo).
Tada Junnosuke (b. 1976) directed Karumegi (The Seagull)(written by Son Ki-woong), a co-production between Tada’s Tokyo
Deathlock and the Doosan Art Center. Based on the Anton Chekhov
play, it was rehearsed in Seoul and performed in two languages with a

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joint Japanese and Korean cast portraying the lives of people in Korea
during the 1930’s.

Prodigious Veterans
The dynamic activities of established artists also left an impression this year.
Naraoka Tomoko (b. 1929), a pillar of Gekidan Mingei, appeared
in a five-month national tour of The Whales of August, before thentaking the lead in a new adaptation of The Trip to Bountiful, a tautly
performed play about an elderly woman returning to her hometown.
Kato Takeshi (b. 1929), a member of Bungakuza, played the lead roleof Katsushika Hokusai in Natsu no sakari no semi no you ni (As Cries
of Cicadas in the Fullness of Summer), a play full of vitality. Nakadai
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Tatsuya (b. 1932) appeared in Barrymore for Mumeijuku, his first solo
play. Watanabe Misako (b. 1932) and Hira Mikijiro (b. 1933) also madea splash in the two-hander Do You Turn Somersaults? (Old World) byAleksei Arbuzov at Kani Public Arts Center.
A generation younger, Shiraishi Kayoko (b. 1941) completed
Hyaku monogatari (100 Tales), her series of readings of scary stories.
Among directors, the output of Ninagawa Yukio (b. 1935) was
prodigious, handling the artistic directorship of two theatres (Saitama
Arts Theater and Theatre Cocoon) while also directing ten productions for Horipro and elsewhere.
Seven of these alone were new productions – including Toumin
suru kuma ni soine shite goran (Try Snuggling Up to a HibernatingBear) by the writer Furukawa Hideo (b. 1966), Never Let Me Go by
Kuramochi Yutaka (b. 1972), based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro,
Taiyou 2068 (Sun 2068) by Maekawa Tomohiro (b. 1974) – as well as
revivals of Shimizu Kunio’s (b. 1936) Hi no you ni samishii ane ga ite(An Older Sister Burning Like A Flame), starring Otake Shinobu andMiyazawa Rie, and Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. The Saitama Arts
Theater also marked 25 years since it opened, celebrating the milestone with a pair of productions from the two theatre companies
based at the venue that left a strong impression: a new adaptation of
2014, “Caligula” by the pale boys and girls by Saitama Next Theatre,
the troupe of young performers based at Saitama Arts Theater, while
Ninagawa’s Saitama Gold Theater, made up only of senior actors,
successfully revived Karasu yo, oretachi wa tama o komeru (Ravens, We
Shall Load Bullets) in Hong Kong, Paris and Japan.

The Role of Public Theatres
We have looked back at the achievements of individual theatre
artists, but what were the activities of the theatres built by the state or
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regional authorities?
Public theatres established by local governments are increasingaround Japan. In terms of theatres with artistic directors and strong
connections to creating new work, the Saitama Arts Theater in
Saitama Prefecture, the Setagaya Public Theatre in Setagaya ward inTokyo, and the Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC) in Shizuoka
Prefecture have long histories.
SPAC is a rare case in Japan of a theatre with its own repertory
company. Artistic Director Miyagi Satoshi (b. 1959) directed
Mahaabaarata – naraou no boken (Mahabharata – Nalacharitam)(written by Kubota Azumi), which made an acclaimed appearance at
the Avignon Festival in July.
Noda Hideki (b. 1955) is the Artistic Director of Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre. In 2014 he directed a cast of Korean actors in
Hanshin (Half Gods), a co-production with Myeongdong Theater in
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Seoul. The dynamic and richly expressive play was performed atboth theatres.
The Owlspot Theater in Toshima in Tokyo celebrated 450 years
since the birth of Shakespeare with a yearlong festival of the Bard’s
work. Bungakuza staged Measure for Measure and As You Like It, twoof the 15 diverse productions that reinterpreted Shakespeare’s plays indance and music. Bungakuza also put on its own Shakespeare festival,
staging King Lear in January 2015 with Emori Toru (b.1944), as well asa range of performances, readings and symposia.
Public theatres around the country have been supporting creativity through co-productions and cooperation, though over the past few
years the New National Theatre, Tokyo has leaned towards staging
translations of European and American plays. Of the nine produc066

tions staged in 2014, only two were Japanese: Manira mizuhoki(Manila Mizuhoki) by Akimoto Matsuyo (1911-2001) and Juukyuu-sai
no jeikobu (Nineteen-Year-Old Jacob) by Matsui Shu (b. 1972), basedon the novel by Nakagami Kenji (1946-1992). The passion we felt informer days, when the theatre gave us masterpieces like the works ofInoue Hisashi (1934-2010), Nagai Ai’s Konnichi wa, kaasan (Hello,
Mother) and Chong Wishing’s (b. 1957) Yakiniku doragon (Yakiniku
Dragon), is gone. As a national theatre it surely has a responsibility tostage more original theatre.
Like the New National Theatre, the Aoyama Theatre andAoyama Round Theatre complex was built by the state (under the
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare) and opened in 1985.
However, it is sad to see it close at the end of the 2014 fiscal year.
In particular, the Aoyama Round Theatre, with its unique design,
has cultivated many theatre companies and artists as a core fringe
theatre facility. The Aoyama Theatre Festival, which started in 1987

and continued for 15 years, created new theatrical waves acutely
reflecting the mood of the times. The festival was revived for a special
finale just before the venue closed, staging six productions, including
Ikiteru mono wa inai no ka (Isn’t anyone alive?) by Maeda Shiro (b.
1977) and Tokyo Slum Angels by Tani Kenichi (b. 1982).
The final curtain was marked with a production of Yuzora harete– yoku kaki ku kyaku (A Clear Evening Sky: Peter Piper Picked a Peck)by Betsuyaku Minoru (b. 1937), adapted and directed by Keralino
Sandrovich (KERA, b. 1963). Due to his unfortunate hospitalization,
the planned staging of Betsuyaku’s new play had to be cancelled,though the choice of Sandrovich, who has also directed Betsuyaku’s
play Byouki (Sick) in a festival of his work in 1997, made for a sharp
production that also conveyed the appeal of Betsuyaku’s 1985 play toa younger generation.
Kinosaki International Arts Center opened in Toyooka City in

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Hyogo Prefecture as a facility for theatre artist residencies. To markthe opening, it hosted the Japan Playwrights Association Congress inJune, the first time the event had been held in nine years. It featured
52 events, including performances, symposia, readings and seminars,
attended by a total of 7,400 people. The hot spring resort bubbled
with theatre people and theatre-lovers. In autumn, the Center hosted
a residency for Hirata Oriza (b. 1962) and French actors, where they
produced an android version of Kafka’s Metamorphosis with humanand robot performers.

Vibrant Theatre Works
Popular theatre artists also had a busy year.
Known for writing plays with male ensembles, Mitani Koki (b.
1961) created plays this year with female protagonists. He wrote andTheatre in Japan

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directed the actress Yuka in Sake to namida to jikiru to haido (Jekyll &Hyde & Tears & Liquor) (Horipro), a slapstick play that set thetheatre ablaze. In Murasaki shikibu daiarii (The Authoress, orMurasaki Shikibu’s Diaries) (Parco), a two-hander starring Nagasawa
Masami and Saito Yuki, and which he also wrote and directed, heexamined the difficulties of being a woman. He also penned anddirected an adaptation of the Goldoni comedy La vedova scaltra (TheCunning Widow) for Sis Company, giving Otake Shinobu a great role
to show off her talents. The Parco Theater staged a revival of Kimi tonara (If it’s with you...) with a new cast, which ran simultaneouslywith the premiere of Show Girl, an homage to the late Fukuda
Yoichiro (1932-2010).
The popular theatre companies Otona Keikaku and Gekidan
Shinkansen joined forces for a co-production under the name Otona
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no Shinkansen (literally, “Adult New Sensation Line”). Last Flowers,
written by Matsuo Suzuki (b. 1962) and directed by Inoue Hidenori(b. 1960), applied Matsuo’s caustic humor to a lowbrow spy story withan all-star cast. Kirei (Beautiful) at Theater Cocoon, the third stagingof the play written, directed and starring Matsuo, was also a spectacle.
Fellow Otona Keikaku member Kudo Kankuro (b. 1970) wrote Manju
kowai (The Manju We Fear) (Parco) for “the three mouseketeers”, aunit comprised of the three actors, Furuta Arata, Namase Katsuhisa
and Ikeda Narushi.
It was also a milestone year for veteran Shingeki companies.
Haiyuza celebrated 70 years since it was founded with a revival of
Abe Kobo’s (1924-1993) play Kyojin densetsu (The Legend of the Giants)(premiered in 1960). Seinenza Theater Company welcomed its sixtieth year with Chi no chibusa (Breasts of the Earth), based on Mizukami Tsutomu’s (1919-2004) script from 30 years ago (adapted from

his novel) and directed by Miyata Keiko (b. 1957). The drama examines the lives of women living in the province of Wakasa from the
pre-war Taisho period through to the Showa era and its rapid postwar economic growth. The multi-generational cast could really show
off their capabilities. The final part of the play dealt with the construction of a nuclear power plant, an issue close to home for contemporary audiences.
In the Kansai region, Ishinha, the company led by Matsumoto
Yukichi (b. 1946), constructed a special temporary riverside theatre in
the center of Osaka and performed the outdoor play Toushizu (Perspective Play), devised and directed by Matsumoto. Vast amounts ofwater filled the stage during the play. Borrowing the high-rises for its
backdrop, the large-scale dream play reflected on Osaka as a citywhere people and things intersect through the sea, rivers and canals.
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Yamaguchi, Hiroko
Born in Gunma Prefecture in 1960. Graduated from the Department of Scienceat Ochanomizu University. In 1983, she joined the Asahi Shimbun newspaper,
working at its Tokyo and west Japan (Fukuoka) branches, and Osaka head office.
She worked mainly as a reviewer and reporter on cultural news, in particular fortheatre. After working on the editorial board, she now writes editorials andleading articles for the newspaper.
(Translation: William Andrews)

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Children’s and Youth Theatre andPuppet Theatre
Bringing Theatre that Creates Emotional Experiences
Yokomizo Yukiko
There are still many children’s suicides due to parental violence andbullying. Revisions for entrance exams to universities are fierce andcompetition between children increasingly intense with an increased
consciousness of rank. In this situation, theatre can be a good opportunity to consider the creation of an identity by providing an opportunity to compare oneself to the people on stage. While opportunities
for children to see theatre in performances charging admission are
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growing somewhat infrequent, there are still many children’s theatre
troupes that are struggling to present high quality theatre.
The “Jido Seishonen Engeki Chiho Junkai Koen (Regional Tourof Children’s and Youth Theatre)” sponsored by the Nihon Jido Seishonen Engeki Kyokai (Japan Children’s and Youth Theatre Association), which is intended for children living outside the big cities, washeld for the 55th year. In spring there were 7 theatre troupes including
Minwa-za and in autumn there were 16 theatre troupes, including
Gekidan Nakama, touring the regions and providing emotionallymoving performances to large audiences of children.
In 2014, there was the start of a new project by the Japanese
National Cultural Agency, the “Senryaku-teki Geijutsu Bunka Sozo
Suishin Jigyo (Strategic Project for the Encouragement of the Creation of Artistic Culture).” In this, as touring performances of “Jido
Seishonen Butai Geijutsu (Children’s and Youth Stage Arts)” of theregional areas and islands were organized, and 15 theatre troupes participated. Since the project called for 50 performances in 50 days, thislimited the performances by any one theatre troupe to a maximum of
6 performances. This new project has been structured so that, asmuch as possible, it does not overlap with the places toured by the“Jido Seishonen Engeki Chiho Junkai Koen”. So this means that thetwo projects together can have maximum impact and cover the entire
country.
The Gekidan Shiki theatre troupe has cooperated with the Nissei
Gekijo theatre to support the “Nissei Meisaku Gekijo (Masterpiece
Theatre)” which presents theatre to 6th graders for free since June
1964, but it was suddenly canceled now on its 50th anniversary. Thisis because it overlapped with Gekidan Shiki’s program of free performances for children, “Kokoro Gekijo (Heart Theatre)” which has
been presented since 2008 and the intention was to unify the efforts

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into Gekidan Shiki’s program. The venue was changed to the Shiki
Gekijo Aki (Autumn) and in Tokyo the play for the “Kokoro Gekijo”
project was Jon Manjiro no Yume (John Manjiro’s Dream). There
were also two touring plays, Maho o Suteta Majorin (Marjoline Discards Magic) and Futari no Rotte (The Two Lotte’s) which were performed in 159 cities from the Rishiri Island in Hokkaido to the Ichigaki Island in Okinawa. There were 462 performances for 560,000
children, so unlike the original Nissei program this is nationwide andis on a huge scale. Gekidan Shiki employs many more performers
than any ordinary children’s theatre troupe and can thus provide
spectacular performances throughout Japan.
There are increasing numbers of international festivals for children held from the spring into the summer. There were changes withthe summer festival in Okinawa City, “Kijimuna Festa” which gained

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international attention. Even as the festival was about to celebrate its
10th anniversary, some members of the Okinawa City Council
opposed holding it. For a time there were concerns that it would becancelled, but due to the strong desire from abroad to take part, it was
held, but changed the name to the “International Theatre Festival
Okinawa for Young Audiences 2014.” The venues spread out in threecities: Tokyo (July 26, 27, National Memorial Olympic Children andYouth Center), and in Okinawa, Koza (July 26-29) and Naha (July31-August 3). There were many excellent performances including
those by La Galera Encantada, who has been awarded the top prize in
Latin America for excellence in children’s theatre, and presented plays
like The Queen’s Child: The Caucasian Chalk Circle (The Right Way
Round). There were 6 symposiums and 2 workshops, but the festival
attracted lesser audience than previous years, only 25,000 in total. It is
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unforgivable that a festival for children is caught in political crossfire
and is forced to make changes with negative consequences. We hopethat the festival can continue to be held in the future.
At the Tokyo Geijutsu Gekijo’s “TACT / Festival 2014” (May 3-6,
9-11), groups like France’s Camille Boitel appeared in Japan for the
first time and presented L’immédiat (The Here and Now), Zimmermann & de Perrot from Switzerland presented Hans was Heiri (Hansand Heiri, Which is Which?) and Canada’s Corpus, which appears
every year, presented Les Moutons (The Sheep), and Nuit Blanche(Fifty Ways to See Dreams), all with very interesting concepts.
The TACT / Festival 2014 with its main venue in the Abeno
Kumin Center in Osaka (Osaka International Children’s Art Festival,
September 9-21) is in its 8th year. There were 6 pieces from four
foreign countries including Les Moutons by Corpus. The Japanesechildren’s theatre troupe Kio presented Tamago o Toru no wa Daare?

(Who Steals the Eggs?) and Kenji no Okurimono (Gift from Kenji).
There was a full program of 11 performing arts pieces and it is unfortunate that more people did not see them.
The “Kodomo to Butai Geijutsu Deai Fo-ramu 2014 (Forum forChildren to Encounter the Stage Arts)” (National Memorial Olympic
Children and Youth Center: July 24-30) is in its 15th year. With theorganizing committee led by Sato Makoto, the artistic director of
Za-Koenji theatre, the forum kept children’s point of view firmly inmind and increased the number of “asobi no hiroba (play spaces)”
attracting a lot of children to come and play and enticing them to stay
and watch the performances. There were 27 theatre troupes presenting 27 pieces (28 performances) including Puppet Theatre Puk’s Pinku
no Doragon (The Pink Dragon) and Gekidan Nakama’s Boku wa
Afurika ni sumu Kirin to Iimasu (I am a Giraffe from Africa).
In the 43rd “Summer Vacation Children and Youth Theatre Fes-

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tival” sponsored by the Nihon Jido Seishonen Engeki Kyodo Kumiai(Japan Children and Youth Theatre Association) with performancesat Space Zero and the Puk Puppet Theatre (July 22-August 10), there
were 22 pieces and 27 performances. The “21st Century Theatre from
Kitakata” (August 8-11, Kitakata Plaza and other venues) featured a
program full of variety, including theatre, puppet theatre and concerts. There were 85 pieces and 105 performances and attracted morethan 10,000 people from all over Japan.
The aim of the “Nissei Gekijo Family Festival 2014” is to teachchildren manners when watching performances in a first-class theatre
space. In addition to Arisu no Kurashikku Konsa–to (Alice’s ClassicalConcert) (July 20-21), Hitomi-za’s puppet musical, Tobidase Songoku(Jump Out Songoku, the Magical Monkey!) (August 2-3) and Maki
Asami’s Ballet Troupe’s Giselle (August 22-24), for the first time theTheatre in Japan

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program included “Oyako Yose (Family Variety Hall)” (July 26-27).
This program of rakugo comic storytelling and other art forms featured in traditional yose performance halls was specially designed toappeal to families and featured Yanagiya Karoku performing the
rakugo Hatsu Tenjin (First Visit to the Tenjin Shrine), Edoya Nekohachi and his son Koneko performing impressions of the sounds ofbirds and other animals and Hayashiya Niraku doing paper cuts ofsubjects requested by the audience.
The play that was the winner of the 2012 Saida Takashi Playwriting Prize, Sora no Murago (Sora’s Village) by Shinoda Kumiko was
published in the 11th issue of the magazine “Geki” and has since thenbeen produced all through the country, beginning with the Gekidan
Nakama theatre troupe and extending to amateur groups and middle
school drama clubs. This is a story of an elementary school student
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named Sora who lives in the area that suffered through the Great East
Japan Earthquake. A filmmaker comes to the area to make a documentary and this makes Sora want to become a filmmaker, but gradually Sora decides rather than to make a documentary that shows thedifficulties of reality, he would rather make science fiction or adventure movies.
The world conference of ASSITEJ (International Children andYouth Stage Arts Association) is held once every three years and at
the 18th World Conference (May 23, Warsaw, Poland), Fujita Asaya
was re-elected as International Director. There are great expectations
for the World Conference to be held in Tokyo at the time of the 2020
Olympics and Para Olympics, but the “International Children andYouth Stage Arts Festival (May-June 2020) was actually scheduled
before Tokyo was selected as the site of the 2020 Olympics.

Puppet theatre troupes participated in all sorts of festivals, andone of the most important celebrations of puppet theatre is the “IidaNingyogeki Festa (Iida Puppet Theatre Festa)” (August 5-10, Iida
City, Nagano Prefecture), which included 260 troupes, professional
and amateur, staging 480 performances. There were 56 professional
troupes from Japan like Kawasemi-za who presented Manuke no Ryu
no Hanashi (The Story of the Silly Dragon), Hitomi-za who presented
Urashima Taro (Urashima Taro and his Journey to the Kingdom of
the Sea), Hipopotaamu who presented Hari-nezumi to Yuki no Hana
(The Porcupine and the Snow Flowers) and Puk who presented Pinku
no Doragon (The Pink Dragon) and 8 troupes from abroad that gave
performances charging separate admission. All the other performances could be seen freely with just the participation badge (700yen). There were 20 performing spaces like the Iida Puppet Theatre
and the Iida Cultural Hall. One feature of this year’s festival was

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focusing on Hokkaido where there is a lot of activity in puppet
theatre. This included performances by puppet actor Taira Jo (originally from Sapporo) doing Hanare Goze Orin (The Isolated Female
Blind Traveling Musician Orin), and Sawa Noriyuki (originally from
Otaru) who is active in the Czech Republic, doing a dramatization of
Miyazawa Kenji’s story Sero Hiki no Go–shu (The Cellist Gausche).
There were also many puppet plays with a wide variety of traditional
Japanese puppets, including puppets with three operators, kuruma
nigyo (puppets operated by puppeteers sitting on little carts) and ito
ayatsuri (marionettes).
The Theatre Troupe Puk is celebrating the 85th year since its
founding and since this year also corresponds to the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kawajiri Taiji, who died 20 years ago, but longserved as the head of the troupe, this has become an opportunity to

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reevaluate the 65 year history of Kawajiri’s puppet theatre and theactivities of the troupe during that time, and provide grounds for a
fresh start. There was a new production of Tora no Komori Uta (Tiger
Lullaby) by Shibasaki Yoshihiko, originally written, directed anddesigned by Kawajiri in 1964. Other Kawajiri plays produced include
Ningyo Omotcha-bako (Puppet Toybox), Odango Kororin (The Dumpling Goes Tumbling), Kodomo no Tame no Ningyo Fudoki (A Puppet
Geographical Gazette for Children) and 12 no Tsuki no Takibi (Twelve
Month Bonfire). In performances at its home territory, the Puk
Theatre in Tokyo, and in tours throughout the country, a total of 26
different plays were presented this year, often with separate groups
giving performances on the same day resulting in a total of 406 daysof performances and 489 separate performances. In particular, thenew piece, Pinku no Doragon (The Pink Dragon, original by R.
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Nikolov, dramatized by Yasuo Yoshiaki and directed by Noda
Shizuki) was well received and had 88 days of performances with 105
separate performances. It is an entertaining story of the imaginative
fantasies of the girl Hacchi about the pink dragon and its world.
The Japanese National Cultural Agency’s “Jidai o Ninau
Kodomo no Bunka Geijutsu Taiken Jigyo (Project for the Childrenthat will Carry the Next Age to Experience Art and Culture)”
selected two productions, the classical children’s story by Niimi Nankichi (1913-1943), Tebukuro o Kai ni (Buying Mittens, original by
Niimi Nankichi, dramatized and staged by Shibasaki Yoshihiko) andKurumi Wari Ningyo (The Nutcracker, arrangement and production
play originally by Kawajiri Taiji, directed by Hase Tsuguo). 70 people
participated in the project, and in the short-term training program foryoung artists, there are currently five students and it is anticipatedthat they will be the power of the next generation.

The puppet theatre troupe Clarte produced the challenging workby Paul Gallico Nanatsu no Ningyo no Koi Monogatari (The Love
Stories of Seven Dolls, dramatized by Higashiguchi Tsuguto) andparticipated in the Osaka Shingeki (Modern Theatre) Festival. The
theatre troupe Kagoboshi used large puppets to perform Sangokushi(Romance of Three Kingdoms) in Tokyo (September 19, 20, Nerima
Bunka Center). They used puppets made by the late Kawamoto
Kihachiro, and having dozens of these puppets with 1 meter in heighton stage at the same time created a powerful impact. To celebrate the380th anniversary of the beginning of the troupe, Edo Ito-Ayatsuri
Ningyo Youki-za (Marionette Theatre) presented Okamoto Kido Hanshichi Torimonocho Ibun (A Different Story from Okamoto Kido’s
Casebook of Hanshichi, script and direction by Kano Yukikazu, June
5-19, Tokyo Geijutsu Gekijo Theatre West) and Old Refrain (scriptand direction by Watanabe Eri, October 2 – 5, Za Koenji 2). To com-077

memorate the troupe’s roots, it would have been nice if they had
included a play from the classical reparatory performed with Gidayu
narrative music.
The Credo Theatre visited Japan from Bulgaria and performed
Gogol’s The Overcoat and Andersen’s Daddy’s Always Right (October
21-26, Puk Puppet Theatre). This troupe is particularly impressive
since they insist on using the language of the country in which they
are performing. In addition to the performances in Tokyo, they performed at the Yamabiko-za in Sapporo (October 14), the Komukomu
theatre in Fukushima (October 18) and at the “5th Yakumo International Theatre Festival (Shii no Mi Theatre, November 1-2).” The“Yakumo International Theatre Festival” (October 31-November 3)
was held for the first time in four years and there were 15 theatre
troupes from 6 countries presenting 18 works. Canada’s Corpus also

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CHILDREN’S and YOUTH THEATRE and PUPPET THEATRE

participated with Les Moutons and was very popular.
In April at the UNIMA Council Meeting held in Varadero andMatanzas in Cuba, three delegates from Japan, Onagi Tamiko, Sugita
Nobuhiro and Senda Seiko, participated. They also participated in
the Matanzas and Varadero International Puppet Theatre Festival.
Finally, here are reviews of three works worthy of note in theatre
and puppet theatre:
Theater Company Dora’s Ayanasu (Woven, written and directedby Otani Kenjiro) is a wordless play showing a family after the Great
East Japan Earthquake. Perhaps because the level of abstraction isvery high, it stimulates the audience’s imagination and creates thepowerful impression that the performers are actually speaking. The
movements of the five highly trained performers were superb. It pre078

miered in 2012, was revived in 2014 and was staged at the Kawasaki
Art Center and at the invitation of PETA (Philippines Educational
Theatre Association), there were also two performances in Manila on
July 26, for audiences of 800. The audience included poor children
and those who had experienced the tsunami in the Philippine, whichperhaps increased the impact of the play. They laughed at the family
in the first half, but in the second half, after the family was torn apartand scattered by the tsunami, crying could be heard in the audience.
This is a play that can be understood internationally.
Puppet Theatre Hitomi-za’s Bijo to Yaju (Beauty and the Beast,
original by J.L. du Beaument, script and direction by Uno Koshiro
and Ito Shiro). This was an impressive play because of the skill of thedramatization that boiled down the complexity of the original story
to focus on the theme of the prince (beast) who is returned to humanform through being touched by pure love and because of the puppet

design by Kataoka Akira.
Theatre Tanpopo’s Kasane-chan ni Kiite Mina (Go Ask Kasane,original by Arisawa Kae, script by Hisano Yumi, directed by Fujita
Asaya). Created firmly from the level of the line of sight of children,the lively dialogue of the five actors delighted the young spectators. It
also effectively used puppets of all kinds, including one-hand puppets,
paper puppet theatre and three-dimensional puppets.
The O Fujin Prize for Children and Youth Theatre is given to afemale theatre professional for long time contribution to children
and youth theatre (awarded by the Nihon Jido Seishonen Engeki
Kyokai) and the 24th prize was awarded to Morimoto Mayako, who
has long been associated with programs of children’s theatre andparent and child theatre, for her contribution to raising the level of079

children’s culture.
Yokomizo, Yukiko
Yokomizo Yukiko is a theatre critic and regular director of the Japan Theatre
Association, member of Tomin Gekijo series evaluation committee, and memberof Kabuki Circle Productions. After being an editorial executive at the Jiji Tsushin
communications company, she has been a judge for the arts festival sponsoredby the Japanese National Cultural Agency, a member of the theatre committeeof the Geijutsu Bunka Shinko Kikin (Arts Culture Foundation) and a lecturer inthe Arts Division of Nihon Daigaku University. She is a member of the Buyo
Hihyoka Kyokai (Dance Critics Association), Saitama Bungeika Kyokai (Saitama
Prefecture Writer’s Association) and the Kokusai Engeki Kyokai (International
Theatre Institute). Her published translations include “Practical Stage Make-Up”(joint translation) and her books include “Yume o Kataru Yakusha-tachi (Actors
Talk of What They Dream of Doing)”(Translation: Mark Oshima)

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JAPANESE CLASSICAL DANCEJapanese Classical Dance
Suodori: Craftsmanship and Artistry— Looking Forward to Tomorrow
Hirano Hidetoshi
The beginning of the westernization of theatre through the study ofthe theatres of Europe, part of the process of the modernization of
kabuki, probably stemmed from the thinking of Tsubouchi Shôyôand Mori Ôgai concerning the place of theatre, but things underwent
a complete transformation around 1908, after Ichikawa Sadanji II
investigated European and American theatre scenes and his initial
encounter with the plays of Okamoto Kidô and their subsequent pro080

duction, Ishin Zengo (Before and After the Restoration). Sadanji andKidô created a marvelous hybrid of European drama with Japanesetraditional music and dance theatre technique that they called‘Shinkabuki (New Kabuki)’ in their jointly produced works including
Shuzenji Monogatari (The Tale of Shuzenji-temple), Yoritomo no Shi(The Death of Yoritomo), and Banchô Sarayashiki (Ghost Story ofBroken Dishes at Banchô Mansion), thereby giving birth to a new
genre with an appeal that has been transmitted to the present day.
In the same period, Tsubouchi Shôyô came out with his Shingakugeki ron (Treatise on a New Drama, 1904) as part of his ‘Reformof the National Theatre’ and did a study of Kamigata no Mai (traditional dance of Kyoto/Osaka) and the dances of Tokyo in an attempt
to investigate the roots of music/dance theatre in an effort to create a
new theatre of song and dance. He explains:

In Kyoto/Osaka, as well as in Nagoya, the arts of entertainment were thought to demand the presence of the professional entertainer, whereas, in Tokyo it is rather looked at as
one element of the actor’s art. Once this situation is grasped,a great divide between these two areas that form the basis of
the development of dance becomes evident. From The
Tsubouchi Dictionary – Matsumoto Nobuko.
However, as opposed to the New Kabuki movement created at
the same time, the ‘New Dance (Shin Nihon buyô) Movement’ ofJapan based on Shôyô’s Treatise on a New Drama, took off on its own
without any association or dialogue between the Japan and the West,despite that it was also contemporary with the ‘Neue Tanz’ movementof Europe and the ‘New Dance’ of America.
081

1. A Look at the ‘Empty Body (Tai)’ Element in the JapaneseTraditional ‘Concept of the Physical (Shin-Tai)’
Sakate Yoji’s performance Cowra no Hancho Kaigi side A (TheMeeting of Honchos in Cowra) (July 16, Suzunari in Shimokitazawa)
which was dealing with the incident of the attempted breakout of theJapanese prisoners of war at Australia’s Cowra Camp in 1944, is a playthat was developed by intertwining the incident itself with a survey
taken of female students for the purposes of making a film. By taking
a new look at the relationship between Japanese society and its historic relations with foreign countries, this play communicates amessage that approaches the essence of Japanese society and connects
the past and present at a fundamental level, and in addition to that,
we were very impressed with by Yanaihara Mikuni’s choreography.
Since the ideas associated with the Emperor System that, since theTheatre in Japan

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Meiji period, advocated a return to the values of antiquity, were still
alive with the Japanese military of that time, even people who wereeducated under the modern system of democracy, ended up with aphysical movement that hearkened back to military discipline - discarding the ‘shin’ (the person, individual) of shin-tai (the physical) andleaving the ‘tai’ (empty ‘body’) walking around to and fro. This is very
similar to ‘divine possession’. This abnormal view of physical movement of the Japanese military during the Second World War was dramatically blended into the choreography.
Historically, the Japanese view of the physical often went
through periods of sudden development as a result of its merging withforeign viewpoints. The mistakes began when the Meiji regime
adopted the idea of reviving the ancient view of the emperor as adivine being. Since the empty shell of the body, resembles a string082

pulled puppet (marionette), there was no doubt that the military, by
imposing its discipline, could impose a sense of unity with theemperor. This demonstrates the danger that occurs when the one separates the body (tai) from the person (shin).

2. The ‘Archive’ Program Picked Up by the Government
As the year 2014 marked 100 years of western dance in Japan, the
New National Theatre held a program called, ‘Dance Archive inJapan’ (June 6-8) that was much talked about. With 100 years ofhistory, it could now be said to have entered the realm of ‘classic’. This
program has evidently been based on the Summer Dance University
series of the Contemporary Dance Association of Japan: ‘Learningfrom Modern Dance Pioneers; Exploring the World of Creation’.
Because Japan’s classical ‘archive of dance’ has a tradition datingback to antiquity, is a testimony to the mission and purpose of cultureand art is held in the highest esteem, this ‘Archive’ of the New
National Theatre, which is meant as the preservation and utilizationof an important living record (corpus) to be communicated into the
future, from the point of view of the current Japanese ClassicalDance, it must seem like putting the cart before the horse.
Along with ‘Celebration of the 200th Birthday of the founder ofthe Hanayagi Ryu’ and the ‘7th Memorial Program of ClassicalDance for the 3rd Iemoto’ (Hanayagi Jyusuke) that began the year
before last and are still going on all around the country, there werethe ‘10th Memorial for the 4th Iemoto Yoshimura Yuki’ (Yoshimura
Kisho, April 20). Further, the ‘17th Memorial for Fujima Fujiko; 67th
Shiko Kai’ (Fujima Rankei, Fujima Rankoh, May 25); the ‘3rd Memorial Buyô Kai for Nakamura Jakuemon IV’ (Otani Tomoemon andNakamura Shibajaku, August 21); the ‘17th Memorial for Azuma
Tokuho II - name taking ceremony of 3rd Soke and 7th Iemoto Com-083

memorative Kai’, (Azuma Tokuho II and Azuma Tokuyo - Azuma
Ryu, September 20-21) were all performed at the National Theatre.
Also Yamamura Tomogoro III and Yamamura Waka IV name taking
ceremonial program ‘Busen Kai’ (Yamamura Tomogoro, September
26-28) was held at the National Bunraku Theatre and many otherprograms, unsurprisingly, were executed in a very matter-of-fact
fashion. In fact, it is these kind of performances, concentrating on
recreating classical pieces which show the proper state of today’s Japanese Dance. The dances are performed because they have an inheritedartistic value, not because of any consciousness of an archive worth
mentioning.
Contrasting the problems of the Contemporary Dance Association of Japan and the Japanese Classical Dance Association Inc., theformer has made ‘creation’ the sole meaning of ‘art’, and neglected theTheatre in Japan

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JAPANESE CLASSICAL DANCE

importance of preservation of art for future generations, but the latterhas gone so far as cancelling its support program for new works inorder to focus on the transmission of art.

3. Why Suodori for the Contemporary Japanese Dance
Artist?
In the same period as the ‘New Kabuki’ of Ichikawa Sadanji andOkamoto Kidô appeared, Hasegawa Shigure, who was discovered by
Tsubouchi Shôyô, was studying dance in a studio in Nihonbashi,Tokyo and decided, through Shôyô’s influence, that she wanted tocreate a new workshop in dance, and organized the ‘Society for the
Study of Dance’. In its 2nd session at the ‘Shiba, Kôyôkan’, Inoue
Yachiyo III danced the Ji-uta (Japanese traditional music with shamisen played mainly in west of Japan in Edo period) Kanawa (Iron084

Trivet) and Fujima Kanjuro V Sagimusume (The Heron Maiden) in acompetitive spirit. In the 4th meeting held at the Kabuki-za, classicalworks as well as opera were performed alongside with Hanayagi Yonematsu’s Urashima (Urashima the Fisherman), Fujima Masaya in thenagauta piece Shichifukujin (Seven Deities of Good Fortune), andOnoe Kikugorô VI and Fujima Kanjuro V’s Shizuhataobi (A Cheap
Obi) as a ‘Suodori’. In Edo, they called this ‘Suodori’ ‘Kinagashi
Shosa’. This phrase was used to give prestige to a small-scale dance
performances taking place in a tatami room without wigs or
costumes.
Suodori, like Western Dance, have also passed its 100-year mark,and has gone through various developments. Among these was theestablishment of a new genre called ‘Suodori Gunbu’ (Suodori Ensemble Dance), which emerged in the trend of staging the masterpieces ofthe postwar period such as: Dokoku (Lamentation) choreographed by

Hanayagi Tokubei (1954, Shinjuku Koma Theatre, with a dance corps
composed of men and women in simple everyday kimono). With thistransformation to a more western dance style like ballet’s ‘corps deballet’ came the birth of creations that were artistically successful.
The English word, ‘art’ originally meant ‘technical skill’ but inthe present, the meaning has come to have more emphasis placed onthe ‘creation’ side. On the other hand, among the intangible cultural
assets of Japan we have both arts and crafts techniques as well as theperforming arts. Though the two have a common denominator, forthe moment, at least, we see art for the purpose of the promotion ofculture and artistic technique that needs to be preserved placed in astate of opposition to each other. Although dance is ‘art’, Suodori
belongs more to the world of ‘artistic crafts’.
This year, outstanding performances of Suodori included Azuma
Setsuko performing Tamausagi (The Rabbit in the Moon) at the085

Azuma Kai, and Fujima Etsuko performing Makasho (The BeggingMonk) at the Keisho Kai (March 23, National Small Theatre). What
made these performances so good was how, through the expression of
doing, speaking and thinking, the physical movement of the individual performers was integrated with the Japanese song and spirit in one
organic piece. This was equal to the ‘Craftsmanship and Artistry’ thatis spoken of in the world of craftwork and shone with brilliance akinto a cultural treasure.
The contemporary Dance Festival, ‘Dance New Air – Dance
Tomorrow’, was held at the Aoyama Round Theatre, Spiral Hall
(September 12 - October 5), as well as at other venues, and featured
such performances as dan-su (Talk/Dance) by Oue Shintaro, Moriyama Mirai and Hirahara Shintaro and also Soko ni Kaite aru (It is
written there) by Yamashita Zan, which consciously attempted a

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synthesis of the presence of the Japanese language with the dance, andwas of great interest, though one could say that the sense of ‘Craftsmanship and Artistry’ was lacking.
Dance, Mai and Odori have differences of meaning but since
they do resemble each other, couldn’t they be made to work together,each supplying what the others lack and lending their combined energies to creating a hybrid style that would be the dance of tomorrow?

4. The Reluctance to Live in the Contemporary
The Japanese Classical Dance Association Inc. has decided next
year to discontinue its program for the planning (creation) and execution of new large-scale works that has been one of its major ongoingprojects since 1977. In the press announcement of the JapaneseClassical Dance Association Inc., ‘Concerning our future’ the follow086

ing was written:
The aim of the program, as well as its scale and system oforganization will be given a fundamental review and for thetime being we have decided to discontinue the project.
Therefore the program will not be held next year as wereflect on the fruits of our endeavors thus far, with the boardof directors conducting internal discussions at the next
meetings to deliberate on future policy.
This is an indication that ‘creative activities’ have clearly hit adead end. The argument that ‘creative activities’ can be amply coveredby ‘Suodori’ has been made in the Contemporary Nihon Buyô scene,
and with the purport of demolishing this argument as an ulterior
motive, I organized a workshop for Izumi Hideki as one class of aseminar of the Arts Management Research Group of the Associationof Public Theatres and Halls in Japan. This took the hint from ‘Iwa
enogu (mineral pigments)’ that fascinated Japanese painter, Senju
Hiroshi, replacing the ‘Iwa enogu’ that from ancient times connected
the Japanese people to tradition with the traditional view of ‘physicalexpression’.
Izumi also conducted the workshops ‘Grasping the PhysicalCenter of Gravity’, Grasping the Empty Space in the Physical’ and‘The Space in the Holding of the Fan’ that were worthy of attention.
One that was below par was ‘The Word and the Physical’ whereanother lecturer Izumi Shôyô added a talk likening Suodori celebratory pieces to a view of reincarnation. According to him, Suodori andContemporary Dance are closely related both having at the core acontemporary physical expression that is the expression of the indi087

vidual. Moreover, we came to the realization that the new types ofphysical expression that Europe and America have been studying
were surprisingly, something already being practiced within Japanesetraditional physical expression.
Could it be said that the close similarities between Suodori andContemporary Dance may provide a suggestion for the future direction of contemporary Japanese Dance?

5. Regional Cultural Arts and Reconsidering Postwar History
The current of postwar history in Okinawa along with its recovery were something remarkable. In 1972, the designation of ‘Kumi
Odori’ (ensemble dance) as a National Important Intangible Cultural
Property, provided the opportunity for the beginning of transmissionof Kumi Odori for male dancers, and in 1986, the Okinawa Prefectural Arts University began to offer training in Kumi Odori and

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JAPANESE CLASSICAL DANCE

furthermore, with the 10th anniversary of the National Theatre’s
project for the cultivation of the Kumi Odori of Okinawa, the cultivation of female transmitters of Kumi Odori was incorporated. The
breadth of scope and the sense of satisfaction with the project wereclearly visible. The news of the awarding of the Gran Prix at the
Agency for Cultural Affairs Arts Festival to the program, ‘Ryûkyû
Buyô: Koten Onna Nana Odori (Seven-Dance Repertoire of Traditional Woman’s Dances)’ held at the Yokohama Noh Theatre, as partof their regular program will hopefully be a benefit to regions all overthe country.
In the regional areas, not only the folk arts that have grown up
amid nature and local climates and geography, but also the culture of
the Ryôtei (First Class Restaurants) of the Hanamachi (Geisha District) that supported the early modern period until 1975, has been
088

overlooked by the Arts Management in regional areas. The Ryôtei ofthe Hanamachi being the hardware, the native Japanese dance andmusic would constitute the software in a Japanese cultural art form,
which included regional dining culture. Dining and performing arts
have, since antiquity, maintained an important connection. The situation of Arts Management of Europe and America, which ties together
the regional theatres and music halls with dining culture organization, has taught us that postwar regional history needs to be looked atafresh as a point of focus.

6. Topics
The Tokyo Bunka Kaikan’s Project for Artistic Creation was‘Nihon Buyô x Orchestra – Battle of Traditions’ Round 2 (December
13-14). In the first part of this project, the kyôgen actor Nomura
Mansai performed a new dance piece called Bolero, but this timeballet dancer Yoshida Miyako performed the piece with the assistancefrom amongst others top alumni from the Takarazuka Revue in an
event that was well-talked about. But among the five works, Lilac
Garden, (choreography by Gojô Tamami) with its love-hate scene thatentwined the women of the Rokumeikan in western costume, and thebaron, the lover, the daughter of the count and the student inJapanese costumes was a masterpiece that captured the atmosphere of
the Meiji period.
This year (2014) the Agency for Cultural Affairs Arts Festival
Grand Prix was awarded to Nakamura Umeya, the Award for Excellence in a New Performer went to Saruwaka Seizaburô.
Hirano, Hidetoshi
Classical Japanese Dance Critic. He was born in 1944 in Sendai City andgraduated from Waseda University specializing on theatre studies at the
Literature department. At University, he specialized in Kabuki, and later worked
at the publishing house responsible for the editing of Okinawa Performing Arts,
the Quarterly Journal Folk Performing Arts, the monthly magazine, ‘JapaneseMusic and Classical Dance’ and others. Seeking to investigate the art of physicalexpression, he became a critic. He is also an expert committee member of the
Agency for Cultural Affairs, Society for the Advancement of the Arts in Japan.

089(Translation : James Ferner)

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BALLETBALLET
Signs of Changes in the Japanese Ballet World
Urawa Makoto

First of all, I would like to reflect back on the situation surrounding
Japan in 2014. It was the third year after the introduction of Abenomics, the economic policy led by the Abe Cabinet, which has caused
drastic drop in share prices due to its extensive monetary easing. Furthermore, the Japanese economy all in all showed dramatic growth
due to the fact that the depreciation of the yen had turned into a tailwind for Japanese businesses, mainly the export-based automotive
manufacturing industry, consequently racking up profits.
090

However, such economic growth has not reflected on theworkers income, and the consumption tax rise from 5% to 8% in
April directly hit people’s everyday life, widening the gap in earnings
and living standards, coupled with an increase in the number of
non-regular workers. Such negative trend has led to sluggish consumption and has turned into shackles crippling the economic
growth. The pace of reconstruction works after the 3.11 earthquake
and tsunami disaster that struck eastern Japan in 2011 and the resolution of the nuclear power plant accident in Fukushima that followed
remains slow as a snail.
Additionally, the aging population now constitutes almost 20% of
the nation’s population and the postponement of the consumption tax
rise to 10% has further tightened the state finance, making the budget
situation even worse.

Such circumstances have inevitably affected various aspects of
the arts. Needless to say, the revision of public subsidy programs forpromoting cultural activities has influenced ballet in Japan alongside
the decrease in the number of children taking ballet lessons due to thegeneral drop in the birthrate and the economic situation of households, as well as children having to cram for exams to get into institutions for higher education. This trend has wide reaching effects
because the money earned through teaching ballet to children has virtually been supporting the running and activities of ballet companies.
Additionally, the devaluation of the yen, which has reached anaverage of over 30% since 2013, has raised the cost of inviting foreign
ballet companies and guest dancers as well as the expenses requiredfor dancers training overseas.
Nevertheless, such adverse effects tend to creep up on the ballet091

world, ballet companies and individual dancers slowly and not all of asudden or drastically. Therefore, on the surface, no major changes areshown and as usual, the ballet companies are continuing their performance activities and the small and middle-sized ballet companies arealso giving recitals. It may be because they have to be realistic and aregoing out of their way to carry on with their performances and recitals in order to gather or to retain ballet pupils.
On the other hand, some countermeasures were taken to solve
the stringency of ballet companies. Premised on these circumstances
described above, I would like to specifically review last year’s trends
in the Japanese ballet world.
The first and principal news in the ballet world last year wasprobably the foundation of ‘The Association of Japanese Ballet
Companies’.

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BALLET

The Association was founded as a general incorporated association on September 1 and it started off with the following eight groups
as regular members: The Inoue Ballet Foundation, Noriko Kobayashi
Ballet Theatre, Sadamatsu-Hamada Ballet, Star Dancers Ballet, Akiko
Tachibana Memorial Foundation (Asami Maki Ballet), Tokyo City
Ballet, Japan Performing Arts Foundation (The Tokyo Ballet) and
Homura Tomoi Ballet. Except for the Hyogo-based Sadamatsu-Hamada Ballet and Osaka-based Homura Tomoi Ballet, the other six
groups are all based in Tokyo. The New National Theatre Foundation (The National Ballet of Japan, NBJ) has also joined the association as an associate member.
Opinions were exchanged last year between the Cultural Affairs
Department of the Agency for Cultural Affairs and Tokyo Ballet
Association, which was constituted of four of the groups noted above.
092

The Association of Japanese Ballet Companies was established by thefour groups that met the requirements and agreed to the purport ofthe organization, of which the main points of the objective, according
to the prospectus, is as follows:“Japan is one of the world’s major ballet nations in terms of
the high level and diversity of the performances given. The
financial basis of ballet companies, however, remains weak.
Meanwhile, on the national level, rules and legislation
pertinent to the promotion of culture and the arts have beendeveloped. Moreover, looking ahead to the future, theOlympic Games will be held in Tokyo in 2020. With such an
opportunity lying ahead, it is necessary that ballet companies hold discussions and resolve various issues throughcooperation with parties concerned so that dancers and staff

can concentrate on their creative activities without reserve,
which is for the true development of ballet in Japan.”To this end, a number of projects were mentioned in the articlesof the association, which include research studies, exchange programs
both domestically and internationally, human resource development
and improving conditions of mounting performances.
It was certainly a groundbreaking provision and was probably
implemented based upon a strong awareness of the issues related tothe situation hindering development in Japan’s ballet field. However,when you look at the whole picture, there are still many other balletcompanies that are equivalent to the member groups mentioned above
as well as numerous independent ballet schools across the country.
There is also the Japan Ballet Association, a nationwide organization093

made up of individuals, which has a long history and track records.
There are still many hurdles, such as how to cooperate and coordinate
with the other ballet groups and existing ballet organizations, butwhen they are cleared, it would subsequently contribute to the true
enrichment and development of the entire ballet world. I, personally,
look forward to seeing these positive changes.
There is one other matter that I must commit to writing, whichis that Ohara Noriko has taken over the post of Artistic Director for
Ballet & Dance at the New National Theatre Tokyo (NNTT).
When NNTT opened in 1997, the first Artistic Director for
Ballet & Dance was Shimada Hiroshi, followed by Maki Asami andthen the previous David Bintely, who directed NNTT. Then from the2014/2015 season, Ohara Noriko newly filled the seat and became
NNTT’s fourth Artistic Director in the dance division.

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BALLET

Ohara learned ballet at Tachibana Ballet School and was one of
the founding members of Asami Maki Ballet. After dancing leadingroles, she went to Europe and starred in many pieces with Scottish
Ballet as a principal dancer and then from 1999 she started working at
NNTT as the ballet mistress for The National Ballet of Japan (NBJ).
Ohara’s first work as artistic director was the premiere of The
Sleeping Beauty, based on a new choreography by Wayne Eagling.
During the first half of the year, NBJ presented The Prince of Pagodas
by former artistic director David Bintley as well as classical andmodern pieces, and then at the end of the year, it put on Frederick
Ashton’s Cinderella from its repertoire as the second ballet production under the new artistic director.
There were many other ballet performances besides those pre094

sented by NBJ. The member groups of The Association of Japanese
Ballet Companies noted before present either classical pieces forming
their repertoire, or original contemporary works, which are staged
several times a year. The groups that are not members of the Association also carried on with their activities as usual. The Matsuyama
Ballet put on dramatic performances with unique interpretations
focusing on Morishita Yoko as well as works using young dancers.
Tani Momoko Ballet also mounted performances with its new artistic
director Saito Taku, featuring young dancers. Ballet Chambre Ouest
is a company based in Tokyo’s Hachioji and has been working on
unique activities such as Field Ballet in Kiyosato, Yamanashi
Prefecture.
Above all, new productions choreographed by Kumakawa
Tetsuya drew attention. Kumakawa leads a group called K-Company
and last year he presented La Bayadère that he himself directed andchoreographed, and also Carmen with unique interpretations, whichwere added to the company’s repertoire. As for NBA Ballet, Kubo
Koichi became its new artistic director in the previous year and presented Michael Pink’s Dracula to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of its foundation.
The foregoing Japan Ballet Association has been hosting events
to give chances, especially to new choreographers, to present original
works and it was held twice in 2014.
In the urban areas, other than the two previously-cited groups,
there are the Osaka-based Noma Ballet, Sasaki Michiko Ballet andOsaka Ballet Academy company, which have presented both classicaland original works, as well as the Kyoto-based Higaki Ballet
Company and Arima Ryuko Ballet of Academie de Ballet de Kyoto
that are actively engaged in international projects. Nagoya is another095

region where ballet is popular and has Ochi International Ballet,
Matsuoka Reiko Ballet, Yoko Tsukamoto Theatre de Ballet Company
and many others, which presented a number of works including
modern creative ballet. Sapporo Buyoukai based in Hokkaido is also
carrying on with quality performances.
We get the impression that this year, the cited major ballet companies, with a few exceptions, were focusing on putting on existing
works from their repertoire rather than their original works or creating new works. It is difficult to judge whether this trend was due tofinancial issues or just by coincidence, but it was the relatively newgroups which came up with unique appeals and created excellent
innovative works.
First, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves presented by Jinushi Kaoru
Ballet Company in Osaka deserves special mention. Although Jinushi

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BALLET

has a long career as a dancer and leader, she is little known as a choreographer in Japan. The story of the said production was based on
The Arabian Nights but Jinushi wrote the manuscript and selected themusic. It turned into a full-scale epic that you do not see very often
nowadays, which was comprised of three acts, had plenty of dance
scenes, kept the formality of classical ballet and yet could also beenjoyed as a piece of entertainment. Next, PDA (Professional
Dancers’ Association), which is an all-male group based in Osaka,presented works by Shinohara Seiichi, Yagami Keiko and Shimazaki
Toru, who work extensively as choreographers in different parts ofthe country. In 2014, the troupe toured to Tokyo and received lots ofpositive response. Yagami choreographs for her own company as welland likewise, Shinohara has been choreographing pieces for his wife
Shimomura Yurie, who is a dancer representing Japan, and when she
096

danced Oscar Wilde’s The Fisherman and His Soul in her recital, it
caused a buzz because of Shinohara’s philosophical approach. Other
notable pieces include Hoffman’s Romance choreographed by Ito
Noriko, who is also a member of Tani Momoko Ballet, at the requestof Tokyo’s Setagaya Classical Ballet Union. It was a work of medium
scale but was noticed for its sophisticated sensibility and it turned out
to be one of the best pieces that I saw during the year.
Numerous foreign ballet companies visited Japan throughout theyear as usual, including Bolshoi Ballet and the Spanish company
Compañía Nacional de Danza led by its artistic director José Carlos
Martinez, both visiting Japan around the same time at the end of theyear and turning into a match-up between the established and thenew. However, there is no denying that concerns remain on how thepreviously-cited weakening of the yen would affect the future balletscene, as it may make it difficult to invite foreign companies.
In despite of the trend toward fewer children per family and theeconomic slump, the number of ballet competition is increasing evenmore, due to reasons that include chain-style operation and integrations. Nevertheless, in some competitions, the number of participants
has decreased.
Meanwhile, in January, Niyama Haruo won first prize at Prix deLausanne and in June, Kida Mariko, who is a soloist of Royal Swedish
Ballet, was awarded the world’s prestigious Prix Benois de la Danse.
Both news were reported extensively in the Japanese media too.
Further, I want to mention that there were also many other Japaneserunners-up other international ballet competitions and this proves thehigh level of Japanese dancers overall.
097

Urawa, Makoto
His autonym is Ichikawa Akira, Professor at Shoin University, Faculty of Business
Administration and Corporate Culture. He serves as advisor for dance to The
Association of Public Theaters and Halls in Japan and contributes reviews forvarious newspapers and magazines as dance critic. He has also held positions invarious committees, including the committee to the Agency for Cultural Affairs,
and has been on the jury for many dance competitions.
(Translation: Sumida Michiyo)

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Contemporary Dance and Butoh
The Clustered Art Market, Dance as “Cool Japan”
Tsutsumi Hiroshi
The Clusterization of the Arts Market
2014 saw many international awards for Japanese ballet but in modern
dance it was the duo of Habata Ayaka and Ito Cotaro who dazzled,winning the Grand Prix at the International Festival of Modern Choreography (IFMC) in Vitebsk, Belarus. However, appraising contemporary dance and Butoh is becoming harder and the environmentsthat encircle them more entangled. Good examples are the following
competitions and awards for younger artists.
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The Competition I (Composition Division) of Yokohama Dance
Collection EX2014 (February, Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse No.1)
became more cosmopolitan, with entries of 152 artists from 10 countries around the world. Tada Shiori & Akagawa Junichi were selected
for the Tel Aviv-Yafo Yokohama Prize, while Kim Boram won the
Touchpoint Art Foundation Prize, Mitoh Ruri won the MASDANZA
Prize, Kwon Ryung Eun took the French Embassy Prize for Young
Choreographer, Kim Bo Ra won the Jury Prize, and Inoue Daisuke
and Kim Boram were both selected for the Encouragement Prize.
From the 34 entries in Competition II (New Choreographer Division), Nakamura Shun was given the Outstanding New Artist Prize,
and Okamoto Hikaru and Mizukoshi Tomo were jointly awarded the
Encouragement Prize.
The El Instituto Cervantes Tokyo held its first solo dance competition ‘Solo Danza’ in April. It received 33 entries from dance artists

in Japan, awarding the Special Achievement Prize to Kawabe Kozue,
the Excellence in Choreography Prize to Matsuo Nozomi, and the
Excellence Prize to Irite Anna.
At the Toyota Choreography Award 2014 nextage (August, Setagaya Public Theatre), Kawamura Mikiko won the double whammy ofboth the Audience Award and the Next-Generation ChoreographerAward, selected from 203 entries (242 dancers).
These prizes will prove opportunities for overseas commissions
and training, as well as performances in Japan. In recent years, thiskind of public art market has become the mainstream site for artist
activities, and because it is concentrated to the Tokyo area, is forming
a cluster of networks of public halls, cultural agencies, festivals, andart non-profit organizations.
At February’s Performing Arts Meeting in Yokohama (TPAM)
2014 many strong showcase performances was presented by produc-099

ers from Japan and overseas. Momonga Complex (led by Shiraga
Momoko) presented Hitobito (humans), while Kitamari staged adance version of Tada Junnosuke’s Re/Play, MOKK (led by Muramoto
Sumire) performed Vanish and Kaeru-P performed Kaitei no yagi
(Goat of the seabed).
Dance Triennale Tokyo was re-launched as Dance New Air 2014
at Aoyama Round Theatre and Spiral Hall, among other venues. Itfeatured a host of international co-productions, exchange programsand visiting overseas groups. Japanese participants included Onodera
Shuji, Kawamura Mikiko, Ito Kaori, Yamashita Zan, Kitamura
Shigemi, Kitamura Akiko, and dan-su (Oue Shintaro, Moriyama
Mirai and Hirahara Shintaro).
Chelfitsch staged the world premiere of Super Premium Soft
Double Vanilla Rich at Mannheim, Germany. It went on a tour of 15

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cities in nine countries, making its triumphant homecoming to Japanin December at the Kanagawa Arts Theatre (KAAT).
Teshigawara Saburo choreographed a new work in March for
Göteborgs Opera Danskompani. He also participated in the Venice
Biennale in June, the Ruhr Triennale in September, and the Kunisaki
Art Festival in Oita Prefecture in November, and presented a newwork for each festival. He had a busy calendar of domestic performances too, staging the world premiere of Sleep (Tokyo Metropolitan
Theatre, Aichi Arts Center, Hyogo Performing Arts Center), with aguest appearance by Aurélie Dupont, an Étoile dancer at the Paris
Opera Ballet. At Theater X, he staged a series of five performances
based on texts by the Polish writer Bruno Schulz. In between this, hemanaged to direct eleven further Update Dance shows featuring young
KARAS company members at his Karas Apparatus space. He also led
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dance workshops for under-eighteens at the Tokyo Metropolitan
Theatre in January and December.

Community Dance and Patriotism
Community dance projects, folk art, Bon dance events, andstreet performance festivals are also on the rise.
In March, the Shizuoka City Culture Hall “founded” Dance
Kingdom Shizuoka, with community dances led by Aoki Yuki,
Kondo Ryohei (Condors), and Selenographica.
In February Condors revived UFO returns at the Aoyama Round
Theatre and premiered Himawari (Sunflowers) in May at Saitama
Arts Theater. In the summer the company took GIGANT, a humorous and physically playful work inspired by Gulliver’s Travels, on anationwide tour. In October it ran the acclaimed Condors Learning By
Playing project for children to learn while playing, hosted by NHK atthe Shinjuku Culture Center.
Nakano ZERO presented Carnival in October, choreographedby Tabata Maki and featuring ordinary citizens from Nakano ward
in Tokyo.
Kakuya Ohashi and Dancers created The World based on fieldwork in Koto ward in Tokyo, and in March presented it as both aperformance and installation.
The Saitama Gold Theater of eldery performers staged the dancework KOMA’ in August at Saitama Arts Theater, where the company
is based, conceived and directed by Seyama Azusa, who is a dancer
with the Pina Bausch’s company Wuppertal but originally fromTakasaki City, Gunma Prefecture.
In a co-production with Kirari Fujimi Main Hall in Fujimi City,
Saitama Prefecture, Tanaka Min attempted to “dance” a place withKUUKIGAKORONDA! (The Air Fell, June, Nanbata Castle Park), a

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performance at an old folk home that seemed to transport audiences
back in time to an pre-modern era. The same Watashi no kodomo =buyodan (My Child = Dance Troupe) series continued with Karada
no naka no kodomotachi (The Children Within the Body, August,Kirari Fujimi), a “landscape-dance” work in which audiences moved
to different parts of building with each scene. In November Tanaka
made a rare return to an ordinary theatre stage with Sluffing into a
cloud afloat (Kirari Fujimi), which re-examined the “place” within theplace, simulating an outdoor scene by constructing a barracks on an
empty stage.
Tamura Ikko and other Dairakudakan Butoh dancers learnt thefolk dance of Enburi at the Nango Art Project in Aoyama Prefecture,adding their original interpretation to it to create Ojô Tokuro-sama(Lady Tokuro, October, Hachinohe City Nango Culture Hall /Theatre in Japan

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December, Dairakudakan Kochuten Studio).
Shiraga Momoko has experience with the Nenbutsu dance at
Tsukudajima in Tokyo and Sasara dance in Enoshima, Kanagawa
Prefecture. For her version of The Rite of Spring (November, Tokyo
Metropolitan Theatre) at Festival/Tokyo 2014 she carried out
research into the Nebuta Festival in Aomori Prefecture to create,
along with the stage design by Mohri Yuko in the image of landfills
and ruins, and the music of Miyauchi Yasuno interweaving the resonating sound of the dancers’ breathing, a near-future vision of a
fantasy Japanese festival.
Parthenon Tama held the Tama 1km Festa 2014 in September inthe outdoor area around the hall. The bustling event featured performances by Strange Kinoko Dance Co. and Baobab, a parade withordinary citizens and She de cusu oh chee!, and a unique Bon dance102

choreographed by Honaga Yoko with music by DE DE MOUSE.
There were artists sensitive to the mood of the times. With theirproduction of Kiniro jikan, festival no saichû (Golden Time, in the
Midst of the Festival) at Setagaya Public Theatre in March, Strange
Kinoko Dance Co. announced their “graduation” from contemporary
dance as something everyday.
Ide Shigehiro’s idevian crew premiered ZUAN in October at Setagaya Public Theatre. The movement began with the dancers jostlingup against each other, progressing to transform finally into Awa
Odori-like traditional dance, the fever building until all the dancers
formed a unit wearing happi festival coats and dancing in unison. It
captured that Japanese habit of following the crowd intuitively, rather
than out of principle.
November saw Yanaihara Mikuni’s Mikuni Yanaihara Projectproduce a version of The Cherry Orchard at Nishi-Sugamo Arts

Factory, adapting Chekhov’s original play to portray a conflict
between regional redevelopment advocates and environmental conservation extremists. With its torrent of dialogue and furious dancelike movement, the overpowering performance hinted at the dangerof the patriotism symbolized by the cherry orchard gradually sliding
into nationalism.

The Olympics and Bon Dance
We can see an increase tendency for public-funded projects andgovernments to use dance as an attraction. At the Tokyo Metropolitan Study Group session in June some suggestions of using traditional
Bon dancing as part of the attractions of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics
and thus make it known all over the world, were raised.
At April’s Roppongi Art Night, the one-night art festival organ103

ized by the Tokyo government, the theme was “Move Your Body!”
The event saw multiple dance performances happening simultaneously. Roppongi Parade: Float Flow Connect, supervised, directed andchoreographed by Itoh Kim, marked the opening of the festival, athree-hour performance involving around 130 dancers moving aroundthe Roppongi area. Furuie Yuri’s project OH!YAMA also created aperformance as part of an exhibition at the National Art Center.
Noism, the dance company led by Kanamori Jo based at Ryutopia Niigata City Performing Arts Center, celebrated ten years since it
was founded. It also now includes a second company of trainees,
Noism2. Noism1 revised and revived PLAY 2 PLAY – Kanshô suru
jigen (PLAY 2 PLAY – Interloping Dimension) at KAAT in January.
In June, Noism1 and Noism2 jointly staged a version of Carmen at
Ryutopia and KAAT, while Noism1 premiered ASU – fukashi e nokenshin (ASU – Devotion to the Invisible) at Ryutopia in December

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and KAAT in January. In particular, Carmen featured the writer ofthe original novella, Prosper Mérimée, as the narrator, telling thestory of an encounter with Don José on the run for murder. By borrowing the structure of drama, it made the story easier to understand, though Iseki Sawako in the lead role of Carmen was acclaimed
for her passionate dance technique too. Kanamori was also appointed
to the international committee at the BeSeTo Theater Festival, as well
as delegated Niigata City Cultural Creation Advisor, and his activities as part of Niigata City’s campaign to win Culture City of East
Asia status and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Cultural Program showmuch promise.
There were also many dancers this year who made energetic
advances through state systems and platforms. Moriyama Mirai was
appointed a Cultural Ambassador by the Agency for Cultural Affairs
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in 2013 and returned from Israel, while Moriyama Kaiji came backfrom Southeast Asia and Hirahara Shintaro from Spain, where hehad been on the Agency-sponsored overseas study program for
emerging artists.

The Succession of Repertory, Archiving Initiatives
The public institutionalization of dance had a lot of affinity withthe academic world. The New National Theatre, Tokyo looked backat 100 years of western dance in Japan and in June started the Dance
Archive in Japan series, which recreates past works.
BATIK held an open call for young dancers to join its repertory
company and revived SHOKU at KAAT in June. Ochiatte iru(Coming Together) at Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre in September wasthemed around the personal experiences of Kuroda Ikuyo, who theprevious year lost her father but also gave birth to a child, and wasunable to show her father his grandchild’s face before he passed away.
Drawing from Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, it was a magnificent
personal account of how individuals encounter others during thecourse of our lives.
Mukai Kumotaro staged Yukitai (Soul Playing Factory) at
Morishita Studio in June. In December he founded his own dancecompany Deyusha and staged Futatsu no taiyô (Two Suns) at Kichijoji
Theatre, based on the experiences of his paternal grandfather as an
atom bomb survivor.
The Saison Foundation welcomed Singapore director Ong Keng
Sen as facilitator of a seminar on methods for dance archiving forJapanese choreographers.
The fifth annual Tokyo Art Meeting at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo was titled Seeking New Genealogies – Bodies / Leaps/ Traces (September to January, 2015). Themed around the body and105

performance, it featured installations from Dumb Type and chelfitsch, as well as new performances by Pichet Klunchun and Inbal
Pinto & Avshalom Pollak.

Cool and Subtle Contemporary Japanese DanceI wrote at the start of this essay that it is becoming harder toappraise contemporary dance and butoh. This is surely because,
unlike ballet and the weight it places on skill and physical proficiency,
the main emphasis lies on sensitivity.
Maro Akaji’s Dairakudakan premiered Mushi no hoshi (Space
Insect) at the Setagaya Public Theatre in June. With its memorable
shuddering set evocative of a giant insect cage and butoh dancer
screaming “No!” while dressed as the poet Matsuo Basho, the performance seemed to sound a warning to contemporary humanity’s con-

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tinuing deviation from the providence of nature.
Iwabuchi Takiko’s Dance Theatre LUDENS premiered Body
Songs at Kichijoji Theatre in February. The playful performance interpreted the dancers’ movements, breathing and voices as music.
Co.Yamada Un revived last year’s Kekkon (Marriage) and The
Rite of Spring in January at Spiral Hall. It also staged a double-bill of
One Piece 2014 and Jûsan ya (Thirteenth Night) with an elaborate
ensemble at Theatre Tram in November. Yamada also collaborated
with pianist Takahashi Yuji to perform a dance to all of Satie’s The
Son of the Stars at Aoyama Round Theatre in July.
Seki Kaori’s Co.PUNCTUMUN performed Qurevelum at
Theatre Tram in March and Miroedetut at the Art Center of Tokyo in
December. Drawing out latent physical sensations with stoic yet
subtle flourishes, the highly abstract performance used the body to106

configure a space.
Maeda Manami’s Oyatsu Table is a site-specific dance company.
Rifujin na (Unreasonable) was an omnibus performance superbly
aware of the nature of Japanese physicality, performed in May at
Okachimachi Gallery Space Shian, a compact Japanese house witha garden.
Sugao Nagisa’s crewimburnny performed nuuuuuuuuuu at
Theatre Tram in May. The gentle and light dance felt like an amusement park, with its dancers arranged like moe anime characters insmall rooms around the stage, given food, posed for photographs oreven made to sign a marriage application.
Kitao Wataru’s experimental dance company Baobab presented
TERAMACHI at Musashino Arts Theatre in June, themed aroundKyoto and motifs of Kabuki and Japanese physicality. Marumaru kai
kara nozomu – shûgôjutaku-hen (Seen from the ...floor: Condominium

Version) at Komaba Agora Theater in December extracted the everyday physicality of people living in a city condominium.
The cool and subtle contemporary dance scene in Japan is frequently recognized overseas as an example of “cool Japan”. Surely thenext task is to address the lack of a system for presenting dance properly across the whole of Japan.
Tsutsumi, Hiroshi
Born in 1966 in Kawasaki City. He graduated from Bunka Gakuin’s theatre
course. He is an editor, copywriter, and theatre and dance critic. After serving as
an editor for art, entertainment, theatre and drama magazines, he now works
freelance. His writing and editing includes Sora tobu kumo no ue dangorou
ichiza: Acharaka saitanjou (The Flying Dangoro Party in the Sky: The Rebirth ofAcharaka), Performing Arts Magazine Bacchus, and Gendai doitsu no pafo-mingu
a-tsu (Performing Arts in Germany Today).
(Translation: William Andrews)

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Television and Radio
Television Drama in 2014
Kotaki Tetsuya

In 2014, problems concerning the freedom speech and expression
became very apparent, questioning the essential nature of mass
media and encroachments on peoples right to information by thosein power.
To begin with, the new chairman of NHK, Momii Katsuto saidat the press conference for his installation in January, that “If thegovernment says ‘right,’ for our part, we cannot say ‘left.’” This
raised questions about his suitability as chairman of a public broad108

caster. Further, in August, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper admitted
errors in past reporting about the problem of comfort women during
the Second World War and the disaster at TEPCO’s Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear power plant in 2011, and Kimura Tadakazu, the president of the company resigned to take responsibility on December
5th. Then on December 10th, the Special Secrets Law created by Abe
Shinzo’s cabinet was made effective. This law threatens to limit citizen’s right to information and there are concerns that the definitionof what can considered to be a “special secret” is very vague anddoubts about the independence of the institutions that are supposed
to oversee it. Since this threatens to restrain and smother media
reporting and free expression, the operation of this law will have to
be watched very closely.
The tendency of television to make people of the moment into
heroes and heroines should probably also be called into question. Twogood examples are the news exposed in February, that the composer
Samuragochi Mamoru, who was celebrated for being a composer
despite being deaf actually had a ghostwriter who composed for him
and that in December, it was found out that researcher Obokata
Haruko at the distinguished Riken Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, who reported that she had created STAP cells, had actually falsified the results. In the first example, mass media made toomuch of a fuss of the composer’s deafness and in the second example,
it emphasized Obokata’s gender as a “rikejo” (science woman) and themoment problems were identified, the media totally turned aroundand utterly vilified them. This lack of objectivity is a very bad tendency of news wide shows.
There have been issues of expression even in the world of television dramas. This can be seen in the dramatic series Asu, Mama ga
Inai (From Tomorrow, Mama will Not Be Here, Nihon Terebi,

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January-March).
This drama took as its theme abandoned children that are being
raised in a foster care institution. This is a strong challenge to thecurrent state of television drama, which usually offers a constant fareof mysteries and police dramas. But the names of the children like
Post (Mailbox, Ashida Aina) and Donki (Blunt object, Suzuki Rie)
and the lines of the head of the institution (Mikami Hiroshi) “Youguys are the same as dogs in a pet shop!” raised controversy. Thisdrew objections from the Zenkoku Jidô Yôgo Shisetsu Kyôgi Kai (AllJapan Association of Children’s Foster Care Institutions) and the Jiei
Hospital (Kumamoto City) which runs the Aka-chan Post program (aprogram that will take in unwanted babies in receptacles like mailboxes) that the names and lines could lead to discrimination againstchildren in such institutions with the consequences that eight of theTheatre in Japan

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sponsoring companies withdrew their advertising on the program.
Certainly it can be said that the very gloomy depiction of thehome and the line that “you are the same as dogs!” invited misunderstanding. Also lines like the statement by Post that “I don’t need any
name given to me by a parent that threw me away” show that the
depiction of inner conflict was not particularly deep. But at least,
there was never any wavering from the theme of showing “children
who unceasingly need love.” The production team would have needed
to do more research into real conditions and more careful scriptwriting. But a television drama is influenced by an infinite number offactors. The objections of concerned parties were amplified by theinternet, and the fact that sponsors responded by withdrawing advertising is a bad precedent and will act to further limit expressive
freedom in television dramas.
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So, what were the achievements in television drama in 2014? The
striking factors were the work of two scenario writers and the broadcasts of NHK. The scenarios of Yamada Taichi and Okada Yoshikazu
were very memorable and there was a concentration of many notable
dramas from the NHK broadcasting network.
Yamada Taichi’s Toki wa Tachi-domaranai (You Can’t Stop Time,
Terebi Asahi, Feb. 22) depicted the suffering caused by the Great East
Japan Earthquake through the conflict between two families, one that
suffered the disaster and one that escaped it. The man who lost his
family found it almost painful when people empathized with him,
while the man who escaped the disaster was weighed down unbearably by his feelings of guilt. Moreover, it became clear that the heads ofthese two families (Yanagiba Toshiro, Nakai Kiichi) are also carrying
grudges that date back to their middle school days. This is a dramathat touched both people outside the area of the disaster and anyone

who has every lived in the area. The power of this outstanding drama
by Yamada Taichi earned among others the Tokyo Drama Award
2014 for one episode drama and the 2014 Japanese National Cultural
Agency Arts Festival Grand Prize.
Yamada Taichi is a veteran scenario writer and at the end of theyear, he dealt with one of the strongest concerns today, “why dopeople kill each other?” in Naifu no Yukue (The Destination of theKnife, NHK, December 22-23). As an old man with a past he cannot
talk about to anyone the main character (Matsumoto Koshiro) tries
to reform a young man (Imai Tsubasa) who has tried to stabsomeone with a knife, and by doing so, he finds release himself. The
old man describes the cruel massacres that he saw when he was partof the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers, but if that was all, it
would only be a message drama. This became a drama with the111

physical warmth of living human beings is because of the humanity
woven into it as it showed that even this silent old man got excited ina way that belied his years when he meets his lover from before(Matsuzaka Keiko).
In addition, Yamada Taichi wrote the 7th story in the series Oyajino Senaka (Watching My Father’s Back, TBS) which will be discussed
in detail below. In Yamada Taichi’s episode Yoroshiku na, Musuko (ILeave Things to You, My Son), through an encounter between a shoemaker (Watanabe Ken), who is not very good with people, and ayoung man (Higashide Masahiro) who is very understanding about
people’s feelings, Yamada showed how just through a chance encounter between two people warmth and a human bond can be created.
One also must be impressed by Okada Yoshikazu who has had astring of excellent dramas: Chikinre-su (Chicken Race, WOWOW,
November 3, 2013), Watashi to iu Unmei ni Tsuite (About the Fate

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Called Me, WOWOW, 5 episodes March-April), Zoku-Saigo kara
Nibanme no Koi (Continued: Second from the Last Love, Fuji Terebi,
April-June) and Sayonara Watashi (Farewell to Myself, NHK,
October-December).
In Chikinre-su, is a road movie about an elderly man (Terao
Satoshi) who awakens from a coma and his relationship with anunderstanding young male nurse (Okada Masaki). The old man has
awakened from a coma, but his emotions are those of when he was 19
and he acts like a child. The nurse is exasperated at first, but throughthe common boyish spirit that is the same whether young or old, hestarts to understand the older man. This present-tense graffiti plays
out against the background of the ocean by the Boso peninsula andthe grassy plains of Hokkaido and has the spark to bring us to somekind of realization about life and it was awarded the Tokyo Drama
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Award 2014 for Excellence in Single Episode Drama and 2014 Japan
Commercial Broadcaster Association Prize for Excellence.
Watashi to iu Unmei powerfully depicted a very heavy theme, thelife of a woman in corporate management (Nagasaku Hiromi). She
goes through the various events of the “lost decade”: the collapse of
the “Bubble Economy,” the terrorist attack on 9/11 and the Chu-Etsu
Earthquake, Through this, she is faced with difficult choices about
work, love, defeat, marriage, having children and raising a family. The
strength of this drama is the way that all these choices are madeagainst the backdrop of history and running through this all, themessage is that “all these individual choices that I have made add up
into my life.” The drama is colored by the characteristics of the placesin which it is set, the beautiful snowy landscape of the region where
she goes to be married and the heat and noise of Kuala Lumpur,where she is sent by her company, and the drama was given the 31st

ATP Top Prize for Excellence.
Through its sensitive dialogue that touched the hearts of both
men and women, Zoku–Saigo kara Nibanme no Koi showed aromance between a middle-aged man and woman (Nakai Kiichi,
Koizumi Kyoko) lightly and entertainingly. Since this is a sequel to adrama that was a hit in 2012, it is all the more impressive that Okada
Yoshikazu took the Tokyo Drama Awards 2014 Scenario Prize withthis drama.
Sayonara Watashi was a drama showing friendship between two
women and the two find themselves exchanging personalities, butwhat made this drama excellent was the fact that this is not where thestory ends. A very diligent housewife (Nagasaku Hiromi) helps afree-living movie producer (Ishida Yuriko) to live. In the careful
depiction of the emotions in this process, the drama showed that in
mid-life, another hidden self can no longer be concealed or controlled,113

no matter how chilling and painful the experience of revealing it
might be.
The morning 15 minute drama series on NHK for the first halfof 2013 was Amachan (NHK) and was such a great hit that it became asocial phenomenon and made the dialect phrase jie jie jie from theSanriku region where the story is set, a popular catch phrase. Moreover, at the Tokyo Drama Awards 2013, it took 7 prizes: Grand Prize
for Dramatic Series, the prize for production, scenario, directing, leadactress, supporting actress and a special prize for music.
The drama starting at the end of 2013, Gochisosan (Thanks forthe food, September 2013-March 2014) was just as strong. The heroine
Meiko (Anne) is a woman described by her friends as being interested
only in eating and feeding others. Each episode revolved aroundcooking and ingredients. Moreover, this became an interesting home

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drama. Extending beyond that, just beginning with the theme of“eating,” it touched on the world shattering events of the Taisho andShowa Periods, including the Great Kanto Earthquake, World War II,
and the following occupation. As with the 2011 drama “Carnation,”
there have been many of these historical dramas exploring the pointof view of women and the lives of ordinary people on NHK , andGochisosan was awarded the Tokyo Drama Award 2014 Prize for
Excellence for a Dramatic Series.
In addition to the morning drama series, there were many otherfine dramas on NHK including Ashio kara Kita Onna (The Woman
from Ashio, NHK January 18, 25), Daruma-san ga Waratta(Bodhidharma Laughed, NHK BS Premium October-December) andYube no Kare-, Ashita no Pan (Last Night’s Curry, Tomorrow’s Bread,
NHK BS Premium, October-December).
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Ashio kara Kita Onna treats the Ashio copper mine incident of1890. Waste from the copper mine polluted the Watarase and Tone
rivers, and deforestation caused serious floods, destroying the livelihood of both farmers and fishermen in the area. It further led to widespread strikes and riots and the Ashio copper mine incident is considered to be the first case of industrial pollution with widespread social
consequences in Japan, also leading to the first factory legislation on
pollution. The drama powerfully depicts an uneducated girl (OnoMachiko) as she gains a sense of self and her anger at the social
oppression. Dramatic works dealing with the Ashio mine usuallyfocus is on Tanaka Shôzô, the leader of the movement to close themine, but instead, Ikehata Shunsaku’s scenario makes an uneducatedgirl the hero and very earthily brings out the anger of people whohave their homes and villages taken from them. In turn, this becomes
the story of the fate of women in the early Meiji Period when thecountry was mobilized with the slogan of “Rich Country, Strong
Military.” It was given the 2014 Prize for Excellence in the Japanese
National Cultural Agency Arts Festival and the Tokyo Drama Award
2014 Prize for Excellence for One Episode Drama.
Daruma-san ga Waratta was a regional drama from Kochi in
Shikoku (script by Yoshizawa Tomoko), which highlighted the actingof the two lead actresses, which was very beautiful in the setting sun
by the port. The main character is a woman in her thirties, who has
been divorced and worries about her child (Ando Sakura), but is revitalized by her meeting with a hachikin mother from Kochi (Baisho
Mitsuko). Hachikin is Kochi dialect for a woman who is stronger
than a man. The drama was warm and moving because of the waythat each of the women’s lives were etched into the expressions on
their faces, and it earned the Tokyo Drama Award 2014 – Local
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Drama Prize.
Yube no Kare-, Ashita no Pan was a warm and comforting dramawith scenario writer Kizara Izumi’s unique touch in depicting daily
life. Because the lines “When you give up something, that means you
have chosen life,” were in the context of this very careful depiction ofdaily life, the drama gave a reassuring sense of courage.
Since in general, dramas on commercial networks are not very
vital, the series Oyaji no Senaka (Watching My Father’s Back, TBS
July-September) drew attention. Even though today the existence offathers has become very weak, this project refocused attention onfathers and 10 top scenario writers competed with their scripts for theseries and it earned the ATP Encouragement Prize. The scenario
writers were Okada Yoshikazu, Sakamoto Yuji, Kuramoto So,
Kamata Toshio, Kizara Izumi, Hashibe Atsuko, Yamada Taichi,
Ikehata Shunsaku, Inue Yumiko and Mitani Koki. All of the stories

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were very strong and full of the individuality of the different writers,
but here I would like to introduce the second story by Sakamoto Yuji,“Wedding March.” This showed a father obsessed with boxing(Yakusho Koji) and his daughter (Mitsushima Hikari). The ending
where father and daughter decide to meet their fate together was very
fresh and Yakusho and Mitsushima’s vigorous emotional confrontations gave credibility to the conclusion. This story was awarded theJapanese Cultural Agency Arts Festival Prize for Excellence.
Among other series on commercial networks, there was Sanbiki
no Ossan (Three Old Men, Terebi Tokyo, January-March) which had afresh approach. The remaining years of the lives of three old men(Kitaoji Kinya, Izumiya Shigeru, Shiga Kotaro) were amusing because
their stories were told like an old samurai movie and brought out aunique view of old age. It earned the Tokyo Drama Award 2014 –116

Special Prize.
In terms of ratings, the 3rd series of Dokuta– X (Doctor X, Terebi
Asahi, October-December) continues to be very popular, but in thisseries, the comical acting of the main character played by Yonekura
Ryoko stuck out and the effect of her line, Itashimasen! (I won’t do it!)has weakened.
Also, the biggest hit of 2013, Hanzawa Naoki (TBS, July-September 2013) won the Grand Prize for Dramatic Series of the Tokyo
Drama Award 2014 and the 2014 Japan Commercial Broadcaster’sPrize for Excellence.
Finally, I would like to say a few words about the “International
Drama Festival in Tokyo” sponsored by the Tokyo Drama Awards. It
is intended to be a forum for Japanese television dramas to be broadcast abroad and in 2013 this succeeded in having a concentration ofJapanese television dramas broadcast in Thailand (April-October). 15

series were broadcast, including Ri-garu Hai (Legal High, Fuji Terebi,2013) and Carnation (NHK, 2011). There was also a sampling surveyof how these dramas were received.
Outline of the Survey:
Date of Survey: July 9, 2013
Target of Survey: Men and women in their 20’s and 30’s
Size of Sample: 50
Contents of Survey: B anbi-no (Bambino, Nihon Terebi), Koi suru Mezon (Maison
in Love, Terebi Tokyo), Ri–garu Hai (Legal High, Fuji Terebi),Nazo toki wa Dina– no Ato de (Unraveling Riddles is for After
Dinner, also Fuji Terebi) and Taira no Kiyomori (NHK).

According to the results of this survey, with regard to dramas inJapan, 88% said they had a “very favorable view,” or “favorable view.”
90% said they were “very satisfied” or “satisfied.” Also the top reasonsfor having a favorable view were: 1) they are entertaining, 2) they are

117

moving, 3) they are individualistic, 4) they are instructive. The
survey also asked Japanese viewers opinions of Korean dramas.
Where the figures for “individualistic” and “instructive” were highfor Japanese dramas, the figures for “entertaining” and “moving”
were high for Korean dramas. The challenge in the future will be
how much these characteristics of Japanese dramas can be spreadthroughout the world.
Television dramas are now entering an age of globalization. In
this regard, Japan is behind Korea. What is needed is not only thesales activities of the broadcasters that produce the programs, but forthis kind of aggressive presentation of programs to foreign countries
and audience surveys to become part of national cultural policy.

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TV and RADIO

Kotaki, Tetsuya
Kotaki Tetsuya is a critic and professor emeritus at Nihon Daigaku university,
specializing on the cultural history of television. He is also executive director of
the Hôsô Hihyô Kondan Kai (Broadcast Critics Benevolent Association), special
advisor to the organizing committee of the International Drama Festival inTokyo, director of Nihon Kyakuhon A-kaibusu Suishin Konso-shium (Consortium
to Create an Archive for Japanese Scripts) and member of the Hôsô BangumiShûshû Shimon Iinkai (Broadcast Programming Collection Advising Committee).
Among other positions, he has been head of the selection committee for the
Galaxy Prize, a judge in the arts festival sponsored by the Japanese National
Cultural Agency and a member of the BPO Hôsô Ronri Iinkai (Broadcast
Standards Committee). Among other books, he has supervisied “Terebishi
Handobukku (Handbook of Television History)” (Jiyû Kokuminsha), and was aco-writer on “Terebi Sakkatachi no 50 Nen (50 Years of Writers for Television)”(NHK Shuppan).
(Translation: Mark Oshima)

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119

Commemorative photograph of the first foreign tour of kabuki to the Soviet Union. Along with the head of thetroupe Kido Shirô (film producer and Shochiku chairman), literary advisor Ikeda Daigo and kabuki actor Ichikawa
Sadanji II, Stanislavski and Eisenstein are also visible.

Developments in Japan

Kabuki’s Tours Abroad
Iizuka Misa
Kabuki’s first tour abroad was surprisingly early, in 1928. As part ofthe commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the communist revolution, negotiations between Japan and the Soviet Union began. The
Soviet Union officially invited a kabuki performance, and Japan overcame many organizational problems, including the astronomical
expenses, a tour was organized. Ichikawa Sadanji II led the troupe ofTheatre in Japan

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actors, and with the additional support of the troupe itself, which
included that the actors appeared without pay, the tour was realized.
In July the troupe went by boat to Vladivostok and from there it was
two weeks of travel on the Trans-Siberian Railway to the performancesites in Moscow. Not only were the performances themselves very
successful, but also the members of the troupe could meet with top
cultural figures like Stanislavsky and Eisenstein. As a result of thetour, kabuki had a great influence on theatre and film in Russia.
The second tour was in 1955 and was to the People’s Republic ofChina, although at that time Japan did not yet have diplomatic relations with the country. With the cooperation of chairman Mao TseTung and premier Chou En-Lai, a troupe led by Ichikawa En’ô I
went on the first cultural exchange after World War II to the celebration of the founding of120

the republic. The following year, in return, aPeking opera troupe led
by Mei Lan-Fan performed in Japan. These
performances led theway for the eventual
restoration of diplomatic relations between
China and Japan.
A mer ica i s t hecountry that has been
visited the most by
kabuki troupes andthe first tour ofDuring the third foreign tour of kabuki to America, the kabuki actors Nakamura
Utaemon VI, Nakamura Kanzaburô XVII and Onoe Shôroku II can be seen strolling through New York City in formal kimono and hakama divided skirt.

America was the thirdi nter nat iona l tou r,
organized in 1960. It
was a very large-scale
tour involving all theenergies of the kabuki
world with a troupe of
64 actors, led byNakamura Utaemon
VI, Nakamura Kanza-

From 2014 to February 2015, the Kabuki-za Gallery featured an exhibit, “Kabuki
wa Tabi suru Taishikan (Kabuki is a Travelling Embassy).” In the center of thephoto is the big poster(Nakamura Utaemon VI, Sumidagawa) created for kiosks in France for the tour in 1990.

burô XVII and Onoe
Shôroku II, visiting three cities (New York, Los Angeles and San
Francisco) and giving as many as 43 performances. Simultaneoustranslation broadcast on transistor radios and the name “Grand
Kabuki” were first used then. It was covered extensively on televi-

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sion and radio and brought attention to the culture of Japan, which
was a country that still seemed very distant to most Americans.
After that, there were many tours and by 2014 there have been
altogether 67 tours. Kabuki has visited America and Europe, in thesouthern hemisphere Australia and the countries of South America,
Asia and Africa. The tours include visits to five continents, all except
Antarctica, 38 countries and 114 cities.
Among these tours, there are many that have been affected byworld-shaking events in history. For example, the tour of the Soviet
Union that was scheduled in June 1986 had to be canceled because of
the disaster at Chernobyl in April, but due to the strong wishes of theparticipants, it became a reality the following year. Also, the weight ofhistory was felt very strongly when the tour to Europe in 1989 thatwent to Brussels in Belgium, Berlin and Dresden in East Germany

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DEVELOPMENTS IN JAPANand Vienna in Austria, came just one monthafter the fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1982, representative members of the troupe that wasappearing in America went to the WhiteHouse to pay their respects to President
Ronald Reagan, who had just been elected theprevious year. It is now commonly said that“kabuki is a movable embassy,” but these
foreign tours have not only served to introduce
Japan’s traditional culture to the world, they
have also helped to make kabuki serve on thefront lines of peace diplomacy.
Poster for the performance of NINAGAWA
Juniya in London’s Baribican Theater in 2009.

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Keeping in mind the language barriers,
these tours have most frequently performed

dances like Renjishi (Father and Son Lion Dance), or often pieces witha comical touch like Migawari Zazen (The Zen Substitute) or Bo
Shibari (Tied to a Pole), or colorful and spectacular plays like Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura (Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees) or
Kanjincho (The Subscription List). At the same time, very serious
drama like Heike Nyogo no Shima – Shunkan (The Heike Clan andthe Island of Women – Shunkan) and Kanadehon Chushingura (TheTreasury of Loyal Retainers) have also been presented. Nakamura
Utaemon VI’s performance as the mother driven mad by the loss ofher child taken by slave traders in Sumidagawa (Sumida River) was avery deep portrait of the inner feelings of a human being and wasapplauded abroad in exactly the same way as it was in Japan. Audiences were also impressed with the colorful sets and costumes andcould not believe that the onnagata (male actors playing female roles)
were not actually women.

There are always unanticipated problems when performing in aforeign country. Tours of kabuki have found the theater district in thecity they are visiting was in the midst of a labor strike, or that theunion rules could not be eased to make performances possible, or thetechnical staff on site would have terrible difficulties with the uniquesets, props, wigs and costumes of kabuki; it was always trial and error.
But it seems that with repeated tours, understanding of the needs ofkabuki has increased and in recent years, things have gone verysmoothly. Also, there is the considerable contribution of commentators like Faubion Bowers and simultaneous translations in making
kabuki understandable to people in the different countries.
Among recent tours, in 2004, there were performances at the
National Chaillot Theater in Paris to commemorate the name-takingof Ichikawa Ebizô XI, and in 2007, at the performances at the Paris
Opera House (Garnier) featuring Ichikawa Danjûrô XII together

123with his son Ebizô, Danjûrô and the other actors performed a Kôjô
Stage Announcement in French. Also, in 2009, the kabuki staging of
Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night by director Ninagawa Yukio,
NINAGAWA Juniya appeared in London. Nakamura Kanzaburô
XVIII created a moveable theater for kabuki called the “Heisei
Nakamura-za” which was used for performances throughout Japan,
but in 2004, it was taken to New York. American audiences felt thatthey were taken to a real Japanese kabuki theater and the performances were as well received as they were in Japan. After this successin New York, the world Mecca of show business, these tours wererepeated several times. At the same time, in recent years, in addition
to full-scale performances of kabuki, there are more small-scale performances, performances directed at students and workshop performances. Through these various efforts, one can see the high interest

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DEVELOPMENTS IN JAPANaround the world in Japan’s kabuki. Kabuki as a “movable embassy”
has long worked to aid diplomacy and friendship between countries,
but perhaps kabuki’s true value as drama and entertainment is now
also being recognized.
Iizuka, Misa
She graduated from the Literary Department of Rikkyo University and is librarianat the Shochiku Otani Library, which is devoted to theater and film. Her duties
include the collection, sorting, making available and preservation of
documentary materials on theater and film.
Photo provided by the Shochiku Otani Library / Cooperated by Shochiku(Translation: Mark Oshima)

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125

Tour to Taiwan, Étoile de TAKARAZUKA (April 2013) © Takarazuka Revue

Developments in JapanThe History of Takarazuka Revue
Company’s International Tour
Disseminating Japan’s unique theatrical tradition
following kabuki
Ishii Keifu
Takarazuka Revue Company marked its one hundredth anniversary
in 2014 and one may say that it has become a ‘traditional cultural
asset’ of the unique Japanese theatre tradition rather like kabuki,
which has a four hundred year old history.

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DEVELOPMENTS IN JAPANThe Takarazuka Revue’s first performance Donburako (April-May 1914) © Takarazuka Revue

126

The two different styles of performing arts originated in Japan at
different times in history and strangely enough, they resemble eachother in some respect, although they are opposites. Only men
perform in kabuki, while only unmarried women perform in
Takarazuka Revues. However, at the beginning, neither of its founders desired those conventions. With regard to kabuki, thepowers-that-be did not allow women to perform in its show for thereason that it would corrupt public morals. As for Takarazuka, its
founder Kobayashi Ichizô came up with an idea trading on novelty,
which was to organize an entertainment group comprised of girls inorder to attract more passengers to use the railway lines that he operated. Actually, he was thinking of having men take part sooner orlater to form a theatre company to present people’s theatre for the
new era. However, many wealthy women, mainly in the Kansai
region, became fervent fans of the all-girl revue shows and due totheir strong objections, the plan to establish a mixed theatre troupe
had to be cancelled.
The development of these unique theatre companies, one allmale and the other all-female, has been led by the private sector
alone with no encouragement whatsoever from the government, andboth have survived through the ages to this date. Coincidentally, lastyear, when Takarazuka celebrated its a hundredth anniversary,kabuki also happened to mark a hundred years since Shochiku Co.,
Ltd. started to administer kabuki. The fact that these two major
theatre traditions have been maintained by two private companies,
namely Shochiku and Hankyu Railways, and that both have become
widely known outside Japan, may also be an unique characteristic ofJapanese culture.
Takarazuka Revue, which Kobayashi claimed to be the people’s
theatre, was in fact a unique Japanese opera created modeling kabuki.

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Tour to Canada and the U.S., Hana no Odori (August-November 1959) © Takarazuka Revue

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DEVELOPMENTS IN JAPANAt the beginning, not only kabuki but also the preceding traditional
Japanese theatre forms such as noh, kyôgen and buyô - traditional
Japanese dance - were presented with the accompaniment of instruments used for Western music rather than those used for Japanesemusic. In other words, the accompaniment for the songs changed
from the traditional string instrument shamisen to the piano, and theaccompaniment for the dances changed from the offstage geza music
to the orchestra. Though it was a compromise of Japanese andWestern performance traditions, it turned into an accessible lyric
drama that was different from either kabuki or real opera. Kobayashi
wanted to produce shows that were not like kabuki or opera, whichwere only accessible for a limited number of high-class audience, but
to rearrange traditional styles of songs, dance and acting intoeasy-to-understand shows and to present it to the theatre fans of the128

new age at a reasonable price. As mentioned before, however, it developed into an all-female revue that did not allow men to perform on
stage and it diverted from the original idea. At that time, Kobayashi
used to lament that kabuki had turned into classical theatre andmuseum pieces. He also made the following comment about the
future of Takarazuka Revue, when it was successfully presented at theImperial Theatre: “I believe that serious and experimental lyric drama
will sooner or later become accepted as a theatre form that deserves tobe recognized internationally.” This comment was written in the
essay column called ‘Omoitsuki’ (literally, memos of things coming
to mind)’ in the April 1950 issue of ‘Kageki (lyric drama)’. Takarazuka
Revue was founded based on the idea of kabuki, but I wonder whatkind of theatre Kobayashi would have created, if he had seen kabuki
flourishing as it is now.
Thus Takarazuka Revue has been influenced by kabuki and in1938, it toured abroad for the first time, ten years after kabuki. It was
the thirteenth year of the Showa Era, when there was a looming
threat of war, and the Takarazuka Revue Troupe toured to twenty-six
cities in Germany, Poland and Italy as the Goodwill Mission of Art
between Japan, Germany and Italy. Thirty members of Takarazuka,
alias Takarasiennes, which included Amatsu Otome, set sail from
Kobe Port and returned to Japan the following spring. Then almost
straight away, in 1939, they toured to nine cities in the U.S., including
Honolulu, San Francisco and New York, and this time, Sayo Fukuko
and Kasugano Yachio took part. Kasugano, who was a great star of
Senka (superior members of Takarazuka) at that time, left a legendary
remark when she insistently said, “Please take a photograph of me
standing at the top of the Empire State Building”. Perhaps she hadseen the film ‘King Kong’. Later on, between 1942 and 1944, before thewar ended, Takarazuka toured three times to the northeastern part of129

China, or as it was then called Manchuria, and then after the war, itTour to New York, Takarazuka Odori Sanka (October 1989) © Takarazuka Revue
Shion Yu, Hibiki Mito, Oura Mizuki, Matsumoto Yuri (from left to right in the front row)

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toured to Hawaii three times between 1955 and 1957, and in 1959, it
went on tour to the U.S. and Canada. There is an interesting episodefrom this tour: On their way to North America, they took a ship ride,but on their way back, they took an airplane, and glamorous stars
such as Hama Yuko and Fujisato Miho got very excited on the plane
because it was their first time to fly. They must have behaved likeschool girls on an excursion. One star sitting at the window murmured, “I didn’t know that airplanes could still fly even when a propeller has stopped moving”, and her remark developed into a big commotion. Back in those days, there were only propeller-driven aircrafts
and indeed one of the propellers had stopped operating due to anengine trouble. Airplanes can fly safely even if only one of the propellers is operating, but the captain, who had not bothered to explain
this fact beforehand, inevitably had to make an announcement over a130

loudspeaker to calm down the passengers on board, who had fallen
into a state of panic.
Each Takarazuka show was based on traditional dances performed only by adorable woman, which was different from kabuki,
and they were very well received abroad, as the lavish traditional
kimono costumes and exoticism bought great satisfaction. When
Takarazuka toured to Paris in 1965, it presented a Western-style show
for the first time. As a German TV network had organized the tour,
the show was directed by a German director and choreographed by a
British choreographer called Paddy Stone. This connection later on
led to the famous choreography in Kamogawa Seisaku’s ‘Shango’ thatpremiered in 1967 and earned its place in history. Since then, when
Takarazuka tours abroad, in most cases they have taken a double billof a Japanese show and a Western show, and so far, it has toured twenty-five times to eighteen countries, visiting a total of a hundred andtwenty-nine cities including Southeast Asia, Latin America, London,
Hong Kong, and the recent tour to China and the tour to Taiwan in
2013. Particularly worth mentioning is Takarazuka’s third tour toEurope from 1975 to 1976, when it visited Moscow and four other
cities in the Soviet Union as well as Paris. Hatsukaze Jun, who was
the top female-role player (called musumeyaku) at that time, and took
part in the tour, reminisced and said, “It was seventeen degrees below
zero in Leningrad (current Saint Petersburg) and it was really freezing. We performed at a ballet theatre that had a raked stage and presented a Japanese show, wearing white makeup, as well as a Westernshow. The local audience thought that we were visiting them with two
teams, as they couldn’t believe that the stars that were wearing white
makeup in the previous show had reappeared in the following
Western-type show”. Also in the New York tour back in 1989,
Takarazuka performed at Radio City Music Hall, which is like a sanc-131

tuary of revue shows, and this time, the troupe had also taken its
famous grand staircase. Therefore it was possible for them to present
the glamorous grand finale and the audiences’ continuous bravos
echoed in the hall.
In August 2015, Takarazuka will mark its a hundred and one year
anniversary and it is planning to tour Taiwan for the second timeafter its first occasion in 2013. Due to the success of the previous
Taiwan tour, Takarazuka Revue Company is planning to make its
way into the Asian market starting with ‘The Rose of Versailles’(Berusaiyu no Bara), which is the biggest hit ever. By touring abroad,it has opened the doors for Takarazuka to become international, andnow the company is working on expanding the scope of business,bearing in mind that there are aspiring Takarasiennes in other Asian
countries.

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Ishii, Keifu
Ishii is a theatre columnist born in Tokyo in 1943. After graduating from Keio
University, he joined the newspaper publishing company Sankei Shimbun andsince then, has been working in the fields of literature and theatre for twentyeight years. After leaving the company in 1998, Ishii has been working as afreelance, writing articles for newspapers, magazines as well as giving lectures.
He writes reviews regularly for the monthly magazine ‘Kageki’, etc. Ishii has been
watching Takarazuka Revue Company’s shows for fifty year and is the author ofbooks including ‘Takarasienne’s Fairy Tales’.
(Translation : William Andrews)

132

VPAM’s LOVE STORY at Dance Box (Shin-Nagata, Kobe) © Đồ Doãn Bằng (VPAM participant, Stage designer)

Developments in Japan

Hosting the Vietnam Performing Arts
Specialists Middle Term Invitation
Program133

Yokobori Fumi
The Dance Box space in Shinnagata in Kobe hosted two sessions of
the Vietnam Performing Arts Experts Mid-term Invitation Program(VPAM), organized by the Japan Foundation, and planned and operated by the Japan Centre of International Theatre Institute.
The first session was held over two weeks in early June 2014. It
was an exchange between practitioners from the Youth Theatre ofVietnam (Nhà hát Tuổi tr ẻ Việ t Nam) and the Dance Box area
through dance, theatre and mime workshops. The instructors for thethree workshops were Yazaki Takeshi (dance), Goma no Hae (theatre)

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DEVELOPMENTS IN JAPANand Iimuro Naoki (mime).
Goma no Hae’s workshop made use of picture books to create apiece of theatre out of four elements: sound played on instruments,
voices reading a picture book, body language, and stage design
through various props. After finishing with the picture book that
Goma no Hae brought along, the participants then went in search ofa picture book written in Vietnamese. Physical theatre performerNguyễn Hoàng Tùng and actor Lê Tùng Linh went to the library run
by Vietnam Dream Kobe for Vietnamese children in Japan at the
nearby Takatori Community Center. In Shinnagata there is a large
community of Vietnamese residents and many places where
Vietnamese socialize. There is a Vietnamese food shop right behindthe building where Dance Box is located, plus Hạ Long, a Vietnamese
restaurant, is about five minutes’ walk away. It later became a regular134

haunt for the workshop participants. Actor Lý Chí Huy said, “Gomano Hae’s workshop will be useful for future children’s workshops inVietnam.” They hold workshops for both children and the disabled.
In this way, the Youth Theatre is not merely a place for performing
regular theatre.
The dance workshop also left an impression through its group
activities. The participants made ashort piece incorporating thedemands of ‘standing’, ‘walking’ and‘meeting’ into it. Interestingly, theVietnamese groups created many
dramatic works involving themes ofromance and war. Needless to say,one factor for this was that half ofthe participants were theatre actors.
Study Tour in Kyoto © Monden Miwa

For the second
session, the practitioners from the first werejoined by other participants such as directors,
technical staff, andproducers. The 15 par-Creating LOVE STORY with Japanese staff members © Goto Ayako

ticipants had a packed
two weeks from June 23rd to July 7th, touring west Japan to Kyoto,
Matsuyama and Tottori, and then creating a new work, which they
performed as the final output of the program.
In Kyoto, Matsuyama and Tottori the participants visited a rangeof spaces run by non-profit organisations, the private companies andcity authorities, in particular art centers and theatres, looking at thevarious programs operated there. At the Kyoto Art Center, Uchiko-za

135(Matsuyama), Theater Neco (Matsuyama), and Bird Theatre
Company (Tottori), they could learn about the situations and contexts
in each region, and how the various theatres creates work and programs in coordination with local artists. While the schedule wassomewhat of a non-stop march through a succession of different
theatre facilities, work also continued on devising ideas for the final
performance on July 7th.
After completing their whirlwind tour of Japan, from the 30th ofJune, the participants started to create the work. The performance
was set for July 7th, meaning the creation period was also no less of awhirlwind. First the title of the script was fixed to be Love Story,
based on Romeo and Juliet, and then the roles were cast. Meetings
after the rehearsals often continued long into the night.
According to what I heard, the Youth Theatre has a top-down

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structure with the director at the top, and with currently little process
for ideas to come up from crew such as lighting or sound teams.
During the sessions in Japan all the members of staff took part in themeetings and shared their opinions to create the work. A stage
manager was also added to the team, a position that is not widespreadin Vietnam, and in this way the creative work was done using methods
different from their usual system. What was clearly shown to us,
though, is that we do need to be careful about simply calling thesystem in Japan the “better” one. The system in Vietnam has comeabout by building up a variety of elements of history, human relations, and family. Since we must presume the contexts in Japan and
Vietnam to be different, is it possible to make a good environment for
creativity that can be shared by both? This is a question that becamevery apparent because it was a group residency featuring almost all136

the types of people working in the theatre.
Something else proved interesting through the group residency
creation process. As we previously noted, there is a large Vietnamese
community in and around the Shinnagata area. In the past,
Vie t na me s e a r t i st s
have stayed here but
the impact on the local
area was clearly different when the numberof participants waslarger. For evening
meals and parties
everyone headed to the
nearby Hạ Long. The
visitors spoke with the
VPAM’s LOVE STORY © Đồ Doãn Bằnglocal Vietnamese, accelerating theinterplay between them. Whensearching for an interpreter to
tra nslate from Japa nese i nto
Vietnamese, we also ended up
asking the local network. Whilethese are small connections, thislinked process produced a new“map” of Shinnagata. At the final
performance, more than a quarterof the audience was made up of
Vietnamese residents in Japan. The
theatre lobby was filled with thesound of Vietnamese speakers.
137

Hosting the Vietnam Performing Arts Experts Mid-term Invitation Program offered an opportunity to reconsider the role of thetheatre space. Through working

VPAM’s LOVE STORY © Đồ Doãn Bằngwith not only artists, but the fullrange of people involved with a theatre, we were able to take a comparative look at how our theatres work, such as how it is possible tobuild reliable relations between students, performing places andtheatre groups, as well as see how small daily things glimpsed in bothordinary times and extraordinary times when making a performance,
connect to the large-scale construction of social systems.
After the participants went back to Vietnam they restaged Love
Story at the Youth Theatre to a full house of 500. The audience gave it
an enthusiastic reception. Judging solely by the photographs uploaded

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DEVELOPMENTS IN JAPANto Facebook, Lưu Hải Phong’s lighting was very beautiful. When I
went to Vietnam last September, Nguyễn Hoàng Tùng told me at his
studio that he now considers the rehearsal space as a place to be utilized like a theatre. This might be the influence of having seen how inJapan many kinds of rehearsal spaces are transforming into performance spaces. I would like to finish with the expectations we have for
the Youth Theatre of Vietnam’s future developments and the hopethat this exchange can continue to make informal and formal
connections.
Yokobori, Fumi

138

Yokobori Fumi is a program director of non-profit theatre space Dance Box. In
2008-2009, she conducted a six-month performing arts research survey in six
Asian countries and New York on a fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council(ACC). She works to develop programs linking dance, regional communities andtheatre spaces, and build networks between Asian countries.
(Translation : William Andrews)

Learning and discussing about Nihon buyô and Peking opera at Atelier of Hanayagi Chiyo (right).

Developments in Japan
Report on the 1st ITI World Theatre Workshop:

Peking Opera and Nihon buyô139

What can contemporary theatre learn
from traditional theatre?
Hishinuma Yoshiaki

The first ITI World Theatre Workshop exploring what contemporary
theatre can learn from traditional performing arts was held for threedays from August 19th during the height of the Tokyo summer. The
opening workshop paired Peking opera with Japanese Classical Dance(Nihon buyô), welcoming Chen Gang from the Central Academy ofDrama in China.
Chen Gang arrived in Japan on August 17th and the following
day he was taken to the National Theatre of Japan. There he saw
three acts from Sugawara Denjû Tenarai Kagami (The Sugawara

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Secrets of Calligraphy). Chen was very pleased to have the opportunity to see one of three great works of kabuki.
“It meticulously expresses the emotions of humanity and ourinnermost intentions in a complete aesthetic style,” he remarked,
demonstrating a deep understanding and sympathy with the expressive capabilities of Kabuki. He said seeing the play was one of the
fruits of his visit. He used the word “tension” to express the ability for
Kabuki dance to surge and build up one by one, remarking on how it
was a distinctive characteristic of eastern performing arts, common toboth Peking opera and kabuki.
On the third day he went to see a rehearsal by Hanayagi Chiyo, aleading figure in the world of Nihon buyô. Chiyo, who this year
turned 91, and many of her disciples have worked to further theexchange between Peking opera and Nihon buyô. Hanayagi Chiyo
140

serves as a Nihon buyô instructor for the New National Theatre,
Tokyo’s opera and theatre research studios, as well as the Nikikai
Opera Institute, but she has also left a great mark on cultural
exchange between Japan and China, such as holding buyô performances in China andassisting in the Chinese
publication of a bookon the foundations of
Nihon buyô. As such,
she was delighted forChen Gang to visit her
rehearsal.
The event beganwith Chen giving an
introduction and

Lecture and demonstration of movement for Peking opera by Chen Gang at
Toho Gakuen College of Drama and Music.

demonstration of basic movements
in Chinese traditional theatre, while
Chiyo spoke about the history andcontemporary state of Nihon buyô,
as well as its characteristics. The
students then danced the koto piece
Rokudan (Six Steps) and the jiuta
song Arenezumi (The Wild Mouse) as
demonstrations of basic technique.
The dance showcased the diversity

Learning practically the basic movements of Peking opera at
Toho Gakuen College.

of expression and the quintessenceof technique that both Peking opera and Nihon buyô have inherited,
reaffirming the charms shared across eastern performing arts.
Chiyo then spoke about the pivotal elements of Nihon buyô:
141“Training. Training. And memorize the foundations and rules. In
Japanese traditional dance, you achieve a freedom of expression
within the rules of the dance after having undergone extensive training in these rules, whereas modern dance trains the body to breakthe conventions.”
On the fourth and fifth days, there were workshops held at Toho
Gakuen College of Drama and Music, with theatre students andyoung directors and members of theatre companies. The participants
were captivated by Chen, with his jovial and frank personality, passionate and sincere tutorship, and artistic abilities he has cultivatedsince his youth.
Chen began to learn classical Chinese theatre from the age ofthree. He grew up in Hubei province; his father was a Hanju opera
performer while his mother an actress in Peking opera. Blessed withthis lineage, his talents flowered quickly and he was admitted into a

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Theatre Yearbook 2015

DEVELOPMENTS IN JAPANHanju company at the age of ten. From the age of fourteen he entereda local school for the arts, while from sixteen he entered the China
Conservatory of Music. He taught other students how to sing andperform, and was touted as a child prodigy with a big future ahead ofhim. At eighteen he passed the exams to enter the Central Academyof Drama, a Chinese national theatre university. He continued on tocomplete post-graduate studies there, acquiring knowledge of performing and directing, including both Chinese traditional theatre aswell as American and European theatre. He has directed widely, notonly for the stage but also television drama and cinema.
At Chinese national theatre universities there are courses on all
the performing arts. Contemporary theatre and classical performing
arts offer mutual stimuli. For performers, it means new training
methods are constantly being created. This is an enviable situation
142

compared to Japan.
On the fifth day of the workshop, Toho Gakuen College ofDrama and Music instructor Miura Go led a session called Foundational Physical Expression Training for Stage Performers, including
the foundations of the Suzuki method, pilates, and Ankoku butoh.
Over the course of the day the participants could experience thecontrasts between the various physical disciplines. Chen theninstructed the participants on several techniques involved with Peking
opera, including the Central Academy of Drama’s fundamental physical exercises. At one point during his agile movements he adopted akabuki-style mie pose, which met enthusiastic applause from theyoung students.
In terms of the perception of physical training, one difference
between Miura and Chen did reveal itself during a certain stage of thesession. Miura instructed the participants to be aware of the sightlines of the audience. However, Chen said that the students must not
be conscious of the audience at all. The remaining time of the workshop was then given over to the training that takes place at theCentral Academy of Drama.
In recent years, the Global Alliance of Theatre Schools (GATS)
International Theatre Festival has become a mainstay among theatre
colleges in Japan and China, with Toho Gakuen participating every
year. Through this workshop, an exchange of theatre between schools
from the two countries deepened mutual understanding of traditional
performing arts, as well as improved skills. In this sense, the workshop proved an extremely effective initiative. In the future, Nagai
Takeo, President of the Japanese Centre of International Theatre Institute hopes this kind of theatre exchange between two or three countries can be continued. Chen Gang returned to China on August 23rd.
143

Learning practically the basic movements of Peking opera practically at Toho Gakuen College.

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DEVELOPMENTS IN JAPANHishinuma, Yoshiaki
Hishinuma is a translator and is also a member of the Board of Directors of theJapanese Centre of ITI and the Secretary-General of Japan-China Theatrical
Exchange Wagekijinsha. He has translated modern Chinese plays such as
Farewell Seto-naikai (Bie le, Laihu nei hai) by Deng Youmei as well as Bull (Niu)and Road Work (Zhu lu) by Mo Yan. Among the works he has translated thathave also been performed in Japan, there are Empress Dowager (Xitaihou) by
Sun Demin, which was presented by Shochiku Co., Ltd., Go Player (Qiren) and
Frog (Qingwa) by Guo Shixing produced by the New National Theatre, Tokyo,
Aboard the Ferryboat Together (Tong chuan guodu) and Temporary Ward
(Linshi Bing Fang) by Shen Hongguang produced by The Theatrical Companyof Toen and The Peony Garden (Mudan ting) presented by Jiangsu Province
Kunqu Theatre and hosted by Nippon Cultural Centre.
(Translation: William Andrews)

144

SP EC I AL F EATU RE‘Theatre Born in Conflict Zones 6’

SPECIAL FEATURE

SPECIAL FEATURE

A Report on‘Theatre Born in Conflict Zones 6’
Can We Overcome Wars, Violence and Control?
Yoshiiwa Masaharu
In response to the major theme ‘Arts and Peace Building’, recently set
by UNESCO, various countries’ international theatre centers (ITI),
as an international non-governmental organization under theumbrella of UNESCO, has actively involved in variety of projects on
the theme ‘Theatre in Conflict Zones’. The Japanese Centre of ITI has
responded to this trend and has been carrying out a special project146

titled ‘Theatre Born in Conflict Zones’ since 2009, and 2014 marked
its sixth year (co-organized by the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre since2012).
This project is part of the research and study program of the
Yearbook issued by the Japanese Centre of ITI, and in 2014, reading
performances, special lectures, talk sessions, symposiums and roundtable talks were held based on the theme ‘Can We Overcome Wars,
Violence and Control? 1914-2014: A Hundred Years Since the Outbreak of World War I’. Plays from UK/Israel, Pakistan and Nigeria,
which were all translated into Japanese and staged in Japan for the
first time respectively, were performed between December 19 andDecember 23 at Atelier West of the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre.
Each session was sold out, signifying that this series has taken root in
the Japanese theatre circles.

<Dramatic Reading>Ballad of the Burning Star (UK/Israel)
Written by Nir Paldi
Translated by Sumida Michiyo
Directed by Ohtani Kenjiro
Performed by Itazu Miki, Ogawa Shiho, Koyama Moeko (Empathy), Sahara Yumi
(Ryuzanji Office), Doi Manami (Dora Theatrical Company), Furudate
Kazuya (Company-ma)
Music performed by Suzuki Masato
Date &Time: December 19 (Fri) 19:00 / December 20 (Sat) 14:00

Ballad of the Burning Star was produced by Theatre Ad Infinitum, amultinational theatre troupe based in London, and it won the Grand
Prize at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2012. The production is147

Ballad of the Burning Star © Takakura Daisuke

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SPECIAL FEATURE

now on tour in the U.K. Theatre Ad Infinitum is a group putting on
plays based on physical theatre and was founded by graduates of
L’École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris.
Nir Paldi, who wrote and directed this play, was born and raisedin Israel. He said that he saw the Palestinian issue as an ‘Israeli issue’,and through a cabaret-style performance, he portrayed how disputes
and occupation in this region has effected and torn apart the feelingsof the Israeli people.
After the dramatic reading on December 19, there was a talksession between Hosoda Kazue (Israeli Literature and Culture, Chuo
University) and Nir Paldi, the writer and director of the play. Paldi
explained his background that he was born in Israel and moved to asettlement when he was three years old, which became the starting
point for him to write this play. The Jews, who have had a history of
148

being discriminated and persecuted, are now on the reverse side as
they are the ones discriminating and persecuting the Palestinians as

Ballad of the Burning Star © Takakura Daisukewell as depriving their territories.
The paradoxical reality and ironies
that were very clearly explained by
Paldi were very interesting.
After the performance on
December 20, there was a symposium under the title ‘1914-2014 andTheatre: From the Post Colonial
Point of View’. Nir Paldi, Sawada
Keiji (translator and professor at

Mr. Nir Pardi (right) and Ms. Hosoda Kazue (left) at the talksession.

Waseda University), Yoshikawa
Emiko (professor of Latin American Theatre at Sophia University) were on the panel and it was moderated by Shichiji Eisuke.
Paldi talked about the current situation of the Israelis living in

149

settlements, his own identity issue of whether he is an Israeli or a Jew
and the audience’s reaction in the U.K., which were all very interesting discoveries. He also said that in the actual performances, the castdanced in most of the scenes and the dance numbers expressed thesettings (war, inside the bus, etc.), to which narration and songs wereadded. Since the play was originally based on physical theatre, there
were concerns that it would not be possible to express the intention of
the original production through a reading, but I actually found it
enjoyable to listen as music was used tactfully in the dramatic reading.
In their respective presentations, Professor Sawada referred tothe ‘ANZAC Myth’ and the aborigines’ stories while Professor Yoshikawa said, “In Mexico, theatre is a weapon. It is necessary for living.”
Both presentations were evocative and gave us interesting insights on
the variety of dramatic expressions in conflict zones.

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SPECIAL FEATURE<ITI Special Lecture>

Madmen and Specialists (Nigeria)
Written by Wole Soyinka
Translated and lectured by Aihara Ayako
Performed by Arai Jun
Date & Time: December 21 (Sun) 14:00

Aihara Ayako, the translator of the play, gave a lecture on the Nigerian-born playwright Wole Soyinka, which turned into a very valuable
opportunity to learn about Nigerian theatre. Soyinka, who became
the first African to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, wasborn in 1934. He studied literature at universities in Nigeria and the
U.K., and during the 1950s, he worked at the Royal Court Theatre in
London, and it was from around this time that he started to write
150

plays, one after another. Madmen and Specialists was written basedon his experiences in prison during the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970,
the Biafran War). He said, “The play was written using the methodsof The Theatre of the Absurd to depict the madness of war thatdeprived humanity through the antagonist, a doctor that was steepedin evil due to his strong
desire for power.”
After the lecture, AraiJun read a part of theplay. Although it was
indeed a wonderfulreading performance, it
was a pit y that we
could not get the whole

Mr. Shichiji, Mr. Otori, Mr. Nishido and Mr. Sakate at the symposium (from left
to right).

picture of the story as
only a small portion of
it wa s i nt ro duc e d .
After the special
lecture, there was a
symposium on ‘War
and T heatre: From
Greece to the Twentie t h C e n t u r y, t h e
Present’. The panel wascomprised of Otori
H i d e n a g a (t h e a t r e

Ms. Arai Jun (back) and Ms. Aihara Ayako (front) at the meeting about Madmen
and Specialists.

critic), Nishido Kojin(theatre critic and Professor at Kinki University), Yoji Sakate (playwright, director and151

leader of Theatre Group Rinkogun), and the moderator was Shichiji
Eisuke (theatre critic).
A wide range of topics were covered in the discussions, ranging
from how war was depicted and perceived in theatre pieces of all ages
and cultures, what kind of stance could be taken through the arts andtheatre toward conflicts that occur in various parts of the world,
including Japan. Nishido pointed that, “When you look at this issue
from the standpoint of perpetrators and victims, there are so many
Japanese films, theatre and novels portraying wars that adopt the
stance of the victims”, and this comment for me was a stimulating
revelation.

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Theatre Yearbook 2015

SPECIAL FEATURE<Dramatic Reading>

Burqavaganza (Pakistan)
Written by Shahid Nadeem
Translated by Murayama Kazuyuki
Directed by Nishizawa Eiji
Performed by Akagi Yuka, Enjoji Aya, Kato Akemi,
Kogure Miyuki (Daruma-za), Dai Miho,
Murai Yu (Kaimaku Pennant Race)
Date & Time: December 22 (Mon) 19:00,
23 (Tue/public holiday) 14:00

Burqa is a coat or a veil worn by Pakistani and Afghani women to hide their wholebody when they go out. This play is set inPakistan in the near future called the ‘Com152

Burqavaganza © Ishizawa Chieko

pulsory Burqa Era’ and social manners are
depicted comically and cynically through ayoung couple. It premiered in March 2007 by

Ajoka Theatre, a company representing Pakistan. It was banned in
April, a month later, but got permission to resume in May and fromthen on it has been performed up to the present day. The author
Shahid Nadeem said, “Burqa has now become a symbol of ultraconservative ideology. It represents resistance toward the West, denial ofwomen’s human rights and belongs to extremists who only have backward political awareness.” It was also mentioned that when the play
was presented in Pakistan, in the last scene, all the characters flung up
their burqa veils and revealed the faces of political figures such as
George Bush and Tony Blair, and also in the very last moment, apicture of a woman in burqa painted on a large panel on stage isrevealed, showing the face of a beautiful girl, which brought the play
to a close in a tone full of irony.

After the performance on December 22, the translator of theplay Murayama Kazuyuki (studying cultures of South and East Asia
at Wako University and Chuo University) gave a lecture, and after the
performance on December 23, the translator, director and the cast as
well as guests speakers Niino Morihiro (professor at Rikkyo University) and Muneshige Hiroyuki (Black Tent Theatre) were invited totake part in the roundtable talks, which became an extremely precious and interesting opportunity to know the current situation oftheatre in Pakistan. In the performance, all the cast were wearing
burqas and when one of them, namely Enjoji Aya, said, “when I was
wearing a burqa, I could stare at theaudiences’ faces but when I took it
off at the end, I felt very embarrassed”, it overlapped with Muray153

ama’s comment, in which he said,“You can become an invisible
person when you wear a burqa”, andI thought it was an interesting
comment of a man experiencing

Mr. Murayama Kazuyuki explains about a burqa.

wearing a burqa.
Yoshiiwa, Masaharu
Yoshiiwa Masaharu is director and vice president of the Japanese Centre of ITI.
He worked at the Imperial Theatre after graduating from Tokyo University in1965 and then studied under Nicolas Bataille. Later on, he became a member of
Neo Literature Theatre (NLT) Company and then founded Les Quinze (current
Half Moon Theatre Company), mostly presenting modern British plays, while
teaching at the Graduate School of Osaka University of Arts. He has introduced
new plays by young playwrights and especially female playwrights, besides
presenting a series of Harold Pinter’s plays.
Front Photo : Burqavaganza © Ishizawa Chieko(Translation: Sumida Michiyo)

Theatre in Japan

Theatre Yearbook 2015

Companion Volume“Theatre Abroad 2015”(Japanese)
These articles which do not appear in “Theatre in
Japan 2015”.

World Theatre Day Message by Krzysztof Warlikowski

Theatre in Asia and Africa
154

China

Commemorative Performances Marking 450 Years
Since the Birth of Shakespeare and 80 Years Since “Thunderstorm”------------------ Iizuka Yutori

Korea
Theatre Festivals and Cultural Authority---------------------------------------------------------------- Nam Song-ho
MacauContemporary Performing Arts in Macao-------------------------------------------------------------------- Erik Kuong
Philippines A Year of Overcoming Difficulties------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rodolfo Vera
India
Looking Back on 2014-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tsurudome Satoko
Afghanistan Afghanistan Theatre Map 2014 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Murayama Kazuyuki
Zimbabwe Developments in Zimbabwe Theatre 2009-2013------------------------------------------ Samuel Ravengai

Theatre in the Americas and Oceania
CanadaU. S. A.

Summer Theatre Festivals as Triggers for Regional Development--------------------Kanzaki Mai

MexicoBolivia
Australia

Shakespeare, Japan, and National Borders-------------------------------------------------------Yoshikawa Emiko

Innovative Endeavors in Public Theatre: From the American Civil War to Post-9/11---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Tonooka Naomi

A Changing Nation and Challenging Theatre Artists----------------------- Norge Espinosa Mendoza
Portraying the Lives Today of the People We Cannot See------------------------------------Sawada Keiji

Theatre in Europe
U.K.
ScotlandGermany
FranceIndependence or Autonomy? Between Hegemony and Democracy --- Motohashi Tetsuya

Belgium
Spain
Italy

Developments in the Performing Arts in Belgium in 2014 --------------------------------- Sara Jansen

GreeceArmenia
Czech
PolandMoldova
SwedenRussiaTheatre in the Economic Depression-------------------------------------------------------------------- Yamagata Harue

Artists Examining Independence and Having Fun with Change--------------- Nakayama Kaori
Three Scandalous Cities: Vienna, Leipzig, Berlin-------------------------------------------------------- Terao Itaru
A New Work by Théâtre du Soleil, A Strike-Threatened Avignon Festival, Young Theatre
Artists Coming to the Fore, and the Arrival of a New Minister for Culture ----- Odanaka Akihiro
Contemporary Theatre Exchange Between Spain and Japan ------------------------------ Tajiri Yoichi“Italy’s no good anymore!” Italian Theatre Artists Summon Their Final Strength----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Yamanouchi Haruhiko

Theatre Welcoming a New Era Through Revived International Exchange ----- Levon Mutafian
Reflecting on Czech Theatre in 2014-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Petr HolýWhat Has the Peace of 25 Years of Democracy Produced?----------------------------------- Iwata Miho

155

“Make Theatre, Not War!”--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shichiji Eisuke
A Poverty of New Plays and a Generation Shift---------------------------------------------------------- Komaki Yu
What Is to Be Done?--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shinozaki Naoya

Developments Overseas
ITI Activities and the Latest Trends ————————————————————————————— Sota Shuji

Special Feature ”Theatre Born in Conflict Zones 6”
Latent Perpetrators and the Reality : A Review of “Ballad of the Burning Star”—————————— Seki Tomoko
Critique : Post-Colonialism and Theatre————————————————————————— Nishido Kojin

Overseas Tours Report
World tour of Elderly Actors Troup in Hong Kong and Paris – Saitama Gold Theatre———— Matsuno Hajime“Half Gods” : An International Co-Production by Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre (Japan)
and Myeongdong Theater (Korea)—————————————————————————————— Maeda Keizo

Theatre company Chiten in Finland : A Journey Inquiring into Theatre as Critique———————— Tajima Yuna
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Theatre Yearbook 2015

ITI National Centres (as of 3rd March, 2015)

North America
U.S.A.

Latin America andCaribbean

156

Argentina
BrazilColombia
Cuba
Dominican Republic
Jamaica
MexicoPeru
Puerto Rico
Venezuela

AfricaAlgeria
Benin
Botswana
Burkina Faso
Cameroun
Central African Republic
Chad
Congo Dem. ReP
Congo ReP
Cote d'Ivoire
Egypt
Ghana
Mali
Niger
Nigeria
SenegalSierra Leone
South Africa
Sudan
Togo
UgandaZimbabwe

Europe
Austria
Belgium (Antwerp)
Belgium (Brussels)
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Croatia
CyprusCzech ReP
Denmark
Estonia
FinlandGermany
GreeceHungary
Iceland
Ireland

Italy
KosovoLatviaLuxembourg
Macedonia F.Y.R.
MonacoNetherlands
Romania
RussiaSerbiaSlovakia
Slovenia
Spain
SwedenSwitzerland

Middle East
Fujairah
Iraq
JordanQatar
Saudi Arabia
Sharjah
TurkeyAsia / PacificArmenia
Azerbaijan
Bangladesh
China
Chinese Taipei
Georgia
India
Iran
IsraelJapan
Korea
Mongolia
Nepal
Philippines
Sri Lanka
Vietnam

157

The list of National Centres is updated as needed on the ITI website below.
International Theatre Institute ITI / Institut International du Théâtre ITIUNESCO, 1 rue Miollis, F-75732 Paris cedex 15, France
Tel. +33 (0)1 45 68 48 80 / Fax: + 33 (0)1 45 68 48 84
iti@iti-worldwide.org / www.iti-worldwide.org

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Theatre Yearbook 2015

Japanese Centre of International Theatre Institute
Term of office : from July 1, 2013 to the end of the annual general meeting 2015

President

Nagai Taeko

Vice-Presidents

Abiko Tadashi
Yoshiiwa Masaharu

Managing Director

Sota Shuji

Directors

Ataka Risako
Ito Hiroshi
Ozasa Yoshio
Odagiri Yoko
Saimyoji Ikuko
Sakate Yoji
Shindo Yoshikazu
Takahagi Hiroshi
Nagae Iwao
Nakayama Kaori
Hayashi Hideki
Hishinuma Yoshiaki
Matsuda Kazuhiko
Wazaki Nobuya

Auditors

Ito Tomoko
Kobayashi Hirofumi
Yoshii Sumio

Advisers

Otani Nobuyoshi
Katayama Yusetsu (passed away in January 2015)
Sakomoto Jun-ichi
Tanokura Minoru
Nomura Man
Hatano Yoshio
Fukuchi Shigeo
Fujinami Takayuki (passed away in August 2014)
Hori Takeo
Matsuoka Isao
Mogi Shichizaemon
Yamaguchi Masanori

Commissioned by Agency for Cultural Affairs
Government of Japan in the fiscal 2014

東宝演劇