Theatre
Yearbook

国際演劇年鑑 2023

2023

Theatre Yearbook 2023
Theatre in Japan
Published in March 2023
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 2023
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 fiscal 2022
under the Program for Nurturing Upcoming Artists Leading the Next Generation
Editor-in-chief Niino Morihiro
Director in charge Sota Shuji
Editors Kakihana Rieko, Goto Ayako, Konishi Michiko (Office Miyazaki),Tada Shigefumi, Nakajima Kana
Editorial Staff Ayada Shoichi, Iki Terumi, Sakurai Takumi, Nakayama Kaori,
Murakami Rie, Yamada Maria, Yokobori MasahikoTranslators Alan Cummings, Ishikawa Mai, Valerie Frasier (Office Miyazaki),
Eleanor Goldsmith (Office Miyazaki), Sumida Michiyo, Donncha Crowley,
Tony Gonzalez (Office Miyazaki), Mark Oshima,
Matt Treyvaud (Office Miyazaki), Richard Emmert
Proofreaders Ouchi Junko/Ogino Tetsuya/Simon Siddall/Shiraishi Mitsuko/
Matthew Horn/Hirano Miyako (Office Miyazaki), Andrii Nastiuk,
Tada Shigefumi
Art Director and Designer Kubo Saori
Plate making Yubido Co., Ltd.
Yamamura Printing Co., Ltd.
Printing Sankyosha Co., Ltd.
Binding Wincam Co., Ltd.
Printed in Japan

Foreword
The Japanese Centre of International Theatre Institute is a public interest incorporated foundation
and belongs to the international network of National Centres and professional organizations in approximately eighty countries and regions that constitutes the International Theatre Institute (ITI),
which is a non-governmental organization under the umbrella of the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The preamble of the UNESCO Constitution begins with the famous phrase “since wars begin in
the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed.” Article
3 of the standing rules of the Japanese Centre of International Theatre Institute stipulates that the
purpose of the Centre is “to contribute to the development of culture and realization of peace inJapan by deepening mutual understanding and facilitating the creation and exchange of theatre
and dance based upon the purpose of the UNESCO Constitution.”
The Japanese Centre has published the Theatre Yearbook since 1972. Starting from 1997, it has
been published in two parts: “Theatre in Japan” (English version) for readers outside Japan and“Theatre Abroad” (Japanese version) for domestic readers. The yearbook has been published online
since 2014.
Also funded by this program, we have staged readings every year since 2009 to introduce remarkable plays from around the world as part of our research activities to promote international theatricalexchange. In 2022, we continued the “Theatre Born in Conflict Zones” series for the fourteenth
consecutive year, this time featuring a play by a Ukrainian author. Unfortunately, as members of
the team caught COVID-19, the reading had to be canceled, but the script will be published inJapanese translation for the first time at the same time this yearbook is published.
Although we are still seeing waves of infection in this, the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic,
signs that the world is moving toward recovery are also apparent. On the other hand, Russia’s
onslaught against Ukraine continues and chaos reigns across the globe, against the backdrop of
new movements emerging in the countries referred to as the Global South.
I believe this last year has been one in which members of the theatre community have asked themselves a fundamental question: what can the performing arts do in the unstable times of the 21st
century? This year’s Theatre Yearbook features many contributions demonstrating the ways in which
members of the global theatre community have explored this question.
Thus the publication of the Theatre Yearbook has laid a firm foundation for activities that seek togain knowledge of the relationship between Japan and the world, to deepen mutual understandingby positioning Japan within the global network, and to realize cultural development and peace.
We look forward to your continued support and cooperation with the activities of the JapaneseCentre of ITI in the years to come.
March 27, 2023
In commemoration of World Theatre Day

Nagai Taeko
President
Japanese Centre of International Theatre InstituteCONTENTS
005 Shots from the Performing Arts in Japan in 2022

The Japanese Performing Arts in 2022
038 Noh and Kyogen Oda Sachiko

047 Kabuki Yanai Kenji

054 Bunraku Kameoka Noriko

061 Musicals Hagio Hitomi

068 Contemporary Theatre Yamaguchi Hiroko

076 Children’s and Youth Theatre Ota Akira

083 Japanese Classical Dance Hirano Hidetoshi

093 Ballet Urawa Makoto

100 Contemporary Dance and Butoh Tsutsumi Hiroshi

109 Television Dramas Ota Shoichi

Developments in Japan and Overseas in 2022
116 Creating stages amidst war
Interviews with the directors of three Ukrainian theatres / Interviewer: Marina Kotelenets
140 Continuing Creating After Leaving My Homeland
An interview with director Timofey Kulyabin / Interviewer: Uchida Kensuke
153 A Retrospective on the Fiftieth Anniversary of Okinawa’s Reversion to JapanThe Rich World of Uchinaa Shibai, a Theatre Reflecting Okinawa’s Turbulent History /Hosoi Naoko, Kinjo Shinji, Senaha Takako, Kakihana Rieko
185 What We Learned Digging Through Rare Materials from the Early Days of the ITI Japanese Centre
2023, the fiftieth anniversary of the first issue of the Theatre Yearbook, as a gateway / Sota Shuji

Special Feature
200 “Theatre Born in Conflict Zones 14” Director’s notes
Doubting what you know, relating indistinguishability / Ikuta Miyuki
206 Companion Volume “Theatre Abroad 2022” in Japanese
208 ITI Centres«Editors’ Notes»• The articles in this publication report on the performing arts in Japan from the previous calendar year.
•N ames are presented in the respective style of their country/region of origin. For Japanese names, theorder is family name, followed by given name. The names in the contributor profiles are presented with acomma and in the following order (except for individuals with only one name): family name, given name.
• Titles for traditional Japanese performing arts (Noh, kyogen, kabuki, bunraku, Japanese classicaldance, etc.) are presented in the following order: Japanese title (English Title).
• Other titles of works are presented in the following order: English Title (Japanese title).
• The English play titles, theatre venue names, and other formal names are the official ones or, when no
official English name is available, newly translated for this publication.

日本の
舞台芸術
を見る

Shots from the Per forming Ar ts in Japan
in 2022

Noh and Kyogen

Special Project Performance [Rediscover Noh and Kyogen] Kyogen Hakamasaki (A Hakama Pair Becomes Two)Okutsu Kenichiro, Nomura Matasaburo, Okutsu Kentaro (from L to R) Photo provided by National Noh Theater

Special Program of Noh Performance [Rediscover Noh] Kamo Monogurui (The Madwoman of Kamo) Kanze Kiyokazu
Photo provided by National Noh Theater

“All-Japan Noh Caravan!” in Toyota Hanaikusa (The Battle of Flowers) Photo: Harada Shinji

Revival Noh Viewing Program Awade-no-mori (The Labyrinthine Forest) Daughter: Kato Shingo, Monk: Komuro Tomoya,
Merchant (father): Yasuda Noboru Photo: Shingu Yumi

Noh and Kyogen

Yokohama Noh Theater The 2nd “Three Old Women” Program Higaki - Ranbyoshi Otsuki Bunzo
Photo: Ogata Misako, provided by Yokohama Noh Theater

Theatrenoh performance in Tokyo
Dojoji - Hyoshi-nashi no kuzushi Mikata Shizuka
Photo: Maejima Yoshihiro

Shibuya Noh 2nd night Nonomiya
Uzawa Hikaru Photo: Ishida Hiroshi

Ancestor Festival: The 300th Anniversary of the Birth of Nomura Manzo I Kyogen Furyu Chichi-no-jo furyu yorozu-no-shiki
Photo: Akasaka Kumi

Kabuki
Sukeroku yukari no edozakura(Sukeroku: Flower of Edo)
Ichikawa Danjuro Hakuen ©Shochiku

Yoshitsune senbonzakura,
Kawatsura Hogen yakata(Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees,
The Mansion of the Priest Kawatsura)
Onoe Kikugoro
Photo courtesy of the National Theatre

Yoshitsune senbonzakura, Tokaiya(Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees, act 2)
Kataoka Nizaemon ©Shochiku

Furu amerika ni sode wa nurasaji(The Rains of America Will Never Dampen My Sleeves)Bando Tamasaburo ©Shochiku

KabukiToryu Oguri hangan (The Modern Story of Oguri Hangan) Ichikawa Ennosuke (L) and Ichikawa Emiya (R) ©Shochiku

Yoshitsune senbonzakura, Kawatsura Hogen yakata (Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees,
The Mansion of the Priest Kawatsura) Onoe Kikunosuke Photo courtesy of the National TheatreBunraku

Musume Kagekiyo Yashima nikki (The Blind Kagekiyo in Exile) Takemoto Chitosedayu (L) and Toyozawa Tomisuke (R)Photo provided by National Bunraku Theatre

Hana no Ueno homare no ishibumi (The Self-Sacrifice of Otsuji) Toyotake Rodayu (L) and Tsuruzawa Seisuke (R)Photo provided by National Bunraku TheatreBunraku

Genpei nunobiki no taki (The Nunobiki Waterfall) Takemoto Shikorodayu (L) and Tsuruzawa Tozo (R)Photo provided by National Bunraku Theatre

Kanjincho (The Subscription List) Yoshida Tamasuke, Kiritake Kansuke, Yoshida Tamaka (from L to R)
Photo provided by National Bunraku Theatre

Morimura Kiritake Ningen (Human) Joruri Project Shin kyoeikitan (New Strange Tale of a Mirror Reflection) Morimura Yasumasa (R)and Kiritake Kanjuro (C) Photo provided by the Executive Committee of Morimura Kiritake Ningen Joruri Project ©Fukunaga Kazuo

Bunraku muso keishoden (Bunraku Dreams: A Tale of Succession) Ninin Sanbaso (Two Sanbasos) Yoshida Tamanobu,
Yoshida Minohisa, Yoshida Tamaka (behind the fan), Yoshida Tamayuki, Yoshida Tamao (from L to R) ©Katsura Hideya

Musicals

Hairspray Toho Co., Ltd. Photo provided by Toho Theatrical Division

The Boy and the Beast Shiki Theatre Company Photo: Abe Akihito

Guys and Dolls Toho Co., Ltd. Photo provided by Toho Theatrical Division

Musicals

Before the Flood It’s Follies Photo: Iwata Eri

Tokyo Love Story HoriPro Inc. Photo: Tanaka Aki

Contemporary Theatre

hana—1970, The Day Koza Burned HoriPro Inc. Photo: Miyagawa Maiko, provided by Horipro Stage

Waiting at Rycom Kanagawa Performing Arts Theatre (KAAT) Photo: Hikiji NobuhikoContemporary Theatre

Katabui, 1972 Theatre Office Natori and ACO Okinawa Photo: Sakauchi Futoshi

May 35th P-Company Photo provided by P-Company

Tales of Poverty Komatsuza Photo: Miyagawa Maiko

Leopoldstadt New National Theatre, Tokyo Photo: Miyagawa Maiko

Contemporary Theatre

The Ghost Is Here Parco Stage Photo: Miyagawa Maiko, provided by Parco Theater

The dodo falls Takumi Theater Company Photo: Okamoto Naobumi

Spirited Away Toho Co., Ltd.
Photo provided by Toho Theatrical Division

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child TBS and HoriPro Inc. Photo: Miyagawa Maiko, provided by TBS and HoriPro Inc.

Children’s and Youth Theatre

La feuille les feuilles La Strada Company, at Kitakata 21st Century Theatre 2022 Photo provided by La Strada Company

The Twin Stars: Chunse and Pose’s Big Adventure in the Sky (Futago no hoshi Chunse to Pouse no daiboken)
Studio Polano, at the 50th Summer Holiday Children’s and Youth Theatre Festival Photo: Studio Polano

Uncle and the Big Tree
Theatre Company Nanja Monja,
at the 2022 Great Exhibition of
Performing Arts with Children in Kofu
Photo provided by Theatre Company Nanja Monja

Rudolf the Black Cat Gekidan Tanpopo, at Kids Circuit in Saku 2022 Photo provided by Kids Circuit in Saku

Children’s and Youth Theatre

Eleven Hungry Cats La Clarté Puppet Troupe, at the 29th Children’s Theatre Festival in Kishiwada
Photo provided by La Clarté Puppet Troupe

Beauty and the Beast Theatrical Group EN Photo: Morita Kozo

Japanese Classical Dance

Shotaro no Kai
Aya no Tsuzumi (The Damask Drum)
Hanayagi Shotaro
Photo provided by Hanayagi Shotaro Buyo Kenkyu Jo

Onoe Kikunojo no Kai
Yamata no Orochi
Onoe Kikunojo
Photo: Kato TakashiJapanese Classical Dance

Maki no Kai Kurokami (Black Hair) Shida Maki Photo: Shingu Yumi, provided by Ryukyu Buyo Choyo School

81st Tamamikai, Gojo Tamami Recital Orphée (from L to R) Nakamura Kyozo (Perséphone),
Gojo Tamami (Orphée) and Fujikage Shizue (Eurydice) Photo: Video Photo Saito

BalletLes Misérables Tani Momoko Ballet Photo: Haneda Tetsuya

Fukagawa Hideo version of Don Quixote Theatre de Ballet Company Photo: Okamura Masao (Osaka Tes)

BalletASUKA Asami Maki Ballet Photo: Shikama Takashi

25th anniversary of New National Theatre Giselle (new version) National Ballet of Japan Photo: Shikama TakashiLa Bayadère Tokyo Ballet Photo: Yoshikawa Koujiro

Cinderella Jinushi Kaoru Ballet Company Photo: Obana Aoi (Office Obana)

Contemporary Dance and Butoh

Starting Over Condors Photo: HARU

What Cagliostro Dreamed in the Castel Sant’Angelo Kasai Akira / Tenshi-kan Photo: bozzo

End Dairakudakan Photo: Kawashima Hiroyuki

Opera Orpheus and Eurydice Teshigawara Saburo (production, choreography)© Hotta Rikimaru / New National Theatre, Tokyo

Contemporary Dance and Butoh

Oni Noism×Kodo Photo: Murai Isamu, provided by Niigata City Performing Arts Center Ryutopia

Opera Einstein on the Beach Hirahara Shintaro (direction, choreography) Photo: Kato Hajime세월 (Sewol) Kedagoro Photo: Kusamoto Toshie

Good Cow-ken Suichu-megane∞ Photo: Maezawa Hideto

Contemporary Dance and Butoh

I Can/Can’t See You From Here Now Kurata Midori (direction, composition),organized by Daimaruyu SDGs ACT5 Executive Committee, bench Co. Photo: Kato Hajime

Formula Moriyama Mirai×Nakano Nobuko×Ella Rothschild Photo: Hirabayashi Takeshi

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 2022

NOH and KYOGENNoh and Kyogen

The New Found in the Old
Oda Sachiko

The “New” Found in Fukkyoku Revival Pieces
Noh, as a classic drama, has always explored types of “newness” while emphasizing its traditions and their transmission. One of these is fukkyoku. Fukkyoku arerevivals of noh plays, some of which had been performed again in the Edo period
but whose performances had ceased and were removed from the repertory (alsoknown as haikyoku—pieces no longer performed, or bangai noh—pieces that are
not part of the repertory). In a narrow sense, such noh pieces that have been038

revived since the 1950s came to be called fukkyoku noh, and their number had
reached 85 by the end of 2005 (Nogaku Daijiten [Noh Encyclopedia], Chikuma
Shobo Publishing). The method for these revivals is usually based on the existence of an old script and references to old production information to which newcomposition (fushitsuke) and new choreography (katatsuke) are created. The
most important thing is that the work considered has historical significance andan attractive quality in the present and second is the introduction of new elements in the piece’s directing and acting. It can be said that the unique quality ofrevivals is the mixture of the old and the new, as well as the contradictory vectorsof the old and the new. In recent years, along with the increase in the number ofrevivals and the number of groups working on them, the methods for creatingsuch revivals have also diversified. In particular, the ko-enshutsu joen or “oldstyle performances” (the provisional name that refers to the re-staging of past
performing styles that have been discontinued and also includes current nohplays), which have become popular since around 1985, have an affinity for exploring the newness in oldness, which tends to be associated with revivals. Below, I
would like to take a look at the revivals of 2022 and give an overview of thecurrent state of fukkyoku (listed in order of title, date, location, organizer, andcomments).

Kamo Monogurui (The Madwoman of Kamo)(July 28 and 30, the National Noh Theatre, Monthly Theme: A Genealogy of Madness in
Noh Plays, Special Program of Noh Performance, Rediscover Noh)

Since its opening in 1983, the National Noh Theatre has produced new works,
revivals, and old-style performances, and this program is its biggest event of theyear. What is noteworthy isthe thorough outreach and publicity for the event . In
addition to a gorgeous leaflet and pre-performance commentary by Amano
Fumio, who supervised the project, the extensive pamphlet includes the script of
the performance with a modern Japanese translation, commentary and discussion, contributions by the shite (main actor) Kanze Kiyokazu and others, as wellas the Aoi Matsuri-zu Byobu (Aoi Festival Design Folding Screen) by Nishimura
Nantei. A special public lecture was also held on July 4 with demonstrations.
Information dissemination and pre-performance learning programs have039

become common for other revivals, which compensate for the fact that they are“premieres.” The performance was filled with the enthusiasm and passion of theshite, and new innovations were developed, especially in the dance. There may bepros and cons to the rather excessive costuming and acting, but it is certainly arevival and an example of free creation that is not bound by the strict principlesof traditional performance. In fact, Kamo Monogurui is not a haikyoku (a discontinued piece); it is a current piece in the Hosho, Kongo and Kita schools. This
performance by the Kanze school revived the nearly extinct first half, and theeclectic script relied on the utaibon (chant book) of the Komparu school lineage
while incorporating a chant that has been handed down in the Kanze school as
rangyoku (short solo sections from older bangai pieces that often have unusualchant characteristics). The manner in which the script was created and the newstaging of the piece gave it a quality quite unlike the conventional characteristics
of revival pieces.

Theatre in Japan

Theatre Yearbook 2023

NOH and KYOGEN

Hanaikusa (The Battle of Flowers)(October 5, Toyota City Noh Theater, Nohgaku Performers’ Association, Toyota City
Cultural Promotion Foundation)

This is part of the All-Japan Noh Caravan program developed by the Nohgaku
Performers’ Association. Based on the original work by Kanze Nagatoshi (1488?–
1541?), the last noh playwright of the Muromachi period, this furyu noh (a piecethat generally features spectacle or show-like characteristics), where the spirits ofdifferent flowers divide into two groups and compete for superiority, is similar inmanner to the battle stories of the Muromachi period civil war tales. Although it
is a small piece, it has historical significance and charm. It was also good to adopt
the ai-kyogen from what was apparently a later piece, Konomi-arasoi (The Battleof Fruits and Nuts). The script is a blending of the oldest book of play texts, Kanze
Motoyori-bon, and its revised version from the Edo period. The direction follows
the revised version. In this way, the recent trend is to not always use the originaltext as the first priority but instead search for ways to create the best performance040

with each revival and re-performance. In 2019, Kongo Hisanori revived the noh
Susuki (revised and re-performed at the National Noh Theatre on September 23),
which is another such ambitious revival.

Awade-no-mori (The Labyrinthine Forest)(November 12, Nagoya Noh Theater, Revival Noh Viewing Program, co-sponsored by
the Nagoya Noh Promotion Association)

Kanze school shite actors Kato Shingo, Hasegawa Haruhiko, and Komuro
Tomoya and Izumi kyogen school actor Okutsu Kentaro formed a group in 2021
and have performed the revival Wada-sakamori and other renditions of Soga
pieces. Awade-no-mori is an old work written before 1456. It is thought that it
may have been created by Komparu Zenchiku (1405–1470?). The story is about afather who can see his deceased daughter after burning special incense that issaid to bring back the spirits of the dead.
The piece is characterized by novel developments, such as when the father
and daughter stay in the same inn yet are unaware of each other, the daughter
dying on stage and her body being buried, and the daughter appearing in a cloud

of smoke. What is eye opening is that this type of noh has parallels to mugen(phantasm) noh. There are few documents from which to base the production, so
the direction and choreography is quite original, and the movement of the actors
probably needs further refinement. The text was created by noh researcher Ikai
Takamitsu and is based on the 1686 Sanbyaku-ban-bon text collection.

Kyogen Hakamasaki (A Hakama Pair Becomes Two)
(March 25 and 26, National Noh Theatre, Special Project Performance, Rediscover Noh
and Kyogen)This is a postponed performance that was originally scheduled for March 2020.
The new script by Nomura Matasaburo (script, direction, and shite) combines theplot described in the oldest kyogen book, Tensho Kyogen Bon, along with researchon Edo period paintings. While the popular play Futari-bakama depicts the slapstick comedy of two people sharing one hakama (trouser-skirt) by splitting it inhalf, Hakamasaki splits only one side of the hakama and unfolds it to make itlook like two connected hakama. Although described as a revival or reconstruc-041

tion, it has a strong creative side, yet it is meaningful relative to the current piece
Futari-bakama.
The above-mentioned revivals, which started with respecting the original
texts of the pieces, have created new direction and performances, thus moving
the vector toward that of creation. Old scripts are no longer necessarily the mostimportant aspect of a revival. Partial revisions have been seen for some time, butthere was also the completely new kyogen Hakamasaki. The 2021 performance of
Tsuna may be the first such example from noh (revised and re-performed thisyear on December 9). The program, titled Reconstructing Creative Noh, used a
new script created by researcher Nishino Haruo that was based on notes from thelate Muromachi period while consulting the later performances of nagauta andkabuki. Performances that make use of old records of noh and kyogen as starting
points for creations will likely continue to increase in the future. What is necessary is to clarify the purpose of the performance, leave a record of the history ofcreating the revival, and actively critique such works. The work of the dramaturg,
who oversees the whole, will also become increasingly important.
Theatre in Japan

Theatre Yearbook 2023

NOH and KYOGENThe Power of Otsuki Bunzo
One of the leaders in the noh world in recent years is Otsuki Bunzo (Kanze
school shite actor who was born in 1942), whose highly dignified and consistent
performances have led him to develop a wide range of activities at the Otsuki
Noh Theatre in Osaka, where he is based. Since the 1980s, he has been actively
working on revivals and performing old-style productions. This year he hadmany performances one after the other of such difficult pieces as Eguchi,
Motomezuka, and Teika. The ranbyoshi variant of the difficult Higaki (May 7)
made me realize the latent power Otsuki places on both tradition and innovation. The performance, from April to June at the Yokohama Noh Theater, wastitled Three Old Women and was one of the kikaku (designed) performances,where three master actors performed Obasute, Higaki and Sekidera Komachi,
which is considered the three most profound pieces of noh. Higaki is the story
about the ghost of an old woman from Higaki, who was once a shirabyoshi
dancer who took pride in her beauty, who continues to draw water with a hot
042

iron bucket. It is a difficult piece with many naraigoto (secret teachings). And an
old style performance is employed that incorporates a ranbyoshi variant (a special
shirabyoshi or stamping technique) within the jo-no-mai dance. Otsuki’s acting
is dispassionate without emphasizing an “old woman” character or a thematic“pain of hell” but instead entrusts the dramatic expression to the chorus (thechorus head is Umewaka Rosetsu). The scene that had a strong impact was in the
middle of the dance (the oroshi or slowdown in the second dan) in which thedancer leaned against the left pillar at the front of the reed hut to take a rest whilelooking upward diagonally for a long time. The angle of the mask looking up at
the sky and the appearance of standing with the body pressed firmly against thepillar was extremely unusual, but it conveyed realistically the loneliness of theshite thinking about her long life. It seems that Otsuki chose this passage as the
key point of Higaki and expressed it in a bold way that no one had ever previously
attempted. In general, this writer has previously had the impression that Otsuki’s
performances easily hide passionate emotions and strong dramatizations withmeticulous and stylish choices of masks and costumes and a delicacy of movements. But Higaki was a superb performance envisioned by Otsuki, where beauty

and dramatic quality both resonated clearly.

Noh Actors Who Carry the Future
The 44th Kanze Hisao Commemorative Hosei University Nohgaku Prize wasawarded to Mikata Shizuka (Kanze School shite actor who was born in 1966),
who has drawn the strong attention of audiences as one of the most energetic
actors in the noh world. He is based in Kyoto and is the organizer of the group
Theatrenoh. For the 44th Theatrenoh performance held in Tokyo (July 2,
National Noh Theatre), there was an excellent showing of the Dojoji variant
Hyoshi-nashi no kuzushi, which was postponed in 2020. Mikata’s performance
had clear character portrayal and expressive intention with little ambiguity. His
words and movement perfectly created the inner expression of the shite, making
it much like watching a modern dialogue play. He made full use of this characteristic in Dojoji, where the physical acting is constructed to create a thrillingplay. After the gripping ranbyoshi section, with its drawn-out, sporadic beats, theKyu-no-mai dance was attacked with an unmatched speed. It was followed in the043

second half by the Inori prayer dance featuring the shite wrapping his collapsedshoulders around the shite pillar, which seemed to express intense regret. Despite
very little shite chanting, Mitaka made full use of high and low pitches, strong
and soft chants, and timing spaced freely to express inner feelings. Even if you
are unfamiliar with noh, Mikata’s performance certainly generates excitement
and perhaps is even too stimulating . There is bound to be more that will unfold.
Uzawa Hikaru (Kanze School shite actor who was born in 1979), who
belongs to Tessenkai, gave a youthful and vibrant portrayal of the eternallyunsatisfied soul of the main character (September 2, Shibuya Noh second night)
in her first performance of Nonomiya. Uzawa’s distinct characteristic is her
careful crafting of each movement. Her use of the mask stands out, and her gazeat the brushwood fence and torii gate is heartfelt. Her individuality could be seenin the flow from the jo-no-mai to the ha-no-mai, which captured a frenzy ofsadness. The venue, the Shibuya Cerulean Tower Noh Theatre, has only about
200 seats, which helps convey the delicate expressions of the mask, along with thebreadth of the actors. Perhaps, noh was originally a type of theatre that fitted into
Theatre in Japan

Theatre Yearbook 2023

NOH and KYOGEN

such an intimate space. The coexistence of Mikata and Uzawa, who both carry
the future of noh, demonstrates the depth of expression in noh, with these contrasting pieces and styles of performance.
● Yorozukyogen sponsored Ancestor Festival: The 300th Anniversary of the Birthof Nomura Manzo I (October 16, National Noh Theatre) received the Grand Prize
for the 77th Agency for Cultural Affairs Art Festival. The performance, with acolorful diversity of guests and pieces, was characterized by various innovations
and new ideas. The kyogen furyu Chichi-no-jo furyu yorozu-no-shiki is a playful
new work with a new direction by Manzo IX, with the theme of the Manzo family’s saké. Meanwhile, Man (born in 1930), who performed the kyogen
Kenbutsu-zaemon, has a strong voice that, as in the past, takes my breath away.
Manzo, who has recovered from illness, launched the Manzo no Kai on his birthday, December 23, last year. The program’s freshness, which discards ambition, is
pleasing, and it demonstrates the quality of warmth. The program is scheduled to044

be held on the same day every year, and this year was its second iteration.
●The Nohgaku Times

The Nohgaku Times, a monthly newspaper about the world of nohgaku, will cease
publication after the February 2023 issue. Published by Nohgaku Shorin(founded by Maruoka Katsura in 1907), which publishes books related to noh,the Nohgaku Times, since its first publication in March 1952, has for over 70
years published noh and kyogen news, including information on performancesand stage reviews, from across all schools of noh. It has also been a first-classsource that traced the history of nohgaku after World War II. I am humbled by
the sense of mission of successive company owners who disregarded profitability
yet continued to publish. There is no end to the voices of lament for its suspension, which is said to be the result of poor sales of chant books and other factors
due to the pandemic.
●Describing the World of Noh during the Pandemic

The movement to record the ripples and effects of the pandemic has been

remarkable. Since March 2020, the Nohgaku Times has provided real-time information on cancellations, postponements of performances, the various responses
in the world of nohgaku, as well as online information. The Department ofIntangible Cultural Heritage of the Tokyo National Research Institute forCultural Properties launched a website titled New Coronavirus and Intangible
Cultural Heritage and made A Report and Discussion by Traditional Performing Arts
Performers and Related Parties in September 2020. It continues to conduct extensive

surveys and reports on all aspects of performing arts. In addition, symposiums
and reports using Zoom were held by the Musashino University Noh ResearchArchives, the Gakugeki Gakkai Society of Music and Drama, and the Nohgaku
Gakkai Society of Nohgaku and were published in the same year in each organization’s bulletin. This year for the 70th anniversary of The Nogami Memorial
Noh Theatre Research Institute of Hosei University, a special exhibition titledCrisis and Noh - How We Accepted and Overcame It was held by the HOSEI
Museum (September 2022–January 2023). While tracing the response of theworld of noh in the face of natural disasters and wars through exhibitions, sym-045

posiums, and booklets, the Institute took up the booklet Corona disaster andNoh. The booklet, to be published in September, outlines the trends before andafter the declaration of a state of emergency and specifically introduces the voices
of noh performers and their online activities. The above records convey the ingenuity, effort, solidarity and cooperation of noh performers who faced this crisis.
Through these activities, one feels the nurturing of new connections between
creators and recipients, such as online activities and crowdfunding.
●Various Awards

New member of the Japan Art Academy—Nomura Mansaku, Izumi School Kyogen actor
Holder of Important Intangible Cultural Property (being recognized as anindividual is equivalent to being a Living National Treasure)—Otsubo Kimio, Hosho School Noh actor
Person of Cultural Merit—Yamamoto Tojiro, Okura School Kyogen actor
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43rd Matsuo Entertainment Awards Grand Prize—Nomura Mansai, Izumi School Kyogen actor
Oda, Sachiko
She is a researcher of noh and kyogen and has a doctorate from the Graduate Departmentof Literature, Hosei University. Her main areas of research are noh, the performance historyof Kyogen and research into classical works. Oda’s activities combine research andperformance activities, including theatre criticism, lecturing, commentary, and dramaturgy
for revival noh and ancient performing practices.
(Translation: Richard Emmert)

046

KabukiThe Name-taking Ceremonies for
Ichikawa Danjuro and
the Achievements of the Next Generation
Yanai Kenji

The impact of the pandemic
From the beginning of 2022, the implementation of measures to control the
spread of COVID-19 saw multiple reports of infections and close contacts at different theatres, leading to frequent performance suspensions and changes tocasts and productions. During the August run of performances at the Kabuki-za,
for example, the infection of several performers led to major and widely reported

047

cast changes to Tokaido dochu hizakurige Yajikita returns (Yajirobe and Kitahachion the Tokaido Highway Returns) and a new play, Shinsengumi (The New Brigade),based on the historical manga by legendary artist Tezuka Osamu. For theremainder of the year, the pandemic seemed to take one step backward for every
step forward, but national restrictions gradually began to be eased, and in
August, the Kabuki-za was able to return to virtually a full house. Since the
Kabukiza Theatre Special Program on October 31, even the distinctive kakegoe
calls from the back of the house were permitted to make a limited return.

Ichikawa Danjuro ⅩⅢ’s name-taking ceremony
Performances to mark Ichikawa Ebizo’s succession to the most important namein Edo kabuki, Ichikawa Danjuro XIII Hakuen, finally began at the Kabuki-za in
November and December. Originally, they had been scheduled to take place from
May to June 2020 but were postponed due to the outbreak of the pandemic.
Danjuro put in confident, graceful performances as Benkei in Kanjincho (The
Subscription List) and Sukeroku in Sukeroku yukari no edozakura (Sukeroku:
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Flower of Edo) in November. In December, he tackled Sukeroku once again, thistime along with the Oshimodoshi (demon-queller, a traditional Ichikawa speciality) role in Kyoganoko musume Dojoji (The Maiden at Dojoji Temple). Audiences
had the increasingly rare opportunity to watch him performing with actors fromhis own generation, with Matsumoto Koshiro as Togashi and Ichikawa Ennosuke
as Yoshitsune in Kanjincho and Onoe Kikunosuke as Agemaki and Onoe
Shoroku as Ikyu in November’s Sukeroku. These performances did an excellent
job of highlighting the talents of the next generation.
Danjuro’s nine-year-old son, Ichikawa Shinnosuke VIII, appeared in Uiro uri(The Medicine Peddler) in November, as well as making his first (and the youngest ever) attempt at the role of Kumedera Danjo in Kenuki (The Tweezers) in
December. Appearing alongside him, to the great delight of audiences, was his
sister Ichikawa Botan.

Mature performances by veterans048

It was also a great year for audiences to savour anew the brilliant skills of the veterans of the kabuki stage.
Onoe Kikugoro’s performances as Raiko in Tsuchigumo (The Earth Spider)at the Kabuki-za in May and as Yoshitsune in act four of Yoshitsune senbon
zakura (Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees) at the National Theatre in
October were both remarkable, fully satisfying examples of the richness of
Kikugoro’s art. He also brought splendour and dignity to his appearances in theleading male roles of Inuyama Dosetsu in Nanso satomi hakkenden (The Saga ofEight Dogs) at the National Theatre in January, and Kudo Suketsune in Uiro uri at
the Kabuki-za in November.
Kataoka Nizaemon announced that he would be performing for the final
time the role of Tomomori in the Shipping Office and Daimotsu Bay scenes of
Yoshitsune senbon zakura at the Kabuki-za in February. Tomomori has long been
one of Nizaemon’s signature roles, one where he successfully fused the stylizationof the puppet theatre with a tangible sense of reality. His portrayal of Kouchiyama
in Kumo ni magou Ueno no hatsuhana (The First Flowers of Ueno) at the
Kabuki-za in March was unfortunately interrupted by illness, but he brought a

clean lucidity of form and impressive power to the role. His Yuranosuke in act
seven of Kanadehon chushingura (The Treasury of Loyal Retainers) at the sametheatre in September was also distinctive.
Bando Tamasaburo played one of his signature roles at the Kabuki-za inJune, the geisha Osono in Furu amerika ni sode wa nurasaji (The Rains ofAmerica Will Never Dampen My Sleeves). The combination of Tamasaburo’s
beauty, his exquisite delivery of the wordy dialogue, and guest appearances bymany actors from Gekidan Shinpa (a troupe that specializes in early 1900s stage
melodramas) made this a great success. In December he appeared as Agemaki in
Sukeroku at the Kabuki-za. He looked as gracefully gorgeous and his dialogue
was as accomplished as ever, but it was his portrayal of Agemaki’s warm affection
for Sukeroku’s mother, Manko, that brought an additional dimension of emotional colour to his wonderful performance.
Nakamura Jakuemon demonstrated to the fullest his abilities, heady withbrilliance and eroticism, in the roles of Shizuka Gozen in Yoshitsune senbon
zakura in January, Princess Yuki in Kinkakuji (The Golden Pavilion) in May, and049

Okaru in act seven of Kanadehon Chushingura in September (all at the
Kabuki-za). He is steadily gaining ground in these types of lead onnagata roles.
Nakamura Baigyoku’s nomination as a Living National Treasure was confirmed, while Matsumoto Hakuo was awarded the Order of Culture. The chanter
Takemoto Aoidayu was awarded the Japan Art Academy Prize, making him thefirst Kabuki-za chanter to have been granted this honour.

The work of the next generation
The generation of actors born in the 1970s has begun to pick up more leadingroles, giving audiences a sense of this being a real moment of transition forkabuki.
The deep sense of emotional expressiveness and fullness that Ichikawa
Ennosuke invested in his portrayals of Tadanobu in Yoshitsune senbon zakura in
January and of Yoshitsune in Kanjincho in November, both at the Kabuki-za,
was impressive. He also brought his talents to bear in the shortened versions ofseveral plays that were created for the three shows per day format at theTheatre in Japan

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Kabuki-za, performing in Shin sangokushi Kan’u hen (The New Records of Three
Kingdoms: The Volume about Guan Yu) in March, Tennichibo Ooka seidan (The
Case of Tennichibo from The Judgments of Ooka) in April, and Toryu Oguri
Hangan (The Modern Story of Oguri Hangan) in July.
This year Onoe Kikunosuke provided a strong testament to his energy andcommitment, performing in both the classics and new works. He demonstrated
impressively solid technique in major roles from the puppet theatre repertoire,including his role of Moritsuna in Moritsuna jinya (Moritsuna’s Battlecamp) in
March at the National Theatre, and the three roles he played in Yoshitsune senbon
zakura at the same theatre in October (his performance in these roles was cancelled at the start of the pandemic two year ago) He also showed off his accession
to roles that his family have long excelled in, including Inaba Kozo in Nezumi
kozo Jirokichi (The Story of the Thief Nezumi Kozo Jirokichi, Kabuki-za, February), the spider spirit in Tsuchigumo (Kabuki-za, May), and Sogoro in Sakanaya
Sogoro (Sogoro the Fishmonger, Hakata-za, June). In July at the Kabuki-za, he050

performed in a revised version of Kaze no tani Nausicaä (Nausicaä of the Valleyof the Wind), a new play first staged in 2019. September at the Kabuki-za saw the
first memorial performance for Nakamura Kichiemon II, who passed away lastyear. The performances featured a well-received performance by Kikunosuke in
Fujito, a play authored by Kichiemon under the name Matsu Kanshi. Kichiemon
was also, of course, Kikunosuke’s father-in-law.
Onoe Shoroku’s acting is coming along in leaps and bounds, and this year he
was awarded the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s New Faces Prize. He portrayed a handful of larger-than-life roles this year,
including Matsunaga Daizen in Kinkakuji in May, Matsuomaru in Kurumabiki(Pulling the Carriage Apart) in June, Matsuomaru in Terakoya (The Village
School) in September, all at the Kabuki-za. In October, he also produced andacted in Arakawa Judayu, a dramatization of one of the popular koshaku (oraltales) linked to Kanadehon chushingura. This production was awarded the Otani
Takejiro Award for the unusual skill with which it adapted an oral narrative tothe stage.
Matsumoto Koshiro put in an ingenious performance as Sakichi in Arakawa

no Sakichi (Sakichi of Arakawa) at the Kabuki-za in April. In August he attracted
favourable notices as Aoki Sadajiro in the very infrequently performed Ansei
kibun Tsukuda no yoarashi (Strange News in the Ansei Era: Night Storm at
Tsukuda). His exchanges with Nakamura Kankuro as Kamiya Genzo succeededin producing a very real sense of tension.
Nakamura Kankuro provided an excellent and invigorating performanceas Lord Okura in Ichijo Okura monogatari (The Tale of Ichijo Okura) at the
Kabuki-za in January. His Tennichibo in February at Theatre Cocoon was a masterpiece that perfectly captured the character’s naivety and fearlessness. Kankuro
also mounted performances by the Heisei Nakamura-za theatre in the groundsof Sensoji temple in Asakusa in October and November to mark the 180th anniversary of the founding of the theatre district of Saruwakamachi.
Nakamura Baishi put in some graceful performances, including his Kagaribi
in Moritsuna jinya in March, and his Princess Sarashina in Momijigari (Maple
Viewing) in July, both at the National Theatre. Equally striking was the rare senseof antiquity and generosity that he brought to the role of Taira no Koremori in051

the Sushi shop scene from Yoshitsune senbon zakura at the National Theatrein October.
Onoe Ukon and Bando Minosuke brought a youthful freshness to theirportrayals of Benten Kozo and Nango Rikimaru in Benten musume meo no
shiranami (The Five Thieves) at the Kabuki-za in May. They are definitely two
young actors to keep an eye on. Minosuke also put in a strong showing as
Umeomaru in Kurumabiki at the Kabuki-za in June. In the same play, Nakamura
Kazutaro’s Kamigata-style (the Kyoto and Osaka area) Sakuramaru left anequally strong impression. In June at the Kabuki-za, Ichikawa Somegoro’s portrayal of the lead role of Tokugawa Nobuyasu (the son of the shogun Tokugawa
Ieyasu) in Nobuyasu attracted much attention. While it only enjoyed a briefrun, Natsu matsuri Naniwa kagami (The Summer Festival in Osaka) at the
Shochiku-za in Osaka in September with Kataoka Ainosuke was well performed
and overflowed with Kamigata atmosphere.
As the pandemic receded and audience confidence returned, many actors
resumed mounting independent performances. Enthusiastic shows were put on
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by Nakamura Tsurumatsu (June), Nakamura Kyozo and Nakamura Icho (alsoJune), Nakamura Takanosuke (July), Nakamura Baigyoku and his students(August), Onoe Ukon (August), and Kamimura Kichiya and his students (September). At the National Theatre in May, the venerable Zenshinza troupe staged
Kakitsubata iro mo edozome – Oroku to Gantetsu (Oroku and Gantetsu: Even the
Irises are Dyed Edo Purple) as a memorial for the 33rd anniversary of the death oftheir founder, Kawarazaki Kunitaro V (1909-1990). It was the first performanceof the play for 41 years.

The end of the road for Engekikai; rebuilding the National Theatre
The monthly kabuki magazine Engekikai ceased publication with its April issue,
published on March 3. The reasons given were its aging readership, the shift ofthe publishing industry towards digital, and lack of new readers.
Rebuilding plans for the National Theatre in Tokyo’s Hanzomon were published, and a series of farewell performances began in September. The theatre will052

close in late October 2023, with all three of its theatres earmarked for demolition.
Construction of a new theatre building that will include a hotel and restaurants
will then begin, with the theatres scheduled to reopen in autumn 2029. In themeantime, performances will continue at other venues around Tokyo, possibly
including the New National Theatre and the National Noh Theatre.

Obituaries
Bando Takesaburo V passed away on June 17. An onnagata actor, he brought arich flavour of Kamigata to his performances of middle-aged characters like Oen
in Fuingiri (The Courier for Hell), or older women such as Oko in Hikimado (ADiary of Two Butterflies in the Pleasure Quarters). He also occasionally performed
male roles, lending them a distinctive depth. Takesaburo played an importantrole in the revival of Kamigata kabuki, both through the revivals of older plays in
his independent Bando Takesaburo no Kai productions and as a teacher at the
Shochiku Kamigata Kabuki Academy.
On June 23 we also lost Sawamura Tanosuke VI. Tanosuke brought a dignified art to his portrayals of female characters including Koman in Sanemorimonogatari (The Tale of Sanemori) and Sakae Gozen in Meiboku Sendai hagi (The
Precious Incense and Autumn Flowers of Sendai). The scope of his art was broad,and he excelled in both sewamono (contemporary life plays) wife roles like
Ohama in Sakanaya Sogoro and old woman roles including Nagisa in Kokusenya
Gassen (The Battles of Coxinga). He was also valued for his skill in performing
Edo wagoto roles, including the clerk Chushichi in Kamiyui Shinza (Shinza The
Barber) and Soga no Juro in Ya no ne (Sharpening the Arrow). For many years hetrained upcoming actors at the National Theatre’s Kabuki Actor Training Programme and was recognized for his efforts by being named a Living National
Treasure in 2002. Tanosuke was also known as a fan of sumo wrestling, serving
as a member of the Yokozuna Deliberation Committee, the lay body that recommends wrestlers to sumo’s highest rank.
On January 19, Kineya Jogu, the nagauta shamisen player and leader of the
Kikugoro Troupe’s musical ensemble, passed away.
053

Yanai, Kenji
Following a period at the National Theatre, he currently teaches at Meiji University. He
holds a doctorate in literature and specializes in the history of Japanese performing arts
with a focus on kabuki. His books include Meiji kiwamono kabuki: Sora tobu godaime
Kikugoro (Sensational Meiji-period Kabuki: Kikugoro V Flying Through the Air, Hakusuisha
Publishing), Chabudaigaeshi no kabuki nyumon (An Introduction to Kabuki Shocking Enoughto Overturn the Dinner Table, Shinchosha Publishing). He regularly reviews kabuki for The
Tokyo Shimbun newspaper.
(Translation: Alan Cummings)

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Bunraku

The Birth of Three New Stars /Young Performers’ Heroic Efforts
Kameoka Noriko

The year 2022 was the third successive year that the theatre world was forced todeal with the COVID-19 pandemic. The seats available for sale at each performance have returned to their pre-pandemic levels, but audiences have yet tocome back to the theatres. Theatre audiences are traditionally older, and as had
been feared, it will take some time to break the habits of the past few years andtempt these customers back to the theatres. Of course, it is not only bunraku that054

has been affected. From noh to kabuki, the entire traditional theatre world continues to suffer from the effects of the pandemic. Theatre workers become
infected or are identified as close contacts, leading to frequent cancellations of
performances and cast changes. It has proved extremely difficult to eradicate
infection in the theatre environment entirely. While different policies have beentrialled, including requiring cast members to vacate the theatre as soon as theirperformance is over, transmission can still occur during rehearsals and performances. COVID-19 has still not run its course.
In the middle of this ongoing crisis, however, there was a glimmer of good
news. From the April performances at the National Bunraku Theatre in Osaka,three chanters were newly elevated to the rank of kiriba gatari – those chanterswith sufficient talent to take on a play’s key climactic act. The chanters in question were Toyotake Rodayu, Takemoto Shikorodayu, and Takemoto Chitosedayu.
They were also the first new chanters to be accorded this honour in thirteen years
since Living National Treasure Toyotake Sakitayu.
To mark the occasion, Rodayu performed the Gappo’s House scene from
Sesshu Gappo ga Tsuji (The Tale of Tamate Gozen) with Takezawa Seisuke onshamisen. Shikorodayu, meanwhile, was accompanied by Takezawa Sosuke, onlead shamisen, as he chanted Shizuka Gozen in the Journey with a Drum scenefrom Yoshitsune senbon zakura (Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees).
Chitosedayu was accompanied by Toyozawa Tomisuke in his performance of the
Hyuga Island scene from Musume Kagekiyo Yashima nikki (The Blind Kagekiyo
in Exile). The performance provided an ideal showcase for the differing characters of each chanter’s art: Rodayu’s passion and pure soulfulness, Shikorodayu’s
stirring brilliance, and Chitosedayu intimate approach to the fate of a proud, isolated warrior. Shikorodayu’s scene was sung by five chanters (kakeai), so it wasn’t
a true kiriba gatari performance. However, in the special summer vacation performance in Osaka, he got the chance to shine alone in Kamiya Jihei’s Home
scene from Shinju ten no Amijima (The Love Suicides at Amijima). To the accompaniment of Sosuke’s shamisen, Shikorodayu’s chanting brought a profounddepth to this contemporary life play. At the same show, Rodayu and Seisuke performed an energetic, impressive Shido Temple scene from Hana no Ueno homare
no ishibumi (The Self-Sacrifice of Otsuji).

055

The August 20 Bunraku sujoruri no kai puppet-less performance at the
National Bunraku Theatre featured the three new stars competing against eachother in dramatic scenes from jidaimono history plays. Chitosedayu withTomisuke on shamisen tackled the rarely performed Sakai Village scene from
Gotaiheiki shiraishi banashi (The Vendetta by Two Sisters), while Rodayu andSeisuke performed the Sodehagi saimon scene from Oshu Adachigahara (TheRebellion of the Abe Clan), and Shikorodayu with Tsuruzawa Tozo tackled theKurosuke’s House scene from Genpei nunobiki no taki (The Nunobiki Waterfall).
The three stars performed together again in another puppet-less performance at
the National Theatre in Tokyo in October. The scenes were different, but audiences got to experience the grit and determination of these chanters who willlead bunraku in the years to come.
Unfortunately, chanter and Living National Treasure Toyotake Sakitayu
struggled with his health this year and was unable to perform for several months.
Fans were worried when he missed both the latter half of the April (April 18
onwards) programme in Osaka and the whole May programme in Tokyo,
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performances that were supposed to celebrate his being named a Person ofCultural Merit last autumn. However, fears were allayed somewhat when
Sakitayu made a strong return at the summer vacation performance in Osaka.
He performed the Yamatoya scene from Shinju ten no Amijima, and his rich,exquisite chanting was quite the thing to behold. His presence can really make all
the difference to the impact of a performance. At the moment his chanting istruly exquisite, bringing together the highest levels of technique and dignity withan unerring sense of theatre. So it was worrying that he was again absent during
the November shows, but we hope that he will make a return to the stage sometime in 2023.
In Sakitayu’s absence, it was his pupil Takemoto Oritayu who stepped into
the breach, standing in for his teacher’s scenes and demonstrating his own skill.
He added those scenes to the ones that had originally been allocated to him, so it
must have been exhausting but we can hope that it can also fuel his growth as aperformer. The best example of what he was able to accomplish was his Benkei in056

Kanjincho (The Subscription List) in the November programme in Osaka. To behonest, I always feel that the bunraku Kanjincho plays somewhat flat in comparison to the drama that kabuki’s human actors can invoke in the same play. To
make things even more challenging, this bunraku version was being performedat the same time as a kabuki version was being staged at the Kabuki-za in Tokyo,
starring Ichikawa Ebizo in the Benkei role as part of the name-taking ceremonies
for his succession to Ichikawa Danjuro XIII Hakuen. Two versions of Kanjincho
in the same month signalled a true competition between bunraku and kabuki.
The bunraku version normally uses the title Narihibiku Ataka no shinseki (TheNew Barrier Gate at Ataka), but for this performance it was titled Kanjincho,
hinting at the dimension of competition from the bunraku side.
However, this version of Kanjincho was a real triumph. The cast included
some of the spirited young mainstays of the theatre, with Oritayu as Benkei,
Toyotake Yasutayu as Togashi, and Takemoto Kosumidayu as Yoshitsune. On thepuppets, Benkei was manipulated by Yoshida Tamasuke, Togashi by Yoshida
Tamashi, and Yoshitsune by Kiritake Montomi. Normally, it is only the chief
puppeteer who shows his face, but for this performance the puppeteers who

controlled Benkei’s left arm and feet also went unmasked and provided a deeplycommitted performance. The chanters, musicians, and puppeteers all put theirheart and soul into it, creating a performance that blazed with a new heat andlight. Especially notable was Oritayu, who in addition to this play stood in for histeacher Sakitayu in the comical Wakigahama hobiki scene from Ichinotani futaba
gunki (Chronicles of the Battle of Ichinotani). Yasutayu dug his teeth into the linesthat Oritayu threw at him, and listening to his chanting was like watching sparks
fly. Tamasuke was making his first attempt at Benkei, a role that he had long
dreamed of. The force that he brought to the role was frightening, truly inhabiting Benkei’s desperate extremity of loyalty. The theatre also acted decisively in
reducing the price of the most expensive seats for the Kanjincho section of the
programme to 2500 yen halfway through the run. Those seats are normally soldat 5500 yen, so it was an excellent bargain for customers new to bunraku or those
returning to the theatre. Osaka audiences have always been primarily drawn by
word of mouth, with numbers increasing towards the end of the run, and thiswas definitely the case with Kanjincho. Everyone can admire the art of veteran057

performers, but spirited performances like this by younger stars will draw in newaudiences.
Many other performances linger in the memory. In November’s Shinju
yoigoshin (Love Suicides on the Eve of the Koshin Festival), Chitosedayu andTomisuke performed the Ueda Village scene and Toyotake Rosetayu andTsuruzawa Seiji the Greengrocer scene. It was a high-quality performance, withthe chanters creating a nuanced portrayal of the characters’ wavering emotions,while puppeteers Yoshida Tamao as Hanbei and Kiritake Kanjuro as Ochiyo
created a pair of beautiful lovers.
The quality of Tamao’s work over the past few years has been eye opening.
He manipulated Matsuomaru in the Village School scene from Sugawara denju
tenarai kagami (Sugawara and the Secrets of Calligraphy) at the New Year’s performances, and Shunkan in Heike nyogo no shima (The Priest in Exile) in February,
and both were performances of grace and scale that succeeded magnificently inpresenting the characters’ inner pain and loneliness. Amongst the other puppeteers, Yoshida Kazuo’s performances of Tamate Gozen in Sesshu Gappo ga Tsuji
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in February in Tokyo, and Osan in Shinju ten no Amijima breathed life into roles
that his master, the late Yoshida Bunjaku, had excelled in. Kiritake Kanjuro’s
Oharu in Shinjuten no Amijima and his Sodehagi in Oshu Adachigahara in the
September show in Tokyo demonstrated outstanding talent in their presentationof the characters’ inner lives.
Kanjuro is well known for the breadth of his talents and has long designed
the illustrations used on the stamps available at bunraku performances. This year
he both wrote and directed a new play for the summer vacation programmecalled Suzu no ne (The Tinkle of a Bell). It was a charming, simple story about akappa water sprite and a fox that delighted children who were seeing bunraku forthe first time.
There were a string of independent shows put on by the younger performers
in spite of the dangers created by the pandemic. In particular, I’d like to draw
attention to the performances put on by the chanters, which were less about theirown artistic growth and more about shrinking the distance with the audience to058

let them experience the full power of live gidayubushi chanting. I didn’t manage
to make it to all of these shows, but the list included Toyotake Yoshihodayu andTsuruzawa Enjiro performing the Amagasaki scene from Ehon taikoki (A PictureBook of the Taiko Hideyoshi, Minorikai, April 29 at Sennichitei, Osaka, and May
4 at the Nago no kai in Tokyo); Toyotake Yasutayu and Tsuruzawa Seiko performing the Kurosuke’s House scene from Genpei nunobiki no taki (July 3 at Art
Hall Timbre in Nara); and Kosumidayu and Seiko performing the Skylight scenefrom Futatsu chocho kuruwa nikki (Diary of Two Butterflies in the Pleasure
Quarters, October 21, small hall at the National Bunraku Theatre). This final performance was part of a double bill with the rakugo comedian Shofukutei
Shikaku. These were all strong attempts at plays that these young chanters only
get to perform at these kinds of events.
We must not forget the second annual Bunraku muso keishoden (Bunraku
Dreams: A Tale of Succession) event, which was organized by mid-rank performers and held on August 6 at the National Bunraku Theatre. It began last year at
puppeteer Yoshida Tamasho’s instigation and involved something that could
never happen at a regular performance: master puppeteers and their young

students, all of whom had around ten years of training under their belts, performing equal roles. The first event in 2021 attracted a lot of attention and was ahuge success. Building on their experiences the previous year, in 2022 theyounger performers again pooled their talents to create the programmes andthink up the returns for the crowdfunding campaign for the show. This year saw
the students playing the lead puppeteer roles (i.e. the head and right arm), while
their teachers and senior students took on the left arm and feet respectively. Thiswas something you would never see at a regular performance and it attracted
large crowds.
There was another really fascinating performance in February at the
Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka. It was a collaboration between the contemporary artist Morimura Yasumasa and the puppeteer Kanjuro under the title
Ningen joruri (Human Joruri). During the performance, Morimura became apuppet and was manipulated by Kanjuro. Morimura is best known for his
self-portraits where he dresses up as historical figures or subjects of famous
paintings by artists, such as Van Gogh, and this time he became a bunraku

059

puppet. For the performance, a new play called Shin kyoeikitan (New Strange Taleof a Mirror Reflection) was written. It is about a master dollmaker called Kyojuro
and a kyo ningyo doll that he creates by reflecting the body of a beautiful woman
in a mirror. Morimura played the kyo ningyo reflected in the mirror, and after the
performance he declared that he didn’t understand the need for any dividing line
between contemporary art and classical performance. The performance itself
opened new expressive possibilities for bunraku.
The year 2022 marked the 150th anniversary of the naming of the Bunraku-za
troupe. Performances at the National Bunraku Theatre and the National Theatrein Tokyo from April onwards all carried a special commemorative text. The
name the company now uses was originally the name of a playhouse in Osaka,
which was taken in turn from Uemura Bunrakuken I, an entrepreneur who ran apuppet theatre troupe. On March 1, the performers attended a memorial service
at Enjo-in Temple in Osaka’s Tennoji district which houses Bunrakuken’s grave.
As well as praying for the success of the upcoming performances, Shikorodayu
and Tsuruzawa Enza performed a puppet-less version of a section of theTheatre in Japan

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Retirement Cottage of the Old Bamboo Cutter scene from the revival of
Yamato-uta taketori monogatari (A Japanese Poem of the Tale of the Bamboo
Cutter), a play originally written by Bunrakuo.
Finally, it was announced that the National Theatre in Tokyo, bunraku’s
home away from home, will close at the end of next October for reconstruction.
A brand new theatre on the site is due to open in 2029. Bunraku has begun aseries of performances to bid farewell to Japan’s first national theatre. During thesix years before the new National Theatre opens, the plan is to stage bunraku performances at various theatres around the capital.
Kameoka, Noriko

060

Special reporter and editor of the cultural section of the Osaka head office of the Sankei
Shimbun newspaper, responsible for coverage of Japanese traditional performing arts.
Joined the newspaper in 1990. In addition to theatre reviews and interviews, she also writes
the ongoing columns Riken no ken (Seeing Yourself from the Outside). Has published several
books, including Bunraku zanmai (Devoted to Bunraku) and Yume: Heisei no Tojuro Tanjo(Dream: The Birth of a Heisei Tojuro), and the jointly authored Umewaka Rokuro ke no shigei (TheConsummate Art of the Umewaka Rokuro Family).
(Translation: Alan Cummings )MusicalsFighting Against the Pandemic
Hagio Hitomi

In 2022, the confusion of the COVID-19 pandemic had already entered the thirdyear. Nevertheless, the number of performances in the musical world increased
as though the pent-up energy and gloomy mood was released all at once. Still,there were a number of cases in which the performances had to be cancelled orsuspended due to the pandemic. On the other hand, several original musicals
were produced one after another and they proved the underlying strength of theJapanese musical world.

International Companies Were Back Again andSome Large-Scale Musicals Were Cancelled061

During 2022, the musical world was brave to take risks and worked toward presenting shows while cautiously checking on the situation. International companies visiting Japan were the productions that were the most severely impacted by
the pandemic. However, they got going, starting with Singin’ in the Rain that
toured to Japan in February. It was a UK production and when you saw the scene
in which the lead Adam Cooper was singing and dancing in the pouring rain, it
felt as if a ray of hope was shining through the clouds. The production was full of
the spirit not only to revive performances in Japan but also to protect theatre
culture by getting through the pandemic.
American companies such as RENT and A Chorus Line as well as Chicago,
Broadway Christmas Wonderland among others that were also from the US
toured to Japan in 2022. Although the number of visiting companies had
decreased compared to the peak period, they were coming back step by stepand it was one of the signs that the musical world was trying to overcome theglobal pandemic.
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Large-scale Japanese musical productions opened one after another as well.
Miss Saigon and Elisabeth were revived at the Imperial Theatre after they were
inevitably cancelled in 2020. Both musicals are very popular and the tickets werereferred to as “Platinum Tickets” as they were very difficult to get hold of.
However, in both productions, much to the dismay of the ticket holders, the performances frequently had to be cancelled when the cast got infected with coronavirus or when they were bound by quarantine rules.
It is true that the actors playing the main characters are a big draw for
popular musicals. In the future, however, the productions should be steered in a
direction that makes it possible to continue performances infallibly through aclearly defined system that makes more use of understudies (covering a certainrole) and swings (covering several roles). Some people go to a musical because
they want to see a box-office star but there are also many people who want toexperience the work itself. Especially when it comes to musicals that tour toseveral cities around Japan, there must be many local audiences who are excited062

to see the show for the first time. There are, however, an increasing number of
productions that are now covered by understudies and/or swings due to the prolonged pandemic.
The performances of many productions were cancelled a number of times
due to the pandemic and it was most disappointing to the fans and the companyof Man of La Mancha starring Matsumoto Hakuo that it played only seventimes. Hakuo has been playing the title role since 1969 when his stage namewas Ichikawa Somegoro. The production was known Hakuo’s “final appearance” in Man of La Mancha and it was originally planned to play for about amonth. Thank goodness the producers made an exceptional decision to revive it
in 2023 as there were so many people who were heartbroken because theymissed the show.

The Premiere of High-Profile Musicals and Resuming Postponed
Productions
Hairspray and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat were two epic
musicals that premiered in Japan after two years. Although international

companies of both musicals had toured Japan in the past, it was the first timethey were presented with Japanese casts.
The revival of Hairspray was a delightful surprise because the starring
actress, Watanabe Naomi, now lives outside Japan and she returned to be in
the show. She was just right for the heroine and it was difficult to imagine
anyone else playing the role. The characters in the musical overcome and rise
above all sorts of discrimination based on reasons such as gender, race andphysical appearance, and it was striking that the Afro-American characters
were played without putting on dark makeup. The decision on the makeup was
made due to a request from the Broadway producers. How to express different
races with a Japanese cast is probably going to be one of the next challenges forJapanese musicals.
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is one of Andrew Lloyd
Webber’s earlier works and Yabu Kota, who belongs to the talent agency Johnny& Associates, starred in the production. The musical opened at last two years
after the originally-planned date. But, surprisingly, there was only a small audi-

063

ence. It was probably because there was a higher ratio of audience members thatare Johnny’s fans who are younger than the regular musical fans, and the situation during the pandemic must have made it difficult for them to “go on an expedition” to see Johnny’s idols perform.
Japan premieres of foreign musicals were also produced consistently
although smaller in number than they used to be. The Off-Broadway musical The
View Upstairs depicting gender discrimination was interesting as it fits with thetimes. Be More Chill was the Japanese-cast version of the musical that was premiered on Broadway in 2019. It is a drama about high schoolers who are copingwith life’s problems and it seems that the worldwide hit of the musical numbers
helped spur the Japan premiere.
I did not expect that Flower Drum Song and Bye Bye Birdie would be premiered in Japan. (Flower Drum Song was presented by the Takarazuka Revue
Company at Bow Hall in 1992 and is therefore not strictly the Japan premiere.)
Both musicals premiered on Broadway over fifty years ago and in Japan they
were produced by small-and-medium size or emerging production companies
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instead of major or long-established ones. The emerging production companies are the ones that are likely to discover and present more buried musicals
in the future.
Incidentally, there was an interesting phenomenon of two productions of
The Fantasticks “competing” with one another. The latest version is called The
Fantasticks−Boy Meets Boy, which was rewritten by Tom Jones who wrote theoriginal libretto and lyrics, and right after it was presented by a small production
company, Toho Co., Ltd., presented The Fantasticks for the first time in fifty-fiveyears. One was a gender-free version and the other was the original version. Bothproductions were impressive and the strong appeal of the musical got through.
The most fruitful musical produced in 2022 was probably Guys and Dolls. It
is a popular musical that premiered on Broadway in 1950 and has been revived inJapan several times by Takarazuka Revue Company and Toho Co., Ltd. since its
Japan premiere by Takarazuka in 1984. This time, the version produced by Toho
was updated by Michael Arden, who is currently the hottest director on Broad064

way. The scenic designer Dane Laffrey made full use of the stage mechanisms of
the Imperial Theatre and designed an effective set that helped to create a funfilled production.
A certain number of Korean musicals are presented in Japan every year
nowadays although they are small in number. Ludwig: Beethoven The Piano was
the most memorable production among the Korean musicals that were premiered
in Japan this year. It was a pity, however, that the libretto was not well written
although the music was enticing as is often the case with Korean musicals.

A Wide Variety of Original Musicals Produced One After Another
One of the features of the Japanese musical world in 2022 was, in short, thedrastic increase of original musicals. For many years, the Japanese musical world
has aspired to and called for the need of original musicals. The Japanese havebeen cultivating their capacity for creativity and while the number of original
musicals increased, the pandemic brought about pseudo isolation from othercountries and spurred the increase of original works.
Shiki Theatre Company premiered the long-awaited The Boy and the Beast(Bakemono no ko), which was due to run for about a year. Based on a popularanimated film directed by Hosoda Mamoru, Takahashi Chikae wrote the playscript, Fuki Harumi wrote and adapted the music and it was directed by Aoki
Go. Toby Olié, who had also worked on Shiki’s A Robot in the Garden, designed
and directed the puppets. It is easy to imagine how hard it must have been towork with international staff during the pandemic but the production overcame
those difficulties and opened a new chapter for the theatre company.
Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) was indeed a very appealing stage production. It is a musical adaptation of the popular novel by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
It was originally made into a musical by Ongakuza Musical company in 1993 andhas been revived several times. This time it was produced by Toho Co., Ltd. Doi
Yuko, who played the prince when it was premiered in 1993, played the same partagain in the Toho version and it was amazing to see her timeless performance.
Currently, over half of the musicals that are presented in Japan are original
musicals including existing works like Le Petit Prince. They might not havereached the level of translated foreign musicals in terms of the size of audience065

and performances. However, if you count Takarazuka Revue Company’s works,
which are mostly original musicals, the original Japanese musicals probably
exceed foreign musicals both in the size of audience and performances.
Out of the works by Takarazuka Revue Company, Never Say Good Bye -The
Footsteps of Lovers and The Great Gatsby, which were updated and revived after along interval, were the productions that shone out. Another production that left astrong impression was The Pleiades in the Blue (Sokyu no Subaru). It is a musicaladaptation of Asada Jiro’s novel and had eighty-seven cast members in total,
which is only possible with a big theatre company like Takarazuka.
As there were so many original musicals and many of them ran for only ashort period of time, it is quite difficult to cover them all. I have, nevertheless,basically covered the main works and those that received attention, and will now
mention a few works that had a strong impact. First of all, Women of the Night(Yoru no onna tachi) was Nagatsuka Keishi’s first musical. Nagatsuka wrote theplayscript and directed the musical, which is based on Mizoguchi Kenji’s filmwith the same title (released in 1948), and it was performed with a unique cast.
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Before the Flood (Kozui no mae) produced by The Musical Company It’s
Follies was a remarkable production. The musical, which is considered to be
Izumi Taku’s major work and is included in the company’s repertoire, was newly
directed by Uyama Hitoshi and presented for the first time in twenty-five years.
It is based on John Van Druten’s play I am a Camera, which was adapted fromChristopher Isherwood’s novel Goodbye to Berlin (just like Cabaret, which was
also based on Druten and Isherwood’s works) and it was adapted into a story
about Japanese people living in Dalian in China just before the Second World
War. I was struck with wonder because both the music and the drama withstood
the test of time.
As with the movie with the same title, the musical Slumdog Millionaire isbased on the novel Q& A. Your Lie in April (Shigatsu wa kimi no uso) is a musicaladaptation of a comic book that was made into a movie. The musical Tokyo Love
Story somewhat took me by surprise. Although the comic-book TV drama
series with the same title was popular during the bubble economy period, I
066

could not help asking: why now? It may be part of HoriPro Inc.’s strategy to
expand its activities in Asia along with Fist of the North Star (Hokuto no ken),which was premiered in 2021 and revived soon afterwards in 2022. This ismerely speculation, though.
It was a bit shocking when I heard that the Imperial Theatre, which isregarded as the musical hall of fame, will be closed for a while from 2025 to berebuilt. The passing away of the actor Takarada Akira, who played a pioneeringrole in the world of Japanese musicals, was also sad news. As I recall, El Gallo in
The Fantasticks was one of the successful roles he played in musicals. Although
there were all sorts of sad news and incidents during the year, the Japanesemusical world had entered a new phase and it was one thing that gave me hopein 2022.

Hagio, Hitomi
Hagio Hitomi is a film and theatre critic. She became a critic after working as a newspaper
journalist. Besides writing a column series on musicals in The Asahi Shimbun, she writes
reviews on films and theatre for other newspapers. She is the author of Take Me Out to theMusical! (Myujikaru ni tsuretette!) (Seikyusha, 1992) and Your First Musical Film Selected by aProfessional: Hagio Hitomi’s Top 50 (Puro ga eranda hajimete no myujikaru eiga: Hagio Hitomi
besuto serekushon 50). She is also on the selection committee of awards such as the Yomiuri
Theater Awards, the Kikuta Kazuo Theatre Awards and the Matsuo Performing Arts Award.
(Translation: Sumida Michiyo)

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Contemporary Theatre

50 Years after Reversion—Reflecting on
Okinawa, Japan, and the World
Yamaguchi Hiroko
In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. Images of women and children
feeling and destroyed city areas thrust the reality of war before our eyes. In
December, the Kishida administration signaled a large-scale reinforcement ofJapan’s defense capabilities in response to the increasingly tense security situation in the surrounding region. The restrictive security measures that have beenin place since the postwar era are approaching a major turning point.
068

New Plays Examined Okinawa’s History and Reality
In 2022, a year of turbulence in Japan and the world, Okinawa marked the fiftieth anniversary of its reversion to Japan.
At the end of World War II, one in four residents of Okinawa Prefecture losttheir lives in a fierce land war. Following Japan’s defeat, Okinawa was placed
under the occupation of the United States government. The majority of American
military facilities in Japan remained concentrated in the prefecture after the 1972
reversion, and to this day they continue to impose burdens and dangers on
Okinawans. A number of plays exploring the history and contemporary reality of
Okinawa were presented in 2022. The following is a look back at these productions in chronological order of performance.
hana―1970, The Day Koza Burned (Koza ga moeta hi), written by Hatasawa
Seigo and produced by HoriPro, depicts one night in the life of a bar manager(Hana is the bar’s name) and her family. In a riot that occurred in 1970 in Koza
(now Okinawa City), Okinawans burned the vehicles of military personnel out ofanger over inequitable handed down in cases of road accidents and crimes

perpetrated by American service members. Set against the backdrop of the riot,
the play brings together various thematic elements including wartime andpostwar hardship, anticipation of Okinawa’s reversion, the insensitivity of mainland Japanese, and the fear experienced by American soldiers soon to be sent to
war in Vietnam. Kuriyama Tamiya, who has long been holding workshops in
Okinawa, directed the play with a deep sense of empathy and anger over irrational realities.
The theatre company Mum & Gypsy, led by the young playwright/director
Fujita Takahiro, planned and produced the play Light house (which Fujita wrote
and directed) in collaboration with Naha Cultural Arts Theater NAHart. Fujita
started making frequent trips to Okinawa when he wrote and directed cocoon, aplay about the “Himeyuri students” (based on the book by Kyo Machiko) which
premiered in 2013. In structuring Light house, Fujita connected themes that had
made an impression on him in Okinawa—wartime memories, construction of
new bases, people’s ways of life—through the motif of water. In summer, cocoon
was also performed in locations throughout Japan.

069

Gekidan Chocolate Cake, a theatre company whose productions portray war
on a foundation of historical fact, presented six plays in a single performance
titled To Surviving Descendants—Six Works on War (Ikinokotta shisontachi e,senso rokuhen). One of the plays, Furukawa Takeshi’s new work, Gama (directedby Hisawa Yusuke), shed light on individual experiences of the Battle of Okinawa
through the depiction of various people—female students, a teacher, soldiers—
sheltering together in a cave (gama) amid fierce combat.
Kanagawa Performing Arts Theatre (KAAT) commissioned a dramatic playfrom Okinawa-based playwright Kaneshima Takuya, and together with director
Tanaka Maiko and staff spent over a year creating its production of Kaneshima’s
Waiting at Rycom (Rycom de mattoku). In the story, a magazine writer named
Asano, who lives in Kanagawa Prefecture, happens by chance to go to Okinawa
to research the trial that followed the 1964 killing of an American soldier (andinjury of another soldier) by young Okinawans. In the course of his research,
Asano discovers that one of the defendants in the trial was his wife’s grandfather.
Enmeshed in a world that mysteriously combines past and present, Asano is
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confronted with the modern history of Okinawa—symbolized by the fact thatthe location of the former American military Ryukyu Command (RyCom) andrelated facilities is now the site of a large shopping mall that has retained thename Rycom. Theatregoers were deeply affected by the sense of anger and questioning (“So Okinawa is ‘Japan’s backyard,’ is it?”) that resonated from the play’s
deft and at times humorous storytelling.
Katabui, 1972, written and directed by Naito Yuko, is a joint production of
Theatre Office Natori (Tokyo) and ACO Okinawa. Set in the living room of asugar cane farming family on Okinawa’s main island, the play takes a close look,based on the writer’s meticulous research, at the six-month period before
Okinawa’s reversion. Katabui is the word for an Okinawa summer weather phenomenon in which one location is clear and sunny while heavy rain falls just a
short distance away. Through the portrayal of postwar Okinawa from a domestic
perspective, and the conversations of family members who respect one another’sviews while disagreeing about the reversion and military bases, various questions
070

quietly expand in scope and connect with the present.

On the Freedom to Speak
In Russia, a new law imposes a maximum penalty of fifteen years for the dissemination of “false information,” and media outlets and SNS have been strictly regulated. In Hong Kong, which reverted to China twenty-five years ago, restrictions
on discourse are becoming increasingly severe, and even include a ban on events
memorializing the Tiananmen Square massacre of June 4, 1989. The “society
where people can’t speak freely” is expanding.
P-Company presented the Hong Kong play May 35th, written by Candace
Chong Mui Ngam (Japanese translation by Maggie Chan and Ishihara Nen) anddirected by Matsumoto Yuko. The main characters are an elderly Beijing couple
whose son died in the Tiananmen Square massacre. Wishing simply to commemorate their child in the square, they plan an action that will put their lives atrisk. This illness-afflicted couple’s strength inspires awe, while the system thatcrushes their hopes inspires horror.
These are by no means “other people’s problems.” Theatre company

Komatsuza’s production of Tales of Poverty (Bimbo Monogatari), written by
Inoue Hisashi and directed by Kuriyama Tamiya, is set in 1934 in the unoccupied home of economist Kawakami Hajime, who was then in detention under
the Peace Preservation Law. The conversation of the women who gather there
illuminates the heaviness of “discussion” and the hardships inherent in women’s
lives—a thread that runs through every generation. In this production, the work
conveyed a stronger sense of lived reality than it did at the time of its premierein 1998.
Nitosha presented its signature work, The Men Who Made Us Sing
(Utawasetai otokotachi), which premiered in 2005. Written and directed by Nagai
Ai, the play was performed with a new cast. It’s set at a metropolitan high school
that, on the morning of its graduation ceremony, receives a directive from thecity government to have everyone sing “Kimigayo” (Japan’s national anthem).
What ensues in this “hilarious tragedy” is a clash of positions and opinions
among the school’s principal, who wants the ceremony to proceed without ahitch; a social studies teacher who objects to the city’s order; and the music

071

instructor charged with piano accompaniment. It has been more than twenty
years since this issue was intensely debated, but the reality depicted in the work is
shockingly contemporary. The young teachers who sneer at and unhesitatingly
try to thwart those expressing the minority view brought to mind the state ofdiscourse today, with the addition of a new layer of ominousness.
In the Theatre Cocoon production Hiroshima Django, written and directedby Horai Ryuta, the day-to-day routine of a Hiroshima oyster processing plant isoverlaid with a “Western.” Within its colorful, abundantly fantastical entertainment, the play addresses the cruelty of peer pressure, the types of conditions thatcan easily give rise to autocracy, and the courage of people who fight against
these situations.

Artistic Directors’ “Second Chapter”–The New National Theatre, Tokyo’s Thoroughgoing Programs
It has been twenty-five years since the opening of the New National Theatre,
Tokyo. There has been an increase in the number of public theatres as well as an
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expansion of the artistic director system. What could be called this system’s
second chapter has begun. In April 2022, director/actor Shirai Akira became theartistic director of Setagaya Public Theatre in Tokyo. Shirai invited choreographer/dancer Kondo Ryohei (who in the same period assumed the artistic directorship of Saitama Arts Theater), Nagatsuka Keishi of Kanagawa Arts Theatre(KAAT), Ogawa Eriko of the New National Theatre, Tokyo and others to takepart in multiple discussions (held in front of audiences) that revisited the role ofartistic directors. A series of symposia is also taking place at Matsumoto Performing Arts Center in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, in advance of the retirement in spring 2023 of Kushida Kazuyoshi, who as artistic director has been at
the helm of the theatre for the past twenty years. The movement towards thinking more deeply about the relationship between society and theatrical productions/theatres is gaining momentum.
The New National Theatre, Tokyo, where Ogawa Eriko serves as artistic
director, undertook thoroughgoing personnel training and other programs,072

actively engaging young creators. Fourteen young people took part in the twoyear playwriting workshop held by the theatre in cooperation with Britain’s
Royal Court Theatre. A play that emerged from this workshop, Sugai Ei’s My
Month (Watashi no ikkagetsu), was performed in a production directed by Inaba
Kae. Osawa Yu, who directed Yokoyama Takuya’s play Beaching at Dawn (Yoake
no yorikujira), was one of the participants in the theatre’s KOTSU-KOTSU
Project, which researches theatrical works without presupposing that they will be
performed. Other accomplished performances include Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s
The Visit/Der Besuch der alten Dame (translated by Koyama Yuna; directed by
Gonohe Marie), which blends flights of fancy, twisted comedy and the horrors ofpeer pressure; and Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt (translated by Hirota Atsuro anddirected by Ogawa Eriko), depicting the destinies of four generations of a Jewish
family from the end of the 19th century to the period after World War II.

Women Made a Strong Impression
It was a year in which female creators and women-focused themes made a strong
impression.
The work of directors was especially remarkable. Not only in My Month(Watashi no ikkagetsu) at the New National Theatre, Tokyo, but also in Office
Cottone’s production of Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s Der Mitmacher (translated by
Masumoto Hiroko) and Parco Stage’s production of Abe Kobo’s The Ghost Is
Here (Yurei wa koko ni iru), director Inaba Kae vividly demonstrated the significance of presenting “this specific play at this specific time.” Gonohe Marie
showed outstanding skill in a production of Venus in Fur (scenario by David Ives,and translation by Jo Kayoko), as did Ikuta Miyuki in the Fernando Arrabal play
The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria (translated by Tanokuchi Seigo). All
three directors are affiliated with the theatre company Bungakuza. Their colleague, the veteran director Matsumoto Yuko, impressively interpreted the Bungakuza production of Akimoto Matsuyo’s dramatic play Manila mizuhoki, which
considers Japan’s expansion in Asia beginning in the Meiji Era and women who

073

engaged in prostitution in foreign countries.
Tokyo Engeki Ensemble’s production of Ishihara Nen’s Fragments of Women(Kanojotachi no danpen), directed by Komori Akiko, approached issues ofwomen and society through the subject of abortion medication. The theatrecompany Good Distance’s production of Oiwa Mari’s play Sitting with the Moon
(Tsuki to suwaru), directed by Nishiyama Mizuki, dealt sensitively with the issue
of isolation in large cities while considering a murder case in which a homelesswoman was killed.
Translated foreign plays included SIS Company’s productions of two vivid
works by female writers—American playwright Paula Vogel’s The Mineola Twins,
directed by Fujita Shuntaro, and British writer Lucy Kirkwood’s The Welkin,directed by Kato Takuya (both translated by Jo Kayoko).
Among the plays by young male writers, Kato Takuya demonstrated his
exceptional writing and directing skills in Already Silent (Mohaya shizuka), a
detailed depiction of shifts and gaps in a couple’s communication about the decision to go through pregnancy and childbirth; and The dodo Falls (Dodo ga rakka
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CONTEMPORARY THEATREsuru), a level-headed examination of friendship. Another work that drew considerable attention was Haiyuza’s production of Yokoyama Takuya’s A Cat Becomesa Lion (Neko, shishi ni naru). Directed by Manabe Takashi, the play shines a lighton the problem of middle-aged and elderly shut-ins. Impressive productions ofworks by veteran writers/directors included Iwamatsu Ryo’s The Blue Sky Is a
Proof of Regret (Aozora wa kokai no akashi) and Crank In!, penetrating examinations of people’s mysterious inner worlds; Keralino Sandorovich’s tenderhearted
masterpiece Shibiregumo; and Matsuo Suzuki’s The World of Tsudaman(Tsudaman no sekai), in which individual desires overlap with war.

Faith in the Power of Theatre
While nearly all of the large-scale productions performed at commercial theatres
were musicals, two non-musical plays became major hits.
Toho’s production of Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi) was astage adaptation by John Caird (with co-adaptor Imai Maoko) of Miyazaki
074

Hayao’s animated film masterpiece. Caird also directed. In the story, a ten-yearold girl named Chihiro becomes lost in a mysterious world and is employed in abathhouse frequented by gods and spirits. In the flying scenes the actors held
Chihiro aloft, while fantastical characters and spirits were portrayed through a
combination of actors’ bodies, puppets, and masks. The resulting production was
elaborately incentive, skillful, and dynamic, while at the same time successfullycommunicating a handmade warmth.
A succession of magical worlds unfolds in the stunning HoriPro/TBS production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, adapted by Jack Thorne from J.K.
Rowling’s original story and directed by John Tiffany (translation by Odashima
Koshi and Odashima Noriko). This production, too, creates breathtaking visual
effects through ingenious concepts based on the combination of actors’ bodies
and technology. The script, which revolves around the parent-child relationship,
is outstanding as well. This is the first non-musical play ever to aim for an indefinite run in Japan.
While various policies including audience limits have been relaxed, the
COVID-19 situation continues to harm the theatre industry, with performancecancellations being announced on a daily basis.
Amid these troubles, Mitani Koki—who recently received acclaim for his
script of the NHK historical drama The 13 Lords of the Shogun (Kamakuradono no jusan-nin)—returned to the theatre as writer/director of The Show Must
Go On (a revised version of the SIS Company production that premiered in 1991).
This comedy vividly portrays a theatre director and ensemble who overcome aseries of calamities and succeed in putting on a play. In fact, an extraordinary
situation arose in the actual production when four actors in succession wereforced to take leaves of absence for reasons including injury and COVID-19, andMitani stepped in and performed each of their roles. It’s said that life imitates art,and Mitani’s perseverance truly embodied the spirit of the play’s title. If there’s apossibility, you have to keep going. This real-life scenario was imbued with faith
in the power of theatre and faith in the audience.
Yamaguchi, Hiroko
Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun. Born in 1960, Yamaguchi joined the Asahi Shimbun
newspaper in 1983. In the course of her career, she has worked in its Tokyo, West Japan(Fukuoka), and Osaka offices as a reviewer and reporter in the field of cultural news, with aparticular focus on theatre. She has also served on the newspaper’s editorial board and as aculture and media editorialist. Yamaguchi is a part-time instructor at Musashino Art University
and Nihon University. She is co-author of The Work of Ninagawa Yukio (Ninagawa Yukio no
Shigoto) (Shinchosha, 2015).

075(Translation: Valerie Frasier)

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CHILDREN’S and YOUTH THEATRE

Children’s and Youth Theatre

The Revival of Summer Festivals
in the Wake of the Pandemic
Ota AkiraThe green shoots of recovery seemed to be appearing little by little in the world ofchildren’s and youth theatre in 2022. For two long years, not only theatre performances but also entrance and graduation ceremonies and many other school
events had to be postponed because of COVID-19. I am sad to think that children’s recollections of their school life during the pandemic will be dominated bymemories of days spent wearing masks and using hand sanitizer. Amid this situ076

ation, teachers changed tack in their response, and it did seem to become easier
to hold theatre performances in schools. However, COVID-19 continues tospread nonetheless. Whereas early 2020 saw audience members testing positiveand performances being shelved to prevent the spread of infection, today we see a
growing number of performances being canceled or postponed due to performers and artists falling ill. While the barriers to staging performances might belower, one has to say that difficulties continue.
Some creative groups are starting to speak up about having to stage inefficient performances, as the government’s vague criteria about the COVID-19
countermeasures required of schools and children, and the decision to leave
matters up to local governments mean performers are forced to accommodate
venues and even response measures that differ from one performance to another.
In particular, where avoiding closed spaces, crowded places, and close-contact
settings has been a condition of performing I have heard that giving two performances a day has become the norm, with groups compelled to perform threetimes or even more in some cases. But despite the increased number of performances for a single visit, the performers, unfortunately, do not receive any

additional compensation in their fees, so creative groups continue to be placed at
a disadvantage. In this sense, therefore, the increased number of performances
cannot necessarily be said to show that we are currently seeing a recovery.

The Revival of Summer Festivals
One major topic in the world of children’s and youth theatre at present is therevival of summer festivals. Performing arts festivals for children are held at anumber of locations across the country every summer. The pandemic affected
them in varying ways, with some being stopped completely while others continued online or in a scaled-down form. We are now starting to see the return offestivals with in-person audiences. Accordingly, I would like to showcase thechildren’s and youth theatre festivals held in Japan this year.
The Japan Union of Theatrical Companies for Children and Young People
held the 50th Summer Holiday Children’s and Youth Theatre Festival(Natsuyasumi jido seishonen engeki fuesuteibaru) (July 23–August 1; Kokumin
Kyosai coop Hall / Space Zero). This festival took place for many years at Tokyo

077

Metropolitan Children’s Hall in Shibuya, but following the hall’s closure in 2012,
the event moved to its current venue at Space Zero. Organized by creative groups,
the festival sees participating organizations working together on arrangements,
including shared leaflets and other advertising activities. It is an event that children in the metropolis look forward to every year, with many school groups
enjoying the performances.
Also known as the International Theater Festival Okinawa for Young Audiences, ricca ricca＊festa (July 23–31; Cultural Arts Theater and other venues)
began life as the Kijimuna Festa, held primarily in Okinawa City, but haschanged its name and venue as it has grown into an international festival. The
2021 event took place in January of that year, when the overseas performanceswere staged remotely only, but this summer saw eight productions brought toJapan from other countries. Many of the productions invited to participate were
those originally due to take part in the 20th ASSITEJ World Congress but whichwere unable to be staged in Japan, and there was a palpable sense of joy at being
able to watch them live in person.
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The 2022 Great Exhibition of Performing Arts with Children in Kofu
(Kodomo to butaigeijutsu daihakurankai 2022 in Kofu) (July 29–August 1;
Kofu Civic Hall) saw Kofu City welcome a festival that was, until the year before
last, held annually at Tokyo’s National Olympics Memorial Youth Center. This
marked the second time the festival had been held outside Tokyo, following
its hosting in Sendai last year, when the Tokyo Olympics meant the center was
unable to be used and the festival organizers took the decision to make it anevent hosted in a different part of Japan each year. With Kofu City serving as
the co-organizer and neighboring local governments also providing support andcooperation, the festival received ample publicity and the sight of so many children at the venue left a lasting impression. In addition to watching performances,hands-on experience was also a key theme, and the workshops and other spaces
where people could try new things attracted a lively crowd. Next year’s festival
will be held in Niigata.
In Fukushima, Kitakata 21st Century Theatre 2022 (August 5–7; Kitakata
078

Plaza and other venues) made a long-awaited return to being held at multiple
venues this summer, after being significantly scaled down last year. It was thefirst large-scale edition of the festival since the core executive committee
members had made way for a younger cohort the year before last, when the event
marked its 20th anniversary. What was especially striking was the excellent
balance achieved in the event’s running, with creative groups, local government,
and local citizens coming together to deliver what can only be described as thevery ideal of a festival in a provincial city. I will never forget the committee’s
original chairperson saying when founding this festival, “I was a full-time farmer
and couldn’t go to other places to attend festivals. That’s when I realized that weshould set one up in our own backyard.” One hopes that the next generation will
maintain this spirit of determination and go from strength to strength.
Following its cancellation last year, Nagano’s Kids Circuit in Saku 2022
(August 5–7; Cosmo Hall and other venues) this year saw a number of performances sell out almost as soon as tickets went on sale. While this festival does
not have a very long history, it was clear that the citizens of Saku had been
looking forward to the event.

The final mention goes to Osaka’s Children’s Theatre Festival in Kishiwada(August 18–21; Kishiwada Namikiri Hall), which was held for the 29th and, I am
told, final time this year. This is a compact festival where one can see all the productions in a single day at Namikiri Hall. Typically, for a city with Osaka’s merchant heritage, audience members get 500 yen back if they stay to watch three
performances. Another distinctive feature of the event is that all performances
are followed by a talk session. Rather than the audience discussing their thoughts
on what they have just watched, the main purpose of these sessions is for performers and artists who have been watching them to talk about the performancein order to inform future creative endeavors. I am sure a number of theatre companies have been able to fine tune their productions as a result of these sessions.
Sadly, this year sees the curtain fall on the theatre festival in Kishiwada, but I
gather a Kansai-based festival will continue with a shift of location to Kobe’s
Nada ward next year.
One festival that, unfortunately, was canceled again this year was the Iida
Puppet Festa 2022 (August 4–7). Making the call on whether to cancel perfor-

079

mances is very tricky, and a lot depends on the mood of the local government
and the public in a particular area because festivals are large in scale and involvea lot of coming and going by people. But I also got the impression there was a
growing sense that it is precisely at times like this that we need festivals. It would
be fair to say that efforts by those on the front line to stage performances after
establishing proper guidelines, taking great care and not pushing things too far
made the summer of 2022 a very hot and exciting one in the world of children’s
and youth theatre.

Public Support Facilitating Encounters with the Performing Arts
Let us now return to the topic of theatre performances in schools. As outlined
above, one would have to say that theatre performances organized by schools
have still not returned to their pre-pandemic state. However, in light of this situation, the Agency for Cultural Affairs implemented the Restoring Opportunities
for Children to Appreciate and Experience Culture program. Funded from the
FY2021 supplementary budget, this program focused on holding performances
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and workshops for children unable to engage with the performing arts due to thelarge number of events canceled as a result of the pandemic. It evolved out of
another program implemented in the last fiscal year entitled Supporting Opportunities for Children to Appreciate and Experience Culture and features two
approaches: the program selection approach, under which schools can choose
from a list of productions suggested by the Agency for Cultural Affairs; and theschool-initiated approach, under which schools can choose for themselves which
productions they arrange. The school-initiated approach, in particular, offers asubstantial level of freedom, providing public funding from the Agency for
Cultural Affairs for productions chosen by schools, without the conventional
constraints of having to choose from a predetermined list. The high level of interest in this program was demonstrated by the number of applications, which
exceeded expectations.
Tokyo Metropolitan Government also implemented a similar program. The
Make Children Smile Project offered children the opportunity to watch perfor080

mances and talks and to engage in hands-on activities at their schools. Via anumber of umbrella organizations, creative groups proposed productions andprograms, with schools choosing which ones they wished to implement. What
was groundbreaking was the fact that the Japan Union of Theatrical Companies
for Children and Young People took on the work of performing arts administration. Many of the schools applying had never hosted performances before, so
I cannot help but hope that this project’s achievements will bear more fruit inyears to come.
Such public support reduced the financial burden on schools and increased
the number of performances given by creative groups, thereby more or less enabling the latter to make up for the performances they had lost. In addition tothese economic effects, the performances brought creative groups into contact
with the views of both children and their teachers. At many of the schools where
my own theatre company performed, the teachers in charge of organizing theperformances often said that they had been looking forward to the show or thatthey had enjoyed the performance even more than their students, which mademe keenly aware of the need for theatre performances in schools. It occurred tome that, along with the appeal of the stage itself, the timeless sight of children
watching the stage encourages the adults who chose the performance. At thispoint, there are many concerns about performances in schools in the coming
fiscal year, with bookings few in number or coming with conditions attached.
However, those on the front line are looking forward to seeing how the new programs implemented during the pandemic develop.

Outstanding Remakes and Nonverbal Productions
Finally, I would like to introduce a number of productions that I saw this year.
Theatrical Group EN’s Beauty and the Beast (Kireichan to kedamono)(written by Nicholas S. Gray, translated by Kikuchi Shoichi, adapted by Tanikawa
Shuntaro, and directed by Komori Mimi) is a remake of an earlier production ofthis classic fairy tale previously performed under the more formal Japanese title
Bijo to yaju. Box seats for children were available for the first time in quite awhile, and the whole performance was suffused with the joy of performers andcrew alike delighted to be back in action. The young man who served as the nar-081

rator was an outstanding character who played a major supporting role by engaging with the children in the audience and who helped to supplement words andscenes that children might have missed in this dialogue-heavy play. Even smallchildren could enjoy this production right through to the end as a result.
La Strada Company’s La feuille les feuilles (directed by LONTO) featured aguest appearance from musician Xymox in addition to two members of thecompany. This nonverbal tale is warm, comforting, and enjoyable to the end. It isa production in which audience members of all ages will warm to the three performers; everything about this play conveys a stylish impression, from the music
and the set design featuring autumn leaves that seem to dance as they fall to the
costumes and the gestures of the performers.
ART in Asibina’s Grandpa Gonzo Goes to Town (Gonzo-jiisan machi wo iku)
& Paper Party (directed by Kano Yudai) is a double bill of nonverbal productions.
Drawing upon this theatre company’s expertise in games using paper, Paper
Party creates a tale that audiences can enjoy with peace of mind. But at the end of
the day, the other production outclassed it for entertainment value. The artistry
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in this performance lies in using nonverbal techniques to create an understanding with the audience about what is happening on stage while slightly shifting it
as the play progresses. The children’s anticipation grows with each successive
scene as their expectations are met or defied. Reminiscent of a high-quality skit,
it is a production that the whole family could enjoy.
While one can predict that the situation in 2023 will remain tough, I believe
artists are keen to appear in front of children and lift their spirits with good
humor, through good times and bad. There are many other things I could write
about but space does not allow. As such, I would like to conclude this round-up
with my hope that as many productions and as many artists as possible will havethe opportunity for encounters with children in the coming year.
Ota, Akira
082

Since joining Tokyo Engeki Ensemble in 1996, he has produced most of the company’s
productions. He has given many lectures and workshops as the director in charge ofdeveloping human resources at Japan Union of Theatrical Companies for Children andYoung People. In 2004, he studied at the youth theatre department (Unga Riks) of Sweden’s
National Touring Theatre (Riksteatern) for a short period under the Agency for Cultural
Affairs Program of Overseas Study for Upcoming Artists. Among his other positions, he iscurrently Representative of the Japan Baby Theatre Network and vice chairman of theJapan-Korea Theater Communications Center.
(Translation: Eleanor Goldsmith)Japanese Classical Dance

Glimpses of the Wave of
New Japanese Classical Dancers
Hirano Hidetoshi

1. Hanayagi Shotaro Ⅲ, Onoe Kikunojo Ⅲ, and Shida Maki
It’s no exaggeration to say that the five members of the Goyokai (including thethree who are directors at Buyo Kyokai), Nishikawa Minosuke, Hanayagi Motoi,
Yamamura Tomogoro, Hanayagi Juraku and Fujima Ranko, are at the top of theJapanese classical dance world. But last year, the activities of three other dancers
who are approaching the pinnacle of these five were particularly striking.
The first dancer that I would like to feature is Hanayagi Shotaro III. In

083

Shotaro no Kai (April 2, Cerulean Tower Noh Theatre), she performed the Ichu
piece Matsukaze (The Pining Wind), based on the classical Noh play, and the
Nagauta piece Aya no Tsuzumi (The Damask Drum), also based on a Noh play. In
a recital by dancers at her school, the 61st Ginreikai (October 2, National Theatre,
Small Theatre), she played the poet-priest Saigyo in the Nagauta piece Shigure
Saigyo (Saigyo in the Autumn Rain) (the courtesan Eguchi was played by
Hanayagi Rikasen) and Hanjo no Mae in the Kiyomoto piece Sumidagawa (The
Sumida River), (The boatman was played by Hanayagi Suketaro.) In these dances,
she fully displayed the unique qualities of a female Japanese classical dancer. In
the male role such in Aya no Tsuzumi she exuded strength of character, and as
Saigyo in Shigure Saigyo, she fully became the role.
Next, I would like to discuss Onoe Kikunojo III. Like Fujima Kanjuro VIII, heis one of the most active choreographers that is creating new dances for kabuki
theatre. Although it has been 11 years since he took the name of Kikunojo, thisyear for the first time he had his own recital, Onoe Kikunojo no Kai (September 3, National Theatre, Large Theatre). He performed two dances with theTheatre in Japan

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choreography of Onoe Kikunojo I (1910–1964), the Itchu Bushi piece Shojo (TheSake Loving Water Sprites) (original choreographic plan by Onoe Kikunojo I
and choreographed by Onoe Bokusetsu), playing the Shojo spirits together withkabuki actor Onoe Matsuya and Onoe Bokusetsu as the sake seller Kofu, and theGidayu piece Cho no Michiyuki (The Lovers Reborn in Hell as Butterflies), playing
the role of Sukekuni while the role of his lover Komaki was played by kabuki
onnagata Onoe Kikunosuke. In addition to these two classical dances, there wasalso a new piece, Sosaku Nagauta Yamata no Orochi, based on the ancient mythof the god vanquishing the eight-headed serpent. Kikunojo played the eightheaded serpent Yamata no Orochi to the narration of Onoe Matsuya. This performance showed that Kikunojo is a dancer on a scale far above the other young
dancers of his generation, and I look forward to seeing how he will contribute to
the Japanese classical dance world in the future.
The third dancer I would like to feature is Shida Maki, the second head of
the Choyo School of Ryukyu Buyo. For Maki no Kai (September 16, Cerulean
084

Tower Noh Theatre), she performed classical dance for the female characters(onna odori) Nuhwa Bushi, Sosaku Kunnohra and Sosaku Kurokami (Black Hair),choreographing a new dance in the style of Ryukyu Buyo to a piece of Japaneseclassical music. She has a well-deserved reputation for performing classicaldances for female characters, but with Kurokami, she created a new dance in theform of a classical dance for a female character and used that colorful figure tosqueeze out a deep and wide range of feelings of women that I felt represented abreath of fresh air for Japanese classical dance. The dance had a feeling of combining Japan and Okinawa, and I believe that it was like a cord connecting
Japanese classical dance and Ryukyu Buyo.
I would like to list some of the dancers and the pieces that they performedthat were special achievements last year. Among classical dances, Izumi Shoyo
performed the Kiyomoto piece Bunya (The 6th Shoei Kai, March 12, National
Theatre, Small Theatre) with highly polished dance artistry. Nishikawa Yuko
created a piece carrying on the achievements of Hanayagi Shigeka with Tagitsu(Turbulent Water) (Yuko no Kai, Hanayagi Shigeka director and choreographer,
November 22, National Theatre, Small Theatre). The appearance of Hanayagi

Motoi in the piece as well brought new life into it, which was extremely moving.
Among new pieces, Gojo Tamami’s Sosaku’s Orphée (81st Tamami Kai / Gojo
Tamami Recital, written, directed and choreographed by Gojo Tamami III,
October 13, National Theatre, Small Theatre) was particularly excellent. There
was a perfectly balanced collision of the understanding of the roles and expressive powers of the three main performers playing Orphée (Tamami), Euridice(Fujikage Shizue) and Persephone (kabuki onnagata Nakamura Kyotae) that brilliantly created a space where the worlds of the living and the dead could struggle
against each other. Fujima Kiyotsugu has long been focused on creating the artof onnagata for Japanese classical dance, and his activities through the year wereparticularly impressive. In his own dance Senju Kai (April 17, National Theatre,
Large Theatre), he performed a work which he not only wrote but also produced,
choreographed and directed, Yamato-Hime Gojunko – Yamato-Hime to Sada
Yakko (The Journey of Princess Yamato – Princess Yamato and Sada Yacco), whichjuxtaposed the journeys of the mythical Princess Yamato from the ancient chronicles with the world travels of Sada Yacco (1871–1946), known as the first actress085

in modern Japan. At the Buyo Onnagata no Kai (July 24, National Theatre, Small
Theatre), which he organized and produced, he danced the Nagauta piece Kishu
Dojoji. And in another of his own recitals, Hanatsugu Kai in Tokyo (November
1, National Theatre, Large Theatre), he performed an original dance for which hewrote the lyrics and created the choreography for a dance version of Mizukami
Tsutomu’s novel (and famously directed by Shinoda Masahiro in the 1977 film)
Hanare Goze Orin, which is about a blind female traveling musician. The way
he equally emphasizes the creation of new works and a search for techniques of
onnagata that are unique to Japanese classical dance is quite wonderful.

2. Performances to Say Farewell to the First National Theatre
The National Theatre was built in 1966, and since it will close in a year forrebuilding, this year’s performances are dedicated to saying farewell to the first
National Theatre building. As part of this, on September 23, the National Theatre
presented its 170th performance of Japanese classical dance in the Large Theatrewith the Buyo Meisaku Shu I (Masterpieces of Traditional Japanese Dance I). The
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program began with the Kiyomoto piece Shiki Sambaso (Okina with the Flowersof the Four Seasons), with Onoe Bokusetsu as the Okina, Onoe Yukari as the
Senzai and Onoe Kikunojo as the Sanbaso. Second was the Gidayu piece Oshichi,
with Inoue Yasuko as the girl prepared to burn down the city of Edo for the sakeof love. Third was the Tokiwazu piece Awa Mochi (The Millet Dumpling Peddlers),
with Nishikawa Senyoichi as Kinehachi, Bando Tomona as Ousu, Mizuki Sensho
as a torioi female street musician, Fujima Toka as a woman from an archery stall,
Hananomoto Kotobuki as a peddler of fukujuso spring blossoms and Nishikawa
Shinsho as a peddler of yomena greens. The program concluded with the Nagauta
piece Kurozuka (The Black Mound: The Demoness of the Adachi Plain), with
Hanayagi Juraku as Yukei Ajari, Hanayagi Genkuro as the mountain priest
Yamatobo, Hanayagi Suzuhiko as the mountain priest Sanukibo, Hanayagi
Jutaichiro as the luggage porter Tarogo and Hanayagi Motoi as the old woman
Iwate who is actually the demoness of the Adachi plain.
The performance assembled the top veteran dancers, and they were all086

appropriately cast, for a stable, dependable program. However, although the performance was billed as Masterpieces of Traditional Japanese Dance, only the firstpiece, Shiki Sanbaso, could be said to be pure Japanese classical dance. The othertwo dances originated in the kabuki theatre and required acting skills as well as
pure dancing ability. Hanayagi Motoi in Kurozuka has acting skills to rival
kabuki actors, but the same is not necessarily true for the other dancers in the
program. I think that one of the key challenges for the National Theatre will be toplan programs that will make clear the essential differences between kabuki
dance and Japanese classical dance.
Another performance in the farewell series was the National Theatre’s 171stclassical dance performance with Mai no Kai – Keihan no Zashiki Mai(Traditional Kyoto-Osaka Dance) (November 26, Small Theatre). The first part ofthe program beginning at 12 p.m. presented the Jiuta pieces Neya no Ogi (Fan of
the Bedchamber) by Yoshimura Yukari, Hayafune (The Swift Boat) by Yamamura
Waka, Miyako Junitsuki (Twelve Months in Kyoto) by Umemoto Sensho, Yashimabased on the Noh play about the ghosts of the battles between the Genji and
Heike clans by Inoue Mameka, the Kamigata Uta piece Fumitsuki (The SeventhMonth) by Umemoto Umesakuya and the Jiuta piece Kigisu (The Pheasant) by
Yoshimura Kisho and Yoshimura Teruyuki. The second part of the program
beginning at 3.30 p.m. presented the Jiuta pieces Cha Ondo (The Tea Dance) by
Yoshimura Nao, Kantan, based on a Noh play about a man who experiences all
the glories of the world in a brief dream and awakens to the emptiness of worldly
success by Inoue Yasuko, Naniwa Junitsuki (Twelve Months in Osaka) by
Yamamura Tomogoro, the Kamigata Uta piece Kiri no Ame (Misty Rain) by
Umemoto Umekinuhana and the Jiuta pieces Masazuki (The New Year) by
Yamamura Hikari and Tamatori Ama (The Diving Girl Retrieves the Jewel) by
Inoue Yachiyo based on a Noh play about a girl who brings back a precious jewel
from the undersea palace of the dragon god for the sake of her son but at the costof her life. There were representatives of all the major schools of Mai presenting awide range of things to enjoy, with Yoshimura Nao from the Yoshimura school
displaying a fresh charm. The Umemoto school was represented by its head
Umemoto Sensho (the dance name of Kabuki actor Kataoka Ainosuke),
Umemoto Umesakuya and Umemoto Umekinuhana, showing that its tradition087

is being properly transmitted to the next generation. Yamamura Tomogoro fromthe Yamamura school skillfully conveyed the light and easygoing feeling of thecity of Osaka, and Yamamura Hikari evoked the felicitous atmosphere of New
Year through a loving couple. Inoue Mameka from the Inoue school served as afine example of the art of a Gion geiko, and Inoue Yachiyo’s dance could be said
to be sheer perfection and was very profound.
In addition to these two programs, to commemorate the 55th anniversary of
its opening, the National Theatre produced Suodori no Sekai (Traditional
Japanese Dance without Adornment) (March 5, Small Theatre). Although muchof the repertoire of Japanese classical dance comes from kabuki theatre, the mostdistinctive type of dance might be suodori, where the dancer performs without astage set or costume and expresses everything in a formal kimono with minimal
props except, most importantly, a dance fan. This means that the performer must
express everything through pure dance movement. In this presentation, the useof mime in kabuki dance was explained, and then they showed how it is transformed in suodori. For a presentation titled Suodori no Sekai, this emphasis on
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kabuki dance could hardly be said to have focused on the essence of suodori. It is
sad that this was such a missed opportunity. Also, it presented Hanagata –Meisaku Buyo Kansho Kai (Star and Masterpiece Traditional Japanese Dance
Performance) (July 23, Small Theatre), and all the dances were originally fromkabuki. It’s almost as though the producers at the National Theatre believe thatJapanese classical dance consists only of kabuki dance, which if true would be
extremely unfortunate. They must emphasize the unique qualities of Japaneseclassical dance much more.

3. Performances Sponsored by the Buyo Kyokai
Like the previous year, the major dance recital of Buyo Kyokai (Japanese Classical Dance Association), scheduled for February 19–20 in the Large Theatre of the
National Theatre, was canceled due to the pandemic. But Buyo Kyokai did
produce three performances. It sponsored Nihon Buyo – Sono Tasai na Hyogen(The Diverse Expressions of Nihon Buyo) (October 21, Kanze Noh Theatre) and088

Todoke Asu e – Keisho no Wadachi – Nihon Buyo Koen (Classical Japanese Dance
Recital – Bring the Path of the Transmission of Tradition for the Sake of Tomorrow)(October 12, National Theatre, Small Theatre). Then, to feature a new work, as thefifth presentation of Mirai-za – “Sai,” it presented Ginga Tetsudo 999 Hitori no
Shonen no Saichi no Monogatari (Galaxy Express 999 – The Story of a Boy’s
Wisdom) (June3–5, National Theatre, Small Theatre).
In the performance at the Kanze Noh Theatre, the geisha of the Shinbashi
district appeared and gave a simple introduction to the songs and dances of thegeisha districts and dance movements. Then there were two pieces by Japaneseclassical dancers, Yoichi no Dan – Sosaku Kyogen Gakari (Yoichi’s Verse: Creative
Kyogen Opening). The choreography was by Onoe Bokusetsu, the music wascomposed by Handa Junko and the flute and percussion was arranged by Tosha
Rosen. The dancers were Hanayagi Genkuro, Nishikawa Senshigero andHanayagi Shue. The program also featured Onoe Yukari in Fuji Musume (The
Wisteria Maiden). In the performance at the National Theatre, Small Theatre, themain piece was Odette Ultimate Love – from Swan Lake, choreographed by
Hanayagi Tokijukyo. There were also two rare Nagauta pieces choreographed by

Hanayagi Suketaro, Kanjaku Keisei (The Courtesan), a portrait of a courtesan
based on the version originally performed by kabuki actor Nakamura Kanjaku
and Futatsu Domoe (The Double-Swirled Crest). The pieces were performed bygroups of female dancers. I was very happy that both performances inspired hopefor the future.
The new piece was a staging of Matsumoto Leiji’s famous comic. I imagine
that it was intended to show the contemporary relevance of Japanese classicaldance. But I find that I must agree with what the designer of Japanese gardens
Tatsui Takenosuke wrote in the monthly Nihon Buyo (v. 78, no. 8): “After watching it, it made me think that I had even less of an idea of the image that present
day dancers have of Japanese classical dance than before. It even made me thinkthat maybe the best thing would be to just take Japanese classical dance and dismantle the whole thing.” I believe that the problem is probably that contemporaryclassical dancers are trying for expressions that are the total opposite of the techniques that they have been taught. I can’t help but think that they have discarded
the goal of totally expressing the lyrics of the music with their entire bodies.

089

4. Activities of Veteran Classical Japanese Dancers
At the Onoe Kikune Momoju o Iwau Kai (Recital to Celebrate Onoe Kikune’s 100thYear) (July 21, Kioi Small Hall), Onoe Kikune and Onoe Bokusetsu danced theTomei piece Kono Kimi (‘My Lord,’ - the Japanese title uses a poetic word forbamboo) in choreography by Bokusetsu. Even though there were no stage costumes or adornments of any kind, the two performers had a unique presence.
They evoked the bamboo of the title vividly, suggesting their straight and uprightlives and careers as dancers over long years.
There was a recital of suodori on April 18 at the Small Theatre of the National
Theatre to commemorate the recognition of Nishikawa Senzo as a Person of Cultural Merit. Senzo danced Matsu no Midori (The Green of the Pine). His use of thedance fan was extremely precise and careful and seemed to express his long yearsof devotion to Japanese classical dance and his passion for dance itself. This issomething unimaginable in the West.

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5. A
 s Always, Many Commemorative Recitals Were Produced byDance Schools
There were many recitals put on by schools of dance including the following:
Shosei Fujima Murasaki Jusan Kaiki Tsuizen – Sandaime Fujima Murasaki
Shumei Hiro Murasaki-ha Fujima-Ryu Buyo Kai (Fujima School Murasaki Branch
Dance Recital Commemorating the Thirteenth Anniversary of the Death of Fujima
Murasaki I and the Name Taking of Fujima Murasaki III) (January 30, National
Theatre, Large Theatre), Nidaime Saruwaka Kiyokata Sanju Kinen Dai 74 Kai
Saruwaka Kai (Recital Commemorating the 80th Year of Saruwaka Kiyokata II –The 74th Saruwaka Recital) (April 23, National Theatre, Large Theatre), Hossoku
70 Shunen Kinen Dai 58 Kai Seiha Wakayagi-Ryu Teiki Koen (58th Regular
Recital of the Seiha Wakayagi School Commemorating the 70th Anniversary of its
Founding) (August 20, National Theatre, Large Theatre), Bando Kai Soritsu 100
Shunen Kinen Kai (Recital Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Bando
Kai) (September 17–18, National Theatre, Large Theatre), Wakayagi Ryota
090

Aratame Wakayagi Kichiryozo Nabirome Koen Wakayagi Kai (Wakayagi School
Recital Commemorating the Name Taking of Wakayagi Ryota to Wakayagi
Kichiryozo) (November 20, National Theatre, Small Theatre) and Shichisei
Nakamura Shikan Junen-Sai Jakusei Kai (The Jakusei Recital Commemorating the10th Anniversary of the Passing of Nakamura Shikan VII) (November 27, National
Theatre, Large Theatre). Among them, particularly noteworthy was Fujima
Murasaki I’s granddaughter Fujima Sawako taking the name Fujima Murasaki III
as a Japanese classical dancer. She commemorated this by dancing the Nagauta
piece Kyoganoko Musume Dojoji (The Girl at Dojoji Temple) and by playing
Shizuka Gozen in the Kiyomoto piece Michiyuki Hatsune no Tabi (The First
Birdsong of Spring) with her older brother Fujima Takahiko, who took the nameof Fujima Kakeru on this occasion, as Tadanobu. This was the birth of a star, who
is both an actress and a Japanese classical dancer, and we can expect great thingsfrom her in the future.

6. Fresh Shoots for the Future in Groups of Young Dancers
Fresh shoots could be seen in Reimei no Kai (New Dawn Group) (January 29,

Nihonbashi Koukaido), featuring dancers from the school of Fujima headed by
Fujima Kanemon, Fujima Yukihiro, Fujima Hirotaro, Fujima Toyohiko andFujima Naozo, and in Dai Yonkai Soten Koen (4th Blue Sky Concert) (August 24,
Tsukishima Shakai Kyoiku Kaikan), featuring the same Fujima Naozo together
with Hanayagi Kiina and collaborating with traditional musicians. The first performance focused on developing the techniques of suodori, while the second
sought to find the appeal of Japanese classical dance through connections with awide variety of traditional performing arts. The fact that Fujima Naozo is amember of both these groups promises great things in the future.
Also, there were performances by veteran artists like Hanayagi Sonokisuke’s
Nihon Buyo Taku no Tsudoi (March 6, National Theatre, Small Theatre), the 6th
Hanayagi Tamaito / Izumi Yuki Recital Tamayu no Kai (November 8, National
Theatre, Small Theatre) and Nishikawa Zuisen’s Toki no Kai (November 13,
Cerulean Tower Noh Theatre). These performances had the high level of technique and creativity that is worthy of artists with their experience. You could saythat these are the people keeping the Japanese classical dance world alive today.

091

7. Topics
In 2021, Nishikawa Senzo was recognized as a Person of Cultural Merit, but thisyear, there were no appropriate candidates for the Agency for Cultural Affairs
Art Award or New Face Award from the world of Japanese classical dance. Inpart, this is due to the rise of ballet in Japan, but it can also be said that this isbecause Japanese classical dance, here including Ryukyu Buyo and regional traditional performances, has not gone far enough in finding the essence of theJapanese way of using the human body for artistic expression. In 2022, Futabakai
of Yamamura school dance won the prize for excellence in the National Arts Festival. From next year, the Arts Festival Prize will no longer be awarded. This
marks the end of the role of this prize.

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Hirano, Hidetoshi
Nihon buyo (Japanese classical dance) critic. Born in 1944 in Sendai and graduated from thetheatre division of the literature department of Waseda University majoring in kabuki.
Worked for a publishing house as an editor for such periodicals as Okinawa Performing Arts,
the quarterly journal Folk Performing Arts, and the monthly magazine, Japanese Music andClassical Dance. To explore the art of physical expression, he became a critic and is a memberof advisory committees for institutions, including the Japanese Cultural Agency and theSociety for the Advancement of the Arts in Japan. In 2016, his book Critique: History ofJapanese Physical Expression—Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Period (Nihon Buyo-sha)
was published.
(Translation: Mark Oshima)092

BalletLiving with COVID-19 and Supporting Ukraine
Urawa Makoto

Pandemic Hits Small- and Medium-Sized Companies Hard
In 2022 we entered the third year of the pandemic, and we now understand more
about the virus. As the vaccine take-up improved and people became moreresistant to the virus, fewer and fewer people became gravely ill. Some of thestrict COVID-19 restrictions were lifted during the second half of the year.
Although COVID-19 cases hit a record high in the summer, people were beginning to embrace life with COVID-19.
The shortening of the quarantine period and the easing of close contacts093

rules had a huge positive impact on the ballet world and on society as a whole.
On the other hand, the number of COVID-19 cases reached a total of twenty-nine million nationwide by the end of the year. It was common for balletdancers to get COVID-19, but most performances were not cancelled.
The overall number of productions is now getting close to pre-COVID-19
times, especially in metropolitan areas. Producers revised their COVID-19
measures for the second half of the year. More and more companies stopped
asking audience members for their names and addresses. But almost all of themcontinued to ask people to take their temperatures, sanitize their hands andwear masks. Audiences were also requested to leave venues in orderly groups
after shows.
Despite the easing of restrictions, organizers still had to pay for the extra
staff members and materials necessary for COVID-19 measures. This hit smalland medium-sized companies hard, financially. They had to put up with strict
regulations for over two years, and some lost students along the way. They have
not yet recovered from this huge blow. Established companies are more likely to
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BALLETget public support from government bodies, such as the Agency for Cultural
Affairs and the new COVID-19 scheme AFF (Arts for the future!) 2. However,small- and medium-sized companies are less likely to get this kind of support,
and many of them are having problems organizing showcases for their students.

Japanese Ballet World Shows Support for Ukraine
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February was one of the most shocking
events of last year. For most of the 20th century, Ukraine was part of the Soviet
Union, and Kyiv Ballet was very popular in Japan. Moreover, many Russian andUkrainian ballet dancers visited Japan to perform as guest dancers, and someeven stayed to make Japan their home. Also, many Japanese dancers trained inballet schools in Russia. Japan has always had a strong connection with balletdancers in Donetsk as well as Kyiv. The Russian and Ukrainian dancers whoare currently in Japan must be feeling uneasy, but they are continuing toperform as usual.
094

I wonder how Japanese ballet companies have reacted to this war.
Japanese ballet dancers made no distinction between Ukrainian and Russian
dancers before the war broke out. But the mayhem caused by the invasion of
Ukraine by Russia has had a huge impact and created confusion in the Japaneseballet world. Male Ukrainian ballet dancers are fighting in the war (and I haveheard that some have died), and female dancers have been forced to flee the war
zones. Many Japanese dancers showed their support for these Ukrainian dancers
in various ways.
For example, Kusakari Tamiyo, the former principal dancer at Asami Maki
Ballet Tokyo and who is now more active in theatre, hosted a charity concert. She
had been a frequent guest performer for Ukrainian ballet companies in the past.
As the artistic director, she gathered top-class Japanese ballet dancers frominside and outside Japan for her charity concert entitled “BALLET GALA in
TOKYO.” Some companies have supported and collaborated with Ukrainian
dancers who have fled to Japan. Okamoto Rumiko asked a Ukrainian dancer andrefugee to perform in her charity concert for Ukraine and invited her to talkabout her still raw experiences of events in her country. In Osaka, ballet dancer

Hariyama Emi produced a charity concert entitled “One Heart 2022.” Thesecharity concerts were held all over the country.
The Kyiv Ballet (National Opera of Ukraine) which was in limbo due to thewar was able to perform in Japan thanks to Terada Nobuhiro’s great efforts.
Terada is originally from Kyoto and danced with the company over many years.
Dancers who managed to get out of Ukraine toured Japan from July to Augustwith “Kyiv Ballet Gala 2022.” Terada, who was assistant artistic director of thecompany at that time, became artistic director in December, succeeding Elena
Filipieva, who is well known in Japan. The company changed its name to The
Ukrainian National Ballet and came back to Japan to do a full production of Don
Quixote in December.

Stand-Out Trends of 2022
I would like to look at the Japanese ballet scene as a whole. As I mentioned previously, the ballet industry is slowly getting back on its feet, thanks to the great
efforts of all the ballet companies and dancers. I have already pointed out a095

number of times in this column that Japanese ballet companies are based in andmainly perform in densely populated areas, such as Kansai, Chubu and especially Tokyo. This tendency has become even stronger since the pandemic. We
can now see a widening resource gap between large and small companies, both
inside and outside these regions.
Particular trends became apparent in 2022.
First, there were more performances in concert or gala form with fewer
dancers that contained short pieces, such as solos and pas de deux. We used tohave festivals featuring top dancers in the past, but now we have more variety.
This is because it has become difficult for a foreign company to put on a full production due to the pandemic. That is why a few main dancers were chosen tocome to Japan and dance short pieces. Second, more and more Japanese dancers
have become prominent overseas, and they would gather during the off season
and give performances in Japan in not only Tokyo but throughout the country.
This type of production must have a strong theme or a clear objective. The
charity concert for Ukraine was one good example. “Special Gala; Scenes duTheatre in Japan

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BALLET

Ballet (Ballet no jokei)” attracted a lot of attention. This was a tribute to maestro
Fukuda Kazuo, who turned 90 this year and has established his status as a ballet
conductor in Japan. Various ballet companies that have worked with him contributed to the production. And “Ballet Espoir,” produced by the ballet dancer
Kyoto Yuichiro, focused on a new generation of dancers living in Japan. The
visual imagery accompanying the dance performance left a strong impression.
Some companies presented ballet pieces by deceased choreographers. This isvery rare in Japan. This year we had Theatre de Ballet Company, based in Nagoya
and led by Tsukamoto Yoko, present the Fukagawa Hideo version of Don
Quixote, which had a distinct atmosphere of its own. Tani Momoko Ballet presented Les Misérables. It was choreographed and directed by Mochizuki
Norihiko, the former artistic director of the company. Asami Maki Ballet Tokyo
revived ASUKA, the last piece conceived by the late Maki Asami. K Ballet Studio,
based in Osaka, presented Yagami Keiko’s renowned contemporary ballet piece
two years in a row. But these companies were simply repeating repertoire that096

they had already been done in the past. It would be ideal to have a system thatenables other companies to present classic pieces simply by following some necessary procedures.
More and more theatres around the nation are being rebuilt or refurbished
due to aging or to make them earthquake resistant. This year, Mielparque Hall
(formerly Tokyo Yubin Chokin Kaikan), the much-loved concert hall where
many ballet productions and competitions were held, closed its doors. Most
ballet companies do not have their own venues, and it has now become more difficult to find a space to perform.
Since the pandemic, ballet companies have been streaming their performances in various ways. We will have to wait a bit longer to see whether thistrend continues.

A Busy Year for The Tokyo Ballet anda Fresh Start for Asami Maki Ballet Tokyo
Now I would like to mention some ballet companies that stood out this year.
It was Yoshida Miyako’s third year as artistic director of New National

Theatre, Tokyo. The theatre marked its 25th anniversary this year and premiered
a new version of Giselle directed by Yoshida Miyako to kick off the 2022/2023
season. This piece was meticulously structured as well as being orthodox. The
gorgeous set design suited the National Theatre well. The theatre is attracting good audiences and is trying to increase the number of performances
for both classic and contemporary pieces. However, this might require somereorganization.
The Tokyo Ballet was one of the most active companies during COVID-19.
Its principal dancer, Ueno Mizuka, has transformed the concept of a ballerina inJapan with her dynamic style. In 2022, she played the lead roles in the classics
Swan Lake, Don Quixote, and La Bayadère and showed off her everlasting talent.
This was her last performance in classical repertoire. The company premiered
Romeo and Juliet, choreographed by John Cranko, and also presented Béjart
Gala, marking forty years since the company first performed his piece Bolero.
K-Ballet Company led by Kumakawa Tetsuya revived Carmen and Cleopatrawith a fresh cast, both pieces choreographed by Kumakawa. It also kicked off a097

new project K-BALLET Opto with a show “Petit Petit Petit” featuring three shortcontemporary pieces, including one choreographed by Mori Yuki.
As mentioned, Asami Maki Ballet Tokyo, which lost its founder last year,
presented ASUKA as well as Notre Dame de Paris choreographed by Roland
Petit, a new beginning for the company. Matsuyama Ballet Company featured
Morishita Yoko, who is in her mid-70s, as the lead dancer, as usual. Her extraordinary charisma shined through as she played the lead role in all of its fulllength productions.
Kawaguchi Yuriko, from Ballet Chambre Ouest, danced Tatyana for the lasttime; it was a very moving experience. Noriko Kobayashi Ballet Theatre commemorated its 50th anniversary. Companies such as the already mentioned Tani
Momoko Ballet, The Inoue Ballet Foundation, Tokyo City Ballet, Star Dancers
Ballet, and NBA Ballet Company were all very active and presented new works
and new interpretations.
Yamato City Ballet led by Sasaki Mika is attracting a lot of attention thesedays. She produced an anthology series featuring various choreographers as well
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BALLET

as The Glass Slipper, choreographed by Homan Naoya, which is a contemporaryinterpretation of Cinderella and set in the contemporary apparel industry. It
created a major buzz.
Japan Ballet Association, which serves the Japanese ballet scene, presented
the Japanese premiere of La Esmeralda in March. It was choreographed by Yuri
Burlaka, who mainly used Zoom to communicate with the dancers. The association uses Zoom for various purposes as a COVID-19 measure.

Sadamatsu-Hamada Ballet Stands Out in Kansai and Chubu
Ballet companies based in the Kansai and the Chubu regions are gradually
getting back on their feet. The one that stood out the most this year was
Sadamatsu-Hamada Ballet, based in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture. It presented a fullversion of the classic, Copélia, Creative Dance Recital 33, The World of Ballets
Russes (Ballets Russes no sekai) as well as a contemporary version of their muchloved signature show The Nutcracker. The company, which is very progressive,098

commissioned a young outside choreographer to re-interpret the piece. Ballet
Company West Japan, which marked its fifth anniversary this year, is also
making itself known on the ballet scene.
In Osaka, Jinushi Kaoru Ballet Company presented a double bill featuring
two full-length classical productions with young as well as veteran dancers, justlike the previous year. This year, its Cinderella was full of fresh new ideas, and its
Giselle featured the ballet dancers Ono Ayako and Okumura Kosuke from
National Ballet of Japan. It was a return for Okumura Kosuke who started his
career with Jinushi Kaoru Ballet Company. Homura Tomoi Ballet Company,
with its long history, is still progressing steadily, commissioning Shinohara
Seiichi to choreograph Cleopatra. Noma Ballet Company, Kitayama Onishi Ballet
Company, Company Deco Boco, and Michiko Sasaki Ballet Studio are all busy
while taking necessary COVID-19 measures.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs is preparing to relocate to Kyoto (scheduled
to be finalized in March 2023), but most ballet companies in Kyoto have not fully
recovered from COVID-19. Ryuko Arima Ballet, which managed to stay afloat,
presented Romeo and Juliet.

The two major companies in the Nagoya region, Ochi International Balletand Matsuoka Reiko Ballet, simply did their annual showcases and did not takeon any large-scale productions. However, Sumina Okada Ballet School and
Setsuko Kawaguchi Ballet continued to present new works, as usual. Theatre deBallet Company, which marked its 40th anniversary this year, presented“Autumn Ballet Gala Concert 2022,” combining a contemporary piece with shortclassic pieces, as well as Don Quixote choreographed by the late Fukagawa Hideo.
Tokoiriya, based in Okinawa and led by Midorima Ryoki, presented a piece
inspired by old Okinawan traditions at Naha Cultural Arts Theater NAHArt in
February. It also performed in Tokyo in spring and autumn, as it did the previous year.
It was still difficult to invite foreign artists to do a full production in the firsthalf of the year. Nevertheless, dancers from The Stuttgart Ballet came to Japan in
March and from The Royal Ballet in July. But these were both galas featuring a
few top dancers. From autumn, things got slightly better; The Houston Balletpresented Swan Lake; Les Ballets du Monte Carlo presented The Taming of the

099

Shrew; and as previously mentioned, The Ukrainian National Ballet presented afull ballet production.
While ballet competitions are coming back to life all over the country, somehave cancelled or simplified the award ceremonies in order to survive thepandemic.
Urawa, Makoto
His real name is Ichikawa Akira. He is a former professor of the faculty of Business
Administration and Corporate Culture at Shoin University and a former advisor for the dance
sector of The Association of Public Theaters and Halls in Japan. He has contributed to various
newspapers and magazines as a dance critic. He is a long-time committee member for the
Agency for Cultural Affairs as well as other bodies. He has also been on the judging panelsof various dance competitions and awards.
(Translation: Ishikawa Mai and Donncha Crowley)

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CONTEMPORARY DANCE and BUTOH

Contemporary Dance and Butoh

A New Perspective on Reality
from a Growing Pandemic-Era Dance Scene
Tsutsumi Hiroshi

The COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020 continued to rage in 2022, with asixth, seventh, and eighth wave of infections coming during the year. The
Omicron variant of the virus, though less potent, proved highly contagious, andthe performing arts continued to suffer from cancellations and delays. Amid thisturmoil, in February, Russia launched a military invasion of Ukraine. In the
deeply interconnected ballet world, large numbers of Japanese ballet dancers and100

students returned from both countries. Refugees were accepted and charity performances held. In the world of contemporary dance, which has fewer such connections, only Condors responded to the global situation in real time.
In June, Condors premiered Starting Over, a work inspired by the John Lennon
song of the same name. The work begins with troupe leader Kondo Ryohei standing before a crucifix playing peacefully with birds and a dog, but this is followed
by a scene of invading soldiers. The work relativized the situation in the US andJapan to the realities of the Ukraine invasion and awakened its audience anew tothe peace they shared, resonating with many. Having accepted a post as artistic
director of the Saitama Arts Theater, Kondo also brought a breath of fresh air bystaging two of his own productions there, Born on a Planet with Dance 2022
(Dansu no aru hoshi ni umarete 2022) and Genre Cross (Janru kurosu).

Major Works Reexamining Today’s World
Notwithstanding the paucity of works directly depicting the pandemic or war,
there were many major works that sought to reexamine the current situation that

artists face.
It has been around half a century since Kasai Akira opened his dance studio,
Tenshi-kan (“House of Angels”), and the history of Kasai’s company can bedivided into two periods, separated by the time he spent in Germany. This year,
Kasai premiered a joint production featuring both members from the first period(including Yamada Setsuko, Omori Masahide, Yamazaki Kota, and Sugita
Josaku) and the second period (including Kasai Reiji, Kasai Mitsutake, Asami
Yuko, Uemura Naoka, Sakurai Ikuya, Noguchi Izumi, Kujirai Kentaro, andSadakata Makoto), titled What Cagliostro Dreamed in the Castel Sant’Angelo(Rogoku Tenshi-jo de Kariosutoro ga mita yume). The work is built around theidea that eighteenth-century swindler Cagliostro, when imprisoned on suspicionof political crimes, dreamed not of social or political revolution but rather a revolution to create a new relationship between humanity and the natural world—
dance. The work also references Peter Weiss’s play Marat/Sade, and no doubt
Kasai also saw an overlap between Weiss’s work and his own struggle for “the101ideals of human rights.” Kasai poured his heart and soul into the performance,
dancing like a man possessed and astonishing audiences.
Dairakudakan, led by Maro Akaji, also celebrated fifty years since its founding in
1972 with two new works presented in rapid succession: End (Owari) and
Beginning (Hajimari). These connected works portray the universe as a place
where destruction and birth repeat in cycles, and Butoh performers appeared in
the guise of such cosmic mysteries as dark matter, phantom energy, and whiteand black holes. End depicted a contracting universe being drawn into a blackhole, while Beginning reversed this story, showing matter being ejected from awhite hole and expanding to create new galaxies. The sheer audacity of anthropomorphizing the hidden mysteries of the universe and seeking to express suchvast motifs with the body richly stimulated the audience’s imagination, creatinga spectacle that gave full expression to the magnetism and humor of Butoh.
However, Maro’s imagination had more to offer. At the end of both productions, the entire cast donned light blue suits and performed a dance routine while
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singing La la la Sapiens (Ra ra ra sapiensu), an original pop song in the style of
Imawano Kiyoshiro. Against a repeated refrain of “La, la la, la la, Sapiens,” performers interjected lines like “Where are you going?” “What are you doing?”“Dancing,” and “Until the end of time.” The lyrics were by Maro himself andclosed the work with the intimation that humanity would not last until the universe’s end.
Teshigawara Saburo saw his rare genius recognized anew by the world. He wasselected to direct the New National Theatre’s new production of Gluck’s baroqueopera Orpheus and Eurydice (Orfeo ed Euridice), and his limpid, profound aesthetic was visible in everything from choreography and sets to costumes andlighting, drawing rapturous applause. The production wove together Suzuki
Masato’s conducting: the casting of Laurence Zazzo as Orfeo, Valda Wilson as
Euridice, and Miyake Rie as Amore, goddess of love; and an ensemble of dancers(Sato Rihoko, Alexandre Riabko, Takahashi Joe, Sato Shizuka) symbolically102

expressing the characters’ inner worlds. Sato’s dance, which toyed with space andlight like the very spirit of Euridice, intertwined organically with the orchestration and singing, sometimes leading the on-stage action as if to amplify themusic.
The round stage, which floated in darkness like a great white dish, and thewhite lily set design made a strong impression. The lighting changed as the story
progressed, differentiating between overworld and underworld, and the tale oflove transcending even death was depicted simply, with smooth abstraction.
Also this year, Teshigawara began his new “Drawing/Dance” series, in which
he dances with projections of his own drawings, with the premiere of In Search of
Lost Lines (Ushinawareta sen o motomete). The “Update Dance” series featured
Sato’s premiere of her new solo dance Forest of Confession (Kokuhaku no mori),
in which she used a kind of poetry of the body to evoke a phantasmagoricalworld accompanied by a text she wrote herself.
Teshigawara also received the Golden Lion for Dance at this year’s Biennale
di Venezia, becoming the first Japanese artist to win this honor. He was also recognized by the Japanese government as a Person of Cultural Merit.

Kanamori Jo’s Noism (“Noism Company Niigata,” the Niigata City Performing
Arts Center Ryutopia in-house dance company) delved into the history andculture of Niigata, premiering a double feature themed around oni (a kind ofJapanese ogre or demon) in their first full collaboration with Kodo, the taiko performing arts ensemble based on Sado Island.
The first of the two works, Les Noces de Madame Chrysanthème (Okiku no
kekkon), combined Stravinsky’s ballet piece Les Noces with Kanamori’s uniqueinterpretation and direction. Based on Pierre Loti’s novel Madame Chrysanthème,also an influence on Puccini’s opera Madame Butterfly, the work depicted the“local marriage” of Pierre (Geoffroy Poplawski), a French naval officer visiting
Japan in the early Meiji period, and Okiku or “Madame Chrysanthème” (Iseki
Sawako), a prostitute from Nagasaki’s licensed quarters. Okiku and the otherJapanese characters dance like dolls, critically addressing Western orientalism.
At the same time, the work also portrayed the inner oni nature driving the Japanese to banish and kill foreigners, and the pigtailed Iseki transfixed with a performance that concealed a steel core within apparent sweetness.

103

The second work, Oni, was a new piece commissioned from contemporarycomposer Harada Keiko on the theme of Niigata and performed with Kodo. The
story follows a group of three mountain ascetics led by En no Gyoja (Yamada
Yuki) who cross to Sado Island and encounter the prostitutes that live there. It
transpires that a nun named Seion has opened a licensed quarter on the island.
Harada’s music was reserved but exquisite. It experimented with organic reverberations, putting various aural sensations to use with instrumentation that
included not just large and small taiko drums but also also a hanging gong, achanchiki handgong, and even the breathing of the performers. This was new
territory for the members of Kodo, who rose to the challenge as performers. For
Noism, too, these were works that took the culture and history of Niigata as their
theme as they explored and embodied the oni that lurk within us all.
Hirahara Shintaro unveiled a new production of Philip Glass’s opera Einstein on
the Beach for the 50th anniversary of Kanagawa Kenmin Hall. This work, which
premiered with the 1976 production directed by Robert Wilson, has been called
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the world’s first example of a “theatre of images,” being made up of multiple fragmentary motifs relating to the life of gifted astrophysicist Albert Einstein. Fear of
nuclear war was high at the time of its composition, and the title was inspired by
Nevil Shute’s science fiction novel On the Beach, which depicted the aftermath of
a nuclear war. Hirahara reflexively illuminates these historical circumstancesfrom a contemporary perspective, establishing as characters historical figures
who lived life in their own way, such as Michel Foucault and Frieda Kahlo, andshackling the Statue of Liberty’s ankles. A giant vinyl sheet is used to evoke the
3/11 tsunami, the Fukushima nuclear accident, and pollution of the ocean byradioactive materials. The result was a powerful piece of theatre that hinted,
nearly half a century after the work’s debut, that the world is once again in a
nuclear and human rights crisis.

Doubting Dance and Viewing Reality with Critical Eyes
Work by female artists from the relatively young Millennial generation also
104

attracted attention this year. What these artists have in common is doubts about
dance as it currently exists and the determination to achieve a new understanding of reality on their own terms.
Kedagoro, led by Shimojima Reisa, premiered the new work 세월 (“Sewol” inHangul). The choice not to include a Japanese pronunciation or translation of thetitle suggests intent to problematize. This ambitious work deals directly with thecapsizing and sinking of the eponymous passenger ferry off Korea in 2014,
depicting the extreme circumstances of the passengers caught up in the disaster.
However, it does not recreate the incident itself in detail. Orange platforms are
piled on the stage; when the dancers descend from them, the set collapses, while
the order “가만히 있어” (Gamanhi iss-eo, “Don’t move”) issues intermittently fromloudspeakers overhead. Then a bizarre dance in unison takes place as the song 짜라빠빠 (Jja-ra-bba-bba), famous in Korea, is repeatedly played. The song “Dokdo

Is Our Territory,” known from territorial disputes with Japan, is also used. Some
scenes include movements like fitness drills, including push-ups, pair handstands, and breath-holding.

Shimojima has employed a creative method that places near-cruel burdens
on the bodies of performers to release a series of works. Based on the idea that“‘dance’ is one method of interpreting the world,” she runs repeated experimentswith the human body as apparatus, blithely uninfluenced by existing dance aesthetics. Instead of providing dances for audiences to watch, she uses dance as atool to draw audiences in and think about society together. By critically addressing social incidents that she could not have known directly and ensuring thatthose audiences bear witness to the circumstances as well, she creates opportunities to recognize and consider truth.
Shimojima’s past work includes Monkey in a Diaper (Omutsu o haita saru,2017), about Asahara Shoko of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, and Sky (2018), about theviolent purge within the United Red Army. This year also saw a new tour of her
work Because Kazcause (Bikozu Kazukozu, 2021), a work about Fukuda Kazuko,
who murdered a hostess in Matsuyama and then underwent plastic surgery toevade detection.
105

Nakagawa Ayane’s troupe Suichu-megane∞ premiered Good Cow-ken. Rightfrom the beginning, all seventeen members use the full theatre space as a venue
for fierce behavior set to punkish, frenzied rock music. Eventually performers
begin to leap from the mezzanine or threateningly grip kitchen knives in concert
as the work transitions to a performance that evokes ideas of harming oneself
and others, suicide by jumping, and suffocation. The motifs are simple movements, but the sense of irritation and frustration comes through painfully clearly.
With a focus on “the physicality of humans moved to suicide,” the work depicts
humans imprisoned by death.
Nakagawa began learning ballet and classical Japanese dance in early childhood and strives to fuse the two styles into a hybrid creation amid the dilemmaof being torn between them. At the same time, Nakagawa also turns a critical eye
toward contemporary society. At least 20,000 people kill themselves each year inJapan, and recent years have seen an increase in murder-suicides and incidents ofindiscriminate murder. Life is hard, filled with irritations and frustrations; how
do we tame our unstable selves, which threaten to explode at any time? A
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contemporary critical awareness and sensibility made a forthright appearance inthis performance.
Kurata Midori premiered a new work titled I Can/Can’t See You From Here Now(Ima koko kara, anata no koto ga mieru/mienai) (organized by Daimaruyu SDGs
ACT5 Executive Committee and bench Co.). For this initiative, she sought participants from among those working in Otemachi, Marunouchi, and Yurakuchoin the heart of Tokyo, and turned an entire floor of an office building in Yurakucho into a venue for performance. At first glance, the composition may resemble
a docudrama, but it is in fact more like post-drama theatre. One by one, the participants speak, as if introducing themselves. All kinds of people are present, andthe social realities arising from diversity manifest themselves. Individual standpoints thought to be non-individual are presented in close-up. Why do people
live? Why do they work? This work increased the resolution with which we
cognize the world.
106

Kurata has a history of creating works based on coming face-to-face withpeople as they really are, including patients at drug addiction rehabilitation
clinics and aging residents in regional areas. She has successfully completedmany projects by pursuing the possibilities of dance expressing the matters thatarise in such encounters as fiction.

Dance Ecosystems Gradually Expanding Amid the Pandemic
Even as the pandemic wreaked havoc on live theatrical performances, more residencies to support artists and opportunities to restage pieces were seen.
At the Toyohashi Arts Theatre PLAT (Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture), a dance
residency program open to applications from the public has run continuously since2017, and has become a space for many artists to create and present their work.
After its opening was postponed due to the pandemic, Dance Base
Yokohama (DaBY), changed its initial plans to offer expanded support for artists,
including a residency program. In 2022, the resulting repertoire was repackaged
as a “performing arts selection” for a seven-city national tour.
The Yokohama Dance Collection’s competition established two new prizes

after the pandemic to support artists with residency programs at the Kinosaki
International Arts Center (KIAC) and Architanz.
Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse No. 1 started its new choreographer system
in 2022, with Umeda Hiroaki appointed for a two-year term.
Competitions and festivals in various locations remained valuable opportunities for young artists in particular to receive evaluations and achievements
and to have their works restaged. Each restaging is an opportunity to polish thework further.
In this context, the activities of actor and dancer Moriyama Mirai attracted
particular attention. Moriyama, a native of Kobe, was invited to the creative
program at the Kiito Design and Creative Center Kobe, where he collaborated
with neuroscientist and cognitive scientist Nakano Nobuko on the experimental
work Formula. Probing into the topic more deeply, they brought in choreographer Ella Rothschild and embarked on a national tour. Moriyama expanded the
project further and devised ways to share the work more deeply, such as by curating works from top creators in multiple fields to turn the entire venue, including107

the lobby, into a kind of exhibition space.
A suggestion from Moriyama also resulted in the establishment of the Artist
in Residence Kobe (AiRK) program. Because there were no accommodation
facilities at Kiito, the program sourced operational funds through crowdfunding
in order to provide free accommodation so that its artists could concentrate on
creative activities. In the future, the goal is to use AiRK as a starting point forcollaborations with the city’s art and culture institutions that will enrich thesystem and further facilitate creativity. The City of Kobe has appointed Moriyama main curator of the Kobe Re:Public Art Project, which aims to attract tourists to the city using public art.
One final headline from this year: Ito Kaori was selected as director of TJP,
the National Dramatic Center of Strasbourg-Grand-Est. For a Japanese artist
to become director of a public theatre in France is an outstanding achievement.
One can only wait eagerly to see what kinds of collaborations with Japan will
be possible.

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Tsutsumi, Hiroshi
Born in 1966 in Kawasaki. Graduated in theatre studies at the Department of Literature at
Bunka Gakuin. Worked as an editor for art, entertainment, theatre, and dance magazines
before going freelance. Has covered a wide range of performing art genres, including small
theatre, shingeki-style (modern realism) theatre, underground (Angura) theatre, commercial
theatre, traditional theatre, and dance scenes. Has served as a selection committee member
for the Toyota Choreography Award and on the juries of the Guardian Garden Theatre
Festival and the SAI International Dance Festival. Edited The Flying Dangoro Party in the Sky:
“Rebirth of Acharaka” (Sora tobu kumo no ue Dangoro ichiza: “Acharaka saitanjo”), Performing
Arts in Germany Today, and Peter Brook’s The Road to “Battlefield,” among other works.
（Translation: Matt Treyvaud）

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Television Dramas

Looking beyond the Pandemic
Ota Shoichi

New Endeavors Amid a Return to Origins
One trend among the television dramas of 2022 was a return to origins.
Take NHK’s serial drama Come Come Everybody (Kamu kamu evuribadi).
Some 90% of the many serial dramas NHK has broadcast since 1961 have featured a female protagonist, and early series in particular often told the life storyof a woman who had experienced war. Come Come Everybody implicitly
acknowledged these origins of the “morning drama” as a form.
However, it also demonstrated innovation in following three generations of109

mothers and daughters instead of a single heroine. Combined with the masterfulforeshadowing and payoff of scriptwriter Fujimoto Yuki, this created a serial
drama of a type that is seldom seen—a tale of intertwined fates that spanned afull century and stirred genuine emotion in viewers (48th Hoso Bunka Foundation Prize: Incentive Award―Program, Television Drama, Scriptwriting
Award—Fujimoto Yuki; Tokyo Drama Awards 2022: Series Drama Award for
Excellence, Best Supporting Actor—Odagiri Joe, Scriptwriting Award—Fujimoto
Yuki; 60th Galaxy Awards: Award—Television, first half of year).
Skilled depictions of complex interpersonal relationships were also on
display in The 13 Lords of the Shogun (Kamakura-dono no jusan-nin), this year’s
taiga drama. NHK’s taiga dramas have brought the lives of warriors and otherfigures from Japanese history to the screen since 1963. For this entry in the series,
Mitani Koki’s screenplay stayed true to the recorded facts of history while fillingin the blanks with flights of imagination, spinning a rich human drama aroundthe struggle for supremacy that is the origin of the taiga drama form.
Making protagonist Hojo Yoshitoki (Oguri Shun) a cold and calculating
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antihero rather than the often-seen idealistic dreamer also added a fresh touch.
The superb pacing, with comical scenes woven seamlessly into the series of historical tragedies, heightened the sense of maturity, demonstrating a terminus adquem of the “Mitani screenplay.”
What these works shared in common was an attempt to find new possibilities for drama amid a return to origins. In their approach to this, they threw thecurrent realities of Japanese society into relief. Indeed, the intent to recapture theeveryday that is the point of origin for our lives, and discover new drama there,
was another commonality shared by some the finest works of 2022.

Crime Shown as Continuous with the Everyday
That intent was readily visible, for example, in dramas that depicted the relationship between crime and everyday life. When an extraordinary event like crimerears its head amid what had seemed to be a peaceful everyday existence, whatdrama can be found there? Works posing this question to their viewers attracted
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attention in 2022. This facet was visible in dramas like the much-discussed Don’t
Call It Mystery (Misuteri to iu nakare) (Fuji TV) starring Suda Masaki, but I will
discuss two in particular here.
The first was Ishiko and Haneo: You’re Suing Me? (Ishiko to Haneo: Sonnakoto de uttaemasu?) (TBS) in which a lawyer and a paralegal (Nakamura Tomoya
and Arimura Kasumi, respectively) buddied up to explore the unexpected
human dramas behind the cases handled by their legal office. Clients arrived
with minor issues that could arise anywhere, such as disagreements over in-app
fees for smartphone games, but as our heroes traced the threads toward resolution, hidden snarls in relationships and surprising motives on the part of theparties involved came to the surface. This was an appealing work, further elevated by Tsukahara Ayuko’s refined direction (60th Galaxy Awards: Incentive
Award―Television, first half of year).
By contrast, the central crime in Love with a Case (Hatsukoi no akuma,
NTV) was a string of gruesome murders. This heightened the contrast with theeveryday life woven by the four highly individual actors Hayashi Kento, Nakano
Taiga, Matsuoka Mayu, and Emoto Tasuku, which contained all the romanceand friendship of a coming-of-age tale. However, these two worlds were not separated but existed on a continuum. This drama’s Japanese title literally means “thedemon of first love,” and it did indeed contain both of those elements. Sakamoto
Yuji’s screenplay was fresh as always, with memorable lines and exchanges thatbound together these two worlds representing opposite extremes.

A Drama Urging Self-Reflection by the Television Industry
One work that sought to depict the relationship between society and crime froma slightly different angle was Elpis: Hope or Disaster (Erupisu: Kibo, arui wa
wazawai, Kansai TV).
When television news announcer Asakawa Ena (Nagasawa Masami) learns
that a prisoner sentenced to death for serial murder may have been falsely convicted, she starts working on the story with her director Kishimoto Takuro(Maeda Gordon). The two uncover new evidence and draw nearer to the truth
but are frustrated by political pressure and their network’s eagerness to comply
with the unspoken demands of the powerful.

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It is extremely rare for a prime-time commercial television drama to takethe problems of the judicial system as its theme. In doing so, while also putting
television news reporting and even television itself on the chopping block, Elpis
felt fresh and razor-sharp. It demonstrated a perspective that urges criticalself-reflection by the television industry and, and posed a sincere question: “Howdeeply can drama delve into the contradictions and problems of society?”
Critical to the realization of this vision was, I gather, the role of Sano
Ayumi, who was also producer of Teen Regime (Junanasai no teikoku, NHK)
(60th Galaxy Awards: Incentive Award—Television, first half of year), in whicha seventeen-year-old boy chosen by AI struggles to become the ideal politician
to reverse the decline of a regional city in a waning near-future Japan. Watanabe
Aya’s screenplay for Elpis skillfully blends in the romance between Asakawa andpolitical reporter Saito Seiichi (Suzuki Ryohei) and entertaining elements like
Kishimoto’s development beyond his sheltered upbringing, creating a social suspense drama that was more than rewarding.
Elpis surely created a stir in the world of television dramas, where
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stereotyped works that seek solely to entertain constitute the mainstream. It wasa deeply meaningful attempt to broaden the possibilities of the form.

Coming to Terms with the Pandemic
Years after the initial outbreak, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to shake oureveryday life to the core. This naturally raises the question of how television
dramas are addressing the pandemic as a kind of “extraordinary turned
everyday.”
Ultimately, however, dramas have tended to avoid facing that question
directly. Admittedly, there have been “remote dramas” in which actors and staff
avoided close contact by filming separate segments that were edited into a unified
story. Some of these works were superb. But most television dramas only reflected
the impact of COVID-19 on our lives at the most superficial level.
By contrast, Your Stuff Is Here (Anata no butsu ga, koko ni, NHK) was awork that fixed its gaze directly on the question of what the pandemic means for112

our lives.
Nimura Sawa plays the protagonist, a single mother who works at a cabaret
club. When she loses that job due to the pandemic, she finds new work as a delivery driver. Having no existing connection to this industry, her unfamiliar new
duties cause her difficulties and lower her spirits.
Your Stuff Is Here vividly depicted other aspects of daily life that have beenchanged or exacerbated by the pandemic. The okonomiyaki restaurant owned by
the protagonist’s parents found itself in straitened circumstances as customers
stopped coming. The delivery recipients around the city faced difficulties too.
One had work cancelled due to COVID-19. Another treated the protagonist andother delivery drivers coldly, refusing even to meet them in the entranceway outof fear she would transmit the disease to her unwell husband.
The program showed how the pandemic creates a despairing sense of being
trapped at every turn. However, as the protagonist interacted with her colleagues
and clients—sometimes clashing with them, sometimes solving problems
together—she found her own salvation. In short, this was a drama about people
isolated by the pandemic gradually reclaiming the human connections they had

before (60th Galaxy Awards: Award―Television, first half of year).

The Essence of Communication
Another television drama that made us rethink this meaning of “connection”—
or, put another way, what communication is—was silent (Fuji TV). silent is thestory of a love affair between its two young protagonists, but at its root lie universal questions transcending the romantic frame: What does it mean for two
people to communicate? What is it to understand each other?
Aoba Tsumugi (Kawaguchi Haruna) and Sakura So (Meguro Ren) had arelationship in high school before becoming estranged from each other. Whenthey encounter each other again years later, So has become hearing-impaired due
to illness. Tsumugi and So, however, are not the absolute center of the story; thework placed great emphasis on depicting their relationships with the friends andfamily around them, including a woman who has had a hearing disability frombirth, played by Kaho. At times, these characters were presented in as muchdetail as the lead protagonists.

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This approach brings the diversity of communication into view. Instead of asimple “hearing/not hearing” opposition, So lost his hearing partway through lifeand knows both worlds. Characters interact with each other using a range of
methods, including spoken, sign, and written language. Naturally, this brings
complications, making life difficult and communication challenging at times. On
the other hand, the moments when those barriers are surmounted and mutual
understanding is achieved give hope to carry on. What this work teaches us is theuniversal essence of communication—the fact that it goes both ways.
It is suggestive that a work like silent appeared in 2022 amid the ongoingpandemic. While it does not address COVID-19 directly, its story does feel like ametaphor for a future world in which we put pandemic-induced isolation behind
us and move toward becoming a continuum once more. What can be read fromthis is a vision of a post-COVID age—a gaze that looks beyond the pandemic.

In Closing
This year also saw many other worthy dramas, including The Two Who Do
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Not Love (Koi senu futari, NHK), which explored different ways to be a family
through the shared life of an aromantic and asexual couple; Shizuka and Papa
(Shizuka-chan to Papa, NHK), a domestic comedy about a deaf single father
and his daughter, who has always helped him with communication, learning tolet each other go as she prepares to marry; Lost Man Found (Hirowareta otoko,
NHK), a biographical drama about real-life actor Matsuo Satoru in whichsome of the actors in his story are played by themselves; If My Wife Became an
Elementary Student (Tsuma, shogakusei ni naru, TBS) in which a widowed
husband and his daughter are visited by his late wife, who has borrowed the bodyof an elementary student; and Hey, Handsome!! (Oi hansamu!!, Tokai TV), a
domestic drama about the day-to-day life of a cantankerous father and his threedaughters who have terrible taste in men.
In 2022, the relationship between television dramas and social media also
became a topic of discussion. Viewers took to social media to discuss their “interpretations” of works, and trending “review and evaluation meeting” tags brought
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together doubts about how characters were depicted or stories were progressing.
This is certainly a valid way to enjoy the genre. On the other hand, I hope we canalso recall how many television dramas like the ones described above werecreated this year—works that moved us deeply and afforded realizations thatcannot be put into words.
Ota, Shoichi
Sociologist and writer. Writes on topics including television and postwar Japan, comedy,
idols, and dramas. His books include An Almost Complete History of Writers for Broadcast (Hososakka hobo zenshi, Seikaisha Shinsho, 2022), On Mizutani Yutaka (Mizutani Yutaka-ron, Seidosha,
2021), Provocative TV Tokyo, Lovable TV Tokyo (Semeteru Tele-To, ai sareru Tele-To, University ofTokyo Press, 2019), and Kohaku Uta Gassen and the Japanese People (Kohaku Uta Gassen to
Nihonjin, Chikuma Sensho, 2013). committee member for the television category of the
Association of Broadcast Critics’ Galaxy Awards.
(Translation: Matt Treyvaud)

シアター
トピックス

D eve l o p m e n t s i n J a p a n a n d O ve r s e a s
i n 2 022

DEVELOPMENTS IN JAPAN and OVERSEAS

Developments in Japan and Overseas

Creating stages amidst war

Interviews with the directors of three Ukrainian theatres
Interviewer: Marina Kotelenets(Director of the All-Ukrainian Public Organization “Ukrainian League of Authors”)

Sumy
Kyiv
Kharkiv

Lviv

Severodonetsk

Ivano-Frankivsk

Dnipro116

LuhanskDonetskMariupol

Odesa
0

100km

On March 16, 2022, less than a month after the Russian invasion of Ukraine,
there were reports that Russian forces had bombed the Donetsk Academic
Regional Drama Theatre in Mariupol, killing many people. At the time, thedestroyed theatre was being used as a refugee shelter.
While Russian theatre researchers have been using the Internet to sharethe voices of Russian theatre artists, the situations of Ukrainian theatre
artists are less readily visible.
The Japanese Centre of International Theatre Institute approached the
Ukrainian League of Authors in Kyiv, with whom we had established aconnection through our “Theatre Born in Conflict Zones” project, to see
if we could interview representatives from local theatres. The director,
Marina Kotelenets, offered to personally conduct in-person or telephoneinterviews with representatives from theatres in three regions facing different experiences with the war.
Ms. Kotelenets’s interviews provide records of what happened to these
theatres on the day of the invasion, what it has been like for them toengage in artistic creation under wartime conditions, and what they
foresee for the future.

Theatre for mutual aid
Lesya Ukrainka National Academic Drama Theatre(Kyiv)
https://lesyatheatre.com.ua/

The Lesya Ukrainka National Academic Drama Theatre is one of the largest
drama theatres in Ukraine.
The Theatre’s official history begins in 1926, when the Kyiv District

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Executive Committee organized the State Russian Drama Theatre. However, theTheatre’s true roots extend back to the nineteenth century, when the outstanding
actor and director Nikolai Solovtsov organized the Solovtsov Theatre as a permanent Russian theatre in 1891. It was located in the same building in which theLesya Ukrainka Theatre now operates. It was renamed in 1941, after therenowned Ukrainian poetess and playwright Lesya Ukrainka.
For the last 25 years, the Theatre has been directed by Mikhail Reznikovich,
one of the most recognized directors in Ukraine. He is a student and steward of
the cultural traditions of the famous Soviet director, teacher, and theatre theorist
Georgy Tovstonogov (1915–1989).
Until recently, the theatre was called the Lesya Ukrainka Kyiv National
Academic Russian Drama Theatre. Until then, it had performed plays in
Russian since its inception, inviting Russian directors to stage performances ofclassics by Chekhov, Ostrovsky, and Bulgakov, as well as those by contemporary
Russian authors.
In March 2022, however, following the Russian Federation’s invasion of
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Juliet and Romeo

Ukraine, the Theatre removed
the phrase “Russian Drama”
from its name and begantranslating its entire repertoire into Ukrainian.
Kyrylo Kashlikov is the
Theatre’s managing director,
as well as an actor and director there. He has been actively
directing since 2014, when
he staged Juliet and Romeo,
a reworking of Shakespeare’sclassic. Then he directed
A View from the Bridge byArthur Miller (2016) and The
Curious Incident of the Dog

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in the Night-Time by Simon
Stephens (2018). In subsequent years, he staged playsby two Irish authors: Martin
McDonagh’s The Cripple of
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Inishmaan (2020) and BrianFriel’s Translations (2022).
On February 24, the day
Russia launched its invasion,a rehearsal of a completed
production of The Ferryman,based on the play by Jez
Butterworth, was scheduledon the Theatre’s big stage, but
the release of that production
had to be postponed.

The Cripple of Inishmaan

Kyrylo Kashlikov
Managing director, actor, and director
at the Lesya Ukrainka National Academic
Drama Theatre
Interview date: October 10, 2022

24 February
When the war started, Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture and Information Policy
ordered a halt to all performances in Ukrainian theatres. All employees had towork remotely, and at two-thirds of their normal salary. Some Theatre employees
left Kyiv and Ukraine; others enlisted for territorial defense and were later sent to
the front.
Kyiv became empty…

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My family did not want to go anywhere, and I could not abandon the
Theatre. Therefore, my wife and daughter decided to live with me there. Severalof our actors and their families joined us, because their houses were located next
to strategic sites that were periodically targeted in missile strikes.
As early as the first few days of March, the Ministry of Culture establishedcontact with all its institutions and organizations, sent out reports, andexchanged information. Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko (Minister of Culture
and Information Policy since June 4, 2020) began to analyze the situation anddetermined that it was possible to keep at least some forms of theatre open in
Kyiv, despite the hostilities.
Those of us who remained in Kyiv were eager to do something. Ours was the
only theatre in Kyiv considered suitably safe, which was the foremost priority forcontinued performances. We did not need to construct a bomb shelter, since
there is a subway entrance right in front of the Theatre’s entrance; when an airraid signal sounded, we could open the doors and everyone in the audience could
reach shelter within 2–6 minutes. The Minister himself visited the Theatre to
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confirm how effectively our team
operates during air raids.
So on April 9, 2022, we wereable to present our first performance of Tri Kokhannya (Three
Loves),

dedicated

to

Lesya

Ukrainka, on our 129-seat Small
Stage. The venue was full, andeveryone—both audience andactors—was in tears.
Three Loves, the first performance since the war began,played to a full house.

Alexander Tkachenko thenasked us to present a performancefor children, and by mid-April we

had prepared a children’s stage performance. Many people came to it, withparents and grandparents bringing children. I was surprised at how many little
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Kyivans remained in the city. In our Theatre’s hall there were 5- and 6-year-olds
playing and crawling on the carpets—that sight alone left me crying again.

Theatre and war
I realized that the war had changed the Theatre’s mission. In March and April
2022, I kept remembering a thought by McDonagh: a character in one of his
plays stated that it is when we stand on the edge of the abyss that we recall
our humanity.
In April, Kyiv was half empty, but people from across the city came to our
performances, thereby expressing protest against fear and danger. They came tothe theatre in part to forget about everything for a while, but also, more importantly, to experience a sense of community and closeness. Theatre is the only art
form that provides such a feeling of mutual belonging. Everyone, both actors andspectators, becomes united. Sometimes it felt like a scene from a post-apocalyptic
movie in which people converged, gathering just to sit together. In April, ourTheatre had become their gathering point.
Since we could not yet fully return to work at the Theatre (many actors had

left, and translations of our performances into Ukrainian were not yet ready), I
proposed a “We are from Ukraine” theme, that we should perform readings of
topical plays by Ukrainian playwrights, particularly those providing incisivereflections on the ongoing military events.
Through social networking, I invited all theatrical colleagues remaining in
Kyiv to use our facilities. As a result, several independent projects began toutilize our Small Stage. This was our way of supporting theatre people—they
still couldn’t earn much money, but hopefully at least enough to get bysomehow. We also provided our venue to the Ivan Franko Kyiv National
Ukrainian Theatre. Their theatre is as big as ours, but their large, beautiful
building is located near the government quarter, and the danger of shelling androckets made it impossible for them to work. They returned to their home venue
in October, but even during those days of war, there was activity at our Lesya
Ukrainka Theatre five days a week: the Ivan Franko Theatre performed on ourstage on two days, we performed on another two, and one day each week wasallocated to independent projects.

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Later, actors and directors from the Mykola Kulish Kherson Theatre
fled from southern Ukraine when Russian troops captured Kherson. Many
decided to stay in Kyiv, so we
extended opportunities to workon our stage to them, too. In
October, we even released ajointly produced documentary
performance,

Lyshatysja(Ne)

Mozhna… (Staying is (Not) Possible…), based on the stories ofactual Kherson theatre workers.
Believe me, the venue was always
at capacity seating for theirperformances.
I have always dreamed of
improved

solidarity

between

Staying is (Not) Possible… Photo: Alexandr Kniga
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actors, of theatrical people casting aside the jealousy and competition we tend
toward, and instead becoming sincere friends. That suddenly happened during
the war. For me, this has been a very important and valuable experience.

Our performances and our future
Our immediate reaction to the pain of military activity was a fresh read of
Ukrainian drama. More time should pass before we attempt serious performances on the topic of the current war: a certain distance is needed, to disassociate ourselves from our painful reflections.
Therefore, I believe that our new production of Irish playwright Brian Friel’s
Translations is a more meaningful statement about the current situation in
Ukraine.
I started working on this play two years ago and have been thinking about it
all this time. That allowed us to stage it in just two months. In fact, this play presents a complete mirror image of the events taking place in Ukraine. Translations
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will soon become a classic, and this is very important, because it was not an
impromptu creation. I believe that our “play of Translations” is already about ourwar, about the factors that led to it.
Will we resume performances of plays from Russian theatre? It is simply
inappropriate to discuss that topic today. Seven members of our Theatre team arecurrently fighting at the front, and others are under contracts for territorial
defense. Many families have lost loved ones. During work breaks, women go to
the theatre buffet to weave camouflage nets for use at the front. No, now is not
the time for discussions of Russian culture.
Our future repertoire will be more connected with Ukrainian classics.
Mikhail Reznikovich, the Theatre’s artistic director, is currently working on astage version of the tragic novel On Sunday Morning, She Gathered Herbs by
Ukrainian writer Olha Kobylyanska. But I still want to release a production of
The Ferryman by Jos Butterworth, which was postponed due to the war.
Another problem confronting not only us, but all Ukrainian theatres, is lossof funding, resulting in inevitable budget cuts. Theatre subsidies have been
reduced by 10% until the end of the year and will be cut by another 20% in 2023.

Translations Photo: Iryna Somova

This is a very serious problem, but we have sought and will continue to findopportunities to retain our team, both cast members and technical staff. We
don’t want to abandon our people in such difficult times.
Believe me, everything changed after February 24. We are no longer able to123

conduct strategic planning in the Theatre. At all. We simply don’t have the energy
or the time. On a daily basis, we can only consider prospects over the next six
months, no more, so that is all we have been talking about.
We need to continue translating performances into Ukrainian, but doing
so is a colossal job. In 2019, Ukraine adopted a law titled “On ensuring thefunctioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language,” which required
all performances performed in Russian to provide subtitles, so we have been
dealing with this issue for a long time. In place of subtitles, we decided toprovide audiences with simultaneous Ukrainian interpreting of performances
via headphones.
On February 26, I created a Telegram channel group to allow operational
communications with Theatre staff. Nearly our entire team, almost threehundred people, joined that group. Everyone immediately agreed to remove thewords “Russian Drama” from the Theatre’s name, and the actors took the position that they would only work in Ukrainian.
At the beginning of the war, the Theatre repertoire had about sixty
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performances. Now, seven months later, 29 have already been performed in
Ukrainian. Anyone involved in stage work will understand what an incredible
job that is for actors who have worked only in Russian for their entire professional lives. But we will do it!

The theatre running away from the war
Luhansk Regional Academic Ukrainian Music and Drama Theatre(Luhansk / Severodonetsk / Sumy)
http://ukrlugteatr.com

The city of Luhansk is the center of the easternmost region of Ukraine. It is
located sixty kilometers from the Russian border, so most of the region’s population speaks Russian.
The Luhansk Regional Academic Ukrainian Music and Drama Theatre was124

founded in August 1941 as a theatre group in Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine
to serve Soviet military units and hospitals during World War II. After the 1944
liberation of the territory of Ukraine from the German invaders, the Theatre
returned from evacuation to Luhansk, where it began working as a regional
Ukrainian music and drama theatre.
Due to antiterrorist operations in eastern Ukraine, in December 2014
the Luhansk Theatre was to be moved from occupied Luhansk to the city of
Severodonetsk, which remained controlled by the Ukrainian authorities. Mostof the troupe remained in Luhansk, with only three employees (the director, theaccountant, and one actor) reaching the new location. They alone faced the taskof rebuilding the team in a new place and resuming full theatre operations as
quickly as possible.
Eight years later, in March 2022, the Luhansk Theatre was again forced toevacuate from the war zone. In June 2022, Russian troops captured
Severodonetsk.

Serhiy Dorofeev
Former Director and Artistic Director (2015-2022)of the Luhansk Regional Academic Ukrainian Music andDrama Theatre
Interview date: October 12, 2022

From Luhansk to Severodonetsk
Our Theatre has always worked in Ukrainian, and we were greatly loved by the
public back in Luhansk, despite that being a Russian-speaking region. This isbecause our performances have always been better and more interesting thanthose in other Luhansk theatres.
The Theatre was moved to Severodonetsk, and when I headed it in 2015, its
creative staff consisted of only ten people. But with just that limited staff, we had

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to recreate the Luhansk Ukrainian Theatre from scratch in a new place.
The Theatre was allocated new premises in 2015, and our actors, who had left
Luhansk for destinations throughout Ukraine, began to return to us. To expand
our team, we invited students from various creative universities. Our Theatregave some of them their first job.
By 2016, the Theatre’s repertoire had grown to twelve performances. In thatsame year, the regional administration started major renovations of the oldbuilding, which was allocated specifically for our Theatre. In 2017, we got ourown stage and excellent technical equipment. Finally, it felt as if we had a homeagain.
Since we were the only theatre in the Luhansk region (in the part thatremained under Ukrainian control), we were tasked with meeting the needs of
all categories of the local population. We thus staged performances for both
adults and children. We performed classics (well-known and loved by audiences),musicals, entertaining performances, and modern plays. Since our team was very
young—the average age of our troupe members was 25—we invited young
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Ukrainian directors and playwrights. We tried to show audiences a modern,experimental theatre.
Note that Severodonetsk is by no means a theatre city. It is a small industrial
town with a large chemical plant. Therefore, the public initially viewed us with
distrust and considered theatre in Ukrainian as something unusual. But overtime, audiences really fell in love with us. We attracted larger audiences, more
fans…in general, we managed to turn the tide of opinion in the city.
I remained clearly aware of the Theatre’s mission: to fortify Ukrainian
culture in the region. For the purpose of cultural enlightenment, in 2018 westarted our own theatre festival, to which we invited the most interesting performances from across Ukraine.
It was a wonderful eight years filled with very interesting and intense work,
but the Theatre had to evacuate again in 2022. Once again, we had to leave ourhomes, our Theatre, and Severodonetsk, along with the relationships we’d cultivated there.
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24 February
On February 24, all residents of the Luhansk region were asked to evacuate. The
regional administration told the Theatre staff to prepare for departure, so westarted packing our things. Even on February 24, we could hear flying, landing,and exploding missiles in Severodonetsk.
Actually, we already had an action plan prepared, so we were able to contact
all employees in just fifteen minutes. We’d created lists in advance, specifying
who was ready to leave, who would need help to evacuate, who could evacuate on
their own, and who intended to remain in the city under any circumstances. Of
course, not everything went according to plan: some of those who said theywould stay were the first to leave, while some who’d planned to leave ended up
staying in the city for a long time.
In February, there was chaos in Severodonetsk. Crowds of confused people.
Huge transport convoys. Even so, the regional administration organized evacuations by rail, regularly traveling to the central and western regions of the country.
There were even special buses to bring people to railway stations. That lasted forover two weeks, until the railroad was bombed.
I remember it being very difficult to convince people of the need to leave
Severodonetsk. Our employees used the Theatre basement to hide from thebombing and shelling. But even they did not immediately decide to leave; they
thought everything would work out before they could move anywhere. Eventually, however, most everyone had to leave.
Interestingly, in 2014, only one-third of troupe members at the original
Luhansk Theatre left our native Luhansk for territory controlled by Ukraine. The
rest remained in Luhansk, accepted the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic as
the new government, and later a Russian one. By contrast, in 2022, more than
90% of our new young troupe left Severodonetsk for other territories of Ukraine
or elsewhere in Europe. Among the remaining 5–8% were those who welcomed
the Russians, but none were from our creative staff. Today, not a single one of ouractors remains in Severodonetsk.
When Russian troops entered Severodonetsk in June 2022, a tank destroyed
the theatre building with direct fire. There is a video recording of a captured

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Donetsk People’s Republic fighter who explains why he fired ten shots at thetheatre: because his commander
believed that Ukrainian soldiers
were hiding inside. But there were
no soldiers there. I know that for
sure, because until the last minute I
remained in touch with colleagues
who had been living and hiding in
the Theatre. No one was hurt, thankGod, but the theatre was destroyed.
Only the walls remained.

The Luhansk Theatre in Severodonetsk was destroyed.

Our Theatre is a wanderer and a migrant
At the beginning of the evacuation, I joined part of the Theatre team in relocating to Dnipro (a large regional center in eastern Ukraine, located on the Dnieper,
the largest river in Ukraine). There we worked on the stage of the Dnipro
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Academic Drama and Comedy Theatre (https://dramicom.dp.ua), which
accepted our troupe to its venue.
In July 2022, I was invited to become director of the M.S. Shchepkin
Sumy National Academic Drama and Musical Comedy Theatre (https://musicdrama.com.ua) in northern Ukraine. At around that time, Oleksandr
Grishkov, who worked as my deputy in Severodonetsk for eight years, headed
the Luhansk Theatre.
Today, the Sumy Theatre actually houses two theatres, two legal entities with
their own troupes and repertoires: the Luhansk Theatre and the Sumy Theatre.
The theatrical public in Sumy was at first surprised, wondering why theyneeded more than one theatre.
But our first performances weresold out and were a great successwith local theatregoers. The
Luhansk Theatre in Sumy thus
easily won over its audiences.

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In August, the two troupes
and theatres coordinated to
produce a common project,Will. Freedom. Victory., as amusical performance for theWill. Freedom. Victory.

Independence Day of Ukraine
holiday. Now this show is
included in the Sumy Theatre
repertoire, and it is very popularwith audiences.
Our next coproduction will
be Shakespeare’s Romeo andJuliet. It will be a big musicalperformance with a live performance by the Sumy Theatre
orchestra.

Romeo and Juliet

Safety
The M.S. Shchepkin Sumy Theatre did not work during the first six months of
the war, because the Sumy region was partially occupied by Russian troops andthe city was surrounded. There was still danger even after the enemy was expelledfrom northern Ukraine. It was necessary to resolve all issues related to the safetyof audiences and employees at the Theatre before we could conduct any performances. This was the first task I had to resolve as a director.
The Theatre had a basement, in which people were living and hiding during
the city’s besiegement. We have refurbished it in accordance with safety requirements. The basement can only
accommodate 150 people, so I
also formed an agreement with
the Ukrainian Academy of
Banking, which is located nextdoor, that in the event of an air
raid during one of our perfor-

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mances, they will share theirbomb shelter with us, providing room for another 50
people. This allows us to sellmore tickets and perform forLungs

200 people (in an 800-seatauditorium, but still).
We have also opened anewexperimental

space

directly below the revolving
stage. A “stage beneath thestage,” that is in a sense its ownbomb shelter. We have alreadystaged two chamber plays at
this venue: Lungs by Duncan
Macmillan and Borsch, based

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on stories by Ostap Vyshnya (an extremely popular Ukrainian satirist).

Life goes on without Russians
We have zero interest in plays by Russian authors, regardless of whether they areclassics or contemporary works. Even in Severodonetsk our policy was for noshows by Russian authors, and I want to continue that in Sumy. Even if we comeacross good material, even if it is by an author with a neutral position toward thesituation in Ukraine, the answer is still no. So far as I am concerned, there are nogood Russians left, even including my own relatives from across Russia, fromPetersburg to Kamchatka. We no longer share a common position. We exist indifferent worlds.
Now we are expanding the Theatre’s repertoire, restoring previous performances in both our theatres. This is very difficult because many actors are on theroad—some in other Ukrainian cities, some abroad—and all our scenery andcostumes were burned in Severodonetsk. But under my lead, the Sumy Theatre
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has put on three (of course, small-scale) performances. As a gift for children in
the region, we also perform The Carnival of the Animals, based on the musicalsuite by Camille Saint-Saëns, which allows children to become acquainted withmusical instruments and learn some basic musical knowledge. Tickets for thatshow are always sold out. All our new performances are also popular.
But like Severodonetsk, Sumy is a small town, and small towns do notsupport long runs; after ten performances our potential audiences have dried up.
Therefore, despite the war and the very difficult economic situation in Ukraine,
we have to increase the pace of our work. But so long as we can maintain our
Ukrainian playwright Natalia Vorozhbit’s Sasha,
Take Out the Garbage also entered the repertoire.

creative activities, we will keep bringing in audiences.
The people need theatre all themore during wartime. Visiting thetheatre is not unlike visiting friends
and relatives for understanding, forsupport. And we should provide themwith that.

Theatre in the rear
Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theatre(Ivano-Frankivsk)
http://www.dramteatr.if.ua/

The Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theatre is located in the city ofIvano-Frankivsk, in western Ukraine at the foot of the Ukrainian Carpathians(Prykarpattia). Both the city and the theatre bear the name of the outstanding
Ukrainian writer, poet, and cultural figure Ivan Franko (1856–1916). Now,
during the war, Ivano-Frankivsk is far from the front lines.
It was officially created in 1939 as a traveling theatre for amateur groups
from western Ukraine. It became the first professional Ukrainian theatre in the
Carpathian region during the Soviet era.
The website of the British Council describes the theatre as follows:
For a theatre that celebrated 80 years in 2019, the National Academic Drama
Theatre (Ivano-Frankivsk) boasts a remarkably youthful and energetic troupeand staff — one aching for increased opportunity for innovation. Over the last131

decade Rostyslav Derzhypilskiy has served as artistic director of this venue thatseats 900 in its large hall, and between 50–150 in its small hall. Theatre repertoire
strikes a performance balance, featuring everything from treatments of contemporary Ukrainian popular fiction to a shock operatic production of Hamlet toAlbert Camus’s Caligula, staged by French director Jules Audry. Upcoming productions include works by Sophocles, Shakespeare and Chekhov.
The Ivan Franko Theatre has tirelessly pursued international links, completing tours to the United States, Canada, Italy and Poland. It is currently developing Ukraine’s first Shakespeare Festival to feature both domestic and international productions. It has also put together the Gogol Fest and multi-disciplinary
Porto Franko festivals. This is an experienced and versatile group, one open tointernational collaboration and creative exchange, which is ready to tour.
(https://www.britishcouncil.org.ua/sites/default/files/theatre_profile_if_nadt.pdf)

They are an experienced and versatile group, open to international collaboration,
creative exchange, and ready to tour.
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Rostyslav Derzhypilsky
General director and artistic director - actor, director,
producerat the Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theatre
Interview date: October 12, 2022

Repertoire without Russian
In 2019, our Theatre attained national status. From that time, we began to precisely plan our work as a theatre center for the whole of Ukraine. To that end, we
invited the best directors in the country for our productions. In 2022, we had
agreements with several Ukrainian and foreign directors.
We always planned our repertoire to include both classical plays and modern
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drama. We also included Russian authors, Chekhov and modern playwrights.
The premiere of a play based on Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot was scheduled to takeplace here on March 12–13, 2022.
I have long dreamed of staging a work by Dostoyevsky, but at this moment,
after Russia’s invasion, all plays by Russian authors have been removed from ourrepertoire. Currently, staging Russian plays is out of the question.

February 24
At the beginning of the war, especially after learning about all the military horrors
and murders, the question for me personally was, Is there really a need for atheatre in such times? But I did not remain in such as confused state for long.
Literally just a few days after the war started, we turned our theatre into ahumanitarian and logistical center for transport and aid, supporting the soldiersof the Ukrainian Armed Forces and displaced persons from the eastern andsouthern parts of our country.
Our actors, even stars who are widely known in Ukraine and abroad, havebecome logisticians. Before the war, they participated in theatre projects acrossEurope, even starring in movies and television projects. The people therefore
placed a lot of trust in these actors, and in our team in general.
Funds from countries around the world immediately began to flow into thebank account of our public organization, which was established long ago to
support our Theatre. In just a few days, we collected a lot of goods for humanitarian aid: medicine, household items for displaced persons, and many other things.
This work was led by our employees: actors Nadiya Levchenko and Ivan Bindarand our chief choreographer Dmytro Leka. They communicated with parties
around the world.
My deputy managing director, sound engineer, and some technical staff
went to the front, but I tried to retain our actors because replacing them would
make it nearly impossible to recreate the synergy we had developed as a troupe.
Our sewing department, which in normal times sews costumes for thetheatre, began to sew items for the military.
Many refugees from Kyiv, Kharkiv, and eastern and southern Ukraine
appeared in our city. Some lived in our theatre for a while. Therefore, our actors

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created a kind of counseling center for refugee children, where they could play,communicate, and spend time.

When theatre becomes more than theatre
We quickly resumed actual
theatrical activities. Here is
why: A few years ago, we set
up a stage in our theatre’s
large basement, where weplayed Shakespeare’s Hamlet
and Romeo and Juliet. This
basement became a bomb
shelter for use during air
raids, a time when many
people came to us, including
displaced persons. I must

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confess that such scenes werevery difficult to watch, because
everyone there was psychologically traumatized. Among the
refugees were pregnant women,
women with small children,
even people bringing pets.
They were all very scaredduring the air raids, even to thepoint of sickness. In those first
Romeo and Juliet

days, therefore, all our theatre
employees approached them as

psychologists and tried to calm them down.
Then a thought came to me: Why not risk doing what we know best?
I didn’t know what plays would be best to perform for these people. Come134

dies, for people who have witnessed horror and violence? Tragedies, despite ourbeing surrounded by tragedy ourselves?
But we took that risk, and in early March we put on our first performance.
That was Aeneid, which is based on a burlesque travesty poem by the Ukrainian
writer Ivan Kotlyarevskyi and the first literary work published in modern
Ukrainian (in 1798). We next played Hamlet, to show our gratitude to the peopleof Great Britain for their unprecedented support of Ukraine, then Nation, basedon the works of contemporary Ukrainian writer Maria Mathios.
All doubts about the people’s need for theatre evaporated when we reada social networking post by one of our viewers. A woman from Bucha wrote
the following:
When the war came and the bombing began, I took my family, my children
and hid them all in the basement. I didn’t cry then, because I understood that I
had no right to cry, that I had to keep calm and strong, that I am responsible formy family’s safety. We sat in the basement for a week, afraid to go upstairs
because everything outside and on the street had been destroyed by rockets. I
didn’t cry then, either, because I understood that I had to provide my family with

food, water, and warmth.
When I realized it was time
to move on, we gathered ourbelongings and fled our city
under bombs. Even then I did
not cry, because I understoodthat I was responsible for myfamily and had no room for

On August 22, 2021, before the war began, Aeneid was staged on
the summit of Mt. Pip Ivan.

panic. When we arrived in
Ivano-Frankivsk, I still did
not cry, because I knew I still
had many issues to solve,
starting with finding housing
for my family and children.
But one day, during yet
another air raid, I got to135

watch a performance at theIvan Franko Theatre. I burst
into tears from the firstwords

spokenwhentheNation Photo: Bohdan Savliuk

director and actors cameonto the stage and started the play, and I cried through the entire thing, until thelast sound of their performance. After that, I felt better. I looked at the world
around me and gradually understood what I had to do next, how to continue
existing for my family. I didn’t miss a single performance after that.
These words really struck us. We once again realized how theatre can be a
powerful therapy. Art can accomplish even things professionals cannot. A traumatized person must make the decision to visit a psychologist or psychotherapist
and request treatment, and the specialist must seek an individual approach foreach patient. But those visiting the theatre can subconsciously “live through”
their trauma. They can experience the catharsis that audiences have sought at thetheatre for thousands of years, and they can leave cleansed and changed.
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We thus introduced our“Bomb Shelter Theatre” project,and during the whole of Marchwe put on plays in our theatre
basement. So far as I know, we
People gathered for a performance in a theatre
basement bomb shelter. Photo: Bohdan Savliuk

were the only theatre in Ukrainethat continued its activities
from the beginning of the war.

Interestingly, we even managed to provide large-scale performances in ourbomb shelter. Before that, I had no idea what unusual content was possible insuch a limited space.
As early as April 2022, we returned to our usual theatre format, utilizing fivestages. When an air-raid alarm sounded, the show would (and still does) stop.
Everyone, both actors and audience, heads for the bomb shelter, waits until the
all-clear is given, then returns together to finish the performance.
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What to stage during the war, and whether to stage about the war
During the first six months of the war, I found it difficult to read books or watch
serious films or plays. But I understood that the theatre must move on and that
we theatre people should react to what is happening.
But what should we stage plays about? We had extensive discussions withfriends and colleagues who are theatre scholars, and we finally realized that intimes like these, it is possible to use what we call the “poster style.” While I lovethe subtle emotions in Chekhov’s plays and the psychological dramas of
Dostoyevsky, these do not work during war, because our world has been reduced
to black and white. A style like the unequivocal presentations of propaganda
posters is thus better suited.
At that time, the famous Ukrainian composers Roman Grygoriv and Illia
Razumeiko, who primarily work in contemporary opera, were at the Theatre.
Roman is also a member of the Presidential National Orchestra, so we had theidea of developing a joint project with the Presidential Orchestra, with theirmusical element (more than fifty musicians) and our cast on stage, and me asdirector. We created Fightfor Ukraine as a performance concert in the posterstyle,

includingspiritual

Ukrainian and world music,
Ukrainianpoetryclas-

sics by Taras Shevchenko
and Vasyl Stefanyk, andFight for Ukraine

Ukrainian military songs.
This performance presented themes of Ukrainian identity and how Russia
had destroyed us in previous centuries. Some very politically incorrect things
were often spoken on that stage. But we realized that such was necessary for bothus and our audience. That held for both western Ukraine locals and, most interestingly, for refugees from the east and south of the country, within whom a
Ukrainian spirit had already sprouted. We realized that they too needed to beable to recognize themselves as Ukrainians. Even in the Russian acculturated

137

east, there are now people who self-identify as Ukrainian. That’s pretty cool too.
A new Ukrainian nation is arising before our eyes.
I am very reserved about topical drama on subjects related to modern war. I
know there have been many readings of Ukrainian authors here and in Europe,and that documentary theatre has become very popular. But I think a certain
time should pass so that we can view current events from afar, from a little distance. Right now, only painful reflections are possible, but theatrical art calls fora more refined understanding and artistic generalization.
In the West, everyone is very interested in our reaction to these military
events, but I want to prevent Ukrainian art and theatre from being associatedsolely with war, so that we do not reduce ourselves to war victims, forevercrying and bemoaning our fate. We must maintain a higher level of artistic
accomplishment.

Our plans regarding Ukraine
Our repertoire of course includes domestic classics. But it so happened that as
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director I had never staged a classical Ukrainian work. That is why I want torealize such productions now, but we will of course interpret them from modern
perspectives, not in classical presentations.
We have planned premieres of plays by Ukrainian playwrights, including
Sorochintsy Fair by Hryhoriy Kvitka-Osnovyanenko and Forest Song by Lesya
Ukrainka. And we will definitely stage comedies! There is no need for avoiding
levity. Without doubt, we need to heal the nation, and theatre has proven itself asa powerful therapy. We are currently working on these performances, with premieres scheduled for the end of October and November. Other than that, I am
afraid I am not yet at liberty to speak.

After the interview: Marina Kotelenets
Five months have passed since I recorded theseinterviews. Five months of war. During thattime, the Ukrainian theatre had to act as did all138

Ukrainians throughout our country: to conduct
military operations, while at the same time saving
lives and everything connected with them.
Theatres have resumed their work to the extent
possible, restoring previous performances and evenpreparing premieres. During this period, many
stages in our country presented performances about the war. But audiences, as
might be expected, currently prefer “light” performances. Comedies, melodramas, and detective stories have traditionally led box office sales, and such trends
have only strengthened during the war. Also, live concerts by orchestras andclassical ensembles have suddenly become wildly popular. Many are defiantly
held by candlelight, metamorphosing uncertainty regarding the availability oflight and electricity (since buildings and entire urban districts can lose power at
any time) into an exquisite aesthetic gesture.
But the most important trend today is incredible activity among young
Ukrainian playwrights and their incisive, gut reactions to the shocks of war.
Throughout the world today, there is unprecedented interest in our authors.

Readings, performances, and festivals with Ukrainian playwrights and actors arebeing held all over Europe and in the United States. Collections of their new plays
have been released in France and the US.
Texts by today’s Ukrainian authors are in many respects journalistic anddocumentary. They are like transcripts of the lives Ukrainian people are currently experiencing, the trials and travails of ordinary people. Their historicalvalue is undeniable, but farther down the road we will see them flower into great
artistic results.
In the meantime, the Ukrainian text that has become best known to theworld is Natalia Vorozhbit’s Bad Roads, which the author wrote in 2017 about thestart of the war in eastern Ukraine, which stretches all the way back to 2014.
Kotelenets, Marina
Marina Kotelenets graduated from the Kyiv National I.K. Karpenko-Karyi University of Theatre,
Cinema and Television (M.S. Theatre Studies) and the Taras Shevchenko National Universityof Kyiv (M.S. Psychology). Marina worked as an art critic and journalist for Ukrainian
publications, then began teaching at her alma mater Karpenko-Karyi University in the
Department of Theatre Studies. Since 2011, she also works at the UPO All-Ukrainian League
of Authors as an expert in working with theatres and playwrights. Since 2016, she has been
director of the All-Ukrainian League of Authors.

139(Translation: Tatiana Vernoslov and Tony Gonzalez)

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Developments in Japan and Overseas

Continuing Creating
After Leaving My Homeland

An interview with director Timofey Kulyabin
Interviewer: U chida Kensuke(Part-time lecturer at Chiba University and researcher of Russian theatre)

Interview date: November 7, 2022, starting at 8:00 pm (Japan time)

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Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24,
2022, and as of November, eight months
have passed with no sign of an end to thefighting. During this period, there has beena movement among Japanese theatre professionals and theatre researchers who love
Russian theatre and have established anamicable relation with it, to support stage
performers from both Russia and Ukraine
and to learn about the current situation.
So how are those Russian theatre people
doing now?
The Japanese Centre of International
Theatre Institute interviewed Timofey Kulyabin, a director currently based in Germany
who received acclaim in 2019 for his Three
Sisters, which was performed entirely in
Timofey Kulyabin
sign language at the Tokyo Metropolitan
Theatre. We asked him about what he has
been thinking and feeling from the invasion to the present and how he hascontinued his work as a theatre artist.

After February 24, everything changed
I heard that you were working on an opera in Prague on February 24, the day
Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. Could you tell us how you felt that day?

TK : I was shocked, of course. It was a huge shock to both me and my colleagues. I
think our fear outweighed our surprise at being faced with such an unexpected
situation. Our lives changed forever after that day. You might even say that a newlife began.
You immediately posted an anti-war statement on Instagram. Many otherartists too made anti-war statements in various forms. However, on March 4,
the so-called “Fake News Law” was enacted as a presidential decree, and now
it’s a crime to oppose the war, or even to hope for peace, and Russia has
become completely devoid of freedom of speech.

TK : Now, in Russia, simply publicly speaking out against the war can land you in
jail, and leaving the country is very difficult. It’s like the whole country has beenhijacked and taken hostage.

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Recently, Theatre Magazine editor-in-chief Marina Davydova and the director
Dmitry Krymov have left the country, but those remaining in the country arehaving a difficult time. On April 21, you resigned as artistic director of the
Krasny Fakel (“Red Torch”) Theatre in Novosibirsk. Was that related to youranti-war statement?

TK : Yes, of course.
Was your resignation voluntary?

TK : Well, it’s a very complicated story,
but the truth is that they made me
prepare a document saying I was
resigning “for personal reasons” andtold me to sign it. The Russian Federal
Uchida Kensuke
Photo: Ayada Shoichi

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Security Service (FSB), what used to be called the KGB, contacted the theatre andtold us that if Timofey Kulyabin continued to make anti-war statements, theentire theatre would be held responsible. They were even prepared to fire myparents, who also work at the theatre. So I was forced to announce that I wasquitting on my own for personal reasons.
I didn’t realize such pressures were actually put on you… Performances havecontinued at the Krasny Fakel Theatre since your resignation, but is the government still pressuring them? If you just could tell us whatever you can…

TK : I’m sure that the theatre group members are feeling terrible pressure and are
depressed. I have been communicating with them by e-mail, and since themobilization order was issued on September 21, many of them, especially theyoung actors, are very anxious about being sent to the war zone. Some of them
have left Russia.
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The Theatre had a donation box to support the Donbass region of Ukraine andheld a charity festival in October. Is that related to such pressures?

TK : I don’t know if the charity event in support of the Donbass region was a voluntary theatre project. But there were similar events for political propaganda
even before the war started. Not long ago everything was about “liberating thepeople of the Donbass from Nazis,” and more recently “liberating them from
Satanists,” but either way, the government remains in control. Unfortunately,
Russia is not a free country.
In Moscow, you worked with the Bolshoi Theatre and Teatr Naciy (the Theatreof Nations). Have you kept in touch?

TK : As you know, the Bolshoi has removed my works from their repertoire, andthey have not contacted me. Teatr Naciy is still performing some of my works,
such as Chekhov's Ivanov and Kleist’s The Broken Jug, so I’m sure we will remain
connected in some way. However, a number of the actors who were in those productions have left the country, so I don't know all the details…

Theatrical artists are leaving the country one after another
Chulpan Khamatova, who appeared in Ivanov, relocated to Latvia and is now
working with the New Riga Theatre (Jaunais Rigas Teatris).

TK : Khamatova is a well-known actress, so her defection was a big topic, but I
have heard that quite a few other actors have also left the country, including
Ingeborga Dapkunaite , who was in Burnt by the Sun (1994, directed by Nikita
Mikhalkov).
In May you directed Bernard-Marie Koltes’ In the Solitude of Cotton Fields at the
Dailes Teatris in Riga.

TK : Yes, Khamatova came to us on the first day of Cotton Fields. We are friends,
so we know each other’s situation.
The play and film director Kirill Serebrennikov has also left the country,
recently directing The Decameron at the Deutsches Theater Berlin, where you
directed Platonov this past October. Are you in contact with him as well?

143

TK : Yes, that’s right. Two years ago, Kirill and I held rehearsals at the Deutsches
Theater at about the same time. He directed The Decameron and I directed Miss
Julie. This was just when the COVID pandemic was starting, and Germany went
under lockdown about a week
after the first showing of The
Decameron. Kirill and I areacquaintances, or friends orsomething, something hard to
define, but we are both similarin that we are expressing ouranti-war stance from outsideof Russia.
Seventh Studio, a project Serebrennikov represented, wasIn the Solitude of Cotton Fields (2022), Dailes Teatris
Photo: Māris Morkāns
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Miss Julie (2021), Deutsches Theater Berlin Photo: Arno Declair

144

accused of embezzling public funds, and you too were involved in a scandal inwhich the religious community sued you for your production of Tannhäuser.
So it seems to me that the two of you are in similar positions.
In your recent work with the Deutsches Theater and the National Theatre in
Prague, have you experienced any inconvenience in presenting your work
because you are Russian? Is there any kind of cancellation movement against
Russian culture?

TK : I have never experienced anything like that. I think stories about Russian
productions being cancelled or hostility to Russian culture are just myths or
rumors. Rather, I feel that in Germany everyone became more sympathetic andcooperative toward Russian-speaking artists after the war started. Of course, thismay be partly because I opposed the war from the beginning.
Well I’m glad to hear that.

Censorship and Suppression of Tannhäuser
Again, please tell us about Tannhäuser, which premiered at the Novosibirsk

Opera and Ballet Theatre in 2014. Your staging of the young Christ in place ofthe medieval knight Tannhäuser, who was consumed by lust, was decried by
the Church as an insult to the faith and taken to court. In the end, the court
ruled that there was no criminality involved and the production was allowed
to continue, but the authorities later intervened, Tannhäuser was removed
from the repertoire, and the manager, Boris Mezdrich, was fired. I think that
was an important case in terms of the religious community and the government using legislation to pressure the arts.

TK : Tannhäuser is just one example. It was total censorship. But what I wanteveryone to understand is that “religion” and “the Church” are two completely
different things. It is actually not religion or faith that negatively impacts the art
world, but the organization, the Russian Orthodox Church. We can even consider the Church as a criminal organization. The military, politicians, and the
Church are three entities responsible for the functioning of the Russian government, and all three should be discussed equally. In my personal opinion, theChurch deserves to be tried in international court.

145

Patriarch Kirill supports the current war, doesn’t he. And not only your plays,
but also productions like Konstantin Raikin’s LGBT-themed All Shades of Blue
have been sabotaged by the authorities and Orthodox Church activists. I agreewith your opinion that the
Church should be tried as atool of the government.

TK : The Russian Orthodox
Church today acts in collusion with the Putin regime
and is responsible for theirpropaganda. It works as anextension of the government
based on a logic that has
nothing to do with faith. So I
think we have to consider

Tannhäuser (2014), Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre
Photo: Viktor Dmitriev
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religion and faith as something completely separate from religiousorganizations.

Creating “one and only” works
Chekhov’s Three Sisters was a truly wonderful production that was performed
in Japan in 2019. I went to the theatre every day and watched every
performance.

TK : Thank you very much
There was a bit of a slip-up on the last day. In the scene where Olga borrows a

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key from Andrei, there was no key on the stage. I got goosebumps seeing
them have a proper sign language conversation about it and getting throughthe scene nonetheless. The actors didn’t just memorize signs for their dialogue, they must have really mastered sign language. It must have taken thema lot of time and effort to reach that point. Did the actors not object to the useof sign language in the production?

TK : No, not at all. [laughs]
It seems most people would think that having studied sign language thatmuch, they’d want to do at least one more production in sign language.

TK : I didn’t really think that way. The important thing was to make something
experimental, something unlike anything else.
It was indeed unlike anything else. It was a historic production in the history ofChekhov productions.
Editor: In Three Sisters, there were many moments in every scene where despair
and hope clash. I felt that such a work could only be created by drawing something out of the actors themselves, rather than by how they read the dialogue.

TK : I think so, too.

Three Sisters (2019), Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre Photo: Goto Atsushi

Editor: What are the minimal qualities that you look for in an actor?

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TK : When I started college, I was asked the very same question: “What is themost important quality for an actor?” I couldn’t decide on one, because there aremany aspects to being an actor. One day I asked Pyotr Fomenko, the professor
director, “What are the most important qualities for an actor?” What do you
think he answered? “Depends on the actor.” [laughs]
Did you choose the Deutsches Theater’s Platonov yourself?

TK : The Theatre offered me that one. Platonov is a very long play, so I rewrote itwith a dramaturge. We rewrote it about five times, editing out characters andseveral scenes.
Yes, it would be a seven- or eight-hours if you tried to stage it as-is. In the original, four women appear along with the main character, Platonov, but in yourproduction, the characters are all elderly.

TK : I set the play in a nursing home and staged it so that all the characters except
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Platonov (2022), Deutsches Theater Berlin Photo: Arno Declair

Platonov die at the end. Someof them die of old age. While
Platonov is outdated in someways, it also has a very innocent side, and I wanted toemphasize that. The characterslook old, but they act likeyouths and children. These oldpeople share the fate that they
have little time left until their
death. But they have their own
lives, and just like young
people, they fall in love, get into trouble, come together, and fall apart. I wanted
to show that this is what motivates them to live.

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You have directed Three Sisters, Ivanov, and now Platonov. What is the significance of Chekhov as a writer for you?

TK : Let’s see… Chekhov is a great playwright. Unlike a novel, a play is expressedin the form of dialogue, and I think the secret of a Chekhov performance lies in
how its dialogue is structured. He is deeply observant of people and extremely
intelligent in what he puts into his dialogues and the words he uses for them. I
believe he is a writer who has written interesting works that will never be boring,even in this day and age.

Themes of “modernization” and “forgetting”
You often change the setting of your productions to the present day. For
example, you produced Oedipus as a contemporary mystery. Modernization
itself is not an uncommon take, everyone tries it and usually fails, but yourworks always have the strength to reach the audience. I think that comes fromthe depth at which you read the text, but how do you undergo your interpretation and reconstruction?

TK : The time required varies according to the piece, but when reconstructing atext, I consult with the dramaturge and discuss it with the stage designer, reading
the work very deeply and paying close attention to various details.
You mentioned that when you directed Macbeth in 2008, you compared sevenor eight different translations. Did you learn that kind of reading at GITIS (theRussian Institute of Theatre Arts)?

TK : It is a technique I developed in my own way. The text reflects my tastes andpreferences. Even if it is a classic, the audience who watches the play will be amodern audience. I believe that the people speaking on stage and those watching
the play—in other words, the actors and the audience—should speak the samelanguage. Therefore, even if the story takes place in ancient Greece, the actors
should speak in modern language.
Editor: From past interviews, I get the sense that along with themes like “myexistence does not fit these times or this place” and “this is not my place” thatare common across your works, you often use the words “abandoned” and“forgotten.” As an example, the characters in Three Sisters are forced to live in149

Eugene Onegin (2012), Krasny Fakel Theatre (From a streamed video)
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the countryside, even though Moscow is where they should be. They have thefeeling that their existence will one day be forgotten. Do you have any special
feelings about words or concepts like “forgotten” and “abandoned”?

TK : Yes, forgetting is a major theme in Eugene Onegin as well. People change andare forgotten. That a forgotten person is forever lost is an idea that forms the basisof Russian literature. The absurdity is that when we die, we will be forgotten, andgiven that, why do we live? This is a universal theme in art. It is difficult to find atheme within myself, but I think “forgetting” is probably an important keyword
for me.

A new work on the theme of war
Editor: When does inspiration come to you in your creative process?

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TK : It’s different every time. Inspiration is not something we can control; it has tocome on its own. Inspiration often comes to me suddenly while I am working.
Do you plan to make a production about the current situation between Russia
and Ukraine?

TK : Of course. I think my next work will have war as its theme.
Please tell us about the concept for your next work, if you can.

TK : In April 2023, I will be staging Macbeth at Schauspiel Frankfurt. It will be avery new interpretation of Macbeth, quite different from the show I directed in2008. After that, I will be putting on Brecht’s Fear and Misery of the Third Reichat the Russian Theatre in Tallinn, Estonia. As for opera work, I will be directing
Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades at the Opéra National de Lyon.
I’ll definitely have to go to Europe to see that. [laughs] Please come to Japanagain. There are many people here who love your work.
By the way, have you always been interested in Japan? The music video for
Madonna’s song “Jump” you used in Eugene Onegin featured dancers

performing parkour on the streets of Tokyo, and the music playing during theduel between Lensky and Onegin was “Yearning,” a song by the Japaneseband Mono.

TK : I’m the one who selected Mono. I’m a specialist, so I know everything.
[laughs] I would love to visit Japan again. I am very attracted to Japan. I like it somuch you could even say I’ve fallen in love with it. I have only seen Tokyo, but I
would love to visit the countryside as well, since all megalopolises are similar tosome extent.
Well I live in the countryside, so please comevisit my home. Thank you very much for
speaking with us today. We’ve had a wonderful time. Like Nina in The Seagull meeting her
crush Trigorin, I want to shout “сон” (it’s like a
dream)! [laughs]

TK : I hope we can meet in Japan. And pleasecome to Europe anytime. I’ll be waiting for
you.

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Photo: Ayada Shoichi

After the interview
Uchida Kensuke

On December 22, about three months after this interview, Kulyabin’s productions of The Wild Duck, Eugene Onegin, and Three Sisters were removed from therepertoire of the Krasny Fakel Theatre, where Kulyabin had been artistic director. These three productions were signature works at that theatre, nominatedfor a Golden Mask award at Russia’s largest theatre festival, and although theTheatre gave the excuse of faulty equipment, there is no doubt that they weretargeted by authorities and pressured to cancel those performances.
The next day, on the 23rd, Aleksandr Kulyabin, father of Timofey Kulyabin andgeneral director at Krasny Fakel, was removed from his post. The local press
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did not mention any reason for this, but it is likely because he was held jointly
responsible for his son Timofey, who was operating from overseas.
On the 24th, Kulyabin posted a message on Facebook. He began by statingthat this decision was not by choice of those working at Krasny Fakel, and after
thanking everyone at the theatre, including his father, and writing that he wasproud of the work they had accomplished together, he concluded by saying:“Two years ago, we performed and presented an anniversary playcalled My 'Red Torch’. I came up with the name and it was important to me that everyone on and off the stage could say that thetheatre was ‘mine.’ Whatever happens, it’s mine—and ours—andno one can take it away.”
Kulyabin, Timofey
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Born in 1984 in Izhevsk, capital of the Soviet Udmurt Republic. Graduated from the Russian
Institute of Theatre Arts (GITIS) in 2007, he received high acclaim as a director early on. He
won Russia’s most prestigious theatre award, the Golden Mask, for his productions of Eugene
Onegin in 2012 and Three Sisters in 2015. In 2015, he was appointed artistic director of the
Krasny Fakel Theatre in Novosibirsk Oblast (until 2022). He has directed many operas and iscurrently continuing his creative work in various places in Europe.

Uchida, Kensuke
Part-time lecturer at Chiba University and visiting researcher at the Tsubouchi Memorial
Theatre Museum at Waseda University. Specializes in Russian theatre and the history oftheatrical exchange between Japan and Russia. He is also active as a dramaturge andplaywright, and he currently offers Russian language courses and provides Russian theatre
news on YouTube. His recent co-authored works include An Encyclopedia of Russian Culture(2019, Maruzen), Anthology of Western Theatre Theory (2019, Getsuyosha), and Kabuki andRevolutionary Russia (2017, Shinwasha). In 2022, his new translation of Chekhov’s The Seagull
was published by Ronsosha.
(Writing: Sakaguchi Kaya / Translation: Tony Gonzalez)

The Tale of King Kuroshima (Kuroshima-o monogatari) at the 2022 Uchinaa shibai appreciation workshop.
(Photo provided by National Theatre Okinawa)

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Developments in Japan and Overseas

A Retrospective on the Fiftieth Anniversary of
Okinawa’s Reversion to JapanThe Rich World of Uchinaa Shibai, a Theatre
Reflecting Okinawa’s Turbulent History
Uchinaa shibai (in Japanese, Okinawa shibai) is a form of drama that arose
among the Okinawan people after the Ryukyu Kingdom was dissolved andperforming arts previously seen only at court spread into the public realm.
Rooted in traditional culture but exploring familiar, resonant themes,
Uchinaa shibai became hugely popular, and many masterpieces were
written in the two genres of hogen serifu geki and Ryukyu kageki, or “dialect
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theatre” and “Ryukyu lyric drama,” respectively. However, particularlyaround the time of the Second World War, Okinawa was placed in highly
straitened circumstances, and Uchinaa shibai was not shielded from theeffects of Japanese and US politics in turn.
Nevertheless, Uchinaa shibai overcame these great challenges tosurvive to the present day. Although it has often been overshadowed inpublic attention by the other traditional Ryukyuan performing arts, on theoccasion of the fiftieth anniversary of Okinawa’s reversion to Japan, let us
explore the history and nature of this theatre of the people.

〈History〉

The Birth and Evolution of Uchinaa Shibai,
a Theatre for the People
Hosoi Naoko

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Uchinaa shibai is a form of popular theatre born of the dissolution of the
Ryukyu Kingdom in the late 1870s. Based on traditional culture and using
Okinawan language and music, it was created by the people of Okinawa as “ourtheatre.” Despite coming perilously close to disappearing during Okinawa’s
modern history, it remains beloved today. On the occasion of the fiftiethanniversary of Okinawa’s reversion to Japan, this retrospective outlines thehistory of Uchinaa shibai.

Okinawa’s Traditional Culture
The traditional culture of Okinawa is
the intangible culture of the age of the
Ryukyu Kingdom, created mainly as atool of Ryukyu court diplomacy andrefined and developed over centuries.
North Hall of Shuri Castle (prewar), where the
Ryukyu court received emissaries.
(Photo provided by Naha City Museum of History)

The Ryukyu Kingdom maintained
relations with both China and Japan.

Emissaries

from

China,

known as sakuhoshi, werewelcomed
manceswith

perfor-calledukanshinudui (Ja. okansen odori).
Ukanshinudui

includedkumi udui (Ja. kumi odori),

Detail from Emissary Procession (Sakuhoshi gyoretsu no zu)
showing chief emissary and vice-emissary.
(Collection of Okinawa Prefectural Museum and Art Museum)a form of theatre combining
song, dialogue, and dance;
buyo, classical dance; anduzagaku, chamber music of
the Chinese Ming and Qing
dynasties. With respect toJapan—specifically,thedaimyo of the Satsuma

Detail from Ryukyuan Dance and Music Scroll(Ryukyujin bugaku omakimono) showing uchi kumi udui.
(Collection of Okinawa Prefectural Museum and Art Museum)

Domain—meals served as

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tribute were accompaniedby To udui (Ja. To odori),faithful copies of Chinese
plays performed in Chinese,
as well as buyo and uzagaku.
The performers of this

Detail from Ryukyuan Dance and Music, With Folk Dances(Ryukyujin bugaku narabi ni odori no zu) showing music being
performed (Collection of Okinawa Prefectural Museum and Art
Museum)period were Ryukyu nobles
who learned these arts as needed. There were no professionals dedicated solely toperformance.

The Dawn of Public Performance and Theatrical Venues
In mainland Japan, the traditional domains were replaced by prefectures in 1871,
but things proceeded differently in the Ryukyu Kingdom. First, in 1872, thekingdom was redesignated the “Ryukyu Domain,” although the Ryukyu court
was preserved. Then in 1879, the Ryukyu Domain was abolished and Okinawa
Prefecture established in its place. The policies pursued by Japan with respect to
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the Ryukyus between 1872 and 1879 arecollectively called the “Disposition of the
Ryukyus” (Ryukyu shobun). Part of thisprocess was the dissolution of the Ryukyu
court, stripping the nobility who served
there of their vocations. To udui was lostalong with the court, but some of theformer nobles trained in the performanceof ukanshin udui eked out a living by continuing to perform in secret at restaurants
and similar venues. They also taught thesearts to other former nobles. In 1882,

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Request from the Nakamo Theatre to stage
a play (1897). Due to claims that theatre
corrupted public morals, permission was
required to stage public entertainments. (Photoprovided by Naha City Museum of History)

Okinawa was brought into step with theJapanese mainland by the promulgation ofstrict regulations on public performancesof dramatic works. At the time, however,public performance itself had yet to be established in Okinawa, which led to an
unusual situation in which it was born and developed within a preexisting regulatory framework.
By 1883, “kamajii theatres” had made their appearance. Kamajii werestraw bags used to hold rice and other dry goods, and enterprising producers
used these as makeshift walls to enclose performance spaces. Located near
Shian Bridge in Naha, these kamajii theatres were crude, roofless performancevenues charging minimal entrance fees. They were also where the performing
arts of the Ryukyu court were revealed to the common people for the first time
and the inception of public performance in Okinawa. In the 1890s, more permanent theatres began to appear. The first solid, tile-roofed theatre was the
Nakamo Theatre in Naha, which was built on land reclaimed from the Kumoji
River in 1891.

Popularization and the Formation of Uchinaa Shibai
Although the performing arts of Okinawa had begun as tools of Ryukyu courtdiplomacy predating the Ryukyu Disposition, finding a new audience in thecommon people led to a process of gradual popularization. In the field of dance,
the first generation of performers—those who had learned directly from the original performers of ukanshin udui—revolutionized the art, creating dances thattook up themes from everyday life, as well as group dances. These became known
collectively as zo udui (Ja. zo odori).
The popularization of kumi udui was driven by the second generation of performers. Broadly speaking, two approaches were pursued. The first was to retain
the existing character of kumi udui—its dialogue, lyrics, and choreographic gestures—while changing the key themes from “loyalty” or “obedience” to stories
about parents and children or relationships between lovers. This approach would
eventually produce Ryukyu kageki, “Ryukyu lyric theatre,” one of the major
genres of Uchinaa shibai.
The other approach was to perform in a realistic style using colloquial language, which was not an element of traditional kumi udui. This approach resulted
in hogen serifu geki, “dialect theatre,” another major genre of Uchinaa shibai,

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which directly incorporated new elements inspired by the political plays calledsoshi shibai then arriving in Okinawa from the Japanese mainland as well as the
Shinpa (“New School”) plays and kabuki that Okinawan performers saw inmainland Japan and Taiwan.
Of these two approaches, Ryukyu lyric drama may seem easier for performers to experiment with, since it used the existing elements of kumi udui. In fact,
however, dialect theatre was the first to emerge.

The Dialect Drama BoomThe first play to arrive in Okinawa from the Japanese mainland is said to havebeen a soshi shibai play staged in 1896. Soshi shibai were based on new politicalbeliefs like the Liberty and People’s Rights movement, combining verbal elucidation of these philosophies with bodily action to create a form of theatre. The
actors were amateurs and their technique crude, but their works had a certain
realism and rough-hewn power. The realistic effects involving fake blood and therapidly changing programs came as a shock to the audiences of the day, as can be
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seen in contemporary newspaper accounts and memoirs by performers. With
their colloquial dialogue and realistic performance style, soshi shibai demonstrated for the people of Okinawa a type of theatre that was utterly different fromkumu udui and classical dance.
From around 1898, dialect theatre gradually rose in popularity while kumi
udui and classical dance began to disappear from theatrical programs. In 1903,
an organization called the Kogekikai (“Theatre Appreciation Society”) was
founded by performers with the stated goal of improving the quality of theatricalprograms and the social standing of the performing fraternity. Members of the
Kogekikai took turns visiting the Japanese mainland and Taiwan, bringing backplays to perform in Okinawa. The Kogekikai played a critical role, with Uema
Seihin, in particular, mirroring the efforts of mainland figures striving to create
a new theatre by introducing mainland plays without any adaptations for
Okinawan audiences.
Uema’s Okinawa-za theatre competed with the Kyuyo-za, which was run
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by the three Tokashiki brothers, Shugi, Shuryo, and Shurei. For a nine-year
period starting in 1906, plays taking Ryukyuan history as their theme enjoyedmassive popularity, inaugurating what might be called the “Age of Dialect
Theatre.” The first of these historical plays is said to have been Record of theOrigins of Hokuzan (Hokuzan yuraiki), produced by the Tokashiki brothers in1902.

Tragic Female Protagonists: The Birth of Ryukyu Lyric Drama
In Okinawa, Ryukyu lyric drama is known simply as “lyric drama” (kageki). It issaid to have been born of uchi kumi udui (Ja. uchi kumi odori), one of the choreographic elements making up kumi udui. These dances were performed by a contrasting pair of performers—for example, actors playing male and female characters. Traditionally, the songs accompanying these dances were performed byadditional musicians, but from around 1900 dancers began singing the songs
themselves, creating a form of comedy. Under the influence of the dialect theatreboom, however, these performances became longer and more tragic. Finally, in
1910, the genre’s first tragedy with a female protagonist was staged. This was thebeginning of Ryukyu lyric theatre, and tragic stories and female protagonists
remained key to achieving popularity in the genre.
For a time, the world of Okinawan theatre became a three-way contest
between the Tokashiki brothers’ theatre, now renamed the Meiji-za; theOkinawa-za, and the newly completed Naka-za. The “three great lyric dramas,”which are performed even today, are said to be Aka in Tumai (Tumai Aka)
(written by Ganeko Yaei and first performed in 1910), Peony in the Deep
Mountains (Okuyama no botan) (written by Iraha Inkichi and first performed in1914), and Hando-gwa of Iejima (Iejima Hando-gwa) (written by Majikina Yuko
and first performed in 1924). Yakushido Temple (Yakushido) (also written by Iraha
Inkichi and first performed in its present form in 1912), which added humor andlively spectacle to the motifs of Aka in Tumai, was also highly popular, and issometimes added to the above list to create the “four great lyric dramas.”

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Family photograph of Ganeko Yaei, author of Aka Iraha Ink ichi and Tok ashik i Shur yo in s tagein Tumai (circa 1909). (Photo provided by Naha City costumes. (Photo provided by Naha City Museum
Museum of History)of History)

Pressure on Uchinaa Shibai
The first external pressure on Uchinaa shibai was the imposition of Japanese
mainland regulations on theatre without any consideration for Okinawa’s unique
circumstances. As noted above, in Okinawa the development of public performances was preceded by the regulations that constrained it. The first set of regulations in 1882 was followed by more regulations in 1886, 1891, 1892, and 1929.
However, the impact of these rules and regulations paled beside that of thenegative campaign waged against Uchinaa shibai in the newspapers. This
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surprisingly tenacious campaign focused its attacks on lyric drama in particular,
which had won many female fans. The level of the drama was criticized, and male
actors were castigated over their relationships with women. Whether these accusations were true or not, the attacks strongly emphasized elements that a traditional perspective would view as social harms. In some regions, women werebarred from theatres altogether. Nevertheless, the protracted nature of this negative campaign and the stream of new regulations and prohibitions is proof thatpublic performances continued regardless. Uchinaa shibai enjoyed the unfaltering support of the people.
In the second half of the 1930s, the campaign to increase use of the Japanese
language entered a new stage, with measures once confined to schools expanded
throughout the community. At the regional
level, groups of young women were assembled
for the campaign, which took mothers raisingchildren as its first target. From 1937, these160

efforts merged with the “Japanization” movement (targeting Korea, Taiwan, and Okinawa)
and intensified so greatly that they become
known as the “movement to annihilate dialects.” It was true that people who traveledfrom Okinawa to the mainland to study orwork faced discrimination if they could not
speak Japanese fluently, and so there had
been movements actively promoting Japanese even among the people of Okinawa. But
Japanization went beyond matters of language, demanding that important elements ofeveryday life conform to mainland patterns.

Makishi Kochu during his time with the Matsu
theatre troupe. Makishi was designated oneof the four holders of this Intangible Cultural
Property. (Photo from Photo Album of the Great
Ryukyus, provided by the Naha City Museumof History)

In Okinawa, people were forced to change
their surnames to Japanese ones and werebarred from building new tombs in the turtle-back form traditional to the Ryukyus. Thetheatrical world was not exempted from these policies, and from 1942 all plays
were required to be performed in standard Japanese. This imperiled the very
existence of Uchinaa shibai, which was performed in Okinawan. Being robbed ofits language was a far greater blow than the prohibitions and negative campaigns
that had come before.
Meanwhile, with increased movement of people, such as the waves of immigration that began in 1899 and evacuations to the mainland during the war, traveling Uchinaa shibai troupes appeared, and classical Ryukyuan dance took root
where performers settled.

Uchinaa Shibai’s Postwar Revival
In 1945, at the beginning of the periodof Amerika-yu or US rule, the military
government formed a fifteen-member
Okinawa Advisory Council as a consultative body. At its first meeting inAugust 29, the council suggested that
the

list

of

elevenadministrative

161
A green room right after the war. Collection of
Keystone Studios. (Photo provided by Naha City
Museum of History)

An excited audience at an Uchinaa shibai performance in decades past.
(Photo provided by Naha City Museum of History)
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departments proposed by the military government be augmented with a Department of Arts and Monuments as well a Department of General Affairs. The
former, the council said, was needed to “stabilize the hearts of the people, update
their lifestyles, and improve their tastes.” The proposal was accepted, and the military government ordered the formation of these thirteen departments.
The first head of the Department of Arts and Monuments was Toyama
Seiken, a former elementary school principal who was also a member of the
Okinawa Advisory Council. On September 6, at the council’s sixth meeting,Toyama requested support from all regions for “the commencement of tours byperforming arts troupes, with particular emphasis on Okinawan song anddance,” with “promotional announcements” during intermissions seeking to“stabilize the hearts of the people, update their lifestyles, and improve theirtastes.” Although it was a consultative body, the Okinawa Advisory Council also
played an executive role. Under its direction, the Department of Arts and Monuments reached out to Uchinaa shibai performers and had them form the162

Okinawan Performing Arts Federation. It formed screening panels and held
auditions, from which fifty actors and musicians were issued certifications as
performers. These certified performers were divided into three traveling troupes
named “Matsu,” “Take,” and “Ume,” meaning “Pine,” “Bamboo,” and “Plum,”
respectively. At first, each troupe had around 16 members, but their numbers
eventually rose to around 40 performers each. The Uchinaa shibai performers of
this period were thus public servants, a fact that was not lost on the public, whichsometimes criticized the troupes for charging entry fees on top of their government salaries.
The three troupes divided the prefecture up between them and traveled theirroutes giving performances. For the people of Okinawa, Uchinaa shibai was apart of everyday life. Many new open-air theatres were opened, with 44 said to be
operating by 1948. With just three troupes to perform in those 44 theatres,
demand was greatly underserved. Audiences wanted more performances, andactors and musicians without formal certification demanded recognition.
The Department of Arts and Monuments, which had authority over thesematters, became part of the Okinawa Civil Government, the successor to theOkinawa Advisory Council, and was then absorbed into the Department of Education in April 1948. Minutes from a meeting of department heads held in
October that year record comments from the chief of police asking, after somecomments about public morals, whether it would be acceptable to add two new
official theatrical troupes named “Crane” and “Rebirth,” bringing the total to
five. Governor Shikiya Koshin ordered the heads of the General Affairs Department, the Police Department, and the Public Health Department to explore thematter. What happened next cannot be followed from records alone, but before
the end of the year, the forming of theatrical troupes was opened to all, and a
stream of new troupes appeared on the scene.

The Decline of Uchinaa Shibai
Once the doors were opened and anyone could form an Uchinaa shibai troupe,
the genre flourished for a time. There were contests sponsored by newspapers andeven theatrical festivals. Before long, however, both performances and troupes
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Okinawa TV’s Wednesday Theatre (Suiyo gekijo) (1960s). From left: Iraha Akira, Ogimi Kotaro, Yagi Masao.
(Photo from Photo Album of the Great Ryukyus, provided by the Naha City Museum of History)
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Okiei movie theatre flying the US and Japanese flags (January 1, 1953).
(Photo provided by the Naha City Museum of History)

164

began to plunge in number. One factor in this decline was the beginning of television broadcasts in Okinawa in 1959 and radio broadcasts of Uchinaa shibai in
1960. In the early days of Okinawan broadcasting, stations aired recordings of
Uchinaa shibai, or filmed performances in theatres and broadcast them as live
programs. Audience figures were said to be particularly dismal on days whenthese broadcasts were held.
Struggling to retain their audiences, Uchinaa shibai venues reinvented themselves as film theatres, only to see films, too, face pressure from the rise of television. The Okiei, a film theatre that opened in 1951, changed direction in 1965. It
transferred its distribution rights to other theatres, renovated its theatre for live
performances—complete with a revolving stage—and set about attracting audiences with all-star performances featuring luminaries of the Uchinaa shibai
scene. This created a vicious circle for other troupes: bereft of their stars, they hadeven less ability to draw an audience, and without the necessary funds to build
venues with staging facilities as advanced as those of the Okiei, they continued tolose customers to the larger theatre. For the Okiei, the all-star initiative had been

National Theatre Okinawa (Photo: Ayada Shoichi)

a last-ditch effort to escape certain doom,
but one of its side effects was to weaken
Uchinaa shibai as a genre. Finally, in 1977,
the Okiei’s own productions of Uchinaa
shibai came to an end as well.
Meanwhile, in 1967, the Governmentof the Ryukyu Islands—Okinawa’s administrative body from 1952 to 1972—haddeclared the five surviving kumi udui by
Tamagusuku Chokun Important Intangible Cultural Properties, naming sevenactors and seven musicians as their holders. The performers named included celebrated Uchinaa shibai stars like Tamagusuku Seigi (1881–1971), Majikina Yuko
(1889–1982), Oyadomari Kosho (1897–1986), and Miyagi Nozo I (1906–1989),
who by the declared holder of kumu udui as an Important Intangible Cultural
Property at the national level in 1972. This speaks to the physical affinities
between performing kumi udui and Uchinaa shibai.

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Uchinaa Shibai After Reversion
In 1972, the year that administrative authority over Okinawa reverted to Japan,
kumi udui was declared an Important Intangible Cultural Property at thenational level. Okinawa Prefecture passed its Prefectural Ordinance for the Protection of Cultural Properties the same year.
According to the Okinawa Prefectural Cultural Promotion Division, in
1989, Ryukyu lyric theatre was recognized as a Prefectural Important Intangible
Cultural Property on the grounds that it was “a theatrical form unique to
Okinawa in which dialect texts were set to the melodies of existing folk songs
and sung by the actors themselves,” making it “invaluable cultural heritage, bothon artistic grounds and in terms of the history of the performing arts.” Designated as holders of this property at the same time were Miyagi Nozo I, Ogimi
Kotaro (1919–1994), Makishi Kochu (1923–2011), and shamisen player and singer
Noborikawa Seijin (1932–2013). A Ryukyu Lyric Theatre Preservation Society
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was also established. All four of the holders of this cultural property performed
not only Ryukyu lyric theatre but also dialect theatre, and should, in effect, beviewed as holders of the cultural property of Uchinaa shibai.
In 1990, the Okinawan Prefectural Theatre was established on the second
floor of Naha Higashimachi Hall as a permanent venue for local performing arts
(it was closed in 2009), and in 2004, the National Theatre Okinawa (managed by
the National Theatre Okinawa Management Foundation) was opened as Japan’s
sixth national theatre. The theatre has had an artistic director since 2010, andKinjo Shinji, who became the theatre’s third artistic director in 2022, has had
a close connection to classical Ryukyu dance since early childhood. He is alsofamiliar with Ryukyu lyric theatre and was among the theatre’s first class of kumi
udui trainees.
Japan’s Basic Act on Culture and the Arts, promulgated in 2001, and the
Okinawa Prefectural Ordinance for the Promotion of Culture and the Arts
resulted in government support that has been a boon for Uchinaa shibai.
166

However, for actors, in particular, being designated as a holder of an Intangible
Cultural Property can become a status symbol, and at present it seems that whatever tailwinds exist are being enjoyed by Ryukyu lyric theatre alone. Uchinaa
shibai has long been loved by the people of Okinawa as “our theatre,” but whether
its full diversity can be preserved and nurtured remains to be seen.
Note: I thank the Okinawa Prefectural Cultural Promotion Division for the materials it
provided during the writing of this essay.

Hosoi, Naoko
Professor at the Department of Intercultural Communications, Rikkyo University. Specializes
in theatre studies and East Asian theatre, performance, and performing arts. Recent topics
she has written on include the modernization and globalization of the entertainment
market in the East Asian cultural sphere. Doctor of Letters. Her publications include See/
Show: Performance, Performers, and Performing Spaces in Sichuan and Fujian Theatre (Miru/
Miseru: Chugoku Shisen/Fukken no hyoen ni miru “enjiru” koto/hito/kukan) (Shunpusha, 2020).
(Translation: Matt Treyvaud)

〈Interview〉

An Unscripted Oral Tradition: Uchinaa Shibai Today
Kinjo Shinji (Performer of Ryukyu performing arts; artistic director, National Theatre Okinawa)
Senaha Takako (Uchinaa shibai actor)

The Birth of Uchinaa Shibai
Is it fair to say that Uchinaa shibai has been for the people since it first emerged
as a traditional performing art?

Kinjo: Before Uchinaa shibai was the age of kumi odori.(1) This was one of thecourt performing arts of the Ryukyu Kingdom. After the domain system wasabolished and replaced by prefectures, the kingdom collapsed and kumi odori
performers were dispersed far and wide. But there was no point trying to stage
kumi odori in Naha playhouses, because the general audience wasn’t interested,so Uchinaa shibai was born as a form of drama with more connection to everyday life.
Uchinaa shibai is always performed in Uchinaaguchi [the Okinawan language], and the costumes are Okinawan as well. It has its own unique conventions, but it has also changed along with the times. Long before we were born, inthe period before the war and for a few years afterward, Senaha-sensei and hercolleagues performed in theatres with no curtains and no lighting. Uchinaa
shibai was closely related to everyday life, something you would casually go andwatch with friends. Today, seeing a play at the National Theatre means buying
expensive tickets and dressing up nicely,
but back then you could even bring food to
eat while you watched.
Senaha: That’s true. Everyone brought
plenty of food. The audience and the performers would get together after the show.
“This part was good, but listen—that otherpart, you should do it more like this,” they’dsay, and we’d fix it for them next time.

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The Taisho Theatre, where Senaha first took
the stage (Photo provided by Naha City
Museum of History)
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Kinjo Shinji and Senaha Takako(Photo: Ayada Shoichi)

Kinjo: Back then, there were performances every
day, after all. Now the longest run is two or threeshows at most. The stage equipment haschanged, too. The way the performances are presented has changed in step with the audience.
Senaha: In those days, everyday life was conducted in the Okinawan language, so the lines
in Uchinaaguchi came out naturally. There wereno scripts, only oral instructions: “First do this,and then do that.”
Kinjo: You discussed it in advance, and thewords [lines] came naturally.

Senaha: Yes. You would remember that. Then you would think up better, morepolished lines for yourself. That’s the sort of theatre it was.
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Kinjo: Paper itself was precious then, so memorization was the only way to go.
Senaha: After the war, there were no clothes, nothing—just burned-out ruins.
We would find parachutes thrown away by the Americans and decorate themwith bingata designs using American paint. When we put those clothes on, they
were dry and stiff, and the color would gradually flake off until they were halfbare. We had to make our own wigs, too.

It All Started with Classical Dance: “I Didn’t Know To Be Scared”
Senaha-san, you first took the stage at the age of ten, before the war ended.
What was it like entering the theatrical world alongside adults?

Senaha: I never had time to play. I’ve given my whole life to the theatre. I wasborn in Kumoji, Naha. I had three brothers, and my father died just after I
turned three. My youngest brother was still a baby, and my mother had to workwith him strapped on her back. I was left with a few different members of myextended family. One of them was my uncle, who was a koto teacher. He had nochildren, so he said, “I’ll take her and teach her koto.” Alongside koto, he alsotaught classical dance. I said, “I’m not playing koto, I’m going to dance!” Once I
started learning, I was taken to perform at family celebrations and events likethat. “You’re really talented, you can do anything,” people would say. I was inconstant demand.
That was very early to start learning koto and classical dance.

Senaha: There was a theatre called the Taisho Theatre, run by a man called
Takayasu Koshun. One of its actors, Oyadomari Gensei, who was in the same
grade at school as my older brother, was looking for child actors. One day hecame to meet me at school and took me to the Taisho Theatre. I’d never seen aplay, so I had no idea why he was taking me to such a big place. He said, “You’relearning classical dance?” I said, “Yes.” “Alright, from now on you’ll dance on
this stage.” “Okay.” I didn’t know to be scared. I went right out onstage. That waswhere it started. I looked forward so much to going out in front of people. Everyone adored me. Then the war started, and my koto-teaching uncle said he wasgoing to the mainland. He was going to take me, too, but my mother said, “No,I’d miss her.” He went alone, and then died in the Konan Maru(2) incident. If I’dgone with him...

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A Vision of Femininity That Differs From Today’s
Senaha-san, when live theatre restarted shortly after the war, you were chosen
to play Chiraa, the heroine of Peony in the Deep Mountains (Okuyama no botan).
(3) The idea of femininity in Uchinaa shibai, as also seen in characters from The
Musician’s Love (Ongakuka no koi),(4) like the juri (a courtesan of Tsuji(5)), is thatthey are vibrant even if their social position is low. Where does the appeal ofcharacters like this lie?

Kinjo: That’s a difficult one. First, the position of women was different from how
it is today. The male chauvinism of the times still lingers in these plays. As aresult, when modern audiences watch Uchinaa shibai, they see a lot of men who
seem like terrible people. But they weren’t seen as terrible back then. In The
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Senaha (right) in Peony of the Deep Mountains (1966)(Photo provided by Senaha Takako)

S e n a h a ’ s 19 5 4 A c t o r s ’
Association membershipcard (Photo provided by
Senaha Takako)

Musician’s Love, the male protagonist spends
months with the juri, even though he has awife. But his wife and the juri aren’t on bad
terms, the man doesn’t apologize, and in theend everyone lives together.

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Senaha: People with high social standing
couldn’t do that. One official who had waswith a juri lost his job at Shuri Castle anddied. But for the common folk, this was seen
as unremarkable, and there are many plays
like this. Nowadays, of course, audiences arelikely to say, “What?!”Kinjo: Then and now, women have always
made up a majority of the audience for
Uchinaa shibai. I imagine that the works
produced were ones that women could
empathize with. People in similar situations could cry along with the characters.
Kinjo Shinji in Peony of the Deep Mountains(2015) (Photo provided by National Theatre
Okinawa)

Senaha: After the war, there were many real-life dramas as people who had been
torn apart by war found each other again. Lovers reuniting, saying “You’re alive!”
As I often say to Shinji, we should make new plays. Wouldn’t it be good to have

plays about how the world haschanged?
Kinjo: They would still be Uchinaa
shibai, so they would have be performed in Uchinaaguchi, with
Okinawan costumes, following
the form’s conventions. With
those ground rules, what kind ofstories would we see?
Senaha: In one postwar play I
loved called A Foreign Mother(Ikoku no haha), there’s one scene
set in China where a parent andchild part in tears. It has dialogue
in Chinese. I didn’t realize you
could make a play like that. But it
was only staged once. The script
has been lost too.

Scene from The Musician’s Love (Photo provided by
Ginoza Village Cultural Center Garaman Hall)

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Kinjo: I never heard of that before. Was it written by Ogimi Kotaro? If it was after
the fifties or sixties, there might be some footage.

Scripts with More Than One Right Answer
Tell us about the scripts for Uchinaa shibai.

Kinjo: By the 1990s, my generation was already performing from scripts, but they
were very rough. There would be stage directions like, “Say something like this,”and the actors were free to come up with the rest. So every actor come up with
their own words. The problem was, if the generation after us tried to perform fromthose scripts, they probably couldn’t do it. So, now I make more detailed scripts,
but I always make sure to remind the actors that there’s more than one “rightanswer.”Theatre in Japan

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For example, I might change dialogue based on who is playing a certain role:
That actor could say these lines, but this one couldn’t memorize the whole thing, so
I’ll pare it back to the bare minimum... In the case of musical theatre, the songs
are set, so you can’t expand them, but as for the dialogue, I might think, This
actor can speak briskly and keep the pace up, and add more lines. So the script isdifferent for every production. Even for the same play, if the actors change, theapproach changes too.
Senaha: That’s what makes theatre interesting.
Kinjo: If Senaha-sensei is performing this role, then she’ll move like this—that kindof thought does go into it.

172

Senaha: People today don’t speak Okinawan as much, so it’s like just reading abook, and the lines feel too fast. I’d like to see more emotion. When I see a young
actor doing a good job, I think, There, we did it, we did it, as if it were my own
accomplishment. I’m already ninety, and I’ve spent my life in theatre, so everyone
keeping theatre alive is dear to me.
Kinjo: The lines audiences laughed at fifty years ago don’t get laughs any more.
You have to change how things are said, use different words—you don’t know
where people will laugh until you try.
Senaha: Laughter and tears, one after another—that’s theatre. When I was stillplaying child roles, I had a scene where my character goes to visit her long-lost
mother with a baby on her back, but is driven away. It reminded me of my own
situation, and it made me so sad that I started bawling—runny nose andeverything. I couldn’t even speak. Soon I had the audience crying as well. When I
got backstage, my older colleagues scolded me. “How can you speak your lines if
you’re crying? Make the audience cry by pretending to weep—that’s what being
an actor is.”Playing the Upside-Down Ghost
Senaha-san, you’re also known for your work in supernatural and horror plays.

Scene from The Upside-down Ghost(Photo provided by Uchinaa Shibai Research Society

I understand that you appearedin many ghost stories at the
Okiei Theatre.(6) Did you makethe audience very scared?

Senaha: I wasn’t scared, though[laughs].
Kinjo: But I gather the audience
was terrified. Back then, Senahasensei usually played the leadrole. There are many horror
plays in the Uchinaa shibai repertoire, like The Upside-Down Ghost (Sakadachi yuri).(7) This play features aheadless mannequin turned upside down, and the actor pops their head up frombelow. The “upside-down ghost” is said to have appeared in Makan Road
(Makanmichi), Naha.
Senaha: Everyone was too scared to do it, but I said, “I’m not scared—it looks likefun. I’ll do it.” I thought about ways to scare people.

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Kinjo: The women that become ghosts either die or are killed in the first half ofthe play. I believe that you have strong feelings about how your characters are
killed, how they die. You have fun with it, don’t you?
Senaha: Ahaha! I’ve played every kind of role, male and female. The troupes were
small—ten people would be a lot—so I had to play several roles.

The Pleasure of Discovering How Okinawa Used to Be
Kinjo: Uchinaa shibai are closer to reality than kumi odori. With kumi odori, thegestures are exaggerated versions of the real thing. They’re formalized. For
example, if a character draws their sword in the play, you might think they would
simply pull it out, but it’s more complicated than that—first, they hold the sword
like so, and then they pointedly adopt a stance like so. When performing Uchinaa

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shibai, I was fascinated by the feeling of approaching people living in various
earlier ages. To wash our hands today, we turn on the tap to make the water run,but in an Uchinaa shibai, there are no scenes like that. You mime getting waterfrom a well and putting it into a tub. Today, if we peel a sweet potato, we bringtissues, but at the time they put them in a baaki [bamboo colander]. As an actor,
you are uncovering an older Okinawa that still lingers on in the performing arts.

Rising Interest in Uchinaaguchi
Senaha: What I have high hopes for now is TV shows that teach Uchinaaguchi. If
we teach Uchinaaguchi to children, I think more people might come to see plays.
Kinjo: Okinawa has seen a recent movement to use Uchinaaguchi more widely. At
school, my children even express thanks for their lunch in Uchinaaguchi.

174

Senaha: My grandchildren say to me, “What’s that? What are you saying,Grandma?” I tell them what it means and recommend that they watch someplays.
Kinjo: Our recent performances have all been subtitled. I think we are graduallyseeing more audience members from younger generations, or outside Okinawa
prefecture. As part of my job, when the theatre stages a production, I stand in thelobby greeting patrons beforehand and saying goodbye as they leave, and theyoften say things like, “The subtitles said such-and-such, but what did that character say in Uchinaaguchi?” or “About that dialogue in that scene—can you tell me
how to pronounce those words properly, what they mean?” It’s wonderful to see
people take an interest in language.
What is the National Theatre Okinawa doing to raise awareness of Uchinaa
shibai?

Kinjo: Alongside our regular productions, since 2015 we have held an “Uchinaa
shibai appreciation workshop” once a year. It’s very inexpensive and meant for
beginners. We try to include plays that even children can enjoy, so in September
2022 we did The Tale of King Kuroshima (Kuroshima-o monogatari). In the past,we have done Bakeneko (Kaibyoden: Bakeneko—Yamada Nundunchi), and Taleof the Irises (Shobu nu yurechi). We also do one play per year aimed at audiences
already familiar with the genre. In March 2023, we will stage a historical playcalled Prince Tamagawa (Tamagawa Oji(8)) (Playwright: Taira Ryosho, Director:
Kinjo Shinji). The dialogue in a historical play is difficult and quite different fromeveryday conversation. When we stage a difficult play, we make sure the first halfof the program is something light and easy. Uchinaa shibai are generally presented as double features. We combine historical plays with light farces or cheerful dances. For our March production, we’ll be staging Iraha Inkichi’s musicalfarce Feelings (Umui) (Director: Kinjo Shinji), with Senaha-sensei appearing in it.

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Tale of the Irises at the Uchinaa shibai appreciation workshop (2017) (Photo provided by National Theatre Okinawa)Young Performers Onstage
How well are the younger generation mastering difficult songs or dances foron-stage performance?

Senaha: Many Uchinaa shibai are musical plays, with songs as well as dialogue.
The actors study how to project, how to tighten their voices, how to make their
voice cry in tragedies. You have to know how to sing, speak, and move, which is
challenging. People who do classical dance carry themselves completely differently, too. You can tell right away. They’re more supple in how they stand andmove. Even when they stand in one place, they’re completely relaxed. People
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without that classical dancebackground are stiffer.

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Kinjo: I tell younger actors
over and over again, the firststep is to memorize the FourGreat Works of Ryukyu Lyric
Theatre.(9) Not just the maleparts but also the female
parts, even if you’re a male
actor. I think those four
works are the foundation ofthis theatre. And once you
master one play, you’ll findthe same songs used inothers, so they are useful inmany places. Sometimes
young actors get together andsay, for example, “Today let’s
do Yakushido,” draw straws to
divide up roles, and practice
Performance of Yakushido, one of the Four Great Works of
Ryukyu Lyric Theatre (Photo provided by Uchinaa Shibai
the plays with each other.
Research Society)
They only look at the script
when they get lost.
I think that younger actors should play the biggest roles they can while
they’re still young. While in your twenties, you shouldn’t be satisfied with reaching your personal “100%”—you should play roles a little beyond your level. That
will take you to the next step. Today’s young actors will have to teach the generation that follows them, so we need to teach them how to teach others.
Senaha-san, you have been performing in A Musician’s Love for decades, as thejuri for a long time and in recent years as Paapaa (the old dame of Tsuji). Whatis it like working alongside young people?

Senaha: I often tell young actors about their part and how they should perform it.
For example, a juri is a woman who works in a place where men come to enjoy
themselves, so she understands how men feel. The thing about men is—I say thiswith a man right here, but anyway [laughs]—they’re looking for a person, a placethat will care for them and make them feel safe. I’ve been around a long time, so I
understand this role. The juri is an expert in giving men that feeling of being
cared for, of validating their
feelings, so you have to play Senaha in Aka in Tumai (Tumai Aka), one of the Four Great Worksof Ryukyu Lyric Theatre. At right is Iraha Sayuki. (Photo provided
her completely different from by Senaha Takako)
the protagonist’s wife. Thereneeds to be a distinction
between professionals andamateurs.
What about Paapaa?

Senaha: Paapaa is part of theoldest generation of juri, so
she knows everything. She
can size men up. She’ll say,“Don’t let this one go.” I
watched my own mentors
play her way back when.

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Kinjo: Paapaa must be playedwith a sense of the clownish.
Senaha: Personally, I am a bitof an uumaku (rascal), so I
have more fun playing characters that make other characters cry, rather than characters that do the crying.
When I played a ghost, I
would tell the person playing

Performance of Hando-gwa of Iejima, one of the Four GreatWorks of Ryukyu Lyric Theatre (Photo provided by Uchinaa
Shibai Research Society)
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the role of my killer, “Pretend to lift me up,” and then onstage I would leap up
suddenly, which startled them as well as the audience. When I had a role where
my kamoji (hairpiece) was cut, I would make that mechanism myself.
Kinjo: The sword strikes the kamoji and it looks like the hair flies away. And you
made the mechanism yourself.
Senaha: It looked like it was really cut. That’s the most enjoyable thing, the mostinteresting part. Whatever role I play, I enjoy it. Even at home, I’ll be thinking myhardest about how to play a certain role next time, and my grandchildren will
say, “What are you doing, Grandma?” I tell young actors, “You’re an actor, so takeany role you can. You mustn’t turn roles down because you’re afraid.”
Kinjo: I remember that when I visited you at home, you were writing out dialogue
and memorizing it.
Senaha: Yes. I’m crazy about theatre [laughs].
178(Reporting/writing: Kakihana Rieko)

1. Kumi odori is a form of music and dance theatre created by Tamagusuku Chokun, an
official of the Ryukyu Kingdom with responsibility for dance performances, to entertain
emissaries from the Chinese emperor. Today it is a National Intangible Cultural Property.
In 2010, it was inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage register.
2. The Konan Maru was a passenger ship offering regular service between Osaka and Naha.
In 1943, it was torpedoed by a US Navy submarine, killing 650 passengers, including
civilians.
3. Peony in the Deep Mountains (1914; Author: Iraha Inkichi) is one of the “Four GreatWorks of Ryukyu Lyric Theatre.” It is about the love between Sandee, the son of a noble
family, and Chiraa, a commoner. They have a son together, and Chiraa goes into hiding
so that her humble birth will not prevent his advancement. Twenty years later, her nowadult son comes to visit her.
4. The Musician’s Love is a historical work of Ryukyu lyric theatre by Iraha Inkichi.
5. Placename in Naha. In the licensed quarters established here in 1672, Chinese emissaries
and Ryukyu nobles were entertained by juri, women skilled in the performing arts. There
were around 180 such establishments in Tsuji in the 1930s, but on October 10, 1944, theneighborhood was burned out by aerial bombing.

6. In 1965, the Okiei film theatre was renovated with a revolving stage and reopened as the
Okiei Theatre. Its all-star performances featuring popular Uchinaa shibai actors attracted
many actors.
7. A horror play by Tokashiki Shuryo, first staged around 1914. In the play, a beautiful
woman sees that her ailing husband is tortured by jealousy of her, and cuts her own nose
off to prove her love. However, the husband falls out of love with her, kills her, and drives
stakes through her legs. She returns as an “upside-down ghost” to seek revenge.
8. A historical play by Taira Ryosho (1893–1979). It depicts the turbulent life of Prince
Tamagawa, sixth son of King Sho Ko, and the suffering of the Ryukyuan people under
the resulting political turmoil.
9. The “Four Great Works of Ryukyu Lyric Theatre” are said to be Peony in the Deep
Mountains, Hando-gwa of Iejima (Iejima Hando-gwa; 1924; Author: Majikina Yuko); Aka
in Tumai (Tumai Aka; 1900; Author: Ganeko Yaei); and Yakushido Temple (Yakushido;
1912; Author: Iraha Inkichi).

Kinjo, Shinji
Born 1987 in Tomigusuku. In 1991, began studying under Tanida Yoshiko and Kinjo Mieko of
the Tamagusuku Ryu Senju Kai dance academy. In 2007, graduated from the first incoming
kumi odori class at the National Theatre Okinawa. In 2008, while studying at Okinawa
Prefectural University of the Arts (Major: Ryukyu Performing Arts), won the highest prize in
the Ryukyu Classical Dance category at the Ryukyu Classical Performing Arts Competition.
Teacher in the Tamagusuku Ryu Senju Kai. Holder of the Prefectural Intangible Cultural
Heritage “Ryukyu Lyric Drama.” Member of the Uchinaa Shibai Research Association. In April
2022, accepted post as artistic director of the National Theatre Okinawa.

179

Senaha, Takako
Born 1933 in Naha. In 1943, debuted as a child actor with the Shinraku-za troupe at the Taisho
Theatre. Shortly after the end of World War II, entered the Matsu theatre troupe, transferringto the Ume troupe after around a year. Worked with the Okinawa-za and Tokiwa-za troupes
before founding the Mitsuwa-za troupe in 1954 with her husband Matsumora Koei. Acted in
the Okiei Theatre, which started in 1965, from its third production, Aka in Tumai (Tumai Aka).
Spent the next twelve years until the Okiei Theatre was disbanded as one of its leading
actors. Holder of the Prefectural Intangible Cultural Heritage “Ryukyu Lyric Drama.” In 1984,
received the Encouragement Prize in the Theatre category of the Okinawa Times Arts
Awards. In 2005, won the Grand Prize in the same category. In 2013, honored by Okinawa
Prefecture as a Person of Cultural Merit. Still performing on many stages.
(Translation: Matt Treyvaud)

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The Remarkable Postwar
Success of the All-Female Otohime Theatre Troupe
Kakihana Rieko (Editor of the Theatre Yearbook)

December 25, 1945. Uchinaa shibai stars languishing in internment camps acrossthe burned-out wastelands of Okinawa are assembled at Ishikawa (modern-day
Uruma) to put on a Christmas show in conjunction with a US military camp. The
show is one of the cultural initiatives undertaken by the occupying US forces.
Staged on sloping ground amid the ruins of Iha Castle, the open-air performances overflow with the energy of an Uchinaa shibai revival, and the audience
responds with great enthusiasm.
One of the groups performing in the show was an all-female dance troupe
led by Uema Ikuko (1906–1991). The young dancers’ vibrant performance of the180

zo-odori “Tanchame” won thunderous applause. That moment was the birth ofwhat would become the most popular theatrical company in Okinawa, with
Uema as its first leader: the Otohime Theatre Troupe.
The Otohime Theatre Troupe was formally founded in April 1949. With theapproval of the Okinawa Civilian Administration under US military rule, thetroupe’s

21

founding

members staged a production of Aka in Tumai(Tumai Aka), one of the
Four

Great

Works

of

Ryukyu Lyric Theatre. They
entertainedinternees

across Okinawa, performing in hastily constructed
open-air theatres for audiences of villagers who had
been swept up in theHazama Yoshiko, “Okinawa’s Danjuro,” performing in Aka in Tumai.
From Hazama Yoshiko, The Eternal Tarugani (Eien no Tarugani)First Theatre Contest pamphlet.
(Photo provided by Senaha Takako)

maelstrom of war. By night, they bedded down in thesame theatres. The troupe lived together all year
round, working together from morning till night tocreate their plays. Some audience members are said
to have paid the entry fee in vegetables.
Determined to satisfy the huge demand fortheatre they had discovered, the Otohime Theatre
Troupe developed a revolutionary
system in which every member of thetroupe both acted and wrote. Within ayear of its founding, the troupe had arepertoire of 50 plays, from lyric
theatre and period pieces to contemporary works. At the height of thetroupe’s popularity in the 1960s, its
repertoire exceeded 160 plays per-181

formed by more than 50 actors as thetroupe visited every one of the 120 theatres scattered across Okinawa.
In 1951, less than two years after

1956 production of The Tale of Tsukishiro. At rightis Hazama Yoshiko, playing the Spider Spirit. From
Hazama Yoshiko, The Eternal Tarugani

its founding, the Otohime Theatre
Troupe was chosen from among the 27
theatre companies officially recognizedby the Okinawa Civilian Administration to perform in Hawai‘i. In 1955, thetroupe won first place at the Ryukyu
Shimpo’s first Theatre Contest1 with
Palace of the Princess (Uminaibi Udun),a work based on Ueda Akinari’s Talesof Moonlight and Rain. In the contest’s
third year, the troupe won first placeagain with the fantasy play The Tale ofWriter Kawabata Yasunari visited the Otohime Theatre
Troupe at the Ishikawa Theatre in June 1958. At far rightin the front row is Uema Ikuko, first leader of the troupe.
(Photo provided by Okinawa Prefectural Archives)
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Theatre Company Unai, The Tale of Tsukishiro (2009). Company leader Nakasone Ritsuko is at far left in thephoto on the right. (Photo provided by Theatre Company Unai)

Tsukishiro (Tsukishiro Monogatari),2 written by Kaneshiro Michiko based on
Jean Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast. The star of this production was Hazama
182

Yoshiko (1928–2001), who succeeded Uema as the troupe’s second leader and waspraised as “Okinawa’s Danjuro.”
The Otohime Theatre Troupe’s reputation as one of the finest performing
companies in Okinawa soon reached the Japanese mainland, and many cultural
figures visited to see the troupe perform. Among those who praised Otohime’s
performances were writers Kawabata Yasunari and Inoue Yasushi and playwright Uchimura Naoya (third chair of the Japanese Centre of International
Theatre Institute).
In the 1960s, with the spread of TV broadcasts, demand for Uchinaa shibaifell, and troupes began to disband. Apart from a small hiatus, the Otohime
Theatre Troupe alone survived alongside its fans. Today, Theatre Company Unai
(unai means “sisters”), founded in 2004, continues to uphold Otohime’s traditionof all-female dramatic performances.
The current leader of Unai is Nakasone Ritsuko,3 who left her job at a Naha
department store to join Otohime nearly sixty years ago. Past eighty years of age,she continues to perform regularly. Regarding the accepting, female-only atmosphere that Otohime cultivated, Nakasone says, “You can speak your mind freely,

without feeling out of place. Male actors would probably hold back when dealing
with married women, but speaking woman-to-woman lets us get right to theheart of the matter. Even performing the same play, our productions are completely different than those of companies with male actors. Years ago, a man
watching our rehearsals commented that he envied women, because we canperform with all our heart.”
Today, Nakasone also teaches theatrical skills as a part-time lecturer at
Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts. The precious lives and passion fortheatre preserved by women against all odds through the horrific of Battle of
Okinawa flowered anew in the lineage from Otohime to Unai and are now being
inherited by a new generation of young performers.
1. The pamphlet for the first Theatre Contest included a welcome message from the Ryukyu
Shimpo’s chief editor at the time,
Oyadomari Masahiro, explaining thatthe contest was being held “with thesame intention of raising the level ofthe international theatrical arts as that
promoted by the Ministry of Culture’s
Arts Festival and the International
Theatre Institute.”183

2. After winning a prize at the contest,
The Tale of Tsukishiro was made into acolor film directed by former Shochiku
movie star Obinata Den and screenedat the Naha Theatre from New Year’sDay, 1959. Yanbaru Highway (Yanbaru
Kaido) is another cinematic adaptationof the Otohime Theatre Troupe’s work.
3. Nakasone Ritsuko was born in 1941 in
Motobucho. Attending a performanceof the Otohime Theatre Company’s
Palace of the Princess as a junior highschool student, she was enthralled by
the elegance of the singing voices, thecostumes, and the princess’s kanpu(hairstyle). In 1964, she joined theGreen room in the early 1960s.
(Photo provided by Theatre Company Unai)

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troupe herself. In 2001, when the Otohime Theatre Troupe disbanded after the death ofsecond leader Hazama Yoshiko, Nakasone moved quickly to bring the former members
together again, staging new productions the following year, and then in 2004 founding
Theatre Company Unai. She has been the head of of Theatre Company Unai since 2009.
She is also head of the Tamagusuku-ryu Otohime Ritsuju no Kai. In 2011, she received anaward in the Theatre category of the Okinawa Times Art Awards for her contributions to
the theatrical arts. She is a holder of the Prefectural Intangible Cultural Property “Ryukyu
Lyric Theatre.”
Works Consulted
Inagaki Masami, The Struggles of the All-Female Otohime Theatre Troupe (Onna dake no‘Otohime Gekidan’ funtoki, Kodansha, 1990)
Theatre Company Unai 10th Anniversary Publication, “Flowers of Unai” (Unai no hana,
2015)(Translation: Matt Treyvaud)

184

General meeting on April 11, 1973.

Developments in Japan and Overseas

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

185

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

The March 2023 publication of Theatre Yearbook 2023, a fiscal 2022 projectof the Japanese Centre of International Theatre Institute, marks fifty years
since publishing the first issue in this series, Theatre Yearbook 1973 (notingthat in 1972, the year before that first issue, we published its predecessor,
the International Theatre Materials Collection). Taking that as an opportunity, the Yearbook editorial board decided to go back another twenty or so
years before that inaugural publication and reacquaint ourselves with thesituation and historical development of international performing arts
exchange in the Japanese Centre’s earliest days.
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Naturally, many aspects of those days cannot be uncovered from surviving
materials alone, but through that effort, we hoped to clarify in concreteterms the impact that the global exchange of theatre and dance that
resumed after the Second World War has had on the establishment anddevelopment of contemporary theatre and dance in Japan.

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

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

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

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

can be seen in its newsletter, ITI News. Starting with its first “Vol. 0” in 1951,
which contained the organization’s Founding Prospectus, ITI News issues were
published at a relatively steady pace until 19613.
Early ITI News issues indicate that at the time, in response to the activities of
ITI centers around the world, there was extensive promotion of International
Theatre Month events in Japan with the cooperation of major domestic theatresand entertainment companies4. There were also discussions of cooperation forthe publication of Le décor de théâtre dans le monde depuis 1935 [Theatricalscenery in the world since 1935] (1956), which was being edited and published by
the ITI headquarters in Paris, with the Japanese Centre responding to publisher
requests for stage set diagrams and photographs.
At the time, the Paris headquarters provided us with the periodicals
Le théâtre dans le monde [World Theatre] (quarterly) and World Premières(monthly). A few copies of these publications are preserved in the current
Japanese Centre office.
ITI News issues often included a “Correspondences with the Secretariat”
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column that noted daily communications, notices, and requests sent to the Secretariat from the Paris headquarters and other national ITI Centres, and what theJapanese Centre was able to do in response. For example, we responded to questions from the Paris headquarters regarding the current situation in Japan for aninternational survey on the role of theatre in youth education, and in response toa request from the UK Centre, we airmailed International Theatre Month pamphlets and posters from the Kabuki-za and other theatres. ITI News No. 30 states:“In April, we responded to a questionnaire from the Paris headquarters regarding state subsidies for theatres. Our response was later published in the first issueof the ITI newsletter International Theatre Informations.
We also received inquiries from individual theatre-related organizations
through ITI Centres in their respective countries. ITI News No. 28 (April 1960)
reports that Laurence Olivier Productions inquired about Mishima Yukio’s
Tropical Tree, and after contacting Mishima, we made arrangements for a synopsis and translation. This shows how even in its early days, the Japanese Centre
188

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

ITI News at the founding of the ITI.

An International Theatre Month pamphlet.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

show that the Festival requested the participation of a Japanese theatre group.
The Festival and its second occurrence
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A brochure regarding Noh troupe participation in the 1954 Venice Biennale.

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

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

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

Brecht),Laurence

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

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

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

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

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Japanese Centre activities. In fact, since the 1961 cessation of ITI News’s publication, the only clue regarding the status of such activities can be found in the
one-off October 1965 issue of ITI News No. 32.
Articles in that issue indicate that two major international UNESCO-related
conferences were held in years before and after its publication (1963 and 1968),
and that the ITI Japanese Centre cooperated with these conferences.
First, in November 1963, the Japanese National Commission for UNESCO
hosted the International Symposium on the Theatre in the East and the West inTokyo. Symposium representatives included Eugène Ionesco and more than forty
other theatre professionals from twenty-one countries. Its theme was “MutualAppreciation of Eastern and Western Cultural Values.” The Japanese National
Commission for UNESCO issued proceedings for that symposium in 1965.
Next, the Cultural Conference on Mutual Influences between Japanese andWestern Arts was held in Tokyo and Kyoto in 1968 (as described in the first issueof the ITI Bulletin in 1971), with discussions in four categories: literature, music,architecture, and theatre. The National Commission for UNESCO published
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proceedings of that meeting in English and Japanese in 1969. Unfortunately, specifics regarding the Japanese Centre’s cooperation are not clear.

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

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

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

193

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

Reconstruction of the Japanese Centre
As described above, the Japanese Centre was inactive for about ten years before
and after 1965, but its participation in the Festival Mondial du Théâtre de Nancy
seemed to provide an impetus for its reorganization. On December 12, 1970, theCenter elected playwright Hojo Hideji, then president of the Japan Theatre Arts
Association, as its director general and held a reorganization meeting. Documents from that period show that the Japanese Centre was largely inactive in the
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four immediately preceding fiscal years (1967–1970) (ITI Bulletin No. 1).
Interestingly, at the time of this “reorganizational meeting,” the JapaneseCentre had 874 registered members, of which 28 attended the meeting and 561
sent proxies. That is remarkably higher enrollment, nearly three times, over ourcurrent (fiscal 2022) membership of just over 200. This suggests that there wassome sort of initiative by the board members and others at that time, who likely
lobbied leading industry associations, and that the members of those associations
joined en masse due to that top-down approach.
The 1971 restructuring of the ITI Japanese Centre got underway with ageneral assembly in December 1970. At that time, we obtained cooperation fromleading companies in the theatre and broadcasting industries. We also caught up
with dues to the ITI headquarters, which had been in arrears for several years.
(Even so, ITI Japanese Centre’s financial base remained fragile, and there was
uncertainty regarding whether sufficient financial resources would be available
for its future operations.)
194

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

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

195

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

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

196

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

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

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Theatre Born inConflict Zones Series
Since 2009
The Theatre Born in Conflict Zones series is a response to the Theatre in Conflict Zones project
organized by the ITI headquarters and Cultural Identity and Development Committee.
Launched in 2009, it has now introduced 33 plays from various countries and regions
around the world, conveying the raw reality of conflict zones andattracting great interest in the local theatre scene.

Scripts of Plays in the

Theatre Born in Conflict Zones Series (2023)
Bad Roads by Natalia Vorozhbit (Ukraine)

Ground by Yael Ronen (Israel/Germany) & Ensemble
2019 Common
This Is War by Hannah Moscovitch (Canada)

2020 Liberian Girl by Diana Nneka Atuona (UK)2021 The Murder of Isaac by Motti Lerner (Israel)
Five scripts from Viral Monologues by the 24 Hour Plays (USA)2022 This Trip by Charlie O’Leary / Unknown Caller by Dan O’Brien / Thank You for Visiting Me by Zhu
Yi / Invincible by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen / The Hardest Part by Howard Sherman

Searching for New Plays

ITI Japanese Centre accepts new submissions for plays in
the Theatre Born in Conflict Zones series. Please contact us
at mail@iti-j.org.

mail@iti-j.org
The web version of
the Theatre Yearbook(full-color, 2014–) is available here.

http://iti-japan.or.jp
Follow us on

itijapan @itijapan

199

S P EC I AL F EATURE  “Theatre Born in Conflict Zones 14”
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Theatre Born in Conflict Zones 14
The fourteenth entry in the “Theatre Born in Conflict Zones” series (aproject related to the International Theatre Yearbook) was scheduled to
be a reading of Ukrainian playwright Natalia Vorozhbit’s Bad Roads at
Proto-Theater in Tokyo from 9–11 December 2022, but that had to becanceled after a person involved in the performance tested positive for
COVID-19. Our editorial department asked director Ikuta Miyuki towrite up some director’s notes.

Director’s notes
200

Doubting what you know,
relating indistinguishability
Ikuta Miyuki

I think the announcement that the fourteenth entry in the “Theatre Born inConflict Zones” series would introduce a Ukrainian play was met with a verystrong response. It had been almost a year since the Russian military invasion in
February 2022, and I sensed a great deal of public interest in Ukraine and its
people. I myself began reading the play with a certain sense of anticipation, and I
found myself surprised from the very beginning…
The play is set in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine in 2014. Eight years
before the current invasion, there was already conflict there. Indeed, I recall theannexation of Crimea being reported at the time. But I wonder how many of us
had that clearly in our minds when the invasion occurred in February 2022.
Many of us who were bombarded with the extensive media coverage that started

in February must have felt as if the invasion had come out of the blue.
But as we read more of the play, we again find our expectations subverted.
There is little of what we might expect, such as Ukrainians suffering amidst
Russia’s unreasonable attack as reported daily in the media. What we instead saw
in the script were things like a woman who loses herself in an ill-fated love affair.
The play presents six episodes, starting with a lengthy monologue by awoman. That woman, who seems to be a reflection of the author, leaves Kyiv witha soldier and travels with him to the front lines in eastern Ukraine. Through hereyes, we learn bits and pieces about a front-line base and children involved in thefighting, but her primary interest is in the soldier she is traveling with. She talks
eloquently about her desire for him, to the point where one wonders how she canfall so blindly in love while being surrounded by death. But despite his strong
patriotism, well-developed body, and heroism, he is unable to get an erection,
probably due to psychological stress. The soldier asks the woman to perform oral
sex on him, and their journey eventually ends.
The next four episodes are presented as asides about people the woman

201

glimpsed on her journey. Once again, we are confused. From daily news reports,
we have become accustomed to blame for the Russians and an emphasis on thetragedy of the Ukrainians. In this play, however, we also see depictions of sexual
exploitation and violence by Ukrainian soldiers and varied identities for thoseliving in eastern Ukraine. There are those who support and are involved with
Ukrainian soldiers in their work, as well as families who watch Russian television
on a daily basis. There are also soldiers who are anxious about fighting “brotheragainst brother,” yet shoot at each other nonetheless.
This conflict between pro-Russian and pro-Western factions in Ukraine isvery allegorical, especially in the final episode, the only one that takes place
before the war. A young woman runs over a chicken kept by an elderly couple
and proposes to compensate them with money. The couple at first considers heroffer to be some kind of joke, but when the young woman offers them monetarycompensation, they start to bicker and eventually force her to offer them her car
as well. Then they hear a crying child and its mother’s consolations and its
mother, and the couple, as if waking from a nightmare, kick the young woman
Theatre in Japan

Theatre Yearbook 2023

SPECIAL FEATURE

out, shouting “Get the hell out of here, don't try to entice us!”
I myself understood that last line as a criticism of human desire and theviolent nature of capitalism that stimulates it. When people who have lived
modestly and within their means are exposed to the more decadent lifestyle that
capitalism promises, unlimited desire awakens within them, and the life they
have built for themselves is easily destroyed. It was a moment when I, someone
living in a capitalist society, could come into contact with a conflict that was happening far away, despite its being reported on in the news every day.
The troupe had many discussions regarding the language used in this play tofind a way to bring it to a Japanese audience. Because the subject matter is one
that we often see in the media, it was easy to fit it into a composition within thescope of what we know. Ichikawa Nana, the translator, frequently stopped me as I
tried to add wording to clarify situations that were difficult to understand. I
think it was because Ms. Ichikawa sensed the importance of an “indistinguishability” that the writer was not stating outright.
202

The troupe also carefully discussed how to present this play as a reading andhow the actors should perform it against a backdrop of images of actual humansuffering via television and the internet. The same holds true for other works, ofcourse, but no matter how much we read and imagined the material, there weremany aspects we could not fully grasp. I felt bad about acting as if I knew what I
was talking about, but a play cannot be conveyed by mere rote reading. In ourrehearsals, we searched for ways to utilize the “reading” format to strike a balance
between allowing everyone to become as involved with the characters as possible,
while at the same time presenting an objective point of view.
It is unfortunate that all our performances were canceled, but I remain
convinced that there are many things we could realize by performing this playnow. Keeping in mind the danger of oversimplifying complex situations to makethem easier to understand, I hope we can someday bring this work to audiences.

Ikuta, Miyuki
Director. Member of the theatre company Bungakuza and the theatre group Riseiteki-naHenzintachi. M.A. (Music), Tokyo University of the Arts. Among Japanese Centre ofInternational Theatre Institute productions, she directed “This is War” (Theatre Born inConflict Zones 10) and “Anatomy of a Suicide” (World Theatre Lab, 2021). Her recent
productions include “Girls in Crisis,” “Oroika Song,” and “The Architect and the Assyrian Emperor.”(Translation: Tony Gonzalez)

About the “Theatre Born in Conflict Zones” series

The International Theatre Institute sponsors a worldwide project titled “Theatre
Born in Conflict Zones” as an effort to promote peace through theatre. In 2009, theJapan Centre started its “Theatre Born in Conflict Zones” series as part of a survey andresearch project for the Theatre Yearbook. Through activities including translations,readings, lectures by writers and experts, and exhibitions over the past thirteen years,
this series has introduced 28 outstanding plays previously unknown in Japan. Since
the third year, we have also published collections of plays. If you would like to order
the latest edition or back issues containing translations of Viral Monologues, pleasecontact the Japanese Centre of International Theatre Institute. —The Editor

203

This year’s performances were unfortunately canceled, but the following isa record of the reading performances that could not be presented:

Theatre Born in Conflict Zones 14
Reading of “Bad Roads” (performances and distribution both canceled)
9–11 December 2022
Location: Proto-Theater
Archive distribution: 6 December 2022 (10:00 a.m.) through 9 January 2023 (11:59 p.m.)
Playwright: Natalia Vorozhbit
Translator: Ichikawa Nana
Director: Ikuta Miyuki (Bungakuza)
Performers: Ishimura Mika(Tegamiza), Iwao Kaishi, Kameda Yoshiaki (Bungakuza), Saito Atsushi(Haiyuza Theatre Company), Shibata Minami (Bungakuza), Terada Michie (Bungakuza), Nishioka Mio
Producer: Hayashi Hideki

Theatre in Japan

Theatre Yearbook 2023

SPECIAL FEATURE

As a volume separate from the Theatre Yearbook 2023, we publish
Collected Plays, which contains a Japanese translation of Bad Roads withcommentary by the translator. Please contact the Japanese Centre ofInternational Theatre Institute if you would like a copy.

204

Japanese Centre of International Theatre Institute
President

Nagai Taeko

Vice-Presidents

Abiko Tadashi
Yoshiiwa Masaharu

Managing Director Sota Shuji
Directors

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

Auditors

Kishi Masato
Kobayashi Hirofumi

Advisers

Otani Nobuyoshi
Kawamura Junko
Sakomoto Jun’ichi
Tanokura Minoru
Nomura Man
Hatano Yoshio
Hori Takeo
Matsuoka Isao205

(As of March 27, 2023)

Theatre in Japan

Theatre Yearbook 2023

Companion Volume
Theatre Abroad 2023
(Japanese)
These articles do not appear in
Theatre in Japan 2023.

206

World Theatre Day Message by Samiha Ayoub

Theatre in Asia and Africa
China

Looking Back on Chinese Theatre in the “Pandemic Age”:
No Way Out But Through------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Xi Muliang

South Korea Recovery and Development----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lee Seung-gon

Theatre in the Americas and Oceania
USA

Restructuring the Theatre World----------------------------------------------------------------- Tonooka Naomi

Theatre in EuropeUKThe Violence of Othering: Racism, Genderism, Ablism---------------- Motohashi Tetsuya

Germany

Though Hard Times Lie Ahead, Theatre Remains One of the Most Immediate
Forms for Reflecting Them and Seeking Solutions--------------------------------- Eva Behrendt

FranceFrom Pandemic to Ukraine War and Energy Crisis:
Ongoing Challenges for the Theatre World------------------------------------------------- Fujii Shintaro

Italy

Creativity Showcased Under Pressure----------------------------------------------------------------- Velia Papa

Spain

Weaving Humanity on Simple Stages with Words, Rhythm, and Silence

Finland

A Return to Normalcy During Uncertain Times------------------------------------------- Linnea Stara

Lithuania

Dystopian Times------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kristina Steiblytė

RussiaTheatre Amid Silence--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shinozaki Naoya

207-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okamoto Junko

Theatre in Japan

Theatre Yearbook 2023

ITI Centres (as of March 27, 2023)

208

Americas

AfricaColombia
Cuba
MexicoUSA
Venezuela

Algeria
Benin
Burkina Faso
Central African Rep.
Chad
Congo Rep. (Brazaville)
Egypt
Ghana
GuineaIvory Coast
Madagascar
Mali
Mauritania
Morocco
Niger
Nigeria
Sierra Leone
Sudan
Togo
UgandaZimbabwe

EuropeArmenia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Belgium (Flanders)Belgium (Wallonia)
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech
Estonia
FinlandFranceGeorgia
Germany
GreeceHungary
Iceland

Arab

Italy
LatviaLuxembourg
North Macedonia
MonacoMontenegro
Netherlands
Romania
RussiaSlovakia
Slovenia
Spain
SwedenSwitzerland
UK

Asia PacificBangladesh
China
India
Iran
IsraelJapan
South Korea
Mongolia
Philippines
Sri Lanka
Vietnam

209

Bahrain
Iraq
JordanKuwaitOman
Palestine
Syria
UAE (Fujairah)
Yemen

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

Theatre in Japan

Theatre Yearbook 2023

東京芸術祭
東 京の多彩で奥 深い芸 術文化を通して世界とつながることを目指し、毎年 秋に東 京・池 袋エリアを中心に開催している都市型総合芸 術祭です。東 京の芸 術文化の魅力を分かり易く見せると同時に東京における芸術文化の創造 力を高めることを目指しています。中長 期的には社会課題の解決や人づくり、都市づくり、そしてグローバル化への対応を視野にいれて取り組んでいます。

To k y o F e s t i val
This is a comprehensive urban arts festival held every fall around Tokyo’s Ikebukuro area which aims to connect with the world
through Tokyo’s rich and diverse arts and culture scene. While showcasing the appeal of Tokyo’s arts and culture in an easy-tounderstand manner, at the same time the festival aims to enhance Tokyo’s own creative capabilities. In the mid-to-long term, we
will continue to work on resolving social issues, developing human resources, developing urban areas, and tackling globalization.

h t t p s : // t o k y o - f e s t i v a l . j p
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/tokyofestivalsince2016/
Twitter https://twitter.com/tokyo_festival
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/tokyo_festival/
主催：東京芸術祭実行委員会［豊島区、公益財団法人としま未来文化財団、公益財団法人東京都歴史文化財団（東京芸術劇場・アーツカウンシル東京）、東京都］

Tokyo Festival Executive Committee[Toshima City, Toshima Mirai Cultural Foundation, Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture (Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre & Arts Council Tokyo), Tokyo Metropolitan Government]

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