A magazine
for all
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teaching

Policy • Pedagogy • Practice
Issue 6 Autumn 2014
ISSN 2049-3568 (Print) • ISSN 2049-3576 (Online)

Shakespeare
Join the BSA: free membership for teachers 2014–15
Go graphic using Manga with Daniel Gallimore
Teach all the lawyers with Tetsuhito Motoyama
Sex up your Shakespeare with Ayami Oki-Siekierczak
Find this magazine and more at the BSA Education Network’s
NEW webpage: www.britishshakespeare.ws/education/

noticeboard
workshop for teachers
The BSA is offering its members free entrance to a workshop for teachers led by the author of The North Face of
Shakespeare, Dr James Stredder, at the Shakespeare Birthplace
Trust, Stratford upon Avon on Saturday 8th November.
Practical approaches to Much Ado About Nothing and otherplays taught to year 9–10 students will be the focus of the day.
For more information see www.britishshakespeare.ws/event
To register email sarah.olive@york.ac.uk
free BSA MEMBERSHIP
If you are not already a member of the British Shakespeare
Association, now is the time to join! We are celebrating
Shakespeare’s 450th anniversary of birth with FREE membership for primary and secondary school teachers for theacademic year 2014–15. Taking advantage of the offer
couldn’t be easier – do it online at:www.britishshakespeare.ws/education/
education-members/
SHAKESPEARE IN THE DIGITAL WORLD
Those looking to expand their use of digital resources
and pedagogies in the Shakespeare classroom or teaching
Shakespeare by distance learning will find plentiful inspirationin Shakespeare and the Digital World, edited by Christie Carson
and Peter Kirwan. It was published by Cambridge University
Press in 2014. Christie will also be leading a session on the
topic at the European Shakespeare Research Association
conference, University of Worcester, 29 June – 2 July 2015.
For conference details see: www.worcester.ac.uk/discover/
european-shakespeare-research-association-congressjune-july-2015.html

SHAKESPEARE ON THE ROAD
Teachers and students might be interested in the online
resources provided by the epic road-tripping Bardathonbonanza that was ‘Shakespeare on the Road’. In July andAugust 2014, the Anglo-American team visited a huge rangeof Shakespeare festivals across the length and breadth of the
US. Touching down on the 4th July at the Heart of America
Shakespeare Festival in Kansas City and ending in Washington
DC in early September, in 63 days, the team travelled over
10,000 miles (mostly by road), visited 16 companies, saw 42
Shakespeare productions and interviewed hundreds of thepeople who – year in, year out – make Shakespeare happen
across the continent. The road trip was mapped online withdozens of interviews, photos and short blogs that give asense of the journey as it unfolded. Many of the interviews
feature educational practitioners, actors and artistic directors
discussing their practice and why Shakespeare matters tothem. Hie thee to: www.shakespeareontheroad.com
THE DUTCH COURTESAN
An update on online resources from Theatre, Film andTelevision at the University of York: Penelope Wilton’sMiddleton workshop is coming to The Dutch Courtesan
project website in early autumn, and it will soon be opened
up to debate about the challenges of staging early modern
repertoire today. www.dutchcourtesan.co.uk
The next issue of Teaching Shakespeare will appear in February
2015. If you would like to contribute an article or blogpost,share your feedback on a recent conference or other event,highlight or review relevant publications or projects pleaseemail us at teachingshakespeare@ymail.com

Photo © Shakespeareontheroad.com

Desgined by Becky Chilcott • Set in Bliss and Redisturbed by Jeremy Tankard Typography Ltd • Printed by Campus Copy and Print, York

editorialK

The institutions represented are a mix of state and private
universities, mixed and single-sex environments, fromacross the country. The educators featured teach in different
languages. They encompass Japanese citizens and migrants
to Japan alike. Their articles cut across the genres of
Shakespeare’s work – from comedies to histories – and facultyboundaries – from English to Law. They have in common anemphasis on achieving a positive experience of Shakespeare
for Japanese students, in the face of linguistic challenges,
time constraints and a shifting student population. The
success and failure of teaching Shakespeare is frequently
explained here with reference to beliefs about Japaneseculture, though readers might reflect on similar experiencesin their home countries, or even universalities. Some authors
give contrasting impressions of students’ experiences andinterest through surveys conducted in class. Others, if notquite describing a ‘bad lesson’, capture in words what does
not work. Below I have included comments on and questions
about Shakespeare collected during a visit to Takasaki
University in Gunma province in July 2014, showing an evenbroader spectrum of attitudes than the articles. My hopes
for this issue are twofold: that it captures present, and somehistoric, approaches to Shakespeare in Japanese education andoffers an impetus for reflection on the part of those who teachin Japan or who teach Japanese students outside the country.
This issue could not have been possible without the support of
the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation and the generosity of myhosts: Yu Umemiya at Waseda University, Alex Watson at Japan
Women’s University, and Yoshiko Matsuda, Takasaki University,with help from Keiko Aoki and Hanako Endo, as well as the many
students at these institutions who engaged with me.

Illustration of Sarah Olive © Malcolm Wilson

onichiwa! This issue brings together classroom
practice from almost all levels of educationin Japan: school, various years of undergraduate
and postgraduate study; plus life-long learning.

I think Soseki Natsume [Meiji-era novelist] should be taught
more in Japan, as Shakespeare is in the UK. Natsume’s Koko ro
can teach us about human relations. (Jun, Kota)
I’m interested in adaptation literature in Japanese culture. For
example, manga and TV. (Kohei)
I have been to England to study English for two months . . .
I stayed in Stratford. I went to see a play – Much Ado. It
is a lot of fun! I want to see more of his work. What are yourrecommendations? What is his best story? (Kiwako, Mei)
I have never read a book that was written by Shakespeare,
so I want to read manga Shakespeare. (Koede)

V Continues on page 11

Contents
Noticeboard
EDITORIAL Sarah Olive
Teaching Shakespeare to College Students Kenneth K.P. Chan
Teaching Sheikusupia Daniel Gallimore
The Treatment of Bawdy in Japanese Classrooms Ayami Oki-Siekierczak
Teaching Shakespeare to Law Students Tetsuhito Motoyama
Teaching the History Plays in Japan James Tink
A Boys’ Drama Club Performs Romeo and Juliet Kevin Bergman
		First Year Shakespeare through Film Yuto Koizumi		Teaching Shakespeare in the current HE context Yu Umemiya 		
Undergraduate and lifelong learners of Shakespeare Marie Honda		

Teaching Shakespeare 6 Autumn 2014

2
3
4–5
6–8
9
10–11
12–13
14
15
16–18
19
3

Teaching Shakespeare to College Students

K

enneth K. P. Chan is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Global and Regional Studies, Doshisha University,
Kyoto, where he teaches academic and communicative English courses. His research interests include Shakespeare
in Japan, and using English literature in teaching communicative English and EFL reading classes.

Shakespeare is known by name to the Japanese general public
and many, because of their interest in theatre or reading, would
know the famous plays. However, the vast majority of students
have no knowledge of Shakespeare’s works, as at school they
are not introduced to them. What Japanese students know of
Shakespeare is from world history textbooks in which he isbriefly mentioned as a famous British playwright of the 17th
century credited with writing such plays as Romeo and Juliet,
Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, and King Lear. Theseare plays which most people would have heard of as they havebeen often performed in Japan in various renderings over theyears. It is not surprising that Shakespeare is not taught at
schools in Japan. After all, he is not their national poet, andmany Japanese, particularly the young, have the notion that
his works are deep, sad, and rather difficult to understand.
This is perhaps due in part to Japan’s warm reception of andidentification with the tragedy plays. So, unless Japanese
students are introduced to Shakespeare in some way outsideof regular school education, they would only know his name,fame, and well-known play titles.
But how would Japanese college students respond if they
were introduced to a Shakespeare play in class? Would they
understand it? Would they enjoy it? How might Shakespeare
be introduced to them? To investigate these questions, asmall-scale study was undertaken with two classes at theDoshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts.
4

Photo © Kenneth K.P. Chan

Shakespeare is well known in Japan. Professor Yushi
Odashima, an eminent Japanese Shakespearianscholar who has translated all the Bard’s plays into
Japanese, considers him to be the most popular playwrightin Japan. Perhaps the best testimony to Shakespeare’s
appeal to the Japanese is the lavish Tokyo Globe theatre,modelled on the second London Globe Theatre and built in1988 in the heart of the country’s capital to showcase both
local and international Shakespeare productions. Since
then, Japanese audiences have enjoyed Shakespeare’s
plays performed by companies from across the globe, as
well as their own. Adaptations of Shakespeare’s works inlocal theatrical forms such as kabuki and bunraku also
abound, which all contribute to his sustained popularity
and reputation since the first Shakespeare play wasstaged here in 1885.

The classes were first and second year social studies majors,
each including nineteen students. They were all native Japanese speakers for whom English was a foreign language.
Their English reading level would be about that of an upper
elementary pupil in the UK, while their English listening andspeaking would be lower. This is fairly typical among Japanesecollege students.

“What Japanese students know of Shakespeare
is from world history textbooks in which heis briefly mentioned as a famous British playwright of the 17th century.”
As it was likely to be the students’ first exposure to Shakespeare in English, a gentle and fun introduction was thought tobe more appealing to them. Therefore, a play with a relatively
light-hearted nature, easy to follow plot, and simple character
profiles was sought out. Two Gentlemen of Verona was deemeda good choice for this purpose. Furthermore, it contains
themes such as love, friendship, loyalty, betrayal, forgivenessand reconciliation that could readily lend themselves toclassroom discussion suitable for these young adults.

“many Japanese, particularly the young, have thenotion that his works are deep, sad, and rather
difficult to understand.”
Beginning the play with the original English would be too
difficult for the students and probably off-putting, so three
Teaching Shakespeare 6 Autumn 2014

“Among the seven students who had watched orread his plays, Romeo and Juliet in Japanese was
the most watched.”

impressive,” “Shakespeare’s love is wonderful,” “deep content,”“enthusiastic and cool,” “rich expressions,” but qualified with“complicated,” “sad stories,” and “difficult words.”‘levels’ of the story were used, which allows for a gradualbuild up to the much more challenging original. E. Nesbit’s
simplified story of the play for children was used as an easy,
short, first read to gain a basic, overall understanding of thecharacters and plot, followed by Charles and Mary Lamb’s
story adaptation for more detailed coverage that also
incorporates a little more of the original language. Selectedparts of an English-language edition were used last, read ina role play manner to better engage the students with thecharacters, and accompanied by teacher explanation. The
BBC’s (1983) production of the play is an easy-to-access
DVD format for classroom use, containing both English
subtitles and Japanese translation. It was shown as a visual
aid to better understand the story. This faithful rendering of
the play was very much enjoyed by the students, who looked
forward to this ‘stage’ part of the class and commented
favourably on it. At various points we paused and talked
about the content. For example, after watching the opening
scene, they discussed the questions, “What were Valentine’sand Proteus’ ideals of love and going abroad?” and “If you
were to choose between love and career, what would you
choose and why?” We also learned and sang some of thesongs in the play to liven up the atmosphere and improvethe experience. They were especially moved by the unfaithful
Proteus’ serenade to Silvia, that is, moved with a compassion
for Julia.

The study consisted of eight 25-minute sessions tagged on
to my regular reading classes. The objective was to give thestudents a kind of taster, a brief introduction to a Shakespeare
play, and to gauge their response. At the end of the study,
another short questionnaire was used to collect feedback. All
students said they understood the play and that they liked
studying Shakespeare in class. They also commented thatthey would like to study other Shakespeare plays in class,the most popular choice was Romeo and Juliet, followed byHamlet. All students wrote their impressions freely. Thirtytwo wrote positively with comments such as, “expressions
were terrific,” “impressive words in story,” “use of words werebeautiful, like a poem,” “the words were especially beautiful,”“I think Shakespeare’s story is very interesting,” “moving andinteresting – I want to read the English one through,” “story
was very profound,” “we had to think much about love,”“love is blind,” “I could feel the true love,” “passionate,”“when Proteus deceived Valentine was most impressive,”“Proteus’ love and desire which made him ‘drown’ was mostimpressive part,” and “I was impressed when Proteus’ love for
Julia was expressed to Silvia.” Six students wrote ‘negative’comments, all of which were related to the level of language,
such as, “English used a little difficult,” and “words hardto understand.”Before the study, a short questionnaire was used to find out
whether, and to what extent, the students knew of Shakespeare, and their general impressions of him. As expected,
nearly all had heard of Shakespeare, although most had notread or watched his plays. The majority knew some play titles,
with Romeo and Juliet known by three quarters. Among theseven students who had watched or read his plays, Romeoand Juliet in Japanese was the most watched. The students’impressions were positive, with comments like, “romantic and
Photo © Ken Yuko Chan

Teaching Shakespeare 6 Autumn 2014

“The feedback indicates that they understood,
enjoyed, and wanted to study more of Shakespeare, all of which are encouraging signs for
positive teaching and learning outcomes.”
Although brief and limited in scope, this study shows thatthe students took to studying Shakespeare in class very
well. The feedback indicates that they understood, enjoyed,
and wanted to study more of Shakespeare, all of which
are encouraging signs for positive teaching and learning
outcomes. Perhaps more could be done with Japanese
students to explore whether and how Shakespeare might be
exploited to beneficial effect, so they may not merely know
the name of the most popular dramatist in Japan but someof his works also.

5Teaching SheikusupiaD

aniel Gallimore is Professor of English literature at Kwansei Gakuin University. Having completed his
doctorate at Oxford in 2001 on the treatment of prosody in Japanese Shakespeare translations, recent
publications include an article in Shakespeare 9.4, on Shakespeare translation as a site for maritime exchange
in Meiji and Taishō Japan.

T

he teaching of Shakespeare in Japanese universities
dates back to the formation of a modern systemof higher education in the late 19th century.
Shakespeare (‘Sheikusupia’ in Japanese pronunciation)
was received from the start as a universal genius, a myththat was sustained through the contribution of academictranslators such as Tsubouchi Shōyō in the early 20th
century, although as a foreign rather than a native Japanesewriter. Even if Shakespeare’s cultural assumptions could
not be readily applied to the recipient culture, the plays
have long provided a means of experiencing universality
in a Japanese context.
In this regard, the way that Shakespeare has been received
in Japan is perhaps not dissimilar to how the plays have been
received anywhere else. Almost all Shakespeare’s plays are‘translations’ of existing narratives, and so Shakespeare’s
reception in Japan is merely continuing that process of‘translation’. Even in Anglophone countries, teachers must to
some extent use translation as a tool for reading Shakespeare’s
early modern English, but translation is obviously rather
more central to the teaching of Shakespeare in Japan, where
the English language per se is still to some extent taught by
the grammar-translation method. I learnt my French andGerman that way at British schools in the 1970s and 80s, andit was not until I came to Japan in 1987 that I encountered
the communicative methodology of language teaching: theidea that languages are best learnt through the acquisitionof communicative skills with little formal grammatical input

Photo © Daniel Gallimore

6

and rote learning, especially not the repeated correction oferrors. At that time, there was a popular view that while
educated Japanese people could read English, they lacked
the skills and confidence to communicate in English withnative speakers. Despite my somewhat limited training, it
was the communicative approach that I applied with somesuccess to my work as an Assistant English Teacher on theJapan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme. This is anapproach that continues to inform my teaching at a large
private university in western Japan. More to the point, andaside from the invaluable MA programme in Japanese Studies
I did at Sheffield University in the early 1990s, most of myJapanese has been acquired through the communicative
approach of cultural immersion and interaction.

“translation is obviously rather more central to
the teaching of Shakespeare in Japan, where theEnglish language per se is still to some extent
taught by the grammar-translation method.”
Since returning to Japan in 2003, I have had the opportunity
to teach Shakespeare at postgraduate level, and since2008 have been teaching Shakespeare to undergraduate
classes, using the illustrated manga versions published by
SelfMadeHero. Between 2008 and 2011 at Japan Women’s
University in Tokyo, I taught the manga Hamlet for threeconsecutive years, finding that each year’s teaching raised
only more questions to be solved; at Kwansei Gakuin
University since 2011, I have taught two seminar courses
on Hamlet criticism, and the plot continues to thicken! The
tutorial system at Kwansei Gakuin has also enabled me toteach a broader selection of the plays to 3rd and 4th year
undergraduates in the manga versions (in order of tutorialgroup): Much Ado About Nothing and Romeo and Juliet (2011–13), A Midsummer Night’s Dream and As You Like It (2012–14),
Richard III and Julius Caesar (2013–15), and The Merchant of
Venice (as of 2014). A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Romeoand Juliet are perennial favourites in Japan as elsewhere, butsince the overwhelming majority of my students are female(70% across the department as a whole), the opportunity tointroduce them to ‘the men’s world’ of plays such as Richard
III and Julius Caesar (together with their memorable female
characters) seemed too good to be missed.
Teaching Shakespeare 6 Autumn 2014

In teaching Shakespeare to Japanese students, therefore, I
am faced with a practical problem that may also be related
to a deeper cultural issue of what Shakespeare means
to Japanese people. To start with, I always try to create
a communicative classroom environment in which (asI tell the students) the main language is English, and yetsomehow inevitably end up using far more Japanese thanintended. The manga editions, through their cutting of theoriginal text by as much as 80% and use of graphic images
to illustrate dramatic situations and plot development, aidteachers and learners in developing a shared understandingof the plays, and have the particular strength of retaining
Shakespeare’s original text in the fifth that remains. To takeone familiar example, Hamlet’s fourth soliloquy is reduced
to the following bite-sized chunks (Vieceli and Appignanesi
2008, 78–79):
To be or not to be … that is the question.
To die, to sleep, to sleep, perchance to dream:ay, there’s the rub …
The dread of something after death puzzles the will.
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all.
Sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
enterprises lose the name of action.
Three words in this excerpt are displayed in bold type
– ‘cowards’, ‘lose’ and ‘action’ – suggesting that the unambiguous message of the soliloquy is that cowards fail toact. In fact, the graphic nature of the manga genre lends
itself to such stark interpretations; at the end of the Julius
Caesar (Mustashrik and Appignanesi 2008, 205), Brutus ispresented in the giant figure of a crucified martyr to replace
the image on the cover of Caesar in the same postureagainst an ominous Roman skyline. Other typical effects
include doubling faces to reveal mixed feelings and reducing
characters to child size when they are acting childishly; thesedevices, like Shakespeare’s own rhetoric, all serve to tell thestory and to open up the plays to interpretation.

“use of graphic images to illustrate dramatic
situations and plot development, aid teachers andlearners in developing a shared understandingof the plays.”
Manga is of course familiar to Japanese students as a genre forboth children and adults. My initial fears that students would
not take it seriously as a medium for studying ‘a serious writer’
like Shakespeare have never been reciprocated. Yet for all its
advantage as a teaching tool, manga Shakespeare still leaves a
lot to be explained. In the 3rd year, it takes me twenty weeks outof the two fourteen-week spring and autumn semesters to reada whole play, including the time spent on role play activities,
watching a film, and historical background, and this time gives
the students the reading skills to tackle a whole play in thespring semester of the 4th year before writing their graduation
dissertations (sotsuron), the ultimate goal of all undergraduate
degree courses in Japan. In the Hamlet excerpt, the following
words and phrases demand explanation: ‘perchance’ (perhaps),‘the rub’, ‘puzzles the will’, the connection between conscienceand cowardice, ‘sicklied’ and ‘cast’, and the final metaphor
is also tricky. Elsewhere, the stuff about purgatory and hell
can certainly take up time with students unfamiliar withsuch concepts, even leading to the impression that Hamlet isprimarily a religious play, although both the manga format andthe numerous films tend to dispel that impression. Moreover,in language-centered teaching, the focus will be predominantly
on Shakespeare’s metaphors, offering as they do to students
the greatest challenges and the greatest rewards: Shakespeare’s‘universality’ is perhaps nowhere more apparent than in his
metaphorical comparisons of like with unlike, and (I would
argue) is experienced most intensely through the cognitiveeffort required to understand the metaphors.
In order to gauge students’ own response to the translingual
Shakespeare classroom, I recently conducted a brief survey,
asking them to grade their level of agreement to fivestatements in the table below.

Strongly disagree

disagree a little

agree

agree a lot

Strongly agree

There is a satisfactorybalance of English andJapanese used in theclassroom

0

1

9

8

5

I would like more
opportunities to speak
English in the classroom

0

2

10

6

5

I can understand the textof the manga Shakespeare
without the teacher’s
explanation in Japanese

4

13

2

3

1

I can understand thetext of the manga
Shakespeare after
hearing the teacher’s
explanation in Japanese

0

0

4

13

6

The teacher’s Japanese isdifficult to understand

4

15

4

0

0

Teaching Shakespeare 6 Autumn 20147

“the stuff about purgatory and hell can certainly
take up time with students unfamiliar with suchconcepts, even leading to the impression that
Hamlet is primarily a religious play, althoughboth the manga format and the numerous films
tend to dispel that impression.”and discuss the texts together in English. Japanese students
are eminently capable of understanding Shakespeare; I would
like them to talk about Shakespeare as well.
Notes:• Kishi and Bradshaw compare the possessive claim of 19th century
German critics to ‘unser [our] Shakespeare’ with Japanese people

These figures suggest that while the Shakespeare is getting
through loud and clear, certainly more could be done tocreate an interactive classroom. Out of three students who
provided ‘further comments’, one wrote that ‘It’s reallyhard for me to understand Shakespeare’s original English,
but I think it’s very worthwhile me trying [to do so]’. The
two others praised what they called in Japanese my polite(teinei) style of teaching. Teinei is a hugely ambiguous word,
but what I would want it to mean more than anything elsein this context is a classroom in which students do not feel
objectified by either the text or my teaching: one, in otherwords, in which there is no pressure to be Ophelia or Beatriceor Shylock, and where they feel free to grow alongside thetexts they are reading. As a teacher, I no doubt tend tounderestimate their understanding, and so at the very least
would like to give a full thirty of the ninety minutes’ classtime to task-directed small group activities in which rather
than having to understand every detail, students can readfor whom ‘Shakespeare is always foreign’ (Kishi and Bradshaw, 27).
• In addition to JET training seminars, I was particularly inspiredby Krashen and Terrell’s classic study of language acquisition,
The Natural Approach (1983).

works cited:• Kishi, Tetsuo and Graham Bradshaw.
Shakespeare in Japan.
London: Continuum. 2005.
• Krashen, Stephen D. and Tracy D. Terrell.
The Natural Approach: Language Acquisition in the Classroom.
Oxford: Pergamon Press. 1983.
• Mustashrik, and Richard Appignanesi.
Manga Shakespeare: Julius Caesar.
London: SelfMadeHero. 2008.
• Vieceli, Emma, and Richard Appignanesi.
Manga Shakespeare: Hamlet.
London: SelfMadeHero. 2008.

“
Japanese students are eminently capable ofunderstanding Shakespeare; I would like themto talk about Shakespeare as well.”

The Great Britain
Sasakawa Foundation
Making a difference in UK-Japan relations
The Foundation is pleased to support thisissue of Teaching Shakespeare.
We seek to promote mutual understanding and cooperation
between the UK and Japan through financial support
towards activities in the following fields:
Arts and Culture • Humanities and Social Issues
Japanese Language • Japanese Studies
Science, Technology and Environment
Medicine and Health Youth and Education • SportFor further details visit our website:www.gbsf.org.uk

8

Teaching Shakespeare 6 Autumn 2014

The Treatment of Bawdy in Japanese Classrooms

AS

yami Oki-Siekierczak joined the Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum, Waseda University in 2011. She isalso a research fellow of the University of the Sacred Heart and teaches part time at the university and Meiji
University. She focuses on Shakespeare’s reception in Japan, particularly colour term translation and bawdy.

hakespeare’s plays are rife with bawdy jokes that
could be considered controversial in conservative
cultures. When Japan imported the bard, he wasadmired as one of the western figures from whom readers
must learn, in order to modernize the land of the risingsun. The editions published, however, were influenced
by bowdlerized Restoration and Victorian adaptations,as they were considered suitable for Japanese audiences.
The first Japanese translations were the only ones that
attempted to include questionable material. Other earlytwentieth-century translators tended to exclude sexual
expressions. At the same time, English texts were available
and often used for educational purposes, such as learning
English at university. Since then, what has happened to his
bawdy humour?
Let us discuss the treatment of bawdy themes in the classroom,
using Romeo and Juliet as an example. In Japan it is still an option
for lecturers to skip parts of plays that would be consideredinappropriate, such as when Mercutio and the Nurse indulge inquestionable sexual eloquence in Romeo and Juliet. However,
without these components, the play loses its appeal. In 2005
in Japan, I was taught by a male visiting lecturer, who seemed
extremely uncomfortable discussing Shakespeare’s bawdy sidewith one male and six female students. The lecturer was trying
to get us as close to the Bard’s meaning as possible. Word byword translations and exercises on grammar were conducted
throughout the academic year. By the end of the year, we wereable to render the original texts into modern English using a
dictionary. However, when examining the textbook this eminent
scholar had given us, it was remarkable to note that certain
passages were not covered. Since we had to work as quickly as
possible, all the students were recording his comments on thetext, and all of our notes had the same untouched part: bawdy.
In the Shakespeare course I attended in 2007 in the UK, theemphasis on the play was extremely different. In front of threemale and nine female students, a male professor encouraged
us to discuss innuendo in Mercutio’s jokes. Regardless ofgender, we pursued the sexual undertones of the play, and it
never damaged our image of the genius of Shakespeare.

“Regardless of gender, we pursued the sexual
undertones of the play, and it never damaged ourimage of the genius of Shakespeare.”Why then, is the sexual innuendo of the Elizabethan playwright too controversial to be taught in Japanese classrooms?
Japan is a peculiar country in regards to its treatment ofsexuality, which is different on the surface and in its depth.
When it is overt in public humour and conversation, it iscalled ‘shimo-neta’. Here, ‘shimo’ means ‘down’, referring
to matters related to sexual and excretory organs, which,surprisingly or not, are grouped into the same category.
‘Shimo-neta’ is thought to be inappropriate for classrooms
and other public places. However, Japan is not inexperienced
in sexual matters. On the contrary, there is considerable
depth to sexuality in Japan. Exploring the shadows of its
cities, it is possible to encounter sexual interests, fromshooting photos of local idols and the sale of sexually explicit
manga and anime, to visiting ‘soapland’, a sensual bathing
service. However, these almost entirely hidden in the cornersof society.
In 2014, when I brought an abridged version of Romeo andJuliet, without risqué expressions, to a class on English, rather
than on Shakespeare, my students felt content with theirfirst Shakespearean experience. The romanticism of thisversion fulfilled their expectations. Later on, it was explainedthat all the problematic jokes were excluded from the text.
Discussion of how students felt about this omission deepened
their understanding of language in Elizabethan plays andculture, as well as my own understanding of their feelings
towards the language of sexual humour. The students’ wereunanimous in their belief that romantic love should havebeen separated from sexual matters by the author, and it wasdifficult for them to understand the idea that sensual jokes
could be so openly accepted. Thus the idea of bawdy as illsuited to Japanese language and culture is still evident in theclassroom, not least among the students.

“In Japan it is still an option for lecturers toskip parts of plays that would be consideredinappropriate.”
Teaching Shakespeare 6 Autumn 2014

9

Teaching Shakespeare to Law StudentsTT

etsuhito MOTOYAMA is an Associate Professor at the School of Law, Waseda University, having received an
MA in Shakespeare Studies from the Shakespeare Institute and a PhD from the International Christian University.
Publications include, co-authored with Kaoru Edo, “Strange Oeillades No More” Shakespeare 9.4, and co-editedwith Hiromi Fuyuki, The Text Made Visible: Shakespeare on the Page, Stage, and Screen.

Photo © Tetsuhito Motoyama

raditionally, in many Japanese universities, eachfaculty has had its own non-area-major faculty
members to teach language and general education
courses. As a result, these faculties have been able to offer
students tutorial-styled classes in subjects outside theirarea. Waseda University’s School of Law has offered atutorial-styled class in Shakespeare since 2006. A survey ofthe curriculum, the background of the students, and whattakes place in this Shakespeare class will give insight into
the significance of teaching Shakespeare to undergraduate
law students in Japan.
In 2004, Waseda’s School of Law conducted a major
curriculum reform to meet the changing demands for undergraduate education that would follow the introduction of law
schools in Japan. As law schools would take over the task of
preparing students for the bar exam, the undergraduate law
program could focus on giving students a broad education.
This was to include language skills and general education
subjects, and led to the increase of compulsory language
classes from sixteen to twenty credits and the introductionof a sub-major program.
The focus of English classes after the curriculum reform
became integrated language activities. This change took
into account the call for “education that makes discussion
in English possible,” in the final report of the Ministryof Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s
Committee to Form a Grand Design for Education andResearch for the 21st Century (Shudo and Harada 1). Under
the old curriculum, English classes were simply divided
according to the targeted skills of reading, writing, or oral
communication. With the new curriculum, students receivetask-based instruction for all four skills in their first year,
which prepares them for the content-based classes of theirsecond year. The idea is to make students functional enoughin English to be able to study law in English when necessary.

“The focus of English classes after the curriculum
reform became integrated language activities.
This change took into account the call for‘education that makes discussion in English
possible’.”10

Through the sub-major program, students can developinterests outside their major, while at the same time, in manycases, furthering their language education. The primary
purpose of setting up the sub-major program was to give
students a clear direction in studying general education
subjects instead of have them take classes at random(Morinaka 39). The sub-major program is comprised of five
area studies subjects, one humanities subject, and threesocial science subjects. Each subject consists of a varying
number of lecture classes and tutorial-styled seminar classes.
Although the sub-major classes are not part of the language
program, the five area studies subjects correspond with thefive language programs; in most cases, the seminar classes ofthese area study subjects require the relevant language skills,
and thus build upon the language programs. The Shakespeare
seminar class belongs to the English-language area studies
sub-major program.
Next, a description of the students who take the Shakespeare seminar class will make it easier to gauge the rolesuch a class serves in an undergraduate law program.
Eleven students enrolled for spring 2014, and their English
proficiency ranged from lower intermediate to advanced.
Although there was diversity in their English levels, they
were all eager for a chance to engage in academic discussion
in English, which the size of the class made possible. Anotherpertinent point is that many of the students took the class,not only out of a wish to improve their English, but also
because of their interest in Shakespeare. Seven students
Teaching Shakespeare 6 Autumn 2014

completed a questionnaire about the class; in this, six ofthem stated that they appreciated the cultural significanceof Shakespeare and wished to have a chance to read his
works in English.

“many of the students took the class, not onlyout of a wish to improve their English, but also
because of their interest in Shakespeare.”to supplement as well as compliment what the students
learn in their law classes. Teaching them Shakespeare does
not, borrowing Dick the Butcher’s words, “kill all the lawyers,”
but does kill the desire in these students to be nothing morethan lawyers.
works cited:• Morinaka, Takaaki.
‘The Sub-major Program As an Intellectual Arena’

Finally, a brief look at what took place in the classroom
will demonstrate how it incorporates the aims of the
new curriculum, and the potential such a class has forundergraduate law students. The class was conductedentirely in English, and used the Oxford School Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet as its textbook. Aside from short lectureson such subjects as the stage conditions and the political andreligious backgrounds, the classes revolved around student
presentations and discussion. Students were assigned
scenes and prepared questions about the plot and difficult
expressions as well as discussion topics. The students askedclassmates the questions they prepared, and facilitated thediscussion; this became an opportunity for them not only toengage in but also instigate discussions in English themselves.

“It was as if they were using the play to reexamine some of the traditional views andvalues Japanese society holds.”
Some of the topics the students chose to discuss concerned
the relationship between love and violence, the significanceof images such as the sun and the moon, and the function ofsexual puns. They were also particularly good at drawing theconflicts and issues close to themselves. Heated discussions
followed questions as to whether Romeo or Paris would makea better husband, whether one’s family name can or cannot
be easily discarded, and whether parents should or should
not have the kind of authority Capulet holds over Juliet. It
was as if they were using the play to re-examine some of the
traditional views and values Japanese society holds.
In the questionnaire about the class, the students’ answers
about what they had learned by studying Shakespeare were
twofold. On one hand, they commented on how they felt
knowledge about English culture and attitudes helped themunderstand the background of English law better. This, alongwith the practice they had in carrying out discussions inEnglish, was a way in which the class contributed to theirstudies in their area major. On the other, many of themwrote about the humour and wit in the plays, and how theysuggested a way of perceiving the world that challenged
the mind-frame they develop either by living in Japanesesociety or through their law studies. In other words, teaching
Shakespeare to undergraduate law students has the potential
Teaching Shakespeare 6 Autumn 2014

Humanitas 47 (2008): 39–42.
• Shudo, Sachiko, and Yasunari Harada.
‘Designing a Syllabus for Integrated Language Activities’
Humnitas 47 (2008): 1–12.

V Editorial continued . . .
What kind of clothes does the British girl wear? I like Vivienne
Westwood. Do you? (Yumi)
What is the best way to teach Shakespeare at junior or highschool? (Sunaga)
I was interested in Romeo and Juliet, so I bought the book.
I think Shakespeare attracted many people.
I like English culture. When I went to England this Spring
I thought English people take pride in their country’s culture.
Shakespeare is regarded as difficult and high rank playwright.
But I enjoyed reading his books. Is Shakespeare popular withyoung English people?
Learning English and Shakespeare is very difficult.
Do you like Harry Potter? I like it very much. Is it famousin Britain?
England needs Shakespeare’s study. But there is no person
instead of Shakespeare in Japan.
In the UK, do university students study Japanese? Today’s
speech is very difficult for me. But I want to study English andShakespeare harder.
N.b. Unattributed quotations represent students who signed
in Kanji, which it is beyond my ability and word processor tocompute. My apologies to those students.
Sarah Olive
11

Teaching the History Plays in JapanJ

ames Tink is Associate Professor in the Department of English Literature, Graduate School of Arts and Letters,
Tohoku University, Sendai. He received a doctorate from the University of Sussex, UK, and has taught in Japanesehigher education since 2004. He publishes on early modern English literature, literary theory, and Asian
Shakespeare studies.

Despite some notable theatrical productions,the tetralogies of Shakespeare’s history plays
are not generally so well known in Japan, andperhaps carry less weight of expectation for first-timereaders. Nevertheless, the challenges that students facereflect some of the more general problems for the plays’contemporary audiences. One is the relative openness ofform in many of these dramas, which defies expectations ofgenre and the appropriate response to the work, especiallywhen reading the text. Another difficulty is the medieval
subject matter from the original chronicle sources, andhow to make it resonate with the modern reader. What canbe most illuminating about teaching Shakespeare’s history
plays in a Japanese seminar is thinking about how ideasof “medieval” or “early modern” culture are generated
through our own contemporary readings of literature, andhow Shakespeare’s sixteenth-century version of medieval
England invites comparison with the Japanese past.

This commentary is derived from the experience of teachingan undergraduate seminar in the Department of English
Literature at Tohoku University, a large, national university
in Sendai, North East Japan. The intention was to examine
the second tetralogy; for the sake of convenience, thisbecame Richard II for one fifteen-week semester, followed by
Henry IV Part One in the next. Although a partial view of theplay-cycle, this had the advantage of giving some narrative
continuity to the story, and providing a contrast between the
tragic form of the first play and the more comedic style ofthe second. The twenty-five students were third- and fourthyear undergraduates in the School of Arts and Letters, fromJapan, China and Sweden, who had opted to study this course
in English. This was a seminar rather than a lecture format, sothey were asked to read the play in instalments and discuss
the reading in groups for ninety minutes each week. They
also had the advantage of watching the BBC’s fast-paced andcinematic adaptation of the plays, The Hollow Crown, and arecording of Dominic Dromgoole’s raucous stage version of
1 Henry IV.
Obviously, the history plays thrive on conflicts between
characters that the audience are expected to discern as clashesof values and cultural allegiances as well as personalities.
12“the history plays thrive on conflicts between
characters that the audience are expected
to discern as clashes of values and cultural
allegiances as well as personalities.”
It seemed appropriate, then, to draw attention to thesecharacter elements as a way of introducing approaches to thedrama. Some of the recurrent conundrums of both plays – theprecise motivation of Bolingbroke, or the emotional conflict
between Hal, Henry and Falstaff – became popular topics fordiscussion. This can avoid the pitfalls of character criticism
by emphasising the literary language of the text: in class,
we tried to build up a description of Hotspur by identifying
the metaphors for honour used throughout his dialogue.
There remains the challenge, however, of making the drama
comprehensible while also introducing the huge scope ofmodern critical dissension surrounding the play. Students
were regularly asked to consider extracts from Elizabethansources (such as An Homily against Disobedience) and diverse
literary critics (such as E.M.W. Tillyard, or Phyllis Rackin) inorder to think about contradictory approaches to the plays.
In the case of Richard II, for example, this was to propose
broadly “Romantic,” “traditionalist” and “sceptical” views of
the protagonist. While this was intended to acknowledge thediverse state of literary studies, it also raised questions about
our understanding of Shakespeare’s influence on ideas of an
English/British national past.

“Students were asked to consider extracts from
Elizabethan sources and diverse literary critics
in order to think about contradictory approaches to the plays.”
For that reason, a useful aspect of the course was to explore
what we understood by the “medieval” or “early modern” inboth Britain and Japan. Shakespeare’s evocation of an honourbound but fractious world of noble warriors is a fantasy that
also invites associations with Japan’s own national past, bothas a subject of serious historical comparison and also at thelevel of literary representation and popular culture. Asking
students to think about what they understand by The Middle
Ages (the term is also used in Japanese historiography)
allowed students to propose interesting analogies with
Teaching Shakespeare 6 Autumn 2014

Photo © Shutterstock,com“Asking students to think about what they understand by The Middle Ages allowed students topropose interesting analogies with examples ofJapanese culture.”
examples of Japanese culture. The canonical 13th century
poem Heike Monogatari describes a civil war and the ruin of
the Taira Clan, who are presented as corrupt but neverthelesscourtly and refined: it provided a way for thinking about theallure and tragedy of King Richard, and the pathos that canbe attached to ideas of a defeated, distant past. Similarly, a
discussion of Falstaff’s question, “What is honour?” allowed
the class to explore ideas of conduct and how both European
chivalry and Japanese bushido are popularly understood. In
fact, Falstaff has previously been adapted into a traditionalstyle Japanese drama as The Braggart Samurai, which
was also discussed. Through these topics, the class could
reflect on how our general ideas of the medieval past also
relate to assumptions about modernity, statehood and thetransformation of culture: themes that are arguably exploredby Shakespeare in both plays, but also are also relevant towider literary histories of both Britain and Japan. There isperhaps an additional, historical irony to these discussions,and one which the students proposed, in that the city of
Sendai (as every resident knows) was famously founded
Teaching Shakespeare 6 Autumn 2014as a castle town by the sixteenth century warlord Date
Masamune, who, rather like Shakespeare’s Duke of York,
switched allegiances to the emerging power of the Tokugawa
Shogunate in order to preserve his domain.
Certainly, these comparisons are primarily pedagogic devices
and not absolute claims about the meaning of the texts.
However, I would argue that such forms of comparison are
not only a valid means for introducing the history plays, butalso for teaching Shakespeare globally beyond the context
of British area studies. Reflecting on the construction inliterature of cultural and historical categories, such as the
medieval and the modern, allows us to see how Shakespeare
continues to transmit ideas of the historical difference andthe pre-modern, and assists the intercultural study of thehumanities in the twenty-first century.

“I would argue that such forms of comparison
are not only a valid means for introducing thehistory plays, but also for teaching Shakespeare
globally beyond the context of British areastudies.”13

A Boys’ Drama Club Performs Romeo and JulietTrained as an actor at The Juilliard School, Drama Division, Kevin Bergman performed for the New York
Shakespeare Festival and the Illinois Shakespeare Festival before moving to Japan in 1986. Since 1993 he hastaught English, Speech and Drama at Musashi High and Junior High School in Tokyo.

If Shakespeare turns up at all in secondary educationin Japan, it is probably during World History class,in a lecture on arts and culture in Elizabethan
England. You won’t find him in drama classes, that’s for
sure, as drama, unlike music and art, is not a recognizedschool subject in Japan. So it has been surprising that
Shakespeare’s name and representative works seem tobe “common knowledge” among most of the Japanesepeople I have met in my nearly thirty years as expatriate
American teaching English in secondary schools in Japan.

Trained as an actor and director, using theater games
and scripts has been an instinctive part of my classroom
technique from the beginning of my career as an English(as a foreign language) teacher. Fortunately for me, Englishspeaking clubs (ESS) in Japan, at both the secondary anduniversity level have a long history of performing plays in
English as a part of their activities, and so I have never lacked
for opportunities to advise, teach and direct. But producing
Shakespeare, I had at first assumed, would unfortunately not
be in picture.

That changed with “Let’s do Hamlet!” The abrupt proposal
for our high school’s annual ESS English drama, coming fromthe lips of my sixteen-year old ESS captain, was a welcome,
if unexpected, surprise. So was his reason for suggesting it:“I have always dreamed of playing Hamlet”. I was amazedhe knew the play and character, to say nothing of “always”
yearning to enact him. I doubted my students, althoughunusually bright, would take to Elizabethan English. But,
as my own love of Shakespeare, and career in theater had
similarly started in high school (thanks to an inspiring drama
teacher who produced an annual Shakespeare play with rank
beginners), I readily agreed.
In fairness I must admit that my students are rather unusual.
Musashi High and Junior High School is a six-year, private
boys school, historically one of Japan’s top academies.It
also grants both teachers and students an unusual amountof freedom, which might help explain why I now have two
English drama classes as well as an annual ESS play. In
the years since that first Hamlet, my students have also
performed As You Like It, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet.

Photo © Kevin Bergman

We have learned and profited from Cass Foster’s “Sixty
Minute Shakespeare”, the Folger Shakespeare Library’s“30-Minute Shakespeare” series, and the excellent modernverse translations of Kent Richmond. We have also beenencouraged (or perhaps I should say “emboldened”) by the
popularity of the local “All-Male Shakespeare” series under
the direction of Yukio Ninagawa, arguably Japan’s mostprominent director.

“Even in another language, I want to follow theexample of my own teachers: students learn
to love Shakespeare by seeing and performing
him.”Taking advantage of this year’s 450th Anniversary of
Shakespeare’s birth, and wide variety of Japanese-language
Shakespeare productions here in Tokyo, I have recently
taken up what for me is the ultimate challenge: teaching a
freshman “Shakespeare for Beginners” class – in Japanese!
Even in another language, I want to follow the example of myown teachers: students learn to love Shakespeare by seeing
and performing him.
14

Teaching Shakespeare 6 Autumn 2014

First Year Shakespeare through FilmYT

his article reports the way in which I introduced
Shakespearean plays through two modern films toa class of first-year English students at Komazawa
Women’s University (Komazawa Joshi Daigaku) in Tokyo
from 2011 to 2013. I used neither “relatively faithfuladaptations” such as Franco Zeffirelli’s or Kenneth
Branagh’s nor “looser adaptations” such as Kiss Me Kate
(1953) or West Side Story (1961), but rather, modern
films featuring Shakespearean lines, characters, andsituations in key moments. Dead Poets Society (dir.
Peter Weir, 1989) and The Man without a Face (dir. Mel
Gibson, 1993) exemplify this type of film. I would liketo demonstrate how such films help students learn
particular Shakespearean works.
I selected these films because first, teaching a basic English
class for the first-year students and second, I aimed to
introduce how and why Shakespearean plays have importantroles in learning more about real issues in modern society
as depicted in these films. A Midsummer Night’s Dream and
The Merchant of Venice enabled students to comprehend
the significance of a scene in Dead Poets Society and
The Man without a Face respectively. In the latter part of
Dead Poets Society, Neil Perry (Robert Sean Lenard) stars
in a school play and performs as Puck in A MidsummerNight’s Dream despite his austere father’s disapproval.
In the middle of the performance, the father (Kurtwood
Smith) comes to the theatre and listens to the closing
speech of Puck/his son. Delivering the speech, Puck/Neilstares into his father’s eyes as he watches from the back of
the theater.
I would start the class discussion with the following
questions: “How does the play relate the film?” or “How is
Puck’s speech connected to Neil’s state of mind?” A student
would argue that Neil wishes for his father’s forgiveness andacceptance as Puck asks his audience not to “reprehend” theactors. Another student, perhaps, would suggest that Neilmay have desired to project his father to Oberon, who slaps
the fairy on the wrist but forgives him eventually. In thismanner, Dead Poets Society cleverly plays a scene where oneof the main characters expresses his idea with the help of a
Shakespearean speech.
Teaching Shakespeare 6 Autumn 2014

Photo © Yuto Koizumi

uto Koizumi graduated from Waseda University with an MA in Shakespeare in 2010. He iscurrently studying a similar programme at King’s College London. He has taught English language
and literature, as well as academic writing, at Waseda University Writing Center and Komazawa
Women’s University.

In A Man without a Face, Justine McLeod (Mel Gibson) teaches
Shakespeare to his student, Charles E. “Chuck” Norstadt(Nick Stahl). When Chuck reads The Merchant of Venice ina monotonous tone, McLeod advises him to “play the role”
and starts to recite Antonio’s line: “I hold the world but as
the world.” He also recites Shylock’s line beginning with
“Has not a Jew eyes?” Offering a brief introduction of theplay, I would ask the class questions such as “What does
the play mean in the context of the scene?” or “How would
you interpret Mr. McLeod’s situation by knowing characterssuch as Antonio and Shylock?” A student would argue a
juxtaposition of Antonio’s melancholic speech and Shylock’s
protest representing McLeod’s dilemma between acceptanceand resistance. Another student would add more detail:
McLeod accepts his estrangement from the society for an
accident of his student’s death in the past as Antonio holds
the world as “A stage where every man must play a part,/
And mine a sad one.” On the other hand, McLeod criticizes
people’s prejudice and blindness as Shylock challenges thesociety that confined his Jewish community into the ghetto.

“Most of the students were not knowledgeable
about Shakespeare, but they were desperatelyinterested in well-directed narrative/film.”
As these two cases demonstrate, some movies smartly
utilize Shakespearean speech in a key moment. Most of thestudents were not knowledgeable about Shakespeare, butthey were desperately interested in well-directed narrative/
film. In addition to reading screenplays and listening to
the characters, interpreting a scene with a Shakespeareanbackground can be an effective means to motivate students
to learn further. Ultimately, learning Shakespeare helps themto reach a more profound enjoyment of the films.

15

Teaching Shakespeare in the current HE context

Y

u Umemiya is a research associate and PhD candidate in English Literature at Waseda University. He also teaches
in the Life Design Department at Toyo University. His research interests include revenge tragedy and censorship,
Shakespeare and translation, and theatre practice generally.

Shakespeare has been taught, or at least used asa teaching material, in Japanese universities formore than a century. I started to be exposed to
Shakespeare from the very beginning of my time at
Waseda. I continued to pursue Shakespeare for four years
at undergraduate level, two years in my master’s course,
and then one year in England at the Shakespeare Institute,
University of Birmingham. In 2012, while I was pursuing
my PhD in my home country, I was fortunate enough to
be given a post at Yokohama National University as apart-time lecturer, conducting a class entitled Theatre,
City and Communication. Here, I will survey the structure
I taught in 2012, and compare it with Shakespeareanclasses in Japan for the previous generation. My aim is tohighlight different approaches over time and to see how
modern methods of teaching Shakespeare have alteredto achieve the maximum effect on modern students in a
globalized world.
The class at Yokohama National University consisted of
fifteen sessions of ninety minutes lectures, held once a weekduring the third period (from 1pm to 2:30pm). With 20
registered students, the course was taught in English, which
included a lecture, discussion and short presentation in eachclass. The course covered a large range of topics related
to theatre around the world. However, the word ‘theatre’
was understood within the class as a space containing aperformance and an audience. Therefore, students wererequired to comprehend the relationship between theatre
and people that enables their mutual connection.
Being a Shakespearean researcher, I have integrated his works
throughout the course. Nevertheless, since none of thestudents who attended the classes were majoring in English
literature, I started with the very beginning of theatre history
in Rome and Athens. Then, I moved on to a wider definition oftheatre, including improvised dance shows on a street, a flash
mob that happened inside a train station in New York, andproposal of marriage movie clip made for a couple by theirfriends and family. In Japan, people are well exposed to the“the word ‘theatre’ was understood within theclass as a space containing a performance andan audience.”
16

style of a proscenium arch stage, with a definite detachment
between the performer and the audience. It is rather rare forthe audience to laugh during the performance and they are
reluctant to participate in interactions with the actors. Thisshows that constructing the so-called fourth wall became oneof the basic aspects of making the Japanese audience realizethat they are perceiving a theatrical production. Having thissort of conception of theatre, it was extremely importantfor students to understand the possibility and the validityof creating a firm connection between the stage and theirobservers before moving on to the subject of Shakespearean
stage where this relationship is frequently visible.
The first stage for students to familiarize themselves with
Shakespeare was through a movie version of Romeo andJuliet. Romeo + Juliet from 1996, directed by Baz Luhrmann
was well received, reinforced by the fact that it stared
some of the famous actors from Hollywood, such as
Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. The students noticed
an astonishing compatibility between Shakespeare’s play
and this modern world. Not only did they positively watch
the movie projected in front of them for 120 minutes, thestudents were asked to read part of the lines from the
Balcony Scene in act 2, scene 2 in advance. Understandably,
none of the students succeeded in capturing the meaningor the distinctive imagery of this picturesque scene, but, by
giving them the opportunity to use their imagination before
witnessing one of the interpretations, the modern take of theplay was imprinted in their memories. I also referred to theway movies interact with the audience. Taking Luhrmann’sfor example, I showed students the Tomb Scene in act 5,
scene 3. Here, we may experience the direct eyesight of Juliet
herself rather than observing the entire stage as an audience.
This perception allowed by the format as a movie could be
another way of interaction: forcing the audience to literally
share the same view as the heroine.
After understanding the gist of the play and especially the
Balcony Scene, it was their turn to consider how they would
stage it. The class was divided into four groups of five, andtwo of the students were cast as either Romeo or Juliet.
The remaining members enrolled as directors and helped
the acting students to read the lines or discussed how theywanted to show the scene to the audience. Since the class
Teaching Shakespeare 6 Autumn 2014

“It is rather rare for the audience to laughduring the performance and they are reluctant
to participate in interactions with the actors.
This shows that constructing the so-called
fourth wall became one of the basic aspects ofmaking the Japanese audience realize that they
are perceiving a theatrical production.”
was held at in a lecture theatre, the students were given a
lot of spatial options to play with. The first group decided
to place Juliet on the left hand side of the stage in front,
leaving Romeo on the ground level, to the right. This patterngave the impression of seeing an ordinary proscenium arch
theatre. The next group also used the stage for the place
where Juliet delivers her lines, but made Romeo stand in
the right hand aisle, just by the audience space. Anothergroup placed Juliet in the left hand aisle, and made Romeodeliver his speech on the right front of the hall, but notincorporating the stage. These two were also interesting
because they made the considerable decision to give a
noticeable dimensional difference between the two lovers,
so as to replicate the image of a balcony. At the same time,by using the space crosswise, they succeeded in including
the audience within the scene. The last group was probably
the most inventive and challenging of all the directorial
decisions. The two actors were standing within the audience

space, Romeo down at the front and Juliet up the back. They
made the audience surround the two characters and createdan improvised thrust stage. Apart from the first example,
the audience had to turn their head around every time
Romeo and Juliet exchange their lines. However, forcing theaudience to plunge into the scene was an achievement forthese rather eccentric ways of directions, and this experience
successfully made students understand the relationship of
performer and the audience, together with the idea that
Shakespeare’s plays inherently contain the possibility ofaudience participation.
As a final assessment, the students gave a 20 minute grouppresentation, focusing on this relationship. One group
introduced an island in Kagawa district in Japan, called
Naoshima, which was transformed to become a small
town filled with artistic objects. They pointed out that the
expansion of the notion of ‘stage’ made it possible to use
the entire island including streets and ports as a part ofan exhibition center. Another group adapted Othello into
the culture of Japanese Edo era (1603–1868). They did notdemonstrate the scenes but created design images for the
costumes and the settings. It was extremely interesting
when they pointed out the advantage of using the styleof Buke house (a place lived by the people with authority
at the time), which has a garden, multiple buildings for
Photo © Shutterstock,com

Teaching Shakespeare 6 Autumn 201417

masters and servants. They also claimed that the Japaneseclassic Shoji windows, the ones lined with Washi paper rather
than glass, creates an effect of projected shadows that works
effectively for the eavesdropping scenes.
The class was a success, because, in the end, students had
a good notion of space in theatre. By using Shakespeare as
their main material, students had the chance to understandthe compatibility of the plays, written more than 400 years
ago in the far west, to Japanese culture. To sum up thefeatures of my class at Yokohama National University, it isplausible to say that seemingly thick door to Shakespeare
was opened to the students, not directly by original text
but by the visualized materials, accompanied by some basic
historical information. Students were asked to literally think
and feel on their feet, in order to connect the subject with
their own lives, rather than casually surveying the surface of
Shakespeare.

“By using Shakespeare as their main material,
students had the chance to understand thecompatibility of the plays, written more than
400 years ago in the far west, to Japanese culture.”
Looking back at the time when I was a college student inEnglish literature at Waseda University, we scarcely had a classinvolving visual or oral materials. In the old days, most of theforeign literature classes concentrated either on text readingor translation reading where the lecturer asks the students toshow how they interpret the assigned piece of work. Students
had opportunities to talk freely about even their most radical
perspectives on the play or the novel. However, only a very
limited number of the students succeeded in constructing aclear image and, to start with, most of the students enrolledin such classes appeared in the lecture room with some sortof prepared notion on the subject.
Today, not all of the students in the literary department
possess willingness to learn about literature. According to theresearch data published by the Japanese Ministry of Education,
50% of high school students, mostly age 17, decide to enter
higher education because they feel uncertain about their
future. Only 24% hold a positive aim which is to expand their
possibility. The top three anxieties young students experience,are 1) Uncertainty about their interests 2) Uncertainty about
their future occupation and 3) Uncertainty about theirmajor. After briefly surveying students’ attitudes before
university entrance, students' aims are prioritised thus:
1) to learn something related to their future job, 2) to pursue“Today, not all of the students in the literary
department possess willingness to learn about
literature.”18

a specific subject, 3) to acquire a wide range of knowledge, 4)
to accomplish several certificates, and 5) to earn a university
degree. The most frequent answer is that they want to learnsomething related to their future job. In third place, theaim of acquiring a wide range of knowledge cam be seen,
followed by accomplishing several certificates, and theuniversity degree comes in fifth. From sixth place onwards,
the answers may be avoiding work right after the graduationfrom high school, trying to create four years’ worth of freetime, and finally, because most people nowadays go to higher
education (the current percentage for entering the university
is 41.3%, entering the higher education is 72.9% in total).
When it comes to Waseda University, 34.1% of the registeredstudents decided to take the entrance examination andstart their college life there because they were fascinatedby its popularity. Even though 34% were still interested
in the quality and the subjects available in the university,
their indifference towards the education itself cannot be
described as trivial matter. This trend might have gradually
elevated within this decade, and, as a result, lectures dealing
with classical subjects such as Shakespeare have been forced
to open up their doors to less interested students. I have nointention of criticizing the former style. Those were highly
stimulating classes where you had the chance to express
the very raw material within you. The change of university
situation caused the change in those classes to shift theirfocus from connecting the students with the work itself, toconnecting the modern age with Shakespeare’s world.
One thing I aimed for was to bring Shakespeare closer to thestudents, mostly born in the 90s, by incorporating the various
materials we could get hold of. And this showed a certain levelof success with the current non-literature majoring students inJapan. Shakespeare may be still the pinnacle of scholars’ andactors’ interest in Japan, but I felt the necessity of understanding
as a lecturer that most of the students are interested in otherthings. Therefore, to allow the students to work their way
through a certain subject as if trying to find a treasure on themap, as I experienced when I first started Shakespeare, it is vitalto provide them with a map that they themselves can decipher.
Modernized visual material and making them physically searchwithin the play were worth the consideration.
Data sources• w ww.mext.go.jp/b_menu/shingi/chukyo/chukyo10/shiryo/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2010/02/12/1289068_3.pdf• w ww.mext.go.jp/b_menu/shingi/chukyo/chukyo4/
gijiroku/03090201/003/002.pdf• w ww.waseda.jp/student/research/2001/pdf/1.pdf

The syllabus for my 2012 class• risyu.jmk.ynu.ac.jp/gakumu/Public/Syllabus/DetailMain.aspx?
lct_year=2012&lct_cd=X532004&je_cd=1

Teaching Shakespeare 6 Autumn 2014

lifelong learners of ShakespeareMarie Honda lectures at Toyo, Waseda and Meiji Universities. She received M.A.s from Waseda University
and the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham. Having completed a PhD. at Waseda University,
she is currently researching the relationship between people in the Elizabethan theatrical world and theprinting industry.

I

n Japan, where Shakespeare is not generally taught inhigh school, how much is the great writer known touniversity students? According to a survey I conducted,
twenty-one among thirty-eight undergraduates in a seminar class knew about Shakespeare previously: three ofthem had read some of his plays; one had watched Hamlet
on stage; another had seen a film adaptation of Romeo andJuliet; the others learned about Shakespeare through theirschool teachers, parents, and relatives or in the processof learning English or learning about plays. Shakespeare
is relatively well-known among the younger, as well as
the older, generation. Indeed, adults learn Shakespeare in
Japan: universities have affiliated educational institutions
where anyone can enroll in non-degree programs without an entrance examination, and the programs range
from literature to sports. This article will discuss teaching
Shakespeare to these different constituencies.
In the undergraduate classes, I taught Shakespeare’s tragedies and comedies including Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth,
The Merchant of Venice, Love’s Labour’s Lost, and Twelfth
Night. For six weeks, I provided introductory information
on Elizabethan theater and explained the plots and famous
speeches of some plays both by comparing texts in English(the Arden Shakespeare) and Japanese, and by showing
DVDs. While a desirable experience, reading the English
texts only is too difficult for Japanese students even at a top
university. Japanese translations and DVDs are beneficial for
their understanding. I assigned the remaining weeks’ classes
to group presentations of six or seven people. While one
group gave a paper, the other students wrote questions andcomments on worksheets. Then the representative of eachgroup asked the questions or gave comments. However,this discussion did not work very well because Japanese
students are not taught how to debate and express theiropinions in schools: even though the students may havegood ideas or criticisms, they do not want to voice them inpublic because they care about what other people think of
their opinions very much. Therefore, at the end of the class, I
collected some interesting questions or comments from theworksheets, put them together in a handout, and distributed
them in the following class. The students whose ideas werechosen were glad to see the handout, and it motivated the

Teaching Shakespeare 6 Autumn 2014

other students too. At the end of the semester, the students
had to submit their final essay on at least one play discussed
in the class. Many students wrote solely about the works,
but the most interesting was “An analysis of and an attempt
at translating Act V, Scene vii of Macbeth.” This student
discussed the impossibility of translating some lines, quoting
six translations and finally adding his original translation.

“Japanese students are not taught how to debate
and express their opinions in schools: eventhough the students may have good ideas or
criticisms, they do not want to voice them inpublic because they care about what otherpeople think of their opinions very much.”
For the non-degree programs, I teach two lecture-stylecourses. Most of the students are beginners and retired
people from their sixties to eighties; some of them could
not go to university due to the War. These courses arecomprised of five lessons, each taught by a different lecturer.
Two years ago, an exhibition at the university’s theatricalmuseum entitled “Finding Shakespeare” was set up in
conjunction with the class I taught. In the class, I dealt withthe publication process of Shakespeare’s texts including boththe quartos and folios, by showing examples of Hamlet andKing Lear, because some leaves of the first, second, third, andforth folios were displayed in the exhibition. Also, I discussed
modern, or conflated, editions of Shakespeare and their
textual problems. Last year, I lectured on Shakespeare’s stage
from his time to the early twentieth century. First, I discussed
the Elizabethan stage and conventions by showing photos of
Shakespeare’s Globe and Shakespeare in Love on DVD. Then
I talked about The Tempest by William Davenant and John
Dryden and King Lear by Nahum Tate, also discussing actors
and actor-managers, showing their portraits or photos. Thesestudents hardly ask questions during or after class, and I
never address questions to a specific student; some students
asked questions or gave comments afterwards. However, theprograms are well received, and the students are motivatedto learn about Shakespeare. Japanese people live in a hightechnology society, so I hope they will enjoy more humanistic
lifestyles by learning about this great classic writer.

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