Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-10-19
SHAKESPEARE IN JAPAN
PEOPLE OF EAST APPRECIATIvE
OF GREAT BARD'S WORKS.
Place Their Own Interpretation on
the Elizabethan Tragedies
and Comedies.

From the Literary Digest.
Germany's claims to Shakespeare have
long been familiar. She has not only
adopted, annotated and produced his
plays, but has even calmly appropriated
him. on the ground that she understands
him better. Japan. too is now coming
forward with the same claim. and she
bases it upon very reasonable grounds III
1t is true that among English-speaking
people Indifference to Shakespeare Is
growing wider and wider. yet his i'm
mortality is still safe. Not only do the
Japanese think that there is room ''for
new Interpretation from their Japanese
minds" says Mr.. Yone Noguchi in the
London Graphic, but ''some of them dare
to say that we Japanese are more filled
than the present Europeans on the point
of similarity with the general spirit of
Shakespeare's age. without an under
standing of which. in fact, nobody would
be able to interpret him Mr.. Noguchi
is we'll known as an anghcized japanese
poet. and these facts he gives us of an
other anglicization of Japan are fuil OF
curious interest. We read:
1.-THE Eliza bethan age is often compar-
ed with our Momoyama age. and, stu
later, with the Genroku age, when the
pride of the renascence was encouraged
and an age wonderful, rich. gay. and on
the other hand. dashing and adventurous,
was created. 1t was in our Genroku age
that a pessimistic youth like Hamlet
tired of life's battle. began to appear as
the production of the period. Indeed, it
was the most interesting time in Japan,
when medievalism, despotic and hard. be-
gan to give way TO an age more demo-
cratic and free. When We see that there
is so much difference between the real
spirit of such an age and that of present
Europe We cannot help thinking We are
not yet far off from the spirit of the for
mer. AS the world knows. ii is only fifty
years since We shook off our feudaESm
TO enter into the age of regeneration OF
new Japan. and the color and atmosphere
of the samurai age still finger in our
minds. If We can say that the plays OF
Shakespeare for instance. 'Othello.
Hamlet perhaps. and 'Timon too. were
more or less an exposition of the morale
and spiSit of the feudal age, there is much
reason for such an assumption that we
Japanese may be better qualified for their
Interpretation. What l mean here is that
We too, although we are rather late, wish
to claim Shakespeare in some respects as II
he were our own production.
Japanese Conception.
The Japanese. early in their study of
western literature, came to see the I'M
reliability of opinion of the so-called
Shakespearean scholars, as MIR. Noguchi
puts it, and so they made bold Ito start
our own study IRON tHe JdpdHcSe way
the only way for us japanese to
serve the art or literature of the world.
Mr. Noguchi thus reviews the progress of
tine development of Shakespearean study
in Japan:
1T is an old story that Shakespeare
was first introduced into Japan with the
court scene of The Merchant of Venice,
In writing well on the stage, under
the title of The Lawsuit With Human
eSb advance.
that of any other great thing. was SLOW
but steady. We owe much to DR.. Shoyo
Tsubouchi. dean of the Waseda College OF
Literature. for his tireleSS ShakeSpedrean
propaganda OF more than twenty years:
his complete translation of Hamlet was
recently published with success. AS
president of the Dramatic Association
tBungei KyokaD, he is going. so l am
told to stage the whole play of Hamlet
issome time this summer, mainly using the
t.student-actors of his own training; 1t was
in some sort under his management that
a greater part Of Hamlet was most sue
cessfully played some years ago, with
Dr. Dol in the title role OF him / wrote
then: 1T seemed to me that he had
certain reflection of Sothern of the Amer
lean stage in his attitude and pose; now
ever, his face was more like Bernhardts.
And as a whole, he suggested Rostand's
L'Aglon rather than Hamlet Before
Mr.. Dol, il was kawakami, husband OF
saba YacCo, who Japanized Hamlet Tor
his stage, and played ii through Japan.
When l saw it in 1905 at Kobe remem-
Der il made a pretty good impression on
me. And also it was by him that
.Othello' was first introduced into Japan.
The Merchant of Venice, particularly its
court scene, is most familiar to the Japa-
nese theatergoers; il was Sadanji Ichi-
kawa who represented it best in 1909. The
book publishers, on the other hand, are
also not slow with Shakespeare matters.
Some ten volumes of translatiOns OF
Shakespeare are already issued by the
Teikoku Tosho Kwaisha alone
Oriental Adaptations.
Other Japanese actors adapt Shakes
pearean plays ito make them more eligi
be for the common theatergoers. The
writer describes .-Timon of Athens thus
transformed into THE Sound of the
Bell:
THE first scene opens in the garden of
Viscount Hozumi. the Japanese Timon.
where fattering friends-like Lucius,
IuculIus and Sempronius in the original
many geiShaS and servants gather round
the vtScount: VentidfuS appears here as