EAS 120 Japanese Theater Assignment 3
For this assignment, you have two choices. You can either consider how a story from traditional theater is used in later genres (eg. how a Noh play is transformed into a Kabuki play, or how a Kabuki play is transformed into a film) OR you can analyze how a modern play production uses traditional theater plots and techniques to different effect, and discuss how you would stage the same play. In either case, the analysis should focus on how the story is changed by different goals and historical contexts, and how performative techniques from traditional theater are used to achieve different effects. An example of the first is the lecture on how the Noh play Atsumori was transformed into the Kabuki play Ichinotani Futabagunki (Chronical of the Battle of Ichinotani), or how Shinoda Masahiro's 1968 film Love Suicides retells Love Suicides at Amijima. An example of the second would be how Demon Pond or Water Station uses traditional theater tropes and techniques. If you have other ideas about what you would like to write on, discuss it with with me or Alex.
Possible comparisons:
Noh Shunkan versus Kabuki Shunkan (we have good texts for both versions, and there are significant plot differences between the Noh and Kabuki)
Texts:
Noh Shunkan text: TJT pp. 179-192
The-Noh.com synopsis and images of Noh Shunkan
Kabuki Shunkan on Devil Island text TJT pp. 418-441
Videos:
Noh Shunkan:
Part 1 (has English Subtitles)
Part 2 (no English Subtitles for some reason)
Part 3 (no English Subtitles)
Kabuki Shunkan
Video of Kabuki Shunkan (act 2 of Heike Nyogo no Shima Heike and the Isle of Women)
Noh Dojoji versus Kabuki Musume Dojoji (we have English transations for both versions; but the Noh is basically used as a framework for a series of Kabuki dances)
Texts:
Noh Dojoji: TJT pp. 193-206
Kabuki Musume Dojoji TJT pp. 506-524
Videos Noh:
Link to Dôjôji (Kanze Kiyokazu performing the ran no mai dance, no subtitles)
NHK special about a young Kita School actor (Shiotsu Keisuke) doing Dojoji for the first time. Subtitles in Japanese for performance. Performance starts about 31:30. Original Dojoji story told at the temple starts about 5:00 (in Japanese).
Videos Kabuki
Kabuki Kool: Plays based on Noh and Kyogen (Review of Noh Dojoji @ 2:30; Kabuki @ 5:35-8)
Video: Kabuki the Classic Theater of Japan (Musume Dojoji starts at 8:55. Hikinuki at 12:30)
Bando Tamasaburo performance of Musume Dojoji
part 1 (maiden enters on hanamichi and addresses priests)
part 2 (maiden answers priests questions, and gets entrance; 5:30 ("other than flowers there is only the pine" and ranbyoshi)
part 3 (dance continues; hikinuki begins about 0:45
part 4 (dance continues)
part 5 (dance continues, ends with dancer on top of bell)
Noh Tsuchigumo (The Earth Spider) versus Kabuki Tsuchigumo
(problem that there is no good English text for Tsuchigumo so harder to make comparison)The-Noh.com synopsis and images of Tsuchigumo
Noh play video (full performance no subtitles)
Kabuki Kool: Henge Buyo (tranformation dances) in Tsuchigumo
Noh Kurozuka/Adachigahara versus Kabuki Kurozuka (No good English translation of either, which may be a problem. Relatively late Kabuki play that is really just a Kabuki-fied Noh play, so no substantial plot differences, but the treatment of the old woman in each style is interesting, and there's a version done in collaboration between the contemporary dance choreographer Maurice Bejart and Bando Tamasaburo.)
Text:
English translation with Japanese in romaji by Chiifumi Shimazaki
Synopsis of Noh Kurozuka/Adachigahara
The-Noh.com synopsis and images of Noh Kurozuka
Images of the Noh Play
Videos:
Excerpt from the Noh play Kurozuka
Kabuki Kool: Kabuki dance play version of Kurozuka (starts at 15:40) Note that this dance version dates from the late 19th century, not Edo period, so doesn't necessarily reflect Edo period values.
Bonus: Maurice Bejart and Bando Tamasburo performing Kurozuka
Bonus: see also this scene in Kurosawa Akira's Throne of Blood (Kumosunojo) that borrows from Kurozuka. Throne of Blood is Kurosawa's retelling of Shakespeare's Macbeth as a samurai drama; this is his version of the meeting between Macbeth and Banquo and the "weird sisters."
Kabuki Yotsuya Kaidan versus various film versions
Text:
a. Yotsuya Ghost Stories [TJT 456-483]
b. synopsis of entire play of (Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan (Yotsuya Ghost Stories) [scroll down to "summary"--see also reading questions for week 7]
c. Review English synopsis of the Chushingura story and the introduction to "At the Farmhouse" [TJT starting p. 375]
Kabuki videos
Kabuki Kool:
Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan part 1 (Bando Tamasaburo as Oiwa, Kataoka Nizaemon XV as Iemon)
Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan part 4: Snake mountain scene
Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan (short excerpts from a recent performance, in Japanese no subtitles)
Cocoon kabuki performance Yotsuya Kaidan at Bunkamura that appears to have been influenced by the 2002 performance below (trailer). Shinpa Kabuki style, with onnagata but combining elements from Kabuki and modern theater (in Japanese). It has a really interesting treatment of the dream sequence.
@1 intro of story; Oiwa drinks medicine @75; @77 begins to feel pain; @93:30 Iemon sees her face and says he doesn't care about revenge:@109 Takuetsu tells Oiwa that she's disfigured and @110:30 forces her to look in the mirror; @121:blackens teeth and combs hair; @126 wrings blood out of her hair; 134 Iemon prepares to sleep with Oume
Shinpa-style Taisho Yotsuya Kaidan part 1, part 2 (2002 Bunkamura performance, in Japanese with no subtitles) This is not Kabuki (female actors and modern Japanese in Shinpa style set in Taisho period) but intentionally includes many kabuki-like effects, including showing the hand-driven revolving and stage-tricks such as the board gettting pulled out of the river (part 2 at 17:00), Oiwa coming out of the lantern. It is a full performance of the Yotsuya Kaidan story; most modern kabuki performances eliminate the secondary story of Oiwa's sister and simply concentrate on Oiwa's transformation and haunting of Iemon, but that secondary story is fully included here. It eliminates the idyllic dream vision from Kabuki.
PART 1 @88:30 Oiwa drinks poison; @102:30 Takuetsu sees her face @105:30 Iemon's speech about revenge; @1:18 Oiwa sees her face; @1:23 tooth blackening and hair combing; @1:27:30 reveals her face; @1:42 kills Oume and her father; PART 2 @17:45 canal scene
Film versions:
Most recently Miike Takashi's "Over Your Dead Body" ( trailer 2014) with Ichikawa Ebizo as Iemon and Shibasaki Ko as Oiwa. Play within a play concept: actors who are performing Yotsuya Kaidan duplicate it in real life. You would need to rent or buy "Over Your Dead Body" to do the comparison. There are also other older film versions of Yotsuya Kaidan on youtube.
Love Suicides at Amijima (Shinju Ten no Amijima) versus Shinoda Masahiro's Double Suicide
(Good English translation, and lots of videos, but you have to buy the film version)
Text:
Love Suicides at Amijima [TJT pp. 333-63, Japanese]
Bunraku Videos
Bunraku: Masters of Japanese Puppet Theater: This program presents the story of Bunraku through two of its greatest masters, puppeteer Tamao Yoshida and chanter Sumitayu Takemoto. Brought together for the last performance of the 20th century, these two "living national treasures" transform ancient tales of old Japan into vibrant human drama. Cameras go backstage to capture the immense preparations and grueling, rarely seen rehearsals for their exquisite rendition of the masterpiece Shinju Ten no Amijima. Performance begins around 42:00.
Video of Osan getting together kimono to take to pawn shop (1:03:33)
Bunraku version (divided into multiple videos, no subtitles J or E).
Kabuki Videos
Kabuki version (overdubbed English). (Shinju ten no Amijima title)
Kabuki version (same actors as above, but better video. Japanese, no subtitles). Jihei enters at 28
Kabuki Kool version (English overdubbing; excerpts include Kawasho, scene with Osan, suicide at end)
Kawasho Teahouse scene (divided into 7 parts; in Japanese, no subtitles): 1 , 2 , 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Double Suicide (1968 film by Shinoda Masahiro)
The movie is available for purchase on Amazon. Let me know if you find a place to rent it!
Excerpts:
Jihei's entrance: Jihei enters the pleasure quarters. Warning: contains some nudity.
Tahei tells Koharu why she'd be better off with him rather than Jihei
Jihei's suicide scene with kurogo. (Jihei stabs Koharu, then uses her obi to hang himself from a torii gate, with the help of kurogo)
Demon Pond (Yashagaike) by Izumi Kyoka
If you choose this topic, you should explain which of the four versions of Demon Pond you prefer and why. For the version you choose, you need to think about 1) How does the director change the original script by Izumi Kyoka in their version and what is the effect? 2) What techniques from traditional theater does the director use and to what effect? 3) How would you stage the play?
Questions you might consider depending on the version you choose:
1. What time period is it understood to be happening in? Is this different from Izumi Kyoka's setting?
2. How do the different directors cut scenes or otherwise change the original script? How does this effect our understanding of the play?
a. For example, Shinoda Masahiro and Hanagumi Shibai cut the intiial scene between Akira and Yuri; the Kabuki and Miike Tadashi versions include it.
3. How is the play staged? Where is the bell? The house? In which space do the supernatural and natural interact? What influence can you see from traditional theater staging practices?
a. Eg. How is the last act, in which the villagers are killed by a giant wave of water and transformed into fish, staged?
4. What traditional techniques and stage effects are used (including effect of using onnagata or not)? Costuming for the human characters? How are the supernatural characters portrayed?
EXTRA: 5. Music: pay attention to how the musical accompaniment influences our response to the story
a. Shinoda's film version (Tomita Isao, using lots of theramin for the supernatural)
b. Hanagumi Shibai: mixture of original and western music -- 3 main themes (original: Yuri-Akira theme, Yuki-court theme, Yuri's lullaby theme)
c. Miike Takashi: film score by Endo Koji
Text
Izumi Kyoka, The Demon Pond (Yashagaike), translation by Cody Poulton from Spirits of Another Sort: The Plays of Izumi Kyoka English, Japanese
Videos
See google Drive:
Demon Pond Hanagumi Shibai Part 1
Demon Pond Hanagumi Shibai Part 2
Demon Pond Miike (Takashi)
Demon Pond Kabuki
Demon Pond (Shinoda Masahiro)
Ota Shogo's Water Station (Mizu no Eki) and (Tale of Komachi Told by the Wind, 1977)
(Water Station has no dialogue, so you're analyzing use of traditional performance techniques. Note that Butoh also has a strong influence here.
Water Station text
1. Ota Shogo, The Water Station, trans. by Mari Boyd
Asian Theatre Journal, vol 7 no. 2 (1990) pp. 150-183.2. Interactive Script of Scene 1 of The Water Station (Mizu no Eki)
3. Scene 1 image slide show
Water Station video
1. Full video of a Tenkei Gekijo's performance
2. Full video of a more recent performance directed by Hori Natsuko
Komachi Fuden (Tale of Komachi Told by the Wind, 1977) based on the noh play Komachi on the Stupa (Sotoba Komachi)
2. background provided for a performance of Komachi Fuden by Theatre Yugen in San Francisco; images of the performance in 1986
3. images from various versions, including the original 1977 version.
4. Review: Komachi on the Stupa
Mishima Yukio's modern noh plays:Sotoba Komachi
(Mishima takes the themes of the original Noh plays and adapts them into modern dramas. So there's the transformation of the original Noh material into something modern, and there's how directors have chosen to enact those plays. And you can discuss how you would do so.)
Noh Text
Mishima Text
Noh Videos
Sotoba Komachi
Kita School (Goto Tokuzo as shite, Awaya Shintaro as tsure) B&W:
part 1 (Komachi enters)
part 2 (meeting priests)
part 4 (Komachi puts on Captain Fukakusa's cap and dances)
Mishima Videos
Mishima Yukio's Sotoba Komachi and Aoi no Ue (excerpts)
Mishima's Sotoba Komachi and Aoi no Ue (full performance)