Japanese Theater (Winter 2013) Week 8a-b I. Historical development of Modern Theater A. The fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the “restoration”
of the Meiji Emperor (r. 1868-1912)
B. Reform of Kabuki: 1. Experience of Japanese delegation to Europe (October of 1872) 2. 1878, Kabuki actors Danjurô and Kikugorô and theater owner Morita Kan’ya meet with Prime Minister Itô Hirobumi. a. Result: 3. April 1887, Meiji Emperor and Empress view Kabuki a. Long Lasting Results: 1) effect on Kabuki actors' class status 2) becomes sedate (until 1970s-80s) 3) whereas before Kabuki and government were in tension, now Kabuki is moving towards becoming "traditional" theater form that represents national identity b. Temporary Result: Kabuki staging became more "realistic" 1) lifting of censorship on contemporary events: restaging of plays like Chushingura with names of real people, no kumadori makeup etc. 2) But these plays were REALLY boring, and so not very popular with audience. Soon went back to older "presentational" acting and staging style a) eg. got rid of hanamichi runway for a short time, then brought it back because audience demanded it II. Politics and Modern Japanese Theater A. Examples of Shimpa (New Kabuki), Shingeki (Modern Theater), Post-Shingeki (angura = underground) and Butoh
III. Shimpa (or Shinpa/Shinpageki: literally, “New School Theater” but usually translated New Kabuki or Neo Kabuki) A. Hybrid form 1. Like Kabuki: a. staging: b. acting: 2. Modern elements: B. Politics of the 1880s: 1. 1884 dissolution of opposition party 2. 1889: Meiji constitution C. Sudô Sadanori (1867-1907) 1. Osaka 1888: 2. Realism of content: a. “political” novels: b. political events and scandals. 3. Amateurish: 4. Introduction of actresses (1888); first
performance Nov. 1891
a. both onnagata and female actors on stage
D. Kawakami Otojirô (1864-1911) and his wife Sadayakko (1871-1946) images
1. began as left-wing, almost "agitprop" in response to government shut down of opposition party 2. first play was the re-enactment of the attempted assassination of the opposition politician Itagaki Taisuke in 1882. 3. After 1889 a. Sino-Japanese war (1894) b. Sôzetsu kaizetsu Nisshin sensô (The Sublime, Exhilarating Sino-Japanese War). c. Kawakami Otojirô Reporting from the Battlefield, 1894 4. Visits to United States, Paris, Russia
(1899-1901), performing “Kabuki”
a. Influence on Western Theater practioners who were interested in developing a new non-realistic, expressive theater:
1) Vsevolod E. Meyerhold (1874-1943) in Russia
wikipedia: "a Russian and Soviet theatre director, actor and theatrical producer. His provocative experiments dealing with physical being and symbolism in an unconventional theatre setting made him one of the seminal forces in modern international theatre." see also "Russian Symbolism" and "Constructivism" 2) Sadayakko compared to Sarah Bernhardt; Pablo
Picasso made three sketches of her
b. Influence on Japanese Theater:
1) performed Othello, the court scene of Merchant
of Venice, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet
5. First school for actresses (1908) led by Sadayakko
6. Move away from plays based on contemporary political events toward melodrama a. relation to Kabuki sewamono (domestic
drama)
b. often adapted female-centered novels, including
those by Izumi Kyôka
IV. Development of Shingeki (Modern Theater)
Main figures: Tsubouchi Shôyô, Osanai Kaoru and Hijikata Yoshi (1898-1959) Sept 1, 1923: Great Kanto Earthquake
A. Changes in form and content 1. Movement toward Realism and subsequently Naturalism 2. Classical unities of time, character, and place. a. Time: b. Character: 1) “Get away from Kabuki. Ignore tradition. Don’t dance, move. Don’t sing, speak.” Osanai Kaoru (1926) c. Place: 3. Acting: B. Politics: 1. The passage of the General Election or Universal Manhood Suffrage law (passed 1925, came into effect 1928) a. previously (1890) only men over the age of 25 who paid 15 yen could vote (1% of the population!) 2. Peace Preservation Law: series of laws (1894, 1900, 1925) intended to suppress opposition parties (initially progressive and later specifically Marxist, Socialist, and Anarchist) and labor unions
C. Various kinds of theater that get left out of this history of the avant garde: 1. Popular hybrid forms: for example, Teriha kyôgen, popular in the 1870s and 1880s, a mixture of Noh, Kabuki, Kyôgen performed by amateurs. 2. Shitamachi Kabuki: “lower-class” Kabuki, less polished and often more comic, touring troupes played in small theaters and halls. Troupes had both male and female actors, lots of cross-dressing in both directions. 3. Various kinds of vaudeville-type performance: popular in the Taishô era (1920s). Comic storytelling (rakugo), acrobats, magicians etc. 4. Taishû engeki (Popular Theater): grew out of a boom for historical novels that occurred soon after the Great Kantô Earthquake of 1923. Originally the main subjects were the yakuza gamblers of the Tokugawa period, loners who toured the country offering their services temporarily to different local bosses. Created the romanticized myth of the yakuza moral code (kind of like mafia movies in America). Moved on to do historical dramas of all kinds. In some ways the Taiga historical dramas put on by NHK are a development of Taishû engeki. 5. Shimpa: Izumi Kyôka’s Shimpa plays are considered to be part of these marginalized, hybrid forms of theater. Kyôka’s plays were rarely performed in his lifetime, and have only gotten attention in the last twenty to thirty years, as his hybrid pastiche style has begun to look more "postmodern" to people 6. Takarazuka: all female theater D. Hanagumi Shibai and Neo Kabuki: Kanô Yukikazu (b. 1960)
V. The Demon Pond (Yashagaike) by Izumi Kyôka, as an
example of SHIMPA
A. Basic story: A severe drought has struck in the mountainous area below Demon Pond (Yashagaike). There is an old legend that a female dragon deity has been bound to Demon Pond by the Esoteric Buddhist priest Taichô, who made her promise to stay there as long someone rings the bell three times a day. Akira, a wandering folklorist, has fallen in love with Yuri, who binds him to a promise to ring the bell, thus aligning him with the legend.They believe that by ringing the bell three times a day they are saving the villagers from a devastating flood, which would occur when the dragon deity is released. The villagers, on the other hand, want to use Yuri in a symbolic (perhaps real) sacrifice to the dragon deity because they believe this will bring rain (another old legend). Akira wants to save Yuri from humiliation (and perhaps death) at the villagers’ hands. In the play’s cataclysmic conclusion, Yuri kills herself rather than be taken by the villagers and Akira unleashes the goddess by not ringing the bell. The dragon deity goes off to her true love, leaving behind Akira and Yuri to become the new deities of the pond. B. Characters
1. Akira:
a. Folklorist (based on Yanagita Kunio?): “You know, I set out for the North, hoping to gather stories from up country. The fact is, I’ve turned into one of those stories.” 2. Yuri: a. daughter of a deceased Hachiman Shrine priest
b. Akira about Yuri’s uncle Takuzen: “I shouldn’t say this in front of Yuri but -- he’s not a good sort. He’d thrust his niece on anyone handy-- altogether a bad customer.” c. Arrow with white feathers
3. Gakuen Yamasawa:
a. Academic and Pure Land Priest
4. Yuki:
a. Female dragon deity bound to Demon Pond. In love
with a dragon deity of another pond and wants to leave to join him.
C. Antagonism between modern rationalism and premodern faith? D. Dragons and Rain
1. Yashagaike (Demon Pond)
Located on a high ridge between Fukui, Shiga and Gifu prefectures, just below Mikunigatake (Three Province Peak). According to Cody Poulton, it is a spooky place: “My visit there was accompanied by rolling thunder and sudden squalls of cold wind on what had been a clear and hot summer day. The breeze sends ripples across the surface of the pond that resembles scales on a snake.” (p. 168) 2. Dragons as personification of water (Dragon King image) : 3. Legend of Demon Pond (Japanese version, English version) a. Dates from first year of reign of Emperor Saga (810). Tells of how, during a drought, a landowner in the province of Minô promised to sacrifice one of his daughters to the dragon god. In gratitude, the rains began to fall again. The same night, the landowner was visited by a young man who, revealing himself to be the god, requested that he make good his promise and hand over the girl. The landowner’s daughter, Yashahime offered herself willingly, dressed in wedding clothes and was presented to the god, still in human form. The god promised the girl’s father that he would look after her, and the two plunged into the river, swimming upstream to its source in Demon Pond. There Yashahime, as wife of the dragon god, became a dragon goddess. Ceremonies for rain are held at the pond, and you can see hair combs and cosmetics in the shallow waters. b. “Human Pillars” as sacrifices when bridges are built, become protective deities Gakuen: "The very sight of your wife's unearthly beauty makes me think: maybe heaven made Yuri for this village, gave it a bell ringer, too. You and she are the gods, the pillar of thi village. To be sure, Yuri's a goddess."
4. Dragons and water in Saint Narukami 5. Bando Tamasaburo in Orochi (Great Serpent) a. Part 1 b. Part 2 c. Part 3
E. Fire-breathing Dragons and the forging of bells 1. Noh Dôjôji story: a. Why are women excluded from dedication
ceremonies for bells?
b. “Marriage” of maiden to dragon deity of forge
F. Two competing legends about pacification of local deities by Buddhist
and Shinto priests
1. Ringing the bell three times a day: Legend of Saint Taicho of Etsu who locked up the dragon goddess in Demon Pond 2. Tying young girl to ox and sacrificing her to the dragon deity to get rain to fall a. competing versions of the story, one positive (Takuzen), one negative (Akira) 3. Which legend does Kyôka seem to favor? Why?
a. sacrifice of individual for greater communal good
b. romantic individualism: "people have to live as their hearts guide them" (ninjo?)
4. Conflict between villagers and Akira/Yuri/Gakuen--political criticism? p. 154: Kôzô: “Friends, Friends! Let’s be sensible. Stop all
this tomfoolery. A woman’s a woman. How d’ye think she takes a bath? Bah, what
nonsense. Listen, like it or not, it’s the duty of any man worth his salt, if
it be for his country, to stick his wife and go off to war. That, my friend, is
the spirit of our fatherland--Bushidô [Way of the Warrior], in other
words. You too would be willing to lay down your life for your fellow man to
save your village, ‘cuz it’s all for the state, our fatherland. Compared to
that, what’s so hard about letting the missus ride an ox for the night? I’ve
got an open mind, I’ll tolerate a sniveler or two, but someone with a quick
temper’d take you for traitors.”
a. 1920s and 30s: period in which Japanese "Thought Police" were formed to suppress all dissident activists, artists, and intellectuals b. in Miike Takashi's version the story is set in some undefined post-war period rather than the 1930s and this political sentiment is further strengthened by reference to Japan's defeat in WW II. G. Comparison to the Structure of Noh
1. A wandering priest 2. an old couple in disguise 3. appear in their true form and tell their story 4. end up as deities
H. Comparison of Four Versions of Demon Pond
1. Kabukiza 2008 filmed performance version
2. The Demon Pond 1979 movie version (director Shinoda Masahiro with Bando Tamasaburo as Yuri and Yuki) Shinoda also did a famous film version of Love Suicides at Amijima,English title Double Suicide (1969)
3. Hanagumi Shibai 1991 filmed performance version (old webpage in English)
4. The Demon Pond 2005 filmed performance version (director Miike Takashi)
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS ON DEMON POND: Note: in answering these questions do not feel that you have to follow the stage directions and costuming given by Kyoka in the play itself, or what Ortolani says about Shimpa. You can work off those descriptions, or come up with completely different stage sets and costumes, but explain your choices based on your reading of the play with quotations/citations! You may provide illustrations if you like. 1. How would you design the stage set for this play? Where would you place the bell (if you placed it on stage at all)? Would you use any traditional Japanese stage elements? 2. How do you visualize Yuri and Yuki (the princess of Demon Pond) being costumed? What about the other supernatural characters? The villagers? 3. To what extent would you use traditional Japanese theater techniques such as quick changes, mie poses, pantomime, stage lifts, etc.?
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