Shingeki's restless century

UNESCO Courier, Nov, 1997 by Ohzasa Yoshio

There is a basic difference between classical Japanese theatre and Shingeki or "modern theatre", which emerged in the early twentieth century under the influence of Western theatre. Classical theatre, which is performed exclusively by men, is musical theatre with a strong infusion of dance, unlike Shingeki, which is purely verbal, a theatre of dialogue.

The traditional forms of Japanese classical drama, No, Kabuki and Bunraku, are quite distinct from each other and each one has its own playhouses. There are No theatres (nogakudo) and Kabuki theatres, and Bunraku (a variant of puppet theatre) is only performed on specially designed stages. When Shingeki came along, it created a need for Western-style playhouses in which the curtain divides the stage from the audience. In response to the aesthetics of realism, women began appearing in plays after centuries of banishment from the stage.

In theory neither traditional theatre nor modern theatre, which politically speaking leans to the left, receive state subsidies. National theatres do exist - Tokyo's National Kabuki Theatre (founded in 1969), the National Puppet Theatre of Osaka, the Theatre of Traditional Arts, Tokyo's No Theatre and the New National Theatre created in 1997 for ballet and opera - but with the exception of the Osaka Puppet Theatre they do not have permanent companies. There is no national theatre school.

In 1990 however, the state created the Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Letters which defrays part of the costs of theatre, music and dance performances. This was the first official state contribution to the theatre Support also comes from two long-established theatre companies, Shoshiku, which finances Kabuki performances, and Toho, which together with other private companies have funded the construction of numerous theatres.

Shoshiku and Toho producers stage separate Shingeki performances by recruiting actors to work with the major stars of theatre, cinema and television. This is what is known as commercial theatre. The avowed aim of these performances, which are held in theatres that can seat from 1,000 to 2,000 people, is to make profit.

The traditional compartmentalization of different types of theatre is not totally watertight. Some Kabuki actors act in new productions in films and on television, even including American and British musical comedies. In the last few years musical comedies - mainly adaptations of Western works - have become increasingly popular. A show can attract tens of thousands of people and run for up to a year.

Takarazuka is a celebrated all-female review and musical comedy company whose repertory includes works such as Oklahoma, Me and my Girl and Grand Hotel as well as Japanese works based on popular comic strips like the well-known Berusayu no bara ("The Roses of Versailles") which has entertained millions of spectators. This company, which aims largely at a female audience, still has an immense following today.

Born again Shingeki

During Japan's militarist period before the Second World War, Shingeki was repressed, and by the summer of 1945 only one company was left - the Bungaku-za ("The Company of Letters"), which had been founded in 1937. During the democratization process initiated by the American authorities, Shingeki came back to life as popular theatre. Newly founded around directors such as Aoyama Sugisaku* and Senda Koreeya, the Haiyu-za (Actors Theatre) Company in 1946 staged Kensatsukan, a Japanese version of Gogol's Revisor (The Inspector General). After reforming his company, Shinkyogekidan, which he had been forced to break up, Murayama Tomoyoshi returned to the theatre in the same year with Kofuku no ie, a production of Vladimir Fedorov's The House of Happiness. Kubo Sakae, one of Shingeki's great playwrights, inaugurated the Tokyo Geijutsu Gekijo (the Tokyo Art Theatre) with actors including Takizawa Osamu, and made a new departure in the same year with Ibsen's A Doll's House. A number of leading theatre people joined the communist party (newly recognized as a political party) and, as before the war, made it their duty to spread its message through the theatre.

By 1948 the great figures of pre-war Shingeki had already made their come-back. Some new plays, such as Miyoshi Juro's Soho hito o shirazu ("You don't know this man") and Tanaka Shikao's Kumo no hatate ("At the end of the clouds"), depicted post-war life. Others like Kinoshita Junji's Yuzuru ("Twilight of a Crane"), staged by the Budo no kai company, and Onna no issho ("The Life of a Woman"), performed by the Bungaku-za company, became classics of the modern repertory.

The year 1950 was a turning-point in postwar history. The Cold War between the United States and the former Soviet Union had settled in. When war broke out in nearby Korea, anticommunist purges in Japan spared neither the cinema nor the theatre. One Shingeki company, the Haiyu-za, built a small theatre in 1954 (the Haiyu-za gekijo) where it staged Onna no heiwa, a production of Aristophanes' Women in Parliament. It is still unusual today for a Shingeki company to have its own theatre; most of the time they hire theatres for their plays.