| Budget Amount *help |
¥1,800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,800,000)
Fiscal Year 2004: ¥800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000)
Fiscal Year 2003: ¥1,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000)
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| Research Abstract |
I compared and studied the attitudes of theatre practitioners in Japan and Europe, particularly those who acclaimed the overseas theatrical performance (1930-31) of Tokujiro Tsutsui (1881-1953), an actor of shimpa (new school) and kengeki (sword-fighting play), from the view point of theatre reformation based on my research. The following are my results.
During his overseas tour, Tsutsui gave sword-fighting and kabuki performances, arranged to make them easier for Europeans to understand, in the form of revues with unique physical expression and various stage representations. Pioneering theatre practitioners in Europe at that time - Copeau, Dullin, Piscator, Brecht and Meyerhold - found clues for theatre reformation in Tsutsui's popular theatre entertainment, which they regarded as an example of the origin-oriented universal theatrical art.
At that time, Shiko Tsubouchi and others of the Takarazuka Company were trying to create a new type of national drama (kabuki revue) to replace Edo k
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abuki by combining various stage representations. They saw many good ideas in Tsutsui's performances, which had been successful in overseas, for the creation of the new style of national drama. Some connections between Tsutsui and the Takarazuka Company were seen in the memorial performance of Tsutsui after his return to Japan and trial national dramas by Tsubouchi and others.
Tsutsui's overseas tour bridged the west, with its internationally recognized avant-garde theatre practitioners, and the east, with a commercial theatrical company striving to create new popular theater entertainment but not followers of the avant-garde theater practitioners. This reveals the twisted exchanges of theater. Theatre practitioners in Europe and Japan, so far apart, were searching for a common popular culture, something similar to shows.
Problems posed by Tsutsui more than seventy years ago through his overseas tour that have remained unsolved may be the key in revising the modern theatre history of Japan. Less
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