Performing Shakespeare in Japan

Review of Communication, 2003

Multicultural Shakespeare, 2016

In considering the Yamanote Jijosha's The Tempest, this paper explores the significance of performing Shakespeare in contemporary Japan. The company's The Tempest reveals to contemporary Japanese audiences the ambiguity of Shakespeare's text by experimenting with the postdramatic and a new acting style. While critically pursuing the meaning and possibility of theatre and performing arts today, this version of The Tempest powerfully presents a critical view of the blindness and dumbness of contemporary Japan, as well as the world represented in the play.

Master's Dissertation, 2018

Western scholars very rarely study Shakespeare in the Japanese sociocultural context, even though there is a vastly untouched plethora of knowledge pertaining to modern Shakespearean adaptations in the East. This thesis focuses on two seemingly distinct theatrical styles: Jacobean and Noh. While Shakespeare’s original theatre has disappeared from the West, Japan has a similar traditional theatre in which his plays can be adapted. In truth, Noh theatre lends itself well to Shakespeare’s rich characterisations and beautiful prose. To establish a concrete link between the two styles, I will examine a modern Noh play, entitled Noh Macbeth directed by Noriko Izumi (2006), and analyse it from the point of view of adaptation, culture, and history. Shakespeare’s original text of Macbeth is also understudy, in its historical and political context. By the end of this thesis, the reader will notice how Shakespearean adaptations on the Noh stage offer new insights into the Bard’s plays, as well as how Japan’s cultural richness can be combined with Shakespeare’s world-renown fame to create a different and enriching experience of his plays

Journal of Literature and Art Studies

In 2017, the Tokyo Arts Festival invited theatre directors from three geographical locations to direct Shakespeare's plays: The British director John Caird directed Hamlet, the Romanian director Silviu Purcārete directed Richard III, and the Belgian director Ivo Van Hove directed a Dutch Othello. They approached Shakespeare's plays from unique perspectives, using their own native or Japanese language, working with Japanese and foreign actors and staff. They were performed in Tokyo and watched by various audiences. This paper examines the interactive effect of international theatre and the Tokyo Arts Festival and argues that Shakespeare, being a common currency in the world, functions as media for the Festival, and vice versa. While the Festival provides opportunities and support for foreign directors and companies, staging of international Shakespeare productions raises the profile of the Festival and promotes artistic and cultural programmes and exchange internationally. The audience also has much to gain: the Festival allows them to experience cultural differences and a reflection of themselves or of the world in works of art. The paper argues that the differences created in the international Shakespearean productions and realized and experienced by the audience are the essence of the theatre and meaning and value of the Festival.

Teaching Shakespeare Magazine, 2015

INContext: Studies in Translation and Interculturalism

Adapting Shakespeare’s literary works for introduction into Japanese popular culture has been an act of intercultural translation. Shakespeare and Japanese popular culture, particularly manga [Japanese graphic novels] could be seen as cultural polarities: the West vs. the East, as represented by Japan, a contrast between high culture and pop culture, the canonical vs. the lowbrow. Yet Shakespeare’s works as adapted in manga format do, as this article argues, problematize such hierarchical distinctions. Shakespeare found in manga can be both a challenge and a tribute to his authority, giving him a global and intercultural after-life. The first group of Japanese manga with Shakespearean motifs dates back to the early 20th century. Similar efforts have since continued through to the early 21st century, making manga with Shakespearean motifs a conspicuous, widespread phenomenon as part of Japanese pop culture. The greatest recent contribution in this regard is Manga Shakespeare Series. ...

Theatre Journal, 2022

As a single-authored monograph, Shakespeare and East Asia presents a clear agenda of resisting national allegory approaches in favor of rhizomatic readings, which can highlight connections and cross-fertilization among Asian and Western Shakespeare works in intercultural, intracultural, and intermedial ways. :::: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/865454

Asian Theatre Journal, 2011

Introduction to the special issue on Asian Shakespeares: Asian Theatre Journal Volume 28 No. 1, published in June 2011. Editor's Introduction, 7 articles, 4 directors' reflections, 1 online media report, and 7 reviews (productions, museum exhibit, books).