Organizer: Steven T. Brown, University of Oregon
Chair: Susan Matisoff, Stanford University
Discussant: Karen Brazell, Cornell University
Some of the most provocative scholarly work on theater in the past ten years has emerged from the field of Renaissance studies, where New Historicist scholars such as Stephen Greenblatt have investigated the complex negotiations between theatricality and politics operative in Elizabethan England. Mixing Foucauldian post-structuralism with Bourdieuian sociology, such studies have brought to the fore the extent to which "theatricality is not set over against power but is one of power's essential modes"(Greenblatt).
Although contemporary critical theory has already made inroads into the study of Japanese narrative and poetry, the study of Japanese drama continues to remain largely unaffected by theory. This panel explores the promise that New Historicist styles of interpretation hold for the study of Japanese forms of theatricality by engaging issues of patronage and power, subjectivity and naming, and the politics of gender.
Without turning Japanese performance texts into mere reflections of "History," the New Historicist readings of Japanese drama performed by Hare, Lim, Brown, and Saltzman-Li attempt to ferret out the power relations and tensions at play between different forms of theatricality and their institutions of support. Each paper in its own way endeavors to break the study of Japanese drama out of the prison house of aesthetic autonomy which ignores the social, political, and economic contingencies surrounding its production, performance, and reception.
A Stage for the Performance of Self
Thomas Hare, Stanford University
Zeami's play Tôru has received relatively little attention in the study of noh, but it is a fairly frequently performed and much appreciated piece in the modern repertory. It represents a reinvigoration of the legend of Minamoto no Tôru, the mid-Heian aristocrat par excellence, with a decidedly medieval concentration on immanence and a sophisticated conceptual relationship to theories of the subject and cognition such as Zeami develops in his nôgakuron, or "treatises" on noh.
I propose to discuss Tôru in this context with ancillary observations on theories of self and place in early Muromachi. I suggest that such an approach may uncover new perspectives on how the early Muromachi conceived of the past and the present subject's relation thereto.
Representing Rulers in the Noh Plays of Nobumitsu (1435-1516)
Beng Choo Lim, Cornell University
The medieval Japanese emperor is an intriguing subject for both noh scholars and historians. Although he almost never appears on the noh stage, he is referred to often enough that the audience knows him well. On the political scene, confronted by powerful military leaders, emperor roles and their sociopolitical implications have long been a topic of heated debate among historians.
Noh, a theatrical form that was both nurtured and patronized by military rulers, while also an important court entertainment, occupies a unique position in the world of the ruling elites. The representation/non-representation of the Japanese emperor in noh therefore becomes yet another possible perspective from which to examine medieval political power relationships.
To complicate matters further, the Onin War (1467-1477) marks important changes in medieval Japanese society-changes that severely challenged the power of the military rulers. Kanze Kojirô Nobumitsu (1435-1516) wrote and produced most of his noh performances after the Onin War, when new social and economic orders were forming. Even though no Japanese emperor is featured in any of Nobumitsu's plays, Chinese emperors in Kôtei and Haen, as well as an Indian Prince in Taisei Taishi, are all reminiscent of the Japanese emperor.
This paper examines the intricate relationship between the representations of rulers in these plays and the interactions between the imperial house and military leaders, as well as among other social institutions.
From Woman Warrior to Peripatetic Entertainer: The Multiple Histories of Tomoe
Steven T. Brown, University of Oregon
Among the many memorable female characters in Heike monogatari, perhaps one of the most provocative is one whose name has become synonymous with the image of the woman warrior in Japanese cultural history: Tomoe. Tomoe was renowned not only for her beauty but also for her skills and accomplishments as an archer and mounted warrior, who "was prepared to confront both demons and gods, a warrior equal to a thousand men."
While most Heike monogatari recensions-whether produced for reading or recitation-concur in their depiction of Tomoe's personal attributes and martial accomplishments, there is profound disagreement over what became of Tomoe after the death of her lord and lover, Kiso Yoshinaka. After fleeing to the eastern provinces, the name of "Tomoe" came to be associated with four different types of female entertainer: arukimiko, katarionna, bikuni, and shirabyôshi. The noh play Tomoe, first performed during the Sengoku period, offers yet another version of Tomoe's post-war history, one which brings to the fore the gender politics infusing the figuration of Tomoe as both woman warrior and female entertainer.
In this paper I analyze the multiple histories of Tomoe circulating in the Kamakura and Muromachi periods, taking into account the sociopolitical functions served by the dual operation of the proper name "Tomoe": a signifier designating both the object of entertainment-i.e., the textual constructions of the woman warrior "Tomoe"-and the entertainer herself-one of the performative channels by which such texts were transmitted.
The Tsurane of "Shibaraku": Communicating the Power of Identity
Katherine Saltzman-Li, University of California, Santa Barbara
"Shibaraku" is a kabuki scene which was performed annually throughout most of the Tokugawa Period and which provides one of the most popular and representative opportunities for display of Edo-style kabuki. In examining "Shibaraku," I will focus on the tsurane, or introduction speech, of the main character as a way to understand the "social energy" encoded in this scene and the intense appeal it carried with audiences. The tsurane was rewritten each year and served to introduce both the character and the actor playing the role.
I will explore what makes "Shibaraku" quintessentially Edo kabuki: its inclusion in the annual Edo kaomise production and its connection to Ichikawa Danjuro and aragoto-style acting. I will then explore how we can place the tsurane as literary products by examining their qualities, purposes and authorship, the ways in which methods of their construction relate to contemporary literary practices, and the way in which they partake of broader conditions of communication in existence at the time.
Finally, I will place the "Shibaraku" tsurane by considering names and naming in the Tokugawa-period context. The identity-conferring function of these speeches together with practices within kabuki troupes and plays involving names and the bequeathing or announcing of names will be discussed in connection with official withholding of the right of actors (and others) to have surnames, regulations against the use of contemporary personal names in plays, and the position of power conferred by names and naming in contemporary cultural practice.