Organizer and Chair: Eric Rath, University of Kansas
Discussant: Katherine Saltzman-Li, University of California, Santa Barbara
Most of Japan’s theatrical arts were created by socially marginal groups and the histories of these arts have been written in terms of the story of the simultaneous improvement in the status of performers and of aesthetics. However, this teleology fails in describing the persisting linkage between social marginality and performance, the mechanisms actors used to improve their status, and how theater itself enacts cultural boundaries. Our panel takes the examples of medieval noh, Edo period kabuki, and the modern stage to engage our audience in a discussion of the place of marginality in the history of theater and society. We wish to scrutinize the links between the status of performers and their artistic/social reception, as well as the broader question of how theater shapes notions of marginality in gender roles, identity, and representation.
Eric Rath examines the struggle between medieval noh troupes and outcasts over the right to perform noh, and explains how this conflict set the terms for defining center and margins for noh as an occupation and as a secular theatre. The Edo period kabuki actor, Ichikawa Danjûrô II, as Patricia Pringle contends, was acutely aware of his "non-human" status, which he sought to ameliorate in both his stage work and his literary activities. Katherine Mezur introduces the group Dumb Type to explain how traditions of marginality contribute to the creativity of modern experimental performance on the one hand, and the reification of women as a marginal social category on the other.
The Outcast Shômonji and the Separation of Ritual from Theater in Medieval Noh
Eric Rath, University of Kansas
Although one among several outcast groups in the medieval period, shômonji were able to rise above other outcasts through their invocation of religious imagery and their skills in performing arts, gaining recognition as specialists of ritual and theatrical performance. At the core of shômonji performance and identity was the aura of ambiguity between the boundaries of efficacious magical-religious ritual and entertainment. Shômonji gained greatest renown in the early 1400s for enacting noh. This success threatened regional noh troupes, especially the four Yamato troupes (Kanze, Konparu, Kongô and Hôshô) which included Zeami, who were attempting to establish themselves in the capital, Kyoto, and better their own status at that time. Their conflict set the stage for defining the boundaries of center and margin in noh in terms of stage practices and occupation. It also helped determine how ritual should inform theatrical production. Whereas a blurring between ritual and theater had been key to both shômonji identity and performance, the triumphant Yamato separated noh theater from ritual to fashion noh as a theatrical art and to identify themselves as its only legitimate performers.
Kabuki Actor Ichikawa Danjûrô II: God of Commoners, "Non-Human" Outcast, and Gentleman Poet
Patricia Pringle, Independent Scholar
Through the life of the actor Ichikawa Danjûrô II (1688–1758), this paper explores issues of social and cultural marginality in the intersection of the rigid Tokugawa era social structure, the outcast world of kabuki, and the utopic world of haikai poetry. It considers what Danjûrô II represented as a marginal figure on stage and how he sought to better his own status.
Although a member of the "non-human" class, Danjûrô was nonetheless admired throughout society for his stage roles which blurred distinctions between social classes and even between the mundane and supernatural. As the commoner Sukeroku, a role he originated, he humiliated evil samurai, and is later revealed to be a warrior in disguise. When he took stage in the role of the Buddhist divinity Fudô Myôô, the titular deity of his family, records show that audiences threw him religious offerings, believing him to be that god.
Concerns about his social status are described in his essay, Kachi ôgi, about the court case in which the bakufu denied the "King of the Outcasts," Danzaemon, jurisdiction over kabuki actors. Although he could not officially escape outcast status, Danjûrô sought to improve his social standing by participating in haikai poetry circles. Scholar Hino Tatsuo calls such mixed-class circles "little utopias"—spaces of play and creativity, free from the restrictions imposed by Neo-Confucian morality. Danjûrô retired early from the stage to devote himself to haikai, recreating himself as a literati.
Phantom Women: The Disappearing Acts of Women in Contemporary Japanese Performance
Katherine Mezur, Georgetown University
In this essay, I examine the extreme manipulation of female bodies in contemporary performance works through the lens of the historical development of female roles constructed and performed by men in traditional theatre forms. In traditional and contemporary performance, female roles of ghosts, spirits, mad female apparitions, and cyborg-like creatures abound. Through an analysis of the performance codes and aesthetics of these roles in traditional performance, I examine the female roles in several works by the contemporary group, "Dumb Type," a high-tech performance art company whose work toured internationally in the 1990s. I study how their high-tech performance techniques reify the presence and position of women as Phantom Women, doll-like ultra-feminine icons whose very "visibility" is an electronic illusion. Dumb Type’s performance techniques are fascinating manipulations of the iconic Japanese Woman who is best admired and feared as a disappearing illusion, vengeful spirit, or dismembered femme fatale. This study raises questions concerning the marginalization and violence associated with these Phantom Women and their significance in maintaining that role for women in public culture.