{"id":2349,"date":"2011-12-22T02:15:40","date_gmt":"2011-12-22T02:15:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artjournalstg.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=2349"},"modified":"2019-11-07T16:43:36","modified_gmt":"2019-11-07T16:43:36","slug":"experimentation-and-tradition-the-avant-garde-play-pierrot-lunaire-by-jikken-kobo-and-takechi-tetsuji","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/artjournal.collegeart.org\/?p=2349","title":{"rendered":"Experimentation and Tradition: The Avant-Garde Play Pierrot Lunaire<\/i> by Jikken K\u014db\u014d and Takechi Tetsuji"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jikken K\u014db\u014d and Takechi Tetsuji, Pierrot Lunaire (tsuki ni tsukareta piero)<\/i>, 1955,<\/b> stage performance, Sankei International Conference Hall, Tokyo, December 5, 1955 (photograph \u00a9 \u014ctsuji Kiyoji)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During the 1950s, after the devastating defeat in World War II, Japan exerted itself to regain political and economic confidence. Arts and culture played a key role in the country\u2019s recovery: the image of a belligerent nation in the recent past needed to be replaced by a new impression of Japan as a peaceful nation of culture; the people were yearning for a return of their cultural life, or simply, entertainments; and, released from the straitjacket that suppressed free expression, artists quickly resumed their creative activities. This essay focuses on one example of the return of arts and culture in activities of the 1950s: the cross-disciplinary, intermedia art collective Jikken K\u014db\u014d (Experimental Workshop). For many, this group signaled the rebirth of avant-garde art in postwar Japan. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Jikken K\u014db\u014d consisted of fourteen members: the painters Kitadai Sh\u014dz\u014d (1923\u20132001), Fukushima Hideko (1927\u20131997), and Yamaguchi Katsuhiro (b. 1928); the printmaker Komai Tetsur\u014d (1920\u20131976); the composers Fukushima Kazuo (b. 1930), Sat\u014d Keijir\u014d (1927\u20132009), Suzuki Hiroyoshi (1931\u20132006), Takemitsu T\u014dru (1930\u20131996), and Yuasa J\u014dji (b. 1927); the poet and critic Akiyama Kuniharu (1929\u20131996); the photographer \u014ctsuji Kiyoji (1923\u20132001); the lighting designer Imai Naoji (b. 1928); the pianist Sonoda Takahiro (1928\u20132004); and the engineer Yamazaki Hideo (1920\u20131979). From 1951 to late 1957 Jikken K\u014db\u014d created a series of works in collaboration with people outside the group and from a variety of creative fields. The members and their collaborators shared the avant-garde spirit, and above all, they were keenly aware of the urgent need for the rejuvenation and enrichment of cultural life in Japan. The list of the K\u014db\u014d\u2019s collaborators reads like a Who\u2019s Who<\/em> of postwar Japanese arts and culture: for example, the acclaimed modern dancers Masuda Takashi and Tani Momoko, the avant-garde film director Matsumoto Toshio, and the actress Kishida Ky\u014dko, recognized internationally for her seminal performance in the film Woman in the Dunes<\/em> (1964). Jikken K\u014db\u014d also created audiovisual work using a slide projector synchronized with a magnetic tape recorder, with the help of technicians who later named their company sony.<\/p>\n

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Group photograph of Jikken K\u014db\u014d, 1954<\/b> (photograph \u00a9 Kitadai Sh\u014dz\u014d, provided by Taro Okamoto Museum of Art, Kawasaki)<\/p>\n

Left to right: \u014ctsuji Kiyoji, Takiguchi Sh\u016bz\u014d (critic), Akiyama Kuniharu, Mrs. Sonoda Takahiro, Yamaguchi Katsuhiro, Sonoda Takahiro, Komai Tetsur\u014d, Fukushima Hideko, Fukushima Kazuo, Takemitsu T\u014dru, Imai Naoji, Yuasa J\u014dji, Suzuki Hiroyoshi, Sat\u014d Keijir\u014d. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many exemplary works of Jikken K\u014db\u014d emerged against the backdrop of increasingly industrializing and modernizing conditions in postwar Japan, and the group is considered one of the first postwar avant-garde groups to have pursued an amalgamation of art and technology. It has been included in a handful of exhibitions of the postwar Japanese art and has also been itself the subject of exhibitions.1<\/a><\/sup> However, compared to the international fame enjoyed by the contemporary Gutai Bijutsu Ky\u014dkai (Gutai Art Association), Jikken K\u014db\u014d remains elusive to many scholars outside Japan. One particular setback causing the delay of scholarship on this group is its strong affinity to progressive artistic movements of prewar European art, such as the Bauhaus. The similarities to the Western artistic trends, styles, and theories tend to overshadow the K\u014db\u014d\u2019s uniqueness in the context of postwar Japan. Its interest and involvement in various traditional disciplines of Japanese arts have been largely neglected, despite the fact that an incentive for such an engagement was present for the K\u014db\u014d members insofar as they were the product of the specific cultural milieu of 1950s Japan. This article, therefore, concentrates on the discussion of one of the K\u014db\u014d\u2019s works, the 1955 contemporary operatic play entitled Pierrot Lunaire <\/em>(tsuki ni tsukareta piero<\/em>), which attempted to transgress the boundary between the experimentalism of Western modern arts and traditional Japanese arts that were resistant to foreign influences. The play combined the music of Arnold Schoenberg and the aesthetic of Noh theater. <\/strong>True to the group\u2019s consistent exercise in collaboration, it was created through a collaboration between Jikken K\u014db\u014d and the playwright and critic Takechi Tetsuji. This essay aims to reassess this uniquely eclectic band of artists, thus far mainly considered as an ultramodern group with little validity as an independently avant-garde movement with relevance to the cultural reality of 1950s Japan.2<\/a><\/sup>, in 1953-nen raito appu\u2014atarashii sengo bijutsuz\u014d ga mietekita\/1953: Shedding Light on Art in Japan<\/em>, exh. cat., 1997 rep. trans. Reiko Tomii (1953; Tokyo: Tama Art University, 1997), 5\u201311.]<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Experimentation and Tradition<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Jikken K\u014db\u014d, The Joy of Life,<\/i> cover of program brochure, 1951<\/b> (photograph provided by Taro Okamoto Museum of Art, Kawasaki)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many of Jikken K\u014db\u014d\u2019s works sprung from the members\u2019 interest in Western modernism, ranging from Cubism, Constructivism, and Surrealism, to the Bauhausian pursuit of total art. In fact, the group\u2019s inaugural project in 1951 was The Joy of Life <\/em>(ikiru yorokobi<\/em>), a ballet theater work that paid homage to Pablo Picasso\u2019s painting of the same title from 1946. As this modern master celebrated birth, life, and peace in his painting, it was appropriate for the Japanese group to mark the beginning of its collective activity and also to celebrate the rebirth of culture in the postwar environment. In effect, The Joy of Life<\/em> was Jikken K\u014db\u014d\u2019s performative manifesto and reflected some of the ideas that the members expressed in a draft statement written in early 1951 for what they envisioned as their first exhibition:<\/p>\n

The purpose of having this exhibition is to combine the various art forms, reaching an organic combination that could not be realized within the combinations of a gallery exhibition, and to create a new style of art with social relevance closely related to everyday life.3<\/a><\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The idea of creating new art together was percolating in the minds of the young artists, and just as they were preparing this statement, a perfect opportunity came to them in the form of a commission from a major newspaper, the Yomiuri Shinbun<\/em>. This newspaper company was organizing the first Picasso retrospective exhibition in postwar Japan, to open in November 1951, and was creating related programs.<\/p>\n

Jikken K\u014db\u014d\u2019s production of the ballet theater work The Joy of Life <\/em>was the highlight of these programs and the group\u2019s contribution to this major undertaking in the cultural landscape of postwar Japan.4<\/a><\/sup> Following the ambitious vision of their draft statement, the K\u014db\u014d members created everything from the stage sets and costumes to the lighting and accompanying music, while also collaborating with prominent modern dancers of the time, Masuda and Tani. The performance took place on November 16 at the Hibiya Public Hall in central Tokyo, adjacent to the General Headquarters of the Allied Powers at the time.5<\/a><\/sup> The performance was received by a sold-out audience hungry for such a cultural event after years of depravation. On one hand, from the K\u014db\u014d\u2019s perspective, the project fulfilled its interest in art that went beyond the confines of \u201ca gallery exhibition.\u201d6<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0 On the other hand, from the perspective of the Yomiuri Shimbun <\/em>and the cultural history of postwar Japan, the reintroduction of Western modern art indicated an underlying goal of cleansing wartime xenophobia.<\/p>\n

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Rehearsal of Pierrot Lunaire at Sankei International Conference Hall, Tokyo, 1955<\/b> (photograph \u00a9 Tanuma Takeyoshi)Left to right: Kanze Hisao, Hamada Y\u014dko, and Takechi Tetsuji<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The success of their inaugural project undoubtedly encouraged the young artists to continue their pursuit of new art with liberalism and the spirit of experimentation. However, Jikken K\u014db\u014d also found inspiration in Japanese traditional culture, not merely as an alternative to the predominant Western influences, but as an area that would most benefit from radical experimentations. In the background of the group\u2019s interest in traditional culture were various Japanese governmental policies that tried to increase the official measures for conserving artistic traditions, including the performing arts. When considering the issue related to Japanese tradition, the legacy of the Occupation in the sociocultural context of the 1950s cannot be ignored. It is also crucial to take into consideration that this legacy did not always reflect what the Occupation authority actually exercised in Japan during its operative years from 1945 to 1952. This legacy needs to be seen as how the postwar mission of democratization and rebuilding of the country as a nation of culture was understood and undertaken by the Japanese themselves.<\/p>\n

On one hand, censorship during the Occupation focused mainly on media such as radio broadcasting and newspapers, and activities in the field of the arts received relatively lenient treatment. However, the Occupation did vilify Kabuki plays and famously banned performance of repertoire such as The Revenge of the Forty-Seven Samurai<\/em> (ch\u016bshingura<\/em>) because it was thought to idealize the feudalistic mentality. The Occupation authority also objected to filmmakers for using images of Mt. Fuji, as it could be seen as a symbol of imperialism.7<\/a><\/sup> H\u014dkenteki<\/em> or \u201cfeudalistic\u201d became the umbrella word of most stigmatizing criticism through the experience of the Occupation, and it was frequently used by the general public, although the exact definition of the word remained unclear to many.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the Tokyo Shinbun Newspaper<\/em>\u2019s reporter Ishida Takeo recalled that at least until the early 1950s there was a general tendency among the people to think anything that associated with \u201cold Japan\u201d as a bad omen. For example, traditional Japanese novels, traditional Japanese poetry, and even the Japanese language itself came under attack in this atmosphere. Ishida summarized the early postwar decade as the period \u201cinfested with negative statements about \u2018Japan.\u2019\u201d8<\/a><\/sup> (Tokyo: Fujiwara Shoten, 1998), 88\u201395. Ishida was a staff reporter in the Society and Culture Department of the Tokyo Shinbun Newspaper<\/em> (the present-day Ch\u016bnichi Shinbun<\/em>, <\/em>Tokyo Headquarters) starting in 1954. From 1984 to 1986 he was the head of the Culture Department.] Succinctly, the film critic Chiba Nobuo analyzed this negativity toward the concept and images of Japan as a result of \u201cunliberated nationalism.\u201d9<\/a><\/sup>, in Zoku sh\u014dwa bunka: 1945\u20131989 <\/em>[The Sh\u014dwa Culture II: 1945\u20131989], ed. Minami Hiroshi and Shakai Shinri Kenky\u016bjo (Tokyo: Keis\u014d Shob\u014d, 1990), 252.] In a sense, the legacy of the postwar Occupation was apparent in that the people were given the right of free speech to criticize signs of nationalistic or overtly patriotic sentiments.10<\/a><\/sup> Paradoxically, the idea of \u201ctradition\u201d in general suffered from neglect and a lack of serious reevaluation.<\/p>\n

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Pierrot Lunaire<\/i>, 1955,<\/b> in performance (photograph \u00a9 \u014ctsuji Kiyoji)Left to right: Columbine (Hamada Y\u014dko), Pierrot (Nomura Mansaku), and Harlequin (Kanze Hisao)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, by the mid-1950s the memory of the Occupation seems to have gradually receded into the realm of the past. Japan\u2019s economic recovery began at the start of Korean War in the summer of 1950, and by the mid-1950s people could directly feel the recouped financial power. According to public opinion polls about the quality of life, from 1954 and thereafter people became less desperate about making ends meet for daily survival and more concerned about psychological fulfillment.11<\/a><\/sup> (Tokyo: Agency for Cultural Affairs, 1999), 12.] Emblematically, in February 1956 the critic Nakano Yoshio published his article entitled \u201cIt is no longer \u2018postwar\u2019\u201d (mohaya \u2018sengo\u2019 dewa nai<\/em>) in the literary journal Bungei Shunj\u016b<\/em>. In the essay Nakano proclaimed that it was time for Japan to stop reflecting on the past, but instead, to direct attention toward the future.12<\/a><\/sup>, Bungei shunj\u016b<\/em>, February 1956, 58.] The country\u2019s regained sense of autonomy, both political and economic, gave a boost to its cultural confidence. While construction of the nation of culture was at the core of the democratization of Japan after 1945, from the mid-1950s there began to appear more outward expression of interest in Japanese tradition and culture.<\/p>\n

For example, in November 1955, after viewing a series of museum exhibitions focusing on Buddhist arts, twelfth-century paintings, and so forth, the art critic Takiguchi Sh\u016bz\u014d commented on the recently increased efforts in reevaluating classical Japanese art: \u201cLately Japan’s classical art is being retraced. On one hand, it can be seen as a desire to finally regain self-consciousness a decade after the defeat of war; on the other hand, it is in response to a need to rethink tradition from a global perspective due to increased international communication.\u201d13<\/a><\/sup>, Yomiuri Shinbun <\/em>(November 30, 1955), rep. Takiguchi, Ten <\/em>[Point] (Tokyo: Misuzu Shob\u014d, 1963), 265.] Takiguchi, however, warned at the same time that \u201ctradition always carries a dual meaning of conservation and creation, and if it were to predominantly operate in a conservative manner, it would become cumulative, fall into stagnation, and turn to be oppressive.\u201d14<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

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Kitadai Sh\u014dz\u014d, mask of Harlequin as worn by Kanze Hisao, 1955,<\/b> painted wood (photograph \u00a9 Kitadai Sh\u014dz\u014d; photograph provided by Taro Okamoto Museum of Art, Kawasaki) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was from this condition that the issue of experimentation and tradition emerged as the central focus of many of the postwar artists, and Jikken K\u014db\u014d was certainly not oblivious to it. For example, during the mid-1950s, Suzuki Hiroyoshi and Yuasa J\u014dji, among other K\u014db\u014d members, were enthusiastic about investigating Eastern philosophies such as Buddhism, and particularly the sermons of Suzuki Daisetz (D. T. Suzuki, 1870\u20131966), an international missionary of Zen Buddhism after the prewar period. They were avid readers of this celebrated Zen master\u2019s publications, especially Zen and Japanese Culture <\/em>(zen to nihon bunka<\/em>).15<\/a><\/sup> (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1940).] His thesis \u201cunderscored the anti-systematic nature of Zen and relentlessly expressed his contempt for Western philosophy . . .\u201d16<\/a><\/sup> (Tokyo: Ongakunotomosha, 1978), 314; and Tanikawa Shuntar\u014d, \u201cTanikawa Shuntar\u014d ga kiku, renzoku intaby\u016b: dai 4-kai Yuasa J\u014dji\u201d [Tanikawa Shuntar\u014d: Series interviews number 4\u2015Yuasa J\u014dji], in Eiga ongaku\/Music for Film<\/em>, vol. 4 of Takemitsu T\u014dru zensh\u016b\/Complete Takemitsu Edition<\/em>, <\/em>ed. Complete Takemitsu Edition Editing Room and \u014chara Tetsuo (Tokyo: Sh\u014dgakukan, 2003), 244.] The anti-monistic thinking of Zen bolstered the members\u2019 pursuit of the creation of a multitudinous culture, even with predominantly Western influences.<\/p>\n

Jikken K\u014db\u014d was also reintroduced to Zen philosophy in the form of John Cage\u2014who was once a pupil of Schoenberg. After the early 1950s, the group recognized the significant deconstructive force of Cage\u2019s music, which defied the strict temporal rules of classical music, and attempted to hold the first concert of his compositions in Japan. By 1952, Akiyama Kuniharu began direct correspondence with Cage. At this time, an incentive to look at elements in their own cultural tradition was sown in the minds of the Jikken K\u014db\u014d members for their future projects. By 1955, another group member, Sat\u014d Keijir\u014d, wrote in his article \u201cEast in the West: Raison d\u2019\u00eatre de la musique moderne\u201d <\/em>(seiy\u014d ni okeru t\u014dy\u014d: t\u014dy\u014d no kanousei<\/em>), that Cage was the \u201cAmerican composer who [was] investigating a new possibility in contemporary music while taking much inspiration from Eastern music (t\u0101la<\/em> and n\u014d<\/em>) and thought.\u201d17<\/a><\/sup>, Symphony<\/em> 1, no. 8 (February 1955): 17.] It is particularly interesting that Cagean music, influenced by Eastern spatio-temporal concepts, reconnected Jikken K\u014db\u014d to aspects of traditional Japanese culture.<\/p>\n

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Kitadai Sh\u014dz\u014d, drawing for the masks of Harlequin, 1955,<\/b> ink on paper, 12\u215b x 16\u00bd in. (30.7 x 41.9 cm) (artwork \u00a9 Kitadai Sh\u014dz\u014d; photograph provided by Taro Okamoto Museum of Art, Kawasaki)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Together with his fellow group members, Suzuki Hiroyoshi was also well aware of the insular mentality that an essentialist view of tradition could conjure. Thus, writing in 1955 in his crucial article \u201cRediscovery of the East\u201d (t\u014dy\u014d no saihakken<\/em>), Suzuki warned that a concept of tradition that neglected to find relevance in contemporary reality would not be able to become a true tradition.18<\/a><\/sup>, Symphony<\/em> 1, no. 8 (February 1955): 5.] His statement recalls the two focal points in many Japanese artists\u2019 goals, experimentation and tradition. A persistent theme in postwar Japanese art, this polarity is succinctly outlined as two distinct vectors: \u201cthe ambition for the new, virtually and exasperatingly synonymous with things Western,\u201d and \u201cthe aspiration for the authentic, often symbolized by things Japanese or Asian.\u201d19<\/a><\/sup> The two ideals, of things Western and Japanese authenticity, are often conflicting for artists, <\/strong>and the tension between them was felt poignantly in the context of the mid-1950s. However, rather than denying the friction between the two, Suzuki envisioned their coexistence within a single artist\u2019s or group\u2019s creative efforts.<\/p>\n

In the case of Jikken K\u014db\u014d, such a tension provided a creative impulse that realized the unprecedented production of the avant-garde play Pierrot Lunaire<\/em>. It was the fruit of a timely collaboration between the K\u014db\u014d members, who, from the very beginning in 1951, eagerly sought \u201can organic combination\u201d of intermedia and interdisciplinary art, and Takechi Tetsuji (1912\u20131988), a dramaturge, playwright, critic, and aficionado of the traditional arts.20<\/a><\/sup> This collaborator with a personality as \u201clively as a kaleidoscope\u201d held a specific aim of recontextualizing the tradition of theatrical arts for the contemporary time.21<\/a><\/sup>, in Enkei gekij\u014d keishiki ni yoru s\u014dsakugeki no y\u016bbe\/An Evening of Original Plays by the Circular Theatre<\/em>, program brochure (Osaka: Dangen-kai, 1955), n.p.] Working with Takechi on the project, Jikken K\u014db\u014d found an opportunity to tackle the issue of experimentation and tradition, and to learn, explore, and absorb not only the visual and spatial characteristics but also the musical and temporal elements that are unified holistically in the world of Noh, one of the most revered traditional Japanese performing arts.<\/p>\n

Takechi Tetsuji: The Collaborator<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Kitadai Sh\u014dz\u014d, drawing for the masks of Harlequin, 1955<\/b>, ink on paper, 12\u215b x 16\u215b in. (30.7 x 40.9 cm) (artwork \u00a9 Kitadai Sh\u014dz\u014d; photograph provided by Taro Okamoto Museum of Art, Kawasaki)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The potential for rebound conservatism in the traditional arts was quite high as the \u201cCultural Properties Protection Act\u201d (bunkazai hogoh\u014d<\/em>) came into effect in May 1950. The legislation followed the unfortunate 1949 fire that destroyed highly valued mural paintings at H\u014dry\u016bji Temple in Nara, and the protective law received much attention and underwent thorough revision in the first half of the 1950s. The enforced \u201cCultural Properties Protection Act\u201d superseded early-twentieth-century legislation, and in May 1954 the law was finally established with a system of four categories: 1) tangible cultural properties, 2) folk materials, 3) monuments, and 4) intangible cultural properties.22<\/a><\/sup> With this new legislation the term \u201ccultural properties\u201d (bunkazai<\/em>) became a familiar word in Japanese. Moreover, the law not only covered all previously protected categories such as buildings, sites, and objects, but in the fourth category also took into consideration support for immaterial properties.<\/p>\n

\u201cIntangible cultural properties\u201d (mukei bunkazai<\/em>) are defined under this law as \u201ctheater, music, craft, and other techniques that are intangible products of cultural significance and that possess highly historical and artistic values for the country.\u201d23<\/a><\/sup>, in Nihon no mukei bunkazai 2: gein\u014d<\/em> [Intangible cultural properties of Japan 2: Arts] (Tokyo: Daiichi h\u014dki shuppan, 1976), 272.] In short, immaterial agencies such as human knowledge and skills may now be taken under the wing of official protection. After the 1954 enactment, Noh dance and music immediately received assessment. The first so-called Living National Treasures (ningen kokuh\u014d<\/em>) certified in 1955, in fact, included the Noh actor Kita Rokuheita, the fourteenth-generation headmaster (iemoto<\/em>) of the Kita School.24<\/a><\/sup> <\/em><\/p>\n

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Kitadai Sh\u014dz\u014d, mask of Harlequin as worn by Kanze Hisao, 1955,<\/b> painted wood (photograph \u00a9 Kitadai Sh\u014dz\u014d; photograph provided by Taro Okamoto Museum of Art, Kawasaki)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The national acknowledgement of the artistic value of the performing arts confirmed such traditions as deeply rooted in Japanese culture. However, it also brought a setback. As the succession of many intangible properties depended on safeguarding a lineage, more emphasis was placed on preserving the trades according to convention rather than on rejuvenating them by constant incorporation of imaginative innovations. The stifling condition in the field of theater made some critics, most notably Takechi, cry out for innovation. In the defiance of this reality of rebound conservatism, Takechi undertook a number of bold experiments that challenged the notion of tradition as something just to be preserved as if it were an ossified object.<\/p>\n

Born in Osaka in 1912 as the first son of an affluent architectural engineer, Takechi developed a passion at an early age for traditional arts and culture, including Nihon-ga<\/em> (Japanese-style) painting, Kabuki, Noh, and Bunraku puppet theaters. When most cultural activities were halted under the militant regime, Takechi privately funded a salon of intellectuals and literary figures named the String Breaking Society (Dangen-kai<\/em>). He considered it \u201can artistic resistance movement during the war years.\u201d25<\/a><\/sup>, Kabuki no reimei: Takechi Tetsuji gekihy\u014dsh\u016b<\/em> [The dawn of Kabuki: Collection of critical writings on plays by Takechi Tetsuji] <\/em>(Osaka: Shoritsu Seisensha, 1955), n.p. Dangen-kai\u2019s regular members included esteemed literary figures such as Tanizaki Jun\u2019ichir\u014d and Yoshii Isamu.] The String Breaking Society organized performances of Noh and Kabuki by inviting actors deprived of the limelight and held regular gatherings until the very end of the war in August 1945. In December 1949 Takechi proclaimed the beginning of his Kabuki renaissance movement, known as \u201cTakechi Kabuki,\u201d in order to break the stifling conventions in that genre. In the mid-1950s he also began to strike directly at the heart of the Noh theater world and its anachronistic values, habits, and mores.<\/p>\n

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Noh mask (Ko\u2019omote), seventeenth\u2013 eighteenth centuries,<\/b> Edo period, painted wood, 8\u215c x 5\u215c in. (21.3 x 13.5 cm). Tokyo National Museum (photograph by TNM Image Archives, http:\/\/TnmArchives.jp\/)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At that time, Noh theater was arguably the most respected and most conservative of Japanese cultural genres. In addition to this status quo, one effect of the Cultural Properties Protection Act was to give substantial power to senior actors, who formed the Association for Noh and Noh Music (n\u014dgaku ky\u014dkai<\/em>) that virtually took charge of deciding the proper tradition worthy of official protection. Some Noh actors of the time felt that the old values and forms called kata<\/em>, that is, certain conventional mannerisms in performance, were undermining their individual creativity. <\/strong>For example, Kanze Hisao (1925\u20131978), who was still young and quite rebellious at the time, criticized this condition in 1952:<\/p>\n

True theatrical arts have not been achieved in Japan perhaps because there is a lack of continuation of tradition. In order to achieve that goal, we must learn and absorb plays of Europe and other cultures. We must directly interact with them in order to truly carry on our classics. . . . That would be the real way of bringing the tradition of Noh back to life.26<\/a><\/sup>, N\u014d<\/em> (June 1952); rep. Kanze Hisao chosakush\u016b: dent\u014d to gendai <\/em>[Complete writings by Kanze Hisao: Tradition and the present time], vol. 3, ed. Minami Hiroshi and Dent\u014d-geijutsu-no-kai (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1981), 136\u201338.]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As a courageously vocal supporter of rejuvenation of the Noh theater, Kanze was frustrated that actors merely followed kata<\/em> like a diagram of performance handed down from generation to generation for each classic Noh play. Obedience to this dogma led to the dismissal of any involvement by contemporary playwrights, and worse, to complete neglect of the importance of rehearsals.27<\/a><\/sup>, Bungaku<\/em>, May 1954, <\/em>rep. Kanze Hisao chosakush\u016b: dent\u014d to gendai<\/em>, vol. 3, 7\u201319.] Like Takechi, Kanze considered tradition as something constantly evolving and believed in the inherent creative power of Noh. He actively collaborated with Takechi starting in the1950s, when it was still considered sacrilegious for Noh actors to veer away from the time-honored kata<\/em>.28<\/a><\/sup> Naturally, Takechi\u2019s creative activities that tried to reconnect the lively force of Noh with the equally lively energy of avant-garde art raised eyebrows among those in positions of authority.29<\/a><\/sup> (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1987), 336\u201381.] Takechi\u2019s conflict with the conservatism of the world of Noh was essentially his struggle with the residue of the old, feudal social construct. Realized in the context of this cultural condition, the 1955 production of an experimental play, Pierrot Lunaire<\/em>,that incorporated some unique characteristics of Noh theater was truly a groundbreaking avant-garde experiment by Takechi and Jikken K\u014db\u014d.<\/p>\n

Pierrot Lunaire<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Kitadai Sh\u014dz\u014d, mask of Harlequin as worn by Kanze Hisao, 1955,<\/b> painted wood (photograph \u00a9 Kitadai Sh\u014dz\u014d; photograph provided by Taro Okamoto Museum of Art, Kawasaki) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The play Pierrot Lunaire<\/em> was based on Arnold Schoenberg\u2019s score of the same title composed in 1912. The play was one of two pieces in an event created collaboratively by Jikken K\u014db\u014d and Takechi, entitled An Evening of Original Plays by the Circular Theater <\/em>(Enkei gekij\u014d keishiki ni yoru s\u014dsakugeki no y\u016bbe<\/em>).30<\/a><\/sup> It took place on December 5, 1955, at the Sankei International Conference Hall in Tokyo. When Jikken K\u014db\u014d and Takechi came together to create this play, various preexisting boundaries were challenged, as it incorporated diverse elements.<\/p>\n

Most notably, Takechi\u2019s vitality and skill as an organizer and stage director brought together three actors from disparate theatrical disciplines on the same stage\u2014an unprecedented event at the time. There were only three characters in Pierrot Lunaire<\/em>\u2014Columbine, Pierrot, and Harlequin\u2014and they were performed by Hamada Y\u014dko, an actress from shingeki<\/em> theater that began in the early twentieth century, Nomura Mansaku (1931\u20132004) from the ky\u014dgen<\/em> traditional short comedic drama, and the Noh actor Kanze, respectively. Musically, Takechi also bridged Schoenberg\u2019s innovation of Sprachmelodie <\/em>(spoken melody, more commonly known today as Sprechstimme<\/em>) with a technique of utai <\/em>singing used in Noh plays. Although their origins were a world apart, Sprachmelodie<\/em> and utai<\/em> both consider the human voice as an amalgam of musical instrument and speech device. Finally, Takechi\u2019s mastery of dramaturgy was fully revealed in his ability to find a common ground in a scientific analysis of human psychology and the nonrealistic approach of the \u201cdreamlike Noh\u201d <\/em>(y\u016bgen n\u014d<\/em>). Takechi was not only conversant in the aesthetic of traditional theater but also competent in applying the theory of psychoanalysis and Surrealism in his discussion about the theater of anti-illusionism in which he found the future of the field.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The playbill of Pierrot Lunaire <\/em>only introduced fragments of the plot, and much was left to the imagination of the viewer. It reads:<\/p>\n

Pierrot suppresses his desire and love for Columbine\u2014<\/p>\n

Soon, Harlequin appears and tricks Pierrot; being in his element, Harlequin betrays Columbine. Taunted by Harlequin, Pierrot stabs her to death. Yet, Columbine remains alive for eternity within Pierrot himself.31<\/a><\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

The story is simple: Pierrot falls in love with Columbine, only to be rejected by her; Harlequin inflames Pierrot\u2019s frustration and tempts him to murder Columbine. However, the more carefully one reads the plot, the more convoluted the context of play becomes: the basis of Pierrot\u2019s longing for Columbine is not clear; Harlequin may be an alter ego of Pierrot; and finally, the whole narrative might be just imagined by Pierrot, a poet intoxicated by wine and the mystifying effect of moonlight. This dreamlike ambiguity of where the subject starts and ends, and who is actually a living being on stage, is analogous to the dramaturgy of a classical Noh <\/em>play.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The dreamy atmosphere was visualized on stage by Jikken K\u014db\u014d. Within the dim ambient light designed and controlled by the K\u014db\u014d\u2019s lighting designer, Imai Naoji, the circular stage appeared to float above the ground, as if to reify the world beyond consciousness. Spotlights in shifting colors guided the viewer\u2019s eyes and illuminated the masked characters.<\/p>\n

Kitadai Sh\u014dz\u014d\u2019s modern mask designs reinterpreted the abstraction of human emotions, a characteristic often mentioned with regard to Noh masks. Highly abstract in form and color, the masks intensified the symbolic nature of the drama. Kitadai believed that faces rarely express people\u2019s true feelings; more often than not, they camouflage the irrationality of human psychology. By dehumanizing his mask designs, Kitadai eliminated realism and its falsehood. The fluidity of expression in the Noh mask of a woman that at first glance is devoid of emotion may have inspired Kitadai\u2019s designs. <\/strong><\/p>\n

In addition, slow choreography created by Takechi in Noh style amplified the physical presence of the actors, while <\/strong>the modern costume designs by Fukushima Hideko orchestrated that effect. <\/strong>The voluminous costumes added a degree of abstraction to the actors\u2019 bodies. A costume for Pierrot, for instance, was made of sheer cloth, and it floated over the actor\u2019s physical contour, fluting out at the bottom hem and attached to a large wire loop. Pierrot\u2019s extremely slow gestures were echoed and amplified by the quivering movement of this dress, expressing the character\u2019s psychological turbulence in a symbolic manner.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In fact, the visual language used to narrate the story throughout the staging of Pierrot Lunaire <\/em>was more symbolic than mimetic. In the early postwar years, theater was dominated by shingeki<\/em>, the new theater of realism popularized in the early 1900s during the period of Westernization promoted by the Meiji government (1868\u20131912). At the time, the traditional Noh play was considered high art that was only performed occasionally, for elite audiences. On the other hand, shingeki <\/em>was a form of popular theater for the general public. It still exists today as \u201ca theater of dialogue\u201d and realism that relays social issues to the public.32<\/a><\/sup> In stark contrast to the realist approach predominant in the 1950s, Pierrot Lunaire<\/em> was for the most part a mime that abandoned all conventional plot and a logically developing drama. Instead, Takechi and Jikken K\u014db\u014d offered an abstract glimpse into human psychology. Just as a dream unravels hidden human emotions, yet remains incoherent in parts, Pierrot Lunaire<\/em> was filled with signs that required imaginative interpretation by the audience. For both Takechi and Jikken K\u014db\u014d, theater was not an easily consumable form of entertainment. Rather, it provided an emancipating space for the suppressed subconscious.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Fukushima Hideko, costumes for Pierrot, Columbine, and Harlequin, 1955,<\/b> fabric (four photographs \u00a9 Kitadai Sh\u014dz\u014d; photographs provided by Taro Okamoto Museum of Art, Kawasaki) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A stabile made of paper screens by Kitadai Sh\u014dz\u014d was one of the few stage sets, and it indicated no specific time and place. The actors\u2019 bodies and the paper-thin stabile painted shadowy patterns on the floor and against the walls, yet those patterns were as hard to grasp as the meaning of the actors\u2019 gestures, as the lighting shifted its color and focus in the flux of time. The sense of being suspended in some amorphous state was heightened by unfamiliar sounds of atonal music. The lyrics, sung by a masked woman, Columbine, added further mystery to the play:<\/p>\n

me de nomu sake o \/ yoru \/ tsuki ga \/ nami ni sosogu \/ shibuki wa \/ shizukana \/ suiheisen o \/ oou \/ karada wa hageshiku \/ itaku \/ hateshinai umi o sagasu \/ sora o aogi \/ koe naku \/ inori nagara \/ shijin wa\/ yoromeki \/ yoishireru \/ (yome wa sake o nomu) \/ tsuki ga sosogu \/ aojiroki yoru no umi no nioi \/ tsuki ni you<\/em><\/p>\n

(The wine which through the eyes we drink \/ Flows nightly from the moon in torrents, \/ And as a spring-tide overflows \/ The far and distant land. \/ Desires terrible and sweet \/ Unnumbered drift in floods abounding. \/ The wine which through the eyes we drink \/ Flows nightly from the moon in torrents. \/ The poet, in an ecstasy, \/ Drinks deeply from the holy chalice, \/ To heaven lifts up his entranced \/ Head, and reeling quaffs and drains down \/ The wine which through the eyes we drink.)<\/p>\n

kuroi \/ \u014dkina ch\u014dno mure \/ hikari o koroshita \/ fushigina \/ hon wa tojirareru \/ hakaba kara \/ nioi ga hirogaru \/ kuroi ch\u014d ga \/ taiy\u014d o koroshita<\/em><\/p>\n

(Heavy, gloomy giant black moths \/ Massacred the sun\u2019s bright rays; \/ Like a close-shut magic book \/ Broods the distant sky in silence. \/ From the mists in deep recess \/ Rise up scents, destroying memory. \/ Heavy, gloomy giant black moths \/ Massacred the sun\u2019s bright rays.)33<\/a><\/sup> <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"
Kitadai Sh\u014dz\u014d, stabile design for Pierrot Lunaire<\/i>, 1955,<\/b> ink on paper, 9\u00be x 13\u00bd in. (24.9 x 34.2 cm) (artwork \u00a9 Kitadai Sh\u014dz\u014d; photograph provided by Taro Okamoto Museum of Art, Kawasaki)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The lyrics of Schoenberg\u2019s music, originally written in French by the Belgian symbolist poet Albert Giraud (1860\u20131929), were translated into Japanese for the play by Akiyama Kuniharu. The mezzo-soprano voice of the shingeki <\/em>actress Hamada achieved the effect of Sprachmelodie<\/em>, whose purpose was to move away from Western musical convention by assimilating the temporal irregularity, the intonation patterns, and the spontaneity of human utterance. Schoenberg\u2019s experimental use of the human voice, in turn, proved to have an affinity with utai<\/em>, a vocal accompaniment of Noh performance. Keenly observing the affinity, the K\u014db\u014d member Yamaguchi Katsuhiro stated that Sprachmelodie<\/em> would come vividly alive, when contrasted with Takechi\u2019s Pierrot Lunaire<\/em> in the abstract visual and gestural style of Noh, just as utai<\/em>, by subtly drifting above the mechanical nature of instrumental music, functions to keep the audience aware of tension between the earthly world and the otherworldly realm of the spirits commonly portrayed in Noh plays.34<\/a><\/sup>, Bijutsu hihy\u014d<\/em> 49 (January 1956): 11.]<\/p>\n

Conclusion <\/strong><\/p>\n

In Pierrot Lunaire<\/em>, Jikken K\u014db\u014d and Takechi contested modern rationalism by abstracting all referential elements to the maximum degree: in the play\u2019s narrative aspect, through the physicality of the space of performance and the dancer\u2019s body, and in its temporal element of movement. In addition, it was critical for the K\u014db\u014d and Takechi to engage the imaginative power of the spectator. In a defiant tone, Takechi asked his audiences, \u201cThe experiment of masked dance in the-theater-in-the-round\u2014freed from a frame and freed from actors\u2014what sort of play would emerge from it? What influence would it have on the future of playwriting? And how would it save us from the sickness of typical drama?\u201d35<\/a><\/sup>, in Enkei gekij\u014d keishiki ni yoru s\u014dsakugeki no y\u016bbe<\/em>, n.p.]<\/p>\n

\"\"
Kitadai Sh\u014dz\u014d, stabile for Pierrot Lunaire<\/i>, 1955<\/b> (photograph \u00a9 Kitadai Sh\u014dz\u014d; photograph provided by Taro Okamoto Museum of Art, Kawasaki)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Specialists and performing arts critics had long been oblivious to such \u201csickness\u201d and initially denied the creative potential of this play. Yet artists and art critics who were involved in avant-garde art offered high applause. Takechi felt warm encouragement from the positive reception of the avant-garde artistic circle, and he seems to have particularly appreciated the recognition of the art critic Takiguchi Sh\u016bz\u014d. In his 1958 publication My Discussions about Drama <\/em>(Watashi no engeki rons\u014d<\/em>), Takechi quoted Takiguchi\u2019s comment from his \u201cClosed and Open Classics\u201d (Tozasareta koten to hirakareta koten<\/em>) at length:<\/p>\n

Finally, I must address an experimental work which in the most concrete way presents the problem of tradition and creativity. The work is Takechi Tetsuji\u2019s production of \u201cOriginal Plays for a Circular Theater.\u201d . . . Some have criticized this as pastiche, grafting trees with bamboo. In the world of Noh and Kabuki, where ancient traditions are preserved in the flesh, no amount of abstract speculation on tradition versus creativity will get very far. Aren\u2019t experiments like these, grafting trees with bamboo, exactly what is called for? The real significance of these productions is that they are essentially different from attempts at compromising modernizations on the order of \u201cmodern Noh\u201d or \u201cNew Japanese whatever.\u201d36<\/a><\/sup> (Tokyo: Chikuma Shob\u014d, 1958). The quoted section is reprinted in Teihon, Takechi kabuki: n\u014d to zen’ei<\/em>, 140. Takiguchi Sh\u016bz\u014d\u2019s \u201cTozasareta koten to hirakareta koten\u201d originally appeared in Bijutsu hihy\u014d<\/em>, January 1956, 77\u201381. This English translation of the article is from Experimental Workshop<\/em>, ed. Satani Gallery (Tokyo: Satani Gallery, 1991), 21.]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"
Columbine in Pierrot Lunaire<\/i>, 1955<\/b> (photograph \u00a9 Kitadai Sh\u014dz\u014d; photograph provided by Taro Okamoto Museum of Art, Kawasaki)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Takiguchi understood Takechi\u2019s achievement not as a compromise but as the creation of a new type of lyrical play. The element of lyrical play, to Takechi, was inherently present in the true essence of Noh. In other words, Takechi explained that he was not superficially adopting the existing formula of Noh to create a new play but trying to imagine the way that Noh would have developed, if it were not limited within the sectarian system of iemoto<\/em> or other organized institutions such as the Association for Noh and Noh Music.<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

However mixed the reception, the authorities could not ignore Takechi\u2019s avant-garde collaborative work with Jikken K\u014db\u014d forever. The renowned historian of early modern Japanese popular culture Nishiyama Matsunosuke noted that Pierrot Lunaire<\/em> was an enlightening avant-garde experiment that startled the audience. He also credited Takechi for his \u201ctheory of denial\u201d (hitei no ronri<\/em>), that is, rejecting the conventional format of stage, dramaturgy, music, and the use of the actors\u2019 bodies, and, above all, denying the tradition of Noh as an impenetrable and fixed remnant of the past.37<\/a><\/sup>, in Dent\u014d towa nanika<\/em> [What is tradition], vol. 1 of Dent\u014d to gendai <\/em>[Tradition and the present time], ed. Minami Hiroshi and Dent\u014dgeijutsu-no-kai (Tokyo: Gakugei Shorin, 1968), 200\u20134.] Similarly, Kawatake Toshio, a great-grandchild of the late nineteenth-century Kabuki dramatist Kawatake Mokuami, stated: \u201cIt was from after 1955 that the new, modern people in Japan began to recognize surprisingly many super-modern elements in traditional theatrical arts. . . . I think much initiative was taken by Mr. Takechi Tetsuji, and he was influential.\u201d38<\/a><\/sup>, ed. Geijutsushi Kenky\u016b-kai, vol.10 of Nihon no koten gein\u014d<\/em> [Classical arts of Japan] (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1971), 170.]<\/p>\n

Pierrot Lunaire<\/em> attested to an eclecticism and experimentalism only possible through collaboration among the avant-garde artists, the actors from the different backgrounds, and the energetic creator and producer Takechi. Working closely together, they united the avant-garde essence of Schoenberg\u2019s music, the modern analysis of the human mind, and the nonmimetic, minimalist aesthetic of Noh theater. The collaboration ultimately created a new type of drama or engeki <\/em>that challenged various boundaries within Japanese theater, and opened up engeki<\/em> to culturally diverse elements, not for the sake of denying tradition but for the sake of releasing it from its preserved condition so that it could be revitalized as a living cultural identity.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Columbine in Pierrot Lunaire<\/i>, 1955<\/b> (photograph \u00a9 Kitadai Sh\u014dz\u014d; photograph provided by Taro Okamoto Museum of Art, Kawasaki) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Strong conservatism in the traditional theatrical arts was an unfortunate byproduct of postwar national preservation efforts in arts and culture, but it was also a perfect adversary for those with experimental minds in the following decades of the 1960s and 1970s. In fact, the activities of Jikken K\u014db\u014d and Takechi might have given an impetus to the 1960s avant-garde performing arts movement, the sh\u014d-gekij\u014d<\/em> (small theater) movement, that produced such visionary dramatists as Terayama Sh\u016bji, Suzuki Tadashi, and Ninagawa Yukio, to name just a few.39<\/a><\/sup> To the eyes of this later generation of dramatists, Pierrot Lunaire<\/em> is \u201cthe classic of the avant-garde play\u201d that marked the beginning of the search for cultural identity in the postwar theater art.40<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

\n

Miwako Tezuka is an associate curator at Asia Society in New York. A specialist in Asian contemporary art, she cocurated Yoshitomo Nara: Nobody\u2019s Fool<\/em> (2010) and curated U-Ram Choe: In Focus<\/em> (2011), among many other exhibitions. She is also a cofounder of PoNJA-GenKon (Post-1945 Japanese Art Discussion Group), a global online network of over one hundred fifty specialists and students working in the field of contemporary Japanese art.<\/p>\n

\n

In this article, Japanese names are written in order of the family name followed by the personal name, according to the East Asian convention. All translations, unless otherwise noted, are mine. I would like to thank Dr. Tomii Reiko for her sage advice, and also Dr. Nishizawa Harumi for sharing research materials related to Jikken K\u014db\u014d and information regarding the most current studies on Jikken K\u014db\u014d, including her own, \u201c1950-nendai o ch\u016bshin to suru bijutsu to butai-geijutsu ni kansuru kenky\u016b\u201d [Art and performing arts in 1950s Japan] (PhD dissertation, University of Tsukuba, 2010). Most recently, Dr. Nishizawa presented on the topic of cross-genre collaborations in Takechi Tetsuji\u2019s experimental theater of the 1950s at the symposium \u201cTakechi Tetsuji\u2014Tradition and Avant-Garde,\u201d June 12, 2010, Meiji Gakuin University, Tokyo.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
    \n
  1. Recent exhibitions include Art, Anti-Art, Non-Art: Experimentations in the Public Sphere in Postwar Japan, 1950\u20131970<\/em>, Getty Center, California, March 6\u2013June 3, 2007; and Experimental Workshop: Japan 1950\u20131958<\/em>, Annely Juda Fine Art, London, October 29\u2013December 18, 2009. Catalogues accompanied both exhibitions. The latter includes essay contributions by Jasia Reichardt, Obinata Kin\u2019ichi, and \u014ctani Sh\u014dgo. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  2. See Minemura Toshiaki, \u201cS\u014djo\u201d [Introduction ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Satani Gallery, ed., Dai 11-kai om\u0101ju Takiguchi Sh\u016bz\u014d ten: Jikken K\u014db\u014d to Takiguchi Sh\u016bz\u014d\/The 11th Exhibition Homage to Shuzo Takiguchi: Experimental Workshop<\/em>, <\/em>trans. Tom Spilliaert (Tokyo: Satani Gallery, 1991), 102. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  4. The performance was followed by the screening of two films, Visite \u00e0 Picasso <\/em>and De Renoir \u00e0 Picasso<\/em>, both from 1950, by the Belgian filmmaker Paul Haesaerts. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  5. For details about the Allied Occupation, see Takemae Eiji, The Allied Occupation of Japan<\/em> (New York: Continuum, 2002). ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  6. Another significant example of Jikken <\/em>K\u014db\u014d\u2019s transgressive activity involving dance is its production of the experimental ballet theater work The Future Eve<\/em> in 1955. Developed in collaboration with the dramatist Kawaji Akira and the Matsuo Akemi Ballet Company, it was performed at the Haiy\u016bza Theater in Tokyo and ran for three days, March 29\u201331, 1955. The story was based on the French science-fiction novel L\u2019\u00c8ve future<\/em>, written in 1886 by Auguste Villiers de l\u2019Isle-Adam (1838\u20131889). ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  7. See Donald Richie, \u201cThe Occupied Arts,\u201d in The Confusion Era: Art and Culture of Japan during the Allied Occupation, 1945\u20131952<\/em> (Seattle, London: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution and University of Washington Press, 1997), 12. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  8. Ishida Takeo, Haisen kokumin no seishinshi: bungei kisha no me de mita 40-nen<\/em> [Psychological history of the defeated people: Forty years of observation from a cultural journalist\u2019s perspective ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  9. Chiba Nobuo, \u201cEiga\u2014rekishi to shinri\u201d [Movie\u2014a history and psychology ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  10. The critical view on the legacy of the Occupation in postwar Japanese arts and culture became a central issue in the late 1970s through the polemics of critics such as Et\u014d Jun. See, for example, Et\u014d\u2019s \u201cThe American Occupation and Postwar Japanese Literature: The Impact of Censorship upon a Japanese Mind,\u201d Hikaku bungaku kenky\u016b<\/em> 38 (September 1980). ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  11. See Agency for Cultural Affairs, ed., Atarashii bunka rikkoku no s\u014dz\u014d o mezashite<\/em>\u2014bunkach\u014d 30-nen shi <\/em>[Toward founding of a new cultural nation\u2014the thirty-year history of the Agency for Cultural Affairs ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  12. Nakano Yoshio, \u201cMohaya \u2018sengo\u2019 dewa nai\u201d [It is no longer \u2018postwar\u2019 ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  13. Takiguchi Sh\u016bz\u014d, \u201cKoten geijutsu no saihy\u014dka\u201d [Reevaluation of classical art ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  14. Ibid., 265\u201366. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  15. Suzuki Daisetz, Zen to nihon bunka<\/em> [Zen and Japanese Culture ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  16. Bernard Faure, \u201cThe Kyoto School and Reverse Orientalism,\u201d in Japan in Traditional and Postmodern Perspectives<\/em>, ed. Charles Wei-hsun Fu and Steven Heine (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995), 246.This reference to D. T. Suzuki was made during the author\u2019s interview with Yuasa (January 26, 2001) and was frequently repeated by the K\u014db\u014d members elsewhere. See, for instance, Akiyama Kuniharu, Nihon no sakkyokukatachi: Sengo kara shinno sengotekina mirai e <\/em>[Japanese composers: From the postwar period to the true postwar future ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  17. Sat\u014d Keijir\u014d, \u201cSeiy\u014d ni okeru t\u014dy\u014d: T\u014dy\u014d no kan\u014dsei\u201d [East in the West: Raison d\u2019\u00eatre de la musique moderne ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  18. Suzuki Hiroyoshi, \u201cT\u014dy\u014d no saihakken\u201d [Rediscovery of the East ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  19. Nakajima Masatoshi and Tomii Reiko, \u201cReadings in Japanese Art after 1945,\u201d in Japanese Art after 1945: Scream against the Sky<\/em> (New York: Abrams, 1994), 380. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  20. See Satani Gallery, 102. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  21. Toita Yasuji, \u201cKakezan no omoshirosa\u201d [The fun in multiplication ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  22. Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Chapter 8: The Administration of Scientific and Cultural Affairs, Section 2, The Protection of Culture and the Administration of Cultural Affairs, Subsection 4, The Protection of Cultural Properties, available in Japanese at www.mext.go.jp\/hakusyo\/book\/hpbz198103\/hpbz1981032215.html. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  23. Honda Yasuji and Ishizawa Masao, eds., \u201cMukei bunkazai hogo no gaiy\u014d\u201d [Summary of measures to protect the intangible cultural properties ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  24. Ibid., 97. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  25. Takechi Tetsuji, \u201cJo\u201d [Foreword ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  26. Kanze Hisao, \u201cKorekara no n\u014d\u201d [Noh of the future ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  27. See Kanze Hisao, \u201cGenzai no n\u014d to Zeami no n\u014d\u201d [Today\u2019s Noh and Zeami\u2019s Noh ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  28. The veneration with which the old formulas were maintained, in fact, resembles a religious fervor. Headmasters of Noh schools even held the right to excommunicate any disciples who disrespected the principal traditions of their schools by experimenting with new ideas. When Takechi directed another operatic work, N\u014d-style Y\u016bzuru <\/em>(N\u014d-style Night Heron), in 1954 with Kanze as one of the performers, the Association for Noh and Noh Music opposed the Noh actor\u2019s involvement in the production. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  29. That these authorities in their devotion to the preservation of tradition held nearly tyrannical powers was a frequent topic of criticism among more liberally minded individuals, such as Kanze and Takechi. The journal Kagaribi <\/em>(Bonfire), first published in April 1949 by a group of liberal actors including Kanze Hisao and Kanze Shizuo, among others, and the musical drama critic Yokomichi Mario, published critical debates on the system of iemoto<\/em> and on the generally bigoted purism of the field. For more on contemporary Noh theater, see Yokomichi Mario, Nishino Haruo, and Hata Hisashi, eds., N\u014d no sakusha to sakuhin<\/em> [Noh playwrights and their works ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  30. The format of circular theater, or enkei gekij\u014d<\/em>, which required no proscenium arch (gakubuchi butai<\/em>), was frequently employed, for instance, by the theater group of Waseda University because the common lack of theater facilities in the early postwar years necessitated a makeshift stage environment. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  31. Enkei geikij\u014d keishiki ni yoru s\u014dsakugeki no y\u016bbe<\/em>, n.p. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  32. See \u014czawa Yoshio, \u201cShingeki\u2019s Restless Century,\u201d UNESCO Courier<\/em> 50, no. 11 (November 1997): 19. The introduction in Japan of plays by Henrik Ibsen, such as John Gabriel Borkman<\/em> (premiered in 1909) and A Doll\u2019s House<\/em> (1911), marked the beginning of the modern theater movement (shingeki und\u014d<\/em>). Shingeki <\/em>not only popularized theater but also opened the field for female actors, who had been banned from the traditional stages of Kabuki and Noh. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  33. The sections quoted here are from Akiyama Kuniharu\u2019s fragmentary Japanese translation of Giraud\u2019s Pierrot Lunaire<\/em> in Bijutsu hihy\u014d<\/em> 49 (January 1956): 6 and 8. For these two stanzas, entitled \u201cMoondrunk\u201d and \u201cNight,\u201d respectively, I referred to Cecil Gray\u2019s translation in the notes with a CD, Arnold Schoenberg, Pierrot Lunaire<\/em>, op. 21 (Koch International, CD 310 117 H1), n.p. The rest of the stanza \u201cNight\u201d continues as: \u201cAnd from heaven earthward bound \/ Downward sink with somber pinions \/ Unperceived, great hordes of monsters \/ On the hearts and souls of mankind . . . \/ Heavy, gloomy giant black moths.\u201d ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  34. See Yamaguchi Katsuhiro, \u201c\u2018Tsuki ni tsukareta piero\u2019 j\u014den o megutte\u201d [On the performance of Pierrot Lunaire<\/em> ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  35. Takechi Tetsuji, \u201cEnkei gekij\u014d no kokoromi\u201d [Experiments in a theater-in-the-round ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  36. Takechi Tetsuji, Watashi no engeki rons\u014d <\/em>[My discussions about drama ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  37. Nishiyama Matsunosuke, \u201cSengo dent\u014dron o furikaette\u201d [Reviewing the postwar theory of tradition ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  38. Kawatake quoted in Hikaku gein\u014d ron: nihon to sekai no gein\u014d <\/em>[A comparative study on arts: Arts of Japan and the world ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  39. See Senda Akihiko, Performing Arts Now in Japan: Trends in Contemporary Japanese Theatre<\/em> (Tokyo: Japan Foundation, 1994). ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  40. Takechi, Teihon, Takechi kabuki<\/em> 207. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By Miwako Tezuka<\/p>\n

    During the 1950s, after the devastating defeat in World War II, Japan exerted itself to regain political and economic confidence. Arts and culture played a key role in the country\u2019s recovery: the image of a belligerent nation in the recent past needed to be replaced by a new impression of Japan as a peaceful nation of culture; the people were yearning for a return of their cultural life, or simply, entertainments; and, released from the straitjacket that suppressed free expression, artists quickly resumed their creative activities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":2354,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"kia_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[74,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive","category-from-art-journal",""],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/artjournal.collegeart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/artjournal.collegeart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/artjournal.collegeart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/artjournal.collegeart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/artjournal.collegeart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/artjournal.collegeart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/artjournal.collegeart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/artjournal.collegeart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/artjournal.collegeart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/artjournal.collegeart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}