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Reviewed by:
  • A Beggar’s Art: Scripting Modernity in Japanese Drama, 1900–1930. by M. Cody Poulton
  • Tadashi Uchino (bio)
A Beggar’s Art: Scripting Modernity in Japanese Drama, 1900–1930. By M. Cody Poulton. University of Hawai‘i Press, Honolulu, 2010. xv, 280 pages. $56.00, cloth; $29.00, paper.

Above all else, the publication of this fine volume deserves celebration, for it considers the rarely discussed, whether in English or in Japanese, history [End Page 414] of the development of Japanese dramatic literature at the beginning of the twentieth century. The scarcity of previous interest in the topic may have been due to the lack of scholars theoretically equipped to weave a convincing critical narrative and to draw a scholarly picture of the very complex yet exciting era of modernizing Japan. On the Japanese side, academic interest has long focused on the inventive creation of modern literature, especially the form of the novel. In the English-language Japan studies scholarly circle, almost the same seems to have been true. The era considered in this book has been the object of sociological and/or cultural historical inquiries but nothing else. Finally, Cody Poulton, equipped with theoretical and linguistic competency in both theatrical and literary knowledge, brings us this volume of adventurous content. I cannot help but confess how intellectually thrilled I was to read his book; no prior writing on the topic in the Japanese language had aroused in me anything like the scholarly and critical interest this one did.

The main reason for my praise comes from the book’s careful construction. It is basically a collection of one-act plays, written between 1900 and 1930, never before translated into English. It would be unthinkable even for most Japanese theater professionals to publish such a collection now, as most of the plays were consigned to oblivion a long time ago. To read those charming yet not necessarily unforgettable plays requires a contemporary perspective. Thus, the author, with his thorough investigation of the period, puts forward a lengthy introduction in chapter 1, “Meiji Drama Theory before Ibsen,” and chapter 2, “The Rise of Modern Drama, 1909–1924,” before tackling the plays barehanded. After we have read the four one-act plays selected from this time period, Poulton gives us another introductory essay as chapter 3, “After the Quake,” before we are led into the multifaceted world of one-act plays written between 1924 and 1930.

The author not only provides a detailed history of modern theater in Japan but also presents a clear-cut critical narrative to familiarize readers with what we encounter in the actual plays in English translation. The narrative can be seen in the subtitle of this volume: Scripting Modernity. In other words, Poulton leads us to read each play as a site of “scripting modernity” rather than as an independent entity of literary or artistic value created by playwrights out of some void. We therefore go on to look for more of the inscribed and/or embodied testimonies of the time of modernizing Japan instead of more traditionally defined senses of originality, creativity, and/or the authorial styles of the particular writers.

The major issue of modernizing Japan, according to Poulton, can be summarized as various venues and channels of struggles over how best to negotiate between the West—however imaginary this was—and Japan. The Western project of enlightenment was of particular use for the Japanese state as it sought to “enlighten” the masses and, as the author crisply describes in chapter 1, theater as a public forum became one of the centers [End Page 415] of attention. It meant forcibly “reforming” kabuki from a residue of feudal Japan to considering it as a very popular form of entertainment for the urban middle class. This reformation continued for a while but never gave rise to a new theatrical form suited to the modernizing state.

More important, in the literary circle, the genbun itchi movement came to full bloom toward the end of the nineteenth century. Genbun itchi means the unification of the vernacular and literary. This movement had a tremendous impact on theater practice; writing novels in the vernacular is one thing and writing...

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