Sada Yacco and Kawakami: Performers of Japonisme

Sada Yacco and Kawakami: Performers of Japonisme YOKO CHIBA The successful premiere of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado on 14 March 1885 at the Savoy in London was symbolic of the cultural milieu at that time in two ways: it marked a culmination ofJapollisme, the influence of Japanese art which had been sweeping over Western countries from the mid-186os onwards, and the beginning of a new trend in the theatre arts reflecting this phenomenon. The dramatic expression of Japonisme was an overwhelmingly comical one, satirizing and travestying the "Japan craze." The Mikado set its tone. Peopled by quaintly named characters in an imaginary Japan, The Mikado is a satire on the Japollisme of Victorian society imbued with imported fans, colour prints, screens, etc., rather than on Japan itself. Nevertheless, employing Japanese costumes and sets that evoked Japan. its enonnous success of 672 performances shows the extent of this vogue - which continued well over the next quarter of a century in England and America, as well as elsewhere, bringing many other commercially successful comic operettas and musicals such as The Geisha (1896). The scene was thus set for the entrance of the "Stage Japanese." It was against this background that Sada Yacco (1872-1946), the actress-dancer, made her debut, together with her husband, Otojiro Kawakami (1864- 1911), and his troupe. A former geisha herself, of top class, she had been thoroughly trained in "Japanese Dance" (Nihon Buyo) since childhood. Not allowed to perform on the all-male stage in her own country, Sada Yacco emerged as an actress in 1899 in America where she fust performed on the public stage in San Francisco. Successful in Boston and New York, she moved on to the still brighter stages at Buckingham Palace and at the Paris Universal Exhibition in the summer of 1900. Her audiences included the Prince of Wales, the French and American Presidents, the Russian Emperor and a number of other dignitaries and leading artists.' Modem Drama, 35 (1992) 35 YOKO CHIBA Figure I. The entrance to the Loie Fuller Theatre at the Paris Universal Exhibition, 1900. Sada Yacco and Kawakami 37 At Loie Fuller's Theatre set up for the Paris Exhibition (Figure I), Sada Yacco appeared like a comet. One French scholar described her art as the greatest of all the achievements at the 1900 Exhibition, just as the Eiffel Tower was a landmark of the 1889 Exhibition.' Such was Sada Yacco's popularity and reputation that the press gave the impression she was the only Japanese player performing there. In fact, there were thirteen actors under Kawakami, some of them impersonating women; Sada Yacco was the only woman in the troupe. Her dancing fascinated Western audiences with its exotic and mysterious beauty, so different from their idea of dance. In Paris and London photographs of her dancing figure appeared; one of them decorated, in colour, the large cover page of Le ThNirre of October 1900. A frequent guest at fashionable women's club parties, Sada Yacco became a star. Parisian enthusiasm for her elegant kimono created a specific "Yacca" fashion: a Westernized Japanese dress with characteristic rich diagonal pattern at the hem (Figure 2).' Sada Yacca was hailed as Art Nouveau incarnate. Among those who praised her art were distinguished artists, writers and critics of the time: Edgar Degas, Paul Klee, Claude Debussy, Paul Valery, Andre Gide, Jules Lemaitre, Constantin Stanislavsky, Hugo von Hofmannsthai , George Fuchs, Hermann Bahr, and Isadora Duncan, to name a few' Picasso, at the age of nineteen, made a dessill of her dancing figu·re. Rodin asked her to pose for him, which she declined to do' Judith Gautier was so enthused by her performance that she translated, with the assistance of a Japanese diplomat, the script of the most successful play in the troupe's repertory, The Geisha alld the Kllight. This French version was performed by a French company at Le Theatre des Mathurins in 1901, and later published.' Among the British, William Archer, Osman Edwards,' Arthur Symons and A, B. Walkley wrote reviews and commentaries on the Kawakami perfonnances , reflecting the influence of !apollisme. Max Beerbohm was an enthusiastic supporter of Sada Yacco, while Charles Ricketts was so...