Japanese Idea of a Theatre

JAPANESE IDEA OF A THEATRE TODAY'S JAPAN HAS TWO TYPES OF DRAMA: the classical and the "new." The classical theatre includes the No, the Comic Interlude (no kyogen), the Puppet Theatre (joruri) and the Kabuki. The "new" theatre was created in the early twentieth century on the model of modem Western drama and has developed under the influence of Ibsen, Maeterlinck, Chekhov and Strindberg. Naturally the Japanese idea of a theatre is far more manifest in the former type, although it has entered into the latter, too, with some subtle modifications. In the following pages I shall try to outline this Japanese concept of a theatre as it emerges from the remarks of some prominent actors and playwrights in the past. It will center upon five major issues of dramatic art: 1) life versus drama, 2) affective response of the drama, 3) two major dramatic forms-tragedy and comedy, 4) internal structure of the drama, and 5) the use of drama. What is the relationship between life and drama? The professionals of classical Japanese theatre unanimously answer that drama "imitates" life. "Imitation is the essence of our art," says Zeami (1363-1443), the foremost actor and playwright in the formative years of the No. "Generally speaking," he adds, "the aim is to imitate all objects as they are, whatever they may be." okura Toraaki (1597-1662) says the same thing about the Comic Interlude of which he was a master actor: "More than anything else," he affirms, "the Comic Interlude is an art of imitation." "All puppet plays," observes Chikamatsu (1652-1724), a most successful playwright in the prime days of the Puppet Stage, "present facts as they are." "A Kabuki actor," remarks Sakata Tojiiro (1647-1709), himself an expert Kabuki actor, "should singlemindedly try to copy real life in performing whatever role he is cast in." Characters in the play are imitations of real people, and aCtors on the stage duplicate the speech and deportment of men and women in real life. An actor performing a courtier's role should faithfully copy the ways in which a real courtier speaks and behaves; an actor impersonating a drunkard should carefully follow the ways of real drunkards. There are a number of anecdotes describing how hard some Japanese actors tried to do this. Tojiiro, once cast in an adulterer's role, schemed to become an adulterer in his real life so that he could understand the psychology of illicit relationship. Another Kabuki actor of his time tricked his fellow actors into getting drunk in his dressing room, thereby teaching them how to perform a similar scene in a play. 348 1967 JAPANESE IDEA OF A THEATRE 349 One factor essential to "imitation" in drama is the dissolution of the personal self on the actor's or playwright's part. A dramatic character must be an integrated, self-contained whole. The Japanese are especially insistent on the actor's responsibility to dissolve his ego and become at one with the object of his imitation. "Imitation" approaches "identification" in its ultimate form. "In the art of imitation ," Zeami says, for instance, "there is a realm called 'non-imitation .' If the actor pursues the art to the ultimate and truly grows into the object, he will not be aware of his act of imitation." Toraaki arrives at a similar conclusion: "An actor expert in the Comic Interlude enters into the object smoothly and without effort." Toraaki has also composed a didactic poem on this for the benefit of beginning actors: Let your soul be As shapeless as water. Whether round Or square, leave to your container The forming of its shape. In the Kabuki there are some examples in which an actor carried his dramatic "container" even into his private life. One eighteenthcentury actor, noted for his skill to impersonate a woman (as classical Japanese theatre permitted no woman to perform on the stage), once when he was offered a man's dish at dinner, declined to eat it. T6jur6 is said to have treated Kabuki female impersonators as real women in everyday life. It is, of course, no easy task for anyone to completely identify himself with something which he is not...