Theatricality in Japan

Theatricality in Japan MASAO YAMAGUCHI Translated by E.A. Walker Space, time and character, all heavy with consequence, come immediately to mind when one thinks of theatricality in the particular context of theatre in Japan. In this paper, J shall discuss briefly the way in which these three elements are articulated. I In Japan, theatre is performed in places closely bound up with the sense of danger we feel whenever we are confronted by a sense of our own destruction: for example, in a cemetery, at the frontier between two villages, at the line of demarcation between two kinds of space (such as mountain and plain, water's edge, and all those places where legend tells us many people were killed in some tragic circumstance). In these places the local spirits (genii locI) are said to reside. Certain particularly sensitive individuals may be affected by the spirits of such places and partially lose consciousness. They communicate with the spirit and are so possessed by it that they speak its words or behave like the spirit itself. Although it is the topography of the place (tapas) or a legend which recounts some extraordinary story, on each occasion the sensitive individual (the medium) confronts his unconscious and the whole ineffable universe which seems to come from the beyond through this unconscious_ Theatre allows the integration ofthese elements which constitute the place of danger and possesses a number ofparticular characteristics which distinguish it from ordinary places: the theatre is usually located at a boundary or on a shore; it is marked by flags; it has a curtain which divides off the different interior spaces; the stage is linked to the hidden space off-stage which is thought of as a womb, a place of transformation. In this space events are apparently governed by the laws of chance. Theatricality is thus a way ofconfronting the hazards ofthe human condition: Theatricality in Japan '4' the day-to-day personality is destroyed so that existence may be expanded in a wider universe which permits us to re-establish our personality. Theatricality plunges us into the flow of experience and allows us to escape from·everyday life. For this reason theatricality is essential to every culture, for through it each of us intensifies experience. 2 Theatricality is also expressed in the passage of time. Like the surrounding space which is heavy with consequence and energy, the passage of time carries profound significance. In Japan, the appearance of awesome phantasms is feared at midnight, for at that hour there is a period oftransition in the middle of the night, a kind of void which is favourable to the appearance of beings ordinarily banished from daily life. There is a contrary time, daybreak, when these phantasms disappear. In addition, it is said that the phantasms which embody the spirits of the dead appear during the summer months at a particular season called obon, between spring and summer. This is the time when the spirits of ancestors return to this world, a hiatus when spirits which are normally banished may become manifest. This period lends itself to a certain kind of theatricality, and so plays about ghosts are often performed during this season. 3 Finally, there are certain persons who can create transitional states between different states of consciousness. These individuals have the ability to create theatricality in response to the many signs which express intensity as a special place (topos); they do so with song, ritual gesture and music. In some societies such persons are called shamans. Before the emergence of professional actors, these people lent physical presence to beings who seemed to dwell beyond the stage. In earliest recorded history, they were divided into two opposite groups: one became the possessors ofauthority and power, and played the roles ofgods for the people; the other, who remained shamans, exercised the privileged function of divination. The latter were something like prototypes of theatre people. This development is attested by the single word asobu, indicating divine theatricality, which was applied to essentially opposite kinds of behaviour. Thus divinity on the one hand and divination on the other share the quality of theatricality which consists of leaving the sphere of daily reality...