Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Contributors
- Contributors’ biographies
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Japanese terms
- List of abbreviations
- Timeline
- Editor's introduction
- I Traditional theatres
- Preface to Part I Japanese civilization arises
- II Modern theatres
- Preface to Part II
- 6 Birth of modern theatre: shimpa and shingeki
- Interlude Modern comedies and early musicals
- Interlude Takarazuka: all-girls’ revue and musicals
- 7 Rise of shingeki: Western-style theatre
- Interlude Manzai and Yoshimoto vaudeville comedy
- 8 Wartime colonial and traditional theatre
- Interlude Kami-shibai: picture-card storytelling
- 9 Maturing shingeki theatre
- Interlude Postwar musicals and commercial theatre
- 10 Sixties Theatre
- Interlude Butoh: dance of darkness and light
- 11 Contemporary theatre
- Interlude Tokyo: world theatre capital
- Interlude Charting Tokyo theatre today: 24 November 2012
- Interlude Modern theatre tomorrow: interview with Oriza Hirata
- III Arcs and patterns
- IV Theatre architecture
- Preface to Part IV Evolution of Japanese theatre architecture
- V Theatre criticism
- VI Intercultural influences
- Epilogue: Frozen words and mythology
- Further reading
- Index
- References
Interlude Tokyo: world theatre capital
from Preface to Part II
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2016
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Contributors
- Contributors’ biographies
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Japanese terms
- List of abbreviations
- Timeline
- Editor's introduction
- I Traditional theatres
- Preface to Part I Japanese civilization arises
- II Modern theatres
- Preface to Part II
- 6 Birth of modern theatre: shimpa and shingeki
- Interlude Modern comedies and early musicals
- Interlude Takarazuka: all-girls’ revue and musicals
- 7 Rise of shingeki: Western-style theatre
- Interlude Manzai and Yoshimoto vaudeville comedy
- 8 Wartime colonial and traditional theatre
- Interlude Kami-shibai: picture-card storytelling
- 9 Maturing shingeki theatre
- Interlude Postwar musicals and commercial theatre
- 10 Sixties Theatre
- Interlude Butoh: dance of darkness and light
- 11 Contemporary theatre
- Interlude Tokyo: world theatre capital
- Interlude Charting Tokyo theatre today: 24 November 2012
- Interlude Modern theatre tomorrow: interview with Oriza Hirata
- III Arcs and patterns
- IV Theatre architecture
- Preface to Part IV Evolution of Japanese theatre architecture
- V Theatre criticism
- VI Intercultural influences
- Epilogue: Frozen words and mythology
- Further reading
- Index
- References
Summary
London, New York, Paris, and Berlin are generally considered the great theatrical capitals in terms of history, diversity, scale, and quality. However, when the field of vision is expanded to the East, it is said that Tokyo has more plays in more genres spanning more centuries of tradition than arguably anywhere else in the world. To validate this hypothesis, a survey was conducted with actual documentation of performances occurring on a random day, 24 November 2012, a typical Saturday in the busy autumn culture season during a three-day Labor Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
Included in the survey were national, public, and private theatres, as well as theatre/dance festivals spread across the Tokyo metropolis. Also included were the theatres and festivals in the Greater Metropolitan area with a population of 35,000,000 people (13,000,000 in Tokyo itself), who could easily access in an hour from Tokyo on public transportation lines. We covered theatre performance, dance performances, operas, musicals, circus spectacles, traditional theatres (kabuki, noh, kyogen), and storytelling (rakugo), but not music concerts and manzai comedy (Japanese vaudeville).
Performance information was gathered from the following sources:
• Theatre Guide, the monthly theatre listings (all performances)
• Pia cultural magazine's Data Analysis Department all performances)
• CoRich Butaigeijutsu! website (fringe and small venue performances)
• Real Tokyo website (interdisciplinary art performances)
• Shochiku official website (kabuki)
• Nōgaku Taimuzu monthly magazine, November 2012, listings (noh, kyogen)
• Nippon Engeki Kyōkai (Japanese Association of Theatre) Annual Report (primarily national and public theatre performances)
The productions were categorized according to:
• Venue type: national, public, or private
• Size: large (800 plus), medium (400 plus), or small (under 400)
• Genre: traditional or contemporary
• Subgenres: original plays, revivals, operas and musicals, dance, and other.
Traditional and folk festival performances, typically held annually at local shrines and temples, were not catalogued. We chose not to list, or could not gather information concerning, the myriad amateur, community, and closed performances known only by word-of-mouth or micro-promotions: flyers, posters, and personal websites. These hundreds of amateur shows, attended by eager, bouquet-bearing friends, families, and alumni, include high school and university club performances, amateur recitals in ballet and modern dance, and noh dance or nagauta singing.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- A History of Japanese Theatre , pp. 349 - 353Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2016