Staging Japan: The Takarazuka Revue and Cultural Nationalism in the 1950s–60s

Abstract

In the 1950s and 1960s, the modern Japanese state employed overseas cultural promotion as a way to maximise its interests and image not only in international contexts but also at home. By juxtaposing the Takarazuka Revue’s performances in the United States and Japan during the postwar period, this paper argues that the overseas promotion of this Japanese theatre troupe both depended upon and reinforced the Japanese populace’s nationalistic pride in its culture. The paper also addresses the ways in which the Japanese government used Takarazuka’s theatrical presentations as a means of pursuing its domestic and diplomatic agendas: improving Japan’s international position by proposing shared aspects of popular culture with the US and increasing its sense of nationalism by propagating cultural pride. In doing so, the paper explicates the ways in which Japanese popular cultural considerations interfaced with political concerns in the shaping of postwar Japan’s national identity.

Keywords:

• Japan
• Takarazuka Revue
• theatre
• performance
• national identity
• cultural nationalism
• postwar

Acknowledgments

I presented an earlier version of this paper at the 2011 AAS/ICAS Joint Conference in Hawaii and the 2012 AAS Conference in Toronto, Canada. I wish to thank the members of the panels, where I received valuable comments from the discussants, Noriko Aso and Mark Jones, as well as audience members, including Shunya Yoshimi and Andrew Gordon. I also wish to thank the journal’s reviewers, whose useful suggestions helped me to improve the manuscript.

Notes

1. Such agreements were made with France in October 1953, Italy in November 1954, West Germany in October 1957, the United Kingdom in July 1961, and the Soviet Union in January 1972. Japan promoted the exchange of books and films, as well as scholarly exchange, performances, exhibitions and recitals in those countries.

2. In his exploration of Japanese manga, Tsurumi Shunsuke made a tripartite division among the arts: “pure” arts both produced and appreciated by professionals, taishū arts produced by professionals and appreciated by amateurs, and the “boundary” arts in between (Kure, 1997, pp. 21–23).

3. See the letter sent from Yamaguchi Okikazu to Nicholas Goldschmidt, artistic director of the Vancouver Festival Society, on 14 January 1958.

4. See the ‘Application for License on Payment to Foreign Country for Travelling Abroad’ [Application date unidentified].

5. See the letter sent from the Japanese consul general in Chicago to Kishi on 23 September 1959.

6. See the letter sent from Umeda Ken’ichi, the chairperson of Takarazuka’s board of directors, to Takahashi Akira, counsellor of the Bureau of Information and Culture of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on 14 May 1959.

7. See the letter sent from Asakai Kōichirō, the Japanese ambassador in Washington, to Fujiyama on 7 July 1959.

8. See the letter sent from the Japanese consul general in Seattle to Fujiyama on 25 August 1959.

9. See the letter sent from Tanaka Mitsuo, the Japanese consul general in New York, to Fujiyama on 8 October 1959.

10. See the letter sent from the Japanese consul general in San Francisco to Fujiyama on 20 November 1959.