This paper examines some of the aspects of women in Japanese theater.
IIntroduction
The history of women in Japanese theater is the history of the social changes that swept the country in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. Actresses at this time progressed from a point where they were not allowed to perform at all to the point where they were celebrated artists.
Although it would be intriguing to tackle women’s history in the theater across the entire period, the source book, Acting Like a Woman in Modern Japan, is so packed with information on so many aspects of women in the theater that the topic is overbroad. This paper therefore will discuss only selected topics: the role of men in the theater in the absence of women; the advent of actresses into the profession, and what it was like for the first women who broke into acting. With these basic topics as support, we’ll move to the main point: the way in which revealing the physical body on stage, notably in Salome, came to finally define women in the theater in terms of their physicality, and whether this is a breakthrough or further restriction. The paper also defines the vocabulary common to the theater as necessary.
IITheater without Women
The idea that actresses are little better than common prostitutes is common in all cultures that have a theatrical tradition, and in Japan at least, it has some basis in fact. Some prostitutes used their stage appearances to “advertise” themselves in sensational dances that resulted in riots and disorder. Because of this, women were completely banned from appearing on the stage in Japan “from 1629 to 1891. Initially they were replaced by the wakashu, akin to the boy-actors in English theater of the Elizabethan period.” (Kano, p. 5).
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Unfortunately, it soon became evident that the wakashu incited as man riots as the women did, and they were banned as well. That left only adult males available to act, so they took on all roles, including female roles as well.
“Applying thick white powder and rouge to their faces, donning elaborate costumes and heavy wigs, forcing their shoulders back and walking with bent knees, these actors, called onnagata, or oyama, cultivated a style of acting that represented idealized femininity by concealing one set of somatic [bodily] signs and inscribing another. So highly valued was their portrayal of femininity that women from the pleasure quarters began to imitate them.” (Kano, p. 5).
This is a strange and rather disturbing idea: that men should be thought to embody the height of femininity when in fact they were a grotesque parody of it. Femininity thus became a sort of “code” that circulated from the theater to the prostitutes and back again; the onnagata were available as sexual partners for the male patrons in much the same way the women had been before they were banned from the stage. However, “the practice of onnagata eventually led to the development of a stylized art and made idealized femininity something that was represented by men.” (Kano, p. 5).
This seems extremely strange, except that Kano believes that it may be possible that at this time (around the 1830’s) homosexuality rather than heterosexuality was the normative form in Japanese culture. The idea of heterosexuality as the “correct” and “normal” may not necessarily have been considered until the Japanese were exposed to Western culture and beliefs.
IIIWomen Enter the Theater
By the late 1800’s, when Western influence was spreading through the country, attitudes began to change towards the onnagata and towards the idea of having women in the theater. Much of Kano’s book is devoted to delineating the careers of two of the most influential actresses in Japanese theater, Kawakami Sadayakko and Matsui Sumako. Although we’re not going to do more than touch on them, they are important for what they represent: actresses trained purely in the art of acting. “During a time when the public regarded women’s performance as synonymous with sexual entertainment, these women trained their bodies and minds in order to enter a profession that consisted of nonsexual performance.” (Kano, p. 7).
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Actresses occupied a place in society that was ambiguous, and they faced a difficult “balancing act,” because of the way in which Japanese society was structured:
“A geisha is considered better than a prostitute (shōfu) because she presumably sells her performance rather than her body, but she is not considered a full fledged artist (geijutsuka) because presumably her body is on sale to select customers. Thus a geisha needs to constantly distinguish herself from a prostitute while at the same time maintaining a pose of sexual availability not ostensibly required of an artist. An actress (joyū) is often seen as not much different from a geisha and is in direct competition with actors who impersonate female roles (onnagata).
Thus an actress needs to distinguish herself from a geisha by emphasizing her art over their sexual appeal while at the same time proving herself superior to the onnagata by emphasizing her natural sex over his artifice.” (Kano, pp. 42-43).
In other words, the actress must be sexual and asexual at the same time. That is, she must distinguish herself from geisha and prostitutes by exhibiting her skill at acting; and yet while she acts, she must also be seen to be more feminine than the onnagata. The rise of the female actress in Japan resulted in the marginalization of the onnagata, and it was both “a liberating and repressive phenomenon.” (Kano, p. 8).
We’ll explore what this means in the final section, but now I’d like to turn to further definitions and how they tend to define the actress in the Japanese theater.
IVDefining the Roles of Women
Even today feminists complain, and rightly, I think, that society has clearly defined roles that it feels women should play. First and foremost is the role of “wife and mother.” Despite the fact that economic conditions make it necessary for most women to work, there is still something of a backlash against it; a lingering idea that a woman who works is somehow betraying her deeper purpose, which is to create and nurture life. This mythology hangs on, despite the fact that many women have no maternal instinct, don’t want children, and may choose not to marry.
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In the theater, the stereotypes of women, as Good Wife, Wise Mother, New Woman and femme fatale reinforce the same sort of “pigeonholing” in real life. That is, people often expect that women will fit into one of the types they see in the theater, and they expect her to do so. This of course robs the woman of individuality and choice and remains a problem for most women who wish to enter nontraditional careers, or indeed violate any social “norms.”
Within Japanese theater, the female stereotypes are what you would expect from the names. The Good Wife and Wise Mother are usually considered together, because their function is the same: to be part of a family unit. In both cases, whether as wife or mother, the woman is an adjunct to a man: her husband; or an example for her children. She is never seen as an individual, but is defined only in her relationship to her family. This is a “position … that regards women as complementary to men and ultimately incomplete without men.” (Kano, p. 41).
The “New Woman” appeared in the 1890’s, but truly came of age in Europe at the end of the First World War. She is “young, middle class, single, well-educated and financially independent, working outside the home to earn her living.” (Kano, pp. 124-125).
The New Woman smokes and drinks, and demands equality with men. Women who identified with the New Woman, and who also were interested in the theater, faced a dilemma, because success in the theater for women was “predicated on their sexual attractiveness.” (Kano, p. 125).
Thus, they were forced to use their sensuality in order to succeed in their chosen career, which immediately placed them back in a subservient role, dependent not upon intelligence and talent, but upon looks, for success.
“New Women are considered to have challenged the conventional definition of womanhood, that of the “good wife, wise mother.” New Women were critical of marriage as an institution and abhorred the idea that they should sacrifice themselves for husband, children and the husband’s parents. The paradox, however, is that the New Woman also reinforced the prevailing definition of womanhood as biological essence, rooted in the woman’s body.” (Kano, p. 128).
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The Femme Fatale is a type that is familiar to us from countless film noir thrillers: she is the irresistible temptress who lures men—often innocent men—to their doom. Kano believes that the Femme Fatale has come into being as a result of the male being subsumed by modern culture. (I’m sorry to put in yet another quote, but I think it’s vital to our understanding of this persona):
“As the male’s body is alienated by and submitted to industrialization and urbanization, the woman comes to inhere even more closely to the body in a compensatory gesture. The femme fatale is a figure embodying the fears and anxieties prompted by this shift in the understanding of sexual difference, in which the woman is made to stand for the body in opposition o the man, who is standing for the mind.” (Kano, p. 183).
The femme fatale can be seen as an object of pity, because “her power is not based on conscious will… she is the carrier of power.” (Kano, p. 183).
It’s as if she has no control over her sensuality or the way in which her sensuality impacts others, and thus she is often caught up in the whirlwind she creates, and destroyed along with everyone else. The Femme Fatale is a good place to start as we consider our final section, the way in which feminine nudity (or almost nudity) impacted Japanese theater, and what it meant for the actresses of the time.
VRevealing the Real Body
The debate over revealing the body of the actress on stage centered on the production of Oscar Wilde’s Salomé, which appeared in Japan in 1914. There were two versions of the play in performance at the same time, one starring Kawakami Sadayakko, the other with Matsui Sumako, the two ladies who embody the transition in Japanese theater.
The play, as everyone probably knows, retells the Biblical tale of Salomé, King Herod’s stepdaughter. She falls in love with John the Baptist, who spurns her affections. She seeks revenge, and goads King Herod into granting her wish: that she be given the Baptist’s head on a platter. In order to wheedle Herod into giving her what she wants, she performs the seductive Dance of the Seven Veils before the King. Besotted, he agrees to her bizarre request and the Baptist is killed, and his head is brought to the girl. She kisses and caresses the severed head, actions that fill Herod with such horror that he orders her executed as well.
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This retelling will point up some of the problems with staging the production with onnagata, for instance, though such a thing was not seriously contemplated. “… in Japan … there is no question that Salomé was a role whose performance was inconceivable for a male performer of female roles.” (Kano, p. 220).
What is needed to make the play work is a young and sensual woman who is believable as a seductress, one who seeks the love of one man and, when that fails, is able to tease a second into committing an act of murder. In addition, the dance requires that the actress appear in very skimpy clothing.
It is in fact the Dance of the Seven Veils that is the most important scene in the play: “The whole point of the scene, and hence of the play, is to strip down the woman to her bare body, or as close to it as the censors allow.” (Kano, p. 221).
But now we come to the most difficult question of all. Does allowing the woman to appear nude, or nearly nude, represent a step forward for actresses, or is it regressive, a step backward, to the status of objects for men to lust after—to the status of the geisha and prostitutes from whom they fought to distinguish themselves?
The two major productions of Salomé were wildly popular, as were several other versions of the show, including a spoof. It soon became a benchmark for actresses who, by showing off their bodies, proved that they were better than onnagata at playing women. But the victory, and the recognition that women had a place in the theater, was a two-edged sword, for what these actresses had done was to use their bodies and sexuality to win their place on the stage. Although they were undoubtedly talented, Kano says that in an era when female nudity was prohibited, people went to the theater to gawk, and such performances as the Dance of the Seven Veils “… confirmed the definition of womanhood as an essence naturally grounded in a woman’s body, a definition that would also justify the reduction of woman to nothing but her body.” (Kano, p. 219).
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So, in spite of having won the right to appear on stage, the Japanese actresses also found themselves in the same dilemma as women around the world: they were now defined by their attractiveness, not necessarily their talent.
VIConclusion
Despite the fact that the conclusion above is somewhat disheartening, Kano sees a deeper meaning in it than more of the eternal struggle to be defined the same way men are: by deeds, not by looks. Kano suggests that the women who appeared on the stage were, in a profound sense, free. They moved differently when they wasn’t hampered by wearing a confining kimono, and in so doing, found a greater range of movement, more mobility, and increased power. These actresses insisted on their natural femininity and in doing so differentiated themselves from the geisha and onnagata. They freed themselves from the stereotypical roles of good wife and wise mother, and wore the “New Woman” label with pride. “And most paradoxically, they embodied the essentialist and expressive definition of gender and, by doing so, performed a new understanding of what it means to act like a woman in modern Japan.” (Kano, p. 230).
VIIReference
Kano, Ayako. Acting Like a Woman in Modern Japan. New York: PALGRAVE, 2001.