"The Real Japanese Theatre": The Perception of Japanese Theatre at the Beginning of the 20th Century in Czech Lands
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| Year of publication | 2015 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | In February 1902 the first Japanese theatre group performed within the area of today’s Czech republic. Kawakami Otojiro’s theatre company rose to fame as early as 1900 with its performance at the World Exhibition in Paris, France, and the performances of the principal’s wife Sada Yacco was not only greatly admired, but also became an important inspiration for the theatre avant-garde. In 1914, and possibly as early as 1908, the tour of Ota Hisa was rather famous for her relationship with Auguste Rodin before her dramatic art, and in October 1930 the Prague’s German theatre was visited by Tsutsui Tokujiro who performed so-called sword plays. In addition to these exceptional opportunities for a live contact with the Japanese theatre, there existed a certain image of it primarily through popular travel books, literary Japonism and popular lectures. Through its analysis, the author will try to reconstruct how the image of Japanese theatre was created and, by comparison with reviews of live performances, she will try to find out how authentic performances fit into this context. |