Abstract
After the Kingdom of the Ryukyus was annexed by Meiji Japan in 1879, a new trend in theatre flourished in Naha, especially around the pleasure quarter of Tsuji. However from the beginning of the new era, Okinawans had to assimilate and adjust to a completely different social system while still adhering to the old one. Because of that Okinawan performing artists went through a certain period of time in order to create their new form of theatre called Okinawa shibai. Initially, Okinawa shibai (commercial theatre) programmes were mainly kumiodori and the court dances. However, after absorbing quite new Japanese theatre such as soshi shibai and shinpa for over 10 years, around 1907 (Meiji 40), they began to look back on their own traditional theatre kumiodori again and rushed to perform this old style of theatre as if they tried to regain their identity from the past.
Those days, even if Okinawans were obsessed with becoming Japanese, transforming their language and style of living in the face of the oncoming wave of modernity, with its elements of a new culture and finance brought from mainland Japan, they were also searching for something new and very Okinawan in the performing arts.
What the Okinawan actors recreated in new forms of theatre was the Ryukyuan opera called “Ryukyu kageki” and Ryukyuan history plays called “Ryukyu shigeki” (which is part of “serifu geki”, literally means “a play performed in dialogue”). The former was opera or musical theatre sung in the Okinawan language, and the latter was a series of historical dialogues in the form of a play. To create this new Okinawan theatre, as previously mentioned, they absorbed Japanese theatre, such as kabuki, soshi shibai, and even the Japanese version of Shakespearean plays which were uniquely interpreted in the context of Japanese culture and performed in Japanese in Tokyo and Ōsaka. Okinawan commercial theatre actors dared to view modern Japanese theatre, also discovering a new influence: that of Westernization.
In this paper, though the influence from mainland Japan cannot be overlooked, I will focus on the genealogy of kumiodori in Ryukyuan opera (kageki) and Ryukyuan historical plays (shigeki) in Okinawa shibai in general and how those who created the new Okinawa shibai embedded/applied the style and image of kumiodori into the new forms. I will also introduce and discuss the details of the main characteristics of the Okinawan theatres included and how tradition was transmitted and recreated in contemporary forms.
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Notes
- 1.
The form is called kumiwudui in Okinawan, but when it was inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists in 2010, it was described as kumiodori, so I use Japanese name in this paper.
- 2.
The definition of Okinawa shibai (沖縄芝居) is that it is a drama in Okinawan dialect which has two forms such as dialect dialogue play and opera (or musical drama) since the modern period. It is defined by Akutagawa award-winning writer Oshiro Tatsuhiro on Okinawa Encyclopedia in 1983. Many historical plays (史劇) are created in Okinawa languages (Uchina-guchi) dialogue play in the beginning, and later Jidaimono (or Jidaigeki時代劇) are created including some adapted script from the popular stories. Kageki (歌劇) is also called Ryukyu kageki in which lyrics (spoken lines) are sung with the folk music and just dialogue part is made with improvisation. Unlike Western opera which is systematically organized with voice training and professional classic music which is accompanied with the stories and Takarazuka kagekidan (宝塚歌劇団、started in 1914) in which girls are trained in the special school to build up the qualities of performers and their genre of opera/musical repertoires are varied, Ryukyu kageki is a combined drama with singing, dances, and movement based on Okinawan languages. It embraces the very Okinawan emotional human relations, and songs are popular among commoners. It’s a kind of ethnic/indigenous popular performance first created in 1910. My definition of Okinawa shibai is introduced to the Dictionary of Okinawan Folklore (Tōkyo: Yoshikawa-kōbunkan in 2008). I intended that Okinawan dialect plays should be changed to just dialogue play since 2009; Ryukyu languages have been designated as endangered by UNESCO.
- 3.
In this article, Higa divides the period of Meiji Okinawa in three, i.e.:
-
(1)
Kumiodori period: 1881/1882–1894 (Meiji 14/15–27)
-
(2)
Absorbing/imitating the Japanese drama period: 1895–1908 (Meiji 28–41)
-
(3)
Opera (kageki) period: 1909–1912 (Meiji 42–45)
-
(1)
- 4.
Maeda Katsurō, Ryukyu-shibai Monogatari (A Story of Ryukyuan play).1981, 59–60.
- 5.
Ōhno Michio, Okinawa shibai to sono Shuhen ( Okinawan drama and its surroundings), 93.
- 6.
The author is Heshikiya Chōbin (1770–1734). This is the only love story kumiodori created in the era of the Ryukyu Kingdom. The influence of “Love Destined with Water” is so strong that we can clearly see the influence of this kumiodori in many Ryukyu opera’s love stories. Music, acting style including classical dancing, and some Ryu-ka (Okinawan poems with 8-8-8-6 syllables) are also taken into kageki.
- 7.
The history of kabuki began in 1603 when Izumo no Okuni, a miko of Izumo Taisha (a shrine maiden of Izumo Taisha shrine), began to perform a new style of dance drama in the dry riverside of Kyoto. A classical dance drama kabuki is known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its actors. Kabuki was inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists in 2005 (“Kabuki” In Wikipedia, Last modified 8 August 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabuki).
Shinpa is a form of theatre in Japan, usually featuring melodramatic stories, contrasted with the more kabuki style. The roots of shinpa can be traced to a form of agitation propaganda theatre (Sōshi-geki) in the 1880s promoted by Liberal Party members Sudōō Sadanori and kawakami Otojirō . Shinpa is characterized as a transitional movement, closely associated with the Meiji Restoration, whose primary rationale was the rejection of “old” values in favour of material that would appeal to a partially Westernized urban middle class which still maintained some traditional habits of thought. Some of the innovations associated with shinpa included shortened performance times, the occasional reintroduction of female performers to the stage, the use of contemporary patriotic events as subject matter, and the frequent adaptation of Western classics , such as the plays of Shakespeare, etc. (“Shinpa.” In Wikipedia, Last modified 6 August 2017. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinpa).
- 8.
Ōhno Michio did a great deal of research on Okinawan performing arts mainly through the Okinawan newspapers from 1893 to 1945 (Meiji 26 to Showa 20), and his sincerity is shown in his act that he donated his hard work’s result of the compile of the article related to Okinawan performing arts to the Okinawa prefectural library and Naha City Museum of History. He mentioned that the peak of absorbing Japanese theatre into Okinawa was 1906 (Meiji 39) at the panel session “Okinawa shibai as the world theatre” in the conference of Japanese Society for Theatre held at Kansai Gaidai University in 2003. He was invited as the commentator of the panel.
- 9.
This incident is introduced by Yano Teruo (1926–1999) in his book Okinawa Geino Shiwa (Okinawa: Yōju-sha, 1993, 241–242). However, Yano doesn’t identify the original source Majikina mentioned in the beginning. Majikina says it led to the reform of Okinawa shibai (Majikina 1987, 464).
- 10.
The Akutagawa Prize is a Japanese literary award presented semi-annually. It was established in 1935 by Kan Kikuchi, then editor of Bungeishunjū magazine (“Akutagawa Prize” In Wikipedia, Last modified 28November 2015. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akutagawa_Prize).
- 11.
Ōshiro mentions not only in his book Okinawa shibai no Miryoku (Okinawa: Okinawa taimusu, 1990) but also in several articles: i.e. the concept that the 1930s Okinawan performing arts was its golden period is commonly accepted.
- 12.
“The Gosamaru and Amawari Revolt.” Accessed 15 November 2015. http://rca.open.ed.jp/web_e/history/story/epoch2/toitu_12.html
- 13.
Dana mentioned in his keynote “About Amawari’s Revolt” held as a forum “Now, Amawari is fascinating!” in the brochure of the same title. Okinawa: Naha City Cultural Association, 2007, 10.
- 14.
“Omoro Sōshi.” In Wikipedia, Last modified 1 September 2017. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omoro_S%C5%8Dshi
- 15.
Suzuki mentioned in the forum “Now, Amawari is fascinating!” 2007, 12. https://blog.goo.ne.jp/nasaki78/e/3b09053c75fa765d91bad85e3d424b15
- 16.
Ibid., 12.
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YONAHA, S. (2019). From Traditional to Contemporary: Genealogy of Kumiodori in Modern Okinawan Theatre Called “Okinawa shibai”. In: Nagata, Y., Chaturvedi, R. (eds) Modernization of Asian Theatres. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6046-6_13
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