Tsutsui Tokujirō (1881-1953) was a Japanese performer born in
Osaka, Japan.
Career
Tokujirō began his performance career at 19, performing in a ''
shinpa
(also rendered ''shimpa'') is a form of theater in Japan, usually featuring melodramatic stories, contrasted with the more traditional ''kabuki'' style. It later spread to cinema.
Art form
The roots of ''Shinpa'' can be traced to a form of agi ...
'' troupe led by
Fukui Mohei In 1920 he joined a group of actors who were not satisfied with the work of
Sawada Shōjirō (沢田正二郎), the artistic director of
Shinkokugeki (New National Theatre 新国劇).
Together they formed a new troupe, which toured the
Kansai
The or the , lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshu, Honshū. The region includes the Prefectures of Japan, prefectures of Nara Prefecture, Nara, Wakayama Prefecture, Wakayama, Kyoto Prefecture, Kyoto, Osaka Prefectur ...
region, though they also had several shows in
Asakusa.
As part of the troupe he 'established a solid reputation in ''
kengeki'' 剣劇 swordplay dramas.'
Western tour (1930-31)
The Tsutsui Troupe was one of the first groups to bring traditional Japanese performance to the United States and Europe.
His troupe performed in twenty-two countries,
with attendees including seminal directors such as
Bertolt Brecht
Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...
,
Jacques Copeau
Jacques Copeau (; 4 February 1879 – 20 October 1949) was a French theatre director, producer, actor, and dramatist. Before he founded the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier in Paris, he wrote theatre reviews for several Parisian journals, work ...
,
Charles Dullin,
and
Vsevolod Meyerhold.
They had a repertoire of sixteen plays that were based on
Kabuki plays 'in a mélange of styles with an emphasis on swordplay to appeal to audiences.'
[Rodman, Tara (2017) ''Altered Belonging: The Transnational Modern Dance of Itō Michio.'' (PhD Dissertation, Northwestern University). Available athttps://arch.library.northwestern.edu/concern/generic_works/c821gj87v Accessed 25 July 2020.]:154, n.192 Four of the plays were presented only for Japanese residents in California, and were absent from the rest of the tour.
Tsutsui emphasised that he 'wanted to put the Western audience in the presence of the true Japanese theatre, such as the Japanese conceive it'.
Contemporary critics, however, questioned this authenticity, noting the number of changes Tsutsui made to traditional Japanese theatre.
These included the shortened length of the plays (which had to be under two hours),
the use of painted scenery and 'enormous stage settings' in a Western style, 'the troupe's replacement of ''
onnagata''
', roles traditionally played by male transvestites, with actresses.
Selected Performance Locations Western Tour
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tokujiro, Tsutsui
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
Japanese culture
Performing arts in Japan
*
1881 births
1953 deaths