A Palimpsest of Hamlets: The Power of Metatheatre to

Subvert Reality in Tsutsumi Harues Kanadehon Hamlet

Rachel Charlow Lenz

Seminar in Shakespeare
Professor Andrea Stevens
5/13/12

Introduction: Whats Past is Prologue

Luigi Pirandello wrote in Six Characters in Search of an Author that there is a certain
dramatic charactercharacters Lionel Abel would later dub metatheatricalwho acquires
such an independence, even from his own author, that the whole world can imagine him in
innumerable situations other than those the author thought to place him in.1 Such characters
cannot be contained in the works they first appeared in and have had to venture far from their
creators into other works by other authors.2 Shakespeares Hamlet is possessed of so strong a
dramatic imagination that he has traveled farther afield than any other of the bards creations.
Hamlet has played the muse to countless novelists and playwrights around the world, and has
proved particularly inspiring to modern dramatists in Japan.
Since Shakespeares work began trickling into Japan during the twilight years of the Tokugawa
shoguns (1603-1868), Japans literary and theatre worlds have been enraptured with Hamlet.
The first lines of Shakespeare ever rendered into Japanese were those of Polonius,3 and once
adaptations of Hamlet began to appear in literary magazines, novels, and various stage
productions they continued to gain momentum throughout the 20th century. In the Tokyo theatre
world, 1990 is sometimes teasingly called the Hamlet year for no fewer than fifteen new
productions were staged in Tokyo alone, including adaptations, different translations, and
performances by foreign acting companies.4 Of the myriad Japanese adaptations of Hamlets
story, Tsutsumi Harues Kanadehon Hamlet (1992), which dramatizes a fictional 1897
production of Hamlet at the famous Meiji (1868-1912) kabuki theatre, the Shintomi-za, by
renowned theatre reformer Morita Kanya, best illustrates the metatheatrical power of Hamlet and
its eponymous character to transgress the bounds of the original play and encroach on our
reality.5
1 Luigi Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of an Author, trans. Eric Bentley (New York:
Penguin, 1998)
2 Lionel Abel, Metatheatre: A New View of Dramatic Form (New York: Hill and Wang, 1963)
62.
3 Poloniuss famous advice from 1.3.appeared in 1870 in a translation of Samuel Smiles SelfHelp called Saigoku Risshi-hen. Murakami Takeshi, Shakespeare and Hamlet in Japan: A
Chronological Overview, Hamlet And Japan, ed. Ueno Yoshiko (New York: AMS, 1998) 245.
4 Murakami 299. Number does not include revivals.
5 Kanadehon Hamlet was first staged in 1992, with two subsequent productions in 1994 and
1997 respectively. When the 1997 production closed in Tokyo, the play made its American debut
at the La MaMa E.T.C. in New York. It was later performed in London in 2001. All productions
of Kanadehon Hamlet have been mounted by Kiyama Theatre Productions, led by Kiyama
Kiyoshi, who commissioned the play. They were directed by Sueki Toshifumi, a shingeki
(modern drama) director with a background in working with both shingeki and kabuki actors and
who had twice directed Hamlet (In 1987 and 1989) with a kabuki actor (Ichikawa Somegor VII)
in the title role.

Tsutsumi Harue, a graduate student of theatre history at the time the play was
commissioned, drew upon her interest in comparative theatre to write Kanadehon Hamlet. The
play is built on the premise that Kanadehon Chshingura, the most frequently produced play in
the kabuki repertoire (better known to American audiences as the story of the 47 ronin upon
which the Kurosawa film was based), and Shakespeares Hamlet could be performed by the same
troupe. Japanese and American critics who attended the play found it easy to dismiss the
intricate metatheatrical workings of Kanadehon Hamlet as a humorous intellectual exercise
designed to draw attention to the parallels between Hamlet and Chshingura and how Tsutsumi
uses them to contrast the theatrical traditions of Europe and Japan. Putting aside for the moment
the fact that many, if not most of the actor-characters assumptions about the differences between
Shakespeare and kabuki are erroneous, this facile reading of Kanadehon Hamlet ignores the
deeper ramifications of its intense layering of metaplays. As events transpire on and around the
Shintomi-zas stage, it rapidly becomes clear that despite the actors professed inability to
approach a play they presume alien to their own dramaturgy, they are in fact enacting Hamlet
even in those moments when they believe they have stepped back into their own skins. The
result is a metatheatrical palimpsest with Shakespeares Hamlet acting as the foundational layer,
the scriptio inferior: upon its base, the play inscribes four subsequent versions of Hamlet while
the characters divergent readings of the play provide annotations in its margins.
The first of the four scriptio superiors is Shakespeares Hamlet as performed by the
Shintomi-za troupe, and it is this version of the play that is most heavily annotated with their
interpretations. The remaining layers are the three levels at which Kanadehon Hamlet becomes
its own Hamlet, the result of the plays bleeding into the actor-characters reality. The second
scriptio superior finds the actors assuming the roles they play in Hamlet in the real world
when theyve supposedly stepped out of their parts and back into their own skins. As Hamlets
influence expands further from the stage a third version emerges, casting Morita Kanya, the
theater manager and producer, as a Claudius who murdered the old guard theatrical theatre
(Old Hamlet) to take up with western drama (Gertrude). This version is in turn superceded by
the final and most compelling script which portrays Morita Kanya not as the villainous Claudius,
but as Hamlet himselfthe true prince of the Meiji theatre world.
When Hamlet, a metatheatrical play featuring a character possessed of such presence and
dramatic imagination that he cannot be contained by it, is produced as the play-within-the-play
of a second work that is metatheatrical in turn, it has the same effect upon the actor-characters
reality as metaplays have on ours: That is to say Hamlets reality becomes more real than that
of the actors, and by plays end the two are indistinguishable. The resulting version of Morita
Kanyas life and death, inextricably intertwined with that of Hamlet and bound to the doom of an
ill-fated, fictional production of the play that bears his name, becomes more compelling, and
somehow truer, than historical reality, especially for an audience who would be less familiar with
the empirical facts of his life.6
Act 1: The Shintomizas Hamlet (Hamlet 2.0)
6 Japanese audiences would likely recognize Morita Kanyas name, but only those who study
theatre history would be familiar with his biography. To date the play has only been performed
for two English-speaking audiences, neither of which, it can be presumed, had any significant
knowledge of Japanese theatre history.

True to Abels conception of metatheatre, Kanadehon Hamlet concedes that all the worlds a
stage and lifes a dreambeginning with the playwrights dream of a Meiji kabuki company
capable of performing both Chshingura and Hamlet. But where Abel argues that Hamlet is a
contest between four metaphorical actors/playwrights (Hamlet, Claudius, the Ghost, and
Polonius), Kanadehon Hamlet literally depicts an entire company of actors, two directorproducers, and a theatre critic arguing over the interpretation and staging of the script. The
Shintomi-zas Hamlet highlights its metatheatricality and those aspects of the play that will, over
the course of rehearsal, seep into the actors real lives when they have ostensibly ceased to
perform. Kanadehon Hamlets structure renders a complete analysis of the Shintomi-zas
proposed production both impossible and moot. There is no way to know whether their version
of Hamlet is an abridgment of the Tsubouchi translation7 or whether it is to be performed in full,
nor can we know for certain whether the scenes we see out of order are intended to be performed
that way in the final staging or whether they are simply the result of a non-linear rehearsal.8 And
ultimately these questions, though intriguing, are extraneous. It is what we can seewhich
scenes are rehearsed, how those scenes are abridged, how they are interpretedthat composes
this first layer of the scriptio superior.
Six scenes from Hamlet are performed on the Shintomi-zas stage: 1.5, 1.2, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2, and 5.2.
No scene is played in its entirety or without abridgement. Significantly, of the six, the scene that
is presented with the most of its original text intact is 3.2, the play-within-the-play. Though
some excerpts of the characters dialogue are omitted, the mousetrap play is performed in full,
highlighting the idea that both Hamlet and Kanadehon Hamlet are ultimately about theatre, and
further complicating the layering of metaplays. The most significant aspect of 1.5 and 1.2 is that
they are played out of order to set the stage for the older actors to compare their roles in Hamlet
with the characters they play in Chshingura. Both 1.5 and 1.2 contain noteworthy omissions
the Ghosts lament for Gertrudes betrayal (1.5: 48-57) and Claudius exposition about the
exploits of Fortinbras and the imminent danger he poses to Denmark (1.2: 17-61). As with most
such omissions in the play, the actors dialogue between scene rehearsals serves to take the place
of the Hamlet lines theyve skipped and illuminates the troupes interpretation and the ways in
which life has come to imitate art.
Between the staging of 1.5 and 1.2, the old stagehand Tome explains why Takinoj, the
troupes lead onnagata9, has refused to take the role of Gertrude, expounding on the characters
7 Tsubouchi Shy was a professor of English literature at Waseda University and famous for
translating the complete works of Shakespeare into Japanese. Tsutsumi takes liberties with
history by claiming Miyauchi commissioned the translation of Hamlet for this production. His
first complete translation of Hamlet was in kabuki style and was published in 1909 (Murakami,
257).
8 As only 1.5 and 1.2 are performed out of order, it can be presumed that they are staged in this
way to support Tsutsumis desire to compare Hamlet and Chshingura: By beginning the play
with Hamlets encounter with his fathers ghost, Tsutsumi makes the parallel she and the actorcharacters draw between the ghosts injunction for revenge and Enya Hangens similar dying
command to his retainer Yuranosuke, more apparent.
9 Kabuki, like Elizabethan theatre is performed with all-male actors. Those specializing in
female-roles are called onnagata.

many failings on the grounds of chastity, fidelity to son and husband, and summarily stating that
Gertrude is a bitch.10 His exposition takes the place of the Ghosts lament in narrating
Gertrudes offensive behavior to the audience, and offers the first interpretation of her character.
When Gertrude is to be portrayed by Takinoj she is read as dishonorable, a woman with two
husbands who doesnt even plan her own suicide when she realizes she has colluded with her
brother in law against her husband and her son.11 The actors are unable to prevent themselves
from comparing her negatively to Lady Kaoyo, Takinojs character in Chushingura who was
likewise the wife of the victim, but who spurned the advances of the man who betrayed him and
later secretly aided the efforts to avenge his death.
When Morita suggests the role be taken over by Kak, a 70 year old onnagata eight years
Tokujirs (Claudius) senior who is used to performing the role of Okaya, an unrefined peasant
woman, aspiring director and western enthusiast Miyauchi objects most strenuously on the
grounds that Gertrude is young and attractive. Thats why Claudius murders his brother.12
Although it comes from the only member of the troupe who has seen Hamlet but not
Chshingura, this reading seems more indicative of Tsutsumis desire to conflate Hamlet with
Chshingura than the result of any suggestion by the original text.13 But when Kak assumes the
role, the reading changes from a Gertrude who is young and attractive, but cruel, to a Gertrude
who is Claudius older sister-in-law. She could be eight years older than he.14 This new
Gertrude may be older, but she is also more dignified, grander, a woman who alters with her very
presence the manner in which her motives, and those of Claudius, are perceived.
The argument over the interpretation of Gertrudes character is only the first of many
instances illustrating the troupes desire to equate or reject elements of the foreign Hamlet with
the familiar and beloved Chshingura. Although these discussions often turn up intriguing
comparisons between the two and open a window into the actors mindsetat those moments
when the actors are having the most difficulty understanding their characters they are told to
Think of Hamlet as a rewrite of Chshingura15more often than not they also expose the
10 Tsutsumi Harue, Kanadehon Hamlet: A Play by Tsutsumi Harue, trans. Faubion Bowers,
David W. Griffith, Hori Mariko and Tsutsumi Harue, Asian Theatre Journal, Vol. 15, No. 2
(Autumn, 1998): 197.
11 Tsutsumi, 197.
12 Tsutsumi, 199.
13 In Chshingura the villain, Moronao, was indeed driven to provoke rival samurai Lord Enya
Hangan into the action that resulted in his death because he was unsuccessfully attempting to
seduce Enyas wife, the previously discussed Lady Kaoyo. But in Hamlet, Claudius has any
number of motives for killing his brother and usurping his throne, and while lust for Gertrude
may be among them, lust for power and a desire to rule surely contributed both to his decision to
murder his brother and to marry his brothers queen, thereby securing a claim to the throne that is
presumably tentative while Hamlet yet lives.
14 Tsutsumi, 199.
15 Tsutsumi, 201.

degree to which the troupe has misinterpreted Shakespeare and his play. Some of these moments
are intended to provide much of the plays humor, such as when Tokujir (Claudius) and
Umematsu (Polonius), excited by Moritas explanation of the 3.1 soliloquy exclaim So the
Englishman Shakespeare after reading Chshingura wrote Hamlet? and confidently speculate
that Shakespeare could have read Japanese.16 But others reflect a fundamental misreading of the
play that is highlighted by an argument between Shich (Ophelia), Gennosuke (Horatio) and
Morita during the rehearsal of 1.2 when Shich defends the Hamlet production to Gennosuke by
declaring that if they continue to only act in plays of bloodshed and erotic love, actors will
always be outcasts and that it is their duty to perform more refined plays, more suitable to the
new era.17 The great irony of course is that Shakespeares plays, including Hamlet, were full of
bloodshed, erotic love, and were also viewed during his lifetime as crude popular
entertainment in a culture where actors were outcasts and theaters dens of iniquity just like
kabuki.
Other substitutions, like Moritas evasive explanation of Horitani, a rival producer from
Osaka who plays the Fortinbras to Moritas Claudius and his Hamlet, that stands in for Claudius
missing speech from 1.2 about the danger Denmark faces from Norway, serve more as a means
of showing how Kandehon Hamlet as a wholethe marriage of rehearsed scenes and offstage
events and conversations that mirror those parts of the play that are omittedfollows the plot of
Hamlet. As the play proceeds, these substitutions grow in length and prominence, culminating in
the treatment of 3.1, when Shinz, the actor who plays Hamlet, fails to grasp his characters most
famous soliloquy and submits to direction from Morita Kanya, who is himself a Hamlet. Moritas
direction of Shinz takes the place of Hamlets speech to the players, which is severely abridged
in the rehearsal of 3.2. 3.1 and 3.2 provide the centerpiece not only of the Shintomi-zas
rehearsed production of Hamlet, but also of Kanadehon Hamlet itself.
The plays climax occurs during the rehearsal of the 3.2 mousetrap play. It is at this
point, when no fewer than four plays (Hamlet, The Murder of Gonzago, Chshingura, and
Kanadehon Hamlet, which is itself comprised of multiple Hamlets) appear onstage
simultaneously, that Hamlet has bled so much into the actors reality that the two realities
are collapsing into one another. When the nefarious Horitani makes his entrance immediately
following 3.2: 285, it is with a paraphrase of Guildenstern at 286 (May I have a word with you
instead of Good my lord vouchsafe me a word with you): His entrance slips seamlessly into
the scene and prompts Shinz to respond as Hamlet with Hamlets line Sir, a whole history
before he remembers that this is not intended to be part of the play.18 Moritas collapse during
the mousetrap play and Horitanis entrance are the prelude to 5.2, the final scene of Hamlet
which is performed not as part of the rehearsal, but as Morita Kanyas death, the conclusion of
Kanadehon Hamlet. It is the only scene of Hamlet that is performed spontaneously as a part of
the real-life happenings at the Shintomi-za, the point at which the actors reality and that of
Hamlet have at last completely dissolved into one another and become indistinguishable.
Act 2: The Mirror up to Nature (Hamlet 2.1)
16Tsutsumi, 217.
17 Tsutsumi, 205.
18 Tsutsumi, 224.

The interludes between rehearsed scenes expose not only the actors interpretation of the play,
but also the second layer of the scriptio superior in which the actors become the characters they
play. As the play progresses, Hamlet begins to overstep the bounds of its rehearsal, leading the
actors to extemporaneously spout Hamlet lines in their real-life conversations, as well as
causing them to take on characteristics and attitudes of the roles they play. The former occurs
most frequently in the older actors Tokujir, who portrays Claudius, Kak (Gertrude), and
Umematsu (Polonius), while the latter is best encapsulated in the actions of the young actors
Gennosuke (Horatio), Shich (Ophelia), and Shinz (Hamlet).
Ironically, the actor most reluctant to perform in a western play, Umematsu, who is to
play Polonius, is also one of the first to embody his character offstage. Umematsu initially
refuses to perform until the drama critic Kid, who has crashed the rehearsal in his eagerness to
see the play, appeals to him by comparing Polonius to Kuday, the character Umematsu plays in
Chshingura. Still, Umematsu will only agree to perform if he can be Kuday rather than
Polonius. Yet despite his incessant griping, it becomes clear that Umematsu doth protest too
much, and is in fact already very much the character he plays. His stubborn cleaving to the plot
of Chshingura and refusal to see any other story in Hamlet is like Polonius naively refusing to
see in Hamlets madness anything but the plot of unrequited love. Umematsus seeming
predisposition to behave like Polonius makes it somewhat less surprising when, despite his
grumbling and his tantrums, he becomes the first of the actors to quote his character
extemporaneously outside of rehearsed scenes.
The arrival of a loan sharks clerk interrupts rehearsal and reveals that Morita has been
pawning Miyauchis props and costumes in order to pay the interest on the Shintomi-zas loans.
This revelation prompts Umematsu to quote Polonius most apropos platitude: Neither a
borrower nor a lender be...19 Although he then quotes his Chshingura character, Kuday one
last time before unexpectedly paying the interest due on Moritas loans, his attitude (that it is not
a loan and he doesnt wish to be paid back) is in keeping with Polonius philosophy and signals
Umematsus acceptance of, and identification with, the character. Umematsus identity as
Polonius is at last sealed by his substitution of Kuday and Yuranosuke for Caesar and Brutus in
his lines as Polonius in 3.2 after he finally agrees to play Polonius rather than Kuday:
SHINZO/HAMLET: What did you enact?
UMEMATSU/POLONIUS: I did enact Kuday. I was killed in Act 7, the
teahouse scene. Yuranosuke killed me.
SHINZO: No! Your line is, I did enact Julius Caesar. Brutus killed me.
UMEMATSU: Whos Julius? Whos Caesar? Tokyo audiences dont know them.
But everyone knows my famous role.20
Shinz and Moritas acquiescence to the line change and Umematsus equation of his own acting
experience and Polonius further suggests the blurring of the reality of Umematsu and his role
as Polonius.
Umematsus fellow actors Kak and Tokujir who have accepted their roles as Gertrude
and Claudius from the outset, also become their characters offstage, adopting their personas in
response to Shichs fury when he discovers Morita tricked him into joining the troupe to be a
19 Tsutsumi, 209; Hamlet 1.3: 75-77.
20 Tsutsumi, 220.

pawn in his game of wits with Horitani. Kak addresses Shich not as himself, but as Gertrude
talking to Ophelia. His initial words are his own, but as the text indicates it is
KAKO/GERTRUDE speaking, rather than Kak alone. He implores Ophelia to wait,
because the play is not over yet and asks the king, Tokujir who has likewise slipped into
character, to sit beside him. He then admonishes Shich, telling him that No actor worth his
name quits at a rehearsal. Ophelias fair face would fade away to no avail and quotes Gertrude
5.1: 240-243 (Sweets to the sweet, farewell), becoming the Danish Queen and treating
Shichs threat to quit as Ophelias death.21 His transformation is followed immediately by
Tokujir quoting Claudius 3.6: 37-38 For thine especial safety and informing his son,
Shich, that he should stay Because the king commands it.22 Shich confirms his fathers
identity by accusing him of being possessed by Claudius. Having won the argument, Kak and
Tokujir process to their thrones, still possessed by Gertrude and Claudius, and do not revert to
their real world selves or speak out of character for the remainder of the play.
Despite Shichs threat to quit, he is himself unwittingly ensnared in Hamlets web as a starstruck Ophelia caught up in Hamlets games who is consistently jilted in favor of Horatio. The
Shintomizas Hamlet is none too subtle in staging its reading of a more-than-friendly
relationship between Hamlet and Horatio (the latter, it is suggested has the hots for Hamlet23).
The triangle its staging suggests between Horatio/Hamlet/Ophelia is echoed in their actors
interactions offstage. Gennosuke, a young onnagata who is incensed to learn that he will play
Horatio rather than Ophelia, is jealous of Shich, a younger onnagata brought in from a rival
theater to play Ophelia instead. His puzzlement at finding he is playing Horatio rather than
Ophelia results in a statement which contains the most amusing translation decision in the play:
For an onnagata to play Hamlets buddy is queer, dont you think?24 It is difficult to deem this
wording accidental, especially when Morita Kanya, the theatre director, explains his decision to
cast Gennosuke as Horatio rather than Ophelia by telling Gennosuke that he is perfect in erotic
rolesin love scenes and is too sexy to be a lord chamberlains daughter.25 The implicit
suggestion in the linesthat Gennosukes sex appeal is better suited to Horatio and that there is
an element of the erotic in his relationship with Hamletdeepens the rift between Gennosukes
Horatio and Shichs Ophelia offstage.
Prim and proper Shich, who plays Ophelia, is openly admiring of Shinz, and jealous of
the intimate rapport he shares with Gennosuke on and off stage. Shich first reveals his
preoccupation with Shinz to Gennosuke when the latter expresses outrage that Shich feels
himself entitled to step in and act on Shinzs behalf as head of the troupe when Shinz is
otherwise engaged, a proprietary attitude reflective of the way one might behave with ones
spouse. Gennosukes ire is further incited when he repeatedly catches Shich admiring Shinz
when he performs as Hamlet. Their rivalry comes to a head during the rehearsal of 3.2 (the only
21 Tsutsumi, 216.
22 Tsutsumi, 216.
23 Tsutsumi, 211.
24 Tsutsumi, 197.
25 Tsutsumi, 205.

Hamlet scene in which Gennosuke gets to act) when Shich is openly disturbed by Gennosuke
and Shinzs performance of Hamlet and Horatio. They unconsciously speak together more as
lovers than intimate friends while Shich struggles to pretend he does not notice.26 It is
tempting to read this exchange as a manifestation of Gennosukes onnagata instincts taking over
and Shinz responding in kind because they are used to playing love scenes together. However,
closer examination reveals a more complex reading.
First, elsewhere the stage directions will explicitly note when a character (usually Shich)
behaves with the feminine air that is the signature of the onnagata, but here we have no such
direction. Gennosuke and Shinz speak as lovers, but no gender roles are explicitly assigned to
them. The idea that Gennosuke performs this scene as a man without slipping into his onnagata
persona is strengthened by Kaks earlier comments regarding the nature of the Hamlet/Horatio
relationship as perceived by the Shintomi-zas troupe. The fact that the scene in question is
Hamlets lengthy enumeration of Horatios admirable qualities adds further credence to the
troupes interpretation and the two actors performance. But the stage directions suggest still
another reading of their behavior, for the troupes belief that Hamlet and Horatio have more than
friendly feelings for each other is explicitly stated in the play, yet the stage directions signal that
Gennosuke and Shinz did not make a conscious decision to behave as lovers: their performance
unfolded naturally. This, coupled with Shichs reaction and the fact that proximity to Shinz,
not their respective skills as onnagata, is the catalyst for the majority of his arguments with
Gennosuke, suggests that their spat is more than a matter of professional pride. Rather, it is yet
another instance in which the play and the actors lives begin to mirror one another.
Shich and Gennosukes competition for Shinz/Hamlets attention comes to a decisive
close when Horitanis arrival shuts down the production for good. An irate Shich announces
that he will return to the Kabuki-za, the Shintomi-zas rival theatre, while everyone knows that
Gennosuke will leave the Shintomi-za for the minor theatres where kabuki theatricality and
spectacle are still prized over western naturalism. As a leading sanza actor27, Shinz has the
option to join the Kabuki-za with Shich, or remain at the Shintomi-za where Horitani plans to
make him a star. But Shinz declines both offers and chooses to follow Gennosuke to the little
theatre on the wrong side of town:
SHINZO: Horitani-sanand Waka-Hrai. Thank you for offering me work, but
Ive decided to leave. I know where I belong.
GENNOSUKE: Narita-ya, in my little Miyato-za?28
Like any good Horatio, Gennosuke knows his friends mind better than anyone else present. He
does not need to ask what Shinz means when he says that he knows where he belongs. As in
Hamlet, Shichs Ophelia loses out: Shinzs loyalty and affection for his friend, along with
his integrity as an actor, trumps Shichs and Horitanis dream of theatrical hits featuring Shinz
and Shich as the metaphorical king and queen of the stage. Although Shinzs decision reflects
the subtextual implications of both the Hamlet/Horatio relationship and the Shinz/Gennosuke
relationship, it is also indicative of the subsequent two layers of the Hamlet palimpsest, those
26 Tsutsumi, 219.
27 The three major theaters, the only theaters to hold licenses before the Meiji period. The word
sanza literally means three theaters.
28 Tsutsumi, 225.

that portray Morita as Claudius and as Hamlet respectively. In one sense, Shinz and Gennosuke
are here enacting a version of Hamlet wherein Hamlet and Horatio follow each other into
deathsymbolized by the theatrical theatre Gennosuke accuses Moritas Claudius of
murderingrather than being separated by it.
Act 3: The Plays the Thing (Hamlet 2.2)
The uppermost layers of the scriptio superior center on Morita Kanya, the main character of
Kanadehon Hamlet who, like both his alter-egos, does not make his appearance until after the
first scene. From the outset, Morita Kanya is hinted to be both a Claudius and a Hamlet. But as
in Hamlet, these two personas are at war: The two interpretations of Moritas character cannot
coexist peacefully. In order for Morita to fully embody the ultimate and most enduring reading of
his character, that of Hamlet, he must first become wholly Claudius in the climatic scene of
Kanadehon Hamletthe rehearsal of 3.2, the play-within-the-playwhere Gennosuke, acting as
Hamlet, decisively kills the part of Morita that is Claudius before he returns to the stage for his
final death as Hamlet.
Moritas Claudius identity is grounded in the prominent role he played in modernizing
kabuki. Prior to the fall of the last Tokugawa shogun, kabuki occupied a position in Japanese
culture and society that was analogous to the place held by the English stage during
Shakespeares lifetime. A popular theatre with ties to prostitution, it was the target of official
disdain, shogunal attempts to circumscribe its powerful influence on the socio-cultural landscape
of Edo, and was tolerated only as a necessary evil that distracted the populace from more
harmful transgressions. Kabuki was a living theatre in which spectacle abounded with the aid of
colorful costumes and highly advanced theatrical effects, and where performance was king:
actors improvised, embellished and altered the way they played their parts with every
performance. But after the Meiji restoration, the new government officialized kabuki and
enacted a series of reforms designed to sanitize and elevate the stage to make it more palatable to
the western dignitaries to whom the government intended to provethrough kabukithat Japan
was cultured and sophisticated enough to play ball in international politics.
Morita Kanya, an ambitious and talented producer who had inherited his zamoto
(hereditary theatre owner/master) title at 18, seized upon the government directives as an
opportunity to elevate his Morita-za, the smallest and least prestigious of the three licensed
kabuki theaters, to the level of a national theater. Just as Claudius, tired of living in his older
brothers shadow, schemes to become king of Denmark, Moritas ambition to become the
director of the first national theater would effectively make him a king in the Japanese theatre
world, a goal he cannot accomplish without first overturning the sanza hierarchy that had
prevailed for nearly three centuries. Thus when he built a new, grander Morita-za in a different
part of town in 1872, he did not seek permission from the senior zamoto of the two larger
theatres, cleverly outmaneuvering them and forcing them to give their blessing or risk losing
face. This move undermined the entire sanza system and catapulted Morita to the head of the
pack. Although Japan did not officially designate a National Theatre during Moritas lifetime,
his reforms, his favorable standing with the government, and his command performances before
Ulysses S. Grant and the Emperor, caused the Shintomi-za to be widely acknowledged as the
national theatre of Japan: For all intents and purposes, the Shintomi-za was Moritas kingdom,
his Denmark, and he its king.

Morita promptly began commissioning plays for his new theater that would integrate the
governments directives with his own desire for theatrical reform.29 Moritas dream of a new
theatre and his fascination with all things western further manifested when the Shintomi-za
(formerly the Morita-zarenamed when debt forced him to reconfigure the theatre as a
corporation) burned down in 1876 and he was forced to rebuild. This second incarnation of the
Shintomi-za astonished Tokyoites with a dazzling display of Western amenities. Gas lights
illuminated the faade of the theatre, spelling out its name. Covered with white plaster (for fire
prevention), the building did not resemble the unpainted wooden exterior of older theaters but
more closely resembled European architecture.30 The interior of the theater similarly spelled an
end to the riotous kabuki of the Edo period with numerous structural changes reminiscent of 19th
century theaters in Europe and America that instilled in audiences the expectation of decorum
and alienated the popular audiences who, as Gennosuke points out, did not want to attend kabuki
to be educated.31
The first hint of the layer of the script that portrays Morita as Claudius manifests early in the play
shortly after Moritas entrance when he responds to his actors discontent by advising them that
The world changes; theatre changes, a subtle echo of Claudius admonishment over Hamlets
excessive grief.32 But this layer of the palimpsest surfaces most frequently in Moritas
interactions with Gennosuke, the champion of theatrical theatre who fashions himself the
Hamlet to Moritas Claudius. In this version of Hamlet, Moritas obsession with modern theatre
leads him to murder the old king of the Shintomi-zas stageGennosukes beloved theatrical
theatreto take up with new, western drama, which takes the place of Gertrude and has much
the same effect on Gennosuke as Claudius and Gertrudes liaison had on Hamlet. In
Gennosukes eyes, and the eyes of history, Moritas reforms aided the government in killing
kabuki as a living theatre and turning it into a museum piece, a myth of conservation lauded by
domestic and foreign governments that destroyed kabukis spirit: In exchange for an official
sanction, kabuki lost its vitality as a marginal but popular art form.33 The role Morita played in
bringing about the death of Edo kabuki puts him directly at odds with Gennosuke, who was
dedicated to preserving it both in the play and real life. Determined to avenge theatrical theatre,
or at the very least force Moritas Claudius to admit his complicity in its death, Gennosuke
engages Morita at every opportunity. Despite his snide goading and fits of temper, it is not until
the rehearsal of 3.2 when Hamlet stages his mousetrap play for Claudius that Gennosuke also
manages to catch the conscience of the king.34
29 In one such play, a character actually declares that dirty scenes that make parents and
children blush with shame will never be seen on the stage of the Shintomi-za. Takahashi,
Yuichiro, Kabuki goes Official, The Drama Review TDR, Vol. 39, No. 3 (Autumn, 1995): 142.
30 Takahashi, 133.
31 Tsutsumi, 205.
32 Tsutsumi, 195.
33 Takahashi, 145.
34 Hamlet 2.2: 600

Morita, who has been largely unaffected by Gennosukes frustrations with him and his
love of cooking up Western novelties to be popular35, shows the first chinks in his countenance
the moment the actors begin to rehearse The Murder of Gonzago. The play before the king
reminds him of his own production before the emperor, and Morita begins to hallucinate, seeing
ghosts of past performances in his minds eye.36 Hamlets play-within-the-play, performed as
kabuki, instantly appears designed more to discomfit Morita than the Claudius onstage. The
dumb show king and queen are dressed in the clothes of the Heian court (794-1185) while the
murderer is in Edo kabuki costume, a symbolic reminder that Morita has murdered the old
theatre, as well as a clever nod to the kabuki tradition of displacing the dramatization of a reallife event in time, place, and personage to avoid censorship. Moritas nostalgic memories of the
Chshingura performance during the dumb show (dialogue from which is heard by the entire
audience while the Hamlet rehearsal continues onstage) dovetails with The Murder of Gonzago
and becomes his play-within-the-play as Claudius.
In what is arguably the climax of the play, Gennosuke points to Lucianus, declaring
Master Morita. Thats you! and follows Hamlets This is one Lucianus, nephew to the king.
He poisons the king to usurp the throne by directly accusing Morita of being Claudius:
You killed theatrical theatre. Maybe it was vulgar, but audiences have loved it for
centuries. You killed it to toady to big shots, gentlemen fresh back from the West.
You drank Western wines with them. You were a Master of Theatre but you killed
the old theatre with your innovations.37
Morita is stricken and collapses at the exact moment Claudius, upset by the play, flees the scene
of The Murder of Gonzago. Gennosuke, acting as a Hamlet, essentially kills off Moritas
Claudius in this scene (as evidenced by his collapse). When Morita returns to the stage, Claudius
is dead: only Hamlet remains.
Act 4: Had I but Time (Hamlet 2.3)
The plays final and most compelling version of Hamlet casts Morita Kanya not as the
villainous Claudius Gennosuke suggests, but as Hamlet himself. In her introduction to the play,
Tsutsumi writes that as a result of the Meiji governments proscribed theatre reforms and the
financial difficulties that forced him to sell his beloved theater, Morita was, like Hamlet, a
prince who became a stranger in his own kingdom. 38 While this is undoubtedly true, the fact
that Morita embraced the reforms as an opportunity to elevate his theatre and pursue his dream of
creating a new kind of drama would suggest that Kanadehon Hamlets Morita is less the
disenfranchised prince than Hamlet the actor-playwright. The Shintomi-zas Hamlet is his
Murder of Gonzago, his scheme against the king, the debt that has robbed him of his Denmark,
35 Tsutsumi, 196.
36 Hamlet 3.2: 73; There is a play tonight before the King
37 Tsutsumi, 223. Hamlets This is one Lucianus, nephew to the king is from 3.2, but
Shinz/Hamlets line He poisons the king to usurp the throne is a paraphrase/rewording of line
252, not the original.
38 Tsutsumi, 184.

as well as the symbol of his dream for the future of theatre and the Shintomi-za that will not be
realized in his lifetime.
Like Hamlet, Morita Kanya is a man of schemes and dreams, full of aborted stories, failed
productions, and blessedor plaguedwith a boundless theatrical imagination out of step with
his time. Morita was a man almost universally acknowledged as a theatrical genius, a
progressive visionary who would become one of the leading theatrical innovators of his era.39
But his vision was too revolutionary for his Meiji audience. In 1879 he staged no fewer than
three operettas as the plays-within-the-play of Hyry Kidan Seiy Kabuki (The Wanderers
Strange Story: A Foreign Kabuki), the production that inspired Tsutsumis conception of
Kanadehon Hamlet. All three operettas were performed by a western traveling troupe and the
production bombed. Japanese audiences were not receptive to western acting or singing, and the
failure of the production contributed to Moritas financial ruin and the sale of the Shintomi-za.
The Shintomi-zas identity as an ailing Denmark, deteriorating under the tyrannical reign
of the businessman devoid of theatrical understanding who now owns it, and haunted by its
former glory, is signified by its physical state of disrepair, a visual reminder that something is
rotten in the state of Denmark. Miyauchis complaint that the stage looks more like a prison
than a palace immediately recalls Hamlets famous comment to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
that Denmarks a prison in 2.2 for anyone familiar with the play.40 The Shintomi-zas decay
weighs on Moritas mind. Desperate to regain his beloved theater, he uses deception, pretending
the upcoming performance will be Chshingura rather than Hamlet, to hold off Chiba, the
current owner of the Shintomi-za, and Horitani, its would-be buyer, long enough to reap financial
benefit from the Hamlet production and convince Chiba not to sell. He hides his debts from
Miyauchi so that he will continue to finance Hamlet, and from the actors to prevent desertion.
He seduced Shichs Ophelia into leaving the Kabuki-za41 with false promises, offering Shich a
place at the Shintomi-za performing western plays as leading lady opposite Shinz while
withholding information about the reality of his situation (wherein it is unlikely he can make
good on his promises)essentially equivalent to offering him a place as queen/princess
opposite Shinzs Hamlet while misleading Ophelia about his intentions like his alter-ego.
And he does it all to regain his kingdom, the Shintomi-za, and pursue his vision of a new kind
of drama.
But it is not only Moritas schemes to regain his kingdom that makes him a Hamlet. Morita
Kanya immediately recognizes that Hamlet has the soul of an actor/playwright and is possessed
of the same dramatic imagination that consumes Morita. In a company of actors, he is the only
one who acknowledges, at least subconsciously, that Hamlet is a play about plays. His reading
of Hamlet is never clearer than when he explains the To be or not to be soliloquy to a
struggling Shinz:
He steps out of his play-acting, being crazy in front of Claudius, and speaks what
he deeply feels. He speaks not only for Hamlet but for every one of us who puts
one foot in front of the other to walk and who stops to wonder why we go on
39 Faith Bach, Breaking the Kabuki Actors Barriers: 1868-1900, Asian Theatre Journal, Vol.
12, No. 2 (Autumn 1995): 265.
40 Tsutsumi, 194; Hamlet 2.2: 242.
41 One of the three major kabuki theaters and the Shintomi-zas rival.

living. Why do we grunt and sweat under a weary life. But that the dread of
something after death? Same with me. For new theatre and the Shintomi-za, I
have suffered patronization from backers, been shamed by loan sharks, insulted
by the public and the critics. I have wanted to sink into sleepbut Id still dream
of theatre. So the soliloquy speaks for Hamlets soul. But not just his. It speaks
for Yuranosuke, for me, for Shinz, and tomorrow hell be speaking for all the
audiences souls too! Everyones soul.42
Moritas explanation becomes his own To be or not to be soliloquy. In essence, he paraphrases
the second half of the speech in reverse. The enumeration of his trials in the theatre world
echoes Hamlets list of the trials of human life:
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time
The oppressors wrong, the poor mans contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the laws delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin?43
His admission that he has wanted to sink into sleep but that he would still dream of theatre
recalls Hamlets To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, theres the rub, for in that sleep of death
what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil must give us pause,
particularly in light of the plays casting of theatrical theatre as death.44 And it seems
significant that in his final conviction that Hamlet speaks not only for his own soul, but also for
those of Yuranosuke, Morita Kanya, and Shinz, Morita names all those who have been cast as
Hamlet at some point during the play: actors, all.
Moritas treatment of the To be or not to be soliloquy and his direction of Shinz is
directly contrasted with that of Miyauchi, who proves to be a false Hamlet. From the very
beginning, Miyauchi is treated as an imposter by the actors. Umematsu rails against Miyauchi,
complaining that while Morita is a master showman and he decided to trust in his decision to
stage Hamlet because he figured Morita was having a new brainwave, Miyauchis brand of
theatrical reforms will melt away, just like ice cream.45 And indeed, Miyauchi by his own
admission knows nothing of Japanese theatrehe has never seen a kabuki play, let alone
Chshingura.46and in fact knows little about Shakespeare. Miyauchi persistently berates the
actors for their attachment to Chshingura that relic of the past and advocates Hamlet as new
theatre: He honestly believes that Chshingura is older than Hamlet when the latter predates
the former by at least 145 years.47 His obsession with proper costuming and the physical
42 Tsutsumi, 217.
43 Hamlet 3.1: 70-75
44 Hamlet 3.1: 65-69
45 Tsutsumi, 193.
46 Tsutsumi, 195.
47 Tsutsumi, 191. Kanadehon Chshingura was initially composed in 1748.

trappings of Hamlet shows he is not interested in creating theatre but recreating the performance
he saw in New York, that he is unable to grasp anything but outer form, and further reveals his
ignorance and just how far his vision of Shakespeare is from the original or the realistic
staging he advocates.48
Miyauchis approach to the 3.1 soliloquy persists to demonstrate that he cannot direct,
knows nothing about acting, and is ultimately a fraud. He says modern acting isnt about
stereotyped stylization but proceeds to try to make Shinz into Booths Hamlet by giving him
Booths movementsto wit, his formrather than Hamlets heart.49 He reveals that he desires
to be a Hamlet (or to direct Booth as Hamlet), becoming so absorbed in his mimicry that he
delivers the first of the two English lines in the play: To be or not to be, that is the question.
But Shinz, having only been given Booths form, completely fails to deliver the speech as
Miyauchi wishes, and instead falls back on the familiar kabuki mode of delivery. Miyauchi
aspires to be a Hamlet but realizes after his failure to direct Shinz that he is only a Laertes, and
bids Morita and the production goodbye with Laertes dying words: Exchange forgiveness with
me, Morita. My failure come not upon thee, nor thine on me!50
Miyauchis mishandling of the scene only serves to strengthen Moritas identity as
Hamlet, a true theatrical reformer with the vision to create, rather than recreate, drama. Where
Miyauchi attempted to force Shinz to emulate Booths form, Morita Kanya shows his awareness
of Hamlets theatricality and his identity as an actor/playwright, something Morita, a true master
of stagecraft immediately empathizes with. He uses a comparison between Yuranosukes
behavior (Shinz character in Chshingura) and Hamlets to help Shinz understand Hamlets
position: an actor forced to hide his true mind from his enemies who takes this moment to step
out of the role he plays before the king and become himself. His explanation shows his
understanding not only of Shakespeares play, but also of Chshingura and perhaps most
importantly the way his actors think. His direction and reading of Hamlet at last allows Shinz
to perform the soliloquy. Morita succeeds where Miyauchi fails because he is a true Hamlet, one
who understands theatre, Hamlet, and an actors psycheone who possesses original vision,
rather than a desire for cheap reproduction.
Moritas adversary Chiba, the current owner of the Shintomi-za who never appears on
stage, is arguably his Claudius, the man who has stolen his kingdom and whose grip on the
purse-strings endangers Moritas continued existence as theater director of the Shintomi-za, but
his true antagonist is Horitani, a rival producer from Osaka, who occupies the role of Fortinbras.
Horitani arrives to take over the Shintomi-za just as Morita collapses following Hamlets playwithin-the-play, signaling the death of the Shintomi-zas Hamlet and Morita Kanya. Horitani is a
figment of Tsutsumis imagination who exists solely to underscore Moritas identity as Hamlet
and create for him a tragic heros death that echoes Hamlets own.
48 For example, Miyauchis steadfast belief that the actors must cut their hair in modern,
American styles despite Moritas remark that in ancient Denmark they likely would have had
long hair. See also this papers earlier treatment of kabuki/Shakespeare comparisons regarding
vulgarity versus refinement.
49 Tsutsumi, 212.
50 Tsutsumi, 214. Paraphrase of Laertes in Hamlet 5.2: 283-285.

The contrast between Horitanis Fortinbras and Moritas Hamlet is as great as that
between Morita and Miyauchi. Horitani is no Hamlet: He does not understand theatre as well as
Morita, declaring with a profound lack of foresight that Western drama will always flop in
Japan. Unwilling to take financial or creative risks, he quickly proves that he is bereft of
Moritas vision and dramatic imagination, crowing over his fallen adversary his lack of debts, to
which Morita responds Yes but my debts produced playsideas.51 His approach to governance
of the Shintomi-za is as blunt and warlike as Fortinbras invasion of Denmark, his triumph
striking a dissonant chord among the actors sorrow and Moritas dying dreams. Yet his strident
delivery of a modified version of Fortinbras epitaph for Hamlet perhaps pays truer tribute to
Morita than Horitanis alter-ego managed for the Danish prince:
Bear him to the stage;
For he was likely, had he been put on,
To have proved most capable Director of the National
Theatre; and for his passage
The music and the rites
Speak loudly for him.52
All Moritas machinations, his meticulous planning, comes to naught. He loses his actors, his
beloved theater, his production of Hamlet, and all his dreams of new theatre become just another
of Hamlets aborted stories. But even in death, despite the grievances he caused in life, he is
recognized as a man touched by theatrical inspiration, a fallen prince of the stage truly deserving
of Hamlets epitaph.
The drama critic Kid, who in this version of Hamlet assumes the role of Horatio, takes
up the mantle of that epitaph and all the dreams of theatre Morita leaves behind. He is the first to
recognize Hamlet in Morita and encourages the theatre director throughout his misfortunes. It is
Kid who most frequently points out the contrast between Moritas genius and Miyauchis
posturing. He is the only one who has known all along what Morita (Hamlet) was scheming and
whyhe is Horatio to Moritas Hamlet, the only one who knows Hamlets mind, and the only
one who never accuses him of being a Claudius. It is Kid who assumes Horatios lines in the
final scene, paraphrasing his farewell to Hamlet, substituting a dream of new drama for
flights of angels thereby reinforcing Moritas soliloquy where dreams of theatre serve as those
dreams that come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil, a reminder of all the aborted
plays Morita leaves behind.53 Kid then speaks Horatios farewell (Goodnight, sweet prince)
verbatim, the second and last time an original English line from Hamlet is delivered in the play.
This further underscores Kidos conviction that Morita is Hamlet, and gives the line the same
feeling of a private goodbye that Horatios line has in the original.54 His relationship with Morita
and role throughout the play suggests that it is Kid, the future playwright who creates
shinkabuki, a genre that combines nostalgic kabuki with modern drama, who will go on to
51 Tsutsumi, 224.
52 Tsutsumi, 227. Modified version of Hamlet 5.2: 351-355.
53 Tsutsumi, 227.
54 Tsutsumi, 227.

recount tales of Moritas deeds and convey his vision of a new theatre to future generations: To
draw his breath in pain to tell Moritas story.
Curtain: The Players Epitaph
The effects of metatheatre on reality are especially potent in Kanadehon Hamlet because
the Shintomi-zas reality is itself a fictionalized version of historical reality. The actorcharacters are not simply the product of the playwrights imagination but are, or are based on, the
actual denizens of the Shintomi-za during Moritas lifetime. The quarrelsome Gennosuke, who
plays Horatio, is Sawamura Gennosuke IV (1859-1936), a beautiful young onnagata who
performed at the Shintomi-za until 1903 when he became one of the Deserters Club, kabuki
actors with the lineage to perform at the major theatres who abandoned them for the minors
where they had more freedom. On the minor stage, Gennosuke became a star who fought to
preserve the quality of the Edo-period onnagata.55 Kanadehon Hamlets second Horatio, Kid,
is Okamoto Kid (1872-1939), a drama critic who began his career working for a newspaper but
became one of the playwrights who developed the dramatic genre shinkabuki which combined
the nostalgic mood of traditional kabuki with modern elements of shingeki.56 Tokujir and
Shich, the father-son team cast as Claudius and Ophelia respectively, are based on Nakamura
Shikan IV (1830-1899) and his adopted son Nakamura Fukusuke IV who became the greatest
onnagata of prewar kabuki, Nakamura Utaemon V.57 Umematsu, the reluctant Polonius, is
inspired by Onoe Matsusuke IV (1843-1928), who was considered the best supporting actor in
the late Meiji period. Even the stagehand Tome and his topknot are modeled on Kikugor Vs58
legendary dresser. But these hints of history serve only to underscore the idea that Kanadehon
Hamlet, with the aid of Hamlet, has rewritten the past.
The feeling that the time is out of joint pervades the play and acts as a constant
reminder that reality, history as we know it, has dissolved, has been rewritten by the
metatheatrical power of the stage. Morita Kanya lived and breathed, fought to reform theatre
more than any other Meiji producer, entertained Grant and the Emperor, and lost his beloved
theater to debt: But though he and his favorite in-house playwright, Kawatake Mokuami,
explored the possibility of a Japanese Hamlet adaptation as early as 1878, Hamlet never made it
to the Japanese stage during his lifetime, nor was it translated in full until Waseda University
professor and towering literary figure Tsubouchi Shy released his first kabuki version of the
script in 1909the same script Miyauchi claims he had commissioned specially for the
Shintomi-zas production in Kanadehon Hamlet despite the fact that it would not exist for
another twelve years. Morita also never faced a hostile takeover from an Osaka producer like
55 Tsutsumi, 183-184.
56 Tsutsumi, 184.
57 Tsutsumi, 184.
58 Kikugor V was one of the last great Edo kabuki actors. His death, and the death of fellow
acting legend Ichikawa Danjur IX are seen as the end of the kabuki era and the beginning of the
modern in Japanese theatre history. Both actors performed at the Shintomi-za for Morita before
deserting him for another of the major theaters, the Kabuki-za.

Horitani; the Morita family continued to run the Shintomi-za until it was destroyed in the Great
Kant Earthquake in 1923. And while Morita did die prematurely in 1897 at the age of 51, he
did not expire on his own stage. Tsutsumi has from the beginning literally placed the world on
stage, and by allowing Hamlets reality to tweak and absorb that of Morita Kanya and his actors,
she has created a version of the Shintomi-zas history that overpowers and feels more real than
its historical reality. Tsutsumi makes Morita Kanya precisely the kind of metatheatrical character
who, like Hamlet, cannot be contained by the role his authorreal lifehas scripted for him,
and allows her to give him the epitaph such a Hamlet deserves.
Bibliography
Abel, Lionel. Metatheatre: A New View of Dramatic Form. New York: Hill and Wang, 1963.
Bach, Faith. Breaking the Kabuki Actors Barriers: 1868-1900. Asian Theatre Journal, Vol.
12, No. 2 (Autumn 1995) pgs. 264-279.
Calderwood, James L. To Be and Not to Be: Negation and Metadrama in Hamlet. New York:
Columbia University Press, 1983.
Cannon, Charles K. As in a Theater: Hamlet in the Light of Calvins Doctrine of
Predestination. Studies in English Literature 1500-1900, Vol. 11, No. 2, Elizabethan and
Jacobean Drama (Spring, 1971) pgs. 203-222.
Flaherty, Kate. Theatre and Metatheatre in Hamlet. Sydney Studies in English, Vol. 31 (2005)
pgs. 3-20.
Forker, Charles R. Shakespeares Theatrical Symbolism and Its Function in Hamlet.
Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Summer, 1963) pgs. 215-229.
Fujita, Minoru and Michael Shapiro eds. Transvestism and the Onnagata Traditions in
Shakespeare and Kabuki. Kent: Global Oriental LTD, 2006.
Keene, Donald Trans. Chshingura: The Treasury of Loyal Retainers. New York: Columbia
University Press, 1971.
Pirandello, Luigi. Six Characters in Search of an Author. Trans. Eric Bentley. New York:
Penguin, 1998.
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet: The Texts of 1603 and 1623. Ed. Ann Thompson and Neil
Taylor. London: Arden Shakespeare, 2006.
--. Hamlet. ed. Ann Thompson and Neil Taylor. London: Arden Shakespeare, 2006.
Takahashi, Yuichiro. Kabuki goes Official. The Drama Review TDR, Vol. 39, No. 3 (Autumn,
1995) pgs. 131-150.

Tsutsumi, Harue. Kanadehon Hamlet: A Play by Tsutsumi Harue. Trans. Faubion Bowers,
David W. Griffith, Hori Mariko and Tsutsumi Harue. Asian Theatre Journal, Vol. 15, No.
2 (Autumn, 1998) pgs. 181-229.
Ueno, Yoshiko ed. Hamlet and Japan. New York: AMS, 1995.

Japanese III: Kabuki Unit Project

Throughout this unit youve had the opportunity to learn about some of the techniques and
conventions of kabuki theatrenow its time to try your hand at it! Working in groups of 4-6,
you will be composing, rehearsing, and performing your own 10-minute kabuki play. Not every
member of the group needs to be one of the actorsremember there are many roles in kabuki:
Stagehands, musicians, costumers and make-up artists are equally importantbut everyone
needs to have a specific role and everyone must contribute to the composition of the script.
The Script
Your script can be a single scene or a complete story, but it needs to meet the following criteria:
1. As youve seen in Kanadehon Chshingura, one of the most prominent playwriting techniques
in kabuki was to take a contemporary event and set it in the distant past to avoid censure.
You may choose any event of recent years that interests you to set in Edo Japan, whether
it be a political debate or a celebrity break-up, as long as it is appropriate for school.
2.
Your play should be 8-10 minutes in length from start to finish. To be clear, this means
the total running time of your play including those moments in which your characters are
acting but not speaking. Dont panic: It does not refer to the length of the script itself.
3.
Your script must be in Japanese. You need to use at least two grammar points from the
current lesson. The rest is up to you.
4.
While your group should collaborate on the outline of the script, each group member
should be responsible for the composition of an equal portion of the actual dialogue. This
means if there are four people in your group, you will each write of the script. The
rough draft of the script will be submitted as a single document with notations demarking
which student was responsible for which portion of the text.
The Performance
You will have one week to compose and finalize your scripts, plus an additional week to rehearse
before the performance. Your performance should be fully costumed and incorporate at least
three of the kabuki techniques that you studied. Please submit a list of necessary props and
costumes by Friday so that I have enough time to help you acquire what you need. You are not
expected to spend any money on this performance. Be creative, but keep your requests
reasonable!
**Your performances will be filmed for assessment purposes. If you would like your performance
to be included in the class archive for future students to enjoy, please have a parent/guardian
sign the consent form and return it by your assigned performance date.
Important Due Dates
Script Rough Draft/List of Group Member Roles/ResponsibilitiesApril 6th (Wed.)
Costume and Prop RequestApril 8th (Fri.)
Script Final DraftApril 11th (Mon.)
PerformanceApril 18th & April 19th (Mon. & Tues.