shingeki

was a leading form of theatre in Japan that was based on modern realism. Born in the early years of the 20th century, it sought to be similar to modern Western theatre, putting on the works of the ancient Greek classics, William Shakespeare, Molière, Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekov, Tennessee Williams, and so forth. As it appropriated Western realism, it also introduced women back onto the Japanese stage.

was a leading form of theatre in Japan that was based on modern realism. Born in the early years of the 20th century, it sought to be similar to modern Western theatre, putting on the works of the ancient Greek classics, William Shakespeare, Molière, Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekov, Tennessee Williams, and so forth. As it appropriated Western realism, it also introduced women back onto the Japanese stage. ==History== ===Historical background=== The origin of Shingeki is linked to various movements and theatre companies. Scholars associate its origin with the kabuki reform movement, the founding of the Bungei Kyokai (Literary Arts Movement) in 1906, and the Jiyū Gekijō (Free Theatre) in 1909. Also relevant is the establishment of an Ibsen Society in Japan, the Ipusen-kai, by Kunio Yanagita in 1903 to study Ibsen's plays. The Meiji Restoration in 1868 had led to the introduction of Western drama, singing, and acting onto the Japanese stage, as well as bringing the conventions of realism. In the late 19th century, and early 20th century, there were attempts to "modernize" Japanese theatre. Japanese artists experimented with kabuki theatre, creating shin-kabuki and also created shinpa, which attempted to fuse together modern technology and acting styles to create something new. However, unlike Shingeki, shinpa and shin-kabuki never developed into mainstream modern theatre. Kabuki, shin-kabuki, and shinpa were the only types of theatre that was around before the birth of Shingeki. Shingeki theater developed in the early 20th century in response to the perceived “irrationality” of these earlier forms of Western-style theater that had been popularized during the late 19th century, as well as to “premodern” or “feudal” forms of traditional Japanese theater such as kabuki and noh. Shingeki companies thus sought to present Western-style theatrical productions in modern, Western-style theaters with less stylized and more “realistic” situations, dialogues, costumes, and set design. ===The 1960 Anpo protests and the emergence of Angura=== In 1960, virtually the entire Shingeki community was mobilized to take part in the Anpo struggle against revision of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty (known as "Anpo" in Japanese), under the auspices of an umbrella organization called the Shingeki Workers Association (新劇人会議 Shingekijin Kaigi). However, many younger members of the troupes, who tended to sympathize with the student radicals in the Zengakuren student federation, were extremely disappointed that the Shingeki Association enforced strict conformity to the passive and ineffectual protest policies of the Japan Communist Party, even after right-wing counter-protester brutally attacked the Shingeki members during a protest march at the National Diet on June 15, 1960, resulting in 80 members¹ being injured. Although discontent had been building throughout the 1950s, the radicalizing experience of the Anpo Protests helped convince many younger Shingeki members to break away and found their own theater troupes, where they could experiment with much more radical forms of avant-garde theater. This was the genesis of the "Angura" theater movement in Japan, also known as the also known as the "Little Theater" (小劇場, shōgekijō) movement, which rejected the Brechtian modernism and formalist realism of Shingeki to stage anarchic "underground" productions in tents, on street corners, and in small spaces that explored themes of primitivism, sexuality, and embodied physicality. ===1960s to present=== Despite the departure of some younger members to found the Angura movement, Shingeki did not disappear or go into any dramatic decline. In fact, with wages rising due to high economic growth during the period of Japan's "economic miracle" in the 1960s, many Shingeki troupes thrived and became far less dependent on the rōen to drive ticket sales. Today, many of the major Shingeki theater companies continue to exist, although the "shingeki" name itself has been dropped from their self-descriptions. ==Influence on cinema== Shingeki was an important influence on cinema, first during the Pure Film Movement of the 1910s, when intellectual reformers attempted to modernize Japanese film. Shingeki directors such as Eizō Tanaka produced some of the first reformist films at Nikkatsu like Ikeru shikabane (1917) and shingeki actors like Minoru Murata and Iyokichi Kondō collaborated with Norimasa Kaeriyama to make groundbreaking works like The Glow of Live (Sei no kagayaki, 1918). Kaoru Osanai himself was placed in charge of Shochiku's training school and produced Souls on the Road in 1921, a work that has been called "the first landmark film in Japanese history". In later decades, shingeki provided the cinema both a training ground for new actors, as well as a supply of skilled performers trained in realistic acting. ==References==

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