早稲田大学演劇博物館 演劇映像学連携研究拠点

Selected research 1

Basic research survey of materials relating to Shoyo Tsubouchi and Shiko Tsubouchi

Principal Researcher
Kuniko Hamaguchi (Affiliated Lecturer, The College of Intercultural Communication, Rikkyo University)

Collaborative Researchers
Akira Kikuchi (Adjunct Researcher, Waseda University Theatre Museum)
Kaoru Matsuyama (Full-time Staff, Waseda University Library)
Tomoaki Kojima (Part-time Lecturer, Musashino Art University)
Kaho Mizuta (Adjunct Researcher, Waseda University Theatre Museum)
Kazuko Yanagisawa (Part-time Lecturer, Faculty of Education and Integrated Arts and Sciences, Waseda University)

Research objective

Many materials related to Tsubouchi Shoyo and Tsubouchi Shiko stored in the Theatre Museum have not yet been organized. Individual items belonging to the extremely large collection of materials on Shoyo (including manuscripts written in his hand and letters he received) have not been investigated. Moreover, many of these items have not been assigned registration numbers. Artifacts relating to Shiko have been donated in the last dozen years. These remain in their original condition, as it has not been possible to confirm their content, impeding the task of arranging them. The plan for this research project involves first ascertaining the extent of the collection and then investigating individual artifacts (in order of priority and with respect to the availability of time). A detailed inventory will be prepared, contributing to future research.

Summary of the research findings

This year, we made progress in arranging and provisionally cataloguing the previously unarranged letters. We have provisionally catalogued the letters from around 400 individuals addressed to Tsubouchi Shoyo, not including letters from non-Japanese persons. We produced digital copies of 765 letters from 232 individuals writing these letters. With regard to reprints, we have completed the chronicling and reprinting of 128 of Aizu Yaichi’s letters to Shoyo. The correspondence between Shoyo and Yaichi has already been published in “Correspondence between Tsubouchi Shoyo and Aizu Yaichi [Tsubouchi Shōyō / Aizu Yaichi ōfuku shokan]” (1968), but the abovementioned reprints are all newly publicized letters. Many of Yaichi’s letters are lengthy, and they contain his thoughts and honest feelings openly expressed to Shoyo. As such, they represent a precious source that augments hitherto unclear areas. Also included in the body of materials are Shoyo and Yaichi’s waka and haiku poems, as well as postcards with beautiful illustrations. This year, the 80 missives, representing the first half of the collection, will be published in the 39th issue of “Theater Studies [Engeki Kenkyū]” (Kikuchi, Matsuyama, Yanagisawa, Hamaguchi, “Reprint of the Letters sent to Shoyo Tsubouchi 1：Reprint of the Letters from Yaichi Aizu to Shoyo Tsubouchi (1)”). The second half is scheduled for publication next year.

Of the 20 boxes containing materials related to Tsubouchi Shiko, we have opened five and arranged three. These boxes contain approximately 1,000 photographs and approximately 1,800 letters, and we have so far made provisional catalogues of the contents and digitized the photographs.
The collection sheds light on the new school of Japanese drama (shingeki) during the Taisho and early Showa periods, including the drama studies association [Gikyoku kenkyūkai], arts association [Geijutsu kyōkai], and Takarazuka Popular Theater [Takarazuka Kokumin-za], which was placed under the charge of Shiko by its founder Kobayashi Ichizo. This area of theatre research has seldom received attention hitherto, owing to the limited number of historical sources. The collection also provides a survey of the people who backed up Shiko, many of whom were the Waseda graduates who resided in the Kansai area. In addition, the set also clarifies that groups such as the Takarazuka New Theater Company [Takarazuka Shingeki-dan] (an attempt for training young men Ichizo planned in 1919) were, from Shiko’s perspective, ephemeral “Takarazuka Arts Societies [Takarazuka Bungei-kyōkai].” We presented our research findings on December 13, the second day of the 2015 Kabuki Research Association Autumn Conference held at Gakushikaikan (Mizuta “Tsubouchi Shiko and the Takarazuka Non-regular Students”).

Takarazuka Popular Theater [Takarazuka Kokumin-za], first performance in Osaka, November 27, 1926, at Asahi Hall, Ōi ni Warau Yodogimi (Laughing Yodogimi in hysteric)
Letters from Aizu Yaichi to Tsubouchi Shoyo 1925.8.25	1923.10.22	1925.8.5	1925.8.23	1925.8.31

Selected research 2

Research on materials related to the presentation of silent films, and particularly their musical accompaniment

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Principal Researcher
Seiji Choki (Professor, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the University of Tokyo)

Collaborative Researchers
Makiko Kamiya (Visiting Researcher, National Film Center, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo),
Fumito Shirai (Part-time Lecturer, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Tokyo Medical and Dental University),
Kotaro Shibata (Doctoral Program, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, the University of Tokyo),
Yohei Yamagami (Part-time Lecturer, Faculty of Music, Tokyo University of the Arts)

Research objective

The topic of this research is the Theatre Museum’s collection of musical scores used to accompany silent films produced from the mid-1920s to the early 1930s. According to the 2014 survey of the materials, the bulk consists of scores held by movie theaters, particularly Goraku-kan in Shinagawa under the direct management of the Nikkatsu Corporation, and materials held or used by Koichi Hirano (1898–unknown), a musician who worked in movie theaters directly run by Nikkatsu in the 1920s, such as the Goraku-kan. This study aimed to survey, primarily, the “Hirano Collection” and to clarify the cinematic practices in the Taisho and early Showa periods by analyzing the musical scores in particular.

Summary of the research findings

1.Background Research/Content Analysis of Score Materials
The scores were collected and used at least between 1924 and the beginning of the talkie era in 1933. We catalogued and collated score parts of music anthologies, such as the domestically published anthology Small Orchestra. These parts were supposed to be used infrequently, and as such, had remained unarranged (around 400 specimens). The analysis revealed that musical instruments were selected according to the size of the theater ensemble; handwritten parts (particularly for the shamisen) were added; and the score parts had a systematic collection and management.

2.Survey of Contemporaneous Documents and Relationship with other Score Materials
We collected and surveyed contemporaneous magazines and newspapers, such as Tokyo Engei Tshushin (Tokyo Performing Arts News), to examine the activities of contemporaneous musicians and the functions of musical performance as accompaniment to cinematic screening. We also compared the collection’s scores with those from the posthumous collections of Koka Sassa (Yorii-machi, Saitama Prefecture) and Nobuhiro Matsudaira (Toyota-shi/Matsudaira-go, Aichi Prefecture). This comparison provided a glimpse of a process whereby musical accompaniments to Japanese films permeated into Nikkatsu-run cinemas at the behest of Nikkatsu Corporation.

3.Examination of Score Materials for Each Work and Screenings Accompanied by Reconstructed Music
Scores preserved in the collection that were prepared for a specific work can be divided broadly into two categories:
・Compiled Score Handwritten by Hirano [Figure 1] (31 works and fragments of others)
・Compiled Score Distributed by Nikkatsu, in simple print form [Figure 2] (12 works and fragments of others)

For reference purposes, we screened two of these works: Lieutenant Colonel Tachibana, the War God [Gunshin Tachibana-chūsa] using a compiled score distributed by Nikkatsu (eight themes, including music taken from imported anthologies and military songs), and Chushingura using a compiled score handwritten by Hirano (nine themes, including classic traditional Japanese music and a piece composed by Nobuhiro Matsudaira). We analyzed the sources of the music, and, in collaboration with the performers, determined the setting of musical instruments, number of repetitions of each number, and the scenes they accompany. The screenings were important attempts in reconstructing historical practices. The experiment highlighted a number of issues such as how the score should be used, its relation to the narrator’s explanations, and discrepancies with the utilization of Western accompanying scores. It will be necessary to examine how to utilize the scores.

Compiled Score Handwritten by Hirano for Chushingura (1926, directed by Tomiyasu Ikeda; music papers bearing the printed signature of K. Hirano)	Compiled Score Distributed by Nikkatsu for Lieutenant Colonel Tachibana, the War God [gunshin tachibana chūsa] (1926, directed by Genjiro Saegusa, compiled by Nobuhiro Matsudaira; ownership mark: Kanagawa Engeikan; simple print form; left: binding; right: piano part)

Research Foundings, fiscal 2014

Research Foundings, fiscal 2016

Research Foundings, fiscal 2017

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Selected research 3

Towards an archeology of projection media-the arrangement and publication of “magic lantern” slides and the organization of exhibitions and art works based on digital data

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Principal Researcher
Ryo Okubo (Project Research Associate, Public Collaboration Center, Tokyo University of the Arts)

Collaborative Researchers
Machiko Kusahara (Professor, Faculty of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, Waseda University),
Eriko Kogo (Associate Professor, Meisei University School of Humanities),
Manabu Ueda (Research fellow of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science),
Miyuki Endo (Curator, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography)

Research objective

The Theatre Museum has many image-related cultural materials from the prehistory of cinema that are extremely precious, even when viewed from the perspective of global media history. This joint research project involves systematically arranging the Theatre Museum’s collection of slides on “magic lantern” and “Utsusie” (Japanese-style magic lanterns popular from the late Edo to the Meiji periods), and then specifying the age and themes of these slides, which have not been catalogued. This project further aims to share and present its findings to the public through an exhibition, a catalogue, and a database. In exploring the value of these slides, the research examines the option of using them as the basis for works of art and digital data.

Summary of the research findings

The exhibition “Magic Lantern Exhibition: The Archeology of Projection Media [gentō ten: purojekushon media no kōkogaku]” held from April to August 2015, and the publication of “The Natural History of Magic Lantern Slides: The Archeology of Projection Media [gentō suraido no hakubutsushi: purojekushon media no kōkogaku]” (Seikyusha, 2015) have highlighted two outstanding issues: (1) The necessity of collating slides with a magic lantern sales catalogue; and (2) elucidating the relationship between magic lanterns and other contemporaneous forms of visual culture.

With regard to (1), we have worked on digitizing the sales catalogue held by the Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum and the sales catalogue held by Machiko Kusahara, which relates to the museum’s slides. The museum also holds foreign slides. We collated these slides with LUCERNA, a leading Magic Lantern web resource. The comparison revealed that the museum’s slides listed under categories such as “artists and musicians” and “photographers and children” were produced in 1905 by Theobald & Co. of Britain. We will continue to collate the materials with sales catalogues or databases, and we will add new findings from such comparisons to the Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum database.

With regard to (2), in November 20, 2015, Miyuki Endo produced the report “Matsuchi Nakajima’s Magic Lantern Production [nakajima matsuchi no gentō seisaku].” Endo shed light on magic lantern production by Matsuchi, who was also a photographer, and revealed that artist Sono Akio drew the rough sketches of the slides. Endo also discussed the relationship between magic lanterns and other forms of visual culture, including photography, lithography, and oil painting. On January 12, Erkki Huhtamo produced the report “Screen Practice - Media Archaeological Perspectives.” According to Huhtamo, magic lanterns involved not only visual imagery but also music and performance. Based on this perspective, Huhtamo argued that the magic lantern was related to forms of mass culture, including illustrated narrations to moving panoramas and illustrated presentations of broadside ballads or bänkelsang.

Lantern Slide by Matsuchi Nakajima	Bänkelsang

Research Foundings, fiscal 2014

Research Foundings, fiscal 2016

Research Foundings, fiscal 2017

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Selected research 4

The investigation and research into the Senda materials-Koreya Senda and contemporary plays

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Principal Researcher
Yukako Abe (Professor, Faculty of Arts and Letters, Kyoritsu Women’s University)

Collaborative Researchers
Keiko Miyamoto (Part-time Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Shirayuri College), Terada Shima (Part-time Lecturer, Faculty of Humanities, Seigakuin University), Hirokazu Akiba (Professor, School of Creative Science and Engineering, Waseda University)

Research objective

Articles that belonged to Koreya Senda were donated by his daughter Momoko Nakagawa in April 2001. In total, there were more than 300 cardboard boxes (at the time they were received) containing old books and play-related materials. We have advanced the work of broadly cataloguing and arranging these materials. Certain materials, particularly books, albums, scrapbooks, and cards, have been available for viewing since 2005. However, at present, these materials have merely been provisionally arranged, and their content has not been studied. The research has focused on “J: Michio Ito-related materials” in the Senda Collection. We have advanced the arrangement, storage, and digitization of these materials, as well as in identifying the issues and research methods necessary for using a diverse range of theater materials as basic research material. While carrying out the documentation of “J: Michio Ito-related materials,” we arranged and discussed the information related to the Ernie Pyle Theatre from 1945 to around 1950.

Summary of the research findings

(1)Confirming the Content of Materials and Making Digital Images
We confirmed the content of J1 to J31 of the Michio Ito-related materials as follows:

J1, J2, J3, J4, J5 (H31): Photo albums
J11–8: Scrapbooks from 1954 to 1950
J23: Material related to the Ernie Pyle Theatre
J24: Material related to the Olympics
J27: Wartime material, Material related to the NANYO PULP Co.,Ltd.
J28: Letters

The categories for the materials include photographs, programs/brochures, scripts, journal/newspaper articles/excerpts, handwritten memos, draft manuscripts, and letters. Of these, we worked on producing digital photographs of 27 photo albums (around 960 photographs), and also letters and material related to the Ernie Pyle Theatre. We checked the details, such as captions on photographs and authentication notes, and then noted such details on the material data.
The photographic materials constitute a precious resource for tracing in detail the life of Michio, who was active in Europe, America, and Japan in the 1920s to the 1950s. In the future, it will be necessary to research the documentation of the materials, such as who took the photographs and where they were developed. The letters (J28) include those (around 53 specimens) written by Michio to his wife Tsuyako during his confinement in Camp Livingstone between 1941 and 1943, as well as letters related to Michio’s involvement in the plan to build a Japanese town in post-war Los Angeles. The collection related to the Ernie Pyle Theatre (J23) includes internal theater material from 1946 to 1954, and material related to Michio’s stage creation. In each case, digital photography has prevented loss due to degradation of the original material and enabled a diverse array of materials to be examined organically.

(2)Significance of Materials Related to the Ernie Pyle Theatre
Michio returned to Japan in December 1943. After the war, he was appointed as artistic advisor, director, and choreographer in the Ernie Pyle Theatre, owing to his fluency in English, knowledge of American culture, and understanding and leadership with respect to the Japanese staff and professionals in the arts. As can also be inferred from the collection, he was a useful human resource for both the Japanese and Americans. Further, the memos, sketches, and scripts made during the actual stage creation shed light on the constructions and contrivances used in revues and shows, whereas the stage photographs and programs provide a glimpse of the performances staged. These stage works were the result of the fact that such a personality as Michio was present in such a special time and space.

Photograph of Jungle Drum	Photograph of Rhapsody in Blue Note of Tabasco	Draft of Tabasco	Note of Tabasco

Research Foundings, fiscal 2014

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