Report on Joint Research Findings
Fiscal 2024
Principal Research
1. Survey of Kubo Sakae Materials
2. Research on Postwar Shingeki with a Focus on the Kurabayashi Seiichiro Collection
3. Research on Prewar Film Screenings Using Film-Related Materials
Selected Research
1. Basic Research on the Okamoto Kido Collection
2. Literary Circles of the Mid-Edo Period, Through Diaries of kabuki Actors
3. Empirical Research on Regional Theater Under the GHQ (SCAP) Occupation: Focusing on the Kyushu Area
4. Research on Kodan Materials in the Tanabe Koji Collection
5. Overview Survey of Print Inventory Left Behind by Sakagawaya, the Original Publisher of Tokiwazu-bushi
6. Research on the Concept of “History of Japanese Performing Arts” in the Ozawa Shoichi Collection: Focusing on Changes in Sexual Expression
Principal Research 1
Survey of Kubo Sakae Materials
Principal Researcher
Abe Yukako (Professor, Faculty of Arts and Letters, Kyoritsu Women’s University)
Collaborative Researchers
Akai Kimi (Associate Professor, Graduate School of Arts and Letters, Tohoku University)
Kumagai Tomoko (Research Assistant, Theatre Museum, Waseda University)
Research Objectives
This study investigates, transcribes, and examines unorganized and unpublished materials in the Theatre Museum’s Kubo Sakae Collection. Kubo Sakae (1900-1958) was a playwright and director who led the world of Japanese shingeki from prewar to postwar Japan. The project particularly focuses on his relationship with Tsukiji Shogekijo. In 1926, Kubo entered the literary department of Tsukiji Shogekijo and studied theater under Osanai Kaoru and Hijikata Yoshi; after Osanai’s death, he produced a series of masterpieces. Kubo’s experiences at Tsukiji Shogekijo and the influence of Osanai were significant in his creative activities, and we believe that we can solidify the foundation for basic research on Kubo Sakae based on primary sources by examining these experiences.
Summary of Research
We would like to review the materials covered by the research team. Kubo Sakae was involved in the activities and founding of various shingeki theater troupes, from Tsukiji Shogekijo to Shinkyo Gekidan and the Mingei Theatre Company. He was a writer who occupied a major position in the shingeki world before and after World War II. He wrote many works that have been repeatedly performed to this day, including Goryokaku chi-sho (first performed in 1933), Kazan Baichi (first performed in 1938), and Ringoen Nikki (first performed in 1947). He also directed plays like Shimazaki Toson’s Yoake Mae (first performed in 1934).
Although it is essential to discuss the role of Kubo Sakae in the history of Japanese shingeki and Japanese realist theater, we can hardly say that research about him is currently in progress.
The Kubo Sakae materials in the Theatre Museum Collection fill more than 40 cardboard boxes and were donated by Kubo’s adopted daughter, Kubo Masa. The materials include a wide variety of diaries, drafts, memos, letters, household accounts, production notes, photographs, programs, flyers, and open-reel tapes, and are largely unorganized.
This academic year, much time was devoted to sorting and organizing various mixed materials. After classification, the materials were cataloged focusing on manuscripts, notebooks, and letters in Kubo Sakae’s handwriting, and books formerly owned by him were identified as well. Overall, Kubo’s materials have deteriorated significantly and many of them need to be digitized. Due to the large volume of materials, we are considering digitization of the items first, starting with those in good condition, using a scanner.
By organizing the materials, we have discovered notes written by Kubo for the biography Osanai Kaoru (1947), correspondence with Murayama Yomoyoshi that has not been published in Kubo’s complete works, and handwritten manuscripts of his major works. All of these are valuable primary sources. In particular, we believe that the materials on Osanai Kaoru are very important in examining the relationship between Kubo and Tsukiji Shogekijo.
This year (2024) marks the 100th anniversary of the opening of Tsukiji Shogekijo, and all team members have curated exhibitions related to the theater. Abe curated the exhibition “The young people who launched a passion for theater: 100 years of Tsukiji Shogekijo” (Kyoritsu Women’s University 1st floor lobby, September 18-October 9, 2024). Akai and Kumagai curated “100 years of Tsukiji Shogekijo: 20th century shingeki” (Waseda University Theatre Museum, 1st floor, Nakamura Utaemon VI Memorial Special Exhibition Room and 2nd floor, Special Exhibition Rooms I and II, October 3, 2024-January 19, 2025).
The latter exhibition displayed a number of materials related to Kubo Sakae, including a memo on the writing of Osanai Kaoru discovered while organizing the materials. The results of the research team were put to good use in the exhibition, and the importance of Kubo Sakae in the development of Tsukiji Shogekijo and subsequent shingeki was made even clearer through the presentation of the exhibition in its full historical context.
Memo (notebook) for writing Osanai Kaoru, Kubo Sakae materials［72037-1］
Principal Research 2
Research on Postwar Shingeki with a Focus on the Kurabayashi Seiichiro Collection
Principal Researcher
Goto Ryuki (Research Fellow, The Edogawa Rampo Memorial Center for Popular Culture Studies, Rikkyo University)
Collaborative Researchers
Kamiyama Akira (Emeritus Professor, School of Arts and Letters, Meiji University)
Kodama Ryuichi (Professor, Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences, Waseda University)
Yoneya Naoko (Cultural policy and arts management advisor)
Fujiya Keiko (Librarian, Waseda University)
Research Objectives
Kurabayashi Seiichiro (1912-2000) joined the Haiyu-za Gekidan Theater Company in 1946, shortly after Japan’s defeat in World War II. He founded the Haiyu-za Theater in 1956 and was appointed its CEO in 1981. In 1965, he was instrumental in establishing Japan’s first unified body of performance artists, the Japan Council of Performers Rights & Performing Arts Organizations (Geidankyo). This organization significantly influenced the protection of performers’ rights, encouragement of cultural activities, and policy advocacy in the performing arts.
This study aims to reassess Kurabayashi Seiichiro as a theater producer through research and examination of diaries, scrapbooks, memos, notebooks, letters, and other materials in the Kurabayashi Seiichiro Collection, and to lay the foundation for basic research on postwar shingeki. The importance of the “theater producer,” defined by Kurabayashi himself as “existing between the creative organization and the audience, and playing an important role in objectively and correctly understanding the positions and ideas of both parties and communicating them to each other” (The Theatre Producer), cannot be overlooked when considering audience theory in the theater. However, producers have not yet been considered as a subject of research. By clarifying Kurabayashi’s achievements, this project aims to measure the influence of the producers who actually managed theater venues and put on performances, to open up perspectives on theatrical (theater historical) research not limited to the viewpoints of writers, directors, actors, and other creatives, and to clarify the multifaceted nature of postwar shingeki performances, among others.
Summary of Research
The materials in the Kurabayashi Seiichiro Collection accepted by the Theatre Museum in AY2020 comprised 3,004 items (387 books, 835 magazines, and 1,782 museum artifacts).
The members of the project team have been organizing the Kurabayashi materials in the Center’s Principal research project “Research on the Kurabayashi Seiichiro materials” (AY2022-23) and have created a simple inventory; however, they have not yet reached the stage of detailed research and investigation of individual materials and have not yet examined the relationship between the various materials.
Among the materials used in this academic year, the principal researcher and collaborative researchers (Kamiyama, Kodama, and Fujiya) continued transcribing the diaries (79 volumes in total) written by Kurabayashi from June 1947 to March 2000. This endeavor built on the results of Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) “Basic Study of the Postwar Shingeki (new drama) Based on Research and Historical Evidence of Seiichiro Kurabayashi Document” (Principal Researcher: Goto Ryuki, 21K00199, AY2021-2023), which involved the transcription of diaries written by Kurabayashi during the Occupation period.
Through transcription and checking by the project members, we have completed the transcription of the diaries written by Kurabayashi from 1946 to 1952. We are preparing to publish these documents in the next academic year and hope to make them available to the public as materials contributing to the study of postwar shingeki (theater).
We also had an opportunity to interview Iwasaki Kaneko, who joined the Haiyu-za Gekidan Theater Company as a research student shortly after Japan’s defeat in World War II and is now the company’s representative. The contents of this interview were published in Goto Ryuki, “Seventy Years of Haiyu-za: The Changing Town of Roppongi and the Closing of the Theater” (Tokyo jin, No. 486, December 2024).
Future prospects will be discussed below. As aforementioned, in the next academic year, we plan to publish the results of the transcription of diaries written by Kurabayashi during the Occupation period, with explanatory notes and other information by the project members. We would also like to proceed with the transcription of the diaries he wrote after that time. The diaries written after the Occupation period date back to the construction and opening of the Haiyu-za Theater. In light of the theater’s closing in 2025, it is assumed that the results obtained through research and transcription of Kurabayashi’s diaries will be significant. Furthermore, we plan to conduct research on the dynamics of postwar shingeki, including materials other than diaries.
Principal Research 3
Research on Prewar Film Screenings Using Film-Related Materials
Principal Researcher
Okada Hidenori (Curator, National Film Archive of Japan)
Collaborative Researchers
Kamiya Makiko (Part-time Lecturer, Musashino Art University)
Shibata Kotaro(Junior Research Fellow, Research Institute for Letters, Arts and Sciences, Waseda University)
Shirai Fumito (Associate Professor, Faculty of Business and Commerce, Keio University)
Research Objectives
The purpose of this study is to examine various aspects of film exhibition, including live performances, at movie theaters in prewar Japan by cataloging and analyzing movie theater flyers in the Theatre Museum Collection. Building on the results of previous research projects conducted by the team, namely the Selected Research project “A Basic Research on Silent Film Screenings Using Promotional Movie Materials”(AY2020-2021) and the Principal Research project“Research and Study Toward the Utilization of Filmrelated Materials Centered on Theater Flyers” (AY2022-2023), this project will add the Theatre Museum’s Komada Koyo Collection to the scope of research to provide a more detailed understanding of film exhibition in the early silent film era.
Summary of Research
This academic year, while focusing on publishing the results of the team’s research activities that began in AY2020, the team began cataloging the scrapbooks in the Theatre Museum’s Komada Koyo Collection, introducing a new research subject. Additionally, they digitized a silent film from the Kobe Planet Film Archive’s collection with support from the Yanai Initiative and the efforts of Tokyo Ko-on. The film is scheduled to be shown as a “reconstructed” screening with a benshi’s narration and musical accompaniment at a public research meeting in 2025.
In May 2024, a research meeting was held at the National Film Archive of Japan (NFAJ) with film screenings of rare films produced during the transition to talkies. At the research meeting, Kamiya Makiko (collaborative researcher) gave a presentation entitled “Makino Talkie Activities and Works,” and Shibata Kotaro (collaborative researcher) gave a presentation entitled “The Intersection of Japanese Cinema and Storytelling.” The presentations were followed by a discussion with the participant Shirai Fumito (collaborative researcher) and guests Kyotani Yoshinori (Gakushuin University) and Nishizawa Shunsuke (Aoyama Gakuin University). In December 2024, Shibata and Kamiya interviewed Ueda Manabu (Kobe Gakuin University), who was involved in organizing the Komada Koyo Collection at the Theatre Museum.
As part of our research dissemination efforts, Shibata participated as a specialist in The Art of the Benshi 2024 World Tour, a project to screen silent films in four U.S. cities and at Waseda University in April 2024 (organized by the UCLA-Waseda Yanai Initiative, co-sponsored by UCLA Film & Television Archives, Collaborative Research Center for Theatre and Film Arts, Theatre Museum, Waseda University and in cooperation with NFAJ, Shochiku Co. Ltd., and the Theatre Museum, Waseda University ). As a part of this initiative, a public lecture entitled “The World of the Benshi: Lecture and Demonstration,” was held at JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles.
At this event, Shibata, Kamiya, and Shirai gave lectures on “The Voices of Benshi in Japan and Beyond,” “The ‘Modernity’ of Japanese Cinema in the 1910s and 1920s,” and “Silent Film Music Across the Pacific,” respectively. This was followed by a live performance of Kataoka Ichiro (benshi), who provided narration for the longest version of Blood Spattered Takadanobaba (Nikkatsu, 1928, directed by Ito Daisuke). The event concluded with an audience Q&A session, facilitated by Michael Emmerich (UCLA), who led the event as director of the Yanai Initiative. On January 27, 2025, James Doering (Randolph-Macon College) and his students held a workshop on the sound culture of prewar Japanese films entitled “Exploring the Power of Voice & Music in Japanese Silent Cinema” at the Theatre Museum.
(L)From the Komada Koyo material［16758-4_036］
(R)Q&A session with students at the workshop (January 27, 2025)
From left: Shibata (participating online), Shirai, Kataoka, and Kamiya
Selected Research 1
Basic research on the Okamoto Kido Collection
Principal Researcher
Yasuko Yokoyama (Professor, Department of Advances Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Hosei University)
Collaborative Researchers
Higashi Masao (Literary critic, anthologist)
Komatsu Shoko (Professor, Faculty of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, Waseda University)
Suzuki Yusaku (Specially-appointed assistant professor at the Center for Modern Kagoshima Studies, Faculty of Law, Economics and Humanities, Kagoshima University)
Hara Tatsukichi (Curator, Setagaya Literary Museum)
Matsuda Shohei (Fixed-term assistant professor, Faculty of Letters, Otani University)
Kensuke Wakisaka (Gakushuin High School)
Katsukura Ai (Nagoya City Higashigaoka Elementary School)
Research Objectives
The purpose of this study is to conduct basic research and analysis of materials in the Okamoto Kido Collection. It was 150th birth anniversary of Okamoto Kido (1872-1939) in the year 2022, who left a significant mark in the fields of theater and literature. Kido was an active writer in a variety of fields, including plays, drama reviews, novels, essays, and translations. In recent years, he has attracted attention not only in the research fields of modern drama and modern literature but also in diverse fields such as the study of ghosts, ghost stories, and yokai. This study focuses on Okamoto’s unpublished and untranscribed diaries and aims to digitize and transcribe them. We believe that these materials are first-rate resources for understanding the later life of the writer Okamoto Kido and that reprinting them and making them widely available will provide.
Summary of Research
〇 Digitization of related materials
The Theatre Museum houses Kido’s handwritten diaries from July 1923 to December 1938 (the diaries from October to December 1938 were written by Okamoto Kyoichi). The diaries are written vertically in a total of 30 notebooks. Kido lost many of his books and previous diaries in the Great Kanto Earthquake. However, he found a diary he had been writing in the luggage that he brought with him at the time of the disaster and decided to continue writing it. In the 16 years leading up to his death, he kept a detailed account of the day’s weather, temperature, activities, work progress, and visitors.
The diaries from 1923 to 1930 were transcribed and published by Okamoto Kyoichi under the titles Okamoto Kido Nikki and Okamoto Kido Nikki Zoku (Seiabo). However, the diaries of remaining eight years, from 1931 to 1938, have not been published or transcribed. The team will transcribe the unpublished section of the diaries. Entire diaries have been digitized with the intention of making images of full diaries available online in the future.
In addition to the diaries, the following two documents have been digitized. Okamoto Kido’s works were also performed abroad, and a document issued by the Japanese Embassy in France to Kido for permission to perform Shuzenji Monogatari at the Théâtre de l’Odéon in Paris in June 1927 is under the Theatre Museum’s possession. This is a concrete document of prewar overseas performances and is considered an important source to study the wide reception of Kido’s works.
An exhibition in memory of Okamoto Kido was held at the Theatre Museum from March 14, 1939, soon after his death, and a commemorative lecture was held on March 25 of the same year. Ikeda Daigo, Hamamura Yonezo, Oka Onitaro, Kimura Kinka, Kawamura Karyo, Tamura Nishio, Kawatake Shigetoshi, and others took the stage to talk about Kido, and a stenographic transcript of their speeches is in the possession of the Theatre Museum. These two documents will also be transcribed and made available to the public in the future.
〇 Transcription status of the diaries
This academic year, the diary entries from January 1931 to January 1933 were transcribed. The diaries from this period show Kido’s vigorous writing activities in his later years and his efforts to nurture his successors. They also carefully describe Kido’s daily life as an urban dweller, proving to be a valuable source for the history of social customs. By the end of the academic year, two years of transcribed diaries, from January 1931 to December 1932, will be available online, along with images of the materials. To achieve our objectives, we have increased the number of research collaborators during the academic year and are diligently working to make the information publicly available. We are also considering holding a public symposium and workshop in the coming academic year.
(L)Diary of Okamoto Kido, January 1931［8114-015］
(R)Permission document issued by the Embassy of Japan in France addressed to Okamoto Kido［29779］
Selected Research 2
Literary Circles of the Mid-Edo Period, Through Diaries of kabuki Actors
Principal Researcher
Björk, Tove Johanna (Professor, Saitama University Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences)
Collaborative Researchers
Inaba Yusuke (Associate Professor, Wako University Faculty of Liberal Arts)
Hioki Takayuki(Associate Professor, School of Information and Communication, Meiji University)
Research Objectives
Based on the “Hakuen Diary (Hakuen nikki)” of Ichikawa Danjuro II, this study aims to (1) examine the provenance of the Hakuen Diary and (2) investigate the literary circles of the mid-Edo period, focusing on kabuki performers. The Hakuen Diary was copied, along with the diary book “Persimmon Covers (Kaki byoshi),” by the attending physician of the kyoka poet Shikatsubeno Magao and his son (the original diary of Danjuro II was destroyed by fire in the early 19th century). The Hakuen Diary, constitutes an important document as a record of the daily lives of kabuki performers in the mid-Edo period as well as the literary sphere in which they operated.
With the diary as a starting point, this study’s intent is to clarify the Kyoho-era kabuki actors’ environment and their connections to haikai poets and other literati.
Summary of Research
There are three main research results of this academic year, the first of which was the continued annotation and commentary of the diaries. Principal researcher Björk continued to write annotations of the diaries of Ichikawa Danjuro II, publishing Part 8, in ‘Saitama University Faculty of Liberal Arts Review (Saitama Daigaku Kyoyo Gakubu Kiyo)’ Vol. 60, No. 1, and Part 9 in Vol. 60, No. 2 of the same journal. These sections of the diary cover the 8th-18th and 19th-24th days of the 6th month of the 19th year of the Kyoho era (1734). Danjuro II spent time with his wife Osai (pen name: Suisen) and their children at their villa in Meguro, visited the Shinagawa amusements quarters with haikai poets Fukagawa Koju I and II and Ichimura Uzaemon IX (pen name: Kako, head of the Ichimura-za theater) (8th day 6th month), listened to a sermon by Yutenji temple abbot Yuten II based on his experience of watching kabuki plays (19th day 6th month), and discussed the world of bon-kyogen with kyogen performer Tsuuchi Jihei II (pen name: Eiko) (13th day 6th month) during that summer vacation. These diary records reveal the specific ways in which kabuki actors and Edo literati, as well as priests of the Pure Land sect, interacted with each other in their daily lives. The second, was the continued annotation of poems 26 through 50 of the “Commanding Chariot (Shinanshano)” 100-poem sequence in the “Haikai Points by Teisa (Teisa Ten Haikaijo)” held by the University of Tokyo Library Shachiku Collection. This document concretely shows the relationships between the kabuki actors and haikai poets who also appear in the Hakuen Diary. The analyzed document was written on the 14th day of the 12th month, 1728, by Toshima Kafu (the haikai poet also known as Yukido) 100-Poem Memorial Sequence Group; the authors included the kabuki actors Ichikawa Danjuro II (Sansho) and Nakamura Shichisaburo II (Shocho), the playwrights Murase Genshiro (Gosen), Nakamura Seizaburo II (Tokyo), and Eda Yaichi (Fuhyaku), Rigo the doorman of the Nakamura-za theater, and patrons such as Oguchiya Jibei (Gyo’u), ranked as the number one big spender in Edo and thought by some to be the model for Danjuro II’s role character Sukeroku. Some of the poems hint at contemporary productions and actors’ critiques of plays like Sukeroku and Dojoji, further clarifying the intimate connections between kabuki and the world of haikai. This investigation was led by research collaborator Inaba Yusuke, with principal researcher Björk participating. The commentary on poems 26 through 50 was published in Studies in Dramatic Art Vol. 48 with Inaba Yusuke, Ogihara Daichi, Kobayashi Toshiki, Liu Xinja and Björk Tove as coauthors. The third research achievement was an invited lecture on the relationship between amateur kabuki performances at daimyo residences and the kabuki world as seen in the diary of Yanagisawa Nobutoki. The lecture was entitled “The World of Enyu Nikki: kabuki Performances and Kyogen Performers at Yanagisawa Nobutoki’s Residence” and was given at the Japanese Society for History of the Performing Arts Research.
The invited lecture, “The World of Enyu Nikki: kabuki Performances and Kyogen Performers at Yanagisawa Nobutoki’s Residence (Enyu nikki no Sekai – Yanagisawa Nobutoki tei no Okyogenshi),” was presented at the meeting of the Japanese Society for History of the Performing Arts Research held in December in Tokyo. Björk analyzed the records of two kabuki performances hosted by Nobutoki at his Somei Residence in the 6th and 9th months of the 2nd year of the An’ei era. From these records, we know that Nobutoki himself had his retainers and maids copy scenes from Nakamura Nakazo I, Iwai Hanshiro IV, and Ichikawa Danjuro IV, who were popular actors in Edo at the time, and combined them with a plot borrowed from Kamigata joruri books to create his new works. In addition, his secondary wife Oryu probably played multiple leading roles in these performances, indicating that Nobutoki’s household may have been fully involved. It was also found that during the preparation of the performance, the ladies of the residence would borrow props, wigs, and other items from Nakazo I to use on stage through the Matsuya teahouse at the Nakamura-za theater where Nakazo worked. This indicates that the kabuki world supported these patrons’ interest in kabuki and was intimately involved with them.
Mentioned above are the three main outcomes of this study for AY2024. Future plans include continuing the clarification of Edo literary circles through the specific relationships between kabuki actors, Edo literati, poets, and so on, as depicted in the diaries of Danjuro II.
Selected Research 3
Empirical Research on Regional Theater Under the GHQ (SCAP) Occupation: Focusing on the Kyushu Area
Principal Researcher
Ogawa Chikashi (Professor, Faculty of Childhood Education, Yokohama Soei University)
Collaborative Researchers
Sugawa Wataru (Associate Professor, Faculty of Humanities, Fukuoka Jo Gakuin University)
Hatanaka Sayuri (Part-time Lecturer, Osaka University)
Research Objectives
The objective of this study is to clarify the characteristics of the theater produced immediately after World War II in the Kyushu area. This is accomplished through an analysis of the Dizer Collection (scripts from Kyushu-area theatrical productions censored by the SCAP [GHQ]).
Summary of Research
This academic year, 27 scripts from the Dizer Collection were digitized. The results of research up to this academic year were presented at the Japan Society for Theatre Research’s panel “Empirical Research on Regional Theater Under the GHQ (SCAP) Occupation: Focusing on the Kyushu Area” held on Sunday, December 1, 2024 at Tokyo Keizai University. The research results of each of the collaborative researchers are outlined below.
Regarding amateur theater, workplace theater, and union theater, information written on the scripts, such as company names and authors, was referenced against information from theatrical magazines and the writings of those involved to pinpoint the characteristics of each company as far as possible. We also investigated the actual status of submissions for censorship of theatrical activities in the region.
With regard to theater companies in Kumamoto Prefecture, we proceeded to elucidate the activities of the Bungei-za Theater Company, which supported the beginnings of Kumamoto shingeki in the postwar period. The leader of the company, Shimokawa Enji (1916-1991), studied playwriting at Moulin Rouge before the war and has been confirmed to have written 15 scripts for the company’s performances. In studies like Karamatsu no kaze (Wind in the Pines), Mizukara no tochi (Our Own Land), and Furusato no kaze (Hometown Wind), Shimokawa depicted the struggles of people left behind in the postwar reforms, with demobilized soldiers, fiancés, and agrarian reform as subjects. His work depicts the great divide between those who sought to adapt to new values and those who were bound by the old ones. After the end of the Occupation, Shimokawa published a play, Den’en Kyoshikyoku (Rural Rhapsody) (1955), which reconstructed these studies, highlighting the divisiveness and violence of postwar society while offering an in-depth perspective on the American occupation policy. Shimokawa’s works from the Occupation period had a pioneering significance that anticipated the subsequent era, unlike the works celebrating new values created by the all-female theater company Orion-za, which was active in Kumamoto during the same period. The results of these studies were reported at the August meeting of the Society for the Study of Modern and Contemporary Theatre Studies and the December meeting of the Japan Society for Theatre Research.
Regarding popular theater genres, we have learned that they include a number of plays that are identical in content to the titles performed by popular theater troupes in the present day or that are considered to have their roots in the genre. It is groundbreaking to be able to provide evidence that same content have been performed from the Occupation to the present day in popular theater, for which few scripts have survived outside of the Dizer Collection. Moreover, we examined the content of the scripts (66 total/58 titles) submitted by Higuchi Jiro I (1906-1970) and his theater company, which became popular in the Kyushu area before and after World War II. Many plays were period dramas, such as Meigetsu Akagiyama (Full Moon Over Mt. Akagi). There were also rokyoku dramas, modern dramas starring demobilized soldiers, and absurdist dramas. This reveals that the popular theater companies of the time were devising various types of performance to win the hearts of audiences. These findings were presented at the Japan Society for Theatre Research in December.
Back cover of “Shokucho” (written by Katsutoshi Fujihisa)［GHQ00543］
The Yawata Independent Theater Council, formed in Yawata City, is introduced.
Such organizations were established in many areas throughout Japan at that time.
Selected Research 4
Research on Kodan Materials in the Tanabe Koji Collection
Principal Researcher
Imaoka Kentaro (Professor, College of Art and Design, Musashino Art University)
Collaborative Researchers
Sato Katsura (Professor, College of Literature, Aoyama Gakuin University)
Sato Yukiko (Professor, Faculty of Letters, The University of Tokyo)
Takamatsu Hisao (Professor, Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences, Waseda University)
Takiguchi Masahito (Lecturer, Keisen University)
Kanno Shunsuke (Graduate Student, The University of Tokyo)
Research Objectives
The late Tanabe Koji was a longtime editor at Shinchosha. While working in that role, he conducted research on kodan storytelling and edited and published the magazine Kodan Kenkyu (Kodan Research) to introduce materials and publish his research findings. The purpose of this study is to elucidate the full extent of the materials related to kodan in the Tanabe Collection which was donated to the Waseda University Theatre Museum.
This study will begin with a full investigation and digitization of the audio materials, followed by cataloging of the recorded performances. Currently, a simplified catalog of audio materials has been created, but an accurate catalog that matches the contents has yet to be produced. Compiling a detailed catalog and matching the materials with current performances are urgent tasks.
Summary of Research
〇 Features of the materials
The materials can be roughly divided into the following five categories:
① Audio materials in the form of commercially available records, cassette tapes, CDs, etc., of kodan performances.
② Audio materials in the form of cassette tapes of kodan performances which are believed to have been recorded by Tanabe himself from radio broadcasts.
③ Audio materials in the form of cassette tapes of kodan performances which are believed to be recordings of oral performances at meetings such as Shinshin Goninkai (The Rising Five) and Shunen Goninkai (The Excellent Five), which Tanabe hosted for many years.
④ Audio materials in the form of cassette tapes on the origins, stories, and performances of kodan performers, which are thought to have been recorded by Tanabe himself during his interviews.
⑤ Audio materials in the form of commercially available cassette tapes and CDs on rakugo, imitative voice, and other topics related to kodan.
The collection also includes a small number of visual materials on 8 mm video and VHS.
〇 Significance of the materials
Among the wide range of kodan-related materials collected by Tanabe, the most unique are the audio recordings of kodan broadcast on the radio from the 1960s to 2000s, the audio recordings of interviews with kodan performers themselves, and the audio recordings of kodan meetings hosted by Tanabe. Of these materials, the most valuable ones are audio materials (2) through (4), which were personally collected by Tanabe. Many of these materials are difficult to find in other collections given the circumstances at the time of recording.
〇 Work progress
This academic year, we are mainly digitizing cassette tapes manually using MP3 converters to prevent deterioration of sound quality and prepare them for future use as audiovisual materials. In the process of digitization, the cassette tapes were damaged by deterioration and other factors; however, a specialized company was hired to minimize the damage and complete the digitization process.
At this stage, about one third of the 887 items in the provisional catalog were identified and digitized. This has made future surveys and research on these audio sources possible without worrying about degradation of sound quality. However, about two thirds of the remaining audio sources have not been identified and digitized. These tasks will be addressed next academic year onward.
Meanwhile, the identification and matching of the performances themselves, which is conducted in parallel with the above, is difficult. This is partly because many of the materials are parts of full-length performances, and partly because it is difficult to create subheadings and correctly position them within fulllength performances. Imaoka is playing a central role in identifying these performances with those recorded in shorthand materials and other documents, and Takiguchi Masahito is focusing on matching them with current performances.
Selected Research 5
Overview Survey of Print Inventory Left Behind by Sakagawaya, the Original Publisher of Tokiwazu-bushi
Principal Researcher
Takeuchi Yuuichi (Professor, Research Institute for Japanese Traditional Music, Kyoto City University of Arts)
Collaborative Researchers
Suzuki Eiichi (Adjunct Researcher, Theatre Museum, Waseda University)
Tsuneoka Ryo (Director, Tokiwazu Association, Successor to Tokiwazu Iemoto)
Abe Satomi (Part-time Lecturer, Musashino Academia Musicae)
Maeshima Miho (Associate Professor, Kunitachi College of Music)
Shigefuji Gyo (Lecturer, Waseda University Extension Center)
Konishi Shiho (Collaborative Researcher, Kyoto City University of Arts）
Research Objectives
In 1860, near the end of the Edo period, Sakagawaya inherited Tokiwazu woodblock prints from their original printer, Igaya. Sakagawaya continued to reprint these works as well as publish new works through the Showa period, printing original copies (practice books) from woodcuts up through 1987 or so. The “print stock” (stock of printed originals and unfinished copies, 47 boxes in all, numbering several tens of thousands of items) formerly owned by this publisher and donated to the Theatre Museum constitutes the “materials related to the original Tokiwazu-bushi in the Sakagawaya Collection” that are the subject of this study. This academic year, the main objective was to conduct an overview survey of a quarter of the total volume of the materials under study and to prepare a catalog documenting the results of the survey.
The materials used for study are stored in 47 boxes. Some parts of the Collection have retained, to some extent, the packaging from the time the publisher was still active. To preserve this valuable information as a record, the state in which the materials are stored in boxes and the state of the packaging in which the materials are bundled will be photographed. Furthermore, when unpacking, care will be taken to preserve the condition of the original packaging as much as possible.
Summary of Research
From 2020 to AY2023, during a survey of approxi-mately 800 Tokiwazu-bushi woodblocks (Sakagawaya Collection) held by the Theatre Museum, it was confirmed that the print stock left by Sakagawaya was contained in 47 cardboard boxes. Most of these are preshipment print stock, probably containing large quantities of hundreds or thousands of single prints, which look exactly the same and have survived in almost exactly the same packaging as at that time. The unique feature of the print stock is that the various stages of the process, from printing to binding, can be observed at hand: several hundred sheets printed at once and packed as is, folded and stacked, with or without binding holes, and with or without covers.This academic year, we examined 10 boxes of approx-imately 91 books in the practice book inventory and photographed a selection of 59 books with relatively clear engravings and prints, converting them into data that were then used to create a provisional catalog with form classification and bibliographic information. We were able to identify 14 books with the same title but with new or old woodblocks, or with different printing dates (so-called “different editions”), and 37 books for which the existence of woodblocks could not be confirmed.
Fig. 1 Sakagawaya’s packaging from the late Showa period is retained.
How to organize the packaging and unfinished copies left after the publisher closed down to make them available for research is a difficult problem.
The Chiyo no Tomozuru box contains approximately 100 sets of printed materials from before the collation of the practice book.
The number on the wrapping could mean December 20, 1978. Part of document number［50393］
Fig. 2 Unfinished copy of the middle volume of the Hatsukoi Chigusa no Nuregoto practice book (Omitsu Kyoran)［50393-018］
The front cover, all pages of the text, and colophon have been prepared, and the binding holes have been punched, leaving only the thread binding pending.
The twisted paper string in the upper right corner was added to the preliminary survey in 1995.
Fig. 3 This may be an unfinished print of the Sakagawaya woodblock［29888-430～436］ of Volume I of the practice book Hatsukoi Chigusa no Nuregoto (Osome Doteba)［50393-012］
The binding holes have been punched (except for the front cover). Although it is unfinished before the shipment, it shows the writing in red and black pencil.
These may be traces of performers who visited Sakagawaya and wrote notes on stock items that were close at hand to confirm details for rehearsals or performances.
Selected Research 6
Research on the Concept of “History of Japanese Performing Arts” in the Ozawa Shoichi Collection: Focusing on Changes in Sexual Expression
Principal Researcher
Suzuki Seiko (Associate Professor, Graduate School of Humanities, Osaka University)
Collaborative Researchers
Muto Daisuke (Professor, Faculty of Literature, Gunma Prefectural Women’s University)
Kakinuma Ayako (Specialized Researcher, Kinugasa Research Organization, Ritsumeikan University)
Research Objectives
The Ozawa Shoichi Collection includes approximately 2,500 scripts for radio, television, film and theater performed by Ozawa Shoichi (1929-2012), a shingeki actor, as well as audiovisual media, scrapbooks, drafts, performance pamphlets, photographs, and more. The research team aims to investigate these materials and examine various aspects of sex-related culture in the “history of Japanese performing arts” as envisioned by Ozawa in the 1960s and 1970s.
Summary of Research
The fact that more than half of the Ozawa Shoichi Collection had been cataloged by the Theatre Museum by the time the research began in April 2024, and that the digitization of open-reel tape recordings of interviews by Ozawa Shoichi in the late 1960s was underway, greatly advanced the starting point for this research. As noted in the UNESCO Magnetic Tape Alert for 2025, magnetic tapes are recognized as a top priority for digitization by archival institutions around the world because they are at risk of becoming unplayable.The audio materials digitized at the Theatre Museum have value as a model project for other archival institutions and also have important material value for the content of this research. An analysis of the contents of the main open-reel tapes reveals that the interviewees were people Ozawa interviewed at the request of the popular newspaper Naigai Times in the 1960s. Among them, he conducted further interviews with the people involved in “sex” and “art” for his first book, Watashi wa kawarakojiki: ko (Sanichi Shobo, 1969). Also included in the collection is a recording of an interview (by Ozawa and Katsura Beicho) with Katsura Nanten I (1889-1972), a connoisseur of rare Kamigata performing arts such as Nishiki shadow play, which led to the LP Document: Wandering Arts of Japan (Victor, 1971). Transcriptions of these materials, which can reveal the relationship between the oral and written worlds of the time, have been found. The transcriptions were discussed in a class at Osaka University and at a seminar held in February. For other recorded materials, because of the diverse backgrounds of the subjects, we are attempting to conduct a collaborative study in which audio materials are listened to and discussed with experts in each field.
To understand the historical context of these audio recordings, we are concurrently working on a detailed inventory of the scrapbook materials produced by Ozawa. These materials are a series of what we might call “ego searches.” Ozawa employed a company to collect articles about himself published in newspapers and magazines throughout Japan (documents related to these transactions have been discovered), and created scrapbooks containing a large number of these clippings. These are important documents that trace his constant attempts to control the image he presented to the world. In the future, by linking other materials under investigation, such as newspaper and magazine articles, pamphlets, scripts, and photographs to this inventory, we intend to organically build a database of the Ozawa Collection.
(L)Open reel tape No. 5［EA00105965］
(R)Transcribed manuscript［51841］
Of an interview recording with Katsura Nanten I (late 1960s)
A bill for Ozawa’s “ego search”(Nippon Shiryo Tsushinsha, 1976)［51743］