published_or_final_version / Literary and Cultural Studies / Master / Master of Arts

The Relationship Marketing Strategies of Musical theaters in Japan Despite the continued economic recession in Japan, there are some businesses that have maintained high profit margins and consumer demand. One such business is the theater, notably musicals, which provide high quality performances and stages. Gekidanshiki, a musical production company which has stunned Japanese audiences with high quality, translated Broadway musicals, and Takaratzuka, known for employing single, females only since its origin in 1912, as well as for creating the Star System. Both operate their own theaters and have multiple casts for each musical, which grants the audience choices as to what they will watch ¡V 5 at Takaratzuka, and 10 at Genkidanshiki. Moreover, both have also created special groups consisiting of core fans who act as liaisons between the theater and the audience, providing promotion for the theater and communicating the desires of the audiences back to the theater for no charge above and beyond being part of the theater community. Traditionally, communication between the theaters and the audiences is one way; theaters would cease promotions until a new production was in the works. Recently, the importance of two way communication between the theater and audience has been realized, and yet the intercommunication is still not effective. The Japanese theaters, however, have developed their own methods for instituting two way communication that is quite effective and provides the theaters with much needed promotion, feedback, and, as a result, consumers. The process the Japanese have created revolves around 3 steps: The first step is Awareness of the Theater; the theater must takes chances to contact audiences outside the expected demographic ¡V such as the Japanese providing free theater for the working class on occasion in order to get them interested in the theater, as well have a specific, recognizable operating system (Ensemble or Star System) and style of performance. The second step is Quality of Onstage Performance, which consists of actors and hard equipment. The actors can be dealt with by a system of education that can both satisfy the need for new faces and an objective review system of the actors. The hard equipment must be dealt with by high expense, not only in the area of onstage equipment, but also offstage; in Japan, some of the theaters, have special rooms for mothers to watch with their children where they do not have to worry about a child¡¦s crying disturbing others, or a daycare center so that housewives can come to the theater and not have to worry about their children. Finally, the most important step is to increase the frequency of consumption of performances. For any stationary theater, without the option to change location to gain a fresh audience new to the performances, maintaining, and, hopefully, increasing the consumers is the top priority. In Japan, the theaters have continued survive and their audiences consist of both faithful consumers and new consumers as well through a clever marketing strategy that is self-motivated. The Japanese theaters select volunteers from among their regular audiences who then become official members of the theater as theater advisors ¡V although, these theater advisors receive no pay ¡V and these theater advisors act as word-of-mouth promoters and also bring back the desires of the audience community so that the theaters may better respond to and meet those desires. Also, the theater advisors are selected by the theaters on the basis of the demographic they can best communicate with and the area they live in. Because all of the theater advisors are volunteers, the entire group is self-motivated, and harder working than a paid individual might be. I would like to both introduce the practical ¡§relationship¡¨ marketing strategies taken by Japanese theaters and review the history of these strategies in order to identify the key points that render them effective, and, in turn, the Japanese theater such a lucrative business. Finally, I would like to review the situation of Taiwanese theaters, and try to identify the reasons for the weakening of the operation of Taiwanese theaters. Most of the Taiwanese theaters are quite new and weighed down by financial problems that originate from the source of the target audience. Also, these theaters are lacking in the experience and knowledge necessary to construct the means of intercommunication between the theaters and the audiences. For Taiwanese theater to survive, it is urgent for them to take actions that will help create, perpetuate, and expand their market. By reviewing the actions of the Japanese theaters, specifically the Gekidanshiki and Taratzuka, I hope that the research will stimulate useful and new thinking in the field of the musical market.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 54-57).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 54-57). Also available in print.

<p>This paper discusses some concerns about Japanese gender identity as a construct and the subversive means to overthrow it. In my paper I claim that the eastern influences on Japan has created a gap between old and new gender- traditions and norms. This interspace is what the philosopher Judith Butler claims as the site for a possible gender transformation. As Butler claims gender identity to be a construct, I use her methods of understanding and subsequently queertheory, to investigate the construct of Japanese gender identity and also the norms that constitute a national identity. As I elaborate on this theory I use specific artworks from Morimura Yasumasa, Yoshiko Shimada and Bubu de la Madeleine and also the all-male theatre kabuki vs. the all-female revue takarazuka. These examples are not symptomatic for a queer culture. Rather they, as I, aim to in some stances challenge normative gender roles and in other cases offer an alternative vision of what gender identity can mean. As the paper will show, queertheory is a tool that is available for anyone who wishes to criticize and examine strategies of a normative gender. The artworks and the queertheoretical interpretations will, in this paper, offer a possibility to dream of another world.</p>

This paper discusses some concerns about Japanese gender identity as a construct and the subversive means to overthrow it. In my paper I claim that the eastern influences on Japan has created a gap between old and new gender- traditions and norms. This interspace is what the philosopher Judith Butler claims as the site for a possible gender transformation. As Butler claims gender identity to be a construct, I use her methods of understanding and subsequently queertheory, to investigate the construct of Japanese gender identity and also the norms that constitute a national identity. As I elaborate on this theory I use specific artworks from Morimura Yasumasa, Yoshiko Shimada and Bubu de la Madeleine and also the all-male theatre kabuki vs. the all-female revue takarazuka. These examples are not symptomatic for a queer culture. Rather they, as I, aim to in some stances challenge normative gender roles and in other cases offer an alternative vision of what gender identity can mean. As the paper will show, queertheory is a tool that is available for anyone who wishes to criticize and examine strategies of a normative gender. The artworks and the queertheoretical interpretations will, in this paper, offer a possibility to dream of another world.

This thesis explores the various elements of Takarazukaʼs performance style, and analyses how they influence the adaptation of pieces which fall outside this style. As a case study this thesis will examine the world-wide acclaimed Viennese German-language musical Elisabeth (1992), which was materially altered in order to suit Takarazukaʼs established style, and became Erizabēto – ai to shi no rondo (Erizabēto – the rondo of love and death, 1996). Employing the existing framework for the analysis of the theatre, by theatre scholars Yamanashi Makiko and Marumoto Takashi, this thesis will provide a detailed account of Takarazukaʼs style elements, and show how pieces which fall outside this style are treated. The conversation on Takarazukaʼs performance style is recently started in English, and this thesis is intended to add to this. The Takarazuka version, Erizabēto – ai to shi no rondo is contrasted with the original Viennese in terms of 1) plot, dialogue and characterisation; and 2) lighting and scenery, and wardrobe to illustrate Takarazukaʼs adaptation process. Upon doing this analysis, it became apparent that Takarazuka has an established style which centres on romanticism, fantasy and visual richness, and that pieces that do not originally fit within this style are thoroughly altered in order to become appropriate for the Takarazuka stage.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Murdoch University, 2004. / Thesis submitted to the Division of Arts. Bibliography: leaves 332-374.

Malgré le fait que beaucoup de travail ait été réalisé autour du phénomène « Shakespeare japonais », cette dissertation se positionne autrement dans cette conversation en examinant les performances et adaptations de Shakespeare au Japon par le théâtre féminin Takarazuka Revue. Ceci est accompli au moyen d’une analyse critique des traditions du théâtre Kabuki, de l’histoire prémoderne et postmoderne du Japon et de la culture populaire japonaise. Cette dissertation se concentre sur les œuvres de Shakespeare et sur la manière dont celles-ci permettent au Japon d’examiner ses propres réalités sociale, culturelle, historique et politique. Pour ce faire, j’examine donc les pratiques de théâtres prémodernes de l’Angleterre et leur emploi du « boy actor » pour jouer les rôles féminins et je compare ce phénomène à celui du théâtre Kabuki et à son utilisation d’acteurs « onnagata » pour jouer des rôles semblables. Par la suite, j’aborde le fait que le théâtre de Takarazuka approprie ses traditions et subvertit les normes en n’ayant que des actrices pour jouer les rôles masculins et féminins dans ses performances. Le Takarazuka est souvent vu comme étant un défenseur d’idées patriarchales au Japon à cause de ses politiques internes. Cependant, selon moi, ce théâtre offre également une forme d’émancipation pour les femmes et d’autant plus lorsqu’il est combiné avec les œuvres de Shakespeare. Shakespeare est donc analysé dans ce contexte par lequel le Japon peut examiner son passé ainsi que ses idées contemporaines sur le genre, la sexualité, et la féminité. J’étudie donc cinq performances de Shakespeare qui suivent le développement de la cause féminine à travers les époques, en commençant par l’époque Edo jusqu’à l’ère postmoderne. Le théâtre au Japon a évolué de son état premier initialement réservé à la noblesse pour éventuellement être accessible au peuple commun par l’intermédiaire de la religion. En alliant ces traditions et cette histoire culturelle avec Shakespeare, ainsi que son influence positive sur le théâtre japonais, je démontre que Shakespeare et le Japon sont reliés historiquement et dans les arts à travers les performances et adaptations de Takarazuka. / While much work has been done on the topic of Japanese Shakespeare, particularly as it relates to the playwright’s influence over traditional theatre arts since the Meiji era, this dissertation breaks new ground by looking at the all-female Takarazuka Revue’s adaptations and performances of Shakespeare with a close examination of Kabuki traditions, Japanese early modern history, and popular culture. This dissertation highlights how Shakespeare’s works act as a critical lens through which Japan examines its own social, cultural, historical, and political realities. To achieve this, I examine England’s early modern practice of employing boy actors to play the roles of female characters and highlight the similarities with Japan’s Kabuki and its use of onnagata actors to enact the same role on stage. From this point, I draw links to Takarazuka’s appropriation of these traditions and its subversion of norms through the employment of an all-female cast in all of its performances. While Takarazuka has often been regarded as a reinforcer of patriarchal values due to its strict inner politics, I argue that it also offers a form of emancipation for women in theatre when combined with Shakespeare’s plays. Shakespeare is analysed in this context to show how his works act as vehicles through which Japan’s historical past can be examined and its contemporary ideas of gender, sexuality, and womanhood can be considered. I look at five distinct performances of Shakespeare to explore the development of female agency in Japan, spanning the centuries from the Edo era to a postwar society in which Shakespeare is re-Westernized for a modern world. Theatre in Japan has always held a special place in how it evolved from being religion-driven, to aristocratic, and then accessible to the masses. By combining this rich tradition with Shakespeare and examining his positive influence over the revival of these arts, Shakespeare and Japan become intrinsically linked throughout history and in the arts as shown through Takarazuka’s adaptations and performances.

本博士論文では、戦間期から戦後にかけての宝塚歌劇団と、アメリカのトランスナショナルな関係性について焦点をあて、アメリカと継続的な接点があった宝塚女性演者に着目をする。宝塚演者のような特殊性を持つ女性たちに焦点を当てることは、当時の新たな日本人女性像を見出すことを可能にする。同時に、トランスナショナルな視点を用いた結果、彼女たちが日本人女性としてのアイデンティを国内だけではなく、国外とのやり取りを通じて構築していたという事実を明らかにする。 / This project is one of the first attempts to explore the transnational history of Takarazuka by following the complex processes by which Americans and Japanese used Takarazuka to explore the contours of Japanese identity and femininity in the period from the late 1930s to the 1950s. Especially, through this dissertation, I will focus on the voices of Takarazuke females whose historical voices have barely been featured in the previous research. By using transnationalism as a main analytical theme, I argue that these females used the given opportunities to recreate their own identities, especially through the difficulties of negotiating the boundaries during the time when the role of Japanese women was continuously transforming. / 博士(アメリカ研究) / Doctor of Philosophy in American Studies / 同志社大学 / Doshisha University