In celebration of receiving my first pay check (wOOt!) I took a trek down to Takarazuka in Hyougo Prefecture. It's a beautiful town that is well known for the Takarazuka Grand Theater, which I went there to visit. This theater is home to the 宝塚歌劇団 (Takarazuka Kagekidan) a school of female actors who put on a wide variety of musicals and plays. All the roles, both male and female, are played by women. This is the opposite of Kabuki, where all of the roles are played by men. The performers train in a special school in order to join the group. There is some interesting information about the Takarazuka Revue on the Wikipedia page, which describes it's history and the role that has played in relation women's rights and the role of women in Japan.
When a friend of mine invited me to the show I wasn't fully aware of what it was going to be like, so I went into the experience not really knowing what to expect. I am definitely glad that I went. I would describe the Takarazuka Grand Theater as being the strange child of Broadway, Bollywood, Los Vegas shows, and traditional Japanese Kabuki and plays. The show that I saw was called 美しき生涯 (Utsukushiki Shougai) which translates to "A Beautiful Life". The play was about the life of a Japanese historical figure, Ishida Matsunari. Matsunari was a retain of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, an important daimyo who unified the political factions in Japan in the 1500s. The play focuses on Matsunari's loyalty and also on his love for Chuchu, the niece of Oda Nobunaga. The two characters are portrayed as star-crossed lovers to a certain extent; they come from two different social classes and their attraction would have been frowned upon.
Since the play was completely in Japanese it was a bit hard for me to follow, but very enjoyable none-the-less. The costumes, music, and dancing alone made it stand out as a very unique performance. All of the performers were incredibly talented. One of the most interesting aspects of the show was that all of the roles were played by women. It doesn't seem that strange to me (it happens in European opera occasionally too), but it did make the music very interesting. In contrast to opera (where the women playing young men sing in a female vocal range) the Takarazuka performers seem to throw their voices in a way that makes them sound very male, both when they are speaking and singing. Also, the costuming and make-up was so elaborate that it was difficult to tell that the actors weren't actually male. This speaks a lot to the flexibility and fluidity of gender roles in Japan. After the show, the friend whom I travelled with mentioned how she didn't think that this type of performance would work in the States; we don't have the same androgyny that can sometimes exist in Japanese culture.
Hopefully I will be able to go to another performance sometime soon. It was a really enjoyable and interesting experience, and I hope that as my Japanese improves I will be able to understand things like these more and more. Just like broadway, I have a feeling the music and stories might become a bit of an addiction (>.<)
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