Canonising Shakespeare in 1920s Japan

In 1927, just before completing the first Japanese translation of Shakespeare’s Complete Works, Tsubouchi Shōyō (1859–1935) selected eight of his translations for inclusion in his own Selected Works, which were published in fifteen volumes in conclusion to his career as one of the leading exponents of cultural reform of his generation. His choice is idiosyncratic as it omits the plays that had become most popular during the period of Shakespeare’s initial reception in late nineteenth-century Japan, but includes a number that were relatively unknown, such as Measure for Measure. This article suggests likely reasons for his selection before discussing the comments he makes on each play in his translation prefaces, and thus provides an overview of what Tsubouchi had come to value about Shakespeare.

Shingeki

Shingeki (literally "new theater") is a word coined in late Meiji period Japan (1868–1912) referring to dramatic works and theater performance styles imported and adapted from late 19th- and early 20th-century Europe. Almost every Japanese theatre form created in the 20th and 21st centuries is influenced by shingeki, but after the 1960s it was no longer a term associated with the avant-garde. Shingeki existed as a distinct theatrical genre for just over a decade in the late Meiji and early Taisho (1912–1926) periods; however, its legacy remains in Japanese theater. During the Meiji period’s rapid modernization and Westernization kabuki and nō presentational forms were criticized; naturalist and realist staging by playwrights such as Ibsen, Chekhov, and Hauptmann were promoted; and the view of dramatic texts as literature rather than as a springboard for an actor’s virtuosity became dominant. During the first decades of the 20th century writers such as Tsubouchi Shōyō (1858–1935) and Osanai Kaoru (1881–1928) sought to create a sharp distinction between premodern and modern forms of performance. The result was shingeki.

Mori, ōgai (1862–1922)

Mori ōgai served as a surgeon in the Japanese Imperial Army, and was a translator, novelist, dramatist, and literary theorist during the Meiji and Taisho periods. While a dramatist in his own right, he is also important for his translations (especially of Ibsen) and his critical writings. Mori ōgai was born Mori Rintarō to an aristocratic family in Iwami Province in southwestern Japan. Following the Meiji Restoration, his family moved to Tokyo and he began to study German. Graduating from medical college in 1881 at the age of nineteen years, he enlisted in the Japanese Imperial Army, which sent him to Germany to study, returning in 1885. During his time in Europe Mori became interested in Western literature and began translating German works into Japanese. His critical assertions in both the popular press and the intellectual press resulted in drama being considered equal to other forms of literature, and in the idea that well-respected individuals could read drama, attend the theater and engage in serious discussions about both. His debates in print with Tsubouchi Shōyō, his intellectual rival, focused on the nature and purpose of drama. Tsubouchi advocated for Realism, while Mori sensed a universal ideal behind literature. Collectively they staked out important principles behind modern Japanese dramatic literature.

Die Zukunft des Japanischen Tanzes (1908)

The following translated essay by Tsubouchi Shōyō 坪内逍遥 (1859–1935) gives an example of one of the earliest public discussions about the theatrical form called

Tsubouchi Shōyō and the Beauty of Shakespeare Translation in 1900s Japan

In a recent study of Shakespeare translation in Japan, the translator and editor Ōba Kenji (14) expresses his preference for the early against the later translations of Tsubouchi Shōyō (1859-1935), a small group of basically experimental translations for stage performance published between the years 1906 and 1913; after 1913, Shōyō set about translating the rest of the plays, which he completed in 1927. Given Shōyō’s position as the pioneer of Shakespeare translation, not to mention a dominant figure in the history of modern Japanese literature, Ōba’s professional view offers insights into Shōyō’s development that invite detailed analysis and comparison with his rhetorical theories. This article attempts to identify what Shōyō may have meant by translating Shakespeare into elegant or “beautiful” Japanese with reference to excerpts from two of his translations from the 1900s.