The Man Who Saved Kabuki: Faubion Bowers and Theatre Censorship in Occupied Japan

by Okamoto Shiro, Samuel L. Leiter

Overview

As part of its program to promote democracy in Japan after World War II, the American Occupation, headed by General Douglas MacArthur, undertook to enforce rigid censorship policies aimed at eliminating all traces of feudal thought in media and entertainment, including kabuki. Faubion Bowers (1917-1999), who served as personal aide and interpreter to MacArthur during the Occupation, was appalled by the censorship policies and anticipated the extinction of a great theatrical art. He used his position in the Occupation administration and his knowledge of Japanese theatre in his tireless campaign to save kabuki. Largely through Bowers's efforts, censorship of kabuki had for the most part been eliminated by the time he left Japan in 1948.

Although Bowers is at the center of the story, this lively and skillfully adapted translation from the original Japanese treats a critical period in the long history of kabuki as it was affected by a single individual who had a commanding influence over it. It offers fascinating and little-known details about Occupation censorship politics and kabuki performance while providing yet another perspective on the history of an enduring Japanese art form.

Read Bowers' impressions of Gen. MacArthur on the Japanese-American Veterans' Association website.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780824824419
Publisher:	University of Hawaii Press, The
Publication date:	04/01/2001
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Samuel L. Leiter is distinguished professor of theatre at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, and also teaches at The Graduate Center, City University of New York.

Samuel L. Leiter is distinguished professor of theatre at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, and also teaches at The Graduate Center, City University of New York.

Table of Contents

	Translator's Introduction	vii
	Author's Introduction	xv
Chapter 1	Faubion Bowers and Japan, 1940-1945	1
Chapter 2	Wartime Kabuki: Censorship on the Home Front	17
Chapter 3	The Occupation Commences and the Actors Return	30
Chapter 4	Kabuki Censorship Begins: The "Terakoya" Incident	43
Chapter 5	How Faubion Bowers "Saved" Kabuki	66
Chapter 6	Kabuki's Suffering Ends	103
Chapter 7	Conclusion	115
	Epilogue: Letter from Kawatake Shigetoshi to Faubion Bowers	129
Appendix A	Kabuki Chronology, 1940-1948	131
Appendix B	Kabuki Plot Summaries	155
	Notes	181
	Selected Bibliography	193
	Index	197