Chronology

CHRONOLOGY of SHAKESPEARE IN JAPAN (selective)

1600

arrival in Japan of Will Adams (b. 1564) of Shogun fame – he translates letters from King James I but no evidence of anything Shakespearean; in 1613, a boat from the East India Company called The Globe docks at Hirado (near Nagasaki), where Adams has established his English Factory

Edo Era (1603-1868)

the Tokugawa shogunate rules Japan from what is now Tokyo and the country is all but isolated from the outside world

kabuki plays by Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1695), Chikamatsu Hanji (1771), Tsuruya Namboku IV and Sakurada Naosuke II (1810) reveal intriguing similarities with the plots of The Merchant of Venice and Romeo and Juliet

1841

first mention of Shakespeare’s name in print – a Japanese translation of a Dutch translation of an English grammar

1859

birth of Tsubouchi Shoyo, pioneer of Shakespeare studies and translation in Japan

1866

missionary J.C. Hepburn publishes an influential Japanese-English dictionary

Meiji Era (1868-1912)

era of modernisation, westernisation, linguistic and cultural reform

1868

Meiji Restoration – feudalism is abolished, the country reopened, and the Meiji Emperor restored as constitutional head of state

1871

Nakamura Keiu's translation of Samuel Smiles’ Self Help (1859) includes Polonius’ advice that ‘Heaven helps those who help themselves’ – a bestseller among the former samurai class

1874

Romanized version of ‘To be or not to be’ soliloquy in expatriate magazine The Japan Punch

1875

kabuki adaptation of Hamlet by Katagaki Robun

1882

Tokyo University professors Yatabe Ryokichi and Toyama Masakazu produce rival translations of ‘To be or not to be’ in their pioneering poetry anthology Shintaishi sho

1883

Fujita Meikaku translates the story of As You Like It from Tales of Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb (1807) – all twenty have been translated by 1907

Inoue Tsutomu resets the story of The Merchant of Venice in mercantile Osaka

Kawashima Keizo produces the first literal translation in Japanese of a Shakespeare play – Julius Caesar

1884

Tsubouchi Shoyo translates Julius Caesar in classical joruri style

1885

first Shakespearean production in Japan – Sakuradoki zeni no yo no naka (something like ‘All for money in this transitory world’), a kabuki adaptation of the Inoue narrative of The Merchant of Venice by Udagawa Bunkai and Katsu Genzo, staged at the Ebisuza in Osaka

1886

Engeki Kairyo Kai (Theatre Reform Society) launched, with Shoyo advocating Shakespearean drama as a model of dramatic coherence

1889

novelist and Goethe translator Mori Ogai includes lyrical translation of Ophelia’s song in his Omokage (Traces)

1890s

Shakespeare studies are gradually established at the new universities such as Waseda (where Tsubouchi teaches) – in a lecture at Tokyo University, Lafcadio Hearn urges his audience ‘to translate Shakespeare into your daily tongue’

1891

Shoyo sees the Miln Company performing Shakespeare in English at the Gaiety Theatre, Yokohama

1894

Sakata Tenji translates Edward Dowden’s Shakspere: A Critical Study of His Mind and Art (1875)

Kiri hitoha (A single paulownia leaf) – historical drama by Shoyo shows strong Shakespearean influence

1895

Japan defeats China in the Sino-Japanese War and colonizes Taiwan – era of conservative retrenchment and new literary schools (naturalism, realism etc.)

1902

Takayasu Gekko adapts King Lear for production at Kyoto’s Minamiza theatre

1903

Kawakami Otojiro, fresh from a trip to Europe with his wife the celebrated geisha Sadayakko, directs Othello in the sentimental but recognizably modern shimpa (‘new wave’) style – set in colonial Taiwan with text by Emi Suiin

1905

Japan defeats Russia in the Russo-Japanese War

1906

Shoyo and disciple Shimamura Hogetsu establish Bungei Kyokai (Literary Arts Association), Japan’s first modern theatrical company

1905-9

Tozawa Koya and Asano Hyokyo publish translations of ten of the plays

1907

novelist Natsume Soseki writes an essay on the supernatural in Macbeth – first original piece of Shakespeare criticism in Japanese

1909

Shoyo begins his translation of the Complete Works with a version of Hamlet – mainly in modern Japanese but with frequent recourse to kabuki mannerisms

1910

annexation of Korea

1910s

interest in comparative studies, e.g. Shakespeare and kabuki master Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1725)

1911

Shoyo’s Hamlet produced by Bungei Kyokai at new Imperial Theatre in Tokyo – first complete production of a complete Japanese translation

Taisho Era (1912-25)

era of economic growth and democratic reform

1912

novelist Shiga Naoya stands up for Claudius in his novella Claudius’ Diary

1913

following collapse of Bungei Kyokai, Hogetsu and his lover Matsui Sumako (Shoyo’s Ophelia) form their own company, performing final act of Antony and Cleopatra

Mori Ogai’s Macbeth translation praised by Shoyo – they had previously engaged in ‘hidden ideals’ debate in early 1890s, with Shoyo on the side of realism and Ogai for idealism

1914

first Japanese film of a Shakespeare play

1916

300th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death commemorated in Tokyo

1918-25

kabuki productions in the Tsubouchi translations of Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and Othello, the latter at Kabukiza with stars Matsumoto Koshiro and Ichikawa Sadanji

1923

Washiyama Daisaburo translates A.C. Bradley’s Shakespearean Tragedy (1904)

Great Kanto Earthquake – levelling much of Tokyo

1924

creation of Tsukiji Little Theatre establishes shingeki as modern dramatic genre and Shakespeare as modern playwright – directors Osanai Kaoru and Hishigata Yoshi produce several of Shoyo’s translations

Showa Era (1925-89)

era of militarism, military disaster, and spectacular recovery

1928

Shoyo completes his translation of Shakespeare’s Complete Works; a commemorative performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is staged at Imperial Theatre and Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum (facade in imitation of Elizabethan Fortune Theatre) opened at Waseda University

1929

study of Shakespeare’s flowers by Doi Kochi – predating Western scholarship

1930s

performances of Shakespeare musicals by all-female Takarazuka (founded 1913) and Shochiku troupes

1930

Shakespeare Society of Japan founded (suspended in wartime)

1933

gramophone records made of Shoyo reciting from his Shakespeare translations

1935

death of Tsubouchi Shoyo – citation read in National Diet

actress Mizutani Yaeko plays Hamlet and annual English Shakespeare productions start at Japan Women’s University

1937

Senda Koreya’s proletarian production of The Merry Wives of Windsor – translator Mikami Isao breaks away from ‘archaic’ Tsubouchi style

founding of Bungakuza theatre company

1940

Toyoda Minoru's English monograph, Shakespeare in Japan: An Historical Survey, published by Iwanami Shoten

Asia-Pacific War (1941-5)

1941

novelist Dazai Osamu’s retelling of the Hamlet story (Shin Hamuretto) bears anti-militarist sub-text

1944

founding of Haiyuza theatre company

1946

first post-war Shakespeare production – A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Imperial Theatre, directed by Hishigata Yoshi

1947

Zenshinza company tour Japan, visiting schools and factories with productions of four Shakespeare plays

1949

Japanese Society for Theatre Research founded

1950

Arai Ryohei’s film adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew – start of regular television broadcasting

1950s

Kato Choji’s Kindai Gekijo produce several Shakespeare plays in Shoyo’s translation

1951

San Francisco Peace Treaty

1952

noh performer Katayama Hiromichi stages The Merry Wives of Windsor in kyogen style

1953

Gekidan Shiki founded, famous for its musicals

1955

inspired by Michael Benthall’s Old Vic production starring Richard Burton and Claire Bloom (1953), Fukuda Tsuneari’s Hamlet – with Akutagawa Hiroshi in title role – sets the pace through to the 1970s; Fukuda aims to fill ‘the spiritual void’ left by wartime defeat and will translate another eighteen of the plays

1957

Throne of Blood (Kumonosujo) – Kurosawa Akira’s film adaptation of Macbeth, starring Mifune Toshiro

1959

Ozawa Eitaro directs Haiyuza at their Roppongi (Tokyo) venue in contemporary production of Twelfth Night

1960

kabuki star Matsumoto Koshiro plays Othello in the Fukuda production

Kurosawa sets Hamlet in corporate Japan – The Bad Sleep Well

1960s-80s

Showa Genroku – period of rapid economic growth, expanding opportunities for Shakespeare production, i.e. new theatres and new companies – named after Genroku Era (1688-1703) when kabuki flourished

1961

Shakespeare Society of Japan reestablished

1963

opening of Nissei Theatre next to Imperial Palace – host to countless Shakespeare Productions

Eiken English proficiency tests established

1964

Tokyo Olympics and inauguration of Shinkansen bullet train

1966

opening of National Theatre – the Beatles tour to Japan

1968

emergence of avant-garde angura (‘underground’) theatre accompanies student riots against renewal of US-Japan Security Treaty

Kishi Tetsuo and Hachiya Akio translate Jan Kott’s Shakespeare Our Contemporary

1970s

interest in the comedies and the role of the fool

1970

Royal Shakespeare Company tour to Tokyo for the first time with productions of The Merry Wives of Windsor and The Winter's Tale

1972

Bungakuza Shakespeare Festival

Kawatake Toshio, Nihon no Hamuretto (Hamlet in Japan)

1973

Peter Brook visits Tokyo with 'white box' production of A Midsummer Night's Dream

1974

Ninagawa Yukio’s debut Shakespeare production – Romeo and Juliet – for Toho

1975

Deguchi Norio forms Shakespeare Theatre company, with ‘jeans and T-shirt’ production of Twelfth Night in downtown Shibuya – over next decade, they perform all of Shakespeare’s plays in the new translations by Odashima Yushi

1976

Suzuki Tadashi founds Suzuki Company of Toga in rural Toyama

1980s

policies of internationalization promoted by Japanese government – BBC Shakespeare films shown on NHK television (1980-7)

1981

facsimile of First Folio published by Meisei University Press

Ueda Munekata founds Noh Shakespeare Study Group

1983

Tokyo Disneyland opens

Miyoshi Hiroshi, Shakespeare to Nihonjin no kokoro (Shakespeare and the Japanese Soul)

1984

Peter Milward SJ appointed first director of Renaissance Centre at Sophia University, Tokyo

1985

Ran – Kurosawa Akira’s film adaptation of King Lear starring Nakadai Tatsuya

Ninagawa Yukio stuns Edinburgh Festival with his samurai Macbeth (Hira Mikijiro and Shiraishi Kayoko in the title roles) – first of many overseas tours by Ninagawa

1986

Noda Higeki directs Twelfth Night for Toho in postmodern style

1987

Arai Yoshio begins series of recitals of the Complete Works in Japanese to raise funds for London Globe

Ninagawa’s Tempest alludes to 15th century noh master Zeami exiled to Sado Island

1988

opening of Tokyo Globe Theatre – enclosed concrete structure modelled after Shakespeare’s Globe

director Suzuki Tadashi visits Milwaukee, USA, with his King Lear set in a mental hospital

Heisei Era (1989-2019)

era of economic uncertainty

1989

opening of Bunkamura Theatre Cocoon in downtown Shibuya

Anzai Tetsuo, ed., A Hundred Years of Shakespeare in Japan (Japanese)

1990

Tokyo Arts Theatre, Ikebukuro – Tokyo Shakespeare Company founded by Edo Kaoru

1991

interest in ‘Shakespeare in Japan’ spurred by the 5th World Shakespeare Congress held in Tokyo

Shakespeare Society chairman Takahashi Yasunaru and Nomura Mansaku’s kyogen adaptation of The Merry Wives of Windsor – Horazamurai (The Braggart Samurai)

1992

Kanadehon Hamlet – Tsutsumi Harue’s comic satire on Meiji kabuki actors getting their revenge on Hamlet

1994

Matsuoka Kazuko translates Hamlet for production by Peter Stormare at Tokyo Globe

1995

Yamazaki Seisuke launches Shakespeare for Children company with Romeo and Juliet

debut production by Shimodate Kasumi’s Tohoku Shakespeare Company of Romeo and Juliet – they aim to build Globe replica in Sendai

1997

opening of New National Theatre in Tokyo and Sam Wanamaker’s Globe Theatre in London

veteran playwright Kinoshita Junji completes translation of The Wars of the Roses

1998

Ninagawa launches Shakespeare Series at Sai no Kuni Arts Theatre in Saitama, aiming to produce all thirty-seven canonical plays – in new translations by Matsuoka Kazuko

1999

Shakespeare Society of Japan homepage

Sanada Hiroyuki plays the Fool to Nigel Hawthorne’s Lear at Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford (dir. Ninagawa)

2001

Ninagawa appointed CBE by British government

2003

kyogen star Nomura Mansai plays Hamlet in new translation by Kawai Shoichiro

2004

Niigata-based Ryutopia launch Noh Shakespeare Series with Macbeth and Othello, under director Kurita Yoshihiro

2005

Ninagawa Twelfth Night in complete kabuki adaptation at the Kabukiza

Kishi Tetsuo and Graham Bradshaw, Shakespeare in Japan, and Friederike von Schwerin-High, Shakespeare, Reception and Translation: Germany and Japan

2006

film of As You Like It directed by Kenneth Branagh set in 19th century Japan

2009

Miyagi Satoshi collaborates with Korean director Lee Yun-Taek on bilingual Othello

2011

Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster

2013

Kishi Tetsuo adapts The Comedy of Errors in Kamigata dialect for Piccolo Theatre

2015

Yasuda Masahiro’s Yamanote no Jijosha in postcolonial reading of The Tempest

2016

exhibition at Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum (‘Shoyo to Ninagawa’) commemorates 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death

death of Ninagawa Yukio – actor Yoshida Kotaro takes over directing Shakespeare Series

Reiwa Era (since 1st May, 2019)