Everything about The Takarazuka Revue totally explained
The
Takarazuka Revue (宝塚歌劇団
Takarazuka Kagekidan) is a
Japanese all-
female musical theater in the city of Takarazuka, Japan. Women play both male and female roles in lavish, Broadway-style productions - most of their plays are Western-style musicals, and sometimes they're stories adapted from
shōjo manga and folktales of China and Japan. Their fans are mostly female.
History
The Takarazuka Revue began in
Takarazuka,
Hyōgo Prefecture,
Japan in 1913 founded by
Ichizo Kobayashi, an industrialist and politician who was the president of
Hankyu Railways. The city of Takarazuka was already a popular tourist destination for its famous hot springs and the city was the terminus of a Hankyu line from Osaka as well. Kobayashi believed that it was the ideal spot to open up an attraction of some kind that would boost train ticket sales and draw in even more business for the city of Takarazuka. The name of the troupe comes from the
Hankyu Takarazuka Line in suburban
Osaka. Kobayashi considered the
Kabuki theater to be already well-established and he believed their ideas to be very old and elitist. Since Western song and dance shows were getting more and more popular in this period, Kobayashi thought that an all female theater group might be well received by the general public. In a country where public kissing was frowned upon, the fact that such scenes were implied rather than acted out and that both actors were unmarried women, made such scenes acceptable to the general public. The Revue had its first performance in 1914. By 1924, the company had become popular enough to get its own theater called the
Dai Gekijō meaning “Grand Theater” in Takarazuka. Currently Takarazuka performs for 2.5 million people per year. The majority of the fans are women. (see
Audience of Takarazuka) The modern Takarazuka Theater in Tokyo is an elegant showplace.
Part of the novelty of Takarazuka is that all the parts are played by women, based on the original model of
Kabuki, before women were banned from the theatre in Japan. The women who play male parts are referred to as
otokoyaku (literally "male role") and those who play female parts are called
musumeyaku (literally "daughter's role"). The costume, set designs and lighting are extravagantly lavish, and the performances are
melodramatically emotional. Side pathways extend the already wide proscenium, accommodating elaborate processions and choreography.
Regardless of the historic era of the musical presented, period costume accuracy is regularly relaxed for extravagant finales which include a
Rockette-style
kick line and scores of glittering performers parading down an enormous stage-wide staircase. Lead performers portraying both male and female roles appear in the finale wearing huge circular feathered back-pieces reminiscent of Paris or Las Vegas costuming.
Before becoming a member of the troupe, a young woman must train for two years in the Takarazuka Music School, one of the most competitive of its kind in the world. Each year, thousands from all over Japan audition and between 40 and 50 are accepted. They are trained in
music,
dance, and
acting, and are guaranteed seven-year contracts. The school is famous for its strict discipline and for the custom of having first-year students clean the premises each morning.
The first year, all women are trained together, but at the end of the first year, women are divided by the faculty and the current troupe members into
otokoyaku and
musumeyaku. Those playing
otokoyaku take on a more masculine role in the classroom, cut their hair short, and speak in the masculine form from then on.
The company has five main troupes:
Hana,
Tsuki,
Yuki,
Hoshi, and
Sora (Flower, Moon, Snow, Star, and Sky), and
Senka (Superior Members), a collection for senior actresses who are no longer part of the regular troupes yet still wish to maintain their association with the revue and perform from time to time. Flower and Moon are the original troupes, founded in 1921. Snow Troupe began in 1924. Star Troupe was founded in 1931, disbanded in 1939, and reestablished in 1948. The newest troupe, Sky, was founded in 1998.
Actors of Takarazuka
While on the surface it would appear that the Takarazuka Revue was primarily intended to grant Japanese women freedom from social oppression, ironically, it began as quite the opposite idea. “The production office and corporate structure that control Takarazuka are overwhelmingly patriarchal.” Although Takarazuka embodies Shiraishi’s idea that the actresses become “
good wives and wise mothers” upon leaving the company, it also simultaneously represents progressive feminist points of view. Some believe that its appeal to the female audience is because of the perceived link to freedom from traditional Japanese society’s imposed ideas of gender and sexuality. Women feel empowered in a society where they're restricted by gender-bound roles. So while Takarazuka “reinforces the status quo and sublimates women's desires through its dreamy narratives, there remains some possibility that certain spectators find it empowering simply to watch women play men.” “The otokoyaku's female following see her as a version of this kind of androgynous, safe beauty rarely found in real men.” The rival theory is that the girls are not drawn to the implicit sexuality of Takarazuka, but instead are fascinated by the otokoyaku (the women who play male roles) “getting away with a male performance of power and freedom”. Robertson mentions a phenomenon of “S” or “
Class S” love. In this particular style of love the women who have been influenced by Takarazuka return to their daily lives and feel free to develop crushes on their female classmates or coworkers. This type of romance is typically fleeting and is seen in Japanese society as more of a phase in growing up rather than true lesbian behavior.
The competing theory, supported by Erica Abbitt, is that the female audience of Takarazuka is drawn not exclusively by lesbian overtones, but rather by the subversion of stereotypical gender roles. Japan is a society notorious for its rigid conception of gender roles. Even in Takarazuka the original goal of the show was to create the ideal
good wife and wise mother. While this may have been the goal off stage, on stage gender roles are (by necessity) subverted. The otokoyaku must act the way men are supposed to act. This subversion of the roles that the average woman in Japan finds herself trapped in has a strong appeal. Abbitt also says a large portion of the appeal of Takarazuka comes from something she calls “slippage”. This slippage refers to the enjoyment derived from a character portraying something they're not, in this case a female portraying a man. Abbitt doesn't deny the presence of lesbian overtones within Takarazuka, but proposes that the cause for the largely female audience has more to do with this subversion of societal norms rather than sexual ones.
Fan clubs
Some ardent fans demonstrate their loyalty to one or another performer by wearing scarves of a particular color or even jackets colorfully embroidered with the star's name. Following performances at the Takarazuka Theater in Tokyo, as many as several hundred fans congregate in their various club groups, each club represented by several members or dozens, standing in orderly ranks on either side of the street in front of the theatre. Theatre officials set up barricades and oversee the assembly. Occasionally one group will sit and all the others follow suit (much like the "
Audience wave" seen in athletic arenas) with subsequent intervals of standing and sitting. The fans wait patiently, with little conversation, for their favorites to exit the theatre. (Their decorum contrasts markedly to the noisy, competitive and often pushy autograph-seekers who wait outside stage doors in the west.) An almost eerie ritualistic calm prevails. As the stars come out of the building one by one, some alone but most accompanied, orderly quiet continues to prevail. The glamorous performers, now mostly in slacks or jeans with high heels and wearing oversize visored "newsboy" caps to hide their hair (and some with sunglasses even in the night), move along to their own particular fan clubs. Rather than requesting autographs, the fans proffer cards, which are gathered efficiently by each star, who may say a very few words but then waves and move on. Once the last stars have emerged and departed, the clubs disband quietly into the night.
Influence
Takarazuka has had a profound influence on the history of
anime and
manga especially
shōjo. Tezuka created
Princess Knight the first manga aimed at a female audience, which tells the story of Princess Sapphire, a girl born with both a male and female heart who struggles between the desire to fight as a noble prince and to be a tender, gentle princess. The great success of
Princess Knight and other Tezuka stories began the tradition of manga written for a female audience, especially the very influential
Rose of Versailles and
Revolutionary Girl Utena series, both of which borrow directly from
Princess Knight by including specific Tezuka images, character designs and names. Rose of Versailles is one of Takarazuka's most known musicals. Women in masculine roles continue to be a central theme in shoujo manga and anime as well as some shounen, and Tezuka himself explored the theme in many of his later works including
Dororo, Phoenix and
Black Jack.
While the influence of
Osamu Tezuka and Takarazuka on anime and manga is general, there are still many series which show more specific influences. The Takarazuka Revue inspired the plot of the original
Sakura Wars video game, along with additional inspiration from Takarazuka's one-time competitor the
Shochiku Kagekidan (Shochiku Revue). The Zuka Club in
Ouran High School Host Club is based on the Takarazuka Revue.
Haruka Tenoh and
Michiru Kaioh of
Sailor Moon were loosely based on the actors of the Takarazuka Revue.
Takarazuka and Homosexuality in Japanese Society
For a society that has been at least contextually accepting of homosexuality for most of its history (see
Homosexuality in Japan), Japan is surprisingly biased against lesbian activity. This bias is apparent in the early history of Takarazuka. After the scandal of women writing love letters to the otokoyaku and the revelation of an actual lesbian relationship between one of the otokoyaku and one of the musumeyaku, Takarazuka was greatly limited in order to do away with this lesbian image. To do this the women began wearing militaristic uniforms. On August 19th, 1940 the actresses were even forbidden to answer fan mail and socialize with their admirers.
In the years since this time the regulations have relaxed slightly but not much. It caused another scandal when, for the first time, one of the otokoyaku cut her hair so it was short (previously all of the actresses had their hair long and the otokoyaku simply hid their hair under hats). Despite trends to being more open about things like homosexuality, and trends towards
androgyny, lesbianism is still not widely accepted in Japan.
Further Information
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