RECEPTION OF JAPANESE THEATRE TROUPES TOURING THE UNITED STATES AND EUROPE FROM 1899 TO 1931

Abstract

From the turn of the 20th onwards, three Japanese theatre troupes conducted overseas tours in the United States and European countries. During their overseas journeys, all of these Japanese troupes caused a great commotion across distant places. By investigating the various acting and performing features Western audiences identified and perceived in the Japanese troupes’ stage works, exploring various offstage negotiations, relations, and strategies the troupes had to deal with, and examining some Western avant-garde theatre practitioners’ discourses on the Japanese touring troupes’ stage performances and the significance and role of Japonisme in shaping the Western reception of these Japanese troupes, I argued that Westerners in the early 20th century, both the general public and the theatre community, lacked a coherent, balanced, and impartial appreciation and perception of the three Japanese theatre troupes’ overseas tours. Their reception of these troupes was always an inconsistent, self-affirming, and selective orientalist practice.