Japanese contemporary theatre in the 1980s: Noda Hideki and the manga discourse of Japan

During the Japanese "bubble" economy of the 1980s the youth of Japan began to exert unprecedented Influence on Japanese culture through their spirited patronage of certain art forms preciously deemed subcultural or avant-garde. Among these were manga (Japanese comics or animation) and shogekijo (Japanese little theatre). These two art forms, while very unlike in the manner in which they were produced and disseminated, can be shown to exhibit a common language---what I have labeled "manga discourse." The discourse presents the ludic, image-oriented, and seemingly Infantile but simultaneously transhistorical language. In this dissertation I will explore the range and meaning of these discursive forms as they are related to changes in the forms of shogekijo in Japan between the 1960s and the 1980s, using as my example the work of Noda Meld and his troupe Yume no Yuminsha.; Founded in the early 70s in the dark recesses of the University of Tokyo, Noda's troupe blossomed into a major component of the theatre boom of the bright leisure-oriented 80s. The question which Nodas theatre raises for those who seek to define Japan's modernization In the arts in how something defined as instinctively "little" could become so big? I argue that Noda's theatre in the 1980s should be described In oxymoronic terms as an example of avant-pop. In line with Its predecessors in the avant-garde movement of the 1960s and 70s, the 1980s shogekijo borrowed from popular theatre of the pre-modern period, in reaction to the western- and script-oriented shingeki, and from modern comedy in the early twentieth century Japan. But unlike its avant-garde predecessors, It eschewed direct political confrontation with the power holders and consciously sought to expand its audiences through capitalistic means. Japanese youth born in the postwar generation could be led to appreciate the anti-shingeki message of shogekijo , Noda skillfully predicted, only if it could be put in the playful and fantastic language of manga discourse. In some ways, this counterintultive movement to youth subculture fulfilled shogekijo 's mission to return theatre to its Japanese roots and thereby complete the process of a truly Japanese modernization in the arts.