The all-female Takarazuka Revue is world-famous today for its rococo musical productions, including gender-bending love stories, This text explores how the Revue illuminates discourses of sexual politics, nationalism, imperialism and popular culture in 20th-century Japan.

Japan boasts one of the world's oldest, most vibrant and most influential performance traditions. This accessible and complete history provides a comprehensive overview of Japanese theatre and its continuing global influence. Written by eminent international scholars, it spans the full range of dance-theatre genres over the past fifteen hundred years, including noh theatre, bunraku puppet theatre, kabuki theatre, shingeki modern theatre, rakugo storytelling, vanguard butoh dance and media experimentation. The first part addresses traditional genres, their historical trajectories and performance conventions. Part II covers the spectrum of new genres since Meiji (1868–), and Parts III to VI provide discussions of playwriting, architecture, Shakespeare, and interculturalism, situating Japanese elements within their global theatrical context. Beautifully illustrated with photographs and prints, this history features interviews with key modern directors, an overview of historical scholarship in English and Japanese, and a timeline. A further reading list covers a range of multimedia resources to encourage further explorations.

"The artifice of gender performance - sometimes playful, mostly conscientious - has for ninety-four years enthralled and entertained fans of the Takarazuka Revue, Japan's largest all-female musical theatre company. Adored by a predominantly female audience, its' dashing male-role players embody an 'ideal masculinity,' reflected and magnified by the overwrought femininity of their female-role counterparts." "Through analysis of the aspirations, endeavours and experiences of Takarazuka's creators, performers and fans, voiced by the author's years of participant observation, this volume elucidates a plethora of gender issues which have impacted upon the life-stages of women in Japan."--BOOK JACKET.

Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this book provides an in-depth analysis of Takarazuka's history, educational traditions and theatrical ethos viewed from the prism of Japan's modernization and globalization in the twentieth century. Its relationship to Japanese popular culture, especially in the fields of manga and fashion as well as its ongoing success are also addressed.

This book offers a media ethnography of the digital culture, conventions, and urban spaces associated with fandoms, arguing that fandom is an area of productive, creative, and subversive value.

Modern Asian Theatre and Performance 1900 – 2000 is a ground-breaking survey, tracking the advent of modern drama in Japan, India, China, Korea and Southeast Asia. It considers the shaping power of realism and naturalism, the influence of Western culture, the relationship between theatrical modernisation and social modernisation, and how theatre operates in contemporary Asian society. Organised by period, nation and region, each chapter provides: ·a historical overview of the culture; ·an outline of theatre history; ·a survey of significant playwrights, actors, directors, companies, plays and productions. With contributions from an international team of scholars, this authoritative introduction will uniquely equip students and scholars with a broad understanding of the modern theatre histories of Asia.