Kunio Kishida (岸田 國士, Kishida Kunio, 2 November 1890 – 5 March 1954) was a Japanese playwright, dramatist, novelist, lecturer, acting coach, theatre critic, translator, and proponent of Shingeki ("New Theatre"/”New Drama").“Shingeki.” Global Shakespeares: Video and Performance Archive. MIT. Accessed October 4, 2021. https://globalshakespeares.mit.edu/glossary/shingeki/. Kishida spearheaded the modernization of Japanese dramaturgy and transformed Japanese theatre acting. He was a staunch advocate for the theatre to operate as a dual artistic and literary space.
At the beginning of the Meiji era, efforts to modernize the Japanese theatre became a critical topic for Japanese playwrights, and these endeavors persisted well into the 1920s before Kishida wrote his first plays. However, his predecessors' attempts did not come to fruition, and Kishida is recognized as the first playwright to successfully reform the narrative, thematic, and performative trajectories of Japanese playwriting and acting through Shingeki.
Kishida was known for his vehement opposition to traditional Japanese kabuki, noh, and shimpa theatre. Following a temporary residency in France, Kishida became heavily inspired by European theatres, playwriting, and acting styles and believed these needed to be applied to Japanese theatre. While Kishida never intended his nation's theatrical scene to undergo a complete Westernization, he recognized that Japan's increasingly globalized presence meant it needed to adapt and engage with its Western counterparts' literary and theatrical practices.
From Kishida's perspective, the theatre was never intended to serve as a popular entertainment venue. He argued for the essentiality of the theatre as a serious performative and literary mode of creative expression.
Early life and education (1890–1919) Kishida was born on November 2, 1890, in Yotsuya, Tokyo, to a military family with historic samurai roots in Kishu (present-day Wakayama Prefecture). His father, Shozo, was a military officer in the Imperial Army, and Kishida was expected to follow the family lifestyle.“Kunio Kishida (1890 - 1954).” Bungakuza. Accessed October 20, 2021. http://www.bungakuza.com/about_us/michi/kishida.html.
In his youth, Kishida attended military preparatory schools. At seventeen years old, he developed a passion for literature, particularly French authors such as François-René de Chateaubriand and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.Jortner, David. “Kishida, Kunio (1890 - 1954).” Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism. Accessed September 2, 2021. https://www.rem.routledge.com/articles/kishida-kunio-1890-1954.
Following family tradition, he enlisted in the Japanese military and was commissioned as an officer in the Army in 1912. Kishida left the military in 1914 after he expressed dissatisfaction with this career path.
After his military dismissal, Kishida decided to pursue his passion for literature and enrolled in Tokyo Imperial University. Upon his admittance in 1917, Kishida studied French language and literature in the Faculty of Letters.
Exposure to European Theatre (1919 - 1923) In 1919, Kishida traveled to France to expose himself to the European theatre and expand his literary interests. Upon his arrival, he was employed as a translator at the Japanese Embassy in Paris and for the Secretariat of the League of Nations, which permitted him the financial resources to live in France for multiple years.Salz, Jonah. Essay. In A History of Japanese Theatre. Cambridge University Press, 2016.
Shortly thereafter, Kishida studied theatre at the Theatre du Vieux-Colombier, which marked the beginning of his lifelong admiration for French drama. Under the tutelage of the director Jacques Copeau, Kishida learned about the history and customs of French and European theatre. Copeau's instruction, combined with Kishida's attendance at numerous European theatrical performances, supplied him with an abundance of knowledge on the successful attributes of Western dramaturgy. Of these, the actors' ability to express subtle emotions and to convey natural dialogue that neither felt forced nor exaggerated were among the most lasting takeaways in Kishida's observations as a spectator.
The effectiveness of the modern European acting style was the result of the Drama Purification Movement that coincided with Kishida's residency. The movement sought the complete erasure of any semblance of artificiality in both theatre performances and playwriting.“Play of the Month: Doin Sowa - Kunio Kishida.” Performing Arts Network Japan. The Japan Foundation, December 28, 2005. https://performingarts.jp/E/play/0512/1.html. Copeau was a fervent supporter of this school of thought and applied the movement's tenets in his training for actors, which involved a consideration for performances to be open and naturalistic.Katz, Albert M. “Copeau as Regisseur: An Analysis.” Educational Theatre Journal 25, no. 2 (May 1973): 163–63.Evans, Mark. “3.1 The Life of Jean-Jacques Copeau.” The Routledge Companion to Performance Practitioners, August 2020. https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9780367815998-3. Subsequently, Kishida recognized that this unique approach to acting was absent in his country's theatrical traditions of kabuki, noh, and shimpa.
In addition to the French theatre, Kishida developed an infatuation for other European playwrights after he saw Copeau's staged productions of works by Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekhov, and Johan August Strindberg. A significant reason for his appreciation stemmed from the psychological and emotional depth inherent in the characters and narratives of their plays.“Toward a Modern Japanese Theatre: Kishida Kunio.” Princeton University Press. Accessed September 5, 2021. https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691618562/toward-a-modern-japanese-theatre.
During his studies with Copeau in 1921–1922, Kishida drafted his first play, A Wan Smile. He was inspired to create an original play after he overheard one of his favorite actors, the Russian Georges Pitoeff, express an interest to perform in a Japanese play.Poulton, M. Cody. A Beggar's Art: Scripting Modernity in Japanese Drama, 1900 - 1930. University of Hawaii Press, 2010, 253. Kishida already had multiple copies of contemporary Japanese plays to share with him but decided against it and composed his own work. After he read Kishida's prose, Pitoeff remarked that the play was "really quite interesting"; no records indicate if the play was ever produced.Rimer, J. Thomas. Toward a Modern Japanese Theatre: Kishida Kunio. Princeton University Press, 1974, 146 - 147.
In October 1922, Kishida took a leave of absence and temporarily resided in Southern France to recover from a severe lung hemorrhage.Rimer, J. Thomas. Toward a Modern Japanese Theatre: Kishida Kunio. Princeton University Press, 1974, 61.
Return to Japan and Early Theatre Modernization (1923 - 1929) Kishida quickly returned to Japan in 1923 after he learned about his father's death and went to care for his mother and sisters.Sipos, George T. “Kishida Kunio, Fotografia/Shashin.” Timpul, February 2009. https://www.academia.edu/2087718/Kishida_Kunio_Fotografia_Shashin. Original text in Romanian. His recent illness, sudden departure from Europe, and grief over his father's passing caused great consternation for Kishida and manifested into uncertainty about his career future.Rolf, Robert T. “Reviewed Work(s): Five Plays by Kishida Kunio by David G. Goodman and Kishida Kunio.” Asian Theatre Journal 9, no. 2 (1992): 255–58.
Kishida followed the latest trends in Japanese theatre and became fascinated with the works of the contemporary dramatist Yuzo Yamamoto. A colleague formally introduced him to Yamamoto, to which Kishida shared his manuscript for A Wan Smile with him for review. Kishida was initially concerned that Yamamoto's passion for German literature would negatively affect his perception of A Wan Smile's French undertones. After Yamamoto read the play in front of Kishida during a dinner together, he praised the text for its originality compared to current Japanese plays.Rimer, J. Thomas. Toward a Modern Japanese Theatre: Kishida Kunio. Princeton University Press, 1974, 62.
With renewed confidence, Kishida was determined to reignite his original playwriting aspirations. However, the Great 1923 Kanto Earthquake caused extensive damage throughout Tokyo and nearly decimated all of the city's theatre venues. To acquire an alternative income, Kishida opened a French-language school, The Moliere School, named in honor of the 17th Century playwright who Copeau regularly staged.Rimer, J. Thomas. Toward a Modern Japanese Theatre: Kishida Kunio. Princeton University Press, 1974, 63.
Yamamoto assisted Kishida in launching his playwriting career when he created the theatre magazine Engeki Shincho (New Currents of Drama). The magazine's objective was to highlight the latest developments in Japanese theatre, and Kishida's A Wan Smile (retitled Old Toys) was published in the magazine's March 1924 issue.Poulton, M. Cody. “14: Foreign or Domestic Drama? Osanai Kaoru and Modern Japanese Theatre.” Essay. In Text & Presentation, 174. McFarland, 2006.
Subsequently, Kishida's expansive knowledge of French and European dramaturgy led to his involvement in multiple theatre journals and magazines where he submitted essays and reviews on Japanese theatre, including Bungei Shunju (Literary Annals) and Bungei Jidai (Literary Age). Combined with his concurrent playwriting pursuits, Kishida swiftly became an influential figure in the Japanese drama community.
The Tsukiji Little Theatre opened in Tokyo in 1924, and it marked a significant shift in Japanese theatre for its focus on avant-garde, European plays as opposed to kabuki and noh.Ozasa, Yoshio. “About Tsukiji Little Theatre.” Tokyo Art & Live City, August 10, 2018. https://www.artandlive.net/en/topics/about-tsukiji-little-theater. Kishida was asked to submit a review of the Tsukiji's opening night plays. He went with an open mind to assess how these plays reflected current trends in Japanese drama, especially as he became aware of the theatre director Kaoru Osanai's progressive and controversial decision to only stage Western plays. He hoped to establish a partnership with Osanai in which he could utilize his firsthand knowledge and exposure to European theatre to assist in the production of the Tsukiji's plays.Jortner, David. “Review: A Beggar's Art: Scripting Modernity in Japanese Drama, 1900 - 1930.” Asian Theatre Journal 29, no. 1 (2012): 280–80. The opening night's performances were Japanese-translated adaptations of Chekhov's Swan Song, Emile Mazaud's The Holiday, and Reinhard Goering's A Sea Battle.
Despite his admiration for European theatre, Kishida published a scathing review of the three performances and Osanai's leadership. He rebuked the performances as weak and chastised the theatre for investing too much money into the stage designs instead of formal training for the actors. As a Japanese translation and interpretation of European works, Kishida wrote the stagings of these distinctly non-Japanese works were ineffective and hastily conceived. Consequently, he added this rendered the narratives far too difficult for the Japanese audience to comprehend. Perhaps the most damning component of Kishida's criticism was an entire section where he lambasted Osanai's personality as "pretentious and dogmatic".Rimer, J. Thomas. Toward a Modern Japanese Theatre: Kishida Kunio. Princeton University Press, 1974, 65 - 68.
The published review resulted in a highly contentious relationship between Kishida and Osanai. It contributed to the latter's decision to never stage work by Kishida at the Tsukiji Little Theatre.