bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Sarah Wong

THE Japanese are not usually considered witty. Strictures concerning behaviour are as rigid and immobile as the walls of the Imperial Palace and remain unchanged despite the passage of time.

  Chinjinkai is one of a new breed of Japanese theatre companies that is revolutionising domestic attitudes to theatre.

  The company was formed in 1982 by Koichi Kimura, a graduate of Bungaku-za, who rejected traditional theatre to pursue his love of drama.

  Kimura has introduced Japanese audiences to contemporary African plays, iconoclastic rejections of family life in Japan and self-satirical perspectives of theatre itself.

  The company has staged Kimura's choice of plays at the rate of six to nine a year.

  The Great Doctor Yabuhara, written by Hisashi Inoue, is a black comedy set in the Edo period (1603-1867) and traces the downfall of a blind court musician, Sugi-no-ichi, known as The Great Doctor Yabuhara.

  As a blind man in Edo Japan, society reveres him as refined, gentle and selfless, but Yabuhara is a money-worshipping murderer, the embodiment of evil; a man who has lied, cheated and murdered his way to the elevated position he holds.

  In the hierarchical system of the Edo period, the blind were protected and allowed to beg and claim other privileges.

  When this play was first performed in Tokyo in 1973, members of the audience were outraged.

  Kimura explored the themes so that they were shown to be pertinent to 20th century Japanese society.

  Anger towards society is contrasted with the joy of having something worthwhile to live for.

  It is a story smothered in irony and topped with self-awareness.

  Chinjinkai are part of a new movement in Japanese theatre known as Shingeki.

   Shingeki was established under the strong influence of European theatre, but retains a unique Japanese feel entirely different from stricter forms like kabuki or noh.

  In the pre-war years, Shingeki was politically left of centre and productions were often censored or suppressed by the government.

  These days some of the most famous theatrical schools in Japan are part of the Shingeki school, including Bungaku-za and Mingei .

  Chinjinkai is simply the latest incarnation of ''modern'' theatre, with Higashi Inoue as its writer and director Koichi Kimura at its core.



Koichi Kimura brings a smile to the stiff face of Japanese theatre