On the western myth of Takarazuka fantasy: japanese women playing men and westerners on stage

Abstract

This work investigates the female performers from Takarazuka Revue in Japan, who play the role of Westerners and men in several musicals and which challenges the traditional power orientation of Orientalism. The construction of the Western identity is analysed through the outer shell of the body, the costumes, stage props and musical plots, and the body presented on the stage with make-up and other bodily techniques. The visual elements are analysed following a semiotical approach, investigating how the layered up meanings express the romanticised Occident distant from the image of the West in today’s society. The ritualistic bodily techniques of Takarazuka performers reveal the performative nature of gender and race. While Ahmed’s phenomenological Orientalism supports the analysis of the orientation between the Occident and Orient, otokoyaku (male impersonators) and musumeyaku (female impersonators), performers and audience, presenting the dynamic power flow in the Occidentalist/Orientalist structures, hence explaining the transgender and transcultural image of the otokoyaku, and their importance in the revue’s image and, ultimately, the “hybrid” discourse it manipulates.