国家と芸能：「敗戦」による能の変位(1)

Abstract

Nation and Performing Arts : Displacement of Noh due to ‘defeat’ (1) Suh, JohngWan The purpose of this paper is to investigate the process by which Noh and Utai, which were mobilized and cooperated in wartime propaganda as the “quintessence of the Japanese spirit” during the war, returned from “Noh of warlike spirit(尚武の能, martial Noh)” to the “Noh of Yugen(幽玄の能, Mysterious Noh)” of today after the defeat of the Asia-Pacific War. First, I thoroughly examined GHQ/SCAP censorship documents to ascertain the evaluation and policies under which Noh survived the period of occupation by GHQ. Nevertheless, from this brief mention, we can see the outline of what kind of informants GHQ obtained information from and what kind of knowledge the censors had. The GHQ/SCAP descriptions of Noh are the kind of content that only someone with considerable specialized knowledge could have written, and are orthodox, like descriptions of the history of Noh. It can be judged that the censors were Japanese with knowledge of Japanese performing arts and literature. n fact, previous research on GHQ censors has confirmed that Japanese censors had considerable academic ability. Based on this judgment, I tried to find out what kind of Japanese censors GHQ obtained information about Noh from, but unfortunately I was unable to find any documents that would provide such information. Noh, which was thus “relatively free” advertised the Tokyo Restoration Noh Theatre about 40 days after the Emperor’s radio broadcast, and Noh performances were held about 50 days later. There are two possible reasons for such a rapid movement towards “restoration.” The first is the “restoration of the arts scene.” It was a new start as an arts house, freed from the control by the authorities that turned to fascism during the war and the resulting mobilization and pandering. The other reason was the issue of the livelihood of Noh performers. As I have already pointed out in my previous article, the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars led to a halt in Noh chanting practice due to the self-restraint of performing arts during the wartime, which led to a sharp decline in the income that Noh performers received from teaching Noh chanting, and the self-restraint of performances meant that Noh performers had fewer opportunities to perform on stage, which put them in a difficult position and made it impossible for them to continue their art. This phenomenon was also true in the Noh world in the colonies. Focusing on the issue of wartime and Noh, I have also pointed out that while Noh declined due to the problem of securing an income, by staying close to those in power, there was a dual structure in which Noh rose to the top of the performing arts reports that contributed to national unity. There is a big difference between Japan’s victories in the Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War and its defeat in the Asia-Pacific War, but when considering the issues of Japan’s shrinkage and rise during the “wartime period” and its progress in the “postwar period,” it becomes clear that the practical issue of entertainers’ livelihoods was actually an important factor, contrary to the desire of today’s nation-state system to be a “country with an excellent culture” as in World Cultural Heritage sites. Due to Noh’s contribution as a cultural device for national unity that was useful to the power of the state and the emergency situation of wartime, the ideology of “Noh of warlike spirit” was added to “Noh of Yugen,” and Noh survived the war period. There is a Noh performance that has come a long time. Exploring the significance of the fact that performances began in the ruins of Tokyo just 50 days after Japan’s defeat on August 15, 1945, is an aspect of history that must be clarified when considering the nation-state and Noh, and war and performing arts.