Takarazuka Revue

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"Paris Sette" 1930

The Takarazuka Revue ( Japanese 宝 塚 歌劇 団 , Takarazuka Kagekidan ) is a popular Japanese music theater group that was founded in 1913 by Kobayashi Ichizō . The defining characteristic of the group is that both female and male roles are exclusively represented by women. In addition to the fascination of “playing with the sexes”, the productions usually have a romantic and fairytale setting. Most of the pieces are Western musicals , but also adaptations of Shōjo - Manga or Japanese and Chinese fairy tales. By staging the musicals Elisabeth and The Roses of Versailles , the ensemble also gained attention outside of Asia. The group belongs to the railway company Hankyū Dentetsu .

Emergence

The revue was launched in 1913 by Kobayashi Ichizō , the founder of the Hankyū Dentetsu railway company , to attract tourists to the city of Takarazuka . Young, unmarried girls who followed the principle of Kiyoku, Tadashiku, Utsukushiku ("[be] innocent, sincere, beautiful") were accepted. In contrast to traditional kabuki theater, the Takarazuka concentrated on western-oriented musicals and revues. The first performance took place in 1914, as early as 1924 the ensemble reached almost 2.5 million visitors a year and a steady, mostly female, group of visitors emerged. As a result of its success, the Revue acquired its first 3000-seat theater: the Takarazuka Grand Theater.

Otokoyaku and Musumeyaku

The so-called Takarasiennes (derived from French, e.g. Parisienne) receive a 2-year training at the renowned Takarazuka Music School . After the end of the first year of training, the girls are divided into otokoyaku (male roles) and musumeyaku (female roles). This is primarily done according to your own wishes, but also according to your physique, i.e. the masculine appearance (size, stature), as well as the respective octave strength and voice pitch. The representation of a man, an otokoyaku, is the most popular and popular form in the theater.

Group system

In order to be able to perform as many different pieces as possible, it was decided in the further course of the revue to divide the actresses into acting groups.

  • Hanagumi ( 花 組 , German "flower group")
  • Tsukigumi ( 月 組 , German "moon group")
  • Yukigumi ( 雪 組 , German "snow group")
  • Hoshigumi ( 星 組 , German "group of stars")
  • Soragumi ( 宙 組 , German "cosmos group") since 1998

Each group has its own style, which affects the performance and presentation of the respective pieces; however, this style has gradually become blurred over the past two decades and is now mainly shaped by the image of the respective otokoyaku top star. A certain line can still be seen in each group. In each of the groups there are two so-called top stars , an otokoyaku and a musumeyaku, with the otokoyaku being the official leading actress of the respective cast. Male and female leading roles in one play are almost always cast with this Top Combi , in a few exceptions the female leading role was cast with another otokoyaku, for example the role of Elisabeth in the Tsukigumi production of the play of the same name in 2005 In each group there is a certain hierarchy with regard to the roles to be assigned.

In addition to the 5 main groups, there is also an extra course ( 専 科 , loka ), which “older” actresses can switch to if they don't want to stop. Senka does not stage any pieces herself, but often takes on the older roles in pieces from the 5 main groups. Since 2002 Senka has also had a top star Otokoyaku, Yū Todoroki , who either works with a group at irregular intervals for a play - which in this case has two male leading roles - or receives her own pieces for which she is part of a cast other group supported.

Selection of well-known pieces

The productions for Riyoko Ikeda's manga series The Roses of Versailles are together with Elisabeth the most commercially successful projects of the revue.

Selection of Takarasiennes

Hanagumi:

Tsukigumi:

  • Masaki Ryū (Otokoyaku Top Star since 2012, debut 2001)
  • Reika Manaki (Musumeyaku Top Star since 2012, debut 2009)

Yukigumi:

Hoshigumi:

Soragumi:

Senka:

  • Yū Todoroki (Otokoyaku Top Star in Yukigumi 1997-2002, since 2002 in Senka, debut 1985)

Selection of former Takarazuka top stars

literature

  • Maria Grajdian-Mengel: The Takarazuka Revue or Overcoming Tradition . Verlag Noetzel, 2005, ISBN 3-7959-0858-2
  • Jennifer Ellen Robertson: Takarazuka - Sexual Politics and Popular Culture in Modern Japan. University of California Press, 1998
  • Leonie Stickland: Gender Gymnastics - Performing and Consuming Japan's Takarazuka Revue. Trans Pacific Press, 2008
  • Kazumi Negishi: Joseph Laska (1886-1964). An Austrian composer and conductor in Japan , with contributions by Ellen Mary Reitinger-Laska and Joseph Reitinger-Laska. Translated from the Japanese by Evelin Saito-Lackner. Böhlau, Vienna 2014, ISBN 978-3-205-79364-9

Web links

Commons : Takarazuka Revue  - collection of images, videos and audio files