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Takarazuka
History
Information taken from:
Takarazuka: Sexual Politics and Popular Culture in Modern Japan by Jennifer Robertson
CA: University of California Press, 1998
The Takarazuka Revue (an all-female theater group) made their Japan debut in 1914. In 1629 women in Japan were banned from the stage. Female roles in Kabuki productions were taken by men. Even by 1914 the notion of women on stage was not popular, but the Takarazuka Revue would carve a niche for itself.
The Takarazuka Music Academy was founded to instruct young Takarasienne's to be in voice, dance, and theater in both the Eastern and Western tradition. The musicals staged cover dramas from around the world, from The Tale of Genji to Gone with the Wind.
There are five Takarazuka troupes, Hana (Flower), Hoshi (Star), Sora (Sky), Tsuki (Moon), and Yuki (Snow), each known for a slightly different style.
Influence on Shoujo and Bishounen Characters
The influence of Takarazuka extends to anime and manga. Female characters such as Oscar or Utena can to some degree be traced back to gender portrayal by Takarazuka performers and what they represent to fans of the theatrical group. Too, very feminine characters, bishounen (beautiful boys), may also be influenced from Takarazuka as well.
Takarazuka performers when they are going through the Academy are assigned a gender that the rest of their career in the theater will be based on, ie if they are more feminine they will be women in their roles from thence forth, or if more masculine they will have male roles from thence forth. Women who keep female roles may have longer hair, work to make their movements, speech, and gestures more pronouncidely feminine to reflect their roles. And women who will take on a career as portaying men and boys during their time in Takarazuka may cut and keep their hair short/er and work on having a more decidely masculine movement, speech, and gesture to give that air onstage. In other words they may exaggerate gender ideals in appearance to set their personas. Some actresses have been known to keep these gender personas even when not onstage, and might play up and go by that gender in their public life to keep the feel of what they do, both in their portrayals and for the fans who imagine them as they are.
Naoko Takeuchi in the Materials Collection, an artbook of notes and sketches for her Sailor Moon series, she says of her character Haruka: "She plays a male role in Takarazuka. A silky voice suits her well." Haruka in the ep. she is introduced in is mistaken for a young man by Minako and Usagi because of her masculine appearance and air. She seems more comfortable in male dress and male-gendered activities such as motor sports. Michiru is described as: "Affiliated with Takarazuka." Michiru is the quintessence of femininity. Her flowing hair, graceful movements, and polite, soft speech and manners all reflect a feminine ideal. They are two examples of how some artists use the models set forth by Takarazuka in their own characters.
The masculine Takarazuka performers represent a female ideal to some fans. They may transgress gender roles and at the same time they are women and thus reflect sentiments of a woman and understand women, but they are in the role of a man, and on some level a man, and represent a male who takes on the qualities a woman might look for. The best of both worlds as it were. Robertson notes in her book, women who portray men in Takarazuka noted in earlier years they were able to pursue roles of careers that might be closed or were underrepresented by women, such as a pilot or engineer. This allowed a freedom of movement for them and a way to transcend their sex. A letter on page 80-81 from a fan to the star she admires in Robertson's book, notes how important the actress' role as a man was for her and how suddenly changing her gender persona disappointed and let her down. As a male: "Without question your charm was your very womanliness. Not the posturing...of mannish females, but an affirmation of the womanliness of female bodies. You symbolized a new era when females could begin to love themselves as themselves. And so why have you become an ordinary woman? ... You - Takarazuka's new flower, females' freedom and joy, our fin de siecle dream."
This ideal can be seen in female characters like Oscar or Utena. Oscar from Rose of Versailles is a woman admired by men and women alike, and both genders find themselves in love with her. She represents throughout the story an ideal of womanhood, flawed as any human but ultimately strong and beautiful. For men, her strength and integrity and her beauty as a woman, and her show of skills that makes her their equal earns the admiration of those around her. For the women in the Rose of Versailles series she is what they wish to be. She is one of the very few females in the series who marries in the end for love, and is able to pursue the life she wishes and love for herself because she can move beyond the roles of a woman. She represents their dreams, their freedom. For the women of the court, she is easy to love because she appears among them as a man, an officer and lives the life of a man, yet she is also a woman underneath and knows their heart. For many female fans, Oscar is a personal ideal. A woman whose strength and all she embodies holds meaning. Utena picks up the same themes. She dresses in a boy's uniform and refuses to accept that a girl cannot be a prince, yet she refuses to be thought of as anything but an ordinary girl. For the female students and for the girls' of the audience she will become a symbol of the integrity they want for themselves. Like the seemingly androginous women of Takarazuka, these types of female anime and manga characters come to have a deeper meaning on one level.
Lastly, the bishounen characters seen in anime and manga may owe a debt to Takarazuka. These male characters are very feminine in appearance or mannerisms many times, such as Hotohori or Nuriko of Fushigi Yuugi. Also, many bishounen characters are female fan favorites as well as the favorites of the heroine in the stories. Sometimes it is a romantic favorite and sometimes the bishounen character is easier to identify with on the level of a friend. These types of things may all relate back to the above.