Abstract
Sergei Eisenstein’s interpretation of Kabuki theatre has gone fundamentally unquestioned and unchallenged for several decades. But what was exactly in Kabuki theatre—essentially the product of an alien and distant feudal society—that fed and stimulated the intellectual questions of Eisenstein, a twentieth-century Soviet avant-garde theatre and film director? How exactly did Eisenstein find in this centuries-old art form “an unexpected juncture” with the modernity of the sound film, or more precisely, his theory of montage? By a close examination of Eisenstein’s interpretation of Kabuki theatre, this chapter demonstrates that Eisenstein displaced and disintegrated the principles and techniques of Kabuki theatre from its historical and aesthetic contexts and appropriated and reconstituted them into his theoretical discourse. Thus, the “milk” Eisenstein extracted and reformulated from Kabuki theatre was no longer organically Japanese; it was artificially Eisensteinian, as the “goat” had been “transgendered,” “genetically” altered, and historically and aesthetically displaced.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
Emphases in original. Here, Eisenstein refers to the third act of Chūshingura, in which Ichikawa Enshō III (1894–1947) performed Enya Hangan’s hara-kiri as Eisenstein described in his essay. About Ichikawa Enshō’s own account of his performance in Russia, especially his performance of Hangan’s hara-kiri, see Ōkuma 1929, 3. In Leyda’s translation, the actor is incorrectly identified as Ichikawa Ennosuke (or Ichikawa Ennosuke II [1888–1963]) (Eisenstein 1949a, 23). Ichikawa Ennosuke II, who also had the name Ichikawa Danko I for the first 18 years (1892–1910) of his acting career, was not a member of the visiting Japanese troupe. His son, Ichikawa Danko II (1908–1963), who later became Ichikawa Danshirō III, was one of the young actors of the troupe. A sketch by the Russian painter Emil Wiesel (1866–1943) of the visiting actor in the role of one of the retainers in Chūshingura was noted with the actor’s name both in Japanese and in Russian.
- 4.
This statement first appeared in a German translation on July 28, 1928. The Russian original was first published in Zhizn’ Iskusstva, August 5, 1928 (Eisenstein 1988a, 314, n. 42). Therefore, it must have been written before Eisenstein saw Sadanji perform in Russia between August 1 and 26, 1928.
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- 6.
See also Jay Leyda’s translation: “Montage thinking—the height of differentiatedly sensing and resolving the ‘organic’ world—is realized anew in a mathematic faultlessly performing instrument-machine. Recalling the words of Kleist, so close to the Kabuki theater, which was born from marionettes …” (Eisenstein 1949a, 27).
Here, it is worth noting the different translations of the Russian word razlozhit (razlozhennogo, razlozheneye, razlozhennoy, razlozhennost’) that Eisenstein used in his texts examined in this chapter. In the first English version of Eisenstein’s 1929 Russian text (translated by Ivor Montagu and S. S. Nalbandov and revised by Eisenstein and Montagu) on his theory of montage and Japanese culture, the Russian word was translated as “disintegrated,” “disintegration” (Eisenstein 1930a, 101–02). As noted in this chapter, in Jay Leyda’s 1949 translations (Eisenstein 1949a, 1949b), the Russian word was rendered as “disintegrated,” “broken up,” “resolving.” In his 1988 translation, Richard Taylor rendered the Russian word as “decomposed” (Eisenstein 1988d, 149) and “expounded” (Eisenstein 1988a, 122).
In the first French translation of Eisenstein’s 1929 Russian text, the Russian word was rendered as “disloqué,” “désintégrée,” and “désintégration” (Eisenstein 1930b, 93–94). It was rendered in another French translation as “décomposé” and “decomposition” (Eisenstein 1969, 26). The German translations of the Russian word are “zerlegten” (Eisenstein 1975, 240), “entmischten,” and “entmischung” (Eisenstein 1963, 280–81).
I use “disintegrated” throughout the chapter as I believe that it captures more precisely the meaning of the Russian word in the context of Eisenstein’s idea of montage: to disintegrate the undifferentiated, integral, and organic whole into independent and differentiated components that are in conflict or in juxtaposition. Furthermore, it was used in the first English translation approved by Eisenstein himself.
- 7.
A more accurate translation of the last sentence: “Here the psychological process of the play of motifs—faith and doubt—is disintegrated into the two extreme positions of joy (confidence) and gloom (disillusionment)” (Eisenstein 1930a, 101–02).
- 8.
Here, Eisenstein referred to the performance by Ichikawa Shōchō II (1886–1940) in Shuzenji Monogatari, a new Kabuki (shin kabuki) play by Okamoto Kidō. Shōchō played Katsura, one of the two daughters of Yashaō, the mask maker played by Sadanji.
- 9.
See also n. 3.
- 10.
For more on Zeami’s and Ayame’s ideas on identification and internalization, see chapter ““The ‘Asiatic’ Model”: The Brechtian Art of Refunctioning of Japanese (Asian) Theatre”; Tian 2000, 85–86.
- 11.
In an article (written in the 1940s) on Wagner’s operas, especially on his production of The Valkyrie, Eisenstein spoke of the task of creating “internal unity of sound and sight” in the production and of the vital importance of the problem of “the synthesis” of the arts to cinematography. He thus defined “the aim of modern cinematography”: “Men, music, light, landscape, colour, and motion brought into one integral whole by a single piercing emotion, by a single theme and idea” (Eisenstein 1968, 85).
- 12.
Eisenstein referred to Mei Lanfang’s performance in The Death of the Tiger General.
- 13.
In 1972, an exhibition of Eisenstein’s work took place in Tokyo to celebrate his 75th anniversary. Shortly before the close of the exhibition, Kawarazaki appeared at the exhibition. One of the organizers of the exhibition, Naum Kleiman, notes: “We meet the famous actor by the entrance. We are ready to tell him about every detail and all that he wants to know. And I have prepared a few questions, among them—about the angry (crossed) look … Alas, Kawarazaki refuses our services. Politely but firmly, he says that he wants to see the exhibition in solitude” (Kleiman 2005, 76). Kawarazaki stopped and looked closely at Eisenstein’s photos of Kabuki actors, among them are images of Kawarazaki in costume and make-up, and in the window below it are narrow strips of paper with drawings of eyes. Kawarazaki then bowed before Eisenstein’s image shown on a monitor as if in a Buddhist prayer. Kleiman notes: “Slowly turns to us, standing at some distance. His eyes are not visible behind thick glasses. Tilts a slender figure, ceremoniously saying goodbye. Easily down the stairs and dissolves in the crowd at the Gindzu [Ginza]” (77).
- 14.
For a critique of Eisenstein’s interpretation of Mei Lanfang’s art, see Tian 2012, 146–47, 166–69.
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Tian, M. (2018). How Does the Billy-Goat Produce Milk? Sergei Eisenstein’s Disintegration and Reconstitution of Kabuki Theatre. In: The Use of Asian Theatre for Modern Western Theatre. Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97178-0_9
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