Performances of the Past: Angura and the Role of Theatre Art in Japanese National Politics

Abstract

During the worldwide surge of leftist activism and student protests in the 1960s and into the 1980s, underground theatre art in Japan was dominated by intense political messages that questioned the power of the state apparatus. One such group labeled 'angura' by contemporaries became popular enough to warrant international attention for their use of the experimental, avant-garde. This thesis seeks to understand how this group of underground theatre artists conceptualized their participation in leftist protest. I focus on their construction of collective memory and nostalgia for a pre-war past (1910-1940), that they themselves did not live during, and how their ideology of history showcased and even influenced the political expressions of their artwork. In doing so, I underline how underground Japanese theatre of this time hoped to correct the wartime and prewar imperial transgressions of Japan as a nation through their allegorical representations of the marginalized. I argue that underground Japanese theatre of the 1960s-1980s was a venue where previously undiscussed marginalized persons were represented and where youth activists were allowed to explore dark histories that the mainstream did not wish to platform.