Myth and Reality: A Story of Kabuki during American Censorship,

American censors during the occupation of Japan after World War II unsuccessfully attempted to eliminate feudal themes and foster new democratic plays in kabuki. Con-trary to popular myths, kabuki flourished under the Occupation, “banned ” plays were rapidly released, the infamous “list of banned plays ” was not significant, most Ameri-can censors were captivated by kabuki, and credit for Occupation assistance to kabuki should not limited to one man, Faubion Bowers. Using archival records, I show that the Shöchiku Company, the major kabuki producer, successfully resisted the democratic aims of the Occupation. Shöchiku’s “classics-only ” policy protected Japanese culture from American contamination and inadvertently fashioned the fossilized kabuki we know today. James R. Brandon, professor emeritus of Asian Theatre at the University of Hawai‘i and visiting professor at Harvard University (2005), is founding editor of ATJ. He has been writing about kabuki for fifty years. His most recent books are Kabuki Play