Who are the Japanese Othellos? : Reception and Productions of Shakespeare in Mainland Japan and Okinawa

This paper, focusing on the productions of Othello in Japan, is intended to be the introductory part of a larger theme, "The Reception and Productions of Shakespeare in Asia — Starting from Mainland Japan and Okinawa —". In the past ten years, or so, the study of the productions of Shakespeare in non-English speaking countries, including Asia, is starting to attract academic interest. Japanese productions seem to be of particular interest for the variety of production styles they take. However, there seems to be a tendency to discuss the Japanese Shakespeare based only on the knowledge of the productions that tour to Western countries or the ones that have been drawing international attention in the pseudo-Western, "global" city, Tokyo. But adaptation of Shakespeare into local plays has continued to exist in the regional theatres since the early twentieth century, and we should keep them in mind, especially when we discuss "Japanese Shakespeare" in the Asian context. Moreover, though Shakespeare productions in many parts of Asia and Africa often represent the importation and possible transgression of a foreign and potentially dominant culture, in East Asia, Shakespeare reached this region almost completely apart from the British colonial enterprise. Young Japanese, Chinese, and Korean intellectuals deliberately sought out Shakespeare themselves as part of their quest to overcome what were called "feudal tendencies," and this effort produced multiple layers in the reception of the bard\u27s works. The first adaptation of Othello in Japan in 1903 is particularly interesting, for in that version, Venice was relocated to Tokyo, and Cyprus to Pong Hu Island (a part of Taiwan), reflecting the nation\u27s victory in the first Sino-Japanese War. In this paper, I would like to examine how Othello in mainland Japan and Okinawa has been transformed in the hundred-year history, focusing on the modernization (or globalization) policy of Japan and the Yamatonization and ethnic identity of Okinawa, the region which can be regarded as a link between Japan and the rest of East Asia