[The Merchant of Venice]. Uenisu no Shōnin

Tokyo: Tsukiji Shōgekijō, 1926. One sheet folded once to produce 4 pp (160 x 117 mm), subsequently folded twice again resulting (creasing and browning, light wear, small tear along the vertical fold at the bottom edge). An interesting record of a pre-war Japanese production of a Shakespearean play. For obvious reason, 99-year-old Japanese theater productions of Shakespeare are very uncommon.

Our program is for an early Japanese production of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, staged at Tsukiji Little Theatre (Tsukiji Shōgekijō) in Tokyo from January 1-17, 1926. The program contains a list of acts and a record of roles and actors. Similar lists for a staging of Romain Rolland's Les Loups, staged throughout January at the same theatre, are also recorded.

The translator for The Merchant of Venice was Osanai Kaoru (1881-1928), who was prominent in the Western-style shingeki ("modern theatre" or "new drama") movement. The director, Hijikata Yoshi (1898-1959), co-founded Tsukiji Shōgekijō in 1922. The role of Shylock was played by Susukida Kenji (1898-1972) and Antonio was played by Senda Koreya (1904-1994). The sets for the play were designed by Yoshida Kenkichi (1897-1982).

Japan's first ever Shakespeare production, in 1885, was of "The Merchant of Venice," but that performance was but a distant reflection of the original, being a curious Kabuki adaptation of a Japanese novel that was inspired by a Charles Lamb narrative (which he had based on "The Merchant of Venice"). Today, there are more Shakespeare productions in Japan than any other non-English-speaking country, and the present program documents its early development. (Inventory #: 4417)