Abstract
Takechi Tetsuji (1912-1988), a kabuki and bunraku director and critic whose experimental “Takechi Kabuki” was much praised for its putative faithfulness to the original productions while it was harshly criticized by some critics for its free—almost arbitrary—interpretations of the “traditions” on which Takechi boastfully declared it to be based. This paper classifies the kabuki and bunraku plays Takechi produced into four periods and argues that the mixed reactions to them should be accounted for by a common tendency to confuse and conflate the approaches and styles Takechi adopted in each period by sketching out his disparate and sometimes incompatible theories, methods and praxis. This paper’s ultimate aim is to demystify the often self-mystifying Takechi and his misunderstood productions and writings so as to provide historical perspectives and more comprehensive understanding to evaluate his contributions to promoting and enriching traditional performing arts. By so doing, I also contend that examining Takechir’s modernist attempts to “return to the origin” would reveal that such origin(s) did not exist.
