Film Adaptation of Traditional Arts in Postwar Japan: Uchida Tomu’s The Horse Boy

Abstract

This paper deals with Uchida Tomu’s jidaigeki film The Horse Boy (“Abarenbo Kaido,” 1957), which is adapted from Chikamatsu Monzaemon’s joruri and kabuki.

After the defeat in World War II, nationalistic movements by the left wing became active in Japan. In such trend of the times, they got to reinterpret Chikamatsu. In the film industry, Chikamatsu’s works were adapted to films in line with these discourses.

Uchida spent eight years in Manchuria after Japan’s defeat in World War II. We discuss how his nostalgia for traditional performing arts and his ethnic sentiments were developed and heightened during this time.

Through examining multiple scripts, we presume that Uchida planned to make The Horse Boy together with left-wing filmmakers, and the script was written from the viewpoint of criticizing the feudal system.

We show that in this film, the deprivation of the character’s status is depicted by the changes of their names, which are involved in their self-identity.

The two lamenting scenes, including the main scene in the original, are filled with melodramatic elements. However, we focus on that these sequences will direct the audience to the realization of the situation itself rather than to identify with the characters’ emotions.