Nowadays we rarely meet excellent Geidan, “talking on performing arts,” which we used to have in abundance the old days. Most Geidan talking consists of vivid memories of sensual aspects of stage performances by actors, stage staffs and theatre-goers. In the present paper I point out some reasons why Geidan has been disappearing since. One of the reasons must be the recent tendency of critics to seek the essential, not sensual aspects of theatrical performances. This tendency is drying up, instead of enriching, the theatre criticism and, consequently, theatre appreciation.

The present paper examines the relationship between individual memories and theatre historiography. Modern theatre historiography generally tends to be based on empirical and scientific approaches and so tends to eliminate individual memories. But the personal memoirs may enrich theatre historiography. It would be worth investigation. The memoir of Bogdanova-Orlova, who played the title role in Nora (A Doll's House), directed by V. E. Meyerhold in Novorossisk in 1920, would be a good example of this issue. It sheds new light on this production, which has long been forgotten in the history about Meyerhold's theatrical activities.

Michael Frayn's Copenhagen (1998) and Inoue Hisashi's Chichi to Kuraseba (literally As I live with my father, translated as The Face of Jizo) (1994) have been praised as highly successful ‘Play of Memory.’ Both plays deal with memories on atomic bomb, one concerning its discovery and the other the result of its explosion. In both plays, memory is the driving force of dramaturgy. But it should be noted that for Frayn and Inoue, the dramatic nature of memory lies not in the representation of the past but rather in the act of remembering. ‘The action in the past’ and ‘the action in the present’ are carefully arranged so as to be fused into one. So we have an impression that the characters are, in a way, rehearsing their past actions. Thus, one may find in both plays a pseudo play-within-play structure.

Henry V is often considered as a patriotic play, which clarifies Henry's heroism. But John Philip Kemble's productions of the play show interesting contradictions when we examine their performing dates and Kemble's stage text. First, he produced the play with a great success during the fervor of pro-French atmosphere after the Great Revolution in 1789. But after the war broke out between England and France in 1793, Kemble somehow became reluctant to produce this play. We find only a few performances after the war. Second, the text of Henry V, which Kemble published in 1806, has two particular features concerning the cruelty of war. While he consistently eliminated vivid expressions that would remind the audience of the cruelty of war, he never cut out episodes in it. The same can be said about the illegitimacy of Henry V as a man and an English King. The present paper clarifies these contradictions, which also may reveal artistic characteristics of Kemble's productions. They might have been a part of the movement of restoring the ‘authentic’ Shakespeare.

The theatre company of TSUTSUI Tokujiro, a shimpa actor, toured in Europe and America during 1930-31. He performed in more than 70 cities in 22 countries. In the present paper I examine, after a brief description of TSUTSUI's theatrical activities in Japan and abroad, his influence on the prominent stage directors in Europe, such as Copeau, Dullin, Piscator, Brecht and Meyerhold. Although not genuine kabuki, performances of Tsutsui company fascinated Western directors with simple stories full of humane feelings and traditional sword-fighting techniques. In particular, Meyerhold saw Tsutsui's performance in Paris, and believed it was kabuki. Hence some confusion is found in most Meyerhold criticisms. In any case, it seems certain that the above-mentioned stage directors regarded theatricality of Tsutsui's performance to be universally valid..

Zeami's first book of Noh theory, Kaden, consists of seven chapters. The first three were written around 1400, and the rest were added later on. Professor OMOTE Akira has proposed a view that the seventh chapter, “Besshi Kuden,” was written earlier than the fifth, “Ogi,” and that the sixth, “Kashu,” was written last of all (Iwanami Noh Kyogen Koza). I suggested in my article, “Ogi and Besshi Kuden—Which was Written Earlier?” (Geinoshi Kenkyu, Nr. 158, 2002), that the fifth chapter, “Ogi,” was written earlier than the seventh, “Besshi Kuden.” The present paper examines how particular words, such as ongyoku, mai, yugen and shoshin are used in the sixth, “Kashu,” and the seventh, “Besshi Kuden.” The examination suggests the possibility that the sixth chapter, “Kashu,” might have been written earlier than the seventh, “Besshi Kuden.” We should, therefore, consider of the possibility that all the chapters of Kaden were written in the present order.