This paper analyzes how the representations of female sexuality which appear in the adaptation of Hamlet translated and adapted by Kayo Yamagishi and Shunsho Dohi, and staged by Otojiro Kawakami in 1903, reflected and deviated from the ideal image of women in modern Japan. During the Meiji era, Japanese society attempted to control women's sexuality. The female characters based on Ophelia and Gertrude reflect this controlled sexuality by internalizing chastity and obedience, while the new character, Yukino, embodies a comparatively liberated ‘new woman’.
Kayo Yamagishi, the main adapter, tried to portray female characters as the ideal women of virtue. In spite of this attempt at the text level, in the performance itself the performers' physicality meant that they could not fulfill the roles as expected from the text. This resulted in the on-stage characters appearing liberated from the controlled sexuality expected by society at the time.
This study shows the importance of this adaptation of Hamlet as one of the receptions of European plays in the Meiji era by analyzing the variety of female representations depicted in this adaptation and its production. Moreover, the deviations from this expected image on the stage confirmed for both reviewers and performers the inseparability of performers' bodies and their characters.
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