Japan and Hamlet

In English class, we recently started reading Hamlet. Although I can't confirm it, as I today attended my fourth day of class on the beginning of the third week of the semester, I hear it's a decent story. In spite of not having discussed it with peers, I can surmise some of the themes of the play from reading articles about how Hamlet has played in Japan. These themes include corruption, inaction, and duty. Interestingly, these themes have found good reception in postwar Japan, as they relate to the character of Japanese society in light of defeat, rebuilding, and integration into the Western economic system.

In an article about a staging of the show in the 1980's, back when Japan was still relevant to something (joke?), the author discusses the adaptations the playwright made to the show. They include making Shakespeare's story into a play within a play, with an added beginning an ending. The beginning shows a defeated soldier coming home from war and being integrated into his family's acting troupe, which is performing Hamlet, as a lead and highly symbolic character. The rising status of the family and its society becomes clear even as they continue to perform the show, as their outfits become increasingly expensive as Japan redevelops and becomes an economic power. The question posed by the show thereby comes to question the value of this wealth in light of the cultural loss resultant from US influence and reconstruction. This pairs well with the themes of the play. As the article says:

The issues Shakespeare raises - of inaction, resolve, morality, corruption and duty - are those Mr. Fukada applies to Japan today. What is postwar Japan, the production seemed to ask, and where is it headed? The director does not supply any handy answers, but he asks the questions in a pointed way. Hamlet's famous soliloquy, ''To be or not to be,'' is often translated in Japanese as ''To live or die.'' In the translation prepared for this production, the phrase becomes, ''Should we go on as we are?''

The adaptation ends with a reincarnated Hamlet asking the audience if they should "go on as they are," aiming to shake the Japanese of their cultural complacency. Japanese are still struggling with their identity today, both relative to WWII and current military resurgence and in a racial sense. I'm not sure Hamlet helps with the latter, but it certainly provokes questions about the former.

The history of Shakespeare in Japan is also interesting. I will be severely abridging a very complete version of the story.

When Japan was opened by Commodore Perry in the mid-1800's, it led to the introduction of the English language, and English language culture. Shakespeare, of course, is a hallmark of that culture. As the article linked to above explains:

Shakespeare arrived in Japan as part of a flood of Western culture, explaining why Japanese responses to Shakespeare in general, and Hamlet in particular (the play which seemed to afford the best window into the Western mind), have, in complex ways, been bound up with larger questions of national self-identity and Japan's relationship to the West. From the start, Japan's attitude to the West was ambivalent: both fearful and emulative.

Hamlet plays into that history and culture. The play itself has come to speak to the relationship between East, West, and Japan both before and after WWII, as it symbolizes an internal conflict to be true to one's better self, and act accordingly. It's a struggle we all face, but I'd imagine it's harder after you're culturally occupied.