Report of Monthly Regular Meeting, February 2025 (226th Meeting of the Opera Research Group)
Waseda Institute for Research in Opera and Music Theatre (WIROM), Comprehensive Research Organization, Waseda University
- Time and Date: February 1st (Sat.) 2025, 16:30 – 18:00 (JST)
- Format: Online meeting (Zoom)
- Presenter: KASAI, Amane
- Affiliation: Kyoto University of the Arts
- Title: “The Establishment of Theatre Culture in Hot Spring Resorts and the Revue Format Developed There: Towards the Discussion of ‘Tourist Music Theatre’”
- Language: Japanese
- Moderator: YAMADA, Sayaka
- Abstract: This paper examines revues in Japanese hot spring resorts from a cross-genre perspective as a starting point for discussing ‘tourist music theatre’. It is evident that hot spring resorts have had music theatres all over Japan, and research has been carried out on the works and performing groups involved in each case. Notwithstanding, more research is needed to examine these practices comprehensively. In recent years, the field of theatre research has shown a growing interest in the approach of tourism theatre studies to re-examine the relationship between theatre and tourism. In musicology, for example, the University of Tübingen’s Collaborative Research Centre is developing a project focusing on British public baths and spas, which indicates a momentum towards discussing hot springs as performance venues. This paper will first review the research trends that underpin the basis of the discussion of ‘tourist music theatres’ in both musicology and theatre research. We will then consider the role that the theatre culture of hot spring resorts has historically played as a place where people with different attributes, interests, and musical experiences interact as performers and audiences, based on case studies of all-female revues, theatre for the masses, and variety shows.
- Profile of Presenter: Amane KASAI is a lecturer at Kyoto University of the Arts. Her research addresses topics related to historical musicology and cultural exchanges from cross-genre viewpoints. She launched a joint research project with Dr. Yuiko Asaba from SOAS on the maritime history of music in and from Japan during the transwar period, which led to the recent publication of the Special Issue “Resonating across Oceanic Currents” with East Asian Journal of Popular Culture. Her recent works in English include the co-authored chapter ‘Misora Hibari in Kōhaku Utagassen’ with Dr. Shelley Brunt in Handbook of Japanese Music in the Modern Era (Brill, 2023). Her current research also reviews tourist sites, particularly hot spring resorts, as auditory spaces where people with different music preferences and backgrounds gather.
- Moderator: YAMADA, Sayaka
- Comment: There were 21 participants.
contact
Waseda Institute for Research in Opera and Music Theatre (WIROM), Comprehensive Research Organization, Waseda University: https://prj-opera-mt.w.waseda.jp/
e-mail address: operaken-uketsuke[at]list.waseda.jp ([at] = @)
