Outline

date	Wednesday, November 25 – Friday, November 27, 2009
Venue	Maison des Cultures du Monde (November 25); Maison de la Culture du Japon à Paris (November 26); Bibliothèque nationale de France, new building (November 27)
Organizer	Organizers: Waseda University Theatre Museum Global COE; Maison de la Culture du Japon à Paris; Université Paris 10 (Theatre and film course); Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS)
outline	The international symposium, “Theatre, Dance, and the Arts Scene: Exchanges between France and Japan in the 20th Century,” was the first project by the Theatre Museum Global COE program to be organized abroad. Researchers and artists gathered from Japan and France as well as from all over Europe to make research presentations and to engage in discussions at this three-day-long symposium, which was held at three venues in the city of Paris. With two project leaders from the GCOE, one research assistant, two guest lecturers, three research associates, three researchers presenting papers and two members of the GCOE office staff providing administrative support, a high-quality, substantive research exchange was achieved, attended by a total of more than 200 people.

Details

The theatrical arts of Japan and France have had a powerful influence on each other, ever since the enormous impact that the troupe of KAWAKAMI Otojiro and Sadayakko had on the French artistic world when they performed at the Loie Fuller theatre during the Paris World Exposition in 1900. There have been several key turning points: Paul Claudel's arrival in Japan as French ambassador; KISHIDA Kunio and his associates who studied in France, and subsequently founded the Bungakuza; the interchange between Jean-Louis Barrault and KANZE Hisao; and the butoh of OHNO Kazuo and others that shocked the French dance world, to name a few. In recent years, as the environment and facilities for artistic exchanges have improved the number of French theatre people and filmmakers visiting Japan has increased, and the nature of the exchange process has diversified and become more complex. This symposium was an attempt to summarize the international joint research being done, exploring from a many-sided perspective a century of these Franco-Japanese artistic exchanges; and by doing so in conjunction with Université Paris 7, Université Paris 10, and the CNRS, which have had frequent academic exchanges with the 21st-century COE and Global COE programs, aimed to further strengthen our cooperative relationships with these institutions.
The symposium began on the first day with opening remarks by TAKEMOTO Mikio (Executive Director of the Waseda University Theatre Museum and a Global COE program leader) and Christian Biet (Université Paris 10). The session was followed by “Exchanges between Japan and France past and present,” which was a broad discussion by Georges Banu (Université Paris 3) on the differences in the theatrical cultures of Japan and Europe, and by WATANABE Moriaki (Kyoto University of Art and Design and a theatre director) on the reception in Japan and France of each other’s theatre arts. The next two panels were entitled “Tradition and innovation: Reciprocal relations between Japan and Europe at the beginning of the 20th century” (moderated by Béatrice Picon-Vallin of CNRS and a senior GCOE researcher in 2009) and “Encounters and dialogues with masters” (moderator: Stanca Scholz-Cionca, Trier University); research findings were presented that focused on incidents that made a deep impression on the history of Japanese and French theatrical exchanges, and historical images and data were introduced and exchanged. The day ended with a unique performance and talk staged by Arnaud Meunier, who is known in France for his productions of the works of HIRATA Oriza.
Two panels were held on the second day, the first titled “Modern theatre and translation” with presentations and discussion among promising theatre researchers who are also actively engaged in the translation of plays (moderator: FUJII Shintaro, GCOE project leader), the second titled “butoh and modern dance” with reports by researchers who analyze Japanese butoh from the perspective of different cultural backgrounds (moderator: Patrick De Vos, University of Tokyo). The round table entitled “First-hand experiences” (moderator: Christophe Triau, Université Paris 7) was a lively exchange among six leading French choreographers and theatre directors who have spent time in Japan. The entire audience listened intently to the frank and heartfelt words of the artists as they spoke about the impact that their experiences of being in a foreign culture, that of Japan, had had on the basis of their creative activities.
The final day’s program began with an introduction to representations of Japanese theatre found in the collection of the theatre arts department at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The theme on this day was the present and future of theatrical exchanges; first, “The environment and systems supporting artistic exchanges” (moderator: Emmanuel Wallon, Université Paris 10) explored the cultural policy background for improving the environment for artistic exchanges; then, in “Collaboration in contemporary theatrical arts” (moderator: Christophe Triau, Université Paris 7), discussion focused on the qualitative change in artistic exchanges between Japan and France, especially in the past ten years, and, from a larger perspective, on the development of joint works by the two countries and the exchange of plays and productions. In the round table on “Future of Japan-France joint productions,” (moderator: Bernard Faivre d’Arcier, former director of the Avignon Theatre Festival) producers and directors who are actively involved in the creative process enthusiastically discussed the topic.
Finally, we would like to express our gratitude once again to the French research institutions for the enormous support that they unstintingly gave us; to the cultural institutions that welcomed us to their venues; and to all those at the Fondation franco-japonaise Sasakawa who provided their invaluable assistance. We strongly hope that research exchanges between Japan and France in theatre studies will be further deepened as a result of this symposium. Preparations are now underway to publish the symposium’s findings in the leading French theatre journal, Theatre/Public, during the academic year of 2010. For a detailed program, which cannot be included here due to lack of space, please refer to News Letter 6 or the Theatre Museum Global COE website