School for Takarazuka Revue trainees abolishes harassment-like rules

Welcome to the 21st century.

The school's motto is "Purity, Honesty, Beauty."

It sounds like there are other areas of the school which need reviewing as well. . . . .

It's one of the oddest theatre organizations in the world. The artistic and creative level is very low, despite the extensive and harsh training received by the players and its generous funding. Internally, it's rife with cultish practices. It belongs in North Korea.

I must admit, after visiting the Takarazuka theatre in Tokyo several times, that it left me with an eerie and strange feeling. Like going to ceremony of rituals, like a cult. So reading what I see here those not surprise me. Very talented performers, but it does seem to be a theatre of the past, repeating itself with the same formula year after year even if the world is changing. But then again people need escape from an hectic world. There are plenty of great entertainment in Tokyo to choose from.

"" "Purity, Honesty, Beauty." ""

Hard to find these days, but not impossible.

As a regular commuter on the Takarazuka line, I see these girls daily. They have always freaked me out. They are almost like robots. Perfect in every way. They can’t sit on the train, they always stand in the middle of the platform and must let all the passengers enter first. Always in perfect posture, with a frozen face, and a slight smile. Looks scary.

Like John, I see the performers on the Takarazuka line a fair bit as well. They're only allowed to ride on the last car of the train, and must stand ramrod-straight.

A couple of months ago I saw a group of the students returning to the station after visiting the grave of the Hankyu Corp's founder, which they have to do on the anniversary of his death. The group was clearly in three classes: the first must have been the 3rd year students. They marched single file in perfect synch, like a North Korean military troupe. The second seemed to be 2nd year students, pretty sharp but not quite to the same standard. And along came the newbies at the end, doing their utmost to highlight the contrast between themselves and the seniors. Sloppy but earnest. Amusing to observe, if a little surreal.

The Takarazuka Music School spent several years to do away with the unwritten rules whose origins are unknown, which also include making a prescribed facial expression toward senior-class students and saying only "yes," "no," and several other prescribed words when talking with them.

I am quite proud of my imagination but that is worse than I would have imagined. Anyone who considers herself automatically entitled to the above is not pure, honest, or beautiful in my book.

expatToday  11:57 am JST

This entire enterprise should go the way of the hanko and the fax machine...

So you're saying it'll be around for some time to come?

Sounds like the core of what Japanese describe as "acting" is about to implode. I mean it is acting, its just the most finite, predictable, unrealistic and boring acting on the planet.

"Purity, Honesty, Beauty."

And meanwhile we have people screaming in other threads about rampant sexuality. My opinion is that the motto is fine except for "purity". As an image its ok but only a mediocre attempt to present that image should ever be undertaken. Since we so often instead see an overbearing attempt to present it and even to actually live it, we get backlash. An unnecessary war starts between those who realize the world is not and cannot ever be so "pure" and those who happily destroy anyone's or everyone's happiness over a trivial thing.

DNALeriSep. 13  06:53 am JST

Welcome to the 21st century.

It's about time.