French Journal of Japanese Studies, 5 | 2016 a History of Japanese Striptease 2

Cipango - French Journal of Japanese Studies English Selection 5 | 2016 New Perspectives on Japan’s Performing Arts A history of Japanese striptease Éric Dumont and Vincent Manigot Translator: Karen Grimwade Electronic version URL: https://journals.openedition.org/cjs/1384 DOI: 10.4000/cjs.1384 ISSN: 2268-1744 Publisher INALCO Electronic reference Éric Dumont and Vincent Manigot, “A history of Japanese striptease”, Cipango - French Journal of Japanese Studies [Online], 5 | 2016, Online since 15 July 2019, connection on 08 July 2021. URL: http:// journals.openedition.org/cjs/1384 ; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/cjs.1384 This text was automatically generated on 8 July 2021. Cipango - French Journal of Japanese Studies is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. A history of Japanese striptease 1 A history of Japanese striptease Éric Dumont and Vincent Manigot Translation : Karen Grimwade We are sincerely grateful to Hara Yoshiichi 原芳市, Moriyama Daidō 森山大道, Moriyama Sōhei 森山想平, and the estate of Hirooka Keiichi 広岡敬一 for allowing us to reproduce the images in this article for free. Original release: Éric Dumont et Vincent Manigot, « Une histoire du striptease japonais », Cipango, 21, 2014, 133‑185, mis en ligne le 26 septembre 2016. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/cipango/2230 ; DOI : 10.4000/cipango.2230 1 On the face of it, defining striptease does not appear to pose a problem: it is an erotic spectacle in which a performer disrobes. A dancer undresses in public, gradually revealing her naked body on stage. The faces of the watching crowd become animated, registering delight for some, disillusionment or even outrage for others. The distribution of roles within the practice—with women on stage and men in the audience—is intuitively suggested by our everyday experience of life in a phallocratic society and by the place the female body occupies in the erotic imagination. The only remaining question would thus seem to be how the act is perceived, whether or not it is considered art. Which in turn raises the issue of the normative stance taken towards what, for the sake of convenience, we will call “pornography.” In other words, is the society in question for or against it, and above all, to what extent? Any merit there is in studying striptease would thus seem to lie in what it may tell us about the attitude— permissive or intolerant—of a given society in terms of erotic mores. Nevertheless, we believe there is also merit in exploring the forms that striptease has taken throughout its history. Contrary to popular belief, formal variation appears to have been much greater than one might think. While this evolution in form is intimately linked to the evolution in mores, and thus to changing perceptions of striptease, the growing inventiveness of these performances makes them a valid object of study from an artistic point of view. 2 It would seem logical to assume that the act of stripping is as old as clothing itself. The Kojiki reports that as far back as the Age of the Gods, Ame no Uzume 天宇受賣 removed her clothing during a dance, provoking general hilarity among the assembled gods and Cipango - French Journal of Japanese Studies, 5 | 2016 A history of Japanese striptease 2 enticing the sun goddess out of her hiding place. Yet it would clearly be anachronistic to claim Ame no Uzume as a pioneer of striptease, whether in Japan or the world at large. 3 The term “striptease” most likely appeared in the early 1930s, or even slightly before according to some sources;1 however, erotic shows that in retrospect could be given such a label no doubt existed earlier. Despite this, little information exists on the advent of the practice, whether in Japan or elsewhere. Although striptease certainly has a prehistory, in this paper we have preferred to focus on its history in order to avoid any confusion over its genealogy.2 The early history of striptease was characterised by the assertion that this was a public performance, in other words, one not confined to a small group of initiates. To our mind, it is the appearance of openly advertised shows and more or less specialist venues accessible to anyone willing to pay that marks the advent of striptease. In this sense, the origins of the practice can be dated back to the late nineteenth century, when stripping emerged for the first time in its established, theatricalised form that was accessible to the widest audience possible. Although it would not be particularly helpful to pinpoint a specific date or event as officially marking its birth, striptease can be said to have emerged in a fairly similar manner in France and the United States, as part of cabaret shows.3 In Japan, the practice appeared only after World War II4 and soon adopted such a variety of forms that it would be extremely difficult to establish one single, definitive definition. Indeed, the term “striptease” refers as much to a set of techniques, a type of act or a genre of show than to specific material conditions, venues, people or professions. It thus encompasses practices and elements that go beyond merely “undressing on stage,” hence the need to describe and problematize its formal manifestations. 4 Having appeared in Japan shortly after the end of World War II, striptease underwent a number of transformations until the 1970s. This paper proposes to look back at these evolutions, which have been divided into three periods. The first covers the appearance of striptease during the tumultuous postwar period and the attempts made to introduce movement; the second focuses on the transition to a more theatrical model at the cusp of the 1950s, which was accompanied by the creation of venues specialising in striptease; finally, the third period encompasses the various changes undergone by striptease during the 1960s, when the notion of pleasure came to the fore. This schematic periodisation should not be interpreted as suggesting that the 1970s sounded the death knell for the history of striptease. Shows are still being performed in specialist venues to this day.5 Nevertheless, for the moment at least, formal evolution within the industry seems to have reached a limit at the beginning of the 1970s, with no significant changes having been seen since. 5 Statistical data concerning the number of venues, their owners, attendance rates and the revenue generated would no doubt have been extremely enlightening; unfortunately it proved impossible to obtain any reliable figures. The disreputable nature of this type of industry is not conducive to the production, much less the official publication, of such documents. Figures relating to striptease dancers—such as their average wage, life expectancy and career length—would also have been of the greatest interest. But here again, aside from a few sporadic anecdotes6 and biographies that often verge on hagiographies, we were unable to locate sufficient data to make any generalisations. Cipango - French Journal of Japanese Studies, 5 | 2016 A history of Japanese striptease 3 6 Based on these figures, or rather the lack of them, a number of hypotheses can be made. First, that striptease may not yet have truly captured the attention of researchers in the social sciences. Second, that many dancers changed their name several times and that the nature of the world in which they worked (or still work) does not encourage transparency of information. Third, that after turning their backs on the stage many dancers simply returned to “normal” society and anonymity. Given the absence of documentation, we are unable to provide any useful discussion of the general living conditions of striptease dancers. Instead we will present the history of a performing art that cannot be reduced to statistical data, though we are conscious of the limits this places on our discussion. As we will see, many artists—some of whom were famous outside Japan—enjoyed close links with the world of striptease. Regardless of the famous names that gravitated around the industry, and despite its status as a popular art, striptease undeniably counts as one of the first theatrical forms to have explored the body in movement in postwar Japan, long before the ballets of Jikken Kōbō 実験工房 or the Butoh 舞踏 of Hijikata Tatsumi 土方巽. In fact, Hijikata took a close interest in striptease, even choreographing shows during the 1960s.7 Generally speaking, striptease has constantly faced concrete production difficulties and other less technical issues relating to desire and eroticism. The history of striptease thus tells us as much about the history of mores as it does about the history of the performing arts. The early days of striptease in Japan (1945‑1948) A novel use of the body: tableaux vivants 7 The immediate postwar period in Japan saw a rapid and massive influx of art forms that used the body in novel ways, raising new questions about corporeality that contrasted with the hygienism that had prevailed until 1945.8 The Americans planted the seeds of an entire popular culture that was epitomised by the magazines known as kasutori zasshi カストリ雑誌. 9 These publications were modelled on the pulp magazines that had circulated in the United States for several years. Life magazine, for example, created a scandal in 1937 by trying to boost its sales via an article that would serve as a benchmark for its competitors. Entitled “How to Undress for Your Husband,” it offered a step-by-step guide to undressing for any housewife keen to please her husband.10 Just like the American publications on which they were modelled, kasutori zasshi regularly featured cover pictures of sensual women. In 1946, the magazine Aka to kuro 赤と黒 (The Red and the Black) published a photograph of a semi‑naked woman.11 That same year also saw the first kiss in the history of Japanese film, giving birth to what would soon be known as the seppun eiga 接吻映画 (kissing film).

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