Performing Femininity: Exploring Onnagata Kabuki In Japanese Theatre By: Priscilla Chang

About the author: Priscilla Chang is a student currently in her fourth year at the University of Guelph majoring in History and minoring in Museum Studies. Her paper, “Performing Femininity: Exploring Onnagata Kabuki in Japanese Theatre”, challenges the ways in which gender was (and is still) performed in Japan and how the onnagata viewed these roles while performing them both on and off stage.

3 Kabuki theatre was one of the first theatre forms in Japan that flourished in the Tokugawa period from 1603-1868.1 Kabuki had initially been an inclusive art that involved both men and women performing together on stage. Theatre acting was perceived as an immoral practice by the Japanese government and it was often linked with prostitution, so women, or the onna kabuki, were banned from performing onstage in 1629. The popularity of the onna kabuki, was soon taken over by wakashu - young boys who took the place of women to play the female roles. Soon, this, too, was banned in 1652, as the wakashu were also at risk for being involved in prostitution. With the ban on both women and young boys to fulfill female roles, there was no choice but to have mature male actors play the roles of females, the onnagata. They fulfilled female roles and performed dancing, singing and acting as a new and popular art form in kabuki theatre.2 Today, kabuki is known as a traditional art form, characterized by its all-male actors, elaborate makeup, and colourful costumes. Kabuki is an experiential form of theatre, whereby the audience and the actors are intimately connected by music, song and dance. This essay will explore the ways in which the onnagata embodied these female roles. Through theatrical performance, the onnagata created what Japanese society at the time viewed as the ideal woman. As a result, they were able to gain significant approval and recognition from Japanese society through moral codes and from their male and female patrons. This essay will also explore others who engaged in performing femininity such as the performers in Chinese opera, the nandan, as well as examine the onnagata in relation to androgyny and gender. Due to the influence of Confucian nationalism in Japan, women were encouraged to act in a way that operated within the Confucian patriarchal system and thus were excluded from performing onstage.3 The famous onnagata, Yoshizawa Ayame I (1673- 1729), encouraged this practice in the onnagata classic, The Words of Ayame.4 Furthermore, the onnagata inadvertently created a fictitious image of what femininity should be by conforming to ideas for women perpetuated by patriarchal ideas that were transferred to kabuki theatre. Chinese opera with the nandan performers also replicated a similar structure of how to play a female role. Finally, it is also important to note that while the onnagata did encourage gender roles, kabuki theatre also allowed onnagata to explore gender identity in the female roles that they performed.

1 Jonah Salz, A History of Japanese Theater (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016), 102. 2 Maki Moringa, “The Gender of Onnagata as the Imitating Imitated: Its Historicity, Performativity, and Involvement in the Circulation of Femininity,” positions 10, no. 2 (May 2002): 247. 3 Salz, A History of Japanese Theater, 113. 4 Minoru Fujita and Michael Shapiro, Transvestism and the Onnagata Traditions in Shakespeare and Kabuki (Folkestone, Kent, UK: Global Oriental, 2006), 71-72.

4 Confucianism is one of the most influential forms of religion that spread quickly throughout Asian countries such as China, Korea, and Japan in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.5 Thus, certain core beliefs and philosophies were adopted from Confucianism and were prevalent throughout the Tokugawa era in Japanese history, emphasizing moral conduct above all else. It is thought in Confucianism, that morality is not a characteristic that humans are gifted with, rather it is cultivated through the leadership of good models and teachers.6 In the Tokugawa period (1603-1868), educators taught Confucianism through teachers called the jusha, who were often employed by samurai as well as regional lords to teach their children. The printing press in this period was also had an influential part to play in spreading Confucian ideas in Japan. Even remote villages that were located far away from the Edo capital were taught these values through teaching the young and local schools.7 Although Confucianism promoted core values that were shaped around morality and good behavior, they did not look kindly upon women. The Neo-Confucianist Kaibara Ekken (1643-1714) wrote extensively on moral codes as well as treatises that included proper conduct for children, warriors and lords, as well as women. His treatise for women entitled, Greater Learning for Women [Onna Daigaku] instructed women on how to act with decorum and adhere to moral codes and values. The Way of the woman is to obey her man. In her dealings with her husband, both the expression of her countenance and the style of her address should be courteous, humble, and conciliatory, never peevish and intractable, never rude or arrogant - that should be a woman’s first and principal care.8

Many women during the Tokugawa period were familiar with Kaibara’s teachings. Those values defined a woman’s place in society as well as created a role that women had to fill. Kabuki began in 1603, when a former shrine priestess named Okuni (1572-1620) created a type of performance that used elements of song and dance to embellish her storytelling.9 Okuni quickly utilized her storytelling abilities by creating stories about popular heroes that would appeal to the

5 Nicole L. Freiner, The Social and Gender Politics of Confucian Nationalism: Women and the Japanese Nation State (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), 34. 6 Ibid, 35. 7 Ibid, 46. 8 Kaibara Ekken, “Excerpts From The Great Learning for Women (Onna Daigaku)”, Asia For Educators I Columbia University. http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/ps/japan/ekken_greaterlearning. pdf?menu=1&s=4 (Accessed 16 July, 2019). 9 Yoko Takakuwa, “Performing Marginality: The Place of the Player and of “Woman” in Early Modern Japanese Culture,” New Literary History 27, no. 2 (1996): 214.

5 public’s imagination, dramatizing their life and death to captivate audiences .10 Kabuki often involved both men and women performing onstage, however there were fears from Tokugawa officials thatkabuki actresses’ erotic performances would create rampant prostitution and cause social disorder. Thus, kabuki theatre could only re-open on the condition that grown men take the place of female roles, which led to the creation of the onnagata.11 It can be argued that the reason that women were banned from kabuki stage, was because of the enforcement of Confucian ideals, that put the onnagata in the spotlight. The onnagata did not just fill female roles, they too had certain expectations that they needed to abide by. These expectations are highlighted by the famous onnagata, Yoshizawa Ayame I (1673-1729). In his book, The Words of Ayame, he urges onnagata to mimic women not just onstage but offstage, in their everyday lives in order to perfect their roles. Imitating womanly behavior was vital to the careers of the onnagata; it was important for them to possess the very essence of a woman. According to Ayame, “If [the actor] does not live his life as if he was (sic) a woman, it will not be possible for him to be called a skillful onnagata.”12 Skillful onnagata acted within their female roles to produce a convincing portrayal on stage, as it was the duty of an onnagata to portray a woman with accuracy and authenticity. It was also important, according to Ayame, that onnagata practice behaving like a woman. This meant reflecting the Confucian values of the time, such as abiding by the same social constraints that women had to operate under in accordance to the social order. Ayame states in his book that onnagata, like women, needed to keep their minds chaste, and had to live as women in everyday life.13 Ayame also advised onnagata to avoid anything that women would not do such as making the audiences laugh on purpose, as well as giving the highest priority to chastity even inside the dressing room.14 The code of conduct for onnagata is very similar to the Confucian ideals for women reflected inGreat Learning for Women, in which, onnagata and women alike were to prioritize values of chastity and purity.15 Kaibara Ekken advised that, “a woman must always be on the alert and keep a strict watch over her own conduct.”16 The onnagata had to adhere to the same social constraints that women were placed under in order to perfect their female roles, this was to ensure that onnataga seemed convincing to the audience in these roles.

10 Ibid, 215. 11 Ibid, 215. 12 Frank Episale. “Gender, Tradition, and Culture in Translation: Reading the Onnagata in English.” Asian Theatre Journal 29, no. 1 (2012): 96. 13 Laura Miller and Jan Bardsley, Manners and Mischief: Gender Power and Etiquette in Japan (Berkley: University of California Press, 2011), 54. 14 Ibid, 54. 15 Ibid, 54. 16 Kaibara, “Excerpts From The Great Learning for Women”.

6 The onnagata were also required to mimic women’s body language to further convince the audience of their authenticity, and cater to male patrons through their femininity. Onnagata also specialized in training the mind and body to mimic women’s posture and movements. Ayame reveals that Japanese women often acted a certain way when “faking love”, “When a woman hugs a man while faking love, she will hug him over both his arms, and face sideways. If it is with true affection, she will cling to him with her arm deeply under his left arm.”17 It was important for the onnagata to reflect the emotional state of the female character they were playing to the audience, whether it be love or anger. This body language was vital to add authenticity to an onnagata‘s performance as a woman.18 Fashion was also an important aspect of an onnagata’s performance. According to Ayame, it was important to influence female fans to copy the fashion of the onnagata such as clothing, hair accessories, combs and hairpins as well as kerchiefs and sashes.19 To quote Kikunojō (Ayame’s other stage name), “An onnagata must have many male fans who wish, ‘If only there were a woman like this.’”20 Onnagata kabuki influenced what women should wear and encouraged women to copy their idea of femininity. The aesthetics of onnagata such as the makeup they wore, wigs, and the costumes soon were so popular that women from pleasure quarters imitated their stylized form of femininity.21 Ayame encouraged onnagata to become a woman both on and offstage in order to achieve perfection as a true onnagata. They should “adhere to specific rules of decorum for women, which they say is natural to women’s sentiment and therefore, for example, take lunch quietly.”22 Ayame suggested that any onnagata should remain an onnagata inside his dressing room and eat lunch in private.23

The onnagata should continue to have the feelings of an onnagata even when in the dressing room. When taking refreshment, too, he should turn away so that people cannot see him. To be alongside a tachiyaku [an actor of male roles], playing the lover’s part and chew away at one’s food without charm and then go straight out

17 Miller and Bardsley, Manners and Mischief, 54. 18 Ibid, 54. 19 Morinaga, “The Gender of Onnagata as the Imitating Imitated,” 269. 20 Ibid, 269. 21 Ayako Kano, Acting Like a Woman in Modern Japan: Theater, Gender, and Nationalism. (New York; Houndmills, England; Palgrave 2001), 5. 22 Miller and Bardsley, Manners and Mischief, 50. 23 Ibid, 50.

7 on the stage and play a love scene with the same man, will lead to failure on both sides, for the tachiyaku’s heart will not be in reality be ready to fall in love.24

This specific quote can give the reader an understanding that the onnagata, while playing a woman’s role, needed to adhere to strict guidelines that governed women. Without acting under these moral codes for women, the onnagata would not be able to embody the cultural constraints that women were placed under. Further examining female ideals in comparison with other forms of performance, there were many similarities as well as differences between Chinese opera and onnagata kabuki. Chinese opera operated in some of the same ways as onnagata kabuki did, as similar ideas were also prominent with the nandan performers, men performing as women. Both onnagata kabuki and nandan performers rose to fame and were celebrated in their countries and on the world stage. A classic example is the famous Chinese actor, Mei Lanfang (1894-1961), also known as the “Master Operatic Artists in the South (Cantonese) and the North (Peking).”25 These forms of performance also involved aspects of kabuki onnagata, such as the cross dressing male opera singers in Cantonese opera. Cantonese opera also involved women acting in the male roles as well, but for this comparison, this paper will focus on men performing in female roles. Chinese opera often plays with the distinction between what is zhen [real] and jia [fictional/false/fake], a theme often explored in theatre, around sex and gender.26 Chinese opera follows the same philosophy that Ayame had when it came to men playing female roles. A quote recorded by the Qing scholar Ji Yun (1724-1805) who reveals in this text how men can embody gender.

We who take our body as female must at the same time transform [hua] our heart-mind [xin] into female. Then our loveliness and charm will infatuate all those who see us. If there is one degree of the male heart-mind left, there is necessarily one degree of non-verisimilitude with woman. In this situation, how can one fight for the favor (sic) given to women? As for performing on stage, I render the heart-mind pure when playing a virtuous woman ...:

24 Fujita and Shapiro, Transvestism and the Onnagata Traditions in Shakespeare and Kabuki, 77. 25 Kar Yue Chen, “Cross Dressing and Gendered Voice Representation in Cantonese Opera,” Comparative Literature: East & West (2019), 8. 26 Siu Leung Li, Cross-Dressing in Chinese Opera (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2003), 155.

8 profligate when playing a promiscuous woman . . .; solemn when playing a noble lady . . . To express delight, anger, lamentation, happiness, indebtedness and grief, or love and hate, I put oneself in the other’s position. I never take it as play acting but as real. People then all see it as real. The other people impersonate women but fail to retain a woman’s heart-mind; imitate women but fail to acquire various hearts minds of women. That is why I am supreme.27

Like Ayame or any other onnagata, it is not about simply playing the part of a woman but to embody a woman’s spirit, both on stage and off. While it can be argued that they are different, as the actor in Chinese opera needs to possess a woman’s “heart mind”, so too the onnagata needed to mimic “womanly” values as well as practice what women practice in accordance to society, such as remaining chaste, loyal and feminine. “Acting woman” in the Chinese sense is actually very similar to the practice of being an onnagata as they both reflect patriarchal ideals that women’s roles were bound by. In regards to both, onnagata in kabuki theatre and nandan in Chinese opera, it was all about how to perfectly play the woman as a man. The Chinese acting theory is “distinguished by the emphasis on capturing the shen [essence/ psyche] of the person being impersonated.”28 Thus, it is understandable why many performers had to draw out characteristics of the gender they were playing. These characteristics were taken from constructed gender roles within the given culture that dictated how women or men normally acted. The performer was then able to convince the audience, therefore, that what happened on the stage also mirrored real life people.29 Many female impersonators such as the onnagata and nandan performers of Chinese opera received both international praise and mixed reviews of their performances in female roles. In the early Republican era of China, nandan stars such as Mei Lanfang (1894-1961) and Chen Yanqiu (1904-1958) 30 As in Japan, the early Qing emperors (1644-1912) banished women from the stage because they believed that female performers’ sex app31 However, this changed dramatically when the Chinese critics observed that the West had a different opinion of female impersonators. At a dinner in a Western country, two male Chinese guests were asked to perform Chinese opera and they performed a piece impersonating a heterosexual couple.

27 Ibid, 164. 28 Li, Cross-Dressing in Chinese Opera, 164. 29 Ibid, 164. 30 Guanda Wu, ”Should Nandan Be Abolished? The Debate over Female Impersonation in Early Republican China and Its Underlying Cultural Logic,” Asian Theatre Journal 30, no. 1, (2013): 189. 31 Ibid, 190.

9 The performance however created an awkward turn of events, as the critics observed that the Western host thought the performance was “strange.”. I32 This incident put China in a position where officials felt that they needed to reform their theatre, in order to gain approval from the West. However, “abnormal” nandan performers and Chinese opera seemed to the West, in Chinese opera, cross-dressing female impersonators were prevalent throughout the Qing Dynasty. Talented actors such as Mei Lanfang portrayed both male and female roles and gained immense success on the world stage. Many people were overwhelmed by Mei Lanfang’s feminine portrayals on stage, such as a Japanese envoy who watched his performance. The envoy appreciated Mei’s performance by saying, “it is impossible to differentiate whether Mei is a female or male when he appeared onstage with the makeup.”33 Mei Lanfang was able to gain considerable recognition as a nandan performer. In Mei’s representation of the concubine character, Yu, he uses feminine ideals in contrast with masculine desire,

Concubine Yu is a person of goodwill, experienced, passionate, faithful and unyielding. She hates war, longing for peace. Her love for Xiang Yu [the Hegemon King] is total. She even sacrifices herself for love.”34

Mei also argues that, “The unsurpassed faithfulness in her self-sacrifice and the tragic sublime in the sword dance embodied the most typical virtue of ancient Chinese women.”35 This suggests that Mei Lanfang’s success was at least somewhat dependent on the traditional masculine desire for a woman to embody feminine ideals. This is not to discredit Mei Lanfang as a performer, it only shows that much of his recognition came from playing roles that were based in a longstanding tradition that placed women within the confines of certain societal expectations.36 Onnagata, through playing female roles, were able to explore gender identity through the element of performance. In 1887, Japan’s kabuki theatre experienced a major change, with female actresses entering the stage under the Theater Reform Society or the [Engeki Kairyōkai], that advocated replacing onnagata with actresses.37 While actresses were being introduced, the traditional role of the onnagata changed as well. Ayame advised many onnagata in The

32 Ibid, 195. 33 Li, Cross-Dressing in Chinese Opera, 167. 34 Ibid, 79-80. 35 Ibid, 80. 36 Joshua Goldstein, ”Mei Lanfang and the Nationalization of Peking Opera, 1912–1930. positions 7, no. 22, (May 1999): 377-380. 37 Kano, Acting Like a Woman in Modern Japan, 6-7.

10 Words of Ayame to avoid taking roles where women were not submissive and virtuous; this changed as the onnagata started playing roles of more empowered women on the kabuki stage. Much like the incident with China’s opera singers and the Western officials there was a major change to kabuki when Japan started having commercial relations with the West. Theatre changed as Japan began to adopt certain changes, such as women re-entering kabuki theatre, which was largely influenced by the West. The theatre slowly became a sign of Japan’s status on the world stage as attending the theatre was a popular pastime in many European countries.38 Now actors could be seen as cultural representatives of Japan instead of just outcasts and criminals.39 Women were now being introduced as actresses to the theatre, and the onnagata were becoming more marginalized.40 This occurred because Japan became more aware that the presence of the onnagata onstage did not fit with the moral social codes of the West. Theatre was one of the most conspicuous sights for the new government to display Japan’s legitimacy as an advanced nation, one that could not only avoid colonization by nations such as the United States, Britain, Germany and France, but one that would eventually become a colonial power itself.41 Thus Japanese officials began to slowly let women back onto the stage. The tradition of the onnagata however, did not go away. There were also other changes in onnagata kabuki from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that radically changed their roles. Ayame was adamant that onnagata should refuse to play any roles that would compromise the values of a woman. However, in order for onnagata kabuki to change and progress, these roles needed to be transformed42 Onnagata roles changed from playing meek, serving and virtuous women to women associated with ”masculinity.”43 The onnagata were able to play roles that displayed both masculinity and femininity such as the role of the onna budô, [female warriors]. In the 1786 play, Keya Mura [Keya Village], Osano, a Zen priestess, fiercely fights to defend herself from robbers and other enemies while holding a child in her arms, thus playing to both “maternal femininity” and masculinity by fighting to protect a child. Other changes included onnagata playing akuba or akujo known as [evil women], who were becoming popular during the nineteenth century. These roles were very different compared to the traditional onnagata roles. Onnagata began to play ruthless heroines who challenged traditional

38 Ibid, 6. 39 Ibid, 7. 40 Ibid, 9. 41 Ibid, 6. 42 Fujita and Shapiro, Transvestism and the Onnagata Traditions in Shakespeare and Kabuki, 72. 43 Samuel L.Leiter, “From Gay to Gei: The Onnagata and the Creation of Kabuki’s Female Characters,” Comparative Drama 33, no. 4, (1999): 509.

11 roles.44 These roles arguably allowed for the introduction of empowered heroines who changed traditional onnagata roles influenced by Confucianism. In relation to androgyny, before the birth of the onnagata, it was wakashu kabuki that had adolescent boys perform female roles, and where another identity was formed around androgyny. The wakashu were a part of a long standing tradition in the samauri warrior class, where young boys would learn “military masculinity” from their senior partners who trained them and took them as sexual partners.45 As noted above, onnagata took this role onstage when the wakashu were banned for the risk of prostitution in 1652, and filled the female roles that were left behind by thewakashu . Gender can be explored as the onnagata transitioned their roles from, ”“military masculinity” to “androgynous gender” [...] and to “ideal femininity.””46 The wakashu created another kind of gender identity, one that was in between male and female that the onnagata replicated as their own, putting an emphasis on femininity.47 The ban on the wakashu did not completely get rid of the established androgynous identity, rather it created an opening for the onnagata to fill their place.48 From that point, onnagata were able to sustain and preserve that androgynous identity that the wakashu had created. Kabuki is still known to be a thriving traditional form of theatre, from its beginning in 1603 to the present day. While many Western theatre critics found kabuki to be unusual, today it is still a very celebrated and thriving art form. Japan, unlike the West, has not had many issues with female impersonation nor have they explicitly banned it, along with homosexuality. Japanese society historically has been familiar with the concept of henshin or “[change form”], which has allowed Buddhist deities to appear in both male and female manifestations to their followers. Yin and yang are also an example of how in every individual, there is a shifting balance of both male and female energies.49 It can be argued that the immersion of the onnagata in Japan were the first transgender image that surfaced in Japan, as they had been mostly accepted until Western influences deemed onnagata kabuki as an inferior form of theatre in the nineteenth century. Onnagata kabuki has a legacy for being a distinct and traditional art form and has, in a way, influenced drag and cross-dressing in private and public spheres.50 The LGBTQ+ community and the art of cross-dressing in Japan thrives, however

44 Ibid, 511. 45 Morinaga, The Gender of Onnagata as the Imitating Imitated”, 246. 46 Ibid, 248. 47 Ibid, 249. 48 Ibid, 249. 49 Mark J McLelland,“ Living More “Like Oneself”: Transgender Identities and Sexualities in Japan.” Journal of Bisexuality. 3, no 3, (2003): 206. 50 Noah B. McAllister, Drag and Female Impersonation in Japan and the United States, (University of Colorado, Boulder, 2017), 6.

12 the acceptance of same- sex marriage does not. A major company in Japan, Panasonic has taken that step by amending their definitions of ”marriage” and ”spouse” in its employee guidelines and extending the same benefits packages to LGBTQ+ couples that they do with heterosexual couples, giving them special leave for weddings and funeral celebrations.51 Onnagata kabuki is a historical example of early transgender expression, and many men playing female roles throughout the history of kabuki would often cater sexually to both female and male patrons. Onnagata kabuki came into existence because of the moral codes that Japan upheld, as women and wakashu were banned from performing on stage. These moral codes created the rise of the onnagata who adopted the feminine aesthetics of the wakashu who once performed in the female roles. These moral codes allowed the onnagata to embody femininity as well as create a fictitious image of what ideal femininity should be for women. Onnagata soon became influential, inspiring fashion and beauty that the everyday woman, as well as women in pleasure quarters, adopted. Ayame promoted ideals that women were expected to embody in The Words of Ayame, a guidebook that advised other onnagata on how to embody femininity in order to perfect those roles. Ayame’s teachings reflected the teachings of Kaibara Ekken in Great Learning For Women, that were prevalent in Confucian moral codes that taught women how to obey and act in a patriarchal society. By portraying the ideal women onstage, the onnagata influenced women to follow their lead. They fabricated themselves for men to view as the perfect woman, to pursue fictitious images that theonnagata had created. Onnagata kabuki remains today a traditional, all-male art. It is vibrant and expressive and still does exclude women but remains a place for open discussion about gender identity and expression both in kabuki theatre of the present as well as the past.

51 “Panasonic to Recognize Same-Sex Couples, Call for Equality Among LGBT Employees.” The Mainichi. February 18, 2016.

13 Bibliography Brandon, J. R. “Reflections on the Onnagata,” Asian Theatre Journal 29, no. 1 (2012); 122-125. Bunch, Ralph. “Women, Tradition and Politics in Japanese Classical Theatre.” Journal of Asian and African Studies 22, no.1 (1987): 80. Chen, Kar Yue. “Cross Dressing and Gendered Voice Representation in Cantonese Opera.” Comparative Literature: East & West. (2019): 1-14. Dumas, Raechel. “Historicizing Japan’s Abject Femininity: Reading Women’s Bodies in “Nihon Ryōiki. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 40, no. 2 (2013): 247-275. Ekken Kaibara. “Excerpts From The Great Learning for Women [Onna Daigaku] Asia For Educators I Columbia University. http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/ps/japan/ekken_greaterlearning. pdf?menu=1&s=4 (Accessed July 16th, 2019). Episale, Frank. “Gender, Tradition, and Culture in Translation: Reading the Onnagata in English,” Asian Theatre Journal 29, no. 1 (2012): 89-111. Freiner, Nicole L. The Social and Gender Politics of Confucian Nationalism: Women and the Japanese Nation State (New York: Palgrave Macmillan), 2012. Fujita, Minoru and Michael Shapiro. Transvestism and the Onnagata Traditions in Shakespeare and Kabuki (Folkestone, Kent, UK: Global Oriental), 2006. Goldstein, Joshua. “Mei Lanfang and the Nationalization of Peking Opera, 1912–1930,” positions 7, no 2., (May 1999): 377–420. Kano, Ayako. Acting Like a Woman in Modern Japan: Theater, Gender, and Nationalism (New York: Houndmills England; Palgrave), 2001. Leiter, Samuel L. “From Gay to Gei: The Onnagata and the Creation of Kabuki’s Female Characters.” Comparative Drama 33, no. 4 (1999): 495-514. Li, Siu Leung. Cross-Dressing in Chinese Opera (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press), 2003. McAllister, Noah B. Drag and Female Impersonation in Japan and the United States. (University of Colorado, Boulder), 2017. McLelland, Mark J. Male Homosexuality in Modern Japan: Cultural Myths and Social Realities. (London: Routledge), 2000. McLelland, Mark J. “Living More “Like Oneself”: Transgender Identities and Sexualities in Japan.” Journal of Bisexuality. 3, no. 3, (2003): 203-230.

14 Miller, Laura and Jan Bardsley. Manners and Mischief: Gender Power and Etiquette in Japan (Berkley: University of California Press), 2011. Morinaga, Maki. “The Gender of Onnagata as the Imitating Imitated: Its Historicity, Performativity, and Involvement in the Circulation of Femininity.” positions, no. 2, (May 2002): 245–284. Pronko, Leonard C. “Boys, Women Or Phantasmal Androgynes? Elizabethan and “Kabuki” Female Representation.” Theatre Symposium, no. 6 (1998): 38. ProQuest. Web. 30 July 2019. Robertson, Jennifer. “The Politics of Androgyny in Japan: Sexuality and Subversion in the Theater and Beyond.” American Ethnologist 1, no. 3 (1992): 419-42 Salz, Jonah. A History of Japanese Theater (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 2016. Takakuwa, Yoko. “Performing Marginality: The Place of the Player and of “Woman” in Early Modern Japanese Culture” New Literary History 2, no. 2 (1996): 213-25. The Mainichi. “Panasonic to recognize same-sex couples, call for equality among LGBT employees.” The Mainichi, February 16, 2016. Wu, Guanda. “Should Nandan Be Abolished? The Debate over Female Impersonation in Early Republican China and Its Underlying Cultural Logic,” Asian Theatre Journal 30, no. 1 (2013): 189-206.

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