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= Theatre of Japan Wiki Page =

Popular Entertainment of Japan
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To give a brief summary of the general term of popular entertainment, the theatrical performance genre can be defined as entertainment that presents spectacle live performances to attract mass audiences. Since popular entertainment wanted to target multiple audiences, their performances were largely accessible to all. While popular entertainments’ main purpose was to entertain audiences (through comedy, spectacle, or pleasure) popular entertainment tended to reflect the ideologies of their nation. As Bruce McConachie states, “Popular theatre reflects and shapes the beliefs of large populations, beliefs about nation, race, gender, and empire…”.

The special category of theatrical revues began to be recognized in popular entertainment during the early 1900s. Initially beginning from the West, the light theatrical entertainment inspired other theatre artists around the globe, especially in Japan. The notable Japanese theatrical revue, the Takarazuka Revue Company, was founded by Ichizō Kobayashi in 1914. After the failure of the “Paradise” swimming pool in Takarazuka, it was transformed into a theatre—where Kobayashi would feature his all-female performance group.

Following the rise of Western and European culture influencing Japanese social, political, and economic culture, Japan’s entertainment culture was additionally influenced. Within the popular entertainment of the Takarazuka Revue Company, its repertoire consisted of Euro-Western performance and musical styles alongside traditional Japanese performance elements. This would consist of Western and European stories (e.g. The Rose of Versailles), Western musical arrangements (e.g. CHICAGO), as well as the inclusion of traditional Japanese stories and music (e.g. Noh drama, Kabuki drama, shamisen ensembles, string instruments). 

= Takarazuka Wiki Page =

History
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Collectively, the Takrazuka performers are called Takarasiennes (takarajiennu). This name derives from the revue’s fondness of the French revues.

Audience
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In essence, the role of otokoyaku presents a type of androgynous freedom that embraces slippage and a non-constrained continuum of gender. While the actual female otokoyaku performers’ masculine persona or “secondary gender” was disapproved of outside of the theatrical purposes of Takarazuka, female fans were able to embrace the full gender-fluid continuum otokoyaku provided, as well as engage with Takarazuka in the context of a gender-sex political discourse.