The Takarazuka Revue is a Japanese all-female musical theater troupe based in Takarazuka, Japan. Women play all roles in lavish, Broadway-style productions of Western-style musicals, and sometimes stories adapted from shōjo manga and Japanese folktales.
Founded in 1913 by Ichizō Kobayashi
Part of the novelty of Takarazuka is that all the parts are played by women, based on the original model of Kabuki before 1629 when women were banned from the theater in Japan. The women who play male parts are referred to as otokoyaku '"male role" and those who play female parts are called musumeyaku "girl role".
Before becoming a member of the troupe, a young woman must train for two years in the Takarazuka Music School, one of the most competitive of its kind in the world. Each year, thousands from all over Japan audition. The 40 to 50 who are accepted are trained in music, dance, and acting, and are given seven-year contracts.
The first year, all women train together before being divided by the faculty and the current troupe members into otokoyaku and musumeyaku at the end of the year. Those playing otokoyaku cut their hair short, take on a more masculine role in the classroom, and speak in the masculine form.
While on the surface it would appear that the Takarazuka Revue was intended to grant Japanese women freedom from social oppression, ironically, it began as quite the opposite.
Although Takarazuka embodies Shiraishi’s idea that the actresses become "good wives and wise mothers" upon leaving the company, it also simultaneously represents progressive feminist points of view.
Some believe that its appeal to the female audience is on account of the perceived link to freedom from traditional Japanese society’s imposed ideas of gender and sexuality. So while Takarazuka reinforces the status quo and sublimates women's desires through its dreamy narratives, there remains some possibility that certain spectators find it empowering simply to watch women play men.
Some otokoyaku feel uncomfortable switching to female roles. Otokoyaku Matsu Akira, who retired in 1982, stated: "Even though I am a female, the thing called 'female' just won't emerge at all."
Women make up the primary audience of Takarazuka; in fact, some estimates say the audience is 90 percent female.
There exist two primary theories as to what draws these women to Takarazuka. These theories, put forward by Western scholars, complement each other, drawing on the traditional homoerotic elements of Japanese performing arts, and the ancient subversive nature of the feminine in Japan.
One is that the women are drawn to its inherent lesbian overtones. One author states, "It was not masculine sexuality which attracted the Japanese girl audience but it was feminine eroticism".
Another theory is that the girls are not drawn to the implicit sexuality of Takarazuka, but instead are fascinated by the otokoyaku (the women who play male roles) "getting away with a male performance of power and freedom".
Favoring the first theory, American Jennifer Robertson observes that lesbian themes occur in every Takarazuka performance, simply by virtue of the fact that women play every role. The audience clearly picks up on it and responds. Within the first ten years of Takarazuka's founding, the audience was vocally responding to the apparent lesbianism. Female fans wrote love letters to the otokoyaku.
The other theory, supported by Canadian Erica Abbit is that the female audience of Takarazuka is drawn not exclusively by lesbian overtones, but rather by the subversion of stereotypical gender roles. Japan is a society notorious for its rigid conception of gender roles. The otokoyaku must act the way men are supposed to act. While not denying the presence of lesbian overtones within Takarazuka, Abbitt proposes the cause for the largely female audience has more to do with this subversion of societal norms than sexual ones.
After the scandal of women writing love letters to the otokoyaku and the revelation of an actual lesbian relationship between a otokoyaku and a musumeyaku,the revue greatly limited itself in order to do away with the lesbian image. There was another scandal in 1932 when, for the first time, one of the otokoyaku cut her hair short (previously all of the actresses had their hair long and the otokoyaku simply hid their hair under hats). In August 1940, the actresses were even forbidden to answer faan mail and socialize with their admirers. In the years since then, the regulations have relaxed but not by much.
