The Consequences of the Taisho Era's Child Drama Trend and the Resulting Causes of Tsubouchi's Endorsement of the School Drama Ban

TL;DRAbstract

Shoyo Tsubouchi (1859-1935) was the first person in Japan who endeavored to promote child-participating drama with educational justification both through his writing and demonstration activities during the Taisho Era. His main child drama concept, Kateiyo Jidogeki or Child Drama for Domestic Presentation, was his unique strategic configuration of child drama that attempted to divorce the image of child drama from that of the negative conventional adult theatre practice which was prevalent in Japan at the time. Tsubouchi’s endeavor became a major impetus to the Taisho child drama trend, especially in the school setting. However, the result of incorporating his theory into the Japanese school system ultimately led to a series of government interventions which resulted in the Minister of Education, Ryohei Okada’s prohibitive ordinance of 1924 which was known as the School Drama Ban. Surprisingly, Tsubouchi approved the minister’s school drama ban. This article investigates the content and

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