Papers by Yoshio Sugimoto
Although she died more than 120 years ago, Madame Blavatsky, the "Godmother of New Age," and cofo... more Although she died more than 120 years ago, Madame Blavatsky, the "Godmother of New Age," and cofounder of the Theosophical Society, is surely one of the most controversial figures even now in the 21 st century. Blavatsky lived for a year in Astrakhan, Caucasus, where Kalmyk Tibetan Buddhists lived, together with her mother and grandparents when she was little. That was her first contact with Tibetan Buddhism, or even Buddhism itself. Besides, Tibet has captured the popular imagination, from the exotic Shangri-La image promoting immortality, to backward Lamaist traditions. This is a genealogical, anthropological study attempting to explore the ＊ 国立民族学博物館民族文化研究部
This paper discusses the special role played by Boys' Companies in Tamil (Dravidian) nationalism ... more This paper discusses the special role played by Boys' Companies in Tamil (Dravidian) nationalism in Tamil Nadu, South India. The Boys' Companies of Tamil Nadu inherited the genealogy of traditional popular theatre. They frequently staged themes based on myths while simultaneously introducing socio-political subjects, and became extremely popular in Tamil Nadu during the first half of the twentieth century. The TKS Brothers and Madurai Bala Gana Sabha in particular had a strong political hue, and many of the political leaders of later years started their careers here. In this paper, I discuss: (1) the trend of Indian mythological theatre which formed the core of the Boys' Companies; (2) the relationship between the Boys' Companies and Tamil cinema; and (3) Tamil politicians who belonged to the Boys' Companies and the process of the transformation of Indian popular cultural topics from myths to politics under British influence. I further explain the process whereby poor youths entered the world of the cinema through Boys' Companies, and their further advancement in politics to occupy important positions. From Classical Theatre to Popular Theatre Theoretical Basis of Classical Theatre Traditionally, Indian plays took the form of "musicals" or "operas" together with music and dance, having inherited the tradition of Sanskrit nāt ya. The base for Indian plays was the Natya Shastra, the treatise said to have been compiled during the Gupta period (4th-5th centuries). According to this, the theatre is the totality of nāt ya, nr t ya and nr it t a, and dance and drama cannot be separated from these. In other words, the play is a totality of drama-song-dance entertainment, and there is clearly no such concept as independent theatre or dance. On this point, we can compare Indian nāt ya tradition with Japanese plays such as Kabuki. Further, the plays were generally enacted at important religious rituals during temple festivals, and the staging of such plays was considered as a dedicated visual offerings to the deities. The plays must have happy endings; tragedy did not exist in Sanskrit classical theatre. Moreover, in the sixth chapter of Natya Shastra mention is made of rasa, i.e., the emotions aroused in the audience by the plays, first as eight separate feelings and then as nine, the so-called navarasa: passion, valor, laughter, grief, surprise, fear, anger, hatred, and peace, which run the entire gamut of human emotion. The plays and their derived form of cinema were amply sufficient to satisfy these nine tastes.
Japanese Journal of Human Geography, 2004
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Papers by Yoshio Sugimoto