Asian Theatre Journal

Abstract:

This article reviews the forty-year career of visionary Japanese director Matsumoto Yūkichi and his theatre company Ishinha, which disbanded soon after the director's death in 2016. One of the most innovative companies in Japanese performing arts in the past generation, the spectacular scale of Ishinha's productions and the rap-like syncopated beat of their choral chanting was unique among Japanese productions, bearing passing resemblance to the work of other theatre artists like Robert Wilson and Tadeusz Kantor, but inspired by the streets, factories, and working people of Matsumoto's adopted home, Osaka.