Literature Theatre

Name of the theater company. It was formed in September 1937, succeeding Tsukijiza, which was dissolved in 1935, with Kunio Kishida, Toyoo Iwata (Bunroku Shishi), Mantaro Kubota as organizers, and centered around Kyosuke Tomoda and Akiko Tamura. The inaugural performance was delayed due to Tomoda's death in the war, but the company was re-formed with young actors such as Haruko Sugimura, Nobuo Nakamura, and Seiji Miyaguchi, and the first trial performance was held in March of the following year, with a performance of Morimoto Kaoru's "A Beautiful Woman" and other plays. In opposition to proletarian theater, it was formed as an art-first theater company that "rejected underhandedness, pedantry, and politicism, and provided the intellectual masses with true 'spiritual entertainment' through the stage." However, due to its nature, it escaped the suppression of new theater before World War II, and became the only new theater company to survive until after the war. During World War II, the group continued to focus on original plays by Kubota, Morimoto, Mafune Yutaka, Iizawa Tadasu, and others, and Morimoto's "A Woman's Life" (1945) in particular was performed repeatedly after the war and became a representative part of the repertoire. Akutagawa Hiroshi, Kato Michio, Fukuda Tsuneari, and others who joined after World War II breathed fresh air into the group by performing French plays and Shakespeare, and even in small-scale performances at the studio, they produced successful avant-garde plays by Ionesco, Beckett, and others. In January 1963, 29 members, including Akutagawa, Takahashi Masaya, Kishida Kyoko, and Kato Haruko, left the group en masse to join Fukuda's "New Art Movement," which he had left in 1956. In November of the same year, Yukio Mishima, a member of the troupe who wrote Rokumeikan and other plays, left the troupe after refusing to perform his own work The Harp of Joy. Soon after, 14 other members, including Shinro Nakamura and Natsuko Kahara, followed Mishima's lead, and it was whispered that the troupe would disband, but thanks to the efforts of young members including Sugimura, director Koichi Kimura, Kazuo Kitamura, Toru Emori, and Kiwako Taichi, the crisis was averted. After that, Kimura's voice increased and the troupe regained its vitality by adding new colors such as Miyamoto Ken's The Legend of Beautiful Things and Mizukami Tsutomu's The Straits of Hunger. However, Kimura left the troupe in 1980 due to differences of opinion over the management of the troupe, and Taichi died in an accident in 1992. Sugimura, the troupe's mainstay, also passed away in April 1997. Both of these were significant, if not major, blows to Bungakuza, but during this time it produced directors such as Nishikawa Nobuhiro and Uyama Hitoshi, and actors such as Taira Yoshie and Uchino Masaaki, and continues to thrive as Japan's oldest and longest-running new theater company.

[Yoshio Ozasa]

"History of Modern Japanese Theatre: Showa Wartime Volume II" by Ozasa Yoshio (1992, Hakusuisha) " ▽ "Actress Sugimura Haruko" by Ozasa Yoshio (1995, Shueisha)" ▽ "The Way of Theatre: Sixty Years with Bungakuza" by Inui Ichiro (1999, Geidankyo Publishing Division)" ▽ "History of Modern Japanese Theatre: Showa Postwar Volumes I and II" by Ozasa Yoshio (1998, 2001, Hakusuisha)" ▽ "Recollections of Bungakuza" by Kitami Harukazu (Chuko Shinsho)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

劇団名。1935年（昭和10）に解散した築地(つきじ)座の後を受けて、37年9月に岸田国士(くにお)、岩田豊雄(とよお)（獅子文六）、久保田万太郎の幹事で友田恭助、田村秋子を中心に結成された。旗揚げ公演は友田の戦死などで遅れたが、杉村春子、中村伸郎(のぶお)、宮口精二ら若手の陣容に改めて、翌年3月森本薫作『みごとな女』ほかの上演を第1回試演会とした。プロレタリア演劇に対抗して「姑息(こそく)と衒学(げんがく)と政治主義を排し、真の意味における『精神の娯楽』を舞台を通じて知識大衆に提供する」芸術至上主義的な劇団として結成されたが、その性格から第二次世界大戦前の新劇弾圧を逃れ、戦後まで生き延びる唯一の新劇団となった。第二次世界大戦中は久保田、森本、真船豊(まふねゆたか)、飯沢匡(ただす)らの創作劇を中心に活動を続けたが、とくに森本の『女の一生』（1945）は戦後も繰り返し上演されて代表的なレパートリーになった。第二次世界大戦後加入した芥川比呂志(あくたがわひろし)、加藤道夫、福田恆存(つねあり)らがフランス戯曲やシェークスピアの上演で新風を吹き込み、アトリエでの小公演でもイヨネスコ、ベケットなどの前衛劇を手がけて成果をあげた。1963年（昭和38）1月、1956年に退座していた福田の「新芸術運動」に参加すべく芥川、高橋昌也(まさや)、岸田今日子、加藤治子ら29名が大量脱退した。同年11月には『鹿鳴館(ろくめいかん)』などを書き下ろした座員の三島由紀夫が自作の『喜びの琴』の上演拒否で座を離れ、ほどなく中村伸郎、賀原(かはら)夏子ら14名も三島の後を追ったために、文学座は解散かとささやかれたが、杉村以下、演出家の木村光一や、北村和夫、江守徹(とおる)、太地(たいち)喜和子ら若手の努力で危機を脱した。以後、木村の発言力が増すとともに宮本研の『美しきものの伝説』や水上勉の『飢餓海峡』など、従来になかったカラーを加えて活動力を回復したが、その木村は座の運営をめぐる意見の相違で80年に退座、太地は92年（平成4）に事故死した。大黒柱の杉村も97年4月に没した。いずれも文学座にとっては少なくない、あるいは大きな痛手だったが、この間に西川信広、鵜山仁(うやまひとし)らの演出家、平淑江(たいらよしえ)や内野聖陽(まさあき)らの俳優を輩出、わが国最古で最長の新劇団として旺盛(おうせい)な活動を続けている。

［大笹吉雄］

『大笹吉雄著『日本現代演劇史　昭和戦中篇Ⅱ』（1992・白水社）』▽『大笹吉雄著『女優　杉村春子』（1995・集英社）』▽『戌井市郎著『芝居の道――文学座とともに六十年』（1999・芸団協出版部）』▽『大笹吉雄著『日本現代演劇史　昭和戦後篇Ⅰ、Ⅱ』（1998、2001・白水社）』▽『北見治一著『回想の文学座』（中公新書）』

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