14 A GUIDE TO JAPANESE REFERENCE AND RESEARCH MATERIALS Kishida, however, again played an important role in the history of Showa drama when he assumed the editorship of the magazine Gekisaku (Dramatic composition), which was first published in March, 1932. Gathered around Kishida in this venture were Sakanaka Masao, Kawaguchi Ichiro, Tanaka Chikao, Uchimura Naoya, and Sugahara Takashi; later additions included Morimoto Kaoru, Koyama Yushi, and Taguchi Takeo. The entire group was anti-leftist. Emphasizing paychological realism, their plays were concerned with the delicate interplay of thought and feeling found among the lesser citizens of a city. Among the representative plays of the Gekisaku group are Nijurokubankan (Building number 26), written in 1932 by Kawaguchi Ichiro, in which the playwright recreates with great skill the life of some Japanese living in New York; Ofukuro (Mother), written in 1933 by Tanaka Chikao, a play distinguished for the subtlety of its dialogue; Seto naikai no kodomotachi (The children of the Inland Sea), by Koyama Yushi, a play likewise composed in 1933 and notable for its lyrical atmosphere; and Hanabanashiki ichizoku (A prosperous family), by Morimoto Kaoru, 1935, a light comedy full of psychological subtleties. Among these playwrights, Morimoto in particular is known as a many-sided genius. It was at the Tsukijiza that the plays of the Gekisaku group were usually performed. There the husband and wife team of Tomoda Kyosuke and Tamura Akiko were the producers, and Kishida and Kubota the directors. 19. The Drama Prior to World War II When Japan began her ventures on the Asian continent in 1931, the government immediately took steps to quell the leftist movement and the Japanese Proletarian Theatre Federation was forced to disband along with the other proletarian groups. Under these difficult circumstances, the members of the leftist theatre groups began to ask themselves whether their emphasis on political ideas had been proper. Taking his cue from the second Soviet Writers' Congress, which had discussed the theme of socialistic realism, Murayama Tomoyoshi proposed the amalgamation of all the groups working in modern drama. In response to Murayama's call, the Shinky6 Gekidan (Newly Associated Theatre Troupe) was formed in November, 1934, and an era dawned in which this new organization and the newly reorganized Shin-Tsukiji Gekidan (The New Tsukiji Drama Troupe) became the two rival producing organizations. The works of such dramatists as Kubo Sakae, Hisaita Eijir6, and Miyoshi Juro, who had worked industriously since the beginning of the Showa era, were all produced by these two theatre groups. Hisaita's Hokuto no kaze (A northeast wind), written in 1937, took for the model of its chief character the textile manufacturer Muto Sanji, and showed how his warmly paternalistic attitude toward his workers, caught between the coldly calculating power of the capitalists and the growth of the proletariat, finally brought him to ruin. Hisaita's play seeks to show in miniature the whole development of capitalism in Japan, and so has a largeness of subject matter unusual in Japanese drama. Kubo's work, Kazambaichi (The ash terrace of a volcano), written in 1937-38, has for its background the farming areas of Hokkaid6. Among the characters in this play are tenant farmers, makers of charcoal, and managers of farms, and a conscientious agricultural specialist working at the improvement of farms. The special characteristics of Japanese farming life are developed in this play, which is perhaps the most conspicuous example of socialistic realism in Japanese drama. Miyoshi Juro's Bui (Buoy), written in 1940, may not exhibit the same concern with social problems found in Hokuto no kaze and Kazambaichi, but it boldly takes up the problem of conversion faced by the leftists at the time of their suppression and searches deeply into the feelings and motivations of the people involved. Reflecting on the proletarian movement which had been ruthlessly destroyed by the authorities, these authors still dealt with sociological problems and with the characters of men caught in them. In part too they constituted an artistic resistance against the approaching fascistic age. Among the more progressive social scientists and historians of the day, the nature of the development of Japanese capitalism was then being hotly debated. The dramatists, however, wrote such works as Fujimori Seikichi's novel, Watanabe Kazan, and Nagata Hideo's play, Daibutsu kaigan (The opening of the eyes of the great image of Buddha), in which may be seen an unwillingness on their part to deal with modern-day problems at a time when freedom of expression was being severely restricted. The Tsukijiza, which had been overshadowed by the Shinkyo Gekidan (Newly Associated Drama Troupe) and by the Shin-Tsukiji Gekidan (The New Tsukiji Drama Troupe), made a fresh start as the Bungakuza (Literary Theatre) in 1937. Because of its insistence on the artistic nature of its efforts and its refusal to deal with social and political problems, it was permitted to continue its existence even during the Pacific War. It was the Bungakuza that produced Morimoto Kaoru's Doto (Surging waves) in October, 1943, and his Onna no issho (The life of a woman) in April, 1945. These were successful plays in which he deliberately emphasized a traditional morality and an exciting plot, and so appealed directly to public favor. In September, 1934, Mafune Yutaka's Itachi (The weasel) was produced by the Sosakuza or Creative Theatre, which had separated from the Tsukijiza. This work, delving deeply into the feudalistic relationships found among the families of a farming village, suddenly established its author's position as a front-rank dramatist. First concerned with rural life, Mafune now turned his attention to the city and portrayed a number of urban character-types, satirically, in a series of plays. These included Hadaka no machi (A naked town) and Mishiranu hito (The stranger). The last half of the 1930s was a period during which the Gekisaku circle headed by Kishida Kunio was opposed by the dramatists gathered in the Shinky6 Gekidan and Shin-Tsukiji Gekidan groups. This opposition repeated in drama the conflict between the artistic and ideological groups found in fiction. The playwrights, nevertheless, mutually influenced each other and the age was one of considerable fruitfulness. However, both the Shinkyo Gekidan and Shin-Tsukiji Gekidan groups suffered severe restrictions in 1940, and Gekisaku too was obliged to cease publication. This was the situation in 1941, when the Pacific War began.