Takarazuka Revue (Takarazuka Kagekidan) page 1 of 2

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Links checked: 17 January 2008 MOTTO OF THE TAKARAZUKA REVUE COMPANY: "Modesty, Fairness, and Grace" (Trans. from Hankyu Corp. brochure of phrase "Kiyoku, Tadashiku, Utsukushiku." Another translation is "Pure, Righteous, and Beautiful.") The photos of the Takarazuka* Revue theater sites were taken in 2004 and 2006. The Takarazuka Revue phone card and train fare card were gifts from a friendly elderly woman I ran into several times during 2003-2004 while waiting in line for a tachimi (standing room-only) ticket at the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater. Once she surprised me by writing "Forever Takarazuka" in English on the back of a postcard. (*Literal translation "treasure mound") Did you know...? ...there are five troupes, plus an elite senka (special course) group?        Flower Troupe (Hana-Gumi, est. 1921)        Moon Troupe (Tsuki-Gumi, est. 1921)        Snow Troupe (Yuki-Gumi, est. 1924)        Star Troupe (Hoshi-Gumi, est. 1933)        Cosmos Troupe (Sora-Gumi, est. 1998) ...there is a highly competitive Takarazuka Music and Opera School (est. 1919) to train future performers? ...that Takarazuka's first performance was in 1914, but its first revue (Mon Paris) wasn't until 1927? ...their first overseas performance was in 1938? ...they did Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind in 1977? (Again in 2002 [Hankyu Annual Report 2003, p. 32].) —Facts from "The Takarazuka Revue Company Guide" brochure, © Hankyu Corporation Your first Takarazuka Revue experience will be more enjoyable... ...if you gather as much information from a variety of sources before you go. Things change. ...if you bring opera glasses or rent them at the theater. (I disregarded this advice my first time and regretted it. In 2006, the cost was 1,000 yen deposit plus 500 yen rental fee. The deposit is returned to you when the opera glasses are returned.) ...if you buy the souvenir program booklet to remember the performers and fantastic costumes and sets you saw. The souvenir program used to have a play synopsis in English that was far more detailed than the free program flyer's, but I noticed the two booklets I bought in 2006 didn't have any translation. You might want to print out the translation from the official Web site. There is no English audio translation available like there is at the Kabuki-za Theater (Tokyo) or the National Bunraku Theater (Osaka). ...(for Tokyo) if you also visit the Kabuki-za Theater. It was sometimes possible for me to buy a tachimi in the morning, walk a few blocks to watch part of a Kabuki program (makumi ticket) at 11:00 a.m., then walk back for a Takarazuka Revue show at 3:30 p.m. ...(for city of Takarazuka) if you also visit the Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum, which is a 5-minute walk from the Grand Theater. I would allow at least two hours for an unhurried museum visit, though I've run through it in an hour (because I had to go back to the theater for the show). ...if you decide early whether to buy a regular ticket — or a cheaper tachimi (standing room-only) ticket. In 2003-2004 in Tokyo, I paid 8,000 yen (about 80 U.S. dollars for "S"-section) my first time, only 1,500* yen (15 dollars) for each performance after that because I bought tachimi. (*At the Grand Theater, I paid 2,500 yen for tachimi.) At the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater, tachimi tickets become available when a non-matinee performance is sold out and can only be purchased the day of the sold-out performance in person, which usually meant for me a 2-1/2 hour wait in line (with no guarantee of getting a ticket) before the box office opened. You can only buy a tachimi for yourself and no one else. And are you physically fit enough to stand for 3 hours? At the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater, the system for the tachimi tickets is much better than at the Takarazuka Grand Theater. Your ticket has a number that matches one on the handrail, so you have a RESERVED space (49 spaces available). At the Grand Theater, you could end up BEHIND someone else because it is first come-first served along the rail (very frustrating); however, the two times I bought tachimi at the Grand Theater all I had to do was walk up to the ticket counter and ask for it. Another difference: In Tokyo the audiences heavily favored women, but I found the audiences at the Takarazuka Grand Theater to be more mixed and I saw more families. Attendance at both theaters is about the same, with slightly more visitors going to the Grand Theater (Hankyu Annual Report 2004, p. 25).

Romance de Paris telephone card, Snow Troupe, 2003 Tokyo Takarazuka Theater train fare card

TAKARAZUKA REVUE LINKS Official Sites Takarazuka Revue official Web site. History and current show information. http://kageki.hankyu.co.jp/english/index.html Quatre Reves Online. Takarazuka Revue official merchandise. http://kageki.hankyu.co.jp/goods/quatre/ (DVDs, CDs, books, photos, and other collectibles.) Hankyu Hanshin Holdings, Inc. (formerly Hankyu Corp. [est. 1907]; owns Takarazuka Revue). Annual reports. http://www.hankyu-hanshin.co.jp/english/ Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. (Info paragraph on Takarazuka Revue.) http://www.hankyu-usa.com/toho.asp Kansai Digital Archives: Takarazuka Revue. http://www.kiis.or.jp/kansaida/takarazuka/takarazuka05-e.html Fan Sites Revue Sphere - Takarazuka, Stephanie M. Taylor's fan site. (Set computer to block pop-ups). http://shoujo.tripod.com/takara.html Shojo Kageki (Girls' Dance Troupe), Kadorienne's fan site for Takarazuka and similar groups. http://www.belladonna.org/ShojoKageki/index.html Takarazuka Revue Spectacular!, David and Kimberly J. Ramsay's fan site. http://www.thejasper.com/trevue.html Books Gender Gymnastics: Performing and Consuming Japan's Takarazuka Revue by Leonie Stickland. (To be released.) Takarazuka: Sexual Politics and Popular Culture in Modern Japan by Jennifer Robertson (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1998, third printing with corrections 2001). Articles "Welcome to Romance Theatre," by Kat Avila, Jade Magazine.com, March 2004. (Correction: TR was founded in 1913, not 1914 as my article states. The first performance was in 1914.) "My Travelogue Manga of Japan (Sans Drawings)," by Kat Avila, Sequential Tart, May 2006. (The Takarazuka Revue was one of my stops.) Sunday, 26 March 2006 Overnight lodging: Tokyo Yoyogi Youth Hostel (again) From Tokyo Station I wander off to the Imperial Palace, then to the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater. I wait in line for the box office to open for the chance to buy one of the 49 cheap "tachimi" (standing room) tickets. In a preliminary count, I'm the 50th person in line. "On'na no yume (A woman's dream)," says the woman in front of me about the Takarazuka Revue Company. Five 70-80 member troupes perform romantic productions throughout the year. Fantasy men are played by women actors (the opposite of Kabuki where women are played by men). Today's production is an adaptation of Riyoko Ikeda's "The Rose of Versailles" performed by the Star Troupe; it's the Fersen and Marie-Antoinette version. (I will miss the more popular Andre and Oscar version by less than a week.) The box office opens. To my relief, I get a ticket, as do the two people behind me. One of them is a guy from Osaka (near the older, primary Takarazuka Grand Theater); he's in town for "yakyuu" (baseball). "90 Magical Years of Takarazuka: All-Female Revue Celebrates Anniversary," Trends in Japan, March 17, 2004. http://web-japan.org/trends/arts/art040317.html "Crept into Her Soul: Analysis of the Kabuki and Takarazuka Theaters," by Bea Arendt Schattschneider. http://www.anthropology.emory.edu/EA/arendt.html "The feminine 'kabuki' alternative," AFP Tokyo, Taipei Times, June 11, 2006. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2006/06/11/2003313013 "Girl power: Japan's sensational showgirls: 'Takaraziennes' exchange disciplined lives for glamour, stardom," by Dennis Cavagnaro, special to Stars and Stripes (a U.S. military newspaper), May 8, 2005. http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=140&article=30110&archive=true "Influence on Shoujo and Bishounen Characters" (in anime and manga), by Michelle Rogers. http://www.anime-myth.com/takarazuka.html "Japan's Takarazuka Theater makes women, and men, of talented girls," by Ronald E. Yates, EyesOnJapan.com, first pub. Chicago Tribune, June 10, 1990. http://www.eyesonjapan.com/jp41.htm "Kansai Time Out — September 1999," Hankyu Corp. celebrates 2 anniversaries (Takarazuka Revue's 85th). http://www.japanfile.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=209 "Review/Dance; From Japan, Scaling Down the Grand" (22-woman group) by Anna Kiselgoff, New York Times, November 6, 1992. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CEFDA1238F935A35752C1A964958260 "Review/Theater; Japan's Answer to the Ziegfeld Follies," by Stephen Holden, New York Times, October 27, 1989. http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=950DE7DD1E3FF934A15753C1A96F948260 "Rose Of Versailles Revival," Anime News Network, November 2, 2005. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2005-11-02/rose-of-versailles-revival "Takarazuka Revue," Wikipedia entry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takarazuka_Revue "Takarazuka - Tinseltown," by Mary King, Metropolis, 2001(?). http://www.metropolis.co.jp/tokyotravel/tokyojapantravel/368/tokyojapantravelinc.htm "Viewing notes for Dream Girls" (1994 film), prepared by William Kelly for ANTHRO 254, Yale University. http://classes.yale.edu/03-04/anth254a/videos/dream_girls.html Related Info • 2007. "Exhibition: The Takarazuka, the Eternal Rondo" (featured Tezuka's Princess Knight, Riyoko Ikeda's The Rose of Versailles), Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum, March 1-July 10, 2007. http://en.tezuka.co.jp/tomm/news/news/index.html • 2006. Takarazuka Revue's performances of The Rose of Versailles — adapted from Riyoko Ikeda's popular 1972-1974 manga series Berusaiyu no Bara (BeruBara) — pushed cumulative total audience to over 4 million (Hankyu Annual Report [HAR] 2006, p. 30). (Previous BeruBara performances in 1974-1976, 1989-1991 [source: Jennifer Robertson's book Takarazuka: Sexual Politics and Popular Culture in Modern Japan], 2001.) In 2002, the theatre was attracting over 2 million visitors a year (HAR 2002). • 2006. "Hankyu opposed to listing of Takarazuka Revue [on stock exchange]," Asian Economic News, January 17, 2006. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0WDP/is_2006_Jan_17/ai_n16006414 • November 2005. "Takarazuka Revue Friendship Performance in Korea," for 40th anniversary of normalization of diplomatic relations between South Korea and Japan. (HAR 2006, pp. 8, 30) • 2004. 90th anniversary of the Takarazuka Revue. • 2004. "Takarazuka: The Land of Dreams - Artists fascinated by Takarazuka and its era" exhibition, Suntory Museum TEMPOZAN, April 17-June 20, 2004. http://www.suntory.com/about/news/2004/sm0033.html (news release) • 2003. Takarazuka Revue performed in three cities in China — Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou — for 30th anniversary of normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan. (HAR 2003, p. 23; Asian Economic News, Sep. 16, 2002) • 2002. Corporate goals: "1) Creation of high quality contents (Takarazuka Revue, etc.) capable of presentation via a variety of media, 2) Expansion of content genres, 3) Distribution of new contents via new media (satellite broadcasting, etc.)" (HAR 2002). • Takarazuka Revue is referred to as the Takarazuka Girls' Opera in Your Guide to Japan, Japan National Tourist Organization (JNTO), November 1976 (though the official theatre Web site says the name changed to The Takarazuka Revue Company in 1940). Other names include Takarazuka Chorus, Takarazuka Girls' Opera Training Association, Takarazuka Girls' Theater, and Takarazuka Young Women's Musical Theater Company (some historical; others different translations?). The JNTO pamphlet also mentions former Takarazuka rival the all-female Shochiku Revue (Shochiku Kagekidan, est. 1928); that revue closed in 1982 (Benito Ortolani, The Japanese Theatre [Brill, 1990]).

Osaka Castle Takarazuka is a train ride away from Osaka.	Hi no Tori (Phoenix) monument The Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum is a 5-min. walk from the theater.	TAKARAZUKA GRAND THEATER & BOW HALL 1-1-57 Sakaemachi, Takarazuka, Hyogo 665-8558, JAPAN Tel. 81-570-00-5100, 81-797-85-6770 (in Japanese only) (5-10 min. walk from JR Takarazuka Station) Box office opens at 9:30 a.m. Closed Wednesdays. Ticket Pia: 06-6363-9999 Lawson Ticket: 06-6387-1772, 06-6387-1900 CN agency: 06-6776-1199 3,000-seat GT built in 1924, reopened in 1994. Bow Hall is reserved for top star recitals and junior member performances.		Looking toward Grand Theater from the Hana no Michi (Flower Avenue) walkway.
	(April 2, 2004) Cherry blossom trees in bloom next to statues.	(April 2, 2004) Oscar & André The Rose of Versailles	(April 2, 2004) View of Hana no Michi (Flower Avenue) walkway.	(March 31, 2006) In 2006, I was a few days too early for the cherry blossoms.	(March 31, 2006)
(March 31, 2006)	sidewalk tile	clock	Formally attired Takarazuka Revue performers arriving for 2004 premiere of Susano-o and Takarazuka Glory!
Takarazuka Grand Theater & Bow Hall main entrance (April 2, 2004) This was the day of the premiere of Snow Troupe's drama Susano-o and the Takarazuka Glory! grand revue, which celebrated the theatre's 90th anniversary. The revue featured the debut of the 50-member 90th graduation class of the Takarazuka Music School. I was told by a fan that all five of the Takarazuka Revue troupes were in the area.				main entrance (April 2, 2004) Though the trees in front of the theater were bare, the cherry blossom trees along Hana no Michi (Flower Avenue) were in full bloom.
main entrance		main entrance	looking in direction of Bow Hall		post office
theater mall shops (It says "PARADISE" above the pillars.)		information booth		looking in direction of Grand Theater
Takarazuka Sky Stage* billboard with video monitor *Dedicated digital satellite broadcasting service with over 30,000 subscribers (HAR 2004, p. 30). Started July 1, 2002 (HAR 2003, p. 32). Great for fans who have difficulty getting to the theaters.		Quatre Reves official merchandise store		left side of lobby	looking toward right side of lobby lobby exit to the mall

Imperial Palace I've walked from the palace to the theater, but it's a long walk.	TOKYO TAKARAZUKA THEATER 1-1-3 Yurakucho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0006, JAPAN Tel. 81-3-5251-2001 (in Japanese only) (5-10 min. walk from JR Yurakucho Station) Box office opens at 10:00 a.m. Closed Wednesdays. Ticket Pia: 03-5237-9999 Lawson Ticket: 03-5537-9955 CN agency: 03-5802-9999 First performance in 1934. Reopened January 1, 2001. Seats 2,069 (plus 49 tachimi). Stage diameter 15 meters.		street corner statue	street corner statue	The Seal of Roses: A Vampire's Requiem, Moon Troupe, 2004
90th anniversary in 2004	A lead otokoyaku* greets fans. (*Plays male roles.)	Fans awaiting arrival of performers in front of Tokyo Takarazuka Theater.		Fan club tables in front of Tokyo Takarazuka Theater.
Quatre Reves official merchandise store		lobby stairway on ground floor		lobby stairway on ground floor	The Rose of Versailles (Fersen & Marie-Antoinette), Star Troupe, 2006

Photos copyright © 2004, 2006 Kat Avila. All rights reserved.