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INTERMINGLING OF CONTINUITY AND DISCONTINUITY69her beauty and purity, which must be preserved anddefended. Traditional symbols of Japan are flattered byforeign authors: “The most artistic people in the world;”“Nothing is ugly in the humblest Japanese home;” “Noother nation even understands so well how to make a cup,a tray, even a kettle, a thing of beauty.” This flatteringview from the outside is then adopted to sell Japan bothto locals and foreigners. The relationship to tradition thenbecomes one of consumption and there is a great dangerin structurally positioning art as a consumable objectagainst the consuming power of the West—whether thatconsuming power is tourists, heritage organizations such asUNESCO or well meaning curators intent on preservingart forms. A defense of preserving Japan’s traditional pastoften depends on locating Japan in the past as innocent,young, feminine and consumable. The quandary is thatdefenders of culture become through their objectificationof that culture complicit with its subordination, leadingto what Rey Chow has called “the ugliest double bind inthe history of imperialism” (Quoted in Pham 1999).7 Kabuki, too, is evolving today. Youthful Kabuki superstarShido Nakamura’s latest kabuki offered audiences aflashier, faster version including a grand finale in whicha police car burst onstage through a back door. “Whenkabuki is taken abroad, it’s always taken as somethingtraditional and grand,” says Shido “I’d like to showpeople it’s a living thing.” Says 27-year-old Misaho Sato,“I never thought I’d be caught dead at a kabuki play. ButI’m definitely coming back” (Newsweek 2007).REFERENCESGeorge, David. “Re-orientations: The Sound of Two HandsClapping.” Fensham, Rachel and Peter Eckersall. Eds. Dis/orientations: Cultural Praxis in Theater: Asia, Pacific, Australia.Monash Theater Papers I. Clayton, Australia: Centre forDrama and Theatre Studies, Monash University, 1999.Napier, Susan. “Matter out of Place: Carnival, Containmentand Cultural Recovery in Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away.” Journalof Japanese Studies 32.2 (2006): 287-310. Newsweek. GrandKabuki. Oct 6 2006.Okamaoto, Akira. The Actor’s Body in No and ContemporaryTheatre—On the Work of Ren’niku Kobo. Unpublished Paper,2007Patitta Chalermpow Koanatakool. “Thai Middle Class Practiceand Consumption of Traditional Dance.” Local Culture andthe ‘New Asia’: The State, Culture and Capitalism in SoutheastAsia. C.J.W.-L. Wee. Ed. Singapore: ISEAS, 2002: 217-241.Pham, P.L. “On the Edge of the Orient: EnglishRepresentations of Japan Circa 1895-1910.” Japanese Studies19.2 (1999): 163-181.Poulton, Cody. “The Rhetoric of the Real.” Modern JapaneseTheatre and Performance. Jortner, David, Keiko McDonald,and Kevin Wetmore, Jr. Eds. Lanham, Maryland: LexingtonBooks, 2006: 17-32.Rimer, J. Thomas. “Contemporary Audiences and thePilgrimage to No.” No and Kyogen in the Contemporary World.Brandon, James. Ed. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press,1997.Sen, Amartya. The Argumentative Indian. New York: Farrar,Straus and Giroux, 2005.Tsuno, Kaitaro. “Biwa and Beatles: An Invitation toModern Japanese Theatre.” Concerned Theatre Japan SpecialIntroductory Issue (1970): 6-12.Goodman, David. Japanese Drama and Culture in the 1960’s:The Return of the Gods. New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1997.Grotowski, L. A. “The Grotowski Sourcebook.” The GrotowskiSourcebook. Richard Schechner and Lisa Wolford. Eds.London: Routledge, 1997.Karampetsos, E.D. The Theatre of Healing. New York: PeterLang Publishing, New York, 1996.Mishima, Yukio. Five Modern No Plays. Trans. DonaldKeene. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1957.Mohamad, Goenawan. Catatan Pinggir 5. Jakarta: Graffiti,2001.Asian Transformations in ActionThe Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows