{"id":8842,"date":"2026-07-28T12:05:03","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T10:05:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/?p=8842"},"modified":"2026-07-29T10:51:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T08:51:33","slug":"mdwp009-011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp009-011\/","title":{"rendered":"Japonist Drag"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 class=\"subtitle\">Performing Entangled Exoticisms in Dance and Theater around 1900<\/p>\n<h2>\n<h3 class=\"author\"><em>Julia Ostwald<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5938-0464\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/orcid.png\" alt=\"orcid\" width=\"19\" height=\"19\" \/><\/a><\/h3>\n<style>\n        .tsquotation strong {\n            font-weight: bold;\n        }\n        .tsquotation em {\n            font-style: italic !important;\n        }\n        .bibliography {\n            margin-top: -1em !important;\n            padding-left: 22px;\n            text-indent: -22px;\n        }\n        figure {\n            margin: 0;\n        }\n.Normal_tabelle {\nfont-family:'Lato' !important;\n}<\/p>\n<p>#table002 td {\n    vertical-align: top !important;\n    padding: 0 !important;\n}<\/p>\n<p>#table002 td p.Normal_tabelle {\n    margin: 0 !important;\n    padding: 0 !important;\n    line-height: 1.1 !important;\n}<\/p>\n<\/style>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<div class=\"one_half\">\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span class='bdaia-btns bdaia-btn-medium' style=\"background:#b2b2b2 !important;color:#000000 !important;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp009-010\/\" style=\"color:#000000 !important;\">&#129028;<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"one_half last\">\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><span class='bdaia-btns bdaia-btn-medium' style=\"background:#b2b2b2 !important;color:#000000 !important;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp009-012\" 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id=\"zp-ID-8842-4511395-U9BGAVP8\" data-zp-author-date='Ostwald-2025' data-zp-date-author='2025-Ostwald' data-zp-date='2025' data-zp-year='2025' data-zp-itemtype='bookSection' class=\"zp-Entry zpSearchResultsItem\">\n<div class=\"csl-bib-body\" style=\"line-height: 1.35; padding-left: 1em; text-indent:-1em;\">\n  <div class=\"csl-entry\">Ostwald, Julia. 2025. \u201cJaponist Drag: Performing Entangled Exoticisms in\nDance and Theater around 1900.\u201d In <i>Facing Drag. Gender Bending and Racialized Masking in Performing Arts and Popular Culture<\/i>, edited by Evelyn Annu\u00df and Raz Weiner. mdwPress. <a class='zp-ItemURL' href='https:\/\/doi.org\/10.14361\/9783839471708-011'>https:\/\/doi.org\/10.14361\/9783839471708-011<\/a>. <a title='Cite in RIS Format' class='zp-CiteRIS' data-zp-cite='api_user_id=4511395&item_key=U9BGAVP8' href='javascript:void(0);'>Cite<\/a> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .zp-Entry .zpSearchResultsItem -->\n\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .zp-zp-SEO-Content -->\n\t\t<\/div><!-- .zp-List -->\n\t<\/div><!--.zp-Zotpress-->\n\n\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"bdaia-toggle close\"><h4 class=\"bdaia-toggle-head toggle-head-open\"><span class=\"bdaia-sio bdaia-sio-angle-up\"><\/span><span class=\"txt\">Outline<\/span><\/h4><h4 class=\"bdaia-toggle-head toggle-head-close\"><span class=\"bdaia-sio bdaia-sio-angle-down\"><\/span><span class=\"txt\">Outline<\/span><\/h4><div class=\"toggle-content\"><p>\n<a href=\"#1\">Short Notes on the Concept of <em>Onnagata<\/em><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"#2\">The Kawakamis\u2019 Self-Exoticization<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"#3\">Alexander Sakharoff\u2019s Queer Exoticism<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"#4\">Dragging Exoticism onto the Japanese Stage<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"#5\">Closing Thoughts: Dragging and Exoticism<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"#6\">References<\/a><br \/>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<hr>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><span class='bdaia-btns bdaia-btn-medium' style=\"background:#b2b2b2 !important;color:#000000 !important;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/10.1436_19783839471708-011.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" style=\"color:#000000 !important;\">CHAPTER PDF <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/download-1459070_1280.png\" style=\"vertical-align: middle\" alt=\"Download-Logo\" width=\"17\" height=\"17\"><\/a><\/span>\n<p>With their appearance at the Parisian World Exhibition in 1900 and their Europe tour from 1901 to 1902, the Japanese theater troupe of Kawakami and Sadayakko Otojir\u014d hit European art and theater circles like a \u201ccomet\u201d (Pantzer 2005, xxi), resonating in performances, publications, art, and literature in the years to come.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn1\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref1\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Richard Drain accordingly summarizes the relevance of the company: \u201c[f]or European theatre the century began with the discovery of the Japanese\u201d (Drain 1995, 291). For the first time, as the announcements promised, Kabuki performances by and with \u201coriginal Japanese people\u201d could be seen in the course of their tour through twelve central and Eastern European countries. Their performances were part of Japonisme<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>a specific manifestation of Orientalism, which in turn \u201cset the stage for the machinery of exoticism to develop\u201d (Savigliano 1995, 85). According to the Argentinian political theorist and dance historian Marta Savigliano,<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"tsquotation\">[e]xoticism is a way of establishing order in an unknown world through fantasy \u2026 It is the seemingly harmless side of exploitation, cloaked as it is in playfulness and delirium. Exoticism is a practice of representation through which identities are frivolously allocated. It is also a will to power over the unknown, an act of indiscriminately combining fragments, crumbs of knowledge and fantasy in disrespectful, sweeping gestures justified by harmless banality. (Savigliano 1995, 189)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>While performing arts and specifically dance around 1900 played a vital role in shaping European fantasies of Orientalized and exoticized bodies in the rather one-directional sense that Savigliano refers to, this article aims at considering the Kawakamis\u2019 European tour as a central node from which various polydirectional lines of resonance emanate to different kinds of exoticisms. Rather than using the term Orientalism, which refers to a European perspective towards \u201cthe Orient,\u201d I will elaborate on a wider notion of exoticism and ask for its relationship with drag. Accordingly, this article shifts the focus to various forms of exoticism practiced by participants in Japonisme<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>that is, the Kawakami troupe on the one hand and the Russian dancer Alexander Sakharoff as an artist who can be situated in the wake of Japonisme on the other. In three different case studies, I will trace contradictory manifestations of exoticism and respective gender performances interrelated with cultural and national fantasies. Firstly, I retrace how this relates to the deliberate <em>self-exoticization<\/em> of the Kawakami group during their performances in Europe; secondly, I will turn to Sakharoff as an example for a Japonist <em>queer exoticization<\/em> in modernist European dance; thirdly, I will come back to the Kawakamis as one of the protagonists of a \u201cWesternization\u201d and <em>straightening<\/em> of theater in Japan, who adopted European exoticism for the Japanese stage. A central point of reference in all three examples is Kabuki as a literally queer theater and its specific performative construction of femininity called <em>onnagata. Onnagata<\/em> denotes female roles that are performed by specifically trained actors<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>male and female alike<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>who inherently trouble binary understandings of gender. A closer look at the dynamic shifts regarding the meaning of <em>onnagata<\/em> in the context of Japonisme<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>its affirmation, adaptation, or rejection<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>will not only unravel its changing entanglements with ideas of gender, culture, and nation but will also help to complicate and expand notions of drag.<\/p>\n<h4 id=\"1\">Short Notes on the Concept of <em>Onnagata<\/em><\/h4>\n<p>According to the abridged narrative widely used today, Kabuki was initially developed as an all-female theater style in the early seventeenth century before becoming an all-male theater after women had been banned from the stage in 1629. Consequently, <em>onnagata<\/em> actors specialized in female roles for life. Though most <em>onnagata<\/em> were male, female <em>onnagata<\/em> also existed, called <em>onna yakusha<\/em> (woman player) (Levy 2010, 246; Isaka 2016, 112<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>138). Kabuki is translatable as a theater that unites song (<em>ka<\/em>), dance (<em>bu<\/em>), and acting (<em>ki<\/em>). Etymologically, the verb <em>kabuku<\/em> means \u201c\u201cto slant,\u201d \u201cto bend,\u201d or \u201cto tilt\u201d (Kano 1995, 58), as well as \u201cto lean; to act and\/or dress in a peculiar and queer manner\u201d (Isaka 2016, 5). Besides its specific stylized mixture of song, dance, and \u201cexaggerated acting, flamboyant costumes and makeup, and unrealistic stories filled with ghosts\u201d (Isaka 2016, 5<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>6), Kabuki\u2019s queerness is manifested in the concept of <em>onnagata<\/em>. Today\u2019s definition of <em>onnagata<\/em> as \u201cmen acting as women\u201d became increasingly common since the accelerated Westernization and modernization of Japan in the wake of the Meiji restoration from 1868 onwards<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn2\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref2\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>a redefinition that mirrors the modern process of the naturalization of gender. In contrast, <em>onnagata<\/em> in the pre- and early Meiji era rather refers to an ambiguous \u201clabyrinth of gendering\u201d (Isaka 2016, 13) based on the \u201cvery presupposition of \u2018femininity\u2019 [being] separable from women\u2019s anatomical sex\u201d (Isaka 2016, 7). This historical concept of <em>onnagata<\/em> thus denotes a highly performative understanding of gender in which \u201cwomen and onnagata, as the doers of femininity, began circulating femininity in the form of reciprocal imitation\u201d (Morinaga 2002, 246). Detached from essentialist bourgeois European ideas of a (gendered) truth beneath the appearance, the femininity of <em>onnagata<\/em> was thought of as second nature, that could be acquired by male <em>and<\/em> female performers through respective techniques (<em>gei<\/em>) (Isaka 2016, 19 and 87<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>111). Thus, <em>onnagata<\/em> in pre-twentieth-century thought might be understood as a specific practice to perform a femininity that is inextricably linked to masculinity, yet open to performers of all genders, as e. g., Maki Isaka highlights:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"tsquotation\">While denoting the role to be performed (i. e., woman), the term \u201connagata\u201d inevitably entails connotations regarding the one who performs: male identity, maleness, masculinity, and so on. The concept of the term \u201connagata\u201d is ostentatiously composed of the enunciated femininity and the enunciating masculinity. The concept of onnagata thus seems doomed to carry something male-ish about it, but the enunciating masculinity is not directly connected with a male body in and of itself. (Isaka 2016, 112)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Only in the course of the early twentieth century was <em>onnagata<\/em> reconceptualized as a nonnatural \u201cartistic femininity\u201d that is thought to be incompatible with \u201cnatural femininity\u201d (Isaka 2016, 17<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>18 and 141<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>152), thus leading for the most part to an exclusion of female <em>onnagata<\/em> performers.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn3\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref3\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Modern <em>onnagata<\/em> thus reduces the discrepancy between the performer and the figure performed to the formula of \u201ca male performing a woman.\u201d In contrast, the pre-Meiji &#173;<em>onnagata<\/em> concept dissolves this discrepancy by attributing greater importance to technique, appearance, and performative figuration than to the subjectivity and identity of the performer. This approach thus opens up iridescent possibilities of performing imitations of imitations of femininity that do not depend on any gendered corporeality beneath an alleged figurative surface. The performances of the Kawakamis in Europe and Japan were part of the historical transition, of Westernizing Japan, that divided <em>onnagata <\/em>femininity into \u201cartificial femininity\u201d and \u201cnatural womanness.\u201d Accordingly, in what follows I am not interested in any \u201coriginal\u201d conceptions of <em>onnagata<\/em>, but rather in how it was exploited by different performative practices in Europe and Japan in the early twentieth century.<\/p>\n<h4 id=\"2\">The Kawakamis\u2019 Self-Exoticization<\/h4>\n<p>The Kawakamis<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn4\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref4\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>that is, the dancer and influential former Geisha Sadayakko and her husband Otojir\u014d<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>not unknown in Japan upon their arrival in Europe. As a member of the liberal party fighting for democracy Otojir\u014d, under the name Liberty Kid<em>,<\/em> had already risen to fame in Japan with patriotic and satirical songs in 1890 (Downer 2004, 56). Through an activist amateur group performing Kabuki-style theater, which he founded in response to current political events, his performative work was directly involved in the Japanese nation-building process related to the Meiji restoration. Inspired by a trip to Paris in 1893, during which he attended performances by Sarah Bernhardt and Loie Fuller, Otojir\u014d introduced European aesthetics into Japanese theater. Due to financial hardship and a chance of success as the first \u201cprofessional\u201d Japanese theater group in the West, in 1899 the Kawakamis accepted the invitation by a Japanese patron to tour through the US;a tour which concluded at the world exhibition in Paris in 1900, where they performed in the theater of the US-American so-called serpentine dancer Loie Fuller. Inspired by this success, from 1901 to 1902 Fuller initiated a second tour through Europe, in which she participated with her solos. Fuller\u2019s solo dances with their waving fabrics, on which multicolored light was projected, were seen as the epitome of theatrical technological innovation; accordingly, she was also known as <em>f\u00e9e \u00e9lectricit\u00e9<\/em>. In contrast, the Kawakami group presented itself for advertising and marketing purposes as the Kabuki troupe of the nonexistent \u201cJapanese imperial court theater\u201d (Downer 2004, 92<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>93). By combining Fuller\u2019s scenes with those of the Kawakamis, the show not only staged the exoticized binaries of Western progress and alleged Japanese traditionalism, of technology and presumed naturalness (Scholz-Cionca 2016, 53), but also the expanding circuits of globalization.<\/p>\n<p>Contrary to the Japanese troupe\u2019s claims of traditionalism, their program was anything but authentic; in fact, it provided a stage for Japonisme, the European image of Japanese culture that had been circulating in theater programs throughout Central Europe since the late nineteenth century (Francke 2013). The representation of \u201cJapanese people\u201d was based, among other things, on travel records, images, performances by Japanese acrobats at the world exhibitions, and to a large extent on imagination (Francke 2013; Pantzer 2005, 51). Without being educated Kabuki performers, the Kawakami troupe staged scenes that, in terms of content, aesthetics, and gender performance, were firmly adapted to Western Japonisme. Their program included fragments of Japanese Kabuki pieces such as <em>The Geisha and the Knight <\/em>and <em>The Shogun, <\/em>and japonized pieces of European theater such as <em>Pygmalion<\/em> or a scene from Shakespeare\u2019s <em>The Merchant of Venice. <\/em>Text was mostly omitted due to the incomprehensibility of Japanese; plots and characters of traditional Kabuki pieces were regrouped by stringing together melodramatic scenes of love, madness, and death under the premise of maximum effect (Fig. 1). Thus, the bodily appearances staged by the Kawakami troupe were themselves an <em>imitation,<\/em> \u201calready quoted (from pictorial conventions)\u201d of Japonisme (Brandstetter 2003, 256).<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-1_geisha-and-the-knight_byron-new-york-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A black and white photo-engraving, likely from a European magazine, showing a scene from a Japanese theatrical production, titled &quot;LA GH\u00c9SHA ET LE CHEVALIER (ACTE I\u1d49\u02b3)&quot; [The Geisha and the Knight (Act 1)]. The actors are in full costume on a stage set designed to look like a street or garden lined with cherry trees in full bloom (sakura). The scene depicts dramatic action: a figure (labeled &quot;La Gh\u00e9sha&quot; - Mme Sada Yacco) in a kimono stands centrally, while figures around her, including some in traditional Japanese dress (labeled &quot;Nagoya,&quot; &quot;Banza,&quot; etc.), crouch, kneel, and posture with hands raised as if in combat or intense emotion. A parasol and sword props are visible. Captions identify the actors and roles.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1921\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8845\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-1_geisha-and-the-knight_byron-new-york-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-1_geisha-and-the-knight_byron-new-york-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-1_geisha-and-the-knight_byron-new-york-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-1_geisha-and-the-knight_byron-new-york-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-1_geisha-and-the-knight_byron-new-york-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-1_geisha-and-the-knight_byron-new-york-1536x1153.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-1_geisha-and-the-knight_byron-new-york-2048x1537.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-1_geisha-and-the-knight_byron-new-york-850x638.jpg 850w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-1_geisha-and-the-knight_byron-new-york-99x74.jpg 99w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><br \/>\n<span class=\"caption-text\"><b>Figure 1.<\/b> <em>The Geisha and the Knight<\/em>, New York, during the US tour, Otojir\u014d on the left, Sadayakko fourth from left. Photo: Byron, <em>Le Th\u00e9\u00e2tre<\/em> 41, Sept. 1900, Biblioth\u00e8que Nationale de France.<\/p>\n<p>The performances represented a specific adaptation of Kabuki and <em>onnagata<\/em> to the European audience: by having Sadayakko and other actresses take on female roles, the cast was \u201cstraightened\u201d according to European conventions. However, introductory talks, program notes, and press articles highlighted gender ambiguity as a specific \u201cexotic\u201d feature by constantly repeating the narrative that Sadayakko had to substitute a sick male <em>onnagata<\/em> performer, as this exemplary review shows:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"tsquotation\"><span lang=\"de-DE\" xml:lang=\"de-DE\">Seit dem XVII. Jahrhundert war es in Japan Frauen verboten, die B\u00fchne zu betreten und Frauenrollen mu\u00dften daher stets von M\u00e4nnern dargestellt werden. <\/span><span class=\"ts_italic\" lang=\"de-DE\" xml:lang=\"de-DE\">Sada Yacco<\/span><span lang=\"de-DE\" xml:lang=\"de-DE\">, fr\u00fcher die ber\u00fchmteste <\/span><span class=\"ts_italic\" lang=\"de-DE\" xml:lang=\"de-DE\">Geisha<\/span><span lang=\"de-DE\" xml:lang=\"de-DE\"> Japans, sah Kawakami spielen und, begeistert von seiner Kunst, wagte sie es, Schauspielerin zu werden. <\/span><span class=\"ts_italic\" lang=\"de-DE\" xml:lang=\"de-DE\">Kawakami<\/span><span lang=\"de-DE\" xml:lang=\"de-DE\">, der Reformideen des japanischen Theaters geneigt war, nahm die junge Novizin mit Freuden auf und unterrichtete sie. Eines Tages sprang <\/span><span class=\"ts_italic\" lang=\"de-DE\" xml:lang=\"de-DE\">Sada Yacco<\/span><span lang=\"de-DE\" xml:lang=\"de-DE\"> f\u00fcr einen unwohl gewordenen Frauendarsteller ein, errang einen kolossalen Erfolg und ist seither die <\/span><span class=\"ts_italic\" lang=\"de-DE\" xml:lang=\"de-DE\">erste<\/span><span lang=\"de-DE\" xml:lang=\"de-DE\"> und gr\u00f6\u00dfte Schauspielerin Japans.<\/span><span class=\"Hochgestellt\" lang=\"de-AT\" xml:lang=\"de-AT\"><span><a href=\"#fn5\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref5\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>5<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span>(Schwer quoted in Pantzer 2005, 831, italics in the original)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Strictly speaking, Sadayakko and the other female performers did not only appear as actresses who enacted female figures but also as actresses impersonating <em>onnagata<\/em> femininity. As I will briefly outline, the perception of Sadayakko, who was hailed as the \u201cJapanese Duse\u201d and \u201cJapanese Sarah Bernhardt,\u201d was also imbued with the peculiarly ambiguous femininity of <em>onnagata<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Across the board, the reviews emphasized the nondramatic, the synesthetic intertwining of sonority, physicality, and the \u201celoquence of the bodies\u201d (Pantzer 2005, 180). It was the voices and the expressiveness of the bodies<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>especially Sadayakko\u2019s<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>that the reviews focused on. The different prosody and intonation of Japanese brought the sonority of voices to the center (Klankert 2015, 167).Not only the supposed absence of semantic intelligibility led to a discursive feminization of the performers, but also the materiality of their voices and movements. It was said that the actors would talk \u201chastily, that they stammer, puff, hiss, whisper. The fast facial expressions and all the bodily movements match the manner of speaking\u201d (Pantzer 2005, 832). Repeatedly, falsetto voices were mentioned, contrasting contemporary European ideas of masculine vocality. This staging of femininity culminated in Sadayakko\u2019s voice, described by metaphors of birds and flowers. Yet, it resonated not only with stereotypical European constructions of the devout, infantile Geisha (Klankert 2015, 171),<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn6\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref6\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>6<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> but also with the falsetto voice of <em>onnagata<\/em>, as the following contemporary review explains:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"tsquotation\"><span lang=\"de-DE\" xml:lang=\"de-DE\">Die Schauspieler, welche Frauenrollen spielen [im jap. Theater, J. O.] sprechen im Diskant; sie machen ihre Sache aber so gut, da\u00df der unbefangene Europ\u00e4er, der zum ersten Male ein Theater in Japan besucht, oft erst aufmerksam gemacht werden mu\u00df, da\u00df alle Rollen von M\u00e4nnern gespielt werden. Sada Yacco ist die erste Japanerin, die mit M\u00e4nnern zugleich Kom\u00f6die spielt. \u2026 [S]o spricht auch Sada Yacco ihre Rollen<\/span><span class=\"EM-Dash\" lang=\"de-DE\" xml:lang=\"de-DE\">\u2014<\/span><span lang=\"de-DE\" xml:lang=\"de-DE\">im Diskant: gerade so, wie ein Schauspieler die Rolle sprechen w\u00fcrde. Ein Zeichen, wie die Tradition wirken kann!<\/span><span class=\"Hochgestellt\" lang=\"de-DE\" xml:lang=\"de-DE\"><span><a href=\"#fn7\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref7\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>7<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> (Japoniscus quoted in Pantzer 2005, 257<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>258)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In terms of Sadayakko\u2019s gestures, contemporary reviews and depictions indicated two opposing qualities: on the one hand, grace and delicateness associated with the image of the devote Geisha; on the other, a fury and an expressive grotesqueness. Especially the latter can be found in numerous images depicting characteristic elements of Kabuki, typically characterized by a lowered center of gravity and bended knees, expressive hand gestures, and broken or twisted lines of the arms. The body axis buckles from the vertical alignment through forward bends of the upper body and side bends of the head, hips, and knees (Fig. 2). In European perceptions, these movements were perceived less as a dance than as a sequence of pictorial single poses (Pantzer 2005, 373), in fact reflecting the <em>mie<\/em> pose as a characteristic pausing of the movements in Kabuki as a heightened expression of emotion at the climax of a sequence (Zorn 2013).<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-2_AParodia_N124_28Mai1902_0174_Detail.jpg\" alt=\"A black and white woodcut or linocut illustration, printed on aged paper, depicting the celebrated Japanese actress Sada Yacco. The figure is shown in dynamic motion, leaning forward with arms outstretched, wearing a flowing kimono with swirling patterns. The character&apos;s face has sharp features, and her dark hair is spiked and dramatic. The style resembles Art Nouveau or period Japanese printmaking. The name &quot;Sada Yacco&quot; is printed above the image, and a small artist&apos;s monogram and the year &quot;1902&quot; are visible in the lower right corner.\" width=\"1174\" height=\"2015\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8846\" style=\"width:85%; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-2_AParodia_N124_28Mai1902_0174_Detail.jpg 1174w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-2_AParodia_N124_28Mai1902_0174_Detail-175x300.jpg 175w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-2_AParodia_N124_28Mai1902_0174_Detail-597x1024.jpg 597w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-2_AParodia_N124_28Mai1902_0174_Detail-87x150.jpg 87w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-2_AParodia_N124_28Mai1902_0174_Detail-768x1318.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-2_AParodia_N124_28Mai1902_0174_Detail-895x1536.jpg 895w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-2_AParodia_N124_28Mai1902_0174_Detail-850x1459.jpg 850w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-2_AParodia_N124_28Mai1902_0174_Detail-43x74.jpg 43w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1174px) 100vw, 1174px\" \/><br \/>\n<span class=\"caption-text\"><b>Figure 2.<\/b> Celso Herm\u00ednio: <em>Sada Yacco<\/em> (1902), published in <em>A Parod\u00eda <\/em>126\/3(1902), Lisbon, Photo: BLX-Hemeroteca Municipal de Lisboa.<\/p>\n<p>Especially Sadayakko\u2019s madness and death scenes were discussed in reviews, where her portrayal was, however, overlayed with the European image of the femme fataleand the figure of Salome typical for that time (Brandstetter 2003, 259). Simultaneously, audiences were kept aware of the fact that Sadayakko modernized Japanese theater by being a \u201cfemale actress\u201d performing female figures instead of former \u201cmale women\u201d<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn8\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref8\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>8<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> (Hevesi in Pantzer 2005, 601).<\/p>\n<p>European perceptions of Sadayakko\u2019s performance in particular, and of the Kawakami troupe in general, were thus characterized by a deep uncertainty about how and as what they should be placed or identified, an uncertainty that applied equally to questions of gender performance, cultural \u201cauthenticity,\u201d artistic discipline, and temporal positioning. According to Peter Pantzer, who collected contemporary reviews of the tour across German-speaking countries, \u201c[f]inding the right perspective, making a correct judgment was indeed not easy when you had to choose between drama and circus, pantomime and play, museum exhibition and cabinet of curiosities\u201d<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn9\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref9\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>9<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> (Pantzer 2005, LXVII, trans. J. O.). Introductory talks and the press emphasized the distance between \u201coriginal\u201d Kabuki and the Kawakami troupe\u2019s aesthetics and had the effect that the actual performances were haunted by the European \u201cknowledge\u201d about how a Kabuki performance would actually be performed. Thus, the Kawakami troupe was even accused of fraud given that this \u201cEuropean-Japanese\u201d theater (Sazanami in Pantzer 2005, XXV) claiming to be original, was not to be found in Japan. Yet, it was exactly this uncertainty that opened up a spectral variety of ascriptions. While the judgment of the troupe\u2019s aesthetics was based on the paradigmatic exoticist entanglement of effeminacy, naturalness, and \u201cprimitivity\u201d<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>thereby missing its high level of aesthetic stylization<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>some understood its presumed \u201cprimitivity\u201d as lagging behind a supposedly progressive Europe.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn10\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref10\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>10<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Other saw the Europeanized adaptations of traditional Kabuki, particularly in terms of the straightened cast, as reflecting an ostensibly emancipated and therefore progressive Europe (Fournier 1900) or even its supposed \u201cblossoming of feminism\u201d<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn11\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref11\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>11<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> (Pantzer 2005, XXXV).Theater reformer Edward Gordon Craig, in a deeply misogynist article entitled \u201cSada Yacco\u201d (1921, 261<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>266), contrarily called the actress a threat to the \u201cnaturally\u201d \u201cmasculine theatre\u201d (1921, 266) of Japan. Conversely, for avant-garde author and theater theoretician Georg Fuchs, the staged \u201cprimitivity\u201d of Japonist theater and Kabuki signified the aesthetic ideal of the <em>future<\/em> theater of Europewith synesthesia and physicality at its center (Fuchs 1905).<\/p>\n<p>By performing Japonisme, the Kawakami troupe practiced a firm self-&#173;exoticization. According to Savigliano, self-exoticization has a certain amount of agency; however, it is limited by an unequal distribution of power between performers and spectators. Although the Kawakamis\u2019 performances clearly operated in the framework of exoticism as described by Savigliano, their self-&#173;exoticization still did not entirely fit into an economy of cultural ascriptions and unequivocably distributed risks. Also, the extensive feminization of the Kawakami group, which can be read with Edward Said (1978) as a paradigmatic discursive operation of Orientalism aiming to distinguish supposedly progressive (masculine) Europe from \u201ceffeminate\u201d and \u201cregressive\u201d non-Europeans, seems too one-sided in the case of the Kawakamis. Rather, the selling point of the group\u2019s bewildering work was not only that the performance was based on reciprocal imitations of artistic cultural practices (the Kawakamis quoting from European theater, from Japanese Kabuki, <em>and<\/em> from Japonisme, which in turn quotes from Kabuki and other Japanese arts), but more that this mimetic circuit was presented by supposedly \u201coriginal\u201d Japanese Kabuki performers. The Kawakamis rather very consciously modeled the imagination of their European audiences by deliberately staging and discursively framing Japonist phantasmas. Instead of clear-cut power relations as suggested by Savigliano or Said in the exoticist and Orientalist context, the troupe\u2019s self-exoticization hints at complex interactions in which active and passive roles cannot be ascribed so easily.<\/p>\n<h4 id=\"3\">Alexander Sakharoff\u2019s Queer Exoticism<\/h4>\n<p>The exuberant nonbinary gender performances of dancer Alexander Sakharoff in the early years of the twentieth century can be read in the context of performative Japonisme as introduced to Europe by the Kawakamis. Born to a Jewish family in Mariupol, then part of the Tsarist empire, in 1886, Sakharoff studied painting in Paris and moved to Munich in 1905 where he became part of the circle of artists associated with the Neue K\u00fcnstlervereinigung (the predecessor of the expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter). He started to take lessons in ballet and acrobatics and was involved in costume balls. In 1910, he made his debut as one of the first male solo acts within the context of modern dance. However, his work eluded the canonized lineages of modern dance by explicitly drawing from various references, such as circus techniques and acrobatics (Sakharoff 1922, n. p.). During the interwar period, together with his dance and life partner Clotilde van Derp, he toured with great success through Europe, North and South America, and Asia, including Japan. Patricia Veroli describes Sakharoff as a \u201cbridge figure\u201d (Veroli 2002, 171) between Western and Eastern Europe, who connected heterogeneous lines of Russian, French, and German symbolism. Thus, Sakharoff \u201cwas exposed to various influences, and filtered them in a way that it has heretofore been possible to know and understand only in parts\u201d (Veroli 2002, 171). Sakharoff\u2019s dances in exuberant costumes (designed by the dancer) were equally characterized by exoticist elements and diverse historical references to European antiquity, the Renaissance, and particularly the Baroque. Similar to Vaclav Nijinsky and the Ballets Russes, whose \u201carchaic, exotic or \u2018Oriental\u2019\u201d aesthetics created a distance that made ambivalent stagings of the male body possible (Burt 2022, 58), Sakharoff\u2019s dances raise the question of how his radical disruption of heteronormative gender performances interacted with his exoticist aesthetics. While dance scholar Lucia Ruprecht described Sakharoff\u2019s dances in general and his \u201cBaroque\u201d solos (such as his impersonation of Sun King Louis&#160;IVX in <em>Pavane Royal<\/em>) in particular, with the term \u201cgestural drag\u201d (2019, 169<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>192), aligning the \u201cintermittent temporality\u201d (177) of his practice with theories of the baroque body and current queer theories of temporal drag, I would like to suggest to take a look at Sakharoff\u2019s work from the perspective of Japonisme and related <em>onnagata<\/em> performativity. In other words, I read his solos as a queer exoticism in which a nonbinary performance of gender is linked to a bewildering performance of cultural fragments with a specific affinity to the past.<\/p>\n<p>Formative for Sakharoff\u2019s dance concept was the close friendship with the expressionist Munich-based Russian painter couple Alexej Jawlensky and Marianne Werefkin, both members of Neue K\u00fcnstlervereinigung Munich<em>.<\/em> They were collectors of Japanese art, theater masks, and woodcuts of theatrical and dance scenes, which they studied intensively. Werefkin and Jawlensky not only portrayed the dancer in a Japonist style in feminized postures and with a whitened face, but they also introduced him to Japanese\/Japonist aesthetics (F\u00e4thke 2011). Jawlensky accordingly described their close exchange as follows:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"tsquotation\">For several years we were always together and he [Sakharoff] came to see us almost every day. The years of our friendship were very interesting \u2026 We discussed all of his training as a dancer. I always watched him dance. He also loved and understood my art very well. (Jawlensky quoted in Stamm 2002, 17)<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn12\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref12\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>12<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-3_056_56013-1-scaled.png\" alt=\"A black and white studio portrait of the dancer Alexander Sacharoff (often billed as &apos;Sacharoff&apos; on photographs). The figure is dressed in a long, flowing, dark gown with an elaborate patterned or sequined texture and a fashionable bob haircut. Sacharoff is posing dramatically, extending their hands gracefully in a dance movement, with one hand raised near the head and the other lowered. The signature &apos;SACHAROFF&apos; is printed in the lower right corner. The photo is reflective of early 20th-century avant-garde and aesthetic dance.\" width=\"1965\" height=\"2560\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8866\" style=\"width:85%; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-3_056_56013-1-scaled.png 1965w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-3_056_56013-1-230x300.png 230w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-3_056_56013-1-786x1024.png 786w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-3_056_56013-1-115x150.png 115w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-3_056_56013-1-768x1001.png 768w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-3_056_56013-1-1179x1536.png 1179w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-3_056_56013-1-1572x2048.png 1572w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-3_056_56013-1-850x1107.png 850w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-3_056_56013-1-57x74.png 57w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1965px) 100vw, 1965px\" \/><br \/>\n<span class=\"caption-text\"><b>Figure 3.<\/b> Alexander Sakharoff in a dance pose inspired by Italian Renaissance. Photo: Heinrich Hoffmann (around 1912), Deutsches Tanzarchiv K\u00f6ln [56013].<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-4_056_56014_recto-scaled.png\" alt=\"A vintage, slightly faded black and white portrait of a performer in an elaborate theatrical costume. The costume is pale and ruffled, featuring an embroidered or patterned short jacket\/tunic with puffed sleeves, frills around the neck and cuffs, and rosettes. The performer wears light-colored tights\/stockings (with visible spotting on the photo) and soft ballet slippers with bows, topped by a curly wig and a large plumed hat. The figure is captured mid-pose, leaning back dramatically with one hand raised, embodying a character from a ballet, pantomime, or historical piece, possibly a Baroque-style court figure or jester.\" width=\"1618\" height=\"2560\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8862\" style=\"width:85%; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-4_056_56014_recto-scaled.png 1618w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-4_056_56014_recto-190x300.png 190w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-4_056_56014_recto-647x1024.png 647w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-4_056_56014_recto-95x150.png 95w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-4_056_56014_recto-768x1215.png 768w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-4_056_56014_recto-971x1536.png 971w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-4_056_56014_recto-1294x2048.png 1294w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-4_056_56014_recto-850x1345.png 850w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-4_056_56014_recto-47x74.png 47w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1618px) 100vw, 1618px\" \/><br \/>\n<span class=\"caption-text\"><b>Figure 4.<\/b> Sakharoff in a version of <em>Pavane Royale<\/em> (around 1919). Photo: Hanns Holdt, Deutsches Tanzarchiv K\u00f6ln [56014].<\/p>\n<p>Yet, in his stagings Sakharoff by no means referred back to \u201cthe Japanese\u201d in terms of motifs, but adopted fragments of Japonisme into his \u201creenactments\u201d (Ruprecht 2019, 175) of historical as well as exoticist dances such as <em>Dance of the Baroque Bacchus, Pavane Royal<\/em>, <em>Chinoiserie<\/em>, <em>Po\u00e8me n\u00e8gre<\/em> (danced by Clotilde Sakharoff) or <em>Golliwog\u2019s Cake Walk<\/em>. Among other things, the heavy white face makeup that Sakharoff wore in almost all of his dances is striking. It resonated not only with Baroque makeup traditions but also with the white makeup mask of the <em>onnagata<\/em> in Kabuki. Dance scholar Gabriele Brandstetter has furthermore pointed to the Japonist shaping of Sakharoff\u2019s specific modeling of postures and movements, which include the upper body bowed forward or sideways, poses with a bent standing and striking leg, the vertical body axis buckled out of alignment in several places, and expressive hand and arm gestures (Brandstetter 1997, 154<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>158; also Veroli 2002, 186) (Fig. 3<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>4). While in historical Baroque dance, the body is aligned vertically, striving upwards with a high center of gravity, Sakharoff\u2019s body is specifically broken into several axes with a slightly lowered center. It is this significant breaking of his postures and movements with the \u201cvertical masculinity\u201d (Veroli 2002, 204) of classical ballet and baroque dance that is imbued with echoes of Japonisme, more specifically the performativity of <em>onnagata<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>In his work, Sakharoff aimed for gender fluidity when claiming that the only suitable gender for the art of dance is \u201cthe young man as a being that&#160;\u2026 unites the possibility of both sexes in himself\u201d<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn13\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref13\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>13<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> (Sacharoff 2002a). He &#173;argumentatively associated this quest with feminized male figures: initially with the ephebe of Greek antiquity (Sacharoff 2002a), and, shortly thereafter, with various androgynous figures such as Louis&#160;XIV, or the \u201cfeverish clown with which he parodied the cakewalk \u2026 or the Renaissance angels with wings made of real feathers\u201d (Veroli 2002, 187). In a time that was marked by \u201csexual antagonism\u201d and \u201ca battle <em>within<\/em> the sexes\u201d (Showalter in Veroli 2002, 175), and in which homosexuality became a key issue, Sakharoff\u2019s performances raised highly ambivalent reactions. Reviews expressed the pressurization of contemporary heteronormative ideas, responding to it with admiration and rejection; they accused him of feminization and partly expressing homophobia. As an example, the expressionist writer Friedrich Markus Huebner emphasized Sakharoff\u2019s particular performance of dual gender (\u201cDoppelgeschlechtlichkeit\u201d) in which he recognized a \u201cconfusingly\u201d liberating effect:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"tsquotation\"><span lang=\"de-AT\" xml:lang=\"de-AT\">Sacharoff verwirrt. Er verwirrt uns Heutige. \u2026 Er \u00f6ffnet die Schleusentore des Anarchischen. Er stellt dar und glorifiziert das \u201cCharakter&#173;&#173;lose.\u201d \u2026 Es ist gleichg\u00fcltig, wie Sacharoff seine einzelne Programmnummer nennt. Es ist auch gleichg\u00fcltig, an welche historischen Ideen er seine Gewandungen an\u00e4hnelt. Zuletzt ist gleichg\u00fcltig, die Musik welches Komponisten er als Teppich seines Schreitens, Beugens, Betens benutzt. Das immer wieder und vor allen Dingen Au\u00dferordentliche ist, da\u00df die Zertrenntheit der Geschlechter, das Vasallensein des Mannes, des Weibes an ihren beziehentlichen Charakter, da\u00df der Dualismus der Begehrungen in Sacharoff sich synthetisiert und nun zu einer einzigen, charakterologisch nicht mehr fa\u00dfbaren Geste der zwiefach geschlechtlichen Nacktheit wird. \u2026 Die Statue des Ich ist zerbrochen, und aus allen Poren dieser hermaphroditischen Figur flackert der Ausdruck gegl\u00fcckter, erw\u00fcnschter, gesteigerter Erl\u00f6sung von der Enge des einsartigen Selbst. (Huebner 1914, n. p.)<br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/span><span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn14\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref14\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>14<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The influential French critic Andr\u00e9 Levinson similarly described Sakharoff as a performer whose dances were defined more by \u201caffectation\u201d and \u201cequivocation\u201d than by their topics, titles, or costumes: \u201cThis equivocation persists in all his dances, which, although differentiated by costume, are the same, whether they are called Pavane, Rigaudon or Cake-Walk\u201d<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn15\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref15\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>15<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> (Levinson 1929, 426). While Ruprecht aligns Sakharoff\u2019s gender performance with baroque burlesque Ballet de Cour in which dancing \u201cen travestie\u201d constituted a form of \u201cmajestic drag\u201d (Franko 2003, see also Franko 2015), I would argue that the gender-related incomprehensibility of his gestures, which seems to have permeated all of Sakharoff\u2019s performances, reached beyond baroque concepts. His performative approach was rather characterized by an entanglement of gendered and cultural<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>or better<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>exoticist matters respectively connected to specific (queer) temporalities. Though Sakharoff was part of European exoticism and its colonial and racist implications, his artistic work might be called a queer exoticism that to a certain degree, was bending exoticism itself.<\/p>\n<p>As an example, I would like to come back to his aforementioned solo <em>Golliwog\u2019s Cake Walk <\/em>to the music of Claude Debussy.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn16\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref16\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>16<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> It premiered in 1913, as part of a program in which Sakharoff also performed Baroque-influenced solos. The racist Golliwog doll, inspired by minstrel shows and designed by the illustrator Florence Upton in 1895<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>a grotesquely exaggerated, childlike, Black figure in a suit<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn17\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref17\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>17<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>bears no resemblance to Sakharoff\u2019s staging: a photo of the solo (Fig. 5) rather shows an Orientalized figure in a doll-like, elongated pose with spread-eagled arms and legs on demi-pointe. The figure wears a blue wig (as a hand-colored version of the image shows) and an Oriental costume<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>\u201da marvel of feathers and long fringes\u201d (Veroli 1992, 85)<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>with puffy pants covered in ornaments. The face is whitened and heavily made up.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-5_FS_12166-scaled.png\" alt=\"A vintage black and white full-length studio photograph of the dancer Alexander Sacharoff, wearing an elaborate costume for his performance of &quot;Golliwoggs Cake Walk von Debussy.&quot; The costume features a voluminous top and harem-style pants made of a richly patterned, possibly brocade or velvet, fabric. It includes a high, ruffled collar, fringe around the waist, and large, fuzzy cuffs at the wrists. Sacharoff is wearing pale makeup and a short, dark, voluminous wig. He stands in a wide, stylized dance pose, with his arms extended and his feet turned out. Text above the image identifies him as &quot;Alexander Sacharoff&quot; and the piece as &quot;\u00bbGolliwoggs Cake Walk von Debussy.\u00ab&quot; Additional text identifies the publisher and the photo studio.\" width=\"1651\" height=\"2560\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8857\" style=\"width:85%; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-5_FS_12166-scaled.png 1651w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-5_FS_12166-193x300.png 193w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-5_FS_12166-660x1024.png 660w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-5_FS_12166-97x150.png 97w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-5_FS_12166-768x1191.png 768w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-5_FS_12166-991x1536.png 991w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-5_FS_12166-1321x2048.png 1321w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-5_FS_12166-850x1318.png 850w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-5_FS_12166-48x74.png 48w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1651px) 100vw, 1651px\" \/><br \/>\n<span class=\"caption-text\"><b>Figure 5.<\/b> <em>Golliwog\u2019s Cake Walk<\/em>. Photo: Hanns Holdt, (n. d.), Deutsches Tanzarchiv K\u00f6ln [12166].<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-6_sacharoff_golliwogg_BnF-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A vintage photo collage containing five black and white images documenting the dynamic movements of the dancer Alexandre Sakharoff (also Sacharoff). The dancer wears the same elaborate, patterned costume in all five frames: a fringed, brocade-style tunic, matching harem pants, a large fur collar, and a light-colored, short wig. The overall presentation is stylized and theatrical. The photos show different moments of a performance, including: leaping, kneeling, striking expressive poses with arms outstretched, and crouching while holding a small, dark, animal-like prop (possibly a monkey or doll) on the shoulder. Text in the center-right area identifies the subject and performance, reading: &quot;Quelques mouvements d&apos;Alexandre S[akharoff] dans Golliwog[g&apos;s Cake Walk]&quot;.\" width=\"1985\" height=\"2560\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8855\" style=\"width:100%; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-6_sacharoff_golliwogg_BnF-scaled.jpg 1985w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-6_sacharoff_golliwogg_BnF-233x300.jpg 233w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-6_sacharoff_golliwogg_BnF-794x1024.jpg 794w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-6_sacharoff_golliwogg_BnF-116x150.jpg 116w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-6_sacharoff_golliwogg_BnF-768x991.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-6_sacharoff_golliwogg_BnF-1191x1536.jpg 1191w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-6_sacharoff_golliwogg_BnF-1588x2048.jpg 1588w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-6_sacharoff_golliwogg_BnF-850x1096.jpg 850w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-6_sacharoff_golliwogg_BnF-57x74.jpg 57w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1985px) 100vw, 1985px\" \/><br \/>\n<span class=\"caption-text\"><b>Figure 6.<\/b> <em>Golliwog\u2019s Cake Walk<\/em>, from \u201cAlexandre et Clotilde Sakharoff: biographie: documents iconographiques\u201d (n. d.), Biblioth\u00e8que nationale de France [FRBNF39511909].<\/p>\n<p>The movements are moreover \u201cdescribed as febrile and spirited, and brought off with an extraordinary disarticulation of the limbs, a sense of lightness, and a mastery of the body even when it was held in the most unusual positions\u201d (Veroli 2002, 206). They at best show only traces of the eponymous cakewalk (Fig. 6). Characteristics such as leaning backward, high prances, arms stretched forward, and a low center of gravity can only be found as residues in Sakharoff\u2019s dance in exaggerated backbends and poses suggestive of swinging arms. The bent forward upper body, poses on demi-pointe with the legs partly parallel, partly turned out with mostly bent knees and highly stylized hand gestures, rather evoke eclectic associations that meld cakewalk with baroque, Japonist, and vaguely \u201cOriental\u201d facets of movement. Sakharoff\u2019s mocking stylization of the cakewalk eluded both hegemonic masculinity and exotic illusions of original cultures. It is not without an ironic undertone (von Delius in Peter\/Stamm 2002, 49) that Sakharoff deliberately juggled codified signs of present and past cultures, races, genders, and sexualities. Through the heterogeneity of costume and makeup, gestures, and poses as a \u201claboratory of symbols\u201d (Veroli 2002, 192), he overburdened the body with signs and thereby withdrew from any stable attributions. Sakharoff\u2019s cakewalk and other solos did not follow the binary logic of a masquerade, either in the sense of a gendered cross-dressing or as ethnic drag (Sieg 2002). Correspondingly, he demanded \u201cindependence from the laws of representation [Abbildlichkeit]\u201d<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn18\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref18\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>18<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> (Sacharoff 2002b, 220). Sakharoff rather seemed to invoke the notion of reminiscence, as coined by Mark Franko when reflecting on Japanese Butoh dancer Kazuo Ohno and his performance <em>Suiren<\/em> (\u201cWater Lilies\u201d).<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn19\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref19\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>19<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Ohno\u2019s drag \u201cspeaks of disparate sexes in one body without invoking paradox or inviting us to delude ourselves about the \u2018truth\u2019\u201d (Franko 1992, 603). With a reference to Roland Barthes\u2019 thoughts on Japanese puppet theater Bunraku, Franko further states:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"tsquotation\">Attempting to transcend the double bind of doxa and paradoxa (whether male and female, heterosexuality and homosexuality, or dress and its crossing) Ohno may be in search of just such a third term, \u201cwhich is not a synthesis but a translation: everything comes back, but it comes back as fiction\u201d. (Franko 1992, 603)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Franko\u2019s conclusion that this \u201cfictive body as third term assumes roles nonparasitically, <em>through reminiscence rather than polemical masquerade<\/em>\u201d (Franko 1992, 603, italics J. O.), also applies to Sakharoff\u2019s embodiments: they were no imitation of, but fragments that echo gendered and cultured gestures without evoking any kind of origin. In this sense, \u00c9mile Vuillermoz calls Sakharoff a \u201cmaster of an invisible ballet\u201d (1933, 48), \u201cwho never dances alone\u201d as he \u201cevokes the living and the dead\u201d (47). When Sakharoff quoted disparate fractions of current and outdated European and non-European performative practices in order to transpose them into nonbinary \u201creinventions of dance styles,\u201d he created, as Veroli put it, \u201can ivory-tower world, removed from time and from social and national transformations\u201d (Veroli 2002, 192).<\/p>\n<p>Yet, this removal can as well be understood as a parodist commentary on heteronormative standards of masculinity and the logic of exoticism of his time. If exoticism creates a representative order and allocates social roles \u201cthrough fantasy\u201d (Savigliano 1995, 189), Sakharoff\u2019s solos such as <em>Golliwog\u2019s Cake Walk<\/em> withdraw from exoticist representations. He rather refers to exoticism by queering and exposing it as a work of fantasy itself.<\/p>\n<p>While Sakharoff worked with elements associated with drag performance such as opulent costumes, wigs, and overall effeminate modeling of postures, he simultaneously withdrew from logics of drag such as the \u201cdestabilizing gesture,\u201d \u201cexploitation of the opposition of construction and essence,\u201d or \u201cthe assertation \u2018that appearance is an illusion\u2019\u201d (Garber 1997, 152). Sakharoff\u2019s \u201cdecentralized gender\u201d (Veroli 2002, 192) rather <em>invented<\/em> fictional figurations of in-between genders and cultures without stressing the discrepancy between performer and performed. Insofar as he was not operating within any binary logic, his aesthetics bore similarities to the concept of <em>onnagata<\/em> as a performative and technically achieved femininity independent of the performing subject. The notion of <em>gei <\/em>that is central to Kabuki (and Japanese arts in general) as an \u201cacquired artistic technique implanted into one\u2019s body via repeated, longtime, physical cultivation\u201d (Isaka 2016, 103) is echoed in the importance that Sakharoff ascribes to the continued bodily practice fueled by a variety of techniques: \u201cOur dances are worked out in every detail and sometimes many years pass before they are actually to our satisfaction. \u2026 The true dancer must be an artist<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>he must learn technique (most importantly breathing)\u201d (Sacharoff 1932, see also Sakharoff 1922). Many reviews emphasize Sakharoff\u2019s \u201cintellectual, frantically ambitious technique, which consciously depicted every pose down to the last detail\u201d<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn20\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref20\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>20<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> (Brandenburg 1921, 121<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>122) leading to artificiality and stylization (Levinson 1929, 278). The concept of work that stands out in Sakharoff\u2019s approach is that of a body that has been worked through by various techniques, and which appears in changing figurations without impersonating a stable figure. Thus, work<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>to again return to Franko\u2019s thoughts about Butoh dancer Kazuo Ohno\u2019s drag<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>also forms a theoretical perspective. Referring to Roland Barthes\u2019 observation that in the historical Japanese puppet play Bunraku (a predecessor of Kabuki and Butoh) work \u201cis substituted for interiority\u201d (Barthes 1976, 45), Franko proposes work as a category that goes beyond issues of subjectivization and dichotomies such as interiority and expression, authenticity and masquerade. As such, it is \u201ca third term for theatrical theory: neither subjectivism nor alienation\u201d (Franko 1992, 602). Sakharoff\u2019s elaborated gestures of an in-between gender that simultaneously echo various cultural fragments, among them Japonist elements of his time, are an example of such a work. A work that is not a gendered or ethnic cross-dressing, but a \u201cthrough-dressing\u201d (Franko 1992, 604) and a through-gesturing that queers exoticism\u2019s quest for representation.<\/p>\n<h4 id=\"4\">Dragging Exoticism onto the Japanese Stage<\/span><\/h4>\n<p>As a third example of references to <em>onnagata<\/em> in the early twentieth century, I will follow the Kawakamis back to Japan, where shortly after their European tour they became the most committed innovators of theater in the so-called Shinpa style (also Shimpa), meaning New School drama.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn21\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref21\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>21<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Shinpa\u2019s central effort to Westernize Japanese theater by overcoming Kabuki and \u201creplacing <em>onnagata<\/em> with actresses\u201d (Kano 1995, 6) is part of theater reforms that played a decisive role in Japan\u2019s forced opening up to the West and its striving \u201cto display [its] legitimacy as an advanced nation, one that could not only avoid colonization by nations such as the United States, Britain, Germany, and France but one that would eventually become a colonial power itself\u201d (Kano 1995, 6). Thus, the fierce contemporary debates around Kabuki and New School Shinpa, <em>onnagata<\/em> and actresses<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>as women acting like women (Kano 1995, 58)<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>reflect broader societal struggles for a \u201cmodern, civilized and masculine Japan\u201d (Kano 1995, 95). The supposedly traditional, archaic, feminine, and Eastern Kabuki is not only placed in a binary opposition to this new nation\u2019s ideals, but theater should \u201cbecome a school in which spectators would learn how to be subjects of such a nation\u201d (Kano 1995, 95). While the Japonist Kabuki program of the Kawakamis in Europe was therefore viewed extremely critically in Japan (Kano 1995, 92), the tour simultaneously afforded the troupe the authority to claim themselves as experts in Western theater. Thus, Kawakami called his idealized theater style <em>seigeki, <\/em>\u201cstraight theater.\u201d The term not only refers to a focus on spoken word drama, but to an encompassing \u201cstraightening\u201d of all theatrical means according to Kawakami\u2019s association of <em>seigeki<\/em> with a \u201ccorrect\u201d or \u201cpure\u201d performance of Western drama (Kano 1995, 59, also 57<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>84). Among other things, \u201cstraight theater\u201d included the adaptation of Western plays and the primacy of dialogues over song and dance, as well as the \u201cstraight\u201d assignment of roles in terms of essentializing gender. Even more, \u201cstraight\u201d theater meant a masculinization of \u201cresources, and time [that] would be allocated rationally and efficiently, and \u2026 in which masculine subjects would enact masculine scenes to educate others to act masculine\u201d (Kano 1995, 76<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>77). Rejecting Kabuki and its performative femininity of <em>onnagata<\/em> (male and female alike) as \u201c\u2018queer\u2019 and abjected\u201d (Kano 1995, 59), the \u201cnatural\u201d femininity of the modern actress was turned center stage. Sadayakko, described as a \u201cWestern lady\u201d (Kano 1995, 91) upon her return from Europe, epitomized this new model of a Japanese actress.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Westernization of theater that Kawakami intended was not as pure as he claimed. Rather, it was a case of reverse exoticism that dragged the logic of Western exoticism onto the Japanese stage, as Kawakami\u2019s Shinpa adaptation of the Shakespeare play <em>Othello<\/em> in 1903, among others, showed.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn22\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref22\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>22<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> <em>Othello<\/em> was staged as one of the first \u201cstraight\u201d and at the same time \u201ccolonial plays\u201d (Kano 1995, 12) followed by <em>The Merchant of Venice <\/em>and <em>Hamlet <\/em>in the same year.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn23\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref23\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>23<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> After their successful experimentations with self-exoticizing performances of alleged Kabuki in Europe, the Kawakamis now claimed to be the only Japanese to have studied and to \u201cauthentically\u201d perform Shakespeare.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn24\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref24\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>24<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Contrary to an advertisement poster that showed figures in historical European dresses, including Othello with a blackened face and hands in front of Greek columns, Kawakami\u2019s actual staging was \u201can extract of Shakespeare\u2019s play\u201d with \u201cone-tenth the length\u201d (Osanai in Liu 2007, 413) of the original. It moved the setting to present-day Tokyo and Taiwan. Here, Othello, performed by Otojir\u014d, was called Washir\u014d, a colonial general in Taiwan<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>an island Japan had just colonized in 1895. Washir\u014d, a character transferring Othello into the Japanese context, appeared as a member of burakumin, \u201ca traditional outcaste group in Japanese society\u201d (Yasuko 2016, 488). In the play, he is sent to Taiwan to put down local uprisings. Through the performance of military masculinity, he strives to be accepted as a full Japanese citizen. A stage shot (Fig. 7) shows male actors as male figures in contemporary Japanese and Chinese uniforms and suits. Otojir\u014d\/Washir\u014d stands in the center in blackface, transferring its pejorative uses in the West to the Japanese context. The actors epitomize the notion of a straightened theater in strikingly erect poses, without tilted torsos, the arms and heads in line with the upper body, only moving in a small range of bodily space. Yet, two energetically sitting figures, each with a helping assistant in lunges behind their backs, recall the importance of acrobatic fight scenes, which Kawakami takes from his Japonist Kabuki performances into his straight theater. Another image shows Sadayakko as Desdemona, here named Tomone, wearing a traditional Japanese dress, hairstyle, and makeup in a similar \u201cstraight\u201d posture. In an image of her as Oriye (the Japanized Ophelia) in the <em>Hamlet <\/em>production of the same year (Fig. 8), however, she can be seen dressed in Western style, performing the madness scene with a strikingly motionless body, which completely contrasts her madness dances in Kabuki style for which she became famous in Europe.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-7_F01-25994.png\" alt=\"A black and white historical theater photograph taken indoors, showing a formal and solemn ceremony with several men in military and official attire. In the center, actor in a highly decorated military uniform with many medals stands tall, firmly grasping the arm of another actor in a similar, dark military uniform who is kneeling before him. The kneeling actor appears distressed or subservient, with head bowed. Several others, some in military dress and some in traditional formal wear (including hats with turbans or caps), stand solemnly in the background. The room is decorated with fabric drapes and floral arrangements, suggesting a significant political or official event, possibly an apology, surrender, or formal oath.\" width=\"1643\" height=\"1168\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8859\" style=\"width:100%; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-7_F01-25994.png 1643w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-7_F01-25994-300x213.png 300w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-7_F01-25994-1024x728.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-7_F01-25994-150x107.png 150w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-7_F01-25994-768x546.png 768w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-7_F01-25994-1536x1092.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-7_F01-25994-104x74.png 104w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-7_F01-25994-850x604.png 850w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1643px) 100vw, 1643px\" \/><br \/>\n<span class=\"caption-text\"><b>Figure 7.<\/b> Stage shot of <em>Othello<\/em> (1903), Kawakami Otojir\u014d standing in the middle, property of the Tsubouchi Memorial Theater Museum, Waseda University Tokyo, No.&#160;F01-25994.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-8_F64-00678.png\" alt=\"A sepia-toned or heavily faded black and white portrait, typical of the late 19th or early 20th century, showing someone in a long, flowing, light-colored feminine dress (possibly white or cream), standing in a pensive or theatrical pose. The dress features a high waistline and ribbon accents. The figure has very long, dark hair flowing over her shoulders, and flowers woven into their hair. They hold two small bouquets of flowers and long ribbons drape from their hands. The image has a soft focus and is set against a plain studio background, suggesting an aesthetic or theatrical costume, possibly for a classical or mythological role.\" width=\"652\" height=\"896\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8860\" style=\"width:65%; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-8_F64-00678.png 652w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-8_F64-00678-218x300.png 218w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-8_F64-00678-109x150.png 109w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-8_F64-00678-54x74.png 54w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 652px) 100vw, 652px\" \/><br \/>\n<span class=\"caption-text\"><b>Figure 8.<\/b> Sadayakko as Oriye (Ophelia) in <em>Hamlet<\/em> (1903), property of the Tsubouchi Memorial Theater Museum, Waseda University Tokyo, No.&#160;F64-00678.<\/p>\n<p>Thus, as Kano puts it, the \u201cdefinition of [the modern Japanese] actress involves more than a woman performing\u201d (Kano 1995, 32). Her identity is rather formed in comparison to a range of preceding models of performative femininity such as \u201cthe male <em>onnagata <\/em>\u2026 and his performances in Kabuki, New School, and New Theater productions, the Western actress, the <em>onna yakusha <\/em>(woman player) who appeared in Kabuki and New School, and, finally, the New School actress\u201d (Levy 2010, 232<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>33). Finally, there were also male <em>onnagata<\/em> in Kawakami\u2019s productions (Ortolani 1995, 237), so the different types of performers of femininity were not mutually exclusive but competed in a mimetic circle for the greater \u201cnaturalness\u201d and the representation of psychological interiority.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn25\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref25\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>25<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> However, it is important to note that Kawakami introduced explicit scenes of cross-dressing and ethnic drag in various productions.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn26\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref26\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>26<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> That is, while \u201cstraight theater\u201d paved the way for the gradual essentialist replacement of <em>onnagata<\/em> by \u201cnatural\u201d actresses, the importance of cross-dressings as inversion increased.<\/p>\n<p>To come back to the straightening of <em>Othello<\/em> in terms of aesthetic means, dance and song were not erased but ascribed to the group of indigenous Taiwanese rebels. In their appearance at the beginning of act IV, they sang folk songs and \u201chopped and leapt about screaming some sort of incantation\u201d (Yasuko 2016, 489). The Kawakami\u2019s Shakespeare adaptations can be said to have drawn on exoticism in two ways: on the one hand, the staging of Shakespeare itself was perceived as exotic in the Japanese context with \u201cthe most exotic elements of all: the translated text and the modern actress\u201d (Levy 2010, 202); on the other, his concession to the audience\u2019s affinity for dance and song was reframed according to an exoticist logic by assigning it to the exoticized Taiwanese \u201cOthers.\u201d This might be called a reversed exoticism that adopted the Western theatrical means as exotic spectacle and in which actors play \u201cat being \u2018Western\u2019 colonial masters who subject indigenous peoples in colonies to their rule\u201d (Yasuko 2016, 489). Yet, the actors of this abridged version of the \u201coriginal\u201d Shakespearean <em>Othello<\/em> in the guise of contemporary Japanese and Taiwanese did not perform ethnic drag in the sense of Sieg (2002) as \u201cthe performance of \u2018race\u2019 as a masquerade\u201d or \u201ca ritual of inversion\u201d (2). The show followed much more the dramaturgy of exoticism as a mimetic strategy to become similar, but not equal<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>the desire to become a more refined Japanese West, as Kano puts it:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"tsquotation\">It is the drag against the full identification with the West, the impossibility of a perfect passing as Western, that came to be understood to be Japanese qualities. And to a certain extent, it is these Japanese peculiarities, now understood to be Japanese essences, that are later made to serve as the basis of postmodern performance genres such as but\u014d and underground theater. (Kano 1995, 170)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Nevertheless, contrary to their claims, the Kawakami\u2019s straight theater in many ways exhibited this impossible and undesired entirely \u201cpassing as Western.\u201d Their productions, which distort binaries such as original\/adaptation, Japanese\/European, feminine\/masculine, <em>onnagata<\/em>-actress, constantly teetered on the edge of comedy (e. g., see Brandon 1999, 37), as, for example, in the perception of <em>Othello<\/em> as a \u201ctravesty of the worst kind\u201d (Levy 2010, 210) by some of his contemporaries, or in the explicit parody of Washir\u014d\u2019s masculinity in <em>New Othello<\/em> (1906) (Kano 1995, 108).<\/p>\n<h4 id=\"5\">Closing Thoughts: Dragging and Exoticism<\/h4>\n<p>The Kawakamis\u2019 European tour in 1902 can be described as a point of crystallization from which various entanglements between Japanese and European dance and theater modernisms radiated outward. In a time of deep societal changes in Japan and Europe, the three case studies show complex and contradictory migrations of gendered and cultured stagings of bodies that revolve around the performative femininity of <em>onnagata<\/em> as a central point of reference. In research on Kabuki, the term \u201cdrag\u201d is rarely used because, in its widespread binary understanding as an inversion of gender or cross-dressing, it does not seem appropriate to the complex mimetic processes of <em>onnagata<\/em> (Mezur 2005, 256). However, through <em>onnagata<\/em>, the notion of drag might become more complicated. Within the Japonist framework that I have sketched out, drag could be understood in an expanded sense: as a variety of performative practices that are not limited to the category of gender but inextricably linked to particularly situated ideas of culture and nation, as the notions of <em>self-exoticization<\/em>, <em>queer exoticism<\/em>, or <em>reversed exoticism<\/em> suggest. Furthermore, these practices do not operate in simple binary oppositions as crossings in terms of gender or ethnicity. Much in line with the idea of a performative femininity in <em>onnagata<\/em> that does not refer to the subjectivity of the performer, even in the proclaimed \u201cstraight\u201d productions of the Kawakamis in Japan, different performative models of femininity exist without contradiction next to each other.<\/p>\n<p>Within the Japonist framework, all three examples point to the alliance of exoticist draggings with commodifications.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn27\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref27\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>27<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> However, while neither the Kawakamis nor Sakharoff were detached from colonial exoticism, they also revealed its deeply fictional constitution by deliberately performing exoticism with an ironic component or even taking a parodistic turn. In the case of the Kawakamis, their performances in Europe questioned seemingly clear-cut power relations of exoticism while also reproducing them on the Japanese stage. Their work on straightening Japanese theater finally led to the marginalization of the ambiguity of <em>onnagata<\/em> while simultaneously introducing scenes of drag as an inversion. In the case of Sakharoff, exoticism was related to a queer modernity. Eventually, his practice might also have pointed to the possibility of detaching the exotic from the colonialist and redefining it, as his French contemporary Victor Segalen has put it: \u201cas the ability to conceive otherwise\u201d (Segalen 2002, 19). In this sense, drag could refer to a work in which cultural sediments are layered and rearranged to create an exuberant body that explodes the exotic from within.<\/p>\n<h4>Endnotes<\/h4>\n<hr class=\"HorizontalRule-1\" \/>\n<ol>\n<li id=\"fn1\">\n<p>This includes works by Emil Orlik, Max Reinhardt, Giacomo Puccini\u2019s <em>Madam Butterfly<\/em> (1904) or the theoretical texts <em>Die Schaub\u00fchne der Zukunft<\/em> (1905) and <em>Der Tanz<\/em> (1906) by Georg Fuchs.<a href=\"#fnref1\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn2\">\n<div id=\"page191\" role=\"doc-pagebreak\" aria-label=\"191\" epub:type=\"pagebreak\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"ts_footnote\">&#9;Meiji Restoration refers to the Japanese revolution of 1868, which marks a forced political, economic, social, and cultural opening of the country towards the \u201cWest.\u201d<a href=\"#fnref2\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn3\">\n<p>Among others, the performative constitution of <em>onnagata<\/em> as well as its modern essentialization resonate in the differentiation of \u201cwoman-actor\u201d (<em>onna &#173;yakusha,<\/em> a woman performing onnagata such as the famous Ichikawa Kumehachi) from \u201cactress\u201d (a woman performing a woman) (see Isaka 2016, 9). In the 1910s, the first is increasingly supplanted by the second.<a href=\"#fnref3\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn4\">\n<p>When using the name under which the company tours, I always imply the importance of both Sadayakko and Otojir\u014d.<a href=\"#fnref4\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn5\">\n<p>\u201cSince the XVIIth century, women were forbidden to enter the stage in Japan and female roles therefore always had to be played by men. <em>Sada Yacco<\/em>, once the most famous geisha in Japan, saw <em>Kawakami <\/em>perform and, inspired by his art, she dared to become an actress. Kawakami, who was inclined to reform Japanese theater, gladly accepted the young novice and taught her. One day, <em>Sada Yacco<\/em> stood in for a female actor who had become unwell, achieved colossal success and has been Japan\u2019s <em>first<\/em> and greatest actress ever since.\u201d All translations of sources are by the author.<a href=\"#fnref5\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn6\">\n<div id=\"page195\" role=\"doc-pagebreak\" aria-label=\"195\" epub:type=\"pagebreak\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"ts_footnote\">&#9;Here Klankert makes an analogy to Cio-Cio-Sans\u2019s voice in <em>Madame Butterfly<\/em>. The bird-like voice \u201c<span lang=\"de-DE\" xml:lang=\"de-DE\">symbolisiert das Weiblichkeitsbild der Geisha, das sich als europ\u00e4ische Projektion um die Jahrhundertwende in den K\u00fcnsten herausgebildet und zu einem Stereotyp im europ\u00e4ischen Japan-Diskurs entwickelt hat<\/span>\u201d (\u201csymbolizes the female image of the Geisha that took shape as European projection in the arts at the turn of the century and developed into a stereotype in the European Japan-&#173;discourse\u201d; Klankert 2015, 171).<a href=\"#fnref6\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn7\">\n<p>\u201cThe actors who play female roles [in Japanese theater] speak in a descant, but they do it so well that the unbiased European who visits a theater in Japan for the first time often has to be made aware that all roles are played by men. Sada Yacco is the first Japanese woman to perform comedy together with men \u2026 [S]o Sada Yacco also speaks her roles in a descant: just as an actor would speak the role. A sign of how tradition can work!\u201d<a href=\"#fnref7\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn8\">\n<div id=\"page197\" role=\"doc-pagebreak\" aria-label=\"197\" epub:type=\"pagebreak\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"ts_footnote\">&#9;In the German original: \u201cSchauspielerinnen weiblichen Geschlechts \u2026 . Fr\u00fcher gab es Frauen m\u00e4nnlichen Geschlechts.\u201d<a href=\"#fnref8\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn9\">\n<p>In the German original: \u201cDen rechten Blickwinkel zu finden, ein Urteil korrekt zu treffen, war in der Tat nicht leicht, wenn man zwischen Drama und Zirkus, Pantomime und Theaterst\u00fcck, musealer Ausstellung und Kuriosit\u00e4ten-Kabinett zu schwanken meinte.\u201d<a href=\"#fnref9\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn10\">\n<p>As one of numerous examples a review by Bruno Petzold: \u201cthis is a type of naturalism as it can only emerge from a people, that \u2026 has not yet lost its primitivity, and close proximity with nature, which still \u2026 relates to the flowers and the beasts\u201d (in Pantzer 2005, 62).<a href=\"#fnref10\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn11\">\n<p>In the German original: \u201cBl\u00fctetage des Feminismus.\u201d<a href=\"#fnref11\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn12\">\n<p>In addition, two years before his debut, Sakharoff experimented with Wassily Kandinsky on a synesthetic theater. Georg Fuchs\u2019s writings <em>Die Schaub\u00fchne der Zukunft<\/em> (1905) and <em>Der Tanz<\/em> (1906), both inspired by attending performances by the Kawakamis, provided the theoretical background for this.<a href=\"#fnref12\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn13\">\n<p>In the German original: \u201cder J\u00fcngling als ein Wesen, das noch \u2026 gleichsam die M\u00f6glichkeiten der beiden Geschlechter in sich vereinigt.\u201d<a href=\"#fnref13\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn14\">\n<div id=\"page203\" role=\"doc-pagebreak\" aria-label=\"203\" epub:type=\"pagebreak\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"ts_footnote\">&#9;\u201cSakharoff confuses. He confuses us contemporaries. \u2026 He opens the floodgates of the anarchic. He portrays and glorifies the \u2018characterless\u2019 \u2026 . It doesn\u2019t matter what Sacharoff calls his individual program number. It also doesn\u2019t matter which historical ideas he chooses to resemble in his costumes. Finally, it doesn\u2019t matter which composer\u2019s music he uses as a carpet for his striding, bending, and praying. What is always and above all extraordinary is that the separation of the sexes, the vassalage of man and woman to their relational character, that the dualism of desires is synthesized in Sacharoff and now becomes a single, characterologically no longer comprehensible gesture of twofold sexual nakedness \u2026 The statue of the ego is broken, and from every pore of this hermaphroditic figure flickers the expression of successful, desired, heightened redemption from the narrowness of the one-like self.\u201d<a href=\"#fnref14\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn15\">\n<p>In the French original: \u201cCette \u00e9quivoque persiste dans toutes ses danses qui, diff\u00e9renci\u00e9es par le costume, n\u2019en font qu\u2019une seule, qu\u2019elle s\u2019intitule pavane, rigaudon ou cake-walk.\u201d<a href=\"#fnref15\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn16\">\n<div id=\"page204\" role=\"doc-pagebreak\" aria-label=\"204\" epub:type=\"pagebreak\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"ts_footnote\">&#9;Described by Brenda Dixon-Gottschild as \u201canother example of whites copying blacks copying whites\u201d (1997, 26), this partner dance was a parody of white social dances by African American slaves. It later became an essential part of the minstrel show, and from about 1900 until World War I a popular white social dance in Europe and the United States.<a href=\"#fnref16\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn17\">\n<p>See, for example, Brown 2008, 66.<a href=\"#fnref17\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn18\">\n<div id=\"page206\" role=\"doc-pagebreak\" aria-label=\"206\" epub:type=\"pagebreak\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"ts_footnote\">&#9;In the German original: \u201cUnabh\u00e4ngigkeit von den Gesetzen der Abbildlichkeit.\u201d<a href=\"#fnref18\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn19\">\n<p>The Japanese dance form Butoh draws from traditions of Kabuki and Noh as well as from European modern expressionist dance (see, among others, Fraleigh 2010). The title of Ohno\u2019s performance refers to Claude Monet\u2019s paintings of water lilies, which were created in the context of Japonisme. Against this backdrop, the solo addresses gendered and cultural transfers.<a href=\"#fnref19\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn20\">\n<p>In the German original: \u201ceine intellektuale, krampfhaft ehrgeizige Technik, die jede Pose h\u00f6chst bewu\u00dft bis ins Einzelne durchbildete.\u201d<a href=\"#fnref20\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn21\">\n<p>Shinpa as New School drama is historically largely replaced in the 1910s by Shingeki as New Theater, that actually detaches itself from all residues of \u201cold school\u201d Kabuki theater (see, among others, Kano 1995, 58).<a href=\"#fnref21\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn22\">\n<div id=\"page209\" role=\"doc-pagebreak\" aria-label=\"209\" epub:type=\"pagebreak\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"ts_footnote\">&#9;The reason why Kawakami chose <em>Othello<\/em> was the \u201cfact that it has few strong female parts in comparison with Shakespeare\u2019s other plays, many of which include important active roles for women\u201d (Yasuko 2016, 488).<a href=\"#fnref22\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn23\">\n<p>There is a longer history of performances of Shakespeare in Japan reaching back to the mid-nineteenth century. Strikingly, Shakespeare is often performed in Kabuki adaptations. For the specific affinity between Kabuki and Shakespeare in terms of gender-bending performances, see Pronko 1967 and Brandon 1999.<a href=\"#fnref23\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn24\">\n<p>A text in incorrect English on the advertisement poster states: \u201cOthello, to be produced by Mr. Kawakami and Madam Sada Yacco, is the adaptation from Shakespeare\u2019s play of which they have seen the performance in Europe where they have engaged with their troupe previous year, and learned the art of the acting much differing from our conventional. No foreigner ever had such a good opportunity as this time to see Shakespeare\u2019s drama in its almost original form in Japan\u201d (quoted in Liu 2007, 420).<a href=\"#fnref24\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn25\">\n<p>It was not uncommon in contemporary discourse to see (male) <em>onnagata<\/em> as the better performers of the manly \u201cmodern woman,\u201d because of the alleged exaggerated femininity of Japanese women, as contemporary critic Osanai Kaoru, among others, notes: \u201cI believe that the onnagata, a man by birth, is much more suited to the modern woman than today\u2019s Japanese actresses, who have terribly little of the manly element in them\u201d (quoted in Levy 2010, 239). So there is a \u201chierarchy of cultural legitimacy\u201d in which \u201cit is the Western actress who stands unchallenged at the top of the totem pole, with the onnagata and the Japanese actress battling it out for second place\u201d (Levy 2010, 238).<a href=\"#fnref25\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn26\">\n<p>For example, in <em>Dumb Travel<\/em> and <em>Around the World in Seventy Days<\/em> (see Kano 1995, 95<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>104).<a href=\"#fnref26\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn27\">\n<p>See K\u00f6ppert in this volume on commodification and ethnic drag.<a href=\"#fnref27\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h4 id=\"6\">References<\/h4>\n<p><\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Barthes, Roland. 1976. \u201cThe Dolls of Bunraku.\u201d Translated by David Savran. <em>Diacritics<\/em>&#160;6, no.&#160;4: 44<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>47.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Brandenburg, Hans. 1921. <em>Der moderne Tanz<\/em>. Munich: Georg M\u00fcller.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Brandon, James R. 1999. \u201cKabuki and Shakespeare: Balancing Yin and Yang.\u201d <em>TDR The Drama Review<\/em>&#160;43, no.&#160;2: 15<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>53.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Brandstetter, Gabriele. 1997. \u201cDie Inszenierung der Fl\u00e4che: Ornament und Relief im Theaterkonzept der Ballets Russes.\u201d In <em>Spiegelungen: Die Ballets Russes und die K\u00fcnste<\/em>, edited by Claudia Jeschke, Ursel Berger, and Birgit Zeidler, 147<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>164. Berlin: Vorwerk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Brandstetter, Gabriele. 2003. \u201c\u2018Blumenhaft und schl\u00e4chterhaft\u2019: Japanische K\u00f6rperbilder in Europa; Rezeption, Projektion, Fiktion in Texten und Bildern der Zwanziger Jahre.\u201d In <em>Ostasienrezeption im Schatten der Weltkriege: Universalismus und Nationalismus<\/em>, edited by Walter Gebhard, 247<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>266. Munich: Iudicum.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Brown, Jayna. 2008. <em>Babylon Girls: Black Women Performers and the Shaping of the Modern. <\/em>Durham, NC: Duke University Press.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Burt, Ramsay. 2022 (originally published 1995). <em>The Male Dancer: Bodies, Spectacle, Sexualities.<\/em> New York: Routledge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Craig, Edward Gordon. 1921. \u201cSada Yacco.\u201d In <em>The Theatre Advancing<\/em>, 261<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>266. London: Constable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Downer, Lesley. 2004. <em>Madame Sadayakko: The Geisha Who Seduced the West<\/em>. London: Review Press.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Delius, Rudolf von. 2002 (originally published 1913). \u201cAlexander Sacharoff.\u201d In <em>Die Sacharoffs: Zwei T\u00e4nzer aus dem Umkreis des Blauen Reiters\/Two Dancers within the \u2018Blaue Reiter\u2019 Circle<\/em>, edited by Frank-Manuel Peter and Rainer Stamm, 49. Cologne: Wienand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Drain, Richard. 1995. <em>Twentieth Century Theatre: A Sourcebook<\/em>. New York: Routledge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">F\u00e4thke, Bernd. 2011. \u201cVon Werefkins und Jawlenskys Faible f\u00fcr die japanische Kunst.\u201d In <em>\u201cDiese z\u00e4rtlichen, geistvollen Phantasien\u201d: Die Maler des \u201cBlauen Reiter\u201d und Japan<\/em>, edited by Brigitte Salmen, 103<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>132. Murnau: Schlo\u00dfmuseum.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Fournier, Louis. 1900. <em>Kawakami and Sada Yacco<\/em>. Paris: Brentano\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Francke, Daniela, ed. 2013. <em>Im Rausch der Kirschbl\u00fcten: Japans Theater und sein Einfluss auf Europas B\u00fchnenwelten<\/em>. Vienna: Brandst\u00e4tter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Franko, Mark. 1992. \u201cWhere He Danced: Cocteau\u2019s Barbette and Ohno\u2019s Water Lilies.\u201d Special Issue \u201cPerformance\u201d <em>PMLA<\/em>&#160;107, no.&#160;3: 594<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>607.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Franko, Mark. 2003. \u201cMajestic Drag: Monarchical Performativity and the King\u2019s Body Theatrical.\u201d <em>TDR The Drama Review&#160;<\/em>47, no.&#160;2: 71<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>87.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Franko, Mark. 2015. <em>Dance as Text: Ideologies of the Baroque Body. <\/em>New York: Oxford University Press.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Fraleigh, Sondra. 2010. <em>Butoh: Metamorphic Dance and Global Alchemy<\/em>. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Fuchs, Georg. 1905. <em>Die Schaub\u00fchne der Zukunft<\/em>. Berlin: Schuster &amp; Loeffler.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Fuchs, Georg. 1906. <em>Der Tanz<\/em>. Stuttgart: Strecker &amp; Schr\u00f6der.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Garber, Marjorie. 1997. <em>Vested Interests: Cross-dressing and Cultural Anxiety<\/em>. New York: Routledge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Gottschild, Brenda Dixon. 1997. <em>Digging the Africanist Presence in American Performance: Dance and Other Contexts.<\/em> Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Huebner, Friedrich Markus. 1914. \u201cAlexander Sacharoff.\u201d <em>Phoebus: Monatsschrift f\u00fcr \u00c4sthetik und Kritik des Theaters<\/em>&#160;1, no.&#160;3: 101<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>104. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sk-kultur.de\/tanz\/sacharoff\/seiten\/text_4.html\"><span class=\"Hyperlink\">https:\/\/www.sk-kultur.de\/tanz\/sacharoff\/seiten\/text_4.html<\/span><\/a>. Accessed August&#160;30, 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Isaka, Maki. 2016. <em>Onnagata: A Labyrinth of Gendering in Kabuki Theater<\/em>. Seattle: University of Washington Press.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Kano, Ayako. 1995. <em>Acting Like a Woman in Modern Japan: Gender, Theater, and Nationalism<\/em>. New York: Palgrave.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Klankert, Tanja. 2015. \u201cDas Echo der Gastspiele von Otojir\u014d Kawakami, Sadayakko und ihrer Truppe in den deutschsprachigen Printmedien.\u201d In <em>Sound and Performance: Positionen<\/em><span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span><em>Methoden<\/em><span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span><em>Analysen; Thurnauer Schriften zum Musiktheater<\/em>, edited by Wolf-Dieter Ernst, Anno Mungen, Nora Niethammer, and Berenika Szymanski-D\u00fcll, 159<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>173. W\u00fcrzburg: K\u00f6nigshausen &amp; Neumann.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Levinson, Andr\u00e9. 1929. La Danse D&apos;Aujourd&apos;Hui. Paris: Edition Duchartre et Vanbuggenhout.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Levy, Indra. 2010. <em>Sirens of the Western Shore: The Westernesque Femme Fatale, Translation, and Vernacular Style in Modern Japanese Literature<\/em>. New York: Columbia University Press.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Liu, Siyuan. 2007. \u201cAdaptation as Appropriation: Staging Western Drama in the First Western-Style Theatres in Japan and China.\u201d <em>Theatre Journal<\/em>&#160;59, no.&#160;3: 411<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>429.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Mezur, Katherine. 1995. <em>Beautiful Boys\/Outlaw Bodies: Devising Kabuki Female-Likeness<\/em>. 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Alexander Sacharoff and Dance Modernism.\u201d In Die Sacharoffs: Zwei T\u00e4nzer aus dem Umkreis des Blauen Reiters\/Two Dancers within the \u2018Blaue Reiter\u2019 Circle, edited by Frank-Manuel Peter and Rainer Stamm, 169<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>217. Cologne: Wienand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Vuillermoz, \u00c9mile. 1933. <em>Clotilde et Alexandre Sakharoff<\/em>. Lausanne: Editions Centrales.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Yasuko, Ikeuchi. 2016. \u201cColonial Othello in Taiwan.\u201d In <em>A History of Japanese Theatre<\/em>, edited by Jonah Salz, 488<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>489. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bibliography\">Zorn, Bettina. 2013. \u201cDas traditionelle Theater Japans.\u201d In <em>Im Rausch der Kirschbl\u00fcten: Japans Theater und sein Einfluss auf Europas B\u00fchnenwelten<\/em>, edited by Daniela Francke, 35<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>50. Vienna: Brandst\u00e4tter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Performing Entangled Exoticisms in Dance and Theater around 1900 Julia Ostwald &nbsp; With their appearance at the Parisian World Exhibition in 1900 and their Europe tour from 1901 to 1902, the Japanese theater troupe of Kawakami and Sadayakko Otojir\u014d hit European art and theater circles like a \u201ccomet\u201d (Pantzer 2005, xxi), resonating in performances, publications, &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[273],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annuss-weiner-facing-drag"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Japonist Drag &#8211; mdwPress<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp009-011\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Japonist Drag &#8211; 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