The habitus of this position characterises drama as an integral part of Japanese. The position gives value to the contribution of drama to the development of language and literacy skills, and to the heritage of dramatic literature: thus, drama is an
essentially verbal and literary art. Importantly, there has been always the tension between drama as an educational method (the method position) and the study and performance of play (the subject position) within the position. In the Japanese field of drama in schools, however, (unlike the English fields) the position tends to place more emphasis on the former. In addition, the position is both ‘conservative’ and ‘radical’: it deals with traditional dramatic literature – notably Junji Kinoshita’s Yuzuru (Twilight Crane), while using drama to help students understand the social construction of language and the politics of representations, and in doing so help them understand themselves and their relationships with the world (Fukuda, 2005; Hirata & Kitagawa, 2008).
Takeshi Inoue is an editor of government-designated textbooks who worked in the Ministry of Education. Since he had some understanding of the Taisho Liberal Education Movement of his time, he introduced four plays to his 1933 and then ten plays to his 1944 edited textbooks.47 This is when the position appeared to be an ‘emergent’ position. He primarily encouraged teachers to use them to develop (1) national sentiment and (2) reading, writing and especially speaking skills. In his guideline for Hagoromo (Heavenly Kimono),48 he wrote:
[Hagoromo] is a legend loved by many Japanese people… This material…engages children with the fantasy of our legend, the beauty of landscapes, the absolute purity of humanity, and the flavour of a harmonious whole, and in doing so, develops national sentiment. (MOE,
47 Inoue’s 1933 edited textbook is Shogaku Kokugo Dokuhon (Elementary School Reader for the National Language). It is also called as Sakura Dokuhon (Cheery Blossom Reader). His 1941 edited textbooks are Yomikata (How to Read) and Shotouka Kokugo (the National Language for the Elementary School). They are also called Asahi Dokuhon (Morning Sun Readers). Some of them were not originally plays: novels, folktales or myths. Therefore, he rewrote them and transformed them into the form of drama.
1941, p.145-6)
In dialogic parts, the teacher directs children to project the fisherman and the heavenly being49 on the lines. However, children should not speak in the way [kabuki] actors speak; they should speak in their own ways which are natural…50 We correct their pronunciations, teach them words and phrases, and ensure their understanding of the story together with their reading, speaking and writing. (ibid, p.149)
He mentions that the aim was not to put the play on the stage but to ‘speak theatrically as an exercise for speaking’ (ibid, p.152). Thus, he created the tension between play as educational method and play as the study and performance of the play, whilst prioritising the former.
The 1947, 1951 and barely 1961 Curriculum Guidelines encouraged teachers of Japanese Language to read, write, do or see drama for the development of speaking, listening, reading and writing skills. The position became more ‘dominant’ during the period because the 1947 and 1951 Curriculum Guidelines regarded Japanese Language as ‘necessary’ and the 1961 Curriculum Guidelines with legal force recognised it as ‘statutory’. The 1951 Curriculum Guidelines described the value of drama as follows:
The teaching of Japanese Language is, so to speak, to develop the following skills through the four linguistic activities of listening, speaking, reading and writing:
3. To be able to read frequently and write without difficulty:
(2) Read newspapers, magazines, books and others, and also look at and listen to picture-story shows, movies, plays and radios and others.
49 The fisherman and the heavenly being are characters in Hagoromo. 50 Here, Inoue rejects the way of speaking that Kabuki actors uses.
4. Enrich child’s linguistic activities through the followings:
(4) Drama scripts, radio scripts, scenarios, invocations, verse dramas, noh plays, kyogen [noh farces], and others. (MOE, 1947b, Chapter 1-2)
The same Curriculum Guidelines promoted theatre studies at the upper elementary level as well. However, it demanded that teachers always relate it to the development of speaking, listening, reading and writing skills (see MOE, 1947b, Chapter 3-1-2). For this reason, Tomita (1993[1958]) claimed that the Curriculum Guidelines ‘unnaturally seeks to restrict drama to the learning of Japanese Language’ (p.83) and in doing so neglects the study and performance of play.
The 1961 and later Curriculum Guidelines, as noted, moved the collection code towards the dominant pole of the field of education. Consequently, the term ‘drama’ was removed from the Japanese Language section within the Curriculum Guidelines, especially since the 1971 Curriculum Guidelines. The result was that it became increasingly difficult for teachers to deal with drama in the Japanese Language class.
A turning point came when Sanseido Publishing, a textbook publisher, invited Oriza Hirata, a theatre director, to the development of new Japanese Language textbooks in the late 1990s. Hirata wrote a two-page play with its teaching material. In 2002, the publisher published new textbooks containing Hirata’s play, and drama has been taken into consideration among those schools adopting the textbooks.51 This is when the drama-as-Japanese-Language position reappeared as an ‘emergent’ position in the field of drama in schools. Hirata explains that the aim of this material is to understand different forms of language:
Even though you feel that some languages are similar, you receive very different impressions from them, from the language used in the case that you talk to your friend and from the language used in the case that you talk to a person new to you. You may also find it difficult to speak these languages with awareness of the difference. One of the aims of classroom drama is to realise various forms of language and feel their richness. (Hirata, 2002, p.168)
Since he is an artist, he stresses the importance of developing the play into a performance. He also attempts to develop communication skills in this process (Hirata & Kitagawa, 2008; Hirata & Rengyo, 2009). However, to explore different forms of language, he gives primary value to drama as an educational method in this material.