Memory of Nanjing: Kamome Machine's Experiments in Sharing Thoughts
Beri Juraic in collaboration with Hagiwara Yuta
BERI JURAIC is a PhD Candidate in Theatre Studies at the Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts, Lancaster University. He was a Visiting Scholar at the Kansai University in Osaka, Japan in the autumn of 2022 and holds an MA in Japanese Studies (Distinction) from SOAS, University of London. His research interests concern post-war and contemporary Japanese theatre and performance, rehearsal methods, aurality, polyglossia, and postdramatic theatre. He has published in Critical Stages/Scènes Critiques, Asian Theatre Journal and Theatre Journal. Since 2023, he co-organises Japan-Britain Contemporary Theatre Exchange project. Previously, he also worked as a theatre producer and a festival programmer.
HAGIWARA YUTA (collaborator) is a theatre director and leader of Kamome Machine company. He started working in theatre while a student at Waseda University. He won the 13th Aichi Arts Foundation Drama Award and the Toga Engeki Jin Konkūru Award in 2016. Directing credits include Waiting for Godot in Fukushima (2011), Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days (2018), Oregayo (2015-) and Moshi Moshi, Telephone Theatre Series (2020-) in which the actors perform one-on-one performances for a single spectator over a telephone. In 2018 he participated in Theatertreffen International Forum in Berlin. He is a Saison Fellow 1 for 2022-23. He is 2022 Asian Arts Council Fellow, researching and residing in New York until January 2024. |
Abstract
The controversial topic of the ‘Nanjing Incident’ (1937) and its memorialization is very rarely depicted in theatre. Equally important, the memory of the Second World War in Asia-Pacific has been heavily politicized both in Japan, China and other Asian countries. In summer 2022, the Japanese performance company Kamome Machine embarked on research for their new project re-addressing the Nanjing Incident. In general, Kamome Machine’s works explore public and private space that centre on the human body. They are known for their site-specific performances such as Waiting for Godot in Fukushima (2011), performed just outside Fukushima's exclusion zone or more recently the telephone theatre series Moshi Moshi (2020-2023). For the initial research phase on the Nanjing project, Kamome Machine interviewed Chinese students, invited a historian to provide material and insight and a Chinese dancer/choreographer in a process they termed ‘experiments in sharing thoughts through body’. Since this early phase, I became involved in the process on several occasions as embedded researcher. (Haydon, 2012) (McGinty and Salokangas, 2014). We actively exchanged ideas and shared thoughts both physically and via email, video calls and messages. This paper not only traces their work-in-progress, but also how my theorising of their work has shifted, based on the experience as a witness and participant in process. I explore the notions of aporia (Barthes), tourist as the Other (Azuma, 2017) and liberation from myths about Japanese identity (Oguma, 1995) to show how creative process is an important tool for repositioning the memorialisation away from political controversies.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study was made possible thanks to the funding from the North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership, part of Arts and Humanities Research Council of UK Research and Innovation and The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation. I would like to thank Kamome Machine –Hagiwara Yuta, Shimizu Honami and Ito Shin for letting me observe their rehearsal process and work-in-progress. Hagiwara provided me with access to various materials and our conversations have also helped shape this article. I also thank my supervisors Dr Karen Jürs-Munby and Professor Andrew Quick on their guidance.
The controversial topic of the ‘Nanjing Incident’ (1937) and its memorialization is very rarely depicted in theatre. Equally important, the memory of the Second World War in Asia-Pacific has been heavily politicized both in Japan, China and other Asian countries. In summer 2022, the Japanese performance company Kamome Machine embarked on research for their new project re-addressing the Nanjing Incident. In general, Kamome Machine’s works explore public and private space that centre on the human body. They are known for their site-specific performances such as Waiting for Godot in Fukushima (2011), performed just outside Fukushima's exclusion zone or more recently the telephone theatre series Moshi Moshi (2020-2023). For the initial research phase on the Nanjing project, Kamome Machine interviewed Chinese students, invited a historian to provide material and insight and a Chinese dancer/choreographer in a process they termed ‘experiments in sharing thoughts through body’. Since this early phase, I became involved in the process on several occasions as embedded researcher. (Haydon, 2012) (McGinty and Salokangas, 2014). We actively exchanged ideas and shared thoughts both physically and via email, video calls and messages. This paper not only traces their work-in-progress, but also how my theorising of their work has shifted, based on the experience as a witness and participant in process. I explore the notions of aporia (Barthes), tourist as the Other (Azuma, 2017) and liberation from myths about Japanese identity (Oguma, 1995) to show how creative process is an important tool for repositioning the memorialisation away from political controversies.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study was made possible thanks to the funding from the North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership, part of Arts and Humanities Research Council of UK Research and Innovation and The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation. I would like to thank Kamome Machine –Hagiwara Yuta, Shimizu Honami and Ito Shin for letting me observe their rehearsal process and work-in-progress. Hagiwara provided me with access to various materials and our conversations have also helped shape this article. I also thank my supervisors Dr Karen Jürs-Munby and Professor Andrew Quick on their guidance.

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