In Memory of Mr. Keita Asari

When Keio University High School was first established, Mr. Kitasato was in the second class and Mr. Asari was in the third class.

In any case, it was the chaotic post-war period, and when the high school was established in 1948, Hiyoshi had been entirely requisitioned by the US military. So, we rented the Chuo Rodo Gakuen in Sannohashi, near Mita, to hold classes. Moreover, there weren't enough school buildings, so we had two-shift schooling. In 1949, Hiyoshi was returned, and finally, with the cooperation of the students, we were able to use it for classrooms.

At that time, there were few third-year high school students. So, the school told us second-year students, "Create the Cultural Federation and the Athletic Association yourselves." They left it to us, saying, "If you gather 10 people, the school will provide the funds." So we all got fired up, thinking, "Alright, let's do this."

I thought about starting a chemistry research club, but my friends wanted to start a fencing club or a Kabuki research club. Since gathering 10 people wasn't that easy, we all joined each other's clubs. So, in any case, my second year of high school was incredibly busy (laughs).

Then Keita Asari was in the first year, and he was the most fired up of all. Since I was in the second year, I pulled active people like him into the Cultural Federation, and we became close through conversations like, "Asari, keep up the good work."

I heard that when Mr. Asari first entered Keio University High School, he was aiming for Koshien with the baseball club.

It seems he played baseball in junior high. However, he wasn't doing it anymore in high school.

However, he joined the drama club after being invited by people like the composer Hikaru Hayashi (deceased) and Soichi Minegishi, who served as the principal flutist for the Japan Philharmonic. Including Takeshi Kusaka (Shiki Theatre Company actor, deceased), they were all in the drama club at Keio Futsubu School.

They were all in the same year as me, but for some reason, many of my very close friends were in the humanities. Hikaru Hayashi lived in Toritsu-daigaku on the Toyoko Line, and since his father (Yoshio Hayashi) was a professor at the Keio School of Medicine, I visited him often.

That's right. He was incredibly wealthy.

When I went to his place, he would play the piano for me. It was quite a luxury. I'd listen to Hikaru Hayashi's piano, eat snacks, and talk.

Takeshi Kusaka was in the same class. We got along well too. He lived in Yokosuka and was sometimes alone, so when I told him, "I'll visit you when you're lonely," he said one day, "Please come over." When I went to Yokosuka, he looked happy, and we had various chats; we were good friends.

I also got along very well with Hikaru Hayashi. Also, Minegishi was a classmate from Yochisha (elementary school). There were many excellent people in the humanities.

Shinsuke Ando, who later became a professor in the English Department, was in a different class at Yochisha, but he was incredibly brilliant. The group evacuation for Yochisha was to Shuzenji, and when we sixth graders were returning to Tokyo for graduation, Ando came up with the idea of performing "Shuzenji Monogatari" at the local Shimokano Elementary School as a thank-you. Ando led it well, and it became a fine play that was greatly appreciated.

Professor Ando helped us with the translation of the script for the premiere of "The Phantom of the Opera." In terms of the work of the Shiki Theatre Company, I think Mr. Asari relied on Professor Ando a great deal.

I heard he was the valedictorian in high school. Mr. Asari often said, "Ando was the first case of a valedictorian going to the Faculty of Letters."

So Shinsuke Ando and the people in the Cultural Federation, centered around the drama club, were influenced by Michio Kato, an up-and-coming playwright who was assigned to Keio University High School as an English teacher at the time.

I didn't know Professor Kato very well. Of course, I took his classes, but I didn't have the opportunity to speak with him personally. However, when I talked with Mr. Asari later, Professor Kato's name came up often.

It seems Mr. Asari and others visited his home frequently. They said Mr. Ando and Mr. Asari were very excited because the English teacher at Keio University High School was Professor Kato, who wrote "Nayotake," and they were being taught by him. I think that was truly the starting point.

Michio Kato's representative work was probably "Nayotake" in the eyes of the public, but what did Mr. Asari think of it?

Mr. Asari directed "Nayotake" himself once.

However, it was only performed once in 1970. It opened at the Nissei Theatre and then toured nationwide.

Later, when the Jiyu Theatre was established within Shiki and the active inclusion of straight plays was considered, "Nayotake" was nominated every time. But even if we pushed for it, Mr. Asari would not agree, saying, "This work is difficult to stage."

Mr. Asari described it as a "difficult piece among difficult pieces," didn't he? For example, the scene transitions are very frequent, making it quite challenging.

I was also looking forward to seeing it at the Jiyu Theatre or somewhere eventually, but in the end, it was a bit disappointing that it ended without me seeing the version of "Nayotake" directed by Mr. Asari.

Michio Kato's niece is the Akutagawa Prize-winning author Sachiko Kato. When I praised Michio Kato's work "Episode" in "Mita Bungaku," Sachiko Kato also said she agreed.

Besides "Nayotake," among Michio Kato's works, there is "The Man Who Sells Memories," which is often performed by the Shiki Theatre Company. I feel that kind of purity of the soul is the world of Michio Kato.

At the age of 35, just as the Shiki Theatre Company was being established, Michio Kato took his own life. That was in 1953.

That's right. It was just before the founding of Shiki.

His posthumous work was "Rags and Jewels." I love "The Man Who Sells Memories," but the more I see it, the more I feel that Michio Kato had no choice but to shorten his life. I think humans ultimately have to accept and live with more of the world's vulgarities.

When I joined Shiki, new employees at the time had an assignment to write an essay once a month to Mr. Asari about what they had learned at work.

Once, when I was stuck in my work and wrote something like, "Maybe I'm not suited for Shiki," Mr. Asari, after reading it, came to me and handed me an essay he had written titled "The Myth of Michio Kato."

In it, as Mr. Okamoto says, he wrote that Michio Kato was too pure. Drama is an art that blooms using the dirty parts of the world and human karma as fertilizer, but he suggested that Mr. Kato might not have been able to endure that.

Since management work is covered in mundane affairs and humiliations, I was greatly encouraged by this text. It made me feel like working at Shiki again.

After you joined Shiki, did the topic of Michio Kato come up occasionally in your interactions with Mr. Asari?

I heard from Mr. Asari many times that it was Mr. Kato who taught him the charm of Anouilh and Giraudoux. He must have been considerably influenced. He often said he couldn't forget the scene of Mr. Kato talking about those two authors with a dreamy look, using the unique French resonance of the name "Giraudoux."

The Shiki Theatre Company was established in 1953, and the first performance was held the following year, which was Anouilh's "Ardèle ou la Marguerite." Then it started with Anouilh's "Antigone" and Giraudoux's "Intermezzo." This must be the influence of Michio Kato.

I'm sure of it. Regarding Anouilh and Giraudoux, the Bungakuza theatre company had performed them several times before Shiki. Mr. Kato was also at Bungakuza at the time.

That's right. I believe the Shiki Theatre Company was called the "Anouilh and Giraudoux Theatre Company" in its early days? There might be a bit of malice in that phrasing, though.

Since Shiki was the only one exclusively performing Anouilh and Giraudoux, I think that's why it was called that. Looking at Japanese theatre history, there were many theatre companies at the time that performed works with political messages. Mr. Asari always said, "Theatre is an art of poetry and fantasy, not something to convey ideology. Anouilh and Giraudoux embody that essence."

I graduated from Keio in 1987 and joined Shiki immediately, working with Mr. Asari until he left the company. Since I was in charge of public relations for a long time, I had many opportunities to hear Mr. Asari's "philosophy" directly for business purposes.

He is a person who cannot be described in one word. I feel like there were two people inside the same man: Mr. Asari as a theatre-loving artist and director, and Mr. Asari as a manager looking at things with a sharp eye.

After speaking passionately about a project from an artist's standpoint, he would often argue against what he had just said from a manager's perspective, from a completely different angle. We had to switch our mindsets each time, which was tough (laughs). Since theatre is an art that always requires an audience, this experience of "looking from two perspectives" was very educational.

I also felt Mr. Asari had an extraordinary talent as a manager alongside his excellent talent as a director.

Mr. Kitasato, you were a manager who served as the president and chairman of Meiji Seika. How did you view Mr. Asari's side as a manager?

I think his strength was that he naturally possessed both sides of a manager and a director.

And he had a way of listening to people and always using that as a reference for himself.

He was close to former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone and people in the business world, and was sometimes ridiculed by the public as a so-called "political merchant," but he also said, "If I am called a political merchant for the sake of art, that is my heart's desire." I think he was top-class as both a director and a manager.

I think Mr. Asari brought a fresh breeze to the theatre world in many ways. One of the pillars I see is that while it was previously thought natural for theatre members to be poor, he pointed out, "That's not right."

I believe Mr. Asari's ideal was to make the Japanese theatre world a place where one could proudly say, "I work at a theatre," when asked, "Where do you work?"

Exactly as you say.

Was that the idea from the very beginning of the Shiki Theatre Company, or did he come to think at some point that making a living solely through theatre was the ideal?

When deciding on the name of the theatre company at the time of its founding, Mr. Asari and the others reportedly intended to call it "Arechi" (The Waste Land), after the collection of poems by Eliot, whom they admired.

When he consulted his senior, Hiroshi Akutagawa, about it, he was asked, "How long do you intend to continue this theatre company?" When he replied, "I want to do it for a lifetime if possible," he was told, "If you name it 'Arechi,' you'll be in trouble when you turn 40" (laughs). So, he was recommended the more popular name "Shiki" (Four Seasons).

From this episode, we can see that Mr. Asari had been thinking about independence through theatre work for a long time. However, in its early days, Shiki seems to have been quite financially strained. I often heard stories from Takeshi Kusaka about "sharing a single bowl of kake soba." It seems it took a long time for "independence" to be realized, but I think Mr. Asari was always managing the theatre company with that goal in mind.

I see, so that's how it was.

There are three philosophies taught by Mr. Asari. The first is the "restoration of theatre to civil society." As I mentioned earlier, this is an antithesis to the Japanese theatre world at the time of its founding, which had many works themed on political ideology. The goal was to perform works that make the audience feel catharsis and to aim for theatre that is loved by and stays close to citizens and society.

The second is the flip side of the first: "to be economically independent solely through income from our own stage." Even now in Japan, there are few places, including production companies, that balance their accounts through theatre alone. Most have a "main business" such as movies or talent management, or use collaboration with peripheral industries like broadcasting and advertising as another source of income. Shiki's idea was to be independent from these as well.

And the third is the "correction of the over-concentration of culture." Since culture, especially theatre arts, tends to concentrate in Tokyo, the idea is that the performers should make an effort to carry their luggage and travel across the country.

Mr. Asari was trying to establish true professionalism in the theatre world. He often used the analogy: "Suppose there are three houses in a row. The one on the far right is a banker's house. The middle one is an actor's house, and the one on the left is a trading company employee's house, and they all have children. Is it okay for only the actor's house in the middle to be poor? The children are innocent. If they remain poor, the children will grow up hating their parents' profession."

Therefore, he always said that even if you work in theatre, you must pay personnel costs at a level that allows for a life that is not inferior to that of a banker or a trading company employee, and that theatre management that makes this possible is essential. These words are still my motto today.

I see. Also, since the Nissei Masterpiece Theatre, "Musical Plays for Children," in 1964, it felt like he was putting quite a lot of effort into theatre for children.

That's right. When the Nissei Theatre opened in 1963, the then-president of Nippon Life, Gen Hirose, requested, "I want you to perform a stage that gives inspiration to the hearts of children devastated by the war," and that's how the "Nissei Masterpiece Theatre" began. It was a pioneering corporate philanthropy activity that invited sixth graders from elementary schools in Tokyo to the Nissei Theatre for free.

Initially, Mr. Asari seemed to intend to perform straight plays, but while researching, he found that dialogue alone seemed too difficult for children. So he thought of adopting the "musical" format, which was being imported to Japan at the time.

The first one you did was "The Emperor's New Clothes," right?

He asked Shuji Terayama, who was still an up-and-coming talent, for the script and lyrics. This work is still performed frequently. It has now become a scheme called "Theatre of the Heart," and we perform about 400 shows every year across Japan, including remote islands like Rishiri Island and Ishigaki Island.

Was that the trigger for starting musicals?

The creation of these family musicals was one trigger, but another was the collaboration with Fubuki Koshiji.

Around the same time, Mr. Asari began working with Ms. Koshiji, a big star from Takarazuka. Her recitals directed by Mr. Asari were hit projects where tickets were hard to get. In the course of this work, Broadway musicals starring Ms. Koshiji were performed. The lineup consisted of Mr. Asari as the director and Shiki actors in the other roles. This experience became the starting point for the future "Shiki Theatre Company Musicals."

And from there, did it feel like you moved more and more toward musicals rather than straight plays?

The start was in the mid-60s, but there were still many straight plays until the 70s. The proportion of musicals became dominant from the 80s. I think the biggest factor was "Cats."

I suppose the turning point for Shiki Theatre Company was "Cats"?

That's right. Of the three principles I mentioned earlier, I believe that from this point on, we became completely able to achieve "economic independence solely through income from the stage."

What year was "Cats"?

It was 1983. We built our first dedicated theater on idle land in Nishi-Shinjuku, near the current Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, and attempted a long run. At the time, existing theaters were leased to promoters on a monthly basis, making long-term performances impossible. Simultaneously, we also built a rehearsal hall in Azamino, Yokohama. The Cats Theatre was a temporary tent-style theater, but I imagine they took out considerable loans to realize both of these projects.

As a result, "Cats" was a huge success. I have heard the anecdote many times from Mr. Asari that he "checked his life insurance in case it failed." I think it was truly a do-or-die gamble.

He invited me to see "Cats" as well. When I was leaving, he had a look on his face as if to say, "How was it?" and we talked for a bit.

I joined the company in 1987, so everything I know about the Tokyo premiere of "Cats" is what I heard from my seniors. 1983, the year it opened, was the year I entered Keio, and seeing the TV commercials for "Cats" and the advertisements inside the Toyoko Line trains I took to Hiyoshi, I remember thinking that an amazing project was starting.

By the time I joined the company, "Cats" was already a success and was being revived in Minami-Shinjuku, Tokyo.

I believe Mr. Kitazato has also been watching Shiki's plays for a long time.

Yes. For example, with "Ri Koran," I used to sing the song "China Nights" when I was small. I suspect Asari-kun was also very familiar with such songs.

The play "Ri Koran" has quite a few tragic elements, and I think he created it while remembering those old days.

"Ri Koran" premiered in 1991, which was when I was in charge of public relations in Tokyo, so I was able to see Mr. Asari's creative process up close. Creating an original work is truly difficult, but he tackled it with all his might. He went to China, visited the major cities of former Manchuria himself, and wrote the script while staying in hotels.

Mr. Asari always said, "We must look at the war from the perspective of a single private who was conscripted as a soldier and sent to the front lines." He said we must never forget the miserable war experiences those people had.

They went off to war after receiving a draft notice on a small "one-sen five-rin" postcard; his point was that we must consider the tragedy of war through the eyes of the ordinary people who clutched that "one-sen five-rin," rather than through the eyes of the government or Imperial General Headquarters.

I see.

Including "Ri Koran," these are referred to as the Showa History Trilogy.

Speaking of the feelings of a single private, Michio Kato also suffered considerably after being sent to the New Guinea front. Is there a connection to Michio Kato's thoughts in that regard?

I wonder. This is also something Mr. Asari always said: that those slightly older than his own generation went to war and all died. He felt that he and his peers had to work hard for the sake of those people. Although Mr. Kato returned alive, I think Mr. Asari held the view that he was part of a generation that endured unimaginable hardships.

Michio Kato was born in 1918, so he was about 15 years older.

Mr. Asari read the essay on Michio Kato you wrote for "Mita Bungaku," and he was very happy, saying, "A young researcher has emerged who can discuss Mr. Kato thoroughly."

Thank you. My writing on Michio Kato in July 2010 caught Mr. Asari's eye, and the first time I greeted him was at the opening performance of "Anne of Green Gables" in September of that year. I was very nervous even before meeting him. After that, I would only greet him after watching a play, but I was very impressed by his soft-spoken manner at those times.

I felt that Mr. Asari was a truly rare individual who combined the roles of director and manager at a high level with great balance, so when I received the news of his passing, I felt that a major era had come to an end.

In his work as a director, he truly valued "words." He always said that theater is an art form that gives three-dimensional life to literature. He believed that the literary emotion of a play must be accurately conveyed by actors delivering their lines clearly to the audience.

And he devised methods for delivering words clearly. These are the three methods: the "Vowel Method," the "Phrasing Method," and the "Breathing Method." Shiki's actors still train thoroughly in these three methods today.

What kind of methods are they?

The Vowel Method was apparently born out of a casual conversation with Seiji Ozawa. The phonetic part of Japanese is basically vowels. Consonants are nothing more than the shape of the mouth. Therefore, if you speak with the vowels clearly separated, the words will sound clear.

Seiji Ozawa told Mr. Asari, "In a piano performance where each note is separated, even in a piano concerto, the melody reaches the audience through the wall of orchestral sound." This comment reportedly triggered the idea for the Vowel Method. He realized that since music works that way, Japanese pronunciation would also sound clear if spoken so that each vowel is separated at equal intervals.

So it was gradually perfected as a method while continuing with Shiki?

Yes. I think there were various struggles before it took its current form.

The Phrasing Method was established when Racine's "Andromaque" was performed with Mikijiro Hira and Etsuko Ichihara. In Racine's original French text, a beautiful meter called "Alexandrine" is used, and the lines are written with great fluidity. He thought about how to speak this in Japanese.

Japanese lines in a script are divided by punctuation marks. However, when speaking them, the breaks in the mental image exist in different places than the punctuation. He believed it was important to find these points of change in the image and speak accordingly.

Regarding these points, Mr. Asari used the expression, "the place where consciousness snaps." That's why the Phrasing Method is also known as the "Snap Method."

In any case, he valued words. Therefore, he required the actors to speak the images held by those words richly.

Where does the richness of a word's image come from? It comes from the actor's own literary grounding and the experience of deepening their education. So he always told the actors that they must not just rehearse, but also read books and go to art exhibitions to expand their imagery.

Asari-kun gave a congratulatory speech at the Keio graduation ceremony titled "Until My Dislike of Fukuzawa Was Cured" (1997). During his student days, he seemed to rebel against the name Yukichi Fukuzawa in various ways, but it wasn't that he truly hated him; I think he realized later on that Yukichi Fukuzawa and Keio University are wonderful.

I think he truly loved Keio University. It might be because I was the one he was talking to, but I remember discussing Keio with Mr. Asari many times.

Also, we perform all over Japan, and when building that network, the people Mr. Asari relied on were, after all, the Mita-kai. He visited Mita seniors and had them buy tickets. There are still such people all over Japan today.

He even had Yukichi Fukuzawa appear in an original work he created called "John Manjiro's Dream."

In his later years, he completely understood the greatness of Yukichi Fukuzawa—or rather, what a truly wonderful person he was. There is no doubt about that. In his congratulatory speech, he said, "I have come to have the conviction that the starting point of our spirit is Yukichi Fukuzawa."

When I was working in Sapporo, I once went out for sushi with Mr. Asari. At that time, he asked me, "Did you graduate from Keio?" and when I replied, "Yes, I did," he said somewhat sadly, "I didn't graduate."

I was surprised because I didn't think Mr. Asari, who had set his heart on theater and left the university of his own will, regretted not graduating.

He also said, "I stopped worrying about it after I became a Special Keio University alumni, though."

I think he always came to meetings like the Board of Councilors because of his feelings for Yukichi Fukuzawa and Keio.

He attended the Board of Councilors meetings even amidst his busy schedule. I think he considered them high-priority meetings.

The time he came back from a Board of Councilors meeting most excited was when the postponement of the opening of Keio Yokohama Elementary School was discussed. He was worked up, saying, "I told them we absolutely should not postpone it." Since the elementary school is near the Shiki Theatre Company's rehearsal hall, he gave a grand piece of public speaking, saying, "None of you have a sense of the geography of that area, do you? I go there every day" (laughs).

With Mr. Asari's passing, is lighting designer Sumio Yoshii the only surviving founding member of Shiki Theatre Company?

Only Mr. Yoshii.

After all, Shiki had two great pillars in Mr. Kusaka and Mr. Asari. From the outside, I wondered if they got along because their personalities were different, or if they had a relationship where they complemented each other. What was it actually like?

I think they trusted each other deeply. One of Mr. Asari's ideals for theater was Mr. Kusaka's acting. He was always telling young actors to "watch Kusaka," and I think the form of theater Shiki aimed for existed within his acting.

Mr. Kusaka also placed great trust in Mr. Asari. I believe he felt Mr. Asari was the one and only director who could define the direction of his own acting.

I think Mr. Asari wrote somewhere that originally Mr. Kusaka was to be the director and Mr. Asari the actor, but that changed due to some circumstance.

In high school, they were supposed to perform Saroyan's "My Heart's in the Highlands" at a joint drama presentation between Waseda and Keio, but Mr. Kusaka, who was supposed to direct, could no longer participate due to family circumstances. So, Mr. Asari was brought in as a pinch hitter.

This was Mr. Asari's debut work as a director. Michio Kato saw this stage and wrote a review for the "High School News," the student newspaper of the Juku high school. He also mentioned Mr. Asari's direction, evaluating it as very sharp. Mr. Asari said this was the starting point for his aspiration to become a director.

My first impression when I first met him was that he was surprisingly tall for someone of that generation. He might have been quite impressive even as an actor.

Apparently, if things had gone differently, there was a possibility he could have been adopted by his great-uncle, Sadanji II, and become a Kabuki actor. His father was also one of the founding members of the Tsukiji Little Theater, so he came from a family with deep ties to the theater.

That would be Tsuruo Asari.

Asari-kun was the type who wanted to hear even a little bit of feedback on his plays. He would ask, "How was it?" and when I said, "This and that were good today," he would look so happy. I miss those times. It's such a shame.

In any case, I liked him. Even though we were only one year apart, he was very considerate toward his seniors. He was quite something.

Since his passing, I have been asked by many people, "What is the legacy Mr. Asari left behind?" and I believe the greatest legacy is the organization of "Shiki Theatre Company" itself. I believe it is my mission to maintain this and continue it for the next generation, and to do that, we must continue to uphold the principles Mr. Asari championed.

We will continue to stage new foreign musicals, but at the same time, I believe we must also move forward with developing original works. I want to proceed with this work in two directions: finding and nurturing talented people from among our 1,300 company members, and collaborating with external staff active in the Japanese theater world.

For the straight play "Shakespeare in Love," which opened in June this year, we asked an external director, Go Aoki. It is actually the first time in half a century that an external Japanese director has directed a Shiki stage, since Tsuneari Fukuda worked on "Henry IV" in 1967.

For Shakespearean scripts, they used to do things like "The Merchant of Venice" using Tsuneari Fukuda's translations, didn't they?

Most of the Shakespearean plays performed at Shiki are Tsuneari Fukuda's translations.

I think Mr. Asari was somewhat negative toward television and media, feeling that appearing on TV would cause one's acting skills to decline.

I don't think he hated television itself. However, he did say that acting in TV dramas or on the movie screen is completely different from the acting of a stage actor. He really disliked it when stage actors were pulled away for TV dramas. He believed they must stick to their original intentions and live on the stage.

Among our 1,300 company members, there are many young people, and those who have never worked with Mr. Asari already account for 40%. I believe it is extremely important to firmly pass on the traditions and principles of the Shiki organization to these people.