By the time Aoki Tsuruko started her acting career in early Hollywood cinema, Japan’s image of cultural refi nement, in the form of Japonisme , the European vogue in art and style, had been fascinating American women. Since the late nineteenth century, the pen- etration of Japanese goods into the American market brought about a “Japan craze.” 14 Aft er the Centennial Exhibition of 1876 in Philadelphia, when many Americans made their fi rst contact with Japanese art and culture, high-class Japanese art and culture gradually became popularized among the middle class and fi tted to their taste. Th en, the success of the English light opera Th e Mikado (1885) by Gilbert and Sullivan and the popularity of Madame Butterfl y (1898) had a strong infl uence among middle-class audi- ences on forming a popular imagination of Japan as a land of refi ned culture.
Th is cultural image of Japan, especially in the form of an obedient female like Cio-Cio-San in Madame Butterfl y , functioned to safely contain the imminent horror of the “yellow peril.” When Puccini’s opera opened in the United States in 1906, Japan had defeated Russia in the Russo-Japanese War in 1904–1905 and created an immi- nent threat to other colonial powers. Th e period from the 1910s to the 1920s witnessed the rapid increase of anti-Japanese sentiment against Japan’s militarily and politically growing power.
Historically, an important function of such a melodrama as Madame Butterfl y was to contain the horror of modernity. 15 According to Peter Brooks, melodrama “comes into being in a world where the traditional imperatives of truth and ethics have been vio- lently thrown into question, yet where the promulgation of truth and ethics, their instal- lation as a way of life, is of immediate, daily, political concern.” 16 Regarding melodrama as a quintessentially modern form arising out of a historical conjuncture at the turn of the nineteenth century, Brooks argues that in the absence of a moral and social order through the collapse of an old regime, there was clearly a renewed thirst for the sacred expressed in vernacular terms, in order to make sense of the frightening modern world and the massive scale of urbanization and industrialization. 17
Th e ideological nature of the melodramatic narrative of Madame Butterfl y was to make sense of the rapid modernization and imperialistic expansion of Japan and to contain the modernizing nation within the image of an obedient and self-sacrifi cing female living in a premodern space. Alfred T. Mahan’s doctrine of “race patriotism,” the assertion of an American natural right to the power of territorial possession embod- ied in the masculinity of the Navy and of spreading Christianity, had a great infl uence not only upon American foreign policy but also upon American popular imagination
07_Miyao_CH07.indd 155
07_Miyao_CH07.indd 155 10/30/2013 5:26:53 PM10/30/2013 5:26:53 PM
about Asia. 18 Using Christianity as its enlightening force to save and protect a Japanese woman from a primitive religion, Madame Butterfl y normalizes the ideological aspect of American foreign policy: expansion and annexation in the name of enlightenment.
Brook argues that the melodramatic universe is imbued with moral Manichaeism.
Moral confl icts between heroes and villains are unambiguously presented. Th e char- acter system refl ects this clear-cut division within the melodramatic world. Characters in melodrama are either morally good or evil with no middle position. With the sym- pathetic characterization of Cio-Cio-San, a Japanese geisha, the opera functioned to
“normalize” the gendered, sexualized, and racially hierarchical relationship between the East and the West, between the premodern “evil” community and the civilized “good”
nation-state, between Japan and the United States, in the popular American mind. 19 With its capacity of mechanical reproduction and photographic realism, cinema functioned to provide authenticity to a twofold image of Japan and the Japanese peo- ple: cultural refi nement and political threat. Japan and the Japanese people became pop- ular subjects for fi lms, including newsreels and travelogues. Th e American Film Institute Catalog 1893–1910 lists ninety-four fi lms that were released in the United States under the category of “Japan and Japanese,” and the same catalog of 1911–1920 lists forty-three fi lms under the categories of “Japan” and “Japanese” combined. 20 In particular, fully half of the fi lms that were released in the United States from 1909–1915 portraying cross-cultural relations took the form of ill-fated romance, which were the reworks of Madame Butterfl y ’s narrative of doomed romance between a Japanese woman and an American man. 21
Aoki’s cinematic persona was constructed strictly along these lines of Japan’s image of cultural refi nement and “yellow peril.” Aoki’s Japanese body functioned to provide credibility to the rather Orientalist image of Japan, typifi ed by Madame Butterfl y . As one of the early celebrities, she became the physical embodiment of Japan and the Japanese people.
A typical example of such provision of authenticity to the Madame Butterfl y nar- rative is found in an Aoki star vehicle, Th e Wrath of the Gods (aka Th e Destruction of Sakurajima , Reginald Barker, 1914). Th omas H. Ince, the producer of this big produc- tion, resorted to Japonisme for the newly cultivated middle-class audience of cinema. 22 And more importantly, Ince hired Aoki to make his cinematic version of Madame Butterfl y more authentic than its predecessors. Aoki’s presence in Th e Wrath of the Gods added the sense of naturalness to the archetypal narrative between Japan and the United States.
First of all, Ince emphasized the authenticity of the fi lm in its publicity by utilizing Aoki’s biography in a tear-jerking manner. A report in MPW noted,
It so happens that Miss Aoki is a native of the Island of Sakura, which was practically destroyed by the eruption of the volcano Sakura-Jima. Miss Aoki, having lost practically all her relatives in this eruption, was inconsolable and Mr. Ince thought that he was due to lose her, that she would have to go back home. But in consoling her, he induced her to work in conjunction with him on a thrilling and powerful heart
07_Miyao_CH07.indd 156
07_Miyao_CH07.indd 156 10/30/2013 5:26:53 PM10/30/2013 5:26:53 PM
interest story, entitled “Th e Wrath of the Gods,” a four-reel Domino feature, evolving around Japanese legend and depicting the scenes and actions of her countrymen during the eruption, so that she could show the world the suff erings of her people. 23 Th is report emphasized that Aoki and her family were personal eyewitnesses and tragic victims from a prehistoric volcanic island, even though in real life, Aoki was not from
“the Island of Sakura.” She was born in Fukuoka prefecture, the largest city in the Kyushu area, which is located about 180 miles north of Sakurajima. Indeed, on January 12, 1914, a volcano erupted on the island of Sakurajima in the southern part of Japan. It was one of the largest disasters in the history of Japan. Obviously the biographical narrative made Aoki into a melodramatic heroine of Western standards. But at the same time, the biographical-style publicity added emotional and psychological authenticity to the character that Aoki played in Th e Wrath of the Gods , in addition to her physical charac- teristics as a Japanese woman.
Th e biographical style was continuously adopted in order to add authenticity to the formation of Aoki’s star image as the physical embodiment of Madame Butterfl y and Japan. An article in the New York Clipper particularly noted that Aoki had studied piano and vocal music at a convent in Pasadena, California, before she entered the fi lm busi- ness. 24 In real life, Aoki became the adopted daughter of a Japanese painter, Aoki Hyosai, when she toured the United States with the Japanese theatrical troupe of her uncle and aunt, Kawakami Otojiro and Sadayakko, in 1899. Aft er the painter died, a female jour- nalist for the Los Angeles Examiner raised her, but there is no record that Aoki went to the convent. She studied at the Egan Dramatic School in Los Angeles before she joined Fred Mace’s company and Ince’s company. 25 Th e convent episode in Aoki’s fi ctional- ized biography functions to emphasize not the literal but the symbolic conversion of the Japanese woman to Christianity. Conversion to Christianity is a signifi cant motif in Madame Butterfl y that normalizes the hierarchical relationship between civilized and masculine America and primitive and feminine Japan. Puccini’s opera dramatizes the break in the sacred order when the outraged priest (Cio-Cio-San’s uncle) interrupts the wedding ceremony, condemns her deceitful renunciation of the community and
“her true religion,” and curses her with “eternal damnation.” 26 Th e biographical style in Aoki’s star publicity provided authenticity to this archetypal tale of a religious collision.
Th e Wrath of the Gods and its narrative of a religious collision emphasize the diffi culty for a Japanese woman to become submissive to Christianity and the American family system. First and foremost, Th e Wrath of the Gods is an archetypal fable pitting the civi- lized West, embodied by an American sailor, against the primitive East, embodied by a Japanese woman, told as a religious battle between Buddhism and Christianity. Th e fi lm displays a Japanese village as a primitive community bound by a superstitious tradi- tion and Toya-San (Aoki) as its victim. According to an old local legend of Sakurajima, Buddha has cursed Toya-San’s family. If Toya-San marries, it would displease Buddha and the long inactive volcano, Sakurajima, would erupt. In the opening scene, a priest with dirty long hair, beard, a torn kimono, and a wooden cane warns villagers, “She came from [a] family that [is] accursed.” Meanwhile, in a thunder-fi lled dark night,
07_Miyao_CH07.indd 157
07_Miyao_CH07.indd 157 10/30/2013 5:26:53 PM10/30/2013 5:26:53 PM
Toya-San’s father Yamaki (Sessue Hayakawa) prays to a carved stone statue of Buddha to lift the curse.
In the following scene, Tom Wilson, an American sailor (Frank Borzage), rescued from a shipwreck by Yamaki, appears as embodying the opposite religious belief. In bright daylight Tom gives Toya-San a cross-shaped necklace, saying that this represents the “god of justice.” A close-up of the cross is inserted. Embraced by Tom, here Toya-San symbolically converts to Christianity.
Th e Wrath of the Gods uses Madame Butterfl y ’s narrative in a distorted manner in order to construct Aoki’s persona as an obedient Japanese woman like Cio-Cio-San and at the same time as a satisfactorily Americanized woman for a Hollywood star. Even though it is a story of interracial romance between an American man and a Japanese woman, the Japanese woman is not ill fated as is Cio-Cio-San. Th e American man and the Japanese woman sail to America, the land of freedom, and live happily ever aft er.
Yamaki, Toya-San’s father, takes up the role of Cio-Cio-San. Yamaki sacrifi ces himself to cut Toya-San’s tie with Japan. He leaves his child to the American man. Dying Yamaki hopes that Tom and the Christian God in America will protect his innocent daugh- ter. Toya-San, on the other hand, replaces the innocent baby boy in Madame Butterfl y , who would be protected by an American and raised as an American. She is not the one who “betrays” the Japanese ancestry. It is Yamaki. Playing out the narrative of Madame Butterfl y in a twisted manner in cinema, Aoki thus physically embodied an ideal image of a Japanese woman who is obedient to both Japan and Christianity.
Aoki married Hayakawa aft er the shooting of Th e Wrath of the Gods . When Hayakawa became an overnight sensation with Th e Cheat (Cecil B. DeMille, 1915), Aoki’s career as a star came to an end. Aoki stopped playing leading roles aft er Th e Beckoning Flame (Charles Swickard, 1916), produced at NYMPC. Aft er 1916, Aoki’s onscreen characters became subordinate ones, such as girlfriends or wives of Hayakawa. Yet, she continued embodying Madame Butterfl y, the ideal of femininity and cultural refi nement in the Orientalist imagination.
Th e Dragon Painter (William Worthington, 1919), a Hayakawa star vehicle based on a story written by Mary McNeil Fenollosa, was a perfect example of Aoki providing authenticity to the Orientalist imagination of Japan. Th e Dragon Painter was publicized as if it showed authentic Japanese landscapes, costumes, and characters, even though Kinema Junpo , a Japanese fi lm magazine, pointed out, “[ Th e Dragon Painter ] did not show either contemporary or actual Japan.” 27 American fi lm trade journals reported that Th e Dragon Painter successfully reproduced an “authentic” Japanese atmosphere.
Margaret I. MacDonald of MPW wrote, “One of the especially fi ne features of the production is the laboratory work, mountain locations of extreme beauty, chosen for the purpose of imitating Japanese scenery, and supplying Japanese atmosphere, are enhanced by the splendid results accomplished, in the work of developing and toning.” 28 In Th e Dragon Painter , Tatsu (Hayakawa), a young Japanese painter, madly seeks a dragon princess who, he believes, is hiding under the surface of a mountain lake.
Undobuchida, a friend of Kano Indara, the aging master of Japanese painting, is impressed by Tatsu’s paintings and his talent and invites him to Tokyo. Undobuchida
07_Miyao_CH07.indd 158
07_Miyao_CH07.indd 158 10/30/2013 5:26:53 PM10/30/2013 5:26:53 PM
convinces Tatsu to learn the art of Kano. In Tokyo, Umeko (Aoki), the daughter of the artist, poses as the dragon princess for Tatsu. Tatsu is impressed by Umeko’s refi ned beauty. Umeko is fascinated by Tatsu’s talent. Yet, aft er Tatsu marries Umeko, he becomes unable to paint. She decides to sacrifi ce herself and so leaves Tatsu in order to save his talent. Tatsu leaps into the pool in which he believes his wife has drowned her- self. He is rescued and, aft erward, he succeeds with his art. Aft er his successful exhibi- tion, Umeko, who has actually been hiding at a temple, comes back to him.
Playing the role of Umeko, Aoki provides a sense of authenticity to the stereotypi- cal self-sacrifi cing Japanese woman like Cio-Cio-San. Umeko’s room is fi lled with the objects of Japonisme: a Japanese garden with a gate, a stream, a small bridge, stone lanterns, and a peacock in front of a small shrine; a room with tatami mats, fusuma , Japanese sliding doors, and shoji; paintings of Mt. Fuji and a dragon; paper lanterns. She wears a luxurious kimono and the beautiful hairstyle of an unmarried woman, shimada . Aft er making up in front of a Japanese-style mirror table, she dances a Japanese dance with a silver fan in front of fl owers arranged in a Japanese style, while her housemaid plays the samisen, a Japanese banjo-like musical instrument, and Japanese drums. She sits beside a shoji window under the beautiful moon. Even aft er the wedding, Umeko keeps wearing her long-sleeved kimono, which married women traditionally do not wear, and her shimada hairstyle, which should have changed to the less showy marum- age of married women. Umeko even shows her extremely obedient and self-sacrifi cial nature as a stereotypical Japanese woman by committing suicide as Cio-Cio-San. 29
figure 7.1 Umeko (Aoki Tsuruko) dances a Japanese dance in a kimono. Th e Dragon Painter (1919).
07_Miyao_CH07.indd 159
07_Miyao_CH07.indd 159 10/30/2013 5:26:53 PM10/30/2013 5:26:53 PM
Certain constraints were also placed upon Aoki in defi ning her role in off screen space. Aoki’s off screen image, publicized in fan magazines, became the one that rep- resented ideal Japanese femininity in modern American middle-class domesticity. As Sara Ross claims, “Th e construction of Aoki as adoring wife was extremely important to the rather remarkable success of Hayakawa as a romantic lead in the late teens and twen- ties.” 30 Aoki’s image of an obedient wife enhanced that of Hayakawa’s as a patriarchal husband in the United States, which functioned as a safety valve to reduce the threaten- ing image of an alien of a diff erent race. With the help of Aoki’s domesticated image, the Hayakawas came to embody an image of a model minority who assimilates into the American way of life. A publicity photo attached to an article in a fi lm fan magazine, Picture-Play Magazine , emphasized the domesticated role that Aoki played, a reminder of Madame Butterfl y -style gender relations even between the Japanese husband and wife. 31 In the photo, Hayakawa in a Western suit is lighting a cigarette and being served tea by Aoki in a kimono. Th e photo emphasizes how Americanized the Hayakawas’
middle-class (or upper middle-class) lifestyle is but simultaneously displays a Japanese woman faithfully serving for her American(ized) lover. 32
figure 7.2 Aoki serves tea for her husband, Sessue Hayakawa. Reprinted from Picture-Play Magazine 4, no. 1 (March 1917): 64.
07_Miyao_CH07.indd 160
07_Miyao_CH07.indd 160 10/30/2013 5:26:54 PM10/30/2013 5:26:54 PM