United States almost completely stopped publishing articles devoted to Aoki. Aoki turned into a big star’s wife. However, in Japanese magazines, many articles focused solely on Aoki appeared even aft er Hayakawa’s rise. In these articles, Aoki’s star image was rearticulated within the discourse of ideal Japanese womanhood.
American fi lm fan magazines and their Japanese counterparts played similar roles in the formation of Aoki’s public image as an ideal housewife but in opposite directions. In the United States, Aoki was regarded as an ideally Americanized middle-class wife who would create a refi ned domestic space with consumer goods. As Sara Ross suggests, in the U.S. magazines, while Aoki visually represented a “quaint” woman, oft en pictured in kimono in her publicity photos, in print she was described “as behaving as a modern woman” in order to emphasize her “Western ways” that would go against her “Eastern appearance.” 39
In Japanese magazines, it was the opposite. Even if they described how Westernized her lifestyle was, they eventually emphasized how devoted she was to her husband as ideal Japanese wives are. Th ere were several reports from those who visited the Hayakawas in Hollywood. Th ese people expressed pleasant surprise in their reports: the Hayakawas’ house appeared very Western from the outside, but once inside, they were entertained in a Japanese-style room with Japanese food prepared by Aoki. 40 In spite of her Americanized appearance, Aoki was praised as a good housewife, who was faith- fully supporting her husband. Shigeno Yukiyoshi, an editor of Katsudo Kurabu , claimed,
“Hayakawa’s fame is not accidental but owes a lot to his wife Tsuruko. . . . She is a faithful wife who devotes herself to improving her husband’s position.” 41
Th ere was one specifi c episode that enhanced the image of Aoki as a Cio-Cio-San-like obedient and self-sacrifi cing wife. On August 26, 1931, the Los Angeles Times reported that Hayakawa and his wife, Tsuru, legally adopted a two-year-old son, Alexander Hayes, and renamed him Yukio Hayakawa. 42 Right aft er this report, actress Ruth Noble asserted that she was the mother and Hayakawa the father of the boy and fi led a suit against Hayakawa to regain custody of her son. Noble said she had had a romantic relationship with Hayakawa when they had appeared together in a vaudeville act “Th e Bandit Prince.” 43 Th e Los Angeles Times kept reporting the “scandal” of the nonwhite star of the silent period in a melodramatic manner. When Hayakawa left for Japan to fulfi ll a contract with Shochiku, a fi lm production company in Tokyo, the Los Angeles Times reported in an article titled, “East and West Part in Tears”: “In bidding Hayakawa bon voyage, the actress [Ruth Noble] indicated she was saying farewell to love and to hopes of regaining custody of her son. . . . ‘I just told him I was sorry if I had caused him any trouble,’ the actress expressed.” 44 Not only Noble but also Aoki was given a role of a melodramatic victim in this incident. Reporting the Noble incident as well as Hayakawa’s aff airs with other women in Japan, Abe Yu of the Japanese general women’s magazine Fujin Salon sympathetically wrote, “Hayakawa may be able to use the numer- ous reports in newspapers and magazines on his controversial aff airs and his family problem for free publicity of his popularity. However, there are always his wife Tsuruko’s tears behind, who has to put up with her famous husband’s conduct.” 45 Yet, Aoki main- tained her image of a devoted wife. Th e Los Angeles Times sympathetically reported
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that Aoki had to defend her husband from a “loyal” wife’s and a “warmhearted” step- mother’s perspective. 46 Th is news was reported in Japan as well. Despite this incident, Hayakawa did not change his womanizing. Between the years 1937 and 1949 aft er the war, Hayakawa stayed in Paris and Hollywood and did not even go back to Japan, where Aoki raised Yukio and two other children.
Th e U.S. media tried to ease the “yellow peril” of Japanese immigrants with the Hayakawas’ image of perfect assimilation to the American way of life despite their appearances. Conversely, Japanese media tried to control the transgression of Aoki’s existence as a moga and fi lm actress working independently outside women’s normal domestic sphere. Aoki’s professional status could be seen as subversive to Japan’s sup- posed national unity, which was based on a patriarchal family system whose top posi- tion was occupied by the emperor. Th e archetypal Madame Butterfl y -style obedient characters that Aoki played on- and off screen were usable to Japanese media as authen- tic representations of “good wife, wise mother.”
It is noteworthy that in the same period, another Japanese performer, who became famous on the international stage playing Cio-Cio-San, was severely criticized for her transgressive attitude as a moga . Aft er her debut in London in Madame Butterfl y in 1915, Miura Tamaki (1884–1946) became the fi rst Japanese opera singer to attain inter- national acclaim. As Aoki did in Ince fi lms, with her Japanese body, Miura appealed to foreign spectators as if she were authentically embodying a fantasy of the obedient Japanese femininity of Cio-Cio-San. 47
Miura was the mirror image of Aoki, with regard to the discourse on Japanese wom- anhood. Miura divorced her fi rst husband in 1909 and had an aff air with an Italian com- poser during her international tour, while her second husband was waiting in Japan.
As early as 1911, Miura insisted in Chuo Koron magazine, “Gone are the days when wives were called okusama [married women who should stay at home] and women distanced themselves from associating with men. . . . [T] oday, we women must possess
‘dignity’ and actresses must ‘face the world with divine dignity’ and faithfully pursue art.” 48 Japanese magazines reported that Miura oft en visited Aoki and Hayakawa in their home in Hollywood when she toured the United States, but they also included Aoki’s comments about Miura’s lifestyle in a somewhat ironical tone and contrasted the two internationally acclaimed Japanese women. Aoki is quoted, “Shibata [Miura] Tamaki’s reputation is great. Her lifestyle is very colorful and wonderful.” 49 Contrasting Miura and Aoki, two modern women, Japanese media formulated an authentic image of Japanese womanhood as a Cio-Cio-San-style obedient housewife.
Aside from formulating the image of ideal Japanese womanhood around Cio- Cio-San, Aoki’s star image as an authentic Madame Butterfl y had a tremendous impact on the discourse of modernization of cinema in Japan. In the early 1910s, primarily young intellectuals, ranging from fi lm critics and fi lmmakers to government offi cials, began to criticize mainstream commercial fi lms in Japan. Th ey decried fi lms made in Japan as slavish reproductions of Japanese theatrical works. Th ey promoted a reform of motion pictures in Japan through the production of “modern” and “purely cinematic”
fi lms. Th eir writings and subsequent experimental fi lmmaking are oft en called the Pure
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Film Movement. According to Joanne Bernardi, one of the goals of the Pure Film advo- cates was “the attainment of an internationally viable level of narrational clarity for fi lms also endowed with a comprehensible and distinct national and cultural identity.” 50
Th e Pure Film advocates criticized mainstream commercial Japanese motion pic- tures for being “uncinematic” because, for the most part, they were merely reproducing stage repertories of kabuki, most typifi ed by the use of the onnagata for female roles.
Th ey eventually intended to export Japanese-made fi lms to foreign markets and affi rm Japanese national identity internationally and domestically. 51 For example, fi lm theorist Kaeriyama Norimasa referred to Th e Wrath of the Gods and claimed, “Isn’t it a huge loss that Japanese producers do not make any fi lms for export and have all the greatly unique landscape of Japan stolen by foreigners?” 52 Aoki and Hayakawa’s fi lms were ideal prod- ucts for the reformists because they used “cinematic” forms and techniques and told Japanese stories. In other words, they wanted to produce Madame Butterfl y in Japan.
When Aoki’s stardom was formulated in Hollywood, such “cinematic” techniques as close-up, artifi cial three-point lighting, and soft focus were utilized for fi lm stars in both their fi lms and publicity photos in order to emphasize the actors’ physical characteristics and to convey sensual attraction. While serving for narrative clarity and consistency on the one hand, these photographic techniques could also enhance the viewers’ sensory perceptions of materiality. Contrary to onnagata , Aoki’s newness was based on an image of physical sexuality, whose physical characteristics were enhanced by photographic technologies. As Hideaki Fujiki indicates, the March 1917 issue of Katsudo Gaho juxta- poses a still photo of Tachibana Teijiro, a very popular onnagata at Nikkatsu Mukojima studio, in a shinpa tragedy fi lm Futari Shizuka (Oguchi Tadashi, 1917), and a portrait of Myrtle Gonzalez, a Blue Bird fi lm star. While the latter is a sensual close-up of the female actor’s face and naked shoulders in low-key lighting, dramatically highlighted with side- light from the left , the former, a typical portrayal of a shinpa -style fi lm of the time, is a fl at-lit long shot. 53 Even though it is not clear how faithfully this still photo represents the actual scene in the fi lm, this example among many implies how the mise-en-scène of the shinpa -style fi lm emphasizes visibility of the theatrical tableaux in diff used light- ing rather than dramatically enhancing fragmented body parts or anything within the frame via spot lighting. 54 According to Fujiki, onnagata of shinpa tragedy express their emotions in the movement of entire bodies, or in special confi guration with other actors and the surrounding décor, and long shots and fl at lighting are more suitable to display their performance than close-ups and spot lighting. 55
More than anything else, it was Aoki’s physical body that Japanese critics and fans highly valued. Kinema Record noted, “She [Aoki] owns a good body. Her acting and her body are as good as European and American people.” 56 Katsudo Shashin Zasshi placed a portrait of Aoki in its photo gallery section that was usually reserved for Western stars and noted, “Miss Aoki Tsuruko is a Japanese actress in the American fi lm indus- try and she is one of the most popular stars. . . . We are fascinated by her sensual body and gorgeous facial expressions.” 57 Th e opposite page displays a close-up of the face of another female star, Jackie Saunders, in typical Hollywood three-point lighting. While the unblemished big round eyes and the shining blond hair are striking in the Saunders
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photo, relatively strong side light emphasizes Aoki’s sensual chest loosely covered with a white gown while soft er fi ll light enhances her graceful motherly facial expression.
Aoki’s Japanese body was appreciated in Hollywood because it provided authenticity to the archetypal story of Madame Butterfl y. Her female body was appreciated in Japan because it provided authenticity to cinematic representations of gender and sexuality with skillfully incorporated “cinematic” styles such as close-up, three-point lighting, and soft focus. Th e only thing the Japanese fi lm reformists had to do was to combine the two and produce their own version of Madame Butterfl y for their nationalist purposes.
What they needed was a Japanese female star who could play their Cio-Cio-San.
Kurishima Sumiko was one of the fi rst Japanese female stars that Japanized the image of Hollywood’s Madame Butterfl y , embodied by Aoki Tsuruko. With her female Japanese body, Kurishima provided a sense of authenticity to female roles in Japanese cinema, contrary to the onnagata . Her body was sensualized by the Hollywood-style cinematic techniques, as was Aoki’s. At the same time, combined with such new and modern technology was an image of obedient womanhood, or that of “good wife, wise mother.” Kurishima faithfully followed the template that Aoki’s stardom had prepared along with the image of Madame Butterfl y .
figure 7.3 Special lighting enhances Aoki’s sensuality and grace. Reprinted from Katsudo Shashin Zasshi 3, no. 12 (December 1917): n.p. Courtesy of Kawakita Memorial Institute.
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Shochiku Company appointed “Henry” Kotani Soichi to create the visual star image for Kurishima. Aft er appearing in Madame Butterfl y -style fi lms with Aoki and Hayakawa at Ince’s company, Kotani worked as a cinematographer in Hollywood in the 1910s under renowned fi lmmaker Cecil B. DeMille. In 1920, eagerly pursued by the representatives of Shochiku and highly recommended by DeMille, Kotani returned to Japan. 58
First, disliking the kabuki-style makeup, Kotani used Max Factor cosmetics, imported directly from the United States, to make up Kurishima in Poppy ( Gubijinso , 1921), in order to create a more natural and authentic appearance of a female face and to enhance the lighting eff ects. 59 Second, Kotani used backlight for Kurishima to perform “the less self-conscious tasks of defi ning space and adding a normative degree of aesthetic polish” in order to imitate the photographic techniques of Hollywood, with which the Hollywood fi lm industry publicized their stars in photographic images. 60 In Hollywood, Kotani had been assigned as a cinematographer for Laila Lee, a Paramount star, in Th e Heart of Youth , Puppy Love (R. William Neill, 1919), Rustling a Bride (Irvin Willat, 1919), and Th e Secret Garden (G. Butler Clonebough, 1919). Th us, Kotani recreated a Hollywood-style sensual physical entity around Kurishima. Like Aoki’s, Kurishima’s Japanese body was displayed in Hollywood-style cinematography. Contrary to Kotani’s claims, in a still photo of Poppy , Kurishima’s conspicuously white makeup still follows the kabuki -style and the lighting for her looks rather fl at.
figure 7.4 Th e white makeup of Kurishima Sumiko and the fl at lighting of the scene fol- lowed the styles of kabuki. Still photograph of Poppy ( Gubijinso , 1921). Courtesy of Henry Kotani Production.
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At the same time, Shochiku used Kurishima mostly in fi lms with shinpa -style narra- tives with obedient and self-sacrifi cing heroines. Originally a political drama associated with the Freedom and People’s Rights Movement of the 1880s initiated by Kawakami Otojiro (Aoki’s uncle), shinpa (new school) dealt with contemporary social issues and Western ideas; however, stylistically, it did not completely cut off its ties to native theat- rical traditions and made liberal use of many kabuki conventions, including the onna- gata . Oft en called shinpa daihigeki (a grand tragedy), shinpa tended to be a sentimental drama with a tragic ending. 61 In other words, there is no critical diff erence between shinpa and Madame Butterfl y in terms of their characterizations of their heroines. Th e narrative of Cuckoo ( Hototogisu , 1922), directed by Ikeda Gishin, a would-be husband of Kurishima, has the theme of a Japanese woman’s self-sacrifi ce and retains a struc- ture very similar to Madame Butterfl y . Lieutenant General Viscount Kataoka’s daughter Namiko (Kurishima) and Navy Ensign Baron Kawashima Takeo have an arranged yet happy marriage, but she soon turns out to be suff ering from tuberculosis. Finding her vomiting blood and fearing infection, her mother-in-law, Okei, forces her to divorce Takeo and return to her parents’ hometown while he is away on an offi cial trip. Th e fi lm closes with scenes in which she is dying in bed and the funeral is held. As with Madame Butterfl y, “blood” intervenes in an initial marriage; a hero’s family member asks the heroine to leave; and the heroine chooses to die alone in the end in order to protect the hero. Stylistically, the fi lm contributes to the construction of Kurishima’s charac- ter as a Cio-Cio-San-like obedient heroine. Th e fi lm contains close-ups of the face of Namiko and emphasizes the fact that Kurishima as an actual woman, not an imperson- ator, is playing the heroine. Yet, compared to the portrait of Myrtle Gonzalez in Katsudo Gaho , lighting is not fully used to enhance the sensual attraction or material reality of the actress throughout the fi lm. Instead, as Fujiki points out, in most parts of the fi lm, Kurishima looks down and displays her reserved nature. 62 In the end, the heroine sacri- fi ces herself for the career of the hero in compositions that emphasize shinpa -style tab- leaux that occupy the majority of screen time. Critic Iizuka Tokin claimed in his review of this fi lm that Kurishima “represented Japanese ladies’ gracefulness.” 63
In publicity, such a Madame Butterfl y -style obedient star image of Kurishima was explicitly connected to traditional Japanese womanliness and femininity. As Fujiki suggests, the photogravure and its caption of Kurishima in Kamata , a fan magazine for Shochiku fi lms, is a typical example. 64 In the portrait photograph, the close-up show- cased her casting down her eyes, wearing a kimono, and having her hair done up in the traditional Japanese style ( yuigami ) with an ornamental hairpin ( kanzashi ). Th is picture was captioned with the comment: “Ms. Sumiko enacts the woman unique in Japan that symbolizes ‘obedience.’ ” Critic Tsuda Kozo described Kurishima to be nothing but a
“good wife, wise mother,” the idealized Japanese woman of the time. 65
Fujiki connects such a publicity strategy that emphasized “Japanese nature” in Kurishima’s star image to the “attributes of the onnagata. ” 66 As an example, Fujiki points out that Kurishima, who was profi cient at Japanese traditional dancing ( nihon buyo ), oft en displayed her dance in her star vehicles. Fujiki argues that Kurishima’s Japanese dance was a visual representation of an invented tradition that connects her star image
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to the onnagata and its idealized Japanese womanliness. According to Fujiki, “While such choreographed physical movements [of dancing Kurishima] might have provoked the audience’s sexual interest [as in Hollywood fi lms], the largest part of her body was covered by kimono or another kind of costume so that she, at least except for her face, marked little diff erence from the cross-dressed actor.” 67 What Fujiki seems to overlook is the fact that Japanese traditional dancing existed at the core of the Orientalist fan- tasy. Many Aoki fi lms produced in Hollywood, including Th e Dragon Painter , included dance scenes with Aoki in kimono. Butterfl y dance had been the core attraction of early cinema. If the “Japanese nature” of Kurishima’s star image was connected to the kabuki convention, it was not a simple continuation between the onnagata and female stars. It was a strategic choice by the post-Aoki fi lmmakers in Japan in order to incorporate the Orientalist imagination into Japanese cinema. It was the recovery of Madame Butterfl y .
In 1939, Marxist fi lm critic Iwasaki Akira wrote in a harsh tone about the emergence of female stars in Japan: “Shochiku’s success was also because of its introduction of the fi rst female actors on the screen, deviating from the unnatural custom of Japanese cinema that followed the tradition of kabuki, in which onnagata , or male actors, play female roles. Th e emergence of female actors was welcomed tremendously. Th e fi rst Japanese stars, including Kurishima Sumiko, were born.” However, Iwasaki continued,
“Shochiku’s profi t-oriented policy made it step back artistically and led it to safely pro- duce brainless fi lms that would fl atter the mass taste. In short, they were shallow and sentimental fi lms. Th ey were unintelligent fi lms whose only purpose was to create young and naïve girls absorbed in sweet dreams and nostalgia.” 68 Such “sweet dreams and nos- talgia” can be rephrased as the archetypal self-sacrifi cing story of Madame Butterfl y .
Aoki Tsuruko’s stardom within the Orientalist imagination provided a template of female stardom in Japan. If Kurishima Sumiko’s star image had a sense of newness, such newness did not emerge only because of Japanese fi lmmakers’ aspiration to deviate from the theatrical conventions. It was a result of their eff ort to nationalize the Orientalist image of femininity. It would thus reveal the historical trajectory of American images of Japan and of the Japanese formulation of self-image in the world.
Notes
1 . Qtd. in Nogami Hideyuki , Seirin no o Hayakawa Sesshu [King of Hollywood, Sessue Hayakawa] ( Tokyo : Shakai shiso sha , 1986 ), 62 . All translations of Japanese texts into English are mine, unless otherwise noted.
2 . Reel Life 3 , no. 7 (November 1, 1913 ) ; Reel Life 3 , no. 21 (February 7, 1914 ) ; Reel Life 4 , no. 14 (June 20, 1914 ) .
3 . Tamura Chiho , “ Eiga joyu no tanjo: Aruiwa Nana no monogatar i” [Th e Emergence of Female Motion Picture Actors, or a Story of Nana], in Nihon eiga wa ikiteiru dai 5 kan: Kantoku to haiyu no bigaku [Japanese Cinema Is Alive, Vol. 5: Th e Aesthetics of Directors and Actors], eds. Kurosawa Kiyoshi , Yomota Inuhiko , Yoshimi Shunya , and Ri Bonu , 174–181 ( Tokyo : Iwanami shoten , 2010 ) .
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