{"id":2782,"date":"2024-06-10T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-10T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/?p=2782"},"modified":"2024-06-01T05:21:23","modified_gmt":"2024-06-01T11:21:23","slug":"berubara-and-i-matsu-akira-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/10\/berubara-and-i-matsu-akira-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Berubara and I – Matsu Akira (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This book, which is something of an \u2018oral history\u2019 of Takarazuka\u2019s Rose of Versailles<\/em> adaptations, was published by Ascom in late 2005, and features chronological accounts from otokoyaku who had performed in the franchise from its first origins through the 2001 productions. Since the book is derived from transcriptions of interviews taking place often many decades after the fact, there may be discrepancies between accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please note that the term appearing through the text as \u2018theatre-comic\u2019 is translated from the Japanese term gekiga <\/em>[\u5287\u753b]. Although this term is described as applying to mainly male-oriented comics in most English-language sources, this is no longer accurate. The definition of this word has changed to also include sweeping, romantic female-oriented works with Rose of Versailles being arguably the most famous of theatre-comics. Takarazuka even published its own magazine of theatre-comics in the 1970s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapters have been split in two to make them more readable without too much scrolling to reach the explanatory footnotes. Some paragraph breaks have also been added for ease of reading in English. I have also included (or will include when time allows) some images printed in the book as well as sourcing many other archival images to illustrate the text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Matsu Akira<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Portrait of Matsu from Berubara and I<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

1947<\/em> – Born in Kanagawa Prefecture on December 3
1966 <\/em>– Entered Takarazuka, debuting with The Four Seasons of Japan\/Fantasia<\/em>
1975 <\/em>– Played Fersen in The Rose of Versailles<\/em>, played Andre in 1977
1978 <\/em>– Became Flower Troupe Top Star with Echoes<\/em>
1979 <\/em>– Played Oscar in The Rose of Versailles<\/em>
1982 <\/em>– Won National Arts Festival Grand Prize for Japan Overture<\/em>, retired from Takarazuka with the same production<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other notable works:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Scarlet Pimpernel1<\/sup>; My Friend, Weep your Hot Tears on My Breast<\/em>, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Post-retirement activities:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After appearing in many programs and productions such as Taiga Dramas and other TV dramas, radio, and stage works, she has worked since 1995 as a council member (Kanagawa Prefecture House of Councilors)2<\/sup>. Author of The Sparkling Time, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your eyes are too big!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWho has won Takarazuka\u2019s Berubara Triple Crown?\u201d \u201cMatsu Akira!!\u201d \u201cThat\u2019s correct!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around 10 years ago, after I\u2019d become a housewife, I was washing dishes and had the TV on without paying much attention to it, but suddenly I heard this in a quiz show and was shocked. After that, I\u2019ve often seen \u2018Berubara Triple Crown: Matsu Akira\u2019 written in various places\u2026 Apparently this means that I performed as all three of the lead otokoyaku roles in Berubara: Andre, Oscar, and Fersen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know whether calling it \u2018Triple Crown\u2019 is really appropriate, but it does seem that I\u2019m the only person who has been able to play \u2018all three roles\u20193<\/sup>. Certainly, if you count in the regional performances, I did perform in it for a really long time. But I never felt that self-aware of it, or thought of myself as the Triple Crown Winner who played all three roles, so I\u2019ve been really surprised at this recently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though this all happened 30 years ago, I\u2019m so grateful to have people listen to me talk about my time in Takarazuka even now, like this, and I think Berubara is a show that you could say raised me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berubara is a show that feels \u2018foundational\u2019 to Takarazuka. The costumes are beautiful, and while the major plot elements are from history, they\u2019re mixed with fiction to become a Takarazuka-esque work full of dreams, romance, and adventure, so no matter how many years pass it remains a wonderful masterpiece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back then, I read Ikeda Riyoko\u2019s original comic after the casting was already decided. I\u2019d heard chatter about it being a lovely comic, but when I tried reading it myself it was really wonderful!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, I read it knowing what I would be performing, so I wasn\u2019t looking at it thinking about which role I would like or that kind of thing. It was too hard to rank them, I guess: all the characters were wonderful. Though I never even imagined that I would get to play all of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first role I had was Fersen, and Hasegawa Kazuo was directing. \u201cYour eyes are too big,\u201d Director Hasegawa would say. \u201cYou\u2019re playing a handsome leading man, you can\u2019t be staring around with those huge eyes. You\u2019ve got to look through half-closed eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could understand the atmosphere of the \u201ccool gaze\u201d that he was talking about, but in my case, I really couldn\u2019t get there without half-closing my eyes (laughs). Director Hasegawa would always get upset with these huge round eyes of mine and kept saying \u201cMatsu, your eyes can\u2019t be so big! Half closed eyes!\u201d constantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Director Hasegawa had been an actor in handsome leading roles personally, he taught me that aura and that sexiness (in a good way), things like that. How to make a beautiful love scene. And out of all that, the hardest thing for me at least, was the half-closed eyes issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another thing he instructed me intensely was \u201cA handsome leading man can\u2019t speak in such fierce outbursts!\u201d A commoner character might be able to speak in a loud voice, but a handsome leading man has to be elegant to the last. Especially for Fersen, since he was a character from the nobility, this should have been obvious thinking about it, but how firmly he instructed me about this has stuck with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u2018true handsome leading man\u2019 that the director talked about, with his slender lines and elegance, was very hard for me to achieve personally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back then, when the role of Fersen landed on me, I even researched the history behind the character. Fersen, in reality, was single through his whole life. Isn\u2019t that because of how devoted he was to his love for Marie Antoinette?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back then, counts or other nobles would have an estate, of course, so they would have had a duty to leave behind children they could pass that estate down to. But even though [Fersen] had this high status, he never married, he loved the queen of another country, and he died in a very lonely way. I felt like a person like that really showed pure love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thinking about it now, I feel that for him to refuse marriage since there was someone he already loved, and hold on to the image of that person despite everything he had to overcome, must have been an even harder situation. Even though he had to pass down his \u2018house,\u2019 he pursued this love to the point he abandoned everything. So he was really just too pure, and in a way you could call him a stoic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He had the stoicism that made him not want to make his beloved unhappy, and a keen sense of justice. I think he was a really sensitive person. I think Antoinette must have fallen for that earnest sensitivity. I think he might have been a bit unusual for someone of such high status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know how much it came to life in the performance, but I felt like it might be different between when I didn\u2019t know anything, and when I knew a bit, so I researched in my own way. But even so, showing that stoicism and pure love, elegantly, as a character who had to be so reserved, was extremely difficult for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three people, three different beautiful hearts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this regard, I think Andre was much easier for me to get into. Even though he was a fictional character, he was a commoner, and he had this huge love that really seemed to envelop Oscar, so I felt like I was able to present that in a fairly straightforward way. Even if these were my own emotions. Having your hidden love spill over and come out is such a natural human thing, so I think that\u2019s part of why Andre remains such an appealing man even now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me, it felt like I could slip into Andre, who showed his emotions frankly, much easier compared to Fersen, who didn\u2019t reveal his emotions on the surface and showed his love only through his atmosphere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oscar was another wonderful role! However, she\u2019s different from the other two (Fersen and Andre) in one concrete way, namely, being a woman. I\u2019m a woman myself, and in a way, Takarazuka (performers) are also \u2018crossdressing beauties\u2019. Therefore, I feel like in a way, I was able to produce the emotions of that sort of woman very naturally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought it would be harder going from times where she is a gallant captain of the French Guard, to times where her feminine emotions are stirred, but I was actually able to do this very naturally as well. It felt like the same way I was an otokoyaku in Takarazuka, sort of. When I was performing as an otokoyaku I had the masculine emotions, but then I would return to my real self and the \u2018woman\u2019 would come out\u2026 So I could understand how she felt, \u2018Ah, Andre is the one I love!\u2019, and my heart was moved naturally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oscar is a person who just has such a wonderful sense of ideals and a pure heart, and in the end she goes to her death with a sense of purpose. Even though she has no assurance of victory, and even though she is supposed to stand on the side of the monarchy, she can\u2019t abandon the common people in their suffering, and her sense of true justice, that makes her see she has to stand by the common people, is really wonderful. I wonder if there were people like that in real life, people sort of like Oscar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Oscar and Andre are fictionalized characters, they\u2019re really an ideal woman and man. And with Fersen, the three of them have three different kinds of beautiful hearts, I think. But I also think it\u2019s not just another romance story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Andre only sees Oscar, Oscar sees the whole people of France. But then, through Oscar, Andre can also see the people clearly, is the idea. \u201cI exist for Oscar, so I have to support and protect her, and while Oscar does love me, she also sees how the people live and is trying to save the country\u2026\u201d \u2014since it reaches this advanced level, it isn\u2019t just a romance story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fersen and Antoinette\u2019s story is entwined with fictional elements, and along with them there are those fictional characters created to fight for the sake of France, and they are so large, I guess you could say\u2014they aren\u2019t [fighting] for their own lives, but for the future of the country\u2014since the story has this sort of scale, I think that\u2019s what has made everyone love it for so long. Ikeda did such an incredible job writing something this advanced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think Antoinette also reached that point, at the end. Since she refuses Fersen\u2019s invitation. She, and Oscar in her fight for the people, both reach that conviction of \u201cI exist for the country.\u201d Maybe you could say it surpasses romantic love to reach \u2018human love\u2019. Well, anyway, they\u2019re both \u2018women\u2019, right (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, even in the staged version of the scenes, I love how things advance to that point in the climax. That sequence starting from where they go to battle, \u201cAdvance~!\u201d, and then Andre being shot on the bridge, and Oscar going to her death, is just wonderful. And also that scene where the two of them are called up to heaven in the carriage. It felt great to perform personally, but over and above performing myself, it\u2019s a scene I just love as a fan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In particular, there\u2019s the way Andre dies\u2026 The first actress to play Andre was my late classmate Asou Kaoru3<\/sup>, and she was so talented, she was such an actor. So as one of her scenes, it was incredibly impactful. Dying like that after being shot over and over again\u2026 That she was able to show so much in such a small stage, in such a huge space, it\u2019s incredible to think about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though after that the direction changed a bit for some scenes, that\u2019s one scene that will never change at all4<\/sup>. Even though, when watching it after my retirement, I could hardly even believe \u201cDid I really do that?\u201d (laughs)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After my retirement, I went to see the real prison where the real-life Antoinette was held. It was so much more cramped and dirty than I\u2019d imagined, a dreadful place\u2026 And on top of that, apparently the guards stayed in the same room with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, that had a huge impact on me. Someone who led such a luxurious lifestyle, in the end, she was put in this kind of place…I thought. I think there must be a lot of people who didn\u2019t know the reality of it who saw Berubara and decided to research more of the history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was also after my retirement, but I went to see the real Versailles Palace for the first time. The real life Versailles Palace is such an amazing place. And if a beautiful person appeared in such a beautiful place, well, naturally you\u2019d fall in love with her\u2014that\u2019s what I ended up thinking (laughs). And of course I\u2019d tried even in the \u2018backdrop palace\u2019 to do things with that same emotion (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Notes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1 – An older in-house production based on the original play, rather than the Broadway adaptation.
2 – She was re-elected again after this book was published, but her term in office ended in 2013 after she declared she would not be running again.
3 – This record lasted until Aran Kei played Andre in 2006. The only other individual to have achieved it is Asumi Rio (who completed the trio in 2014).
4 – After retiring with the original Rose of Versailles in 1974 and marrying the next year, Asou died of ovarian cancer in 1988.
5 – The scene has varied considerably over the years, but the major elements have remained.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This book, which is something of an \u2018oral history\u2019 of Takarazuka\u2019s Rose of Versailles adaptations, was published by Ascom in late 2005, and features chronological accounts from otokoyaku who had performed in the franchise from its first origins through the 2001 productions. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[30,26],"tags":[255,394,395,362,535],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2782"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2782"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2784,"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2782\/revisions\/2784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}