Is There a Stage for Singing about Aging: Takarazuka Retirement System and Forgotten Years of Art (Early 1970s)

Is There a Stage for Singing about Aging: Takarazuka Retirement System and Forgotten Years of Art (Early 1970s)

The Takarazuka Revue introduced a mandatory retirement age system and required performers to leave the stage at the age of fifty-six. This was the moment when the Japanese entertainment industry began to regard "youth" as an absolute value, and began to exclude the depth of artistry that lies in "old age. One writer takes exception to such a state of affairs. It is rare to find a group of virgins who have reached the age of sixty. It was both ironic and poignant criticism. Takarazuka is a theater that is destined to keep its performers young, and it was not permissible for older performers to continue to perform on the Takarazuka stage.

In contrast, Chaplin and Jane Fonda are introduced. Chaplin received a special Academy Award at the age of 82 and was applauded. Jane Fonda had also established her reputation for films with political messages. In other countries, "aging" was not merely a physical decline, but a sign of deepening artistry and a person's history itself.

In the Japanese entertainment industry, however, the aged are driven off the stage. The 1970s was a time when the new medium of television was gaining ground, and instant visual appeal was in high demand. The taste for art that resides in shadow rather than light, in silence rather than heat, was no longer sought after.

This criticism is not directed at Takarazuka, but at Japanese society as a whole. Aging is not an end point after being consumed. Aging is not an end point after consuming all one has consumed. Aging is the beginning of another beginning in which one stands with the thickness of time accumulated. A true stage cannot exist in a society that does not know this. In order to continue to sing the art, it is necessary to look beyond the fetters of age and reexamine the essence of expression.