The Heat and the Spinning of the Asakusa Kannon Theatre: The Place and Time of Beniryoku and Mikasa Banriko, 1917-1924

The Heat and the Spinning of the Asakusa Kannon Theatre: The Place and Time of Beniryoku and Mikasa Banriko, 1917-1924

Based at the Asakusa Kannon Theatre, Kuromo Sato tried to promote Mariko Mikasa, whom he had fallen in love with, with one new play a month. Although the audience was enthusiastic, the show was not well received by the literary world, and the efforts of his patrons failed to bring the gears into gear until the very end. Asakusa's six wards in the Taisho period were a omnivorous metropolis with a forest of movies, light plays, and revues, and new productions were quickly consumed, leaving the audience to move on to the next exciting production. Then the earthquake of 1923 struck, and the map of theaters and tastes were quickly reshuffled. While shifting her focus to a single brush, Benritsume also sought opportunities in film, and in 1923 she toured Europe, and in 1924 she became the director of the Toa Kinema. Light cannot be established unless the person who promotes it, the person being promoted, and the place and time to receive it are all in place. The episode marks the m
oment when passion spins out of control in the heat of Asakusa and the speed of the times, clearly highlighting the harshness of the performing arts in the 1920s.