Browsing by Author "Doma Petra"

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    A Kabuki Pose in Sculptures of Auguste Rodin
    (2022) Doma Petra
    Hanako (Ōta Hisa, 1868–1945) was an insignificant member of a small Japanese theatrical troupe when she was discovered by the well-known dancer, Loïe Fuller, who after seeing Hanako’s death scene, decided to become her impresario. Thereafter, Fuller organised each of Hanako’s European tours and wrote for her many Japanese-style dramas that always ended with the cruel but utterly expressive death of the protagonist. Hanako met Auguste Rodin, the famous sculpture, at the Marseille Colonial Exhibition in 1906. The master was fascinated by Hanako’s performance and tried to sculpt the ‘death face’ that she expressed during her death scenes. This face, with a weird expression, was most probably a nirami, which is a type of mie pose in kabuki theatre. Rodin created numerous busts and faces from different materials trying to capture the emblematic moment when Hanako saw death. The present paper examines the short but interesting period of Hanako’s Western career, focusing on her meeting with Rodin. I use their story as a unique and symbolic illustration of Japanese artists’ efforts to transform themselves and their art to ‘match’ the Western eye and of the ways in which the West was looking for verification of its preconceptions of the ‘strange’ and ‘exotic’ East in the early 1900s.
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    Egy férfi tekintet által konstruált japán színésznő: Hanako mint hősnő (?) Mori Ōgai novellájában
    (ELTE Eötvös Collegium, 2020) Doma Petra
    A Japanese Actress constructed by a male gaze – Hanako as a heroine (?) in a short story by Ōgai Mori Hanako (1868–1945) was one of the most successful Japanese actresses of the early 20th century. She never acted on a Japanese stage as a renowned actress, but she performed her Japanese-style dramas on almost all the major European stages. Her fame was due to three people: Loïe Fuller, August Rodin and Ōgai Mori. A pencil sketch proves that Hanako was drawn nude while dancing by Rodin. Nevertheless, we do not know the circumstances of this occasion. The only description we have is a short story written by Mori in 1910, but this seems to be completely fictional. This paper includes the first Hungarian translation and an analysis of the short story. I focus on the tools that Mori used to place East and West on the same level, avoiding the stereotypes of Japan popular at the time.
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