Thank you for visiting the 2022 Special Exhibition ‘Words, words, words. ——Kazuko Matsuoka and Her Translation of Shakespeare’s Plays’ at the Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum, Waseda University.
The museum has held exhibitions on various themes related to theatre in Japan and around the world. Recent exhibitions that we have held on William Shakespeare (1564–1616), the great British playwright and poet, include the special exhibition ‘Finding Shakespeare’ in 2012 and the commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, ‘Sao Fukko (Renaissance of Shakespeare)——From Shoyo to NINAGAWA’ in 2016. Today, Shakespeare’s plays are popular all over the world, including Japan, not only through theatre but through a wide range of genres such as opera, ballet, music, art, film, drama, manga, and animation.
The existence of ‘translation’ is indispensable when considering the reception of Shakespeare in Japan. In 2020, translator and theatre critic Kazuko Matsuoka became the third Japanese, after Shoyo Tsubouchi and Yuushi Odashima, and the first woman to complete the translation of Shakespeare’s 37 plays. There have been various special features on Ms. Matsuoka’s work in newspapers, television, and magazines, but this is the first time that an exhibition in Japan has focused on her translations. We hope that you will be able to understand the appeal and significance of Ms. Matsuoka’s translations of Shakespeare’s plays, ‘Living in the Present’.
Finally, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to everyone who cooperated in holding this exhibition.
The Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum, Waseda University
