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영어

As part of A Modern history of Noh, this paper set up the research of A Colonial history of Noh by seeking to inquire into the development of Noh and Utai and what kind of Cultural Apparatus they worked as during Japanese colonial rule. The paper highlights how insufficient the research is about the formation of Noh and Utai within the Japanese society in the colonies at the time, and yet the research conditions remain unrevealed. Furthermore, it presents a critical view about how Noh and Utai have settled down as the traditional performing arts, Canon, and used as a device to display the greatness of Japan as a nation-state after 1945 even though they have a history of mobilization for national integration and patriotic service to defend the national polity under the propaganda warfare ‘Japanese spirit/Nihon Seishin’(日本精神、日本精神の国粋) during the total war. It is already revealed that the Yokyoku circles in Colonial Joseon’s Keijyo(Seoul) had begun in December 1905 by the small gathering of the Japanese establishment such as bureaucrat, military officer, teacher and doctor who were sent to Korea due to the foundation of Residency-General practicing Utai because there was no entertainment which satisfied them. Therefore, the colonizer’s movement caused the transference of the performing arts and culture. In Taiwan, where the Japanese colonial rule had begun 15 years earlier than Korea(Great Korean Empire), Yokyoku circles was led by Katsura Roppei(桂六平) from Kita School(喜多流) in 1902. The Japanese faced fierce resistance when they first came to Taiwan in 1895 under the Treaty of Shimonoseki which was crushed by the Japanese sending a division and colonial rule was enforced. This means that Yokyoku circles became active within the Japanese society in Taiwan at an early stage of Japanese colonialism. Interestingly, it was the Noh performance that took place in the Seoul-Busan Railway Opening Ceremony in May 1905 at the present Seoul station square when the Japanese navy defeated the Russian Baltic fleet that invigorated the Yokyoku circles which was insignificant in Colonial Joseon, and similarly, a company of Kita Roppeita(喜多六平太) performing Noh at the Taiwan Shrine in October 1905 was one of the turning points in Colonial Taiwan. Significantly, the first and second overseas performances since the modern age were the two mentioned above. Like Colonial Joseon(Korea), Yokyoku circles was forming very quickly in reaction to the change in power in Colonial Taiwan. Although expanding influence would have been the main objective for each school, Noh and Utai drew a clear line between the ruler and the ruled, the ‘true’ Japanese and the ‘institutional’ Japanese and worked as Cultural Apparatus to select disciplined and competent subjects from the colonies. The beginning and development of Yokyoku circles in the two colonies are very similar because Noh and Utai could not reflect the unique cultural feature of both Joseon and Taiwan, and the leading intelligentsia among the ‘True’ Japanese, especially those who enjoyed Noh and Utai were at the very top of the pyramid in the colonial society. However, the history of Noh and Utai is not recognized in Japan today. They only exist as the performing arts showing the greatness of the nation-state because of their 600-year-old history, which almost makes them valued as an ideology. This structure surrounding the power and cultural art has also been present in other nation-states and enables the observation of the universality of ‘Cultural Power’.