Professor Risley and the Imperial Japanese Troupe by Frederik L. Schodt

Author:Frederik L. Schodt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stone Bridge Press
Published: 2012-10-30T00:00:00+00:00

New York and the Imperials’Acts

After their publicity coup in the nation’s capital, the troupe returned to Baltimore, performed at the Maryland Institute again for a few nights, and then moved on to the entertainment capital of nineteenth-century America—New York. With a then-huge population of nearly one million, New York was not only the largest city in North America but the most sophisticated and the most connected to the cultural centers of Europe. Like the citizens of Philadelphia and Washington, New Yorkers had been previously exposed to official Japanese culture. When the first government mission from Tokyo had arrived in 1860, the city had nearly swooned. There had been elaborate parades and receptions for the samurai officials; otherwise-respectable Caucasian women had fallen scandalously in love with their young interpreter, nicknamed “Tommy”; and Walt Whitman had even written a poem about the visit. But this time, as commoners and entertainers, the visitors seemed even more exotic.

As had been true in Washington, there was no lack of competition in New York in May. There was P. T. Barnum’s museum and menagerie, and there were operas, minstrel shows, plays, panoramas, and even the New York Circus. But this time the Imperials had finally secured one of the city’s more coveted venues—the newly renovated and huge Academy of Music on 14th and Irving. And now Risley was also able to advertise in local papers that the Imperials had been declared “The Wonder of the World” based on their reception not just in San Francisco, but in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. In Washington, he could proclaim, they had created “A Perfect Furore” and “been witnessed with marked demonstrations of approbation and delight by the President and family, Gen. Grant, the foreign Ministers, heads of Departments and overwhelming audiences.”23

When the Imperials debuted on May 6, they did not disappoint. As a New York Times reviewer put it the next day:

People came here with great expectations, predicated upon wonderful reports that had come to them from San Francisco and other places that had witnessed the marvelous works of the Imperial Japanese Troupe, whom Prof. Risley has kindly persuaded to tarry with us for a few weeks en route to the Paris Exhibition; but we risk nothing in asserting that of all that vast assemblage (there must have been at least 3,000 persons in the house,) if there was one individual who went away unwilling to confess that the promises made in the small bills were not more than redeemed, he ought to emigrate from this to some other sphere, where, possibly, there is something left to astonish him.24

The Imperials had a nearly two-month run in New York, where they were sold out nearly every night and crowds had to be turned away. In the process they became a national phenomenon in a still young and recently divided nation. But what sort of acts did the Japanese introduce that so drove the Americans wild? The New York Post ran one of the best summaries of the performances at the Academy, with a long article titled “An Evening with the Jugglers.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.