Mahābhārata Senki (review)

Abstract

As part of the celebration for the 60th anniversary of the 1957 cultural agreement between Japan and India, a Hindu masterpiece was adapted for the Japanese audience in 2017. Mahābhārata Senki (The War Chronicles of the Mahabharata) demonstrates the extent to which kabuki theatre has reinvented itself and yet remains an integral part of Japanese tradition. The play’s opening scene presents a visual treat as spectators are wonderstruck by the transformation of kabuki and its age-old repertoires into a foreign atmosphere depicting the garden of heaven. The splendid mise-en-scène of act 1, scene 1, reveals an assembly of the Hindu gods Surya, Indra, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, who are all solemnly seated, wearing resplendent kathakali-style costumes and glittery makeup, typical of the Indian dance-drama form (Fig. 1). The Indian epicMahabharata, which depicts the power struggles between two branches of a royal family, the Pandavas and the Kauravas, has found expression in various versions of drama, literature, theatre, and film, including Peter Brook’s stage play and subsequent film in the 1980s. Shochiku’s grand kabuki is adapted from an earlier Indian storyline. In theMahabharata, Karna, the son of Surya (the Sun God), and Arjuna, the son of Indra (the God of Lightning), are born to the same mother, Princess Kunti (who later becomes the queen of Hastinapura