Minoru Betsuyaku

was one of Japan's most prominent postwar playwrights, novelists, and essayists, associated with the Angura ("underground") theater movement in Japan. He won a name for himself as a writer in the "nonsense" genre and helped lay the foundations of the Japanese "theater of the absurd." His works focused on the aftermath of the war and especially the nuclear holocaust.

Early life Minoru Betsuyaku was born in the Japanese colony of Manchuria in 1937. Betsuyaku's early years were difficult because in addition to experiencing severe deprivation during World War II, his father also died. In July 1946, a year after the sudden Soviet invasion of Manchuria, his mother succeeded in repatriating by ship with her children. The family spent two years in Kōchi, his father's hometown, before moving to Shimizu, Shizuoka, where his mother's family lived. Betsuyaku's family then moved to Nagano, where he finished high school. At this time Betsuyaku hoped to become a painter, but due to his family's strong disapproval, he instead moved to Tokyo in 1958 and enrolled in Waseda University with the intention of becoming a newspaper correspondent. On his first day of classes, an upperclassman suggested that he look into becoming an actor since he was tall. Thus, he joined a drama club called the Jiyu Butai, where he met Tadashi Suzuki, the director who would start the Waseda Little Theater Company with Betsuyaku.

Early career and influences In 1960, Betsuyaku and Suzuki became involved in the Anpo protests against the US–Japan Security Treaty. The pair began producing a political theatre of protest, which eventually evolved into the Waseda Little Theatre Company. This led Betsuyaku to neglect both his studies and his finances, causing him to drop out of Waseda in 1961 due to non-payment of tuition. Around this time, Betsuyaku took a leave of absence from the theatre to become involved in protests against the establishment of a military base on the island of Niijima.

Personal life He left Waseda Little Theatre in 1968, and in 1970 he married actress Yuko Kusunoki, an indispensable partner in many productions of Betsuyaku's work, especially in her small theatre group, the Snail Theatre Group Katatsumuri no Kai (1978–1799). In 1971 a daughter was born.

Awards 1968 – 13th "New Theatre" Kishida Kunio Drama Award ("The Little Match Girl" and "A Scene With A Red Bird") 1971 – Kinokuniya Theater Award ("A Town and a Blimp" and "Alice in Wonderland") 1972 – "New Artist" Award of the Ministry of Education's Selected Artists Encouragement Awards ("The Revolt of the Breeze Tribe") 1987 – Yomiuri Literature Award ("The Story of the Two Knights Traveling Around the Country" and other plays) 1988 – Minister of Education Award for the Arts ("Giovanni's Journey to His Father") 1997 – Cultural Award of Hyogo Prefecture 1998 – Special Award of the 39th Mainichi Art Award 2007 – Kinokuniya Theater Award ("Godot Has Come" and "If a Dog Turns to the West, Its Tail Faces the East") 2008 – 11th Tsuruya Nanboku Play Award and the Asahi Award ("Godot Has Come")

Famous works (A and B and a Certain Woman) This is a work that shows a fight resulting from unidentified animosity and feelings of inferiority between two men A and B who deride each other and argue.

(The Little Match Girl) It is about a woman paying a visit to the home of an ordinary middle-class elderly couple. She makes a claim that she was the daughter of the couple. She brings herself a younger brother and her children to the house. It is a work that criticizes the postwar attitude of pretending that the war had never happened.

(The Elephant) The Elephant is one of his most famous plays and was first presented by Jiyu Butai (Free Stage). It is a story about a patient who is a victim of the atomic bombing with a strange desire to show off his scar in order to get sympathy and applause from his audiences. His nephew tries to stop him and convince him that the audience neither loves, hates, nor cares about the atomic bombing victims. Additionally, he tries to convince his uncle that victims should suffer their pain in silence. These contradicting characters depict how victims of war deal with their pain.

I Am Alice Alice lives in a country where a republican government and a monarchy exist simultaneously. Alice is then given double sentences of exile by these two organizations. Alice rediscovers her true identity during exile and tells the world, "I Am Alice": the theme is that a person must rediscover their true self.

(A story told in numbers – the end of the "let's die group") Seven men and women have gathered for "Rite of Death by Starvation". They isolated themselves with the intention of dying, but they must starve together as a group.

Godot Has Come – Godot Has Come is based on Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot". The story is about two men, Estragon and Vladimir, who wait for a person named Godot. Godot Has Come features the same characters and plot as Waiting for Godot, with an added twist. There are two women who meet Estragon and Vladimir while waiting for Godot. Before long, Godot does arrive. He looks like a traveler, wearing a trench coat and carrying a suitcase and an umbrella. He lets everybody know that he is Godot and that he has arrived. But by the time Estragon and Vladimir hear the news, they already have their hands full with other things to do. It turns out that the lady waiting for the bus may be Estragon's mother and that the child carried by the other woman may be Vladimir's son. The characters are depicted as being so busy with their real lives that they forget what or who they are waiting for. thumb