Akimoto Matsuyo

At 90 years old, Akimoto Matsuyo physical status not available right now. We will update Akimoto Matsuyo's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

In 1945 at the age of 34 she became a student at the Drama Workshop Gikyoku Kenkyū (The Society of Drama Study) which was founded by leftist playwright Miyoshi Jūrō (1902-1958), a leading playwright of the time. Not only did Miyoshi encourage Akimoto to write professionally, but he also inspired her. While, Akimoto disregarded comments that pertained to her as a disciple of Miyoshi, she was nevertheless influenced by his works of humanism, communism, and nationalism. In 1947 she debuted A Sprinkling of Dust with Miyoshi’s expertise.

At the age of 35 and end of WWII, she became a professional playwright. She wrote for major shingeki companies, and even got to run her own company Theatre Troupe Engekza from 1967-1970. Akimoto wrote her plays in a realist style with a focus on interpersonal family relationships.

"I want to use dialect in such a way that when hearing the dialogue, any person from the above areas will feel that is the language of their area…I feel that is a form of dialogue that people from Tokyo and other areas far away can understand and relate to" - Akimoto

However, in her later plays she strayed from her realists approach and switched to a shamaness style that incorporated dark poetry in order to capture her vision on how she saw the Japanese community of her time. This can be seen in her award-winning masterpiece Kaison of Priest of Hitachi (1967 translated 1988) where the dialogue was used to present Japan's postwar culture. Her interest in human suffering and her compassion for those who suffer no doubt reflected her own experience as a child.

A recurring theme in many of Akimoto's work is the human quest for redemption. This theme can happen in several of ways: redemption from feeling guilty or ashamed, from affliction of physical or emotional suffering, from exploitation, or from death. Redemption is a consistent theme in all of Akimoto's works that in any play you will find that the main character is searching for some way to release themselves and others from what is holding them back from their quest. Many of Akimoto's main characters encounter either a social, political, or religious entity to guide them in their quest for redemption, but one of these systems obstructs them from doing so. By shining light on Japan's government through these types of references in her plays Akimoto was able to warn the Japanese community that the government does not want them to find redemption, but wanted their support in their pre-war empire efforts.

Source