Hanako (
1868-
1945) was a
Japanese stage actress who captivated
European and
American audiences in the early 20th century. Audiences believed she was an acclaimed leading lady in
Japan, but in reality she was a vaudeville performer who had never acted in her native country.
She was born Ota Hisa and was a thirty-three year old entertainer in the city of
Gifu when she joined a company of performers and suddenly sailed with them for
Copenhagen in
1901. She probably would have remained in obscurity, like all the other Japanese variety players who toured
Europe, if she hadn’t been discovered by American dancer
Lori Fuller. Fuller had grown weary of financing the company of real Japanese actress
Sada Yacco, so she recruited Hisa’s group and installed Hisa, a minor bit player, as the star, christening her "Hanako".
Fuller, with no knowledge of Japanese language or culture, wrote faux-Japanese dramas like "The Martyr" and "A Drama at
Yoshiwara" for Western audiences which featured Hanako as the lead. At the end of each play, Hanako was featured in a melodramatic death scene, such as her committing
hari-kiri or being strangled by a jealous lover.
Audiences on two continents ate this stuff up. Her skills as an actress were lacking, but she must have had a powerful stage presence, which accounted for the success of an actress who performed only in Japanese or broken
English. One of her most ardent admirers was the great sculptor
Auguste Rodin, who was quite taken with her and sculpted several masks of her face. (See one at http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pimage?92163+0+0)
World War I forced Hanako to stop touring and settle in
London, where she opened a restaurant in
Dorset Square.
Kogetsu was as close as you were going to get to an authentic Japanese restaurant in Europe, and was honored by a visit by then crown prince
Hirohito.
In
1922, she returned to Gifu, Japan to retire, where she lived with her sister. She lived the rest of her life in relative obscurity, only bothered by artists admiring the two masks given to her by Rodin and the occasional reporter.
Hanako was the subject of a
1910 short story by the great Japanese author
Mori Ogai. The story shouldn’t be viewed as biographical, as he departs radically from the facts. He uses the relationship between Hanako and Rodin to examine Hanako’s allure.
Source: Donald Keene, Appreciations of Japanese Culture, 1971.