When the role (presence) of a king is being performed in a play, it can be thought that there is the natural, physical body of the actor in addition to the "body politic" and "body natural" required by the part itself. This paper considers how Hitler, an aberrant authority figure, has been dramatically portrayed in postwar Japan, taking the <Nazi-style salute> as a clue.
Use of the salute, which is based on the <Roman salute> adopted in ancient Rome, began after Mussolini started to imitate the salute and Hitler subsequently introduced it in his own country. Its use is prohibited in postwar Germany, so when shown on stage, it is based on the understanding that it is not being used in a public setting.
In postwar Japan, examples that stand out include actors and the playwright himself doing the salute during the curtain call for the first ever performance of Yukio Mishima's Waga Tomo Hittorā (My Friend Hitler) (1969), and the play Nekkyō (Enthusiam) by the Chocolate Cake theater company (first performed in 2012) in which the actor who played Hitler did not copy Hitler's natural gestures (body natural) in his portrayal. In both cases, it made the audience aware of the political unrest in Japan at the time of the performance, and regardless of the time or setting, the Nazi-style salute can be seen to summon the body politic of the aberrant man of power.
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