Less than a century ago, Europe and America had to rely solely on art works, Japanesque parodies, and a few first-person reports for their total knowledge of Japanese theater. And theater might have lagged behind the plastic arts even more had it not been for Otojiro Kawakami (1864-1911) and Sada Yakko (1871-1945), pioneers who opened western eyes to Japanese theater, and Japanese doors to western imports. So vast and deep were their achievements that many remain unprecedented to this day. They were instrumental in creating Japan's first political theater, "docudramas," and children's theater. They led the first Japanese theater company abroad, touring extensively in America and Europe in 1899-1901 to provide the West its first glimpse of Japanese theater. They built the Japan's first western-style theater, implemented numerous managerial forms, and founded a school for actresses. Yet they have rarely been given their due. Bowers calls Kawakami a "sensational charlatan," while Japanese historians often treat him as a blowhard and clown, a necessary but trivial stepping-stone from kabuki to shingeki ("new theater"), the western-style modern theater.

Jonah Salz, “Intercultural Pioneers: Otojiro Kawakami and Sada Yakko”