Japanese Themed Yuenchi: Edo Wonderland, Toei Movie Studio

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Academic Disclaimer: This blog is a class project for my Visual Anthropology class; as such it is for educational purposes only. All photos posted here are taken by myself unless otherwise noted.

Performer in Jubei show at Edo Wonderland.

Performer at Jubei show at Edo Wonderland.

Japan offers a wide variety of theme parks (yuenchi) that are completely unique to its culture. Many of its theme parks are historically focused and reanimate Warring states Sengoku or Edo Japan (for example). Using the theme park a stage, the staff then use costumes and use the staff as performers to create the effect that the guests have traveled back in time to pre-industrial Japan. In Nikko's Edo Wonderland, performers suddenly fill the streets to tell the story of popular folk hero Yagyu Jubei Mitsuyoshi. After a brief confrontation scene between clans, the performers urge passersby to follow them to the stage for then final showdown.

Toei Movie Studio in Kyoto offers a
dress up and photo service.
Here I am posing as a member of
the Shinsengumi during Japan's
Bakumatsu jidai.

Toei Movie Studio in Kyoto is another example of an amazing history-themed park. Kyoto, which used to be Japan's capital city before the reign of Emperor Meiji is the perfect location of this theme park/movie set. Toei is the stage for many Japanese TV dramas and films and as such is completely old school Japan themed. Many history classes and students come to visit and I had my photo taken with many who were interested to see a foreigner dressed like a member of the Shinsengumi. I was also able to watch a sample drama on a sound stage including a fight between a member of the Shinsengumi and a ninja; sadly for me the ninja emerged victorious.

Ninja stealthily crawls across the sky as I leave
Toei Movie Studio.