Ren Saito (斎藤憐): Where Music Meets History

Introduction

Ren Saito (斎藤憐, 1940--2011) was a playwright whose unique gift lay in his ability to weave together music, history, and human drama into theatrical experiences of extraordinary warmth and vitality. His receipt of the 24th Kishida Kunio Drama Award in 1980 for Shanghai Bansuking (上海バンスキング) recognized not only a single outstanding work but a theatrical vision that was unlike anything else in Japanese drama. Shanghai Bansuking went on to become one of the most frequently performed plays in Japan, a beloved classic that has been revived by theater companies across the country for more than four decades.

Early Life and Career

Born in 1940, Saito grew up in postwar Japan during a period of rapid social change. His early exposure to music---both Japanese popular music and Western jazz---would prove decisive for his artistic development. Where other playwrights of his generation were drawn to political theory or literary philosophy as the foundations of their theatrical work, Saito found his inspiration in the rhythms, melodies, and emotional directness of popular song.

He became involved in theater during the 1960s and quickly established himself as a writer with a distinctive voice. While many of his contemporaries in the angura (underground) movement were moving toward abstraction, fragmentation, and confrontation, Saito was drawn to storytelling, character, and the kind of emotional engagement that music naturally provides.

Saito was associated with the On-Theater Jiyu Gekijo (オンシアター自由劇場), a company that shared his commitment to combining music and drama. This collaboration provided him with a company of skilled actor-musicians who could realize his vision of a theater in which song and speech, melody and dialogue, were woven seamlessly together.

The Kishida Prize-Winning Work

Shanghai Bansuking (上海バンスキング), which won the 24th Kishida Kunio Drama Award in 1980, is Saito's masterpiece and one of the most beloved plays in the modern Japanese repertoire. The title is a playful coinage combining "Shanghai" with "bansuking," a Japanese slang term (from the English "bums king") referring to someone who lives by their wits, a charming drifter.

The play is set in the jazz clubs and back alleys of Shanghai during the 1930s and 1940s, following a group of Japanese jazz musicians who have made their way to the cosmopolitan Chinese city in search of artistic freedom and adventure. Through their story, Saito explores themes of artistic passion, cultural exchange, the bonds of friendship, and the ways in which ordinary people are swept up in the great currents of history.

The Shanghai of the play is a city of extraordinary vitality and danger---a melting pot of Chinese, Japanese, Western, and other cultures, where jazz clubs flourished alongside opium dens and revolutionary cells. Against this backdrop, the musicians pursue their art with a dedication that is both heroic and quixotic, knowing that the world around them is on the brink of catastrophe but unable to stop playing the music that gives their lives meaning.

What makes Shanghai Bansuking unique is its integration of live music into the dramatic structure. The jazz performances are not incidental to the story; they are the story. The music expresses what the characters cannot say in words---their joy, their sorrow, their defiance, their love. When the musicians play, the audience experiences the emotional truth of their lives with an immediacy that conventional dialogue alone could not achieve.

The play was an enormous hit upon its premiere and has been revived hundreds of times by theater companies throughout Japan. Its combination of humor, warmth, musical excitement, and historical depth has made it a perennial favorite with audiences of all ages.

Theatrical Style and Philosophy

Saito's theatrical approach is distinguished by several key qualities:

Music as Drama: In Saito's theater, music is not accompaniment or decoration; it is a fundamental dramatic element, as important as dialogue or action. His plays require performers who can sing and play instruments as well as act, and the musical performances are integral to the storytelling.

Historical Humanism: Saito's historical plays are driven by a deep sympathy for ordinary people caught up in extraordinary circumstances. He was less interested in the great political and military events of history than in the ways in which those events affected the lives of individuals---their friendships, their loves, their daily struggles.

Warmth and Humor: Unlike many of his contemporaries in the Japanese theater world, who favored irony, distance, or confrontation, Saito wrote with genuine warmth and humor. His characters are likable, their struggles are sympathetic, and their small victories are celebrated. This emotional generosity gives his plays a broad popular appeal without sacrificing artistic integrity.

Cultural Exchange: Saito was fascinated by the encounters between different cultures---Japanese and Chinese, Eastern and Western, traditional and modern. His plays explore these encounters with curiosity and sympathy, finding in cultural exchange a source of creativity and human connection rather than conflict.

The Ensemble: Saito's plays are ensemble pieces, distributing dramatic interest across a group of characters rather than focusing on a single protagonist. This reflects his belief that theater, like music, is fundamentally a collaborative art.

Major Works

In addition to Shanghai Bansuking, Saito's significant dramatic works include:

• Shanghai Bansuking (上海バンスキング) (1979) --- The Kishida Prize-winning masterpiece about jazz musicians in wartime Shanghai.
• Kirin no Kuni (麒麟の国) --- A historical drama exploring cultural encounters in Asia.
• A Drifter's Paradise --- A play about wanderers and dreamers, combining music and storytelling.
• The Band Plays On --- A continuation of themes from Shanghai Bansuking, exploring the lives of musicians in changing times.
• Sleepy Town Blues --- A musical drama set in small-town Japan, exploring the relationship between community and individual aspiration.
• Night Market Shanghai --- Another exploration of the vibrant world of prewar Shanghai.

Saito also wrote for film and television, adapting his theatrical sensibility to other media.

Legacy and Influence

Ren Saito passed away on December 26, 2011, at the age of 71. His death was felt keenly in the Japanese theater world, which lost in him a playwright of rare warmth and originality.

Saito's greatest legacy is Shanghai Bansuking itself, which has become a fixture of the Japanese theatrical repertoire. The play has been performed by professional and amateur companies alike, in venues ranging from major commercial theaters to small community halls. Its enduring popularity testifies to the universal appeal of its themes and the power of its integration of music and drama.

Beyond this single work, Saito influenced the broader development of musical theater in Japan. His demonstration that live music could be woven into dramatic storytelling in ways that were organic rather than artificial opened up possibilities that subsequent playwrights and directors have continued to explore.

For international audiences, Saito's work offers a fascinating glimpse into the cultural crosscurrents of early twentieth-century Asia, when jazz, revolution, and colonial ambition intersected in the great cities of the Pacific Rim. His plays remind us that history is not only about nations and ideologies but about the music people play, the friendships they form, and the small acts of courage and creativity that sustain them through difficult times.

How to Experience Their Work

To explore the musical world of Ren Saito's plays, visit our script search page to search for available scripts. Shanghai Bansuking is the essential starting point---a play that will reward any company willing to assemble a cast of actor-musicians and immerse themselves in the jazz-infused world of 1930s Shanghai. Saito's plays are published in Japanese and are widely available through theater publishers. For companies with musical talent and a love of history, Saito's work offers some of the most joyful and emotionally satisfying theater in the Japanese repertoire.