ABSTRACT
Thread Hell is set in 1939, during the Fifteen-Year War starting from the Manchurian Incident in 1931 and ending with Japan's defeat in the Pacific War in 1945. Thread Hell critiques two forms of women's oppression under the imperial/colonial regime. First, women were the main workers in the spinning industry, which supported Japan's colonial project by helping it to increase foreign-currency holdings. Second, the "good wives, wise mothers" ideology divided women into two groups: those qualified as such and those not. The chapter explores "home" in Kishida Rio's plays, focusing on Ito jigoku and Tsui no sumika, kari no yado: Kawashima Yoshiko den. Kishida Rio was an unusual female playwright/director in Japan. Thread Hell re-signifies Japan's imperial/colonial conception of home within the context of Japan, but Final Home, Temporary Lodging considers it in the context of Asia. The genealogy of Japanese female theatre artists who situate their works in a broader Asian context continues.
