ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how translator Hashimoto Fukuo attempted to address the politics of Blues for Mister Charlie and its Japanese translation in 1966; what changes he made in his 1971 revised translation; and how director Yabuuchi Rokuro and Tokyo Geijutsuza approached the play as translation theatre. The language of the playwright, and James Baldwin's intentions, must be seen then as deliberately mutable and provocative, and in examining Blues for Mister Charlie in Japanese translation, semantic slippage and cultural assumptions including gender issues will continue to be in play. The chapter pays close attention to the particular challenges of translating the play's complex mix of English's spoken in the south by both black and white Americans; in the streets of Harlem; in the courtroom and in the black Christian church. The Emperor Jones is a play with the title role written for a black actor which is performed by a troupe, using a translation by Honda Mitsuji.
