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Allusion
Explanation and Analysis—Basil Rathbone:
When Mameha and Sayuri follow Hatsumomo to a party thrown by the famous Kabuki actor Shojiro, a long-time patron of Hatsumomo, the novel alludes to British actor Basil Rathbone. When another party guest asks Shojiro if he has heard from "Bajiru-san" recently, it prompts this recollection from Sayuri :
I had no idea who Shojiro was talking about, but Tachibana, the old koto player, was kind enough to explain in a whisper that “Bajiru-san” was the English actor Basil Rathbone—though I’d never heard of him at the time. Shojiro had taken a trip to London a few years earlier and staged a Kabuki performance there. The actor Basil Rathbone had admired it so much that with the help of an interpreter the two of them had developed something of a friendship. Shojiro may have lavished attention on women like Hatsumomo or Mameha, but the fact remained that he was homosexual [...]
Here, a musician at the party reveals that the actor Basil Rathbone is the "Bajiru-San" to whom Shojiro refers. Rathbone was a real actor, who was prominent on both stage and in cinema throughout the middle of the twentieth century. In particular, he was perhaps most famous for portraying Sherlock Holmes many times. The novel's allusion to Rathbone underscores the connections between the artistic and theatrical industries of Japan and the West in the 20th century. Though Kabuki is a distinctly Japanese theatrical style, Shojiro's invitation to perform in London reflects a global interest in traditional Japanese arts and Shojiro's own cosmopolitanism.
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