Close-ups

Bonaventura Ruperti
Japanese and Korean languages and literature

What do you teach at Ca’ Foscari? What are your main research interests? 
I have been teaching Japanese since 1992 and coordinate the teaching of Japanese with the valuable and irreplaceable help of Foreign Language Assistants and colleagues who have joined me over time.
I also teach/taught courses in "History of Japanese Theatre" and "Japanese Art, Architecture and Performing Arts" and the world of Japanese performing arts is my favourite field of research.
I studied at Ca' Foscari with Adriana Boscaro and Paola Cagnoni and I went to Japan with a Monbushō scholarship to Waseda in Tokyo, a prestigious university, famous for its great tradition of studies in theatre and for its Theatre Museum. Here I attended MA courses and conducted research on puppet theatre (ningyō jōruri) and kabuki, with two great specialists, Professor Uchiyama Mikiko and Professor Torigoe Bunzō. Back in Italy, I joined our University's PhD programme in Oriental Studies with the Orientale University in Naples and focused on Izumi Kyōka (1873-1939), an original writer of modern novels and theatre, which became another area of research. Later, as a university researcher, I returned to Waseda for seven months as a fellow of the Japan Foundation in 1994-5 and returned to the field of traditional theatre (the quotations from nō theatre in the puppet theatre plays of Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1724)). And it is Japanese theatre that I continue to focus on, especially traditional genres (nō, kyōgen, puppet theatre, kabuki) but also modern and contemporary theatre. In 2004-5 I spent a year as a visiting professor at the National Institute of Japanese Literature in Tokyo. In 2015-16, for one year, at Nichibunken (International Research Centre for Japanese Studies) in Kyoto, I was coordinator of a research project I proposed, The Body in the Japanese Performing Arts - Death and Life, puppet and artificial bodies, with 23 Japanese specialists from various performing arts genres; in this research group, besides general coordination, I dealt with the issue of the body, especially in traditional Japanese dance.
As I move forward, I have a lot of projects in the pipeline that I hope to gradually find the time to complete.

What led you to pursue a research career? What are you most passionate about in your field of study? 
Ever since I was a child, I have been passionate about music and performing arts, musical theatre, opera and dance, but also about Japan, and when, after classical studies, I chose oriental languages (and Ca' Foscari), the decisive factor was meeting Paola Cagnoni, who had a burning passion for theatre and especially nō theatre.
For my dissertation, I was particularly interested in puppet theatre after seeing a documentary film of a play by Chikamatsu Monzaemon at the Venice Film Festival, when I was a student. Then, when I went to Japan in 1981, with a prize trip offered by the Japan Foundation to one student representing each country, I was enchanted by the performances, including kabuki, I saw in Tokyo and Kyoto... and from there my journey was further motivated.
Japan has a tradition and richness in performing arts that perhaps only Italy can match. These are forms of entertainment that have always played a key and prestigious role in the country's social and cultural life. They are performances and traditions of "total theatre" in which poetry, song, music, gesture and dance come together as equals in an ensemble that is often dissimilar depending on the genre, but always in an aesthetic form of great charm, in which discipline, skill and virtuosity combine with refinement, minimalism, humility and respect for the audience and produce great emotions. Especially in traditional genres, they avoid "verbal supremacy", the annoying wordiness or the boring arrogance that some performances in Europe or America sometimes display, not only live but also in cinema and television, which overwhelms the audience.
Traditional theatres are extremely interesting, but contemporary Japan is always in the forefront too, offering innovative stimuli and imaginative views, ahead of mainstream international trends.
Apart from studying the history, drama, languages and subjects of expression of each genre, I am also passionate about organising, presenting, translating (surtitling) and other live performances in Italy. The events where I participated/worked, even though they required a lot of effort, have always given me enormous satisfaction and I believe that the Italian public has also highly appreciated them.

What does teaching at the university mean to you?
I believe that teaching in schools, at all levels, is vital for any country or society, that educating children and young boys and girls is a very precious task, but that it is a "role" or "job" that is too little recognised in Italy (under all aspects). Even in the University, which is first and foremost research and higher education, other aspects of our role are emphasised under the spell of competitive models, which in my opinion are of little value. Although I may also have some organisational and management skills, I have never applied for "prestigious" external positions, I have never applied to direct cultural institutes (in Japan or elsewhere), nor have I wasted my energies on other more glamorous positions, because I believe that teaching and research at the University have priority. I believe that my position here is important enough and it is and remains one of the aspects, along with research, that gives me the greatest satisfaction. For me, the love for the disciplines I work on and the relationship with students, in mutual learning - because I learn a lot and keep learning from them too - are and remain the most beautiful aspects of our job.

You work in a department dealing with non-European worlds: what does working on cultural diversity mean to you in an increasingly interconnected world?
Meeting the other is crucial in the development of each of us. Besides knowing history, which is all too often neglected, we need to "see the world" not just as tourists, not just with our eyes, but trying to understand and experience it... which means study before, during and after the trip but, above all, living there.
This should completely change your outlook, your view of the world. It is an essential educational moment, whatever the discipline - whether you want to work in a laboratory, in archaeological excavations, in growing a garden or farming, on a sea voyage, in an export office, in a factory or a workshop, in a restaurant or at a hotel front desk...
For my field, Japanese performing arts, it is clear that watching and experiencing live performances is unavoidable. You cannot write or speak about Japanese theatre and performance just by reading the plays: in my studies, I always combine reading ancient or modern texts with watching performances, staging, something I have tried to collect over the years through yearly trips and stays in Japan.

Last update: 27/02/2024