During the post-World War II recovery period the city of Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, was home to an all-women's theater group.
Established in 1946, the theater group, based in the city's Yoshiwa district, was named Hoshigekidan. It performed plays on stage at theaters and became recognized as a source of entertainment for the fishing community.
In an attempt to uncover the group's history and in hopes of re-enacting a performance in autumn next year as part of an art project, Naho Yokoya, a 43-year-old Tokyo-based artist, has been conducting an oral survey. For the group's performances, female residents in the Yoshiwa district, led by the late Yaeko Kawahara, acted on stage with the support of some men in an unseen capacity backstage. Kawahara passed away last year at the age of 93.
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