What question did this study set out to answer?

The central aim is to explore the intersection of race and performance in early 20th-century Japanese cakewalks.

April 6, 2026

Cakewalks in Kimono: Kawakami Sadayakko, Itō Michio, and the Oscillations of Cross-Racial Performance

Key Points

The central aim is to explore the intersection of race and performance in early 20th-century Japanese cakewalks.
Analyzes performances by Kawakami Sadayakko and Itō Michio
Examines historical context and implications of the cakewalk
Discusses transpacific exchanges in culture and artistry
Both performances reveal complexities of racial imitation and artistic labor
Highlights historical concerns over the exploitation in performance art
Demonstrates the impact of cross-cultural interactions on global art forms

Abstract

Abstract: In 1900, actress Kawakami Sadayakko performed what was billed as a "Japanese Cakewalk," and in 1917, choreographer Itō Michio danced to Claude Debussy's "Golliwog's Cakewalk." In these two "Japanese cakewalks," the complicated and violent history of the cakewalk as a dance of mimicry and coerced entertainment (but also as a tool of modern self-making for Black performers) converged with ongoing imaginaries about Japanese artistry, craft labor, and the global circulation of culture and consumer goods. The essay argues that these performances brought to the fore concerns about aestheticized labor, racial imitation, and corporeal virtuosity as consequences of transpacific exchange.

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