seito (生徒): literally, "student"

This is the term that the Takarazuka uses to refer to all of its actresses. They are all considered students, even after they debut; and when they retire from the Takarazuka they are said to "graduate." Kobayashi Ichizou deliberately set up this terminology to reinforce the idea that the revue was not meant to be a career, but rather an education, after which the girls should be encouraged to marry and start a real life as wives and mothers. Though the revue seems to have drifted from this ideal, and many seito do make it their career, the terminology remains.


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