History
Tsubouchi
Shoyo, the first Japanese translator of Shakespeare, once likened Kabuki to a
chimera, the mythical monster with the head of a lion, the body of a goat,
and the tail of a dragon. Shoyo was talking Kabuki’s composite nature,
bringing together dance, drama and music. Kabuki’s enthralling, almost
magical dramatic power still comes from the close interaction between these
elements – music is used to wring pathos from the tragic partings of lovers,
drama and characterisation lend emotional depth to the most visually stunning
of dance pieces, and the fluid movements of dance add an hallucinatory beauty
to the most brutal of murder scenes.
Kabuki’s
history begins in the early seventeenth century when a troupe led by a woman called Izumo no Okuni
first performed on a dry riverbed in Kyoto. They performed exotic communal
dances and risqué skits where women dressed as young toughs would banter with
teahouse girls. Women entertainers were relatively unusual, and Okuni's
outlandish, cross-dressing performances caused a sensation. During the first
years of its existence, many Kabuki performers, both male and female, seem to
have worked as prostitutes offstage.
Over
the course of the seventeenth century, women were gradually banned from the
stage, and Kabuki became an all-male theatre, a tradition still adhered to
today. As plays became more complex, actors began to specialize in particular
role types – the handsome lover, the scheming aristocrat, or the young and
innocent maiden. Acting too became more sophisticated, and two broad styles
can be identified, aragoto (wild
style) and wagoto (soft style). Aragoto was associated with the Ebizo
XI’s ancestor, the famous Danjuro Ichikawa I (1660-1704) and with the
samurai-dominated city of Edo (modern Tokyo). Aragoto heroes are physically strong, impulsive, fierce and
martial. This is reflected in the actors' dramatic, stylized make-up and
costumes, and in their exaggerated poses. In contrast, the mercantile city of
Osaka favored the wagoto style of
acting. Wagoto, brought to
perfection by Tojuro Sakata (1647-1709), was much more realistic than aragoto. Its heroes tended to be young
playboys, quarrelling or making up with their courtesan lovers in the
contemporary pleasure quarters. The main tone of wagoto acting was romantic, tender or humorous.
Today,
kabuki is still a major part of Japan’s theatrical landscape, its mature
master actors and young lions draw healthy crowds to theatre like the
Kabuki-za and Kanamaru-za. Younger actors like Ebizo XI build new audiences
through their work on television and on the non-kabuki stage. While
preserving the traditions of centuries past, kabuki actors also seek to keep
their art alive and in touch with the lives of the audience.
Dance
From its
origins, dance has remained absolutely central to Kabuki. Full-length
dramatic plays would always have a dance interlude that related to the rest
of the story, and traditional dance (nihon
buyo) forms the basis for all actor training.
A major
difference between Japanese and Western dance is that in Kabuki dance is
always accompanied by lyrics. The dancer must interpret not just the rhythm
and melody of the music, but also the literal meaning of the lyrics. Dance
lyrics are often difficult to understand, a dense and fragmented kaleidoscope
of sensitively observed natural images, snatches of dialogue, lines from
popular ditties, and references to classical literature. Like the dance
itself, their meaning lies less in any coherent narrative than in the accumulated
flow of snapshots they present. A sophisticated physical vocabulary has been
developed for images that regularly appear in the lyrics, some grounded in
everyday life and others more abstract. Audiences soon learn to recognize the
hand or fan movements that briefly sketch mountain peaks, cherry petals blown
on a spring breeze, and rising silvery moons.
Music
Kabuki makes
use of a rich range of music and sound effects to add aural colour to the
performances. In dance pieces, vocalist and musicians appear on stage in full
view of the audience, seated on a red dais to the side or back of the stage.
At Sadlers Wells this year, there are in fact two distinct musical genres
represented. The accompaniment for Fuji
Musume is by the lyrical nagauta
school of musicians, while that for Kasane
is by the narrative kiyomoto
musicians. Nagauta ensembles
contain the three-stringed shamisen, as well as drums and flutes, whereas kiyomoto uses just the shamisen.
Hidden from
the audience’s view are another group of musicians known as the geza or kuromiso. They play background music, the melodies of which often
identify the setting for the scene. The geza
musicians also provide Kabuki’s remarkable sound effects – listen out for how
a large drum is used in Kasane to
represent the sound of the rushing river or the eerie appearance of a ghost.
Glossary
agemaku
Curtain at the entrance to the hanamichi (see
below).
aragoto
Highly stylized for of acting. Literally “rough style”.
gakuya
Dressing room, green room.
geza
Hidden
music room stage right. The geza ensemble
is hidden from view in a small room behind a grille stage right and provides
both background music and sound effects.
hanamichi
“Flower path”. The walkway running from the stage through
the audience to the rear of the theatre.
hyoshigi or ki
The
high-pitched wooden clappers used to signal the opening and closing of the
main stage curtain.
jidaimono
A type of kabuki drama based on historical subject, as
opposed to sewamono.
kabuki
ka-bu-ki literally means “song-dance-artistry”, which is
the essence of the art form.
kakegoe
A range of shouts from the musicians or from the audience.
In the case of the musicians the range of different calls are an integral
part of the music and aid to timing.
With the audience, they are cries of encouragement, or appreciation of
particularly elegant acting.
kamishimo
The costume used most frequently in kabuki. It consists of
a wide shouldered shawl (kataginu) over a set of wide overtoursers (hakama).
Both are worn over an outer kimono (kitsuke).
kamite
Upstage (stage left).
keren
Stage tricks.
kiyomoto
A
school of narrative vocal music with shamisen accompaniment, founded in the
early 19th century. The singing is high-pitched and nasal,
frequently with elaborate embellishments.
kumadori
A style of make-up.
mie
A moment of high emotion culminating in an extreme dramatic
pose. The literal meaning of the Japanese characters is “see-do”.
nagauta
One
of the major schools of kabuki music. Unlike kiyomoto, nagauta is
lyrical, its words painting delicate and poetic images rather than telling a
story. Nagauta ensembles frequently
include flute and drum players in addition to the shamisen players.
narimono
A
generic term for the musical ensemble that usually provides accompaniment
from a special room offstage at stage right. For dance plays, the narimono
ensemble, also known as hayashi ,
often appears onstage to the rear of the main performance area.
nichou
A loud double clack from the ki ten to fifteen
minutes before the start of the play.
nohkan
This
flute has its origins in the Noh theatre. Like the takebue it is also made from bamboo, however the construction is
different.
odaiko
Large
Japanese drum, played with drumsticks rather than with the hand. The geza
musicians use the odaiko to
simulate the sound of everything from waves to falling snow to the appearance
of a ghost.
Okuni
The early 17th century
temple dancer to whom the creation of the first kabuki is attributed.
onnagata
Female role played by a male lead.
Literally “female person”.
nagauta
Literally "long song". A for of
accompaniment, which developed the
kabuki around 1740.
roppo
An exaggerated style of exit along
the hanamichi made by the principal character.
sewamono
Domestic dramas or plays dealing
with the lives of ordinary people. Tend to be more naturalistic in style and
rely for their effect as much as on dialogue as on dramatic action. Best
known sewamono are the love-suicide plays of Chikamatsu.
shamisen
Three
stringed Japanese instrument, plucked with an ivory plectrum. Its delicate,
melodic sound is inextricably linked with kabuki.
shichisan
Literally “7-3”. The point 7/10ths
of the way along the hanamichi, which acts as the “power point” where
most of the non-stage based acting or dancing takes place.
Shimote
Downstage (stage right).
shosagoto
Generic term for kabuki dance
plays.
tachiyaku
Leading male roles in the kabuki
repertoire.
takebue
The takebue (sometimes called yokobue or shinobue ), is made from bamboo and is used most frequently in
the odoriji sections of nagauta during which it plays
continuously.
tsuke
Wooden
clappers beaten on a board at the side of the stage to emphasize dramatic
moments on stage.
tsuzumi
Hour-glass
shaped drums, which are struck with the hand.
wagoto
Literally “gentle-style” plays –
more refined and realistic style, as opposed to aragoto.
yago
The system grouping actors into
“guilds” or families. The name was taken from attempt from the actors to gain
some social standing in the community.
Theatres
The
layout of a modern Kabuki theatre would be relatively familiar to the Western
theatergoer, but there are several crucial differences. Most noticeable is
the hanamichi, a narrow raised
runway that extends from stage right to the back of the auditorium. Leading
actors make dramatic entrances and exits along the hanamichi right through the centre of the audience. Another
difference is the striped main stage curtain, which is pulled across to open
instead of being raised or lowered.
The
atmosphere in the theatre however is very different to that in the West End.
Kabuki performances used to run from dawn to dusk, though today they usually
last for around five hours. Theatres thus contain restaurants, snack-bars and
shops, and it is normal to see the audience eating, drinking or talking (or even sleeping!)
during the performances. Kabuki is still very much a
social event, with the audience enjoying the whole experience, not just the plays.
Historically,
Kabuki audiences have had closer relationships with actors than are usual in
Western theatre. In physical terms, the hanamichi
brings the actor to within touching distance of the audience. Kabuki fans
go to the theatre to see particular actors, not plays or directors. A
Westerner viewing Kabuki for the first time may be surprised by shouts (kakegoe) from the audience of actors'
nicknames or other comments when their favourite star appears on stage or at
particularly climactic moments.
Kabuki-za located in Ginza, Tokyo, is the principal Kabuki theatre
in Japan. It opened in 1889 but was
destroyed in a fire in 1921 and though it was rebuilt it was again destroyed
in the Allied bombing during World War II. The theatre was reconstructed,
based on the 1924 structure, which is an example of a Meiji-era construction
using Western materials in traditional Japanese architectural styles. Performances are held nearly every day at
Kabuki-za and tickets are sold for individual act as well as for the play in
its entirety.
Built in
1835, the Kanamaru-za in Kotohira is Japan's oldest surviving,
complete kabuki playhouse and is still infrequently staging kabuki
performances. When no performances are held, the theatre’s audience hall, basement,
stage and backstage including trap doors and a revolving stage can be
explored.
Further reading
James R.
Brandon & Samuel L. Leiter (eds.), Masterpieces
of Kabuki: Eighteen Plays on Stage, University of Hawaii Press, 2004.
Ronald
Cavaye & Paul Griffith, World of
the Japanese Stage: Traditional to Cutting Edge, Kodansha Europe, 2004.
Masakatsu
Gunji, The Kabuki Guide, Kodansha
Europe, 1988.
Laurence R.
Kominz, The Stars Who Created Kabuki:
Their Lives, Loves and Legacy, Kodansha Europe, 1997.
Samuel L.
Leiter, New Kabuki Encyclopedia: A Revised Adaptation of
"Kabuki Jiten, Greenwood
Press, 1997.
Samuel
L. Leiter (ed.), A Kabuki Reader,
M.E. Sharpe, 2001.
William
Malm, Japanese Music and Musical Instruments, Kodansha America, 2001.
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