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DWAINE J. POTTS
THEATRE HISTORY II
LOFTON DURHAM III
FEB 8 2016
HISTORY OF KABUKI THEATRE
Kabuki theatre is a cultural stable in modern day Japan, but its
roots date back to the late 17th century. The name Kabuki comes
from the adjective kabuku which means off center, a fitting way to
describe Kabuki theatre because it draws from several different
eastern performance styles including No, Kyogen and Bunraku. Kabuki
theatre has survived for four centuries because, unlike the forms of
theatre that were only performed for the elite of Japan, it has catered
to the common people and conformed to popular demand through the
years.

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Izumo no Okuni is often credited with being the first Kabuki

performer. Okunis life as a performer began as a Miko, at the Izumo
shrine, one of the largest and oldest in Japan. A Miko is virgin temple
maiden whose social status is equal to that of a priest working in the
same shrine. Among her many duties as a Miko, Okuni was required to
go into various cities and perform ceremonial dances to solicit money
for the shrine. The purpose of the ceremonies that Okuni performed in
was to pacify or exercise evil spirits. The dances themselves were very,
solemn and reverent; an example would the Miko Kagura. The Miko
Kagura is a ceremony originally performed by a goddess to convince
the goddess of the dawn to return her light to the world.
The origins of Kabuki as related to Izumo no Okuni is that while
on a trip to Kyoto, Japanabout 222 miles from her Shrine in Izumo
Okuni performed Japanese folk dances such as Nembutsu Odori.
Nembutsu Odori was originally a ceremonial Buddhist dance but by
Okunis time the dance was considered to be secular. In comparison to
the Miko Kagura, dances like the Nembutsu Odori was faster, more
exciting and energizing, something a youthful girl would have a fun
time performing.

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When it was time for Okuni to return to the shrine at Izumo she
decided to stay in Kyoto and be a performer. There is little to no
evidence that suggests why Okuni did not return to her home and to
her family only that in 1603 Okuni began recruiting outcast women and
prostitutes into her acting troupe and trained them in singing, dancing,
and acting.
Prostitutes at the time were comprised of young women and
young boys. Though it is believed to be true that the very first kabuki
troupes were comprised of female prostitutes, by the year 1612, male
prostitutes also began to form troupes. These young boys fit well into
the kabuki style of performance because they had soft feminine
features. In fact, the male and female troupes would compete against
one another.
Kabuki performers would cross dress to mock samurai culture.
For example, men would sometimes wear short skirts and sensual
dresses to put on lewd sideshows, while women would adorn
themselves in samurai garments to mock the professional soldiers
directly.

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Common people loved these satirical adaptions because like

many forms of theatre, they made fun of the people in power. This
made commoners feel equal to their superiors. Being able to laugh at
ones superiors is powerful and the samurai were not ignorant to this
fact; therefore, as Kabuki performances began to grow in popularity, it
should come as no surprise that the Samurai did not find the shows
amusing. This negative attention would prove to be restricting for the
performance form.
To better understand how much influence the samurai had on the
Japanese culture, one must understand a bit of history. Prior to the
beginning of Kabuki, Japan had been plagued by civil wars for a little
over a century. When the fighting had subsided and Japan had reached
a state of peace, the Emperor of Japan declared Tokugawa Ieyasu to be
the Shogun, the Supreme Military Ruler. It was the duty of the Shogun
to enforce law and order, and keep the peace.

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Ieyasu knew that something had to be done. The blatant

disrespect of the Samurai class, and the mass participation in
prostitution were dishonorable and had to come to an end. This
dishonor reflected negatively on the Shoguns reputation; however, he
did understand that putting an outright ban or stop on kabuki
performances would cause a greater upheaval in the common class
than what he would have wanted. As a response in 1629 the shogun
placed a ban on onna-kabuki kabuki performed by women-. However,
the laws did not hold up when they were first issued and had to be
reissued in both the 1630s and the 1640s. Once the ban on onnakabuki did begin to really hold the effects of the ban were not what
Ieyasu had expected.
Once the bans on Onna-Kabuki began to hold firm the
performance form was mainly produced by young male prostitutes.
Seeing that kabuki would be harder to stamp out than initially thought
the Tokugowa shogunate placed a ban on wakashu-Kabuki
--performance of Kabuki by young boysin 1652.

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After these restrictions were put in place Kabuki could only be

performed by middle aged men. This change in principle performer
sparked Kabukis transition from raunchy sideshow to becoming a high
art form as it is today. No longer would the kabuki performances be put
on in taverns they would take their rightful place on a real stage.
Early Kabuki theatres were different from the European stages
from the same time period in many ways. One such way was the
hanamichi, a runway which spanned from the front of the stage to the
back of house. It was a useful convention that allowed actors to walk
through the audience when making entrances and exits, or deliver a
major speech standing in its midst. Some Kabuki houses had a second
hanamichi which ran through the right portion of the house. A second
hanamichi provided staging options for characters in different locations
to share a scene together, in a similar way to how movies have
montages with characters saying lines in relation to each other but not
together.

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Another key feature of Kabuki house was the Mawari Butai,

which was a portion of the floor that was with the rest of the stage and
would rotate in order to change the scenery. The settings were
primarily set using kakiwari, which were extravagant paintings of
locations similar to the western backdrop; however, while the western
world was concerned with realism and drop-point perspective, the
kabuki scenic artists were trying to capture locations in a way that was
more beautiful than reality. The mechanics of Kabuki houses were
operated by Stagehands called Kurogo. As theatre technology has
progressed over the centuries one of the biggest changes in the kabuki
play house is its size.
The stories told in early Kabuki post wakashu-kabuki restrictions
come greatly from stories Noh and Bunraku plays. One such play is
Chushingura or, The Treasury of Loyal Retainers.

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The Treasury of Loyal Retainers was written by: Takeda Izumo, Miyoshi
Shoraku, Namiki Senryu with English translation by Yukio Mishima.
Originally a Bunraku puppet play performed over the course of ten to
twelve hours when performed in its entirety. The play opens with the
narrator setting the location, time period and the historic events that
have previously occurred. Proclaiming honor and glory on the
Ashikaga. The narrator is a useful device in the bunraku style because
only so much information can be transmitted via puppetry and having
a human fill in the subtext is very useful. However if the play is being
mounted on the Kabuki stage the play has little need for a narrator
because with actors there is more clear use on the facial expression
and physical gestures used to relay plot and subtext.

As Kabuki grew older new stories were developed but for the
most part the inspiration for these stories came from folklore or from
other eastern forms. For a long time the stories were made by the
troupe of actors with the lead actor having the greatest influence on
the playwriting. It was not until the second half of the eighteenth
century that the role of the playwright became more prominent but
unlike in bunraku puppet plays the role of the playwright was greatly
overshadowed in the actor centered world of Kabuki theatre.

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Kabuki actors were trained to master forms or patterns of

stylized movement known as kata. Katas or acting styles were passed
down family lines. For Walking alone there is a large array of kata. An
example being ropo which is a unique way of walking using large
gestures in which the left foot moves forward with the left hand to
express powerful emotions. The movements of female characters come
heavily from Noh theatre.
Noh theatre originated during the 14th century in Japan and a
piece of Noh theatre continued to be performed even during the
periods which Kabuki theatre reached its greatest heights of popularity.
Kabuki did not outshine Noh theatre because noh theatre was
considered a high art form loved by the shogun and members of
Japans elite classes, while Kabuki was seen as an art form for the
common people because of its sensual and comic nature. Even the
1

ideographs of Kabuki, Ka (Song), bu (dance) ki (prostitute), lead us to

believe that Kabuki could be quiet the scandalous performance form in

its time. Noh theatre was considered noble because it had backing that
dated back to the Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu.
The styles of performance that Kabuki borrows its form from all
have a specific style to them however Kabuki it self does not, it has
multiple resembling the forms that it borrows from. Three basic types

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of instruments in kabuki are the noensemble of drums and flute known

as the hayashi; Kabuki's percussion ensemble known as narimono,
consisting of large drums, gongs, bells and other percussion
instruments for sound effects; the shamisen which is a three stringed
lute instrument with a long neck played by plucking the stings. In
modern Kabuki productions instrumentation consists mostly of
percussion, shamisen and singers. The group of musicians make up
kabuki's basic musical grouping, are called geza, which translates to
lower seat. Geza musicians perform nagauta (long song) style music
and provide sound effects very much like Foley artists. Music is everpresent throughout Kabuki performances and introduced in various
ways.
Sound had many functions in Kabuki. Shamisen melodies set an
appropriate mood for a scene; rhythmic patterns beaten on odaiko a
large drum-- indicate rain, snow, wind, ocean waves or the time of day.
Songs played on the shanisen would also accompany the entrances
and exits of characters along the hanamichi through the audience.

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Hitting the stage floor with tsuke, wooden blocks, supply sound
effects for running, walking, striking and other events, while hyoshigi,
hard wood clappers, supply aural context cues for the beginning and
ending of an act, for scenery changes, and to let the actors and
audience members know that a scene will begin soon.
Kabuki actors only dance and speak, Singing is the work of
specialist singers who accompany the action of the play from offstage
or, in dance scenes, onstage. Onnagata are actors who play female
roles by displaying their charisma and skill through shosagoto, a solo
dance that is worked into plays of various types.
In nagauta, tokiwazu, tomimoto, kiyomoto and other musical styles
placed the cast of musicians onstage to add to the spectacle of the
performance. The tokiwazu, tomimoto, kiyomoto musical styles were
styles created in the 18th century specifically for kabuki dance plays;
they do not use percussion or flute making them softer and more
romantic than nagauta music.
One characteristic of the dramatic style associated with Kabuki
is the mie. The mie moment occurs at an emotional climax during
which the actors remain completely still in silence intensifying and
prolonging moments of dramatic tension.

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Kabuki actors a trained to possess a repertory of vocal

techniques and patterns, including versions of nospeech
and bunraku chanting. Other vocal techniques include ippon choshi a
way of speaking in tommy-gun-like cadence; shichigochoantiphonal
dialogue composed in lines of 7 and 5 syllables are presented in a
melodious style (yakuharai) based on Buddhist chanting.
Within Kabuki there are several acting styles or kata are passed down
family lines. One such style is the bravura acting style of gallant heroes
or, aragoto, developed by Ichikawa Danjro, arguably the most famous
of all kabuki performers. This form is expressed through
exaggerated costumes and properties, and bold red and black face
make-up called kumadori. The humorous-erotic acting of spineless
heroes called wagoto is commonly used in domestic plays. Kata are
mixed within a play or scene.
Danjuro was a very religious man and his acting style was very
much so influenced by his buhddist beliefs. Many believed that his
style have been inspired by the gods. Accounts from his life time
celebrate Danjuro and his beneficiaries as possessing the astonishing
ability to reproduce the appearance of the gods on stage and inspire
devotion among patrons. The presence of religion on stage was
nothing new to Japanese culture: gods, spirits, mantras, sutras, monks

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and their teachings of salvation had been a part of Noh theatre since
the fourteenth century. What was Unique to the aragoto acting style
was its connection between the family line of Danjr actors and the
Shingon Buddhist temple Shinshji, better known as Naritasan
--Temple of Narita Town--, home to the distinguished deity of the
Narita Fud. Kabuki folklore say that the founding of the Danjuro house
and its theatrical expertise of aragoto style had been a gift from the
deity Narita.
The actors of this family were very proud of their faith and
adopted the name of the temple -- Naritaya -- as the first name for
their troupe. The Danjrs regularly staged plays honoring the deity of
Narita Town, to the point that their patronage earned them reputations
as divine incarnations and spiritual protectors of Edo.

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The history of Kabuki theatre is indeed a rich one filled with

spiritualism and prostitution. It has seen its fair share of restrictions

and has held true for several centuries.FIGURE 1

FROM: JAPAN NATIONAL TOURISM ORGANIZATION

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"Ichikawa Danjuro." The Cambridge Guide to Theater. Ed. Martin

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Leiter, Samuel L. "The Stars Who Created Kabuki: Their Lives, Loves
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