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just a bit more
==Performance Style==
==Performance Style==
Costumes, makeup, dance, mie, special effects
Stage layout (hanamichi; origins of the distinctive style of curtain), Costumes, makeup, dance, mie, special effects
===Music===
===Music===
The music in kabuki is performed live, by [[shamisen]] players and an ensemble known as the ''[[hayashi]]''. In ''matsubamemono'' (plays adapted from Noh and ''[[kyogen|kyôgen]]'')<ref>松羽目物, named after the prominent painting of a pine tree that dominates the back of the stage in Noh, ''kyôgen'', and this category of kabuki plays.</ref>, the musicians are often positioned in clear view, seated on an upstage platform that extends across the stage. Normally, however, the shamisen players, along with some drummers and other musicians are located in a compartment to one side of the stage, behind a screen, called a ''misu'', while the remainder of the ''hayashi'', including those performing sound effects such as bird and insect sounds, perform off-stage.
Though not strictly musical instruments, a pair of clappers, called ''ki'' (木, lit. "wood"), located to the right of the stage, play an important role in emphasizing dramatic poses (''mie''), sword strikes, and other moments, as well as marking the beginning and ending of acts, beating out a dramatic rhythm as the curtain opens or closes.
Kabuki uses a combination of numerous styles of shamisen music, including styles from dance traditions, the ''bunraku'' puppet theater, and other storytelling traditions. ''[[Nagauta]]'' is perhaps the most common and dominant style, though the ''[[tokiwazu-bushi]]'', ''[[kiyomoto-bushi]]'', and ''[[gidayu-bushi|gidayû-bushi]]'' styles or genres are also used extensively. Multiple styles are often used within a single play, which may combine dances, narrative sections, sections based on the puppet theater, etc. in a single scene or act.
==Plays==
==Plays==
==History==
==History==
Onna-kabuki, wakushu-kabuki, yarô-kabuki
The origins of kabuki are typically attributed to a woman known as [[Izumo no Okuni]], whose troupe's performances, on temporary stages set up in the Kawaramachi dry riverbed of the [[Kamo River]] in [[Kyoto]], beginning in [[1603]], are said to have been the very first "kabuki" performances. However, some scholars point out that these performances, often referred to today as "Okuni kabuki," were likely not radically different from those performed by other women's groups at the time, and drew heavily upon recent performance trends of the [[Azuchi-Momoyama period]].<ref>McQueen Tokita. p230.</ref> These earliest "kabuki" performances consisted chiefly of showy dances, with a minimum of plot or characterization, and were much more similar to today's ''[[taishu engeki|taishû engeki]]'' than the more fully staged and heavily narrative form that kabuki has since evolved into.
The word "kabuki" (歌舞伎) is today written with three [[kanji|characters]] meaning song (歌), dance (舞), and technique or skill (伎). However, the name of the art form is said to derive from, or be related to, the term ''[[kabukimono]]'' (傾奇者), which referred to eccentric types seen on the streets of Kyoto and Edo around that time, who dressed and behaved unusually, and in general were described as leaning (傾) towards the bizarre and unconventional (奇). Okuni herself is said to have been a ''kabukimono'', along with [[Nagoya Sansaburo|Nagoya Sansaburô]], a figure often said to have been Okuni's onstage partner and off-stage lover, and worthy of credit as co-founder of kabuki theater, but who might in reality have never met Okuni, or might not even have existed at all.
The so-called ''onna kabuki'' ("women kabuki") performances also served as advertising for the women themselves, as prostitutes. As a result, in [[1629]], the [[Tokugawa shogunate]] banned women from appearing onstage. Professional kabuki<ref>''Jishibai'' rural/regional amateur performances, as well as those performed by universities and other amateur contexts, often feature both men and women on-stage; in addition, there are a limited number of women-only troupes officially endorsed by the [[Ichikawa family]] or other segments of the professional kabuki establishment.</ref> remains today a male-only theater form.
''Onna kabuki'' was thus replaced by so-called ''wakashû kabuki'' ("young men kabuki"), in which beautiful young men played all the roles. This marked the beginnings of the tradition of the ''[[onnagata]]''. However, these young men performed as prostitutes as well, and before long ''wakashû kabuki'' came to an end as well, due to the same shogunate concerns about public propriety and morality.
''Wakashû kabuki'' was followed by ''yarô kabuki'', as only older men, for a time, were permitted onstage, eliminating the element of prostitution from kabuki, and marking the beginning of its shift towards a more purely theatrical form. Younger actors would eventually be permitted back onto the stage, though professional kabuki remains a male-only form today.
Licensed theatre system, censorship
Licensed theatre system, censorship
==References==
==References==
*McQueen Tokita, Alison. "Music in kabuki: more than meets the eye." ''The Ashgate Research Companion to Japanese Music''. Surrey: Ashgate Publishing, 2008. pp229-260.
[[Category:Poetry and Theater]]
[[Category:Poetry and Theater]]
[[Category:Edo Period]]
[[Category:Edo Period]]
