Kabuki

• Japanese: 歌舞伎 (kabuki)

Kabuki is, along with Noh and ningyô jôruri (aka bunraku), one of the three most prominent forms of traditional Japanese theater. Emerging around 1603 and developing into something very closely resembling its current form by 1800, kabuki remains strong today.

Unlike the Noh theatre, which grew out of ritual dances, and which is more symbolic, poetic, spiritual, and more serious in tone, focusing strongly on the strict performance of set forms (kata), kabuki is a more purely narrative form, focusing on telling an understandable story and providing the audience with an entertaining spectacle. While the Noh features a more reserved, minimalist aesthetic, and while the puppet theatre is by its very nature necessarily somewhat small-scale, kabuki makes use of a fuller arrangement of elaborate stage sets and multiple set changes; large casts; bold costumes and, sometimes, multiple costume changes; and an extensive musical ensemble (known as a hayashi) accompanied by an array of devices for various sound effects.

A colorful and bombastic style of theatre, kabuki makes extensive use of bold face makeup patterns called kumadori; special effects including trap doors and wirework, known as keren; dramatic poses called mie; a distinctive form of chanting; and bold, sometimes rather over-the-top costumes.

Kabuki was a core element of Edo period urban popular culture, intimately intertwined with ukiyo-e woodblock prints and popular publishing, and the culture of pleasure districts such as the Yoshiwara. Though some plays are set in the historical past, nearly all adapt the historical narrative to a contemporary Edo period setting, making kabuki an excellent source for experiencing and understanding Edo period material culture, albeit a trumped-up, over-the-top stage version of it.

Performance Style

Stage Design Features & Special Effects

The kabuki stage incorporates numerous distinctive special features, some more visible than others. Stage right and left in Anglophone parlance are referred to, respectively, as shimote ("lower hand") and kamite ("upper hand"); the geza or kuromisu, a latticed compartment behind which the musicians are located, sits on stage right (shimote).

The hanamichi (lit. "flower path"), a long, narrow walkway and one of the most visible stage features, extends from the stage (just left of stage right) through the audience, all the way to the back of the house. This path is used for dramatic entrances and exits, as well as for other dramatic elements, such as monologues. When a character stops on the hanamichi, to strike a dramatic pose or present a monologue, it is almost always 30% of the way down the hanamichi from the stage (70% of the way from the back of the theater), at a spot called shichi-san (lit. "seven-three"). A great many of the most famous and dramatic moments in kabuki occur at shichi-san. In addition, a trap door, called a suppon (lit. "snapping turtle") and small lift is installed at shichi-san, allowing characters to make an entrance or exit directly to or from shichi-san, rising up from below the stage (or descending down below from the house). A number of other similar trap doors and lifts are built into the main portion of the stage, allowing not only for entrances and exits, but also for characters and set pieces to be raised or lowered, creating a multi-tier stage set.

Another key feature of the kabuki stage is the mawari-butai, or rotating stage. A large circular section within the rectangular stage is able to rotate, allowing scene changes to be done quickly and dramatically, with one rotating out of view, and another, formerly upstage, set rotating into view. Though the revolving stage, lifts & trap doors, and other physical effects are today operated electronically, they would have traditionally been operated by a team of stagehands beneath the stage equipped with ropes and pulleys; in the case of the mawari butai, a group of stagehands would simply push on spokes attached to the mawari butai above them, slowly turning it.

Though today kabuki theaters are typically filled with Western-style seating, traditionally, the area today called "orchestra seating" would have been composed of masu-gata seating - a grid of square areas separated by a thin wooden rail elevated a short distance above the floor. Audience members would gather in these squares, bringing food and drink, and sitting on the floor, enjoying a somewhat picnic-like atmosphere. Productions went on all day, typically including one jidaimono, and one sewamono, within which the audience could expect to see at least one shosagoto dance number. Audience members would come and go, eating, drinking, chatting, and even commenting out loud about the play (including shouting at the performers). It is easy to imagine how the practice of kakegoe, shouting one's excitement or appreciation of the appearance of a favorite actor or favorite dramatic moment, would have developed in such a laid-back atmosphere.

Stage layout (hanamichi; origins of the distinctive style of curtain), Costumes, makeup, dance, mie, special effects

Kakegoe (yago)

Wagoto vs aragoto

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 kyôgen), 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 at stage right, behind a screen, called a geza or kuromisu, while the remainder of the hayashi, including those performing sound effects such as bird and insect sounds, perform off-stage.

Though not strictly considered musical instruments, a pair of clappers, called alternatively ki or tsuke, 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.

At the core of kabuki music are song and shamisen, performed in a variety of styles or genres, nagauta chief among them, each of which incorporates both. Within a single play, act, or even scene, a series of different genres of song+shamisen are employed as needed to musically accompany dance pieces, narrative sections, sections borrowing from the puppet theater, etc. Nagauta, a form that evolved within the kabuki theater, and which along with kouta and jiuta was quite common within the pleasure quarters as well, is perhaps the most common and dominant style, though the tokiwazu-bushi, kiyomoto-bushi, and gidayû-bushi styles, born out of the puppet theater, dance traditions, and storytelling traditions, are also used extensively.

The songs sung & played on the shamisen are often "theme music" of a sort, relating to a certain character or place. In the play Ise Ondo Koi no Netaba, for example, the song "Ise Ondo" is not only played during a climactic dance scene where the song is diegetic, and being danced to, but it is also played, in different variations, throughout the play at points where it is used to highlight the identity of the setting as Ise. Certain characters might have their own theme songs that are played when they make their entrance or exit, or otherwise dominate the scene, such as during a dramatic monologue. As much of Japanese poetry and music is strongly tied to seasonal themes, songs can also be used to indicate or suggest the season. Some pieces are purely instrumental, or aikata, while others incorporate vocal song. Often, an instrumental or sung piece will consist of only a brief pattern known as meriyasu (lit. "stretchy material"), or brief excerpt of a longer piece, repeated or stretched out as necessary to suit the length and mood of a scene. All in all, there are perhaps more than 800 pieces in the traditional kabuki shamisen repertoire, if one includes those from different genres, regional variations (e.g. Edo vs Kamigata), and for different situations and circumstances (e.g. seasons, weather, settings).

Like the actors, kabuki musicians make changes and shifts in the musical scheme for each production. Though traditional associations (e.g. the use of a given song for a given scene) are of great importance, there is a degree of flexibility, as there is in the acting, and so precisely which pieces must be played for precisely each part of the play is not set in stone. A notebook known as a tsukechô is employed by the musicians to record a rough sketch of which pieces will be played on which cues, for that day's, or that month's, version of the production.

In addition to the shamisen, the ensemble also includes a variety of drums, including ô-tsuzumi, ko-tsuzumi, shime-daiko, and ô-daiko, which not only play alongside the shamisen, but are also used for announcements, and for sound effects. Prior to a show beginning, traditionally, a large taiko (drum) placed in a drum tower (yagura) above the theater would be played, in a pattern known as ichiban-daiko, to announce that a show was going to be taking place. Once the lead actor had entered the theater and begun his preparations (i.e. putting on makeup, getting dressed), the drum pattern would shift to niban daiko, indicating to passersby and to the audience that the show would be starting soon. During the show, drums could be used in a variety of ways to create sound effects to help set the scene, such as waves (for a seaside or shipboard scene), wind, rain, or snow. To take one example, even though snow in reality falls silently, heavy drumbeats, hit at a very slow tempo, set the mood of the cold and dark night, and of the weight of the snow as it rests on tree branches and rooftops.

The hayashi is rounded out by flutes, bells, gongs, and other struck or rung instruments known as narimono. These, too, accompany the shamisen and drums in performing songs during a play, but can also be used for sound effects. A variety of objects designed specifically for sound effects are employed in kabuki, including a set of clappers used specifically for the clip-clop of a horse, and a tiny reed instrument which, when blown in one manner produces surprisingly realistic bird tweets or chirps, and when used in a different manner, produces the sound of crickets or the buzz of summer cicadas. Stories call for a wide variety of sound effects, depending on the settings and events, and the hayashi is prepared to produce more or less any sound necessary, some more literal (such as a Buddhist temple bell, or summer cicadas), and some more stylized and distinctive to kabuki (such as the example of the sound of snow).

Plays

Kabuki plays are divided, for the most part, into two categories:

• Jidaimono (lit. "period thing") are period plays, either set in the past, or referencing a traditional or historical narrative but altering it by setting it in the present (in the Edo period). These plays tend to be more bombastic, colorful, and action-packed, featuring bold characters and samurai heroes and villains. Some of the most famous jidaimono include Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura, Kanadehon Chûshingura, and Kokusen'ya kassen ("The Battles of Coxinga").

• Sewamono, most often called "contemporary plays," by contrast, were set in the Edo period and focused more closely on commoner characters. These plays tend to be more reserved in their aesthetics, with more dialogue and less fighting scenes or special effects, though the content of the narrative is often more deeply, emotionally, dramatic. Some of the most famous sewamono are Sonezaki Shinjû ("Love Suicides at Sonezaki") and Kuruwa Bunsho.

There are some plays which do not cleanly fall into either of these categories, including dance pieces such as the lion dance piece Renjishi and Kakuju senzai, an auspicious New Year's dance piece. The extensive repertoire can also be sub-divided into numerous sub-categories.

History

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. These earliest "kabuki" performances consisted chiefly of showy dances, with a minimum of plot or characterization, and were much more similar to today's taishû engeki than the more fully staged and heavily narrative form that kabuki has since evolved into. The musical accompaniment for Okuni kabuki is believed to have consisted of the standard Noh ensemble - chiefly flutes and drums - with only a few other instruments, such as the shinobue flute and surigane hand-gong added in. The shamisen would not appear until around 1650, bringing with it a dramatic shift in kabuki music.

The word "kabuki" (歌舞伎) is today written with three 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 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 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. Koto was sometimes incorporated into the musical ensembles in wakashû kabuki, the only string instrument used in Japanese theater prior to the introduction of the shamisen. The young men in wakashû kabuki performed as prostitutes, however, like their female predecessors, 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 in 1652, when laws were changed again, now allowing only older men to perform onstage. This eliminated the element of prostitution from kabuki, and marks the beginning of kabuki's shift towards becoming a more purely theatrical form. Younger actors would eventually be permitted back onto the stage, however.

Licensed theatre system, censorship

Meiji, post-war, today, rebuilding of Kabuki-za

Kabuki began to shift at the beginning of the 20th century from all-day programs to shorter separate afternoon and evening programs showing choice selections from a number of different plays. This remains the standard program today at Kabuki-za and the other major kabuki theatres across the country, though revivals of full-length plays are occasionally performed; the Tokyo National Theatre, established in 1965, by contrast, makes a policy of hosting performances of full-length plays, as part of a philosophy of cultural preservation and historical authenticity.

While still strongly dedicated to tradition as it always has been, kabuki today does not adhere exclusively to a traditional repertoire. Most plays composed in the late 19th and early 20th century and incorporating too much Western/modern influence, especially those with very modern settings and plots, and most especially those born out of the militarist & ultranationalist ideologies of the 1920s-40s, have been excised from the repertoire. However, new plays do continue to be written and performed, albeit rarely, and always with much effort paid to be true to the traditional aesthetics and style of kabuki. Ukare shinjû, a parody of the love suicides genre, for example, was pioneered by Nakamura Kanzaburô XVIII (then Kankurô V) in 1997, but even an avid kabuki fan might have difficulty noticing elements that would set it apart as definitively non-traditional, or of a more modern authorship. It has been added into the repertoire, and has been performed several times since its debut, but even in 2008, more than ten years after the play was added to the repertoire, it was preceded by Kanzaburô himself appearing before the audience and humbly asking their forgiveness for not performing something more traditional, and asking their consideration of this new piece.

The tradition of making contemporary references and jokes, and otherwise slightly altering plays in each incarnation (production) of them, also continues to this day. Actors regularly incorporate references to contemporary gags or jokes into traditional plays, and have been known to go as far as to substitute men in NYPD uniforms for the shogun's lawmen in a traditional jidaimono play; this is seen not as a break with tradition, but as a continuation of the long tradition of keeping plays flexible and current, of improvisation and having fun with the canon, and preventing it from becoming too staid and formulaic.

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.

See also

• Nihon buyô - lit. "Japanese dance"; the most prominent form of traditional Japanese dance today, based closely upon kabuki dance
• Jishibai - regional amateur kabuki productions, performed in most cases only one day, or one week, annually, as part of annual local festivals