Studies in Kabuki: Its Acting, Music and Historical Context (A Culture Learning Institute Monograph) 9780824887230

Citation preview

PROPERTY of UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII PRESS

The East-West Center was established in Hawaii in I960 by the United States Congress "to promote better relations and understanding between the United States and the nations of Asia and the Pacific through cooperative study, training, and research." Some two thousand research fellows, graduate students, and professionals in business and government each year work with the Center's international staff on major Asia-Pacific issues relating to population, economic and trade policies, resources and the environment, culture and communication, and international relations. Since I960, more than twenty-five thousand men and women from the region have participated in the Center's cooperative programs. Officially known as the Center for Cultural and Technical Interchange Between East and West, Inc., the Center is a public, nonprofit institution with an international board of governors. Principal funding comes from the United States Congress. Support also comes from more than twenty Asian and Pacific governments, as well as from private agencies and corporations.

Studies in Kabuki

Studies in Kabuki Its Acting, Music, and Historical Context JAMES R. BRANDON WILLIAM P. MALM DONALD H. SHIVELY

X An East- West Center Book Published by the Institute of Culture and Communication East-West Center

Copyright © 1978 by the University Press of Hawaii All Rights Reserved Manufactured in the United States of America 90 91 92 93 94 95 8 7 6 5 4 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication

Data

Brandon, James R Studies in kabuki. (A Culture Learning Institute monograph) Discography: p. Includes bibliographies and index. 1. Kabuki—Addresses, essays, lectures. I. Malm, William P., joint author. II. Shively, Donald Howard, 1921joint author. III. Title. IV. Series: East-West Center. Culture Learning Institute. A Culture Learning Institute monograph. PN2924.5.K3B7 792'.0952 77-5336 ISBN 0-8248-0452-X

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standardfor Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials ANSI Z39.48-1984

Distributed by University of Hawaii Press Order Department 2840 Kolowalu Street Honolulu, Hawaii 96822

Contents

List of Plates List of Musical Examples Preface Introduction

vii ix xi xiii

Hie Social Environment of Tokugawa Kabuki DonaldH. Shively, Harvard University Tokugawa Kabuki and Kabuki Today The Beginnings of Kabuki and Licensed Prostitution The Development of Theater Buildings Rapport Between Actor and Audience Kaomise: Opening the Season Going to the Theater The Ejima-Ikushima Affair The Life and Art of Actors The Depiction of Actor and Prostitute in Ukiyoe Critical Booklets on Actors and Prostitutes Interrelation of the Kabuki and Prostitute Quarters Conclusion Notes Bibliography

1 1 5 10 18 21 23 29 36 45 49 50 53 54 60

Form in Kabuki Acting James R. Brandon, University of Hawaii Introduction Kata, or Form, in Acting

63 63 65

VI

Kata as Performance Style 1. Danmari 2. Aragoto 3. Wagoto 4. Maruhon 5. Shosagoto .KäAz as Specific Performance Techniques 1.M«? 2. i?o/>/>ö 3. Tachimawari 4. Entrance and Exit Kata 5. Other Movement Kata 6. Vocal Kata 7. Sound Effects Kata 8. Costume and Makeup Kata 9 . Kata of Staging Kata as Individual Interpretation Conclusion Notes Bibliography Music in the Kabuki Theater William P. Malm, the University of Michigan Introduction History 1. The Beginnings of Kabuki Music 2. The Shamisen in Kabuki 3. Nagauta and Kabuki 4. Narrative Music in the Kabuki 5. Offstage Music The Music 1. Functional and Formal Frameworks for the Study of Kabuki Music 2. Music Indicative of Weather Conditions 3. Music for Locations 4. Music for Characterization 5. Music for Situations or Actions 6. Musical Signals and Form 7. Openings of Nö- or Jöruri-based Plays Conclusion Notes Bibliography Discography Index

CONTENTS 66 66 68 71 74 77 84 84 86 91 93 98 101 106 109 115 120 122 126 130

133 133 134 134 135 136 137 140 142 142 144 145 154 156 159 165 170 172 174 175 177

List of Plates

1. Barkers in front of the Nakamura-za 2. Interior of the Ichimura-za 3. Plebs packed into the "arhatdais" and "Yoshino" 4. A young lady welcomes a kabuki youth to her theater box 5. A kabuki youth dances in the parlor of a theater teahouse 6. A patron in a theater teahouse eyes a passing kabuki youth 7. A patron in a Yoshiwara brothel catches the skirt of a passing girl 8. Kabuki youths at the lattice window of a theater teahouse 9- Prostitutes in the front room of a Yoshiwara brothel 10. Danmaristyle 11. Aragoto style 12. Wagoto style 13. Maruhonstyle 14. Shosagoto style 15. Heaven-earth (tenchi) mie 16. Heaven-earth-man (tenchijin) mie 17. Mie showing crossed eyes (nirami) 18. Around-the-pillar (hashiramaki) mie 19. Roppo exit 20. Flying exit (tobi roppo) 21. One-armed exit (katate roppo) 22. Group tachimawari 23. Tachimawari post 24. Acrobatic flips (tombo)

13 17 19 25 28 30 31 32 33 67 70 73 75 79 80 87 88 89 90 91 92 95 96 97

VIII

25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33.

LIST OF PLATES

Exit (hikkomi) Comic exit (hikkomi) dance Pressing toward each other (tsumeyori) Linked name-saying speeches delivered as rhythmic tsurane Quick change (henge) Quick change (henge) Quick change (henge) Quick change (henge) A formally dressed stage assistant (koken)

99 100 102 105 111 112 113 114 116

List of Musical Examples

1. Torikagura 2. Hayadaibyòshi 3 - Odoriji (Hana ni Asobaba) 4. 0 nori 5. Dontappo 6. Ten tsutsu 7. Tobisari 8. Tataki 9. Sandame 10 .Katasbagiri 11 .Shagiri 12. Shidai 13. Sanju

149 150 152 154 158 159 160 161 162 164 166 167 168-169

A. Gidayù B. Gidayu C. Tokiwazu: Shin Yamauba 1 A. Sekkyó kakari

168 169 169 170

15. Ozatsuma patterns

171

Preface

The following study is the result of a symposium on Kabuki held at the University of Michigan in April, 1967. The preliminary forms of the three essays were combined with a complete film of Kanjincho and a performance of its music separately by the University of Michigan Japanese Music Study Group. The symposium was made possible through the cooperation and support of the School of Music and the Center for Japanese Studies of the University of Michigan. The Culture Learning Institute of the East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii, was also of great help in providing research time and technical assistance in the completion of the final draft of the study. Mary Elizabeth Berry is thanked for suggestions which contributed to the revisions of chapter 1. Hopefully, the three essays will help the student of kabuki as well as the general audience member in appreciating and understanding some of the sociohistorical, technical, and musical features of the genre that have helped to keep it active and enjoyable for over two hundred years. William P. Malm The University of Michigan

Introduction

Kabuki has perhaps the strongest international reputation of Japan's many theatrical forms. This may be because of the richness of its costumes and decor plus the melodrama of its actions and emotion. These characteristics often are more easily appreciated by foreign viewers than many of the more abstract or attenuated forms of equally excellent but more "exotic" Japanese or other Asian theatricals. Whatever the reason for its international popularity, because of it kabuki has become involuntarily a vehicle for the communication of supposed Japanese cultural values and attitudes. However, it is important to recognize that the cultural messages presented by most exported theatricals such as films, operas, kabuki, or folkloric ballets are not truly accurate in either a contemporary or a purely historical sense. All Texans do not ride horses, all Japanese do not swing swords, and all people are not gloriously happy on the collective farms. Nevertheless, the very fact that various media wish to present such images is of sociological interest. In Japan, the continuing appeal of kabuki to many Japanese themselves indicates in addition that it has cultural significance and potential usefulness as a source for the understanding of certain national ideals even though they are cloaked in a theatrical form. It is to such an indigenous appeal, both now and in previous times, that we should turn our attention, if

XIV

INTRODUCTION

some insight into the relations of kabuki to cultural learning is desired. One aspect of kabuki's contemporary survival may be a chronological factor. Kabuki was the fundamental popular theater of Japan during its last premodernization period, called the Tokugawa or Edo (1615-1868). Thus it reflects the lifestyle of Japan's most recent "old-time" era and has therefore an understandable nostalgic appeal. Turning to the actual centuries of kabuki's origins it is clear that much can be learned there as well from the genre. For example, the development of such a theatrical form would have been impossible without the socioeconomic state of Japan during that period. Even the topics of the plays and their manner of presentation would have been unlikely had not Japanese culture taken on a distinctive Edo "spirit of the times." One needs merely to compare a few other theatricals of earlier periods with their cultural matrices to see the point. In the Heian period (794-1185), it was courtly support and even direct participation that kept bugaku dancing an important feature of Kyoto life while military power enhanced the growth of lute accompanied narratives such as Heike-biwa as well as the Buddhistoriented ruminations of the no drama in the Kamakura and Muromachi periods (1185-1615). In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the mercantile, urban society did not become the government, but they did have the funds to call the tune in the theater by patronmng the actors and buying the most tickets. An earlier study by Professor Shively (see chapter 1, bibliography) shows how vainly the government sought to suppress this plebian growth of theatrical control. Shively's chapter in this study shows an additional sociological setting not always clear to students of the kabuki world. For some two hundred years it was the burgeoning Japanese urban society that was in socioeconomic control, and thus one would expect that the topics and performance techniques of the theater would reflect this change of support. Anyone who has seen both a no drama and a kabuki play will know how very different the acting technique became. The details of this difference are one of the major topics of Brandon's study herein. The music study that follows reveals not only a change in theatrical music ensembles but also in the contemporary sources of their materials. The dramatic genre of "modern" pieces (sewamono) are equally different with their frequent concerns for financial or professional problems as well as domestic or brothel conflicts of love. The period pieces (jidaimono) would, at first glance,

INTRODUCTION

XV

seem to be an anomaly for they deal with the problems of nobility and warriors during their earlier periods of power and turmoil. However, a survey of world theaters and literatures shows how constant plebian interests tend to be in the fate of persons from a social strata known to them only indirectly and traditionally thought to be of higher status. Ancient princes and generals are held in awe though their contemporary equivalents may have fallen from grace. In this context let us turn to the cultural values of kabuki for modern Japanese viewers. One of the dominant conflicts of kabuki period pieces is that of loyalty to superior ranking personnel and to complicated family ties. Modern pieces as well are filled with such obligations to shops, immediate family, or to mistresses. The ever-increasing number of members in Japan's business and industrial world today can understand such problems in any setting and may find consolation or temporary success in viewing the struggles of tragic heroes or heroines whose suffering is set in the balm of historical distance. Indeed, it may be this artificial world in which problems are set that give such "out-of-date" theatricals their special value. Contemporary films and plays often concentrate on "telling it like it is," with every ugly or intimate fact fully rubbed in the viewer's face. Such methods have their power and their apparent need but at the same time the harried viewer may find other points of personal insight or value reinforcement in the more abstracted tragedies of Macbeth's ambition or Hamlet's indecision, a Japanese shop clerk trapped between love and financial problems or a noble lord's obligation to commit suicide by government order. Beyond all this is the fact that many plays are simply very good theater and, like Bach Lutheran cantatas or Mozart courtly symphonies, remain enjoyable in totally different cultural contexts. Thus as we view the cultural values of kabuki we must not forget that one vital part of its appeal lies in the artistry of the tradition. William P. Malm Culture Learning Institute East-West Center Honolulu, Hawaii

The Social Environment of Tokugawa Kabuki Donald H. Shively

TOKUGAWA KABUKI AND KABUKI TODAY

The audience of "classical kabuki" in Tokyo today witnesses a production which closely approximates its eighteenth-century prototype. If the new play is indeed a classical piece, the text was written during the latter half of the Tokugawa period and hence in subject matter and language remains an artifact of that time. The actors, all descendants of professional theater families, seem to have preserved in mime, dance, and elocution, the conventions of their predecessors. Instrumental and singing styles, handed down from father to son by rote imitation, are probably faithful transmissions of the Tokugawa art. Costumes and props follow those depicted in early woodblock prints. Many of the staging techniques also date from premodern times. In short, today's viewer sees on the kabuki stage a world familiar to his Tokugawa forebears.1 Although he may enjoy the performance and empathize with the dilemmas enacted on the stage, the modern Japanese brings with him attitudes and experiences substantially different from those of a Tokugawa observer. A more modern logic and a changed ethical orientation separate him from the action on the stage. A considerable part of the kabuki repertoire consists of history plays which, while

X

SHIVELY

they concern events of a much earlier era, depict a moral system and feudal psychology ideally characteristic of the Tokugawa samurai class. The domestic tragedies deal with shopkeepers, artisans, prostitutes, farmers, and the tragic-mundane problems of their lives. Specific events in the city—a murder, a double suicide, an arson case, a swindle—were quickly given sensational treatment on the stage. Other plays treat the more fabulous social outrages—the vendetta of the forty-seven ronin or scandals in the mansions of feudal lords. As it was forbidden to write about the affairs of the ruling families, these plays were cast in an earlier historical period as camouflage. 2 Public curiosity and the daring of the playwright afforded them particular titillation. There are also plays which reflect the aspirations and fantasies of the drifters in society—masterless samurai, gangsters, gamblers, and above all, chivalrous commoners who defy their samurai superiors. This audacity of playwright and actor would be misinterpreted if it were considered an expression of protest against the social and political system. It was, rather, good box office to electrify an audience with bold passages and parodies which spoke to the experience of the commoner. Both the history and domestic dramas assume inevitable capitulation to the ethical code which governed society. Characters entangle themselves in nets of loyalties and obligations which come into conflict with unexpected personal desires or sympathetic impulses. The code tolerates no generosity of interpretation. The hero transgresses, fully resigned to pay with his life. The fairness of the code remains unquestioned. The conscientious, perhaps compulsive reenactment of these dilemmas suggests the importance of the plays as emotional outlets for an audience well disposed to weep over tragedies so suggestive of the conflicts in their daily lives. Kabuki taxes every feeling. It shifts from scenes of love or maternal solicitude to violent murders and graphic harakiri. This rather basic function of theater as response to a rigid social system with a relentless ethical code is little perceived by a modern audience. A substantial difference in the content of his moral difficulties isolates a present-day viewer from some of the deeper reactions of a Tokugawa audience to the plays. The ambience of the theater and its social environment have also undergone fundamental changes. The theater itself has been transformed. Today's western-style building offers upholstered seating and all the amenities of a lavish opera house. The Tokugawa au-

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT OF KABUKI

3

dience, which might have numbered slightly over a thousand, was less than half the size of a modern audience. Yet it was squeezed together on the floor of a hall only a fraction the size of a new theater. The stage was far smaller than those we know in kabuki today and, normally deprived of the use of even torches for lighting, the old theaters were quite dark. Yet there was an intimacy between actor and audience, due not merely to physical proximity but to the familiarity of the audience with the actor and the freer interaction between them. Attending the theater was a more joyful, uninhibited experience than we know today. The theater was part of the world of sensual entertainment provided in the cities for the pleasure of the commoners. The origins of kabuki were deeply tied to both male and female prostitution, and although the government repeatedly attempted to forge clear separations between the two professions by banning women from the stage and concentrating houses of prostitution in designated quarters detached from the theaters and actors' residences, the distinction of function was not always cleanly drawn. Female dancers continued to perform kabuki dances and skits at private parties and many of the actors served as social and sexual companions. In principle, at least, the theatrical and prostitution quarters became parallel facilities for amusement—the two wheels of the vehicle of pleasure. They were tolerated in the conviction that vulgar diversions for the lower classes, unprepared by education or lineage for more refined recreation, were necessary evils. It was further argued that while the three great cities—Edo, Osaka, and Kyoto—were under Tokugawa control, they would lose their commanding positions in population and hence in commerce without the presence of lively amusement areas.3 The two professions, therefore, received some official recognition insofar as they were licensed and relegated to separate quarters removed from the rest of society and treated as analogous groups. Prostitutes and actors, like others who took money from performing, were classified by the officials as pariahs. The operators of houses of prostitution in Edo were placed under the jurisdiction of the head of the eta, Danzaemon, and denied certain privileges given to other residents of the city. They were known by the derogatory name kuruwa mono. Kabuki managers and actors, who were treated in much the same way, were called kawara kojiki (riverbed beggars) or koya mono or shibai mono, equally derisive terms.4 When they

4

SHIVELY

did go out of the quarter, they were required to wear woven hats made of sedge grass to hide their faces, the same type of hat worn by outcastes and criminals under arrest. The common people, while regarding these members of the demimonde as somewhat disreputable, found them endlessly fascinating. They were admired for their beauty and their splendid clothes, their social poise and savoir faire. They were the purveyors of entertainment and pleasure for the nonaristocratic residents of the city, and provided the social stage on which the more prosperous could enjoy their wealth and make reputations as men of importance within their levels of society. Both quarters were intended for the entertainment of commoners. Yet the excitement of the kabuki theater and the glamor of the pleasure houses were irresistible to the numerous samurai who visited these quarters exercising only a moderate degree of discretion in concealing their faces with large hats or scarves. Since involvement in any altercation would be embarrassing, they could ill afford to insist upon the prerogatives of their class. Muro Kyuso (1658-1734), the Confucian scholar, lamented: "There are even feudal lords and district governors who like to enjoy themselves secretly in houses of prostitution, and there are warriors and great men who vie in learning the customs of the theater. " 5 Prostitutes of the highest grades were reputedly accomplished entertainers, skilled in music or dance and surpassing in coquetry. The leading players of male roles had prodigious reputations as lovers. Some of the beautiful young actors were sought after as sexual partners, and women's roles were played by male actors (onnagata) who also had an erotic fascination for both men and women. In a society in which there was an easy acceptance of homosexual relations, the presence of actors on the stage who deliciously exploited sexual nuance occasioned far more excitement than it does today. Confucian advisors to the government, who expected drama to edify the viewer, were distressed by the pernicious influence of kabuki. One of these scholars, Dazai Shundai (1680-1747) remarked: "Because our kabuki plays of today put on licentious and unrestrained matters which obtain among the people in present-day society in order to cater to vulgar sentiment, they all set examples of licentiousness. There is nothing worse than this in breaking down public morals." 6 Thus the kabuki performance in Tokugawa times was charged with

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT OF KABUKI

5

a far more erotic atmosphere than it is today. The social environment in which the actors lived and the social role they performed off the stage conditioned both their private lives and their style of acting as well as the content of the plays. These were important factors in the shaping of early kabuki and must be taken into account to understand classical kabuki. With the profound changes that have transformed modern Japanese society, and the quite different private lives now led by actors, the sensual elements in the performance have paled and only faintly touch the present-day audience. With the "reform" of kabuki in the last decades of the nineteenth century, by which is meant primarily the ending of public prostitution by actors and the raising of their social status to the level of other artists, the special relationship between kabuki and the pleasure quarters finally ended. Kabuki was removed from the social environment in which it had developed, and it became "classical" theater. The extent of this change can be appreciated if we recreate the proper social atmosphere of Tokugawa kabuki, describing the physical arrangement of the theater and its surroundings and the sexuality of the actors in the eyes of the Tokugawa audience. Of particular interest is the situation in the early eighteenth century when kabuki first flourished. By that time the style of acting of the various type roles, the structure of the plays, and most of the conventions and traditions of the theater had been established, although they were to be considerably refined and elaborated during the following century or more. To understand the social milieu of the theater and the many interconnections between the kabuki and the prostitutes' quarters (a theme which will be developed later), a review of the early history of these quarters is instructive. THE BEGINNINGS OF KABUKI AND LICENSED PROSTITUTION

The conventional account of the origins of kabuki opens with the appearance in Kyoto of Okuni in 1603 or perhaps earlier. An itinerant dancer who claimed association with Izumo Shrine, she was said to have performed suggestive dances and skits in the dry riverbed of the Kamo River by Gojo Bridge, then the eastern edge of the city proper, which was given over to amusements and sideshows. Shrine dancers from earlier times had engaged in prostitution, and those who traveled around to solicit funds, frequently renegades who performed for their own profit, were called aruki miko (walking priestesses) or uta bikuni (singing nuns). Okuni's dances were probably standard con-

6

SHIVELY

temporary skits dressed up with novel dramatic elements and a farcical or erotic twist. Her particular contribution to the development of kabuki may have been no more significant than that of similar entertainers, but it is at least certain that performances by small troupes of female dancers were popular in the first two decades of the seventeenth century. One of these troupes performed in 1608 at Sumpu (the present Shizuoka), where Tokugawa Shogun, Ieyasu, had retired. A brawl erupted, whereupon Ieyasu banned such groups from the town, setting aside a place for them next to the prostitutes' quarters outside the town at Abekawa.7 Within a few years of Okuni's appearance in Kyoto, there were imitations of her performance by troupes of prostitutes. In 1612 Sadoshima Yosanji set up a stage on the riverbed at Shijo, and brothel proprietors in that vicinity followed suit in order to solicit patrons. These shows were known as yujo kabuki (prostitutes' kabuki). Many of the skits demonstrated techniques used by prostitutes to approach prospective clients or mimed the style of gallants accosting a favorite. They were, in fact, a kind of burlesque with risque lines and suggestive dance movements. Occasionally male performers assumed female roles, producing a great deal of sexually confused pantomime. A contemporary Confucian scholar Hayashi Razan (15831657) remarks: "The men wear women's clothing; the women wear men's clothing, cut their hair and wear a man's topknot, have swords at their sides, and carry purses. They sing base songs and dance vulgar dances; their lewd voices are clamorous, like the buzzing of flies and the crying of cicadas. The men and women sing and dance together. This is the kabuki of today.' ' 8 Screens and handscrolls of the time depict the girls swinging their hips and throwing their arms about with an abandon not to be seen in later dancing. Descriptions of performances leave no doubt that they were prostitutes as well. The diary kept by Richard Cocks from 1615 to 1622, while he was head of the English trading post at Hirado, refers to them as "caboques or Japan players (or whores)." He mentions being entertained by a Japanese merchant who "provided caboques, or women plears, who danced and songe; and when we returned home, he sent eavery one one of them. " 9 Early "theaters" copied the rudimentary structures found in amusement areas around the edge of Kyoto which were used for occasional performances of subscription no (kanjin no), staged to raise money from the general public for temple construction or repair.

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT OF KABUKI

7

Only the small square stage was covered with a roof. Spectators paid admission to enter an enclosure formed by a high fence of bamboo palings covered with straw mats. There they stood or sat on mats on three sides of the stage. Fights sometimes occurred among the more hotblooded samurai or footsoldiers in the audience. Many were ronin, samurai who lost employment during the purges of daimyo in the first decades of the Tokugawa period. They drifted to the cities in search of new masters, employment, or excitement, and were often a disorderly element in the streets. Because brawls were touched off by rivalries over the performers, female players were banned from the kabuki stage in 1629. This ban was repeatedly issued, and after a few years actresses ceased to appear in the theaters of the principal cities. Their place was taken by young male actors.10 The exile of women from the stage was, of course, the basic step in the separation of the professions of prostitute and actor. It served the government's objective of creating greater social order and stability by recognizing the various trades and affording them a degree of security and protection from competition by new operators. The practice of licensing prostitutes began in the Muromachi period. At the end of the sixteenth century, Hideyoshi took the first steps to isolate their houses from good society by establishing a quarter in Kyoto at Madenokoji Nijo. It was moved in 1603 to Rokujo (Misujimachi) south of the political and commercial areas. Yet prostitutes continued to scatter through all parts of the city. In 1641 an extremely large quarter called the Shimabara, replete with luxurious establishments, was founded in the fields of the southwest corner of the city. In the shogun's capital, brothels sprang up in various parts of the city in the early years of the Tokugawa rule, but in 1617 they were brought together to form the Yoshiwara, just east of Nihonbashi. Bathhouse girls and other prostitutes in competition with the Yoshiwara were rounded up repeatedly during the next few decades and deposited in the licensed quarters. After the Meireki fire of 1657 which destroyed two-thirds of Edo including the Yoshiwara, the houses were moved outside the city to the open fields beyond Asakusa Temple, some four miles from Nihonbashi. Two hundred houses were licensed there as the New Yoshiwara. In Osaka, Shimmachi was established in 1629, and in other cities and castle towns sections for prostitutes were also set aside. The prosperous condition of the cities in the seventeenth century

8

SHIVELY

supported the creation of opulent houses of assignation in the licensed quarters. These ageya, or more popularly, chaya (teahouses), were tasteful parlors for drinking and dining where dancing girls, reciters, jesters, and other entertainers could be summoned. Prostitutes lived in separate houses called okiya to which they were indentured. Several ranks of prostitutes populated each quarter. A guidebook to the Yoshiwara of 1642 mentions 75 girls of tayu rank, 31 koshi, and 881 hashijord.n By the next century the quarter distinguished among its 4,000 inmates at least six ranks representing a wide range of fees. A girl of the highest rank, indulged like an aristocrat, might refuse a client who did not interest her. Perhaps she would require considerable wooing—several visits and various gifts—before she would bestow her favors. In addition to the official quarter there were other centers of prostitution, some of which came to be tacitly recognized but were not accorded the same status and privileges. Because of the great distance to the Yoshiwara from Edo and its theaters, unlicensed houses kept appearing in more convenient locations within the city. In 1673, 512 illegal prostitutes were seized in 74 houses near the theater quarter and sent out to the Yoshiwara. A decade later another 300 were rounded up at various unlicensed parlors. Such sweeps on a much larger scale were conducted during the Kansei and Tempo reforms of the late Tokugawa period. 12 Since it proved too difficult to confine all prostitution to one quarter of the city, the authorities in later years permitted prostitution at Shinagawa, Fukagawa, Nakasu, and Ryogoku, and in Kyoto at Gion, Nijo, Shichijo, and Kitano. There was also a considerable amount of less formal prostitution in public places of entertainment and relaxation. At many bathhouses, restaurants, and inns, female attendants liberally sold their fruits. The great variety and gradation among professional sexual practitioners is suggested by the over four hundred terms used to designate prostitutes. There were other female entertainers: dancers (odoriko) who entertained at private parties, and geisha who made their appearance in the 1750s. Prostitution was commonly practiced by entertainers of all kinds, both male and female—dancers, actors, joruri reciters, musicians—as well as by young itinerants calling themselves nuns or monks, and youths who were peddlers of toilet articles and incense. Frequent prohibitions were issued against private prostitution, but the main concern of the authorities seems to have been the prevention of exploitation of girls and boys by unscrupulous panders. The young

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT OF KABUKI

9

kabuki actors as public entertainers, like the actresses before them, could be engaged as sexual partners. Even before the ban against actresses, at least as early as 1612, there were troupes made up entirely of boys or young men who performed wakashu kabuki(youths' kabuki). Homosexual practices had become extremely prevalent during the military campaigns of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and were also common in Buddhist monasteries. During the seventeenth century some of the shogun and feudal lords exercised their preference for beautiful youths.13 Homosexuality was, moreover, widely practised among commoners, following the example of their betters. The playlets performed in youths' kabuki were of two types: those in which homosexual love was acted out, emphasizing the loveliness of these boys (shudó goto), and those which demonstrated techniques to accost prostitutes (keisei goto). The latter was, as mentioned earlier, a popular convention in women's kabuki. City officials attempted to curb the erotic effect of the young female impersonators as rivalries over these youths led to altercations between admirers. Homosexual prostitution was banned in 1648, but to little effect. Finally, in 1652, the authorities seized upon an incident to close the theaters in Edo and other cities and youths' kabuki, or at least kabuki by that name, came to an end. 14 Following repeated entreaties by theater owners, an agreement evolved which permitted kabuki performances to be staged again, henceforth known as yaw kabuki (fellows' kabuki). One basic change required female impersonators to dress their hair in the masculine fashion, shaving the forelock. Further, youths over fourteen were no longer permitted to use girls' clothes or hairstyles.15 Since men in the Tokugawa period had a shaven pate, a coiffured forelock was erogenous. The young actors were inspected periodically to make certain that they were closely shaved. They hid their bald spot with kerchiefs, although this too was prohibited, and later with patches of dark purple silk to give the impression of glistening dark hair. By the end of the century it became common practice to wear a wig on the stage. While this indicates the enduring concern over appearance, there was a gradual tendency to assign female roles to older performers who relied more on acting resources than on physical attraction, and the art of the onnagata (female impersonator) developed. Government repression, ironically, had inspired the transformation of these popular performances from burlesque into a more serious art form. The beneficial effects of the reforms of 1652 were realized only

IO

SHIVELY

gradually. For some years the most characteristic scenes continued to be the prostitute-accosting routines, known as Shimabara kyógen. In fact, kabuki was frequently called "Shimabara" until these plays were banned in 1664. The reforms of 1652 were intended to separate homosexual prostitution from kabuki and to relegate the kabuki theaters and actors' residences to one or two quarters of the cities. In the first respect the reform was only partially successful. It did remove from the stage those youths who were more prostitute than actor. These continued their service in separate sections of the city. Yet in the "reformed" yard kabuki, young actors, especially those apprenticed to the role of onnagata, continued to be sought after. Yard, a somewhat derogatory term for "fellow," carries the connotation of homosexuality. An account in an Edo guidebook suggests that even in this form of kabuki there was at first excessive interest on the part of the audience in these beautiful boys: When these youths, their hair beautifully done up, with light make-up, and wearing splendid padded robes, moved slowly along the runway, singing songs in delicate voices, the spectators in front bounced up and down on their buttocks, those in back reared up, while those in the boxes opened their mouths up to their ears and drooled; unable to contain themselves, they shouted: "Look, look! Their figures are like incarnations of deities, they are heavenly stallions!" And from the sides others called: "Oh, that smile! It overflows with sweetness. Good! good!" and the like, and there was shouting and commotion.16

The display of youths on the stage differed little from the line-up of prostitutes within the lattice fronts of the Shimabara houses. Only four years after the reform, an incident in Kyoto again closed the kabuki theaters in that city for a time. The onnagata Hashimoto Kinsaku was drinking in a box with a samurai admirer when the latter, in a fit of jealousy, drew his sword, inspiring Kinsaku to leap into the pit to save himself. 17 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THEATER BUILDINGS

The earliest kabuki performances, as noted, were staged in rudimentary enclosures which could be hastily constructed if subscription no stages were not already available in the amusement quarters at the edge of the cities. From about 1617 Kyoto began issuing licenses to operate theaters. As was true of houses of prostitution, the theaters were increasingly restricted to certain quarters of the city. In Kyoto

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT OF KABUKI

li

they were clustered in the area of Shijo, just east of the river, and although as many as seven licenses were issued by 1669, it is not clear how many were in operation at one time.18 This concentration parallels the establishment of the large prostitution quarters at Shimabara, several miles to the southwest, in 1641. The Shijo theater area and riverbank was a large amusement center in which kabuki was one of many dozens of diversions. There were smaller playhouses, puppet theaters, and a number of wayside entertainers who recited tales from military epics, the Taiheiki and Heike monogatari. There were fortune-tellers, dentists, sumo wrestlers, jugglers, and tightrope walkers. There were sideshows exhibiting such freaks as the female giant and the armless woman archer. There were exotic animals— tigers, bears, porcupines, eagles and peacocks, performing monkeys and dancing dogs. Teahouses, restaurants, and refreshment stands lined the streets. Paintings of the period show these establishments crowded together, thronged with people of every description.19 Edo performances of women's kabuki and youths' kabuki took place as early as 1617 in the Yoshiwara and the nearby amusement area of Nakabashi. The first theater to be licensed was the Saruwakaza in Nakabashi in 1624, later renamed Nakamura-za, which continued to operate at a succession of locations until 1893. It serves as a particularly remarkable example of the exercise of an hereditary license to operate a theater. This and later kabuki theaters were ordered to move from time to time and finally, after the Meireki fire of 1657 forced the Yoshiwara far outside the city, were restricted to Sakai-cho and Kobiki-cho and shortly limited to four in number. The Tokugawa government continued to follow a policy of treating the prostitution and theater quarters as parallel concerns. When the theater quarters burned in 1841, nearly two centuries later, they were ordered to move to Saruwaka-cho in Asakusa, close by the Yoshiwara. In Osaka too, where the issuing of regular licenses to theaters followed the Edo precedent, they were restricted from the 1660s to Dotombori and Horie. With the issuing of licenses permitting the construction of permanent theaters, the buildings became gradually more substantial. The mat fence was replaced by solid board walls, and a row of boxes (sajtki) was built along the two sides of the parquet (doma) for spectators who required more comfort and privacy. Later boxes were added at the rear of the parquet. City officials, seeking to keep kabuki a simple form of entertainment, forbade the construction of roofs over the

12.

SHIVELY

parquet. But resourceful theater owners devised a method of stretching mats across the parquet to serve as makeshift shelters which provided shade from the sun and protection against light showers. Over a period of two centuries the theater buildings became gradually more elaborate and comfortable as the authorities made concessions, alternating between a resigned attitude and a stricter policy of sumptuary regulation. Set back slightly from the street so as not to obstruct traffic, the theater facade was dominated by a tower on which ornamental spears were mounted to indicate possession of an official license. This spear (or drum) tower was draped with a cloth bunting featuring the large design of the theater's crest. The Nakamura-za first used the wheeling crane (maizuru) design. The Ichimura-za chose a rounded crane within an octagon.20 Most theaters placed large billboards on the tower, the center board announcing in bold characters the name of the proprietor, those on either side the names of leading actors. Lower billboards, typically four in number if the offering was a fouract play, gave the titles of each act. From the 1 7 2 0 s a tableau from each act was painted above the title. Before these signs stood low platforms where barkers waved their fans to attract the attention of passersby and entice them into the theater. In addition to the cruder techniques of whistling and calling to onlookers, they would attempt to draw a crowd by staging impersonations of the leading actors, imitating their voices as they recited tantalizing lines from the play, and parodying their characteristic poses and gestures. Contemporary paintings record the remarkably exuberant commitment of these kido geisha (entrance performers) to their task (Plate l). 21 The early theaters had only one entrance, located in the center of the building under the drum tower. It was a small opening with a high threshold which the customer had to step over while ducking under a low overhead. Aptly called the mouse-entrance (nezumi kido), it was a holdover from the enclosures used for subscription no and was presumably designed to make it difficult for anyone to slip in quickly without paying. As the theaters grew larger in the eighteenth century, an entrance was provided on each side of the drum tower for admission to the parquet. The stoop entrance was abandoned and a short curtain (noren) hung across the top of the doorway, as is customary in Japanese shops. Tickets were purchased outside and other fees paid within for the rental of a reed mat (hanjo) and a

SHIVELY

length of smoldering cord to light one's pipe. On each side of the front of the building an entrance was added for guests going to boxes in order to avoid jostling by the plebs. Inside, stairs led to the upper level of boxes. The price of tickets ranged widely between the cheapest and the best seats. In 1714, boxes in Edo theaters commanded 1200 mon, single spaces 200 mon. Parquet tickets averaged 64 mon. When space was available, single-act tickets were sold for 12 mon. Rental of a mat was 6 mon additional. 22 These prices increased rather steadily through much of the Tokugawa period, probably following the general inflationary trend, but exacerbated at certain times by the escalating salaries of the star actors. Attending a major theater was not cheap. The cost of a box seat in 1828 was 1 ryo 2 bu, the equivalent of 3 bales (hyo) of rice or a servant's salary for three or four months. When a performance was popular, the price of tickets rose abruptly. 23 While the Nakamura-za in Edo provides a detailed illustration of the physical design of a theater, it should be noted that no two were identical. Theaters were, moreover, periodically rebuilt, for fires frequently ravaged Edo. In the 1690s the outer dimensions of the Nakamura-za were 71.5 feet by 97.5 feet, or 6,971 square feet. 24 At its largest in 1809, it measured 80 feet by 138.5 feet, or 11,080 square feet. 25 The structure remained a fraction the size of the present Kabuki-za in Tokyo which has 39,000 square feet of space on the ground floor, seating 1,078 people, approximately the same number as the Tokugawa structure. But the modern building has five floors with 120,000 square feet of floor space and accommodates an additional 1,522 people on the mezzanine and balconies.26 The Nakamura-za of 1720 had a row of boxes along the two sides and across the back. Although only one tier was allowed at that time, by 1724 a second tier of boxes had been added. It was repeatedly forbidden to hang bamboo blinds across the front of the boxes and to install screens or other partitions which would provide privacy for the occupants. However, a number of paintings from this period show such items in use, partially concealing from the gaze of the populace ladies-in-waiting of the shogun's or daimyo's households, members of the Buddhist clergy, and rich merchants. 27 The parquet (doma) of the Nakamura-za, 52 feet wide and 82.4 feet deep in 1720, had a capacity of 800 persons. Later, the front half with its better seats was divided into partitions (masu) not quite five feet square which narrowly accommodated seven or eight people. 28

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT OF KABUKI

Rear parquet space was unreserved. The last back seats, called the omuko (greatly beyond) were so far from the stage that they were also known as the "deaf gallery." Thus including boxes and the cheapest parquet seats the theater held about 1,200.29 Operating policy was to crowd in as many as possible. According to a book of 1703: "The people came in pushing and jostling, and eight persons sat knee over knee on a mat. It is very pleasant to see them pressed together like human sushi. "30 By the early eighteenth century, wooden roofs occasionally sheltered part of the pit, although not officially sanctioned until 1724. Thereafter tile roofs were recommended to decrease the danger of fire from flying embers. Even after the theaters added roofs, artificial lighting remained proscribed because of the danger to the wooden structure from the open flame of oil lamps and candles. Performances, expected to end about 5 P.M., depended on natural light from windows with translucent paper-covered shoji installed on both sides of the theater behind or above the upper row of boxes.31 Dressing rooms, located directly behind the stage, were built in two stories by the 1670s. Before the end of the century the Morita-za in Edo added a third level.32 This section of the building was built high to take as little ground space as necessary from the stage and parquet. A passageway leading to the dressing room section was constructed behind the boxes. Though intended for use by actors to gain access to the end of the runway (hanamichi), it was soon traveled by actors summoned to boxes or patrons visiting dressing rooms.33 The usual arrangement called for baths and quarters for musicians, writers, and wakashu on the first floor, onnagata on the second, and players of men's roles on the third. A large rehearsal area also occupied the third level. Leading players had individual dressing rooms, although partitions had not received official sanction.34 The early kabuki stage basically recreated the square no stage with pillars in the four corners supporting a thatched roof. The main platform had two narrow appendages, one to the right used by the chorus in the no, the other at the rear for the musicians. Off the left of the stage a "bridge" (hasbigakari) for entrances and exits extended back at an oblique angle with a railing on each side and a long roof. These features of the no stage were gradually modified in the kabuki theater, although it is surprising how long they persisted. The stage itself was only nineteen feet square at the outset. Rather than alter its design, more space was gained by greatly widening the bridge and

i6

SHIVELY

eliminating its handrails. It then emerged as a secondary performing area, a rectangle set back slightly from the main stage. A platform was appended to the front of the stage (tsuke-butai) which jutted into the audience. Though these changes were not completed until the first decades of the eighteenth century, some stages had already become quite large. That of the Nakamura-za measured 32.5 feet by 37.7 feet in 1724. Not until 1796, however, was the roof over the main stage eliminated.35 One of the most distinctive inventions of the kabuki theater is the hanamichi, a five-foot-wide runway which extends from the left side of the stage to the rear of the audience. It is used for more dramatic entrances and exits and as an occasional pivot of activity. Its origins are unclear. The more obvious assumption, that it began as a second hashigakari directed through the audience, appears to be incorrect. Perhaps as early as the 1650s a small platform was attached to the stage slightly left of center where members of the audience placed gifts (hana) of money or goods for their favorite actors. These were called hana because the gift was attached to a flower (hana) branch. Such a platform appears in a drawing of the Nakamura-za in 1687.36 By 1724, at least, the hanamichi was a runway 52 feet long, set at an oblique angle, probably ending toward the rear end of the row of boxes on the left side of the hall. Although the word hanamichi may originally have meant "a path for gifts," by the 1720s and perhaps several decades earlier, it was used primarily as an extension of the stage. Woodblock prints of the next decade show actors standing or seated upon it. Occasionally a small platform called the nanori-dai was added about the midway point where an actor could stand almost dead center of the parquet to announce the name and pedigree (nanori) of the character he was portraying. After 1780 another narrower runway was sometimes erected on the right side of the hall. Perhaps as a result, the main hanamichi was set at right angles to the stage, parallel to its narrower companion.37 Most of the physical features of the theater discussed on the preceding pages are illustrated in a woodblock print by Okumura Masanobu (1686-1764) of the Ichimura-za in Edo in 1744 (Plate 2). The no stage with its roof and front pillars, the appended hashigakari stage right and tsuke-butai stage front and the hanamichi are clearly evident. There is a raised walk (ayumi) across the hall for easier access by customers and vendors to the front part of the pit. A tea and a food vendor pass through the audience. The stage curtain is drawn to

i8

SHIVELY

stage right. Boxes of the first tier were known as quail boxes (uzura sajiki) because their wooden bars made them resemble crates for keeping quail. The second tier of boxes retained eaves from the days, a few decades earlier, when there was no roof over the pit. Sliding doors of translucent paper let in daylight above the boxes.38 In such a theater the play moved easily into the audience. The tiers of boxes at the front of the hall were alongside the stage. Later in the eighteenth century a low balcony intruded behind the left corner of the stage (stage right). Known as the rakandai (arhat dais), its tightly lined-up spectators hovered over the stage like the five hundred arhats of a Buddhist painting. A seventeen-syllable satirical poem (senryü) observes: ' 'The five hundred went home, having seen the actors' backs." A second balcony inevitably grew above this. It was called tsüten (passing through to heaven), or Yoshino (a mountain district noted for cherry blossoms), as its perspective barely penetrated the artificial cherry blossoms suspended from the ceiling of the hall. A woodblock print (Plate 3) of the last decades of the Tokugawa period shows the plebs, crammed in these galleries at the edge of the stage, watching gleefully, mouths agape, as the actors perform, almost within reach.39 When the play was a great success, the management, not impervious to the potential boon, seated customers on the stage itself. This practice is recorded by the satirical poems: "A big hit—the action is performed in a six-foot square," and "Spectators and actors are lined up together—a big hit.' ' 4o With an audience thus gathered on three sides of the performers and cheap balcony seating available over one corner of the stage, no concept of a platform-framing proscenium arch emerged. RAPPORT BETWEEN ACTOR AND AUDIENCE

The intimacy of the theater and the consequent physical closeness between actor and audience was conducive to easy communication. Regulars were familiar with the lineage and careers of the actors whose private lives were examined in critical booklets (yakusha hyóbanki) printed for theatergoers. When a new or visiting actor was first presented on stage, or a rising performer given a new name as a mark of promotion, a formal announcement took place between acts. The entire company, seated by rank on the stage, participated in this ceremony called kojo. On such occasions the manager and leading actors would thank the audience for past favors, and with heads bowed to the floor ask for continued patronage. At other times actors ad-

PLATE 3. Plebs, packed into the "arhat dais" and " Y o s h i n o " at stage right, revel in the action on the stage, while well-dressed ladies in boxes watch quietly. Detail of a woodblock print by Utagawa Toyokuni III. (Photo taken by the author; woodblock print courtesy of The Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum, Waseda University)

2.0

SHIVELY

dressed the audience in a more informal manner. In the midst of a scene a player might step out of role to welcome another actor back to the city or introduce his protégé or a new colleague and ask the audience's favor. The new names given to less important actors were sometimes announced in the course of the dialogue as informal kojo within the play (kyôgen no nakaba no kôjô), and these were especially relished by alert members of the audience.41 Occasionally an actor would humorously refer to himself or to another performer by a personal name as if to draw attention to the fact that their play was make-believe. Kabuki was never intent upon sustaining the illusion of reality, and the audience considered such asides less an interruption than a familiar confidence. Another variety of communication was the homekotoba (words of praise) which originated in the mid-seventeenth century as the onnagata offered a few lines of praise to the male lead as he made his entrance.42 A variation on this practice was for a member of the audience to interrupt the action of the play by rising to make a declaration of his admiration for an actor, either from his place in the parquet or from the hanamichi. This type of homekotoba probably began in Edo. Kyoto people, more reticent, first committed their laudatory sentiments to writing and sent them to the dressing room. But by the first decade of the eighteenth century, they too surrendered to speechmaking.43 This was sometimes annoying to the actors, especially if it stranded them in an awkward moment: an actor playing a ghost, caught in the middle of his haunting scene by an overly long speech, could not fade away.44 A less disruptive form of audience reaction involved spontaneous shouts from enthusiastic viewers (kakegoe) to applaud an especially skillful pose or vocal coloration in the delivery of a dramatic line. A fan might merely call out the actor's name or his house name (yagô). A better compliment is to call out the actor's father's name, indicating the attainment of skill equal to his predecessor. (Such calls are frequently heard in kabuki theaters today, but they usually come from a paid claque or employee of the theater to provide a taste of the atmosphere of the old days.) Often the calls were much more subtle allusions to be savored only by aficionados. Words of criticism or insult were heard too, such as "daikon" (radish). The front rows sometimes showed their displeasure by throwing their mats onto the stage (hanjô o ireruJ.4i Not infrequently, when a critic's remarks angered one of an actor's more rabid admirers, a fight would break

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT OF KABUKI

il

out. Woodblock prints of the theater interior show plebs in the front part of the parquet striking each other with fists and with wooden clogs. The theater assigned two of its employees during each scene as "stage guards" (butaiban) to quiet such disturbances (Plate 3). The informality of the theater was also expressed in humorous comments from the audience. During a drinking scene an inebriated viewer might call out: ' 'If you don't have enough, I've got more here.'' Audience support also found expression in clubs of enthusiasts known as teuchi renju (handclapping groups). Several dozen club members, dressed in identical clothes, would sit together like a cheering section, clapping hands or wooden clappers as they sang rhythmic songs to stir support for their favorites. Sometimes the actors would join in, clapping hands in unison with the group. The handclapping groups originated in Kyoto and Osaka, and then spread to Edo, where clubs were usually composed of men of some standing in the business community. The most active were associations of dealers in fish, vegetables, and rice, and the association of Yoshiwara proprietors. These vied with each other in presenting novel stunts and songs. The Yoshiwara group prided itself on having the honor, when the play Sukeroku was performed, of supplying the umbrella and purple headband which play such a distinctive part in the hero's performance.46 The tradesmen groups also supplied gifts of stage curtains and festoons for the boxes of the theater, and sometimes contributed subsidies for the production. A more artistic kind of rapport was the appreciation of the audience for the skill of both the playwright and the actor. Because kabuki became increasingly a repertory theater in which the story lines of most of the cycles of plays were already known to the audience, and the actors performed largely according to type-roles (kata), innovations in the plot and variations in the style of acting were refinements which gave excitement to the performance. As Donald Keene has observed: "Virtuoso actors require virtuoso audiences to appreciate their skill, and in this sense the Kabuki audience forms part of the performance. Unless an actor can be sure that a slight change in kata will be noticed and appreciated, there is no temptation to study and vary the parts.' '47 KAOMISE: OPENING THE SEASON

It became customary for a kabuki theater to offer six programs during the year, each new offering beginning about the first of the odd-

11

SHIVELY

numbered month. The season opened in the eleventh month. Since this was the occasion for introducing actors under contract to the theater for the year, it was called kaomise (showing the faces). This practice began in Kyoto in the 1650s and 1660s. From the twentieth day of the tenth month the theater began to bustle with activity. The facades of the theater were decorated with bamboo palings and signboards announcing the cast and titles of the play and its scenes. Hawkers went through the streets distributing playbills (banzuke) carrying this announcement.48 Actors dressed in formal clothes and, preceded by runners with lanterns calling ' 'hyoban, hyoban,'' made the rounds of the patrons' homes to inform them of the kaomise program. Gifts received by the troupe—bales of rice, barrels of sake, bundles of charcoal, and trays of seabream and pheasant—were piled in front of the theater (Plate 1). The surrounding streets and teahouses were decorated with lanterns. These also hung inside the theater across the beams and above the boxes. Actors coming from other cities to join a Kyoto troupe as visiting performers made a formal arrival by palanquin and were borne directly onto the stage where they were greeted by their Kyoto colleagues with the exchange of wine cups. The actors took turns reciting, singing, and playing the samisen. The scholar Motoori Norinaga records such a scene in his diary: ' 'I did not go to see this,'' he hurries to mention, "but I heard it from other people.' ' 49 Spectators, fearing to miss the opening of the performance during kaomise, started from home through the cold morning long before dawn in order to arrive for the 5 A.M. curtain. They stopped at a theater teahouse for a bowl of oyster potage, changed from wooden clogs to slippers, and entered the theater. An actor's memoir of 1830 describes the special part played by handclapping groups during the kaomise in Kyoto. When the first drum was sounded at 2 A.M., the actors were in readiness. Partitions directly before the stage were occupied during each of the first ten days of kaomise by one of the handclapping groups dressed in colorful matching costumes and caps. They came down the runway of the theater by twos and threes, and when they were settled in their places, word was sent to the dressing rooms. The curtain was drawn open and the son of the head of the theater, ushered across the stage by the stage manager, took his place at stage left. He was followed by the onnagata, the child actors, and the players of male roles, led by the most popular actor and the head of the troupe. The stage

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT OF KABUKI

manager spread a red carpet at the front of the stage and, seating himself there, offered greetings. The group responded by standing and beating out various rhythms with their clappers. Next the head of the troupe stepped onto the carpet, danced a Sanbaso, a short auspicious number, and offered formal greetings. The leading onnagata performed a longer dance, followed by welcomes from the other actors. Before each actor spoke, a member of the group read a list of gifts presented in his honor: the number of bales of rice and packhorse loads of sake. The ceremony closed with greetings from the head of the troupe, then the curtain was drawn. After the first ten days of the performance, this ritual was replaced by a one- or two-act filler.'0 Kaomise at the Osaka theaters had two unique features. The first was the ceremonial arrival by boat of the visiting actors. This was a publicity stunt, enthusiastically backed by the brothel proprietors and others of the entertainment world. A dozen or more boats, colorfully decorated and carrying musicians, carried the guest actors along the river from the Kunosuke Bridge to the theater at Dotombori where they were welcomed to the stage by the local actors. Further, the Osaka kaomise came to be performed at night. This was because competition for seats during the kaomise was so keen that the audience crowded the theater by ten o'clock the night preceding the performance. The custom began, therefore, of starting the proceeding at midnight, the hall filled with a great number of lanterns and the stage illuminated by several dozen wooden candlesticks. Because of the danger of fire, the kaomise run was cut to only ten days. 51 GOING TO THE THEATER

Since normally theater performances were supposed to conclude before dark, they began early in the morning, usually at 6 A.M. or slightly later, with the second sounding of the drum in the theater tower. The first drum was sounded hours before, although from time to time the authorities forbade this early disruption of sleep. Since performances could not be given on rainy days in the early years before the theaters had proper roofs, the drum served the neighborhood as a weather forecast. Those who wished to arrive in time for the opening curtain left their homes well before dawn during the winter months. The second drum was the signal for the beginning of the ceremonious Sanbaso which preceded the play. From the theater entrance the call rang out ' 'Sanbaso, Sanbaso,'' but there was only a

H

SHIVELY

scattering of spectators in the theater when the performance began. Many were visitors up from the country or servants of city people who were sent early to hold good seats in the parquet. It was an exciting experience to go to the theater, especially for the womenfolk who had little occasion to appear in their best clothes or to eat and drink in public. Because they would have to start out early in the morning, they began preparations the day before—getting their hair dressed and going to the bathhouse. These preparations were similar, it was said, to those made by men anticipating a visit to the Yoshiwara. One of the pleasures of going to the theater for women was to be seen in stylish kimono by their favorite actors. While there are a number of paintings showing well-dressed ladies seated in theater boxes, one handscroll has an unusual detail (Plate 4) of young ladies drinking and dallying with actors behind the protection of a folding screen in a box." The theaters were surrounded by small establishments known as theater teahouses (shibai jaya), which provided a number of services to theatergoers. The first, which appeared in Edo as early as 1624, served tea and food and reserved tickets for the better seats. Not until the end of the century did they take on the broader social function of the Kyoto houses. In that city the banks of the Kamo River from Sanjo to Matsubara were lined with restaurants and teahouses during the summer months. Among these were some which catered especially to theater patrons, providing food and refreshment between the acts and after the performance. Here too actors could be called to drink with the guests, but it was prohibited to send for prostitutes.'3 Before long there were various classes of theater teahouses: large (6-jaya), medium (naka-jaya), small (ko-jaya), front (mae-jaya), and finally "water" (mizu-jaya) whose function was limited to serving food and drink in the theater. Their proprietors, many of whom were connected with the theater world, some actors and managers themselves, provided part of the financial backing for new performances. Box seats in the theater were consigned to the teahouses for sale to their patrons; large teahouses released most of them and turned the remainder over to smaller establishments. By the late Tokugawa period, when much of the parquet was also reserved, the large teahouses (then also called omote-jaya, front teahouses) of Saruwaka-cho assigned both tiers of boxes, and the small teahouses (also known as ura-jaya, rear teahouses) had half the parquet but were often favored

° e

«

O

vi

« e a t¡ O "3 c •S, ' i tuo o

o

"P S I o 3 a 4«0 O o h b o - " i> S >>-5 qj J j O ' S S3 O t»í B J C ° O I e g 8 « ^

2 =3 u S J5 u T i - S^

9 u ¡2 S ; rtg 53

l | ¿ -C U ÙT J2 O .s I 15 w Se « 6 .-S

X O J2 (-. D S o

-o rt

a

g M)-* C « 2 o o o «£ V o

O 3 o

-

î c

3 G •Sdì

§ 2 o « S 2

§

2 - s l o 3 t-i g o S g ^ « « 13 — ^ -12 T3

bi c

J3 « « « » f "S C rt 03 — « ° TS < o S c Q S

8

*

1

S

i

SHIVELY

by enthusiasts because of their better access to the actors' dressing rooms. Attendants from the teahouses prepared the boxes before the arrival of the guests. They arranged ashtrays, mats, and cushions, and hung red carpets over the railings of the boxes. They greeted guests in the street, escorted them to the teahouse to leave wraps, canes, swords, and other articles. Slippers were provided to use instead of footgear and, during the summer, some patrons changed to informal summer dress (yukata). After they were offered refreshment, the customers were led to their boxes, in some cases by a direct passageway from the teahouse to the theater.54 The attendants in Edo were young men, but in Kyoto and Osaka they were girls (ochako). The cheerful solicitations of these maids are described in a guide to the theater district of Kyoto: . . . the morning drums of the theaters reverberate to Otowa Hill. The maids with their red aprons bright as the morning sun come out into the street and, with welcoming glances, call out: " C o m e , buy your tickets. I will pick out a good place or a box for you. I'll take care of your coat, hat, and your cane. I'll bring you tea later on. The performance has already begun. One thousand-kan Mandayu prospers year after year, the Kameya theater has Kumenojo, and in the puppet theater it is the felicitous Kaganojo. Come, buy your tickets." So they egg people on like boiling

pots—tin rin shan.'5

The girls first brought their customers tea and sweets and illustrated booklets containing a synopsis of the play. As there were no restaurants in the theater, they served appetizers and sake, then lunch, and later an afternoon meal of sushi. After the performance dinner was available at the teahouse. An important pan of theater-going was eating and drinking. The guests could also go to the teahouses to relax during the long intermissions and to use the toilets, facilities usually lacking in the theater building itself, at least in Edo. The women might make several trips to the teahouse during the day to tidy their coiffure and freshen their make-up. Some changed to a new garment. The practice of wives and daughters of prosperous merchants of changing their kimono at the teahouse during the course of the day is noted in satirical poems: ' 'Wishing to be noticed by the actors, they change clothes frequently," and another, "The Komachi in the box changes seven times."' 6 (Ono no Komachi was a famous beauty, poetess and lover of the ninth century.) The audience in the parquet could also order food and drink. As the parquet was often crowded, it required a great deal of squeezing

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT OF KABUKI

and maneuvering for the vendors (,dekata) to deliver food. Vendors brought tea or sake, and a limited choice of food: cakes (kashi), a simple lunch (bento) and sushi. The acronym kabesu was made from these three words to designate a patron who would not leave his box for better fare lest he miss an exciting development on stage.57 The Osaka theater teahouses, numbering 47 by 1700, served patrons of any of the theaters of the district. In this they were like the Kyoto establishments. In Edo, however, a teahouse was affiliated with a single theater and served its patrons exclusively. By 1714 there were at least 58 teahouses surrounding the kabuki and puppet theaters.'8 Their number increased steadily and, after the move to Saruwaka-cho in 1842, totaled 142, classified into four grades. Here at last the Tokugawa bureaucrat's ideal theater quarter layout was realized. Each of the three large kabuki theaters, arranged in a row, was situated in the middle of a separate block and surrounded by its designated teahouses.59 The quarter itself was enclosed by a high wooden fence with four gates which were closed at night, rather effectively sealing the quarter from the rest of society. We are provided with a considerable amount of pictorial information about the Nakamura-za in Edo, its dressing room and an adjoining theater teahouse in the excellent pair of painted screens dating from the end of the seventeenth century and attributed to Hishikawa Moronobu (d. 1694), now in the collection of the National Museum in Tokyo.60 The first two right panels of the left screen show a dressing room, and the third panel shows a gate in the fence leading directly to an elegant teahouse. The remaining three panels display young actors, mostly female impersonators, entertaining guests in the teahouse. In one room a young actor dances, surrounded by musicians and guests. Leaning against the post in the corner, a patron and an actor hold hands and gaze at each other (Plate 5). On the veranda a group gathers around a go board, while nearby a guest peeks around the sliding door and makes eyes at a passing youth (Plate 6). Here too an actor plays the samisen to accompany the shakuhachi (vertical flute) of a guest. On a Chinese carpet in the garden, one visitor, relaxing with an enormous cup of wine after dancing, waves to an intoxicated companion being steadied on his stool by two young actors. Other couples walk about the garden. To the extreme left, a mounted samurai disguised by a woven reed hat arrives at the gate. Female impersonators and attendants from the house welcome him.

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT OF KABUKI

2.9

Moronobu and his contemporaries depict the houses of assignation in the courtesan quarter in precisely the same manner. While youths have replaced prostitutes in these scenes of a theater teahouse, the posture and arrangement of figures is common to both worlds. Plates 6 and 7 and Plates 8 and 9 juxtapose details of paintings, all attributed to Moronobu, which illustrate the similarity in treatment of scenes from the teahouses of the two quarters. 61 The more opulent teahouses were also first-class restaurants, and they were patronized by wealthy merchants who sought not merely their own amusement; there they entertained the majordomos (rusui) of the Edo mansions of feudal lords and other samurai of better rank who served as intermediaries for contracts and purchase orders. They were invited to the theater and the teahouses to be plied with food, drink, young actors, and bribes. Special patrons of the large teahouses in Edo were the ladies-inwaiting from the shogun's castle and the lords' mansions and, in Kyoto, the Imperial Palace. It was customary for them to receive vacations during the third month to visit their parents, but many headed straight for the theater. Plays were often scheduled during that month on themes drawn from classical literature appropriate to this clientele. Although, in theory, it was not proper for ladies of the samurai class to go to the theater, attendance was not only condoned but encouraged by their lords who wished them to improve their skill in kabuki dances. They came elegantly dressed and added a great deal of color and beauty to the theater during the month. 6 2 THE EJIMA-IKUSHIMA AFFAIR

The fascination which samurai ladies felt for kabuki actors led to a delicious scandal in 1714. Ikushima Shingoro, the most talked about actor in Edo, was a handsome specialist of love scenes, which he played wonderfully, according to a critical booklet of his day, "causing the ladies in the audience to be pleased." Another book states that he enacted love scenes "realistically and provocatively," and that all the women of Edo were mad for him. 6 3 One whom he well satisfied was Ejima (1681-1741), a high-ranking lady official in the service of the shogun's mother. There are differing accounts of the particular incident which brought their affair to light. While the story appears to have been somewhat embroidered and the details are unreliable, the basic facts are verified. Ejima was instructed to make a pilgrimage on the twelfth

PLATE 6. A patron in a theater teahouse eyes a passing kabuki youth. Detail of a screen painting attributed to Moronobu. (Photo taken by the author; screen painting courtesy of the Tokyo National Museum)

hmWM 4

s.

: Nltti i, ;

\ \ i. V \ \\

M PLATE 7. A patron in a Yoshiwara brothel catches the skirt of a passing g i r l . Detail of a handscroll attributed to Moronobu. (Photo taken by the author; handscroll courtesy of the Atami Bijutsukan)

34

SHIVELY

day of the first month on behalf of Gekkoin, the mother of Shogun Ietsugu, to the Tokugawa family mausolea at Zojoji in the Shiba district of Edo. According to usual procedure, Ejima and her entourage were expected to pause for refreshments at the abbot's residence after the ceremony. Instead she left the temple directly and, with eleven attendants, went to the Yamamura-za to see the play. They called actors to their box and drank sake with them. Among the actors was Ejima's lover, Ikushima. News of the theater party leaked out and investigation resulted in full exposure, not only of the party, but of the love affair which had continued for nine years. All those implicated in the affair and the party were given punishments ranging from banishment to death. The lady officials were placed in the custody of different lords, and Ikushima was exiled to Miyake Island. 64 The following is a more colorful account of the incident which should be read less for its factual reliability than for its description of what a rousing theater party could become. The scene on this day was a hubbub which cannot be described. In the boxes carpets were spread, and the theater owner, Nagadayu, Ikushima Shingoro, and Nakamura Seigoro, wearing hakama and haori, were invited to be drinking partners. The party was so noisy that the sounds of the play could not be heard. . . . At this time occupying a lower box was a retainer of Matsudaira Satsuma-no-kami, a person called Taniguchi Shimpei, who was watching the play with his wife. In the upper box, Ejima, quite intoxicated and not knowing what she was doing, spilled her sake, and it poured on Shimpei's head. He sent a messenger to the upper box. A kachi-metsuke, Okamoto Goroemon, made apologies, but this did not satisfy Shimpei. Goroemon apologized over and over, and finally Shimpei accepted the apologies, and although it was only about midday, he and his wife left the theater. . . . Thereupon Goroemon several times urged Lady Ejima to leave, but she would not consent, and instead became very angry. At 2 P.M. a passageway was installed from the second-floor box by which they went to Yamamura Chodayu's house, and the capers of the many maids from the castle were beyond words. . . . For the entertainment of Ejima, many actors, young actors, and youths were summoned as drinking partners. . . . At 4 o'clock they left Chodayu's rooms and went to a teahouse called Yamaya on the street behind. On the second floor the maids and actors kept coming and going and there was a great hubbub. . . . They finally left Kobiki-cho and returned by the Hirakawaguchi Gate (of the castle) at 8 o'clock. 6 ' The most serious consequence of this affair for the history of kabuki was the fate of Yamamura-za. Founded in 1642 and the most popu-

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT OF KABUKI

35

lar among the Edo theaters for more than a decade, it was closed, the building demolished, and the assets of the theater and of its owner sold at auction. 66 For the remaining one hundred fifty years of the Tokugawa period there were three, instead of four, large theaters in Edo. All theaters were closed for three months and permitted to reopen only under stringent conditions. The twenty-four leading actors of Edo were required to submit written statements that they would not violate any of the orders of the government. The regulations imposed on the managers were set forth in a document on the ninth day of the third month: 1. The boxes of the theaters have been made two and three tiers in recent years. As formerly, not more than one tier will be permitted. 2. It is prohibited to construct private passages from the boxes or to construct parlors for merry-making backstage, in the theater manager's residence, or in teahouses and such places. Nothing at all should be done by the actors other than performing plays on the stage, even if they are called to the boxes or teahouses or the like. Of course pleasure-making patrons must not be invited to the actors' own houses. 3. In the boxes it is not permitted to hang bamboo blinds, curtains, or screens, and to enclose them in any other way is prohibited. They must be made so that they can be seen through. 4. In recent years the roofs of theaters have been made so that even on rainy days plays can be performed. In this matter also roofs must be lightly constructed as was done formerly. 5. The costumes of actors in recent years have been sumptuous; this is prohibited. Hereafter silk, pongee, and cotton will be used. 6. It is strictly prohibited that plays continue into the evening and torches be set up. They should be planned so that they will end by 5 P.M. 7. Teahouses in the vicinity of the theaters should be simply constructed, and parlorlike accommodations are entirely prohibited. Concerning those which are in existence at present, petitions should be submitted to the city magistrate's office and, upon inspection, a decision will be given. The above must be observed without fail. If there are violations, the principals, of course, and even the representative of that quarter and the five-man group will be considered offenders.67 After the order was issued, enforcement was strict for a time as officials were sent by the city magistrates to make periodic inspections, not only of the theater buildings, but of the fifty-six teahouses. It was not very long, however, before the teahouses were again well appointed, and actors resumed making calls on their patrons. More-

36

SHIVELY

over, within a decade, after complaints from theater owners that rainy days were bankrupting them, roofs were permitted as well as a second tier of boxes. 68 After the incident the dressing room section was limited to one story, but by 1720 it was again up to three stories. As a gesture of deference toward regulations, the second floor was called a mezzanine (chu nikai'), and the third floor the second (hon nikai).69 The details of the incident and the regulations which it provoked provide considerable insight into the social environment of kabuki. We see that the quarter was equipped with generous facilities for guests of either sex to drink and flirt with actors and other entertainers. They might rendezvous in dressing rooms, in boxes, in the greater privacy of the teahouse parlors, or in the homes of the actors themselves. The personnel of the theater, from the manager to apprentice boy-actors, were in the business of social entertaining which could range, according to the preference of the customer, from genteel conversation and private performances of music, dance, storytelling, impersonations, and skits, to risque banter and lovemaking. Although Tokugawa society was regulated by a class system of finely graduated hierarchical distinctions, in the pleasure quarters even high officials interacted intimately with theater people who, though beautiful, accomplished, and expensively dressed, were outcastes. THE LIFE AND ART OF ACTORS

The life of the actor—his background, training, and professional and social relationships—was fascinating to the wider audience of theatergoers. The main focus of kabuki was less the play than the actor who attracted attention not only because of his dramatic talent but because of his lineage, his physical assets, and his private life. Boyish beauty, unusual acting ability, elaborate reputations for a luxurious lifestyle, and romantic entanglements titillated a public vulnerable to the glamor of the theater world. Actors were instructed to live in the quarter or in its close vicinity. In Kyoto their homes were found especially in Gion-machi, Miyagawa-cho, and Kawara-machi north of Shijo. The great Genroku actors Sakata Tojuro and Mizuki Tatsunosuke lived at the latter address, a few blocks west of the theaters. Minor performers sometimes lived in their dressing rooms under rather wretched conditions, while the established actors and managers usually had fine residences.70 According to the colorful version of the Ejima story, the home of the

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT OF KABUKI

37

manager of the Yamamura-za must have been a large and comfortable building to permit the entourage from the castle to hold one phase of its party there, drinking with "many actors, young actors, and youths." The most popular actors lived in luxury, commanding high salaries and receiving lavish gifts from admirers and patrons. Some of the more prosperous, particularly in Kyoto and Osaka, became theater owners. Others owned or had a part interest in teahouses. Some kept a considerable number of beautiful youths in their homes whom they trained as actors. Customers of the teahouses could arrange for these boys to entertain and drink with them and serve as sexual partners. Daimyo and men of wealth summoned them to their mansions to entertain and to spend the night. Called iroko (sex youths) or butaiko (stage youths), they ranged in age from thirteen to about seventeen. Estimates claim that 80 or 90 percent of the onnagata during the first half of the Tokugawa period started as iroko. Segawa Kikunojo (1693?—1749) was a catamite in Dotombori before becoming a famous actor. Onoe KikugorO, Yamashita Kinsaku, Onoe Shoroku, Ichikawa Monnosuke III, Nakamura Riko II, Sawamura Kito, and Nakamura Kikuyo are among the many others who emerged from this background.71 Most of the youths were given no spoken lines, but merely lined up as extras on the stage with powdered faces and beautiful clothes or were brought on in dance numbers.72 Those who showed some ability in acting began with children's parts. The less talented were kept in their teacher's home to work as prostitutes, while continuing to be called actors to avoid difficulties with the authorities.73 During the 1670s and 1680s young catamites were extremely popular and, despite official disapproval, became increasingly numerous.74 Laws of 1689, 1694, and 1695 forbad actors or catamites to answer summons and specified that troupe managers alone could keep youths exclusively for dramatic training.75 These were limited to twenty young actors and ten apprentices.76 Nevertheless, there must have been some kind of understanding on this matter, as a law of 1709 required those on the stage to shave their forelocks while sparing the youths innocent of dramatic appearances. In 1723, "several tens of persons" were punished because of violations and the iroko held by troupe managers were freed, that is, contracts indenturing them were cancelled, and they were sent home to their parents.77 In time the number of such youths in Edo became so large that it

3§

SHIVELY

was inconvenient to keep them all in the theater teahouses or other houses in that quarter. Therefore they were placed in establishments in Yoshi-cho. These houses were called kagema-jaya (catamite teahouses), and although it appears that in many instances the youths were indentured to the master of the teahouse, the fiction was maintained that they were employees of the theater or troupe manager. Their names appeared on the playbills (,banzukej of the three theaters, and in the twelfth month, at the time of the investigation and registration of the populace, a special fee of 100 silver hiki was paid to the officials to overlook the irregularity. This fee was paid by the masters of the catamite teahouses.78 When the youths were called to the stage to appear as extras or members of the chorus, their masters were pleased to have them perform without pay and to supply costumes because of the excellent publicity.79 As their forelocks were unshaven, the front hair was concealed by a purple crepe cap, slightly larger than the patch worn by the onnagata over his shaven pate.80 Edo theater practice dictated that these youths be summoned only by customers in the lower level boxes on the west side. Further nicety of convention delicately prevented female geisha from attending the same parlor in a teahouse.81 The youths who appeared on the stage held a higher status than the ordinary catamites, which was reflected in their different costume and precedence in seating. Their patrons were frequently women, sometimes ladies of the shogun's castle or daimyo mansions, who were referred to by the argot "golden sliding doors" (kin-busuma). It was policy, however, that youths decline invitations from Buddhist nuns.82 Catamite teahouses which were not directly connected with the theaters also appeared in Edo. The first were probably the Yushima Tenjin houses of the 1740s.83 They were, however, part of the same social world. The actor Ichikawa Gennosuke became enamoured of a youth from one of these houses, bought him for fifty ryo, and later, when he became twenty-one, arranged (with some difficulty) to put him on the stage as an onnagata.*4 In the 1760s there were ten quarters in Edo which had catamite teahouses, only three of which had direct connections with the theater quarters.85 Most were in front of shrines, suggesting the patronage of Shinto and Buddhist priests. The situation in Kyoto appears to have been much the same. One of the first critical booklets on actors, Yaw mushi (Fellow [or Actor]

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT OF KABUKI

39

Bugs) (1660), describes the kabuki youths who were sought after by Buddhist monks: In these times in the capital there is a great number of what are called "fellow bugs" who eat away the bamboo and wood of the five Zen monasteries and ten abbeys, the books of the learned priests, and even the purses of fathers and grandfathers. . . . "Fellow bugs" are about the size of a human being fifteen or sixteen years old; they are equipped with arms, legs, mouth, nose, ears, and eyes, wear a black cap on the head, fly around Gion, Maruyama, and Ryozen, and have eyes on people's purses. When I asked someone: "Are those not the young kabuki actors of Shijo riverside?" he clapped his hands, laughed, and said: "You are right." These young kabuki actors have multiplied in number especially in the past year and this year. The handsome among the children of lowly outcastes and beggars are selected; their faces never without powder, and dressed in clothes of silk gauze and damask, they are put on the stage to dance and sing, and the old and the young, men and women, become weak-kneed and call out: "Gosaku! Good! Good! I'll die!" Not only do they call to them, but seduced by their alluring eyes, they go with them after the performance to Higashiyama; borne away in woven litters and palanquins, they proceed in high spirits, calling: "Here, here! A palanquin, a palanquin." Ah! What grateful affection! Bilked of a large amount of gold and silver for one night's troth, the droll priests of the temples, their bodies wasting away day by day, desire only to engage the fellows. Having no money, they sell the treasure of paintings and tea ceremony utensils that have been handed down generation after generation in the temples, and if these do not suffice, they cut bamboo and timber grove trees, and with that money, engage fellows.86 Saikaku devotes the second half of his Great Mirror of Homosexuality (Nanshoku okagami, 1687,), to the kabuki youths of Kyoto and Osaka. He states that there were thirty-one of these youths in Kyoto at the time. 87 Catamite teahouses also became numerous; a book of 1766 lists 85 in Miyagawa-cho in Kyoto and 47 in Dotombori in Osaka.88 Apart from the kabuki youths who at best were apprentices or bit players, there were some young actors of ability and beauty known as wakasbu-gata, usually fourteen to seventeen years of age. 89 They played the roles of boys or handsome young men, gentle and somewhat effeminate. Their slightly plump faces and bodies were said to have a neutral quality intermediate between male and female, and they were likened to statues of Buddhist deities of the style sculpted

4°

SHIVELY

by Annami Kaikei in the early Kamakura period. Some also played girls' parts, and most turned to onnagata roles when they became older. The best of the wakasbu-gata were given star billing along with the leading players of men's roles (tachiyaku) and the mature onnagata. This is evidence that despite the abolition of youth kabuki in 1652 and its replacement by yard kabuki, the audiences continued to admire beautiful young actors. This is further attested by the first extant playbill of 1675 which listed them after the tachiyaku, but before the onnagata.90 Most of the onnagata had, of course, been kabuki youths. Yet as they grew older, they relied increasingly on a more subtle skill in playing women's roles. They could not merely mimic for, aging and wrinkled, their lantern chins and heavy noses more pronounced, their voices more gravelly, they could hardly be mistaken in appearance for women. A more abstract method of interpretation was required. Thus they singled out the most essential traits of a woman's gestures and speech and gave to these a special emphasis in much the same way that puppets exaggerate human gestures to appear alive. The stylized manner of the onnagata, together with the interplay between the onnagata and tachiyaku, became the essence of kabuki acting to the extent that attempts by women in modern times to play the female roles have not been satisfactory. A number of factors contribute to this situation. The beauty of onnagata acting lies in its formalized grace. Women in these roles appear too natural, too realistic. Furthermore, since male roles are played in a strong, sometimes exaggerated manner, women lack the physical strength to project an equal stage presence. And again, women do not exude the peculiar eroticism with its homosexual overtones which has become an inherent characteristic of kabuki. Actresses become plausible only when they play their parts, not by miming women, but by imitating onnagata. The lack of realism in the acting style of the onnagata was not a deficiency in the eyes of a Tokugawa audience. One of the more popular styles of male acting, aragoto (rough business), which was characterized by the exaggerated movement and bombastic language appropriate to the superhuman prowess of warrior heroes, was equally unnatural. In the earliest kabuki, not only did women play men and men women, but plots were steeped in the fantastic. In later plays as well, action is often illogical and fantastic elements frequently intrude. The art of the theater makes such action plausible, not real.

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT OF KABUKI

41

Realistic representation is not an objective in other forms of traditional Japanese drama. This is well illustrated by the puppet theater, a major art which rivalled kabuki in popularity during some decades of the Tokugawa period. As part of the kabuki repertoire was drawn from the puppet theater, the movements of the puppets actually influenced the human acting styles. Earlier dramatic forms, bugaku, no, and kowakamai, are even less concerned with realism of conception and detail. The actors of women's roles portrayed in an idealized manner chastity, virtue, patience, and tact—embodying the ideals of Tokugawa women prepared to sacrifice their lives for their children or husband or parents, or give themselves solely to enhance the honor of the family. They were also models of etiquette in their bows, their deferential movements, their modesty. They were retiring in the presence of men, often keeping to the back of the stage (upstage), which also served the purpose of making them appear smaller in stature than those playing men's parts. Onnagata did not step out in front of an actor in a male role, but sat slightly behind him. They sat on a lower level on the stage more commonly than on a raised set, and never on the stools which were used on occasion by men of high rank. In short, they played women's place in society to an extreme degree. Some players of women's roles, even after they reached onnagata status and were no longer indentured, continued to have homosexual relationships. If they were prominent actors, they would of course be selective. Inasmuch as they were trained and experienced homosexual partners and since their stage roles as onnagata depended on assumed femininity, it was their practice to lead rather feminine lives, to live their art. The many stories concerning the practices of onnagata in the Tokugawa period include accounts that they dressed like women when off the stage. The younger onnagata wore long-sleeved kimono (furisode) and flowery patterns appropriate to young girls. They dressed their hair in a unique style resembling a woman's coiffure. Some are said to have entered the women's side of public bathhouses, and "no one thought this strange." 91 They developed the motor habits of women in hand gestures, walking, and sitting, and it has been said that some squatted to urinate. They used women's language—vocabulary, verb endings, honorifics—not to mention female pitch and intonation. The famous early onnagata, Yoshizawa Ayame (1673-1729) said that an onnagata should continue to experience the feelings of an onnagata even in the dressing room, eating only the

42-

SHIVELY

kind of food appropriate to women, and modestly turning away from the leading man when eating.92 The extent to which onnagata lived their art is illustrated by an anecdote about the Edo onnagata Segawa Kikunojo. A man from Osaka went to call on him at his home, but when he arrived Kikunojo was in the kitchen talking to the fishmonger. The visitor, mistaking Kikunojo for his wife, asked to meet the actor.93 The appeal of onnagata was not merely to the men of the audience. They were admired by the ladies for the elegance of their gestures and the gentleness of their dispositions—since they played women in an idealized manner. Occasionally they became involved in love affairs with ladies of higher status. In 1706 the onnagata Ikushima Daikichi (1671-1706) hid himself in a clothing chest and was smuggled into the Edo mansion of the Tokugawa daimyo of Kii.94 The leading players of male roles were also admired for their sexuality and were more openly idolized than the onnagata. Sakata Tojuro (1647-1709) specialized in playing the part of the great lover and big spender in the prostitute quarters. He was called the "original master of love scenes'' and "the first in the line of the engagers of prostitutes." His skill in these scenes, we are told, was due to a great deal of practice off the stage, although, in fact, this may well not have been true in his case. When he died, the women of the entire city of Kyoto wept "crimson tears.' '95 His contemporary, the Osaka actor Arashi San'emon (1635-1690), held a similar title: "pioneer of lovemaking in the West." His biographical sketch in a critical booklet states: "There is not a prostitute with whom he is not intimate." 96 Reputations as free-spending lovers of courtesans were important publicity for actors. Ikushima Shingoro was much admired by the ladies for the way he played love scenes. A description in a critical booklet written many years before his affair with Ejima, seems to foreshadow the danger ahead: "He quickly came to be gossiped about for his amours. It is due to the large-heartedness with which he was born that the cord he uses to tie up his hair becomes undone. The god of Izumo sends a shower which causes him to enjoy love scenes on the stage, pleasing the ladies of the audience." 97 Actors set fashion in some sectors of society. The new patterns used in their robes, their hair ornaments, their styles of speech were aped even by wives and daughters of prominent merchants. The many examples of popular styles copied from actors include the Kichiya knot,

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT OF KABUKI

43

inspired by the manner in which Uemura Kichiya tied his sash, the Mizuki hat, adapted from Mizuki Tatsunosuke, and Roko brown, a color sported by Segawa Kikunojo (Roko II). 98 Some actors opened shops which sold products carrying their endorsement. Shops specializing in cosmetics were the most common, but there were also shops selling fans and clothing material. One of the best known, dating from the 1680s, was established by the actor Uemura Kichiya at the end of Takasegawa Bridge on Shijo to sell cosmetics." The actor in his shop is occasionally the subject of a woodblock print. Sanogawa Ichimatsu is shown in his establishment where incense and toothpowder were sold, wearing a robe of checkered pattern which he made popular (Ichimatsu-zome). In another print, an actor, perhaps Matsumoto Koshiro IV is seated in his shop which offered a special wafer, writing a poem on a fan for a young woman. 100 Theyago or "shop names," which are still associated with the names of famous actors, probably had their origins in the actors' shops, for example, Takashimaya for Ichikawa Sadanji and his disciples. The craze for actors was extreme among the Edo fans, a reflection of the ebullience and rashness of the Edokko temperament. Their first great actor, Ichikawa Danjuro, a hero to the plebs in the pit, was referred to as "The Flower of Edo." 1 0 1 Excitement shot up to a high pitch when a great star made his entrance on the hanamicbi, paused, and slowly turned his face toward the audience: "One glance, a thousand ryo—Kikunojo on the hanamicbi."102 The obsession with actors in Edo is distastefully borne out by a tale of Ichikawa Yaozo II, a great favorite in the role of Sukeroku, chivalrous commoner. At the conclusion of the play he makes his escape by concealing himself in a water barrel. After the performance the water was bottled and sold to his female admirers, some of whom drank it. 103 From the last decade of the seventeenth century, when the first actors with prodigious reputations began to appear, the salaries paid the leading players rose to large sums. It is not known for certain how much was actually received as figures were sometimes inflated to enhance the fame of the actor. Ichikawa Danjuro is said to have received 500 ryo a year in 1694, but his own record indicates payment of 320 ryo. Yet this was a time when ordinary actors might expect about 25 or 30 ryo. The highest figure reported for Sakata Tojuro, 800 ryo, is certainly an exaggeration; a critical booklet of 1701 quotes his salary at 500 ryo and that of Ikushima Shingoro at 250 ryo.104 In

44

SHIVELY

any case, this was the beginning of very substantial payments. A few decades later various actors are listed at 1,000 ryo, but in fact some received little more than half the publicized figure.105 The three Edo managers were hard pressed to restrain demands for higher and higher salaries. In order to check the ruinous competition among themselves, they agreed in 1794 not to pay more than 500 ryo. This agreement was soon broken, but the government ordered them to observe this ceiling in 1827 and again in 1842. Actors were expected to provide their own costumes, but when the wage ceiling came into effect, they demanded a supplement for costumes. 106 The leading actors did live luxuriously with large homes, expensive delicacies, and gorgeous clothing. Attended by many apprentices and disciples, they adopted the style of a wealthy merchant or minor daimyo. Sakata Tojuro was renowned for extravagance. He would not wear clothes once they had been washed, would use candles alone rather than the more economical oil lamps, and had his sake heated over a fire of aloes wood, or so we are told. When he went to Osaka to perform, he had drinking water brought in barrels from Kyoto. His rice was checked grain by grain before cooking to insure that there were no pebbles which might damage his teeth. When a member of his household suggested that he refrain from such extravagance, he laughed: " T h e reason I am receiving a salary now of close to 1,000 ryo is because I am not frugal. As I am well known and am called a celebrated man of the theater in the three great cities, I must be large spirited and nothing should be heard or seen concerning me that could be considered small." 1 0 7 The publicity value of such stories is undoubted. Despite the prohibition, some leading actors had residences in the suburbs of Edo: Danjuro II in Meguro, Danjuro IV in Kiba, Danjuro V in Ushijima, and Nakamura Nakazo in Ukechi. The Edo onnagata, Segawa Kikunojo II, had three homes, three mistresses, and supported fifty-three people. Over thirty persons lived in Nakamura Utaemon Ill's residence in Dotombori, Osaka. He had three additional houses, inflating his living expenses to 3,000 ryo a year. During the Tempo Reform of 1842, however, the government strictly enforced laws for the control of actors, confining them to the new quarter at Saruwaka-cho, and investigating those who mixed with commoners. Sawamura Sojuro V and Onoe Baiko IV were manacled for appearing without sedge hats, and Nakamura Utaemon II was jailed for going to a bout of sumo wrestling. Danjuro VII

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT OF KABUKI

45

(1791-1859) was punished for his opulent style. His residence at Kiba and its expensive furnishings were confiscated, he himself was banished from Edo. 108 Some actors, men of education and character, were occasionally entertained by daimyo, or at least, by retired daimyo. Danjuro II tells in his diary of an invitation to the residence of the retired lord of Matsuura where he drank so much that he was forced to stay the night. Nakamura Nakazo frequently went to the Mori residence for tea with the retired lord, and was presented with an inkstone from Choshu. The retired lord of Izumo, a Matsudaira and a patron of Segawa Kikunojo II, went to the theater for Kikunojo's final rehearsal and returned for the opening performance. 109 An account of the 1840s laments the improper behavior of actors of its day who sat in the teahouses with their high-born patrons and behaved as intimates. It contrasts their conduct with earlier times when Onoe Baiko I and Sojuro were performing. Retired daimyo came incognito to the theater to watch them and invited them to a teahouse. The actors came dressed in formal clothes, took their seats in a humble position at a distance from the lords, and when they had received cups of sake, they took leave.110 THE DEPICTION OF ACTOR AND PROSTITUTE IN UKIYOE

Second only to the principal actors in notoriety and public curiosity were the leading courtesans of the pleasure quarter. The fame of the leaders of both professions was spread by woodblock prints and critical booklets. Indeed, the prints and booklets developed in competence, sophistication, and circulation largely in the effort to cope ever more imaginatively with subjects so voraciously consumed by the public. There are numerous parallels in the manner in which actors and courtesans were treated in these two types of publication. The art of ukiyo paintings and prints dealt largely with prostitutes and actors from its beginnings throughout a century and a half of development. Even in the nineteenth century when landscape and bird and flower themes became common, portraits of prostitutes and actors continued to dominate ukiyoe. The popularity of these prints and books has given Japan a larger illustrated record of actors and prostitutes than is found in any contemporary culture. Hishikawa Moronobu who, more than any other artist, shaped the early development of ukiyo painting and prints, divided his work largely between these two worlds. This is neatly demonstrated by two

46

SHIVELY

handscrolls made up of a series of scenes from both Edo kabuki and the Yoshiwara.111 In 1690 Torii Kiyomoto did the first poster for the Ichimura-za, thus originating a professional kabuki style, perfected by his son, which remained popular for several decades. From the middle of the eighteenth century, prints which displayed actors posed in their roles were regularly issued with changes of the Edo programs. Many of the actor prints depict a single, strong figure in a dramatic moment of the play. The dramatic climax is not necessarily at the end, for the kabuki play is more a series of striking climactic images as the actor holds a pose to show an intense emotion, rolling his head, crossing one eye, grimacing, flinging out his arms and legs. The most dramatic of these conventional postures, mie, are the discrete high points recorded in prints (Confer, chapter 2, pp. 84-86). These are the moments the audience applauds by shouts of praise. While the word "dance" suggests in the West a fluid, continuous movement, Japanese kabuki dance leads from one dramatic posture to another, and these moments are also recorded in prints. In fact the kabuki scene contains a series of tableaux in which the arrangement and spacing of figures on the stage—the patterns formed by the lines and colors—observe the same principles of composition as an ukiyo print or painting. This commitment to the depiction of highly conventionalized, tableaulike scenes instead of more natural or unstudied postures is sustained in the courtesan prints. The leading beauty accompanied by an attendant en route to a rendezvous is endlessly repeated. Triptychs of characteristic beauties of the three great cities become familiar exercises. And portraits of courtesans before their shops often occur. All sense of motion is eroded as the static figure is caught in a standardized gesture. The presentation of a single, bold, voluptuous figure against a plain ground is perfected in the courtesan paintings and prints of the Kaigetsudo during the early eighteenth century. Again there is a close parallel to the artistic treatment of the actor who is most frequently featured alone, poised commandingly before the viewer with little peripheral distraction. The three leading actors of a play frequently appear in a triptych, but as each actor occupies an individual panel, the figures are essentially independent prints as in the case of courtesan triptychs. Actors are usually identified in the prints, the majority of them by

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT OF KABUKI

47

1700, although prostitutes remain largely anonymous until after the middle of the eighteenth century. Yet both subjects are represented in a style which gives little attention to individual personality. Most ukiyoe lack the concern for facial detail of true portraits. Costume is recorded more painstakingly than the face, as though both types of print were more fashion plate than portrait. The public preoccupation with clothing and ornament is documented by the loving concentration devoted to fabric and design in these prints. Women of the pleasure quarter are depicted in much the same unreal style which governs their portrayal by onnagata on the stage: as idealized girls of the Yoshiwara, they represent the romance, the fidelity, and half-real, half-fantasy world epitomized in the anonymous portraits by Okumura Masanobu. The courtesans of the domestic plays are simply fictionalized figures from the real pleasure quarter and, indeed, are occasionally biographical versions of a real life (though deceased) figure. The idealization and lack of unflattering comment that characterize the playwright's interpretation of his heroine is paralleled by the treatment of the courtesan prints and is reflected again in the actor print of the courtesan role. The role itself, the representation of the actor in the role, and the basic courtesan study are alike in their fascination not so much with the details of the Yoshiwara but with its appeal to the imagination. That the actorcourtesan so often appears in a conventionalized pose without background, boldly detached from the content of the play, seems to divorce the print from the world of kabuki and return it directly to the Yoshiwara. The portrayal of actors in stage roles, which significantly dominates more personal, offstage studies, suggests that they too were expressive vehicles for the imagination of artist and audience much like the prostitutes. The basic repertoire of courtesan poses and the studied manner of depiction reduces the idiosyncratic importance of the individual and inflates her value as a symbol of a lifestyle. So too the depersonalization of actor and absorption in the beauty of theatrical pose preserves his identification with a glamorous world, wide enough to accommodate the most flamboyant imagination. The kabuki prints commonly carry the name of the actor and his role. In the Torii school, identification often depends upon depiction of the actor's crest on his costume. Occasional inclusion of a crest may also offer a clue to identity in the more typically anonymous courtesan prints. Yet the actors are known, not by personal names, but by

48

SHIVELY

hereditary stage names which invoke the reputation of a great forebear. Among the courtesans it was also common practice to repeat noted professional names, not to establish any legitimate affiliation, but to borrow the reputation for skill or beauty of a romantic predecessor. This use of traditional names by both actors and prostitutes adds an additional factor of impersonality and anonymity to the prints. As it is the idealized Hanaogi who is important, so it is the idealized Ichikawa Danjuro as Benkei who is important. No matter what generation of Hanaogi or Danjuro-Benkei the artist portrays, an imaginative ideal replaces reality. This emphasis on the symbolic importance of the actor and the courtesan prints is not to deny the personality feature altogether. The print did, to some extent, serve the personality cults of actors so ardently sustained by fan clubs. Prints of courtesans were also made in expectation of satisfying an audience which, by dint of the mechanics of her art, was necessarily more limited than that of the actor. However, for the wider audience of both actor and prostitute prints, the idealized treatment of the subject in colorful and stylish costume provided easier entry to the fantasy world of the pleasure quarter. The faces in the earlier prints are so lacking in individual traits that actors could rarely be identified if their name or crest were not provided. The courtesans' features are feminine and graceful, but they are impassive, and there is no hint of temperament and little sensuality. During the latter half of the eighteenth century, both the actor and courtesan prints undergo a change, more or less simultaneously, due in part to improved techniques in multicolor printing. Close-up facial treatment is given preference by some artists over fulllength studies and more personal characteristics are stressed. In some instances an actor might be recognized by face alone in the work of different artists. In the large heads (okubi), beginning in the 1770s, and shortly in the large faces (ogao) of Buncho, Shunsho, and Shuko, which lead to the faces of Sharaku, the change lies more heavily on the side of caricature than portraiture. Nonetheless it signifies a transition from fascination with the symbolic to fascination with the idiosyncratic. A parallel development takes place in the increased attention to individual personality in the depiction of women, but possibly because this subject lends itself less to caricature than the grimacing of actors, the way was opened for the more interesting psychological studies of Utamaro. Unlike the impassive faces of the earlier courtesan prints, sensual beauty now emerges in a variety of

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT OF KABUKI

49

physiognomical studies of vanity, fickleness, passion, and so forth. This change toward portraiture was accompanied by the identification of the individual beauty, frequently her name and house, and sometimes the address, written in a cartouche in a corner of the composition. The intimate connection between the two worlds in the public mind is best illustrated by prints which posed actor with prostitute, geisha, or kamuro.112 The consummate works on this theme are those erotic prints, delicately called "spring pictures" (shunga), which show in breathtaking detail a popular actor and a prostitute in the act of love. Considered neither libelous nor invasive of privacy, they simply depicted leaders of the two professions performing as the public expected. CRITICAL BOOKLETS O N ACTORS A N D PROSTITUTES

Critical booklets (hyobanki), quoted earlier, also publicized the leading actors and courtesans. The conception and the design format of these books were very similar for both groups. They developed from the kanazdshi tradition of guidebooks to cities and famous places which appeared during the early decades of the seventeenth century. The first booklet on prostitutes (yiijo hyobanki) was probably the Togenshii, a 1655 guide to the Shimabara quarter and its inmates, followed directly by guides to the quarters in Osaka and Edo. The Naniwa monogatari on the Shimmachi quarter of Osaka rated twelve girls of tayu rank and thirty of tenjin rank. In the next years the first of the guides to actors (yard hyobanki) appeared, the Yakusha no uwasa in 1656 and the Yard mushi in 1660. The latter describes forty-one boys of the theater. These illustrated books extol the physical attractiveness of the young actor-prostitutes but overlook their ability on the stage. The Muki tokoro of 1662 shows an advance by making some reference to acting, but not until the end of the century is the main concern of the booklets turned to dramatic talent. From this time, when not only the youths but the more serious actors are listed, the booklets are known as yakusha hyobanki. In the 1690s the onnagata were listed first, followed by youths, and finally by the varieties of masculine roles: tachiyaku, villain, and comic character. However, beginning with the Yakusha kuchi jamisen, published in 1699, the books increasingly listed the three masculine roles first.113 This work, like many to follow, devotes one volume to each of the three cities. The usual format is first to give the actor a rating,

5°

SHIVELY

list the roles he has played, followed by stories about him, and a critique of his skills. Occasionally information on salaries was included. The books came to be published in the first month, focused on the kaomise performance of the preceding eleventh month. A second book was published to deal with the program of the first month, and sometimes one was issued concerning the seventh-month performance. The system of rating performers was modeled on the prostitute booklets. The earliest extant booklet to rate actors, dating from 1687, employed only three ranks, but by 1702 six were in use, from "superior-superior-excellent" (jojokichi) down to "medium" (chu). The Yakusha nicho jamisen of that year listed 302 actors in the three cities, placing 26 in the highest category and 135 in the lowest.114 Variations on this scheme were used for some years, but in time the schedule of ratings was devalued by overuse of the higher grades. By the middle of the eighteenth century one book used eleven grades, with "superior-superior-excellent," originally the highest rank, now third from the bottom.115 There is also great concern in these professions themselves for a system of hierarchical rank. This is quite clear among the prostitutes of the official quarters. Although the names varied from city to city and changed over time, there was never any doubt about the order. In Shimabara and Shimmachi during the Genroku period, for example, four ranks were recognized.116 There were also semiofficial quarters and unlicensed brothels, such as bathhouses, which used different names and their own ranking systems. In the case of actors, an order of precedence was acknowledged between the different roles. But further, within each role category, there were levels ranging from master-actor to bit players and apprentices. These are set forth with care in playbills (banzuke) which appeared from the 1660s on, initially as handbills for distribution, and later also for posting at crossroads and in bathhouses and barbershops. Playbills recorded a rank list for the year for all actors in a troupe. Others listed the actors of all three cities—Edo, Kyoto, and Osaka. The rating system used for prostitutes was copied in banzuke as it was in booklets on actors. In format, however, the playbills came to resemble increasingly the banzuke of sumo wrestlers. INTERRELATION OF THE KABUKI AND PROSTITUTE QUARTERS

The close relationship between the two social centers of the Tokugawa city also becomes apparent in the fluid exchange of fashion,

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT OF KABUKI

language, and other cultural innovations which characterized these groups. The current mode and the latest slang of the prostitutes' quarters were introduced in plays and passed on to a wider public. Styles in weaving and dyeing, in color and pattern of dress, in cosmetics, hairstyles, combs and bodkins, constantly passed between them. The music, the popular songs, the styles of recitation, were shared. The standard instrument of both quarters was the samisen, introduced into Japan in the latter part of the sixteenth century. The samisen of the kabuki and pleasure quarter was higher pitched than that of the puppet theater and had a plaintive, sensuous quality scandalous to Confucian scholars who considered it the most harmful of "licentious music." The numerous schools of recitation used in the kabuki theater were drawn from a variety of sources, but most were shared with the prostitutes' quarters. Some were developed as teahouse music and transported to kabuki, such as Kato-bushi and Shinnai, 1 1 7 but by and large, the recitation of teahouse entertainment was adapted from styles found in kabuki. The two worlds were also linked by styles of dance. Female dancers from the courtesan establishments adopted stage movements and kabuki performers promptly assimilated new material developed in the brothel. The interconnection between the two worlds appears most fully in those acts of kabuki plays set in houses of assignation. The glamorous but mysterious life of a fine establishment is revealed for an audience thus able to taste vicariously what only a rich man can devour. The personnel of the pleasure quarter, proprietor, madame, courtesan, attendant, maid, and jester, could be amply purveyed. The manner of speaking of these inhabitants of the quarter—the jargon of their trade, the unique honorific verb endings, the peculiar intonation— all attracted great interest. The cultural accomplishments of the tayu, focus of so many improbable claims, could be proven on the stage as the courtesan answered the challenge of a guest to perform virtuoso pieces on the koto or samisen and compose a poem in a skillful hand. The presentation of a customer's first meeting with a courtesan, its protocol and characteristic banter, is indeed an ultimate refinement of the prostitute-accosting skits popular in primitive kabuki. These immensely popular scenes in the licensed houses began as insertions in historical plays. Hence the astonishing anachronism of Minamoto or Taira warriors encountering virtuous wives and beautiful mistresses of both kin and foe in up-to-date brothels. Plays were soon written, however, which centered on the life of the quarter. A

52-

SHIVELY

picce dating from 1698 is an exuberant tour de force, for it includes scenes in the pleasure districts of each of the three cities.118 These were early steps toward the full-blown domestic play which dealt entirely with the common people of the day. Among the first were those concerning the double suicides (shinju) of thwarted lovers, the girl usually a prostitute, the man a young clerk or shopkeeper who could not afford to buy her out. The sensational and romantic treatment of these suicides by playwrights such as Chikamatsu seems to have tempted frustrated lovers to rash death covenants, anticipating the publication, if not immortalization, of their passion. To check the popularity of this practice, plays about love suicides were banned in 1722. But the prohibition was effective for only a short time. Each theater tried to scoop the others by getting on the boards first a play concerning a recent suicide or scandal. With the domestic play, theater and society finally met. Real life tragedies were enshrined in a make-believe world. The best and most challenging role in kabuki is that of the courtesan. The role combines beauty of person and character with attraction as a sexual object. Inasmuch as the prostitute was sold into bondage to relieve her father of debt, her submission to the contract is an act of filial devotion. The courtesan is characteristically portrayed as a person of noble feelings, of dignity and pride. She is courageous and faithful in the midst of feudal intrigue, ready to die rather than betray a samurai lover. This is the tayu of the history play. In the domestic play the girl is not of this expensive rank which is meant for the high-born or wealthy but a lower-ranking prostitute, approachable by the commoner, a more girlish and vulnerable lover. But she too is willing to forsake love and sacrifice freedom rather than allow her paramour to fail a family obligation. Her role is a subtle one as her true feelings are rarely revealed before the denouement. This complicated psychology, the tension between honor and passion, considerably enriches the dramatic possibilities open to the onnagata. The life of the quarter revealed in kabuki was glamorized by idealizing the prostitute and romantically depicting the brothel. This was yet another dimension of the sexual fantasy of theatergoing. The content of the plays and the presence of actors with scandalous reputations provided a far more sensual atmosphere than one would suspect from the perspective of kabuki today. If kabuki was unexpectedly erotic, the brothel could be described

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT OF KABUKI

53

as a theater of love, where country girls masqueraded as sophisticated beauties and lowly merchants assumed the airs of men of affairs. Here merchants, to whom the ruling class allowed little dignity, could act out a fantasy of influence and power and be accorded gracious admiration. Here the daughters of impoverished peasants were transformed, their dark skins painted white and rustic dialect replaced by the elaborate polite language of Kyoto. Trained in at least one artistic accomplishment, dressed in sumptuous robes, they were tutored in every technique of the love goddess. A courtesan of tayu rank was addressed by her maids in language of formal deference accorded a daimyo's wife by her ladies-in-waiting. The latter-day tayu (the oiran of the Yoshiwara) was overdressed, overpainted, overloaded by a coiffure bristling with dozens of bodkins. Her entrance into the parlor was staged. She might keep a suitor waiting, his anticipation whetted by the preliminary byplay and solicitous visits of maids and madame while, surrounded by two kamuro, one or two maids, and lantern and parasol bearer, she began her deliberate parade from her residence to the house where her guest waited. At last the sliding doors of the parlor were flung open, revealing the tayu poised at the threshold with her attendants like an ukiyo print. At first she was cool and reserved, fencing verbally with her admirer, now flattering him, now putting him down, besting him in repartee. The parlor had its subtle rules of sophisticated speech and deportment. There was a dread of blundering in this exchange, of revealing too deeply one's feelings. It was bad form to fall in love. Some common prostitutes and their lovers fell into hopeless infatuations which ended in double suicides; they misunderstood the game. The art, as in kabuki, was to make fiction seem plausible. Deception was the business of the theater as well. Social outcastes masqueraded as heroes of the past—brave warriors, loyal ministers, even military overlords, analogous to the Tokugawa shogun himself. The chivalrous gallants who defied those of higher status to right injustices were the embodied fantasies of the underprivileged. But the most cherished charade, and that which best portrays the social environment of the theatrical world, was the tender, threatened union of the courtesan and her lover. CONCLUSION

The interconnections between kabuki and the pleasure quarter illustrate how specifically the theater was a product of the social environ-

54

SHIVELY

ment of Tokugawa cities. The physical presence of attractive youths acting out the roles of glamorous courtesans had more immediacy for an audience which was curious about or knew firsthand the sensual world of prostitute and catamite which was to be found in the cities. But the excitement of kabuki was not limited to such gross features. Kabuki was a stage on which to display many of the accomplishments of the new urban society. These were not limited to the immediate ingredients of drama, such as the elaboration of more subtle plots and variety in acting styles. Kabuki called for new musical forms, recitative styles, composition of songs, and especially choreography. It inspired innovation in fabric and costume design, hairstyles and personal ornamentation. Whatever was new and striking found its way quickly to the stage. With kabuki as the most exciting form of entertainment, it is not surprising that fashions seen on the stage were copied and that the speech and mannerisms of the popular actors were emulated. Kabuki also provided subjects for painters and printmakers and inspired a new boldness in composition. The traditions and tales on which kabuki drew for its material were returned into the stream of literature to make stories with intricate plots and more dramatic structure. This continuous interchange between the theater and its social environment wove kabuki into the fabric of urban culture. NOTES 1. While this might be unusual in some other cultures, it is not remarkable in Japan, for the Japanese, more than any other modernized people, have managed to preserve a large variety of traditional cultural skills. No drama is much more faithful than kabuki in carrying on traditions from earlier times, and even the puppet theater, whose development is interwoven with that of kabuki, follows Tokugawa conventions more closely. 2. See D. H. Shively, "Chikamatsu's Satire on the Dog Shogun," in Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies (HJAS) 18(1955): 159-180. 3. The "necessary evil" thesis is discussed in my article, "Bakufu versus Kabuki," in HJAS 18 (1955): 326-356; reprinted in John W. Hall and Marius B. Jansen, eds., Studies in the Institutional History of Early Modern Japan (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1968), pp. 231-261. 4. At the time of the Tempo Reform of 1842, actors were counted by the numerary adjunct or counter, hiki, used for animals. Gunji Masakatsu, Kabuki to Yoshiwara (Tokyo: Asaji Shobo, 1956), p. 68. After the Edo theaters brought a successful suit to free themselves from Danzaemon's jurisdiction (1708), actors were generally considered to be in an intermediate position between commoners and outcaste groups such as eta and hinin. Gunji Masakatsu, Kabuki: yoshiki to densho (Tokyo: Nara ShobO, 1954), pp. 155-159.

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT OF KABUKI

55

5. Sundai zatsuwa (1750), in Nihon zuihitsu zenshu (Tokyo: Kokumin Tosho Kabushiki Kaisha, 1929), 111:230. 6. Keizairoku (1729), in Nihon keizai sosho (Tokyo: Nihon Keizai Sósho Kankókai, 1914), VI:55. 7. Ihara Seiseien (Toshiró), "Kabuki no füzoku," in Nihon füzokushi kóza (Tokyo: Yüzankaku, 1929), No. 18 (IX): 44. 8. Razan sensei bunshü, quoted in Dainihon shiryó, Ser. 12 (Tokyo: Tokyo Tcikoku Daigaku, 1901), 1:260-261. 9. Edward M. Thompson, ed., Diary of Richard Cocks, 2 vols. (London: Hakluyt Society, 1933), 1:156, 177, 180, 193, 211, and 11:27. Cocks also refers to them as cabokes, cabukis, coboke, cabukes, and also as "dansing beares." In an entry at Osaka, he says: "Our host brought us cabuques, 3, one the cheefe, with their musick, and staid all night." His notation two days later makes it clear that the ' 'cheefe'' was a woman, who evidently stayed two nights. 10. On the history of early kabuki, see Benito Ortolani, Das Kabukitheater: Kulturgeschichte der Anfánge, Monumenta Nipponica Monographs No. 19 (Tokyo: Sophia University Press, 1964); Shively, "Bakufu versus Kabuki." 11. Gunji (1956), pp. 186-187, quoting the Azuma monogatari. 12. In 1790, 1,200 private prostitutes were seized in Kyoto and were put in the Shimabara quarter. In 1842, 533 girls were again moved in Kyoto, while in Edo, 4,181 were rounded up and placed in the Yoshiwara. Gunji (1956), pp. 188,197-199. 13. D. H. Shively, "Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, the Genroku Shogun," in A. M. Craig and D. H. Shively, eds., Personality in Japanese History (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1970), pp. 85-126, esp. 97-99. 14. According to the official Tokugawa chronicle, the Tokugawa jikki, the shogun bannermen (hatamoto) were addicted to the kabuki youths. In Osaka this year (1652) at the mansion of the daimyo Hoshina Masasada, co-commander of the guard of Osaka Castle, there was a drinking party with kabuki youths and a fight broke out. Kokushi taikei (Tokyo: Kokushi Taikei Kankókai, 1932), XLI:53b; Ihara Toshiró, Kabuki nempyo {Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1956), I: 64-66; Ihara Toshiró, Nihon engeki shi (1902; reprint, Tokyo: Waseda Daigaku Shuppanbu, 1924), pp. 92-93. 15. Kabuki nempyo, 1:66. 16. Edo meishoki (1662), by Asai Ryói (d. 1691), in Zoku zoku gunsho ruijü (Tokyo: Kokusho Kankókai, 1906), VIII:757-758. 17. Kabuki nempyo, 1:70. See C. J. Dunn and Bunzó Torigoe, trans, and eds., The Actors' Analects (Yakusha Rongo) (Tokyo: Tokyo University Press, 1969), pp. 44,177. 18. Dómoto Kansei (Yataró) Kamigata engeki shi {Tokyo: Shun'yódó, 1934), p. 41; Takano Tatsuyuki, Nihon engeki shi (Tokyo: Tókyó-dó, 1948), II: 265-269- Dómoto believes that seven theaters were licensed as early as 1624, but Takano's opinion that this did not happen until 1669-1670 seems more probable. 19- There are many illustrations of the scene at the Shijó riverbank, including performances of onna kabuki, wakashu kabuki, and a variety of sideshows in screen paintings of the second quarter of the seventeenth century, as in Kondó Ichitaró, Japanese Genre Painting: The Lively Art of Renaissance Japan, trans. R. A. Miller (Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1961), plates 4, 66-71, pp. 22 and 24; also Kikuchi Sadao et al., eds., Kinseifüzoku zukan (Tokyo: Mainichi

56

20.

21.

22. 23.

24. 25.

26. 27. 28. 2930. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38.

SHIVELY Shimbunsha, 1974), 11:109; and Kyoto Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan, comp., Rakuchu rakugaizu (Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten, 1966), unnumbered plates at back. The use of the crane became taboo in 1690 because the word for crane (tsuru), was used by the shogun Tsunayoshi in his daughter's name, Tsuruhime. Thereafter the Nakamura-za used a gingko leaf design and the Ichimura-za changed its crest to an orange-tree design. Suda Atsuo, Nihon gekijo shi no kenkyii(Tokyo: Sagami Shobo, 1957), p. 330. The six-fold screen (Tokyo National Museum) of the Nakamura-za with its new ginko-leaf crest and stage, attributed to Hishikawa Moronobu (d. 1694), appears in Kondo, plate 76 (identified inexplicably as the Morita-za); Gunji (1969), plate 416; and Suwa Haruo, Kabuki kaika(Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten, 1970), plate 58. See note 60. Takano, 11:242-243. Gunji (1956), pp. 62-63; Gunji (1969), pp. 51-52. Only the large theaters of the three cities are discussed in this chapter, but there were also small, lowpriced theaters known as miyachi shibai located on temple grounds, which were permitted to give performances for one hundred days during the year. Gunji (1956), pp. 38-42. Suda, p. 328. Zushi Yoshihiko, Nihon no gekijo kaiko (Tokyo: Sagami Shobo, 1947), p. 61. The largest Kyoto theaters seem to have been somewhat larger, at least in 1689 when one measured 106 by 196 feet, over 20,000 square feet. Suda, p. 330. Yoshida Teruji, ed., Kabuki-za {Tokyo: Kabuki-za Shuppanbu, 1951), p. 324. Zushi, p. 60; Suda, pp. 331-333; Takano, 11:341. Three-tiered boxes are mentioned in 1701, but this perhaps means two tiers raised above the floor, allowing space underneath. Suda, p. 331. From 1772, wooden partitions replaced ropes to divide the masu, and later the size of the masu was reduced until finally there was space for only four people. Suda, 339. Takano, 11:343; Iizuka Tomoichiro, Kabuki gairon (Tokyo: Hakubunkan, 1928), p. 469; Gunji (1969), p. 50. "(Kyo-Osaka) Yakusha hyoban iro jamisen," in Kabuki hyobanki shiisei (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1973), III:327a; Takano, 11:343. Suda, p. 333. Suda, p. 327. Suda, pp. 327, 329. Suda, pp. 335,345. Suda, p. 337. The present Kabuki-za stage is 77 feet by 95 feet. Suda, p. 329. There is some evidence that it was used as part of the stage by 1668. Iizuka, p. 421; Takano, 11:361-363. Suda, pp. 337-341. The pillar at stage left bears the name of the play, Nanakusa wakayagi Soga, followed by the name of the theater, Ichimura-za. The other pillar gives the name of the scene, "Yaoya Oshichi kyodai biraki." On the beam joining the pillars we see that the Ichimura-za has reclaimed its crane crest. On stage beside her shop counter stands the vegetable dealer (yaoya) Oshichi, played by Segawa Kikujiro in this performance of the first month of 1744. Kichizo, played by Onoe Kikugoro, approaches on the hanamichi. A stage attendant waves his fan to quiet the audience. This print is an example of the Western-

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT OF KABUKI

39.

40. 41. 42. 43.

44. 45. 46.

47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52.

53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60.

57

style perspective picture (ukie, "floating picture") which came into vogue about 1736. Yoshida Teruji, Kabuki-e no kenkyu (Tokyo: Ryokuen ShobO, 1936, 1963), pp. 98-101. The print is in the collection of the Atami Bijutsukan. Detail of a print of a theater interior by Utagawa Toyokuni III (1786-1864), in the collection of the Waseda Daigaku Engeki Hakubutsukan (The Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum, Waseda University).The entire print is reproduced in Gunji (1969), plate 448. Gunji (1956), pp. 59-60. Toita, pp. 66, 99. Iizuka, p. 484. D6moto, p. 166. Beginning in the last decade of the seventeenth century, homekotoba were printed up for wider distribution. For examples, see Shuzui Kenji and Akiba Yoshimi, Kabuki zusetsu (Tokyo: Man'yOkaku, 1931), plates 69 and 72. Iizuka, p. 486. Gunji (1956), p. 61. Iizuka, pp. 481-482; Gunji (1969), p. 50. A woodblock print of about 1790 by Katsukawa Shun'ei (1768-1819) shows Nakamura KumetarO II seated on the stage, bowing to the audience, receiving applause, as he takes leave to go from Edo to Osaka. In the foreground we see draped over the heads of three men in the audience identical scarves bearing KumetarO's crest. These are doubtless members of his booster club. Illustrated in Harold P. Stern, Master Prints of Japan: Ukiyo-e Manga (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1969), p. 173. Toita, p. 65. The earliest copies extant date from 1675; see Shuzui, plates 29-30. Entry dated 1756; Domoto, p. 246. Temae miso, the autobiography of Nakamura Nakazo III (1809-1886), Gunji Masakatsu, ed. (Tokyo: Seiabo, 1969), pp. 135b-136a; Domoto, pp. 248-249. DOmoto, pp. 249-252; Takano, 11:415. On theater-going, see Gunji (1956), pp. 49-53. The handscroll known as "HokurO oyobi engeki zukan" [Picture Scroll of the Northern Brothels (Yoshiwara) and Theaters], attributed to Hishikawa Moronobu, is in the Tokyo National Museum. It was not originally a single scroll, but it is made up of segments dated and signed by Moronobu, seven of the segments bearing dates ranging from 1672 to 1689- Plate 4 is the left edge of a section, bearing the date 1687, which shows the action on a stage, identified by Suwa, pp. 118-119, as the Nakamura-za. The stage, omitting the box, is illustrated in Suwa, plate 51, and Gunji (1969), plate 408. The handscroll is reproduced in full in Kinsei fiizoku zukan, vol. III. Domoto, pp. 169-174. In Osaka, however, prostitutes were allowed to go to the theater teahouses. Sometimes dancing girls appeared in teahouses in Edo and Kyoto, which suggests that enforcement was not always complete. Suda.p. 336. Takano, 11:364, quoting\J)iKiLgz.no)(>'sShij6-gawarasuzumihakkei. Gunji (1956), p. 52. Gunji (1956), pp. 53-54; Zushi, pp. 61-62; Gunji (1969), p. 50. Suda, p. 265. Suda, p. 305. For a sketch map of the quarter, see plate 62 in Suda. The right screen, depicting the Nakamura-za entrance (plate 1) and interior, are referred to in note 21. The left screen is reproduced in full in Kondo, plate

58

61.

62.

63.

64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 78. 7980. 81. 82. 83. 84. 85. 86.

SHIVELY 77; and the two right and two left panels only in Suda, plates 59-60. The pair of screens in the Tokyo National Museum is designated an Important Cultural Property. Plate 7 is a detail of Moronobu's "Edo fuzoku zukan" [Picture scroll of Edo customs] in the Atami Bijutsukan. In plate 8, kabuki youths look down from the second-story lattice window of a theater teahouse at two samurai dueling in the street. This detail, like the scene in plate 9 of the latticed front of a brothel, is from the "HokurO oyobi engeki zukan" (Tokyo National Museum) described in note 52. Gunji (1956), pp. 54-55. For an illustration of elegant ladies seated in a box, see Kondo, plate 76; and Gunji (1969), plate 416. The women of daimyo households were taught kabuki dances by a master (kyogen-shi) who came to instruct in the lords' mansions. YarO nigiri kobushi (1696) in Kabuki hyobanki shusei, II:65a; and Yakusha-za no furumai (1713), Kabuki hyobanki shusei (1974), V: 187b; Takano, 11:337. Ikushima appears in a print with two other actors in 1712, reproduced in James A. Michener, Japanese Prints: From the Early Masters to the Modern, with notes by Richard Lane (Rutland and Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1959), no. 22. Takano, 11:338-339- According to some accounts, Ikushima died in exile in 1733, but others say that he returned to Edo and lived until 1743. In Chiyoda-jo ooku, by Nagashima ImashirO and Ota Yoshio (1892; reprint, Tokyo: Hara ShobO, 1971), 11:86-94, in Meiji hyakunen-shi sosho, no. 168, quoting an unnamed source. Suda, p. 262. Takayanagi ShinzO and Ishii RyOsuke, eds., Ofuregaki Kampo shusei (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1934), no. 2734 and also 2733. Takano, 11:340-341; Ihara, Nihon engeki shi, 1:454-455. Suda, p. 333. DOmoto, p. 262. Ihara, "Kabuki no fuzoku," p. 16; Sekine Shisei, Toto gekijo enkaku shi (Tokyo: Chinsho Kankokai, 1916), I:73a. Sekine, 1:72b. Sekine, I:73a. Sekine, I:72a, cites the Chinjidan (1692) which claims that catamites surpassed female prostitutes (in popularity or in numbers?), and that there were over five hundred male prostitutes of various types in Edo. Sekine, 63b, 72a; Ishii RyOsuke, ed., Tokugawa kinreiko (Tokyo: Sobunsha, 1959-1961), V, no. 3396. Sekine, 1:57a, 64a. Sekine, I:72a. Sekine, 1:73c. Ihara, "Kabuki no fuzoku," p. 16; Sekine, I:72b. Sekine, I:72b. Sekine, I:73a. The institution of female geisha did not begin until the 1750s. It was possible for youths and geisha to attend the same box in the little theaters (miyachishibai), Sekine, I:73a. Sekine, I:73ab. Sekine, I:72b. Sekine, I:72b. Sekine, I:73b, citing the Nanshoku shinasadame (1764). Kabuki hyobanki shusei(\912), 11:27; Takano, 11:57-58.

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT OF KABUKI 87. 88. 89. 90.

91. 92. 93. 94. 95.

96. 97. 98. 99100.

101. 102. 103. 104. 105. 106. 107. 108. 109. 110. 111.

112.

59

DOmoto, p. 264. DOmoto, p. 264. For a portrait of a wakashu-gataoi the Genroku period, see Shuzui, plate 105. Shuzui, plates 29-30. Although most wakashu-gata were in their teens, this was not always the case by the eighteenth century. Sanogawa Ichimatsu (1722-1762) was a popular wakashu at sixteen, and although he did not change to onnagata roles until he was thirty-two, he played wakashu parts occasionally until he was forty. Ihara, "Kabuki no fuzoku," p. 17. In Ayame gusa, cited in The Actors' Analects, pp. 61-62. Ihara, "Kabuki no fuzoku," p. 17. The affair came to light, Daikichi was imprisoned, and the theater, the Nakamura-za, was closed for a time. Takano, II: 331. Takano, 11:433, 440, 460. An anecdote which casts doubt on Tojuro's experience as a lover is cited in The Actor's Analects, p. 130. He is also quoted as having said that he did not go to teahouses in the prostitutes' quarters, in Iizuka, p. 254. Takano, 11:396, quoting the Naniwa tachigikimukashibanashi(1686). Yard nigirikohushi(1696), see note 63. Ihara, "Kabuki no fuzoku," p. 53. DOmoto, p. 262. Helen C. Gunsaulus, The Clarence Buckingham. Collection of Japanese Prints: The Primitives (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 195 5), pp. 207 and 269- I follow Stern, Master Prints of Japan, p. I l l , in identifying the latter as KoshirO IV, rather than as Sanogawa Ichimatsu, as Gunsaulus does. Stern also suggests that Gunsaulus' "young woman" may be the actor Osagawa Tsuneyo II. Gunji (1956), p. 65. Gunji (1956), p. 66. Gunji (1956), p. 68. Takano, 11:457; Ihara, "Kabuki no fflzoku," pp. 53-54. In 1741 Danjuro II demanded 2,000 ry6 to go from Edo to the Sadoshima-za in Osaka. Ihara, "Kabuki no fuzoku," pp. 55-61. Ihara, "Kabuki no fuzoku," pp. 51-52. Ihara, "Kabuki no fuzoku," pp. 49-52. Ihara, "Kabuki no fuzoku," pp. 47-48. It is significant that in each instance the lord was retired, past the age of responsibility, and he could therefore indulge himself without being reprimanded by the Bakufu. Iizuka, p. 255. The two handscrolls in the Atami Bijutsukan and the Tokyo National Museum, referred to in notes 52 and 61. I am indebted to Mary Elizabeth Berry for contributions to the interpretation developed in the balance of this section. An example is the first plate in Gunji (1956): Kikukawa Eisan's portrait of Iwai Hanshirc V (1776-1847) with a Yoshiwara oiran. Among other examples are: Kiyonaga's print of Matsumoto Koshiro IV with a geisha, Michener, plate 157; Onoe Shoroku with a tayu and kamuro, Ukiyoe zenshi(1955), vol. 5, figs. 53, 54; Sanogawa Ichimatsu with two kamuro looking at a guidebook, probably to the Yoshiwara, Gunsaulus, p. 222. On the importance of prostitutes as subject in the development of ukiyoe, see Richard Lane, Masters of the Japanese Print (New York: Doubleday and Co., 1962).

6o

SHIVELY

113. Kabukihyobankishüsei, 11:173-289; Takano, 11:304. 114. Yard tachiyaku butai ókagami (1687) is found in Kabuki hyobanki shüsei, 1:229-268; Yakusha nicho jamisen in Kabukiyakushashüsei, 111:175-292. 115. Sangatsu gei gashira, cited in Iizuka, p. 238. 116. Keiseiiro jamisen (1702), cited by Gunji, p. 135. 117. Iizuka, pp. 628,637. 118. Keisei Edo zakura, a Sakata Tójüró play, probably written by Chikamatsu Monzaemon, appears in Takano Tatsuyuki, ed., Chikamatsu kabuki kyogen shü (Tokyo: Rikugókan, 1927), pp. 305-357. BIBLIOGRAPHY Bibliographic Note. This chapter describes the relation between kabuki and the world of public entertainment in which it developed in the Tokugawa period. It does not repeat a general account of kabuki as a dramatic form which can be found in other books. The reader is referred to Earle Ernst, The Kabuki Theatre (New York: Oxford University Press, 1956; reprint, Honolulu: The University Press of Hawaii, 1974); A. C. Scott, The Kabuki Theatre of Japan (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1955); and Faubion Bowers, Japanese Theatre (New York: Heritage House, 1952). More recent works, less detailed but rich in illustrations of Tokugawa as well as modern kabuki, are Masakatsu Gunji, Kabuki, trans. John Bester (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1969); and Yasuji Toita, Kabuki, The Popular Theatre, trans. Don Kenny (New York: Walker/Weatherhill, 1970), the latter with an interesting introduction by Donald Keene. Selected Bibliography Asai RyOi. Edo meishoki( 1662), Zoku zoku gunsho ruiju. Vol. 8. Tokyo: Kokusho Kankokai, 1906. Tokugawa jikki, Kokushi taikei. Vols. 38-47. Tokyo: Kokushi Taikei Kankokai, 1929-1935. Dómoto Kansei (Yataro). Kamigataengekishi. Tokyo: Shun'yodo, 1934. Dunn, C.J. and Torigoe BunzO, trans, and eds. The Actors' Analects [Yakusha rongo]. Tokyo: Tokyo University Press, 1969Gunji Masakatsu. Kabuki to Yoshiwara. Tokyo: Asaji ShobO, 1956. Kabuki: yOshiki to denshó. Tokyo: Nara ShobO, 1954. Gunji Masakatsu, ed. Temae miso. Tokyo: Seiabo, 1969Gunsaulus, Helen C. The Clarence Buckingham Collection of Japanese Prints: The Primitives. Chicago, 111.: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1955. IharaToshirO. Kabuki nempyO. 8 vols. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1956-1961. "Kabuki no füzoku." Nihon füzokushi kdza. No. 18 (Vol. 9). Tokyo: Yüzankaku, 1929. Nihon engeki shi. 1902; reprint, Tokyo: Waseda Daigaku Shuppanbu, 1924. Iizuka TomoichirO. Kabukigairon. Tokyo: Hakubunkan, 1928. Ishii RyOsuke, ed. Tokugawa kinreiko. 12 vols. Tokyo: Sobunsha 1959-1961. Kabuki hyobanki shüsei. 6 + vols. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1972-. Kikuchi Sadao et al., eds. Kinsei füzoku zukan. 3 vols. Tokyo: Mainichi Shimbunsha, 1974. Kondo IchitarO. Japanese Genre Painting: The Lively Art of Renaissance Japan, trans., R. A. Miller. Tokyo: CharlesE. Tuttle Co., 1961. Kyoto Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan, comp. Rakuchü rakugai zu. Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten, 1966.

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT OF KABUKI

6i

Lane, Richard. Masters of theJapanese Print. New York: Doubleday and Co., 1962. Michener, James A. Japanese Prints: From the Early Masters to the Modern, with notes by Richard Lane. Rutland, Vt.: Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1959. Nagashima Imashirö and Ota Yoshio. Chiyoda-jö öoku in Meiji hyakunen-shi sösho, No. 168. 1892; reprint, Tokyo: Hara Shoten, 1971. Ortolani, Benito. Das Kabukitheater: Kulturgeschichte der Anfänge. Monumenta Nipponica Monographs No. 19. Tokyo: Sophia University Press, 1964. Sekine Shisei. Totogekijö enkaku shi. Tokyo: Chinsho Kankökai, 1916. Shively, Donald H. "Bakufu versus Kabuki." Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 18 (1955): 326-356. Reprinted in John W. Hall and Marius B. Jansen, eds. Studies in the Institutional History of Early Modern Japan. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1968, pp. 231-261. "Chikamatsu's Satire on the Dog Shogun." Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 18(1955): 159-180. "Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, the Genroku Shogun," in A. M. Craig and D. H. Shively, eds., Personality in Japanese History. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1970, pp. 85-126. Shuzui Kenji and Akiba Yoshimi. Kahukizusetsu. Tokyo: Man'yökaku, 1931 • Stern, Harold P. Master Prints of Japan: Ukiyo-e Manga. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1969. SudaAtsuo. Nihon gekijö shi no kenkyü. Tokyo: Sagami Shobö, 1957. SuwaHaruo. Kabukikaika. Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten, 1970. Takano Tatsuyuki. Nihon engekishi. 3 vols. Tokyo: Tökyö-dö, 1946-1949Takayanagi Shinzö and Ishii Ryösuke, eds. Ofuregaki Kampö shüsei. Tokyo: Iwanami Shobö, 1934. Thompson, Edward M., ed. Diary of Richard Cocks. London: Hakluyt Society, 1933. YoshidaTeruji. Kabuki-e no kenkyü. Tokyo: Ryokuen Shobö, 1963. YoshidaTeruji, ed. Kabuki-za. Tokyo: Kabuki-za Shuppanbu, 1951. Zushi Yoshihiko. Nihon no gekijö kaiko. Tokyo: Sagami Shobö, 1947.

Form in Kabuki Acting James R. Brandon

INTRODUCTION

From folding screens and scrolls of the early seventeenth century, a lively picture emerges of what kabuki performances in Kyoto were like during the time of Okuni (ca. 1603-1620)' and in the immediate years following. On one screen we see a physically alluring prostitute, possibly Okuni herself, posed center stage, languorously leaning on the hilt of a long sword, bare arms erotically exposed, a fan dangling indolently from the fingertips, and, through hair falling rakishly over temples and forehead, gazing at her audience seated a few paces away.2 A troupe comic (ddkeyaku) and what is probably a stage manager (kojoyaku) observe her from either side of the stage, while musicians behind her follow her actions intently. Standing alone, she is the focus of all attention. And well she might be, for in seventeenth-century Japan, she presented an exotic, as well as an erotic, spectacle. She is costumed as a young man, and wears a brilliant, multicolored kimono of a dandy, startlingly set off by a Christian cross hanging from her waist. Musicians are seen playing a new type of musical ensemble consisting of traditional no drums and flute with the shamisen added. 3 Only in kabuki is this strange music heard. On several screens, sensuous women recline on tiger skins as they play the shamisen; 4 prob-

64

BRANDON

ably they are as much prostitutes as the performers. A screen of the Kanei period (1624-1644) shows drum players and most of the audience boisterously laughing and shouting at dancers on stage.5 Except for a few sober-sided Portuguese merchants in an audience (easily identified by their white collars and tall, brimmed hats),6 the throngs who flock to see the titillating new performances called kabuki obviously are there to have a good time. Scenes of eating, drinking, joking with friends, talking to the actors, brawling, and flirting are everywhere evident.7 The assignation of a prostitute (keiseikai) by a young man-abouttown is pictured as a favorite theme of short plays performed by both women's and boys' troupes.8 Okuni was famous for her portrayal of the indolent young man. As pointed out in the first chapter, prostitution, already common, became institutionalized during the period of boys', or wakashu, kabuki; in 1640 the Shimabara licensed quarter for prostitution was established, by government edict, in Kyoto.9 Plays of prostitute assignation were glamourously contemporary and apparently audiences found it immensely interesting to see, in women's kabuki, a prostitute dressed as a young man play a love scene with another female prostitute, or, in boys' kabuki, a young man, dressed as a prostitute, play a love scene with another young man. Other scenes show stages filled with elegantly dressed and coiffured young boys and women dancing in pairs, and threes, and fours;10 a group of eighteen prostitutes perform a circle dance in languorous, seductive motions center stage;11 dancers with open fans form attractive processions as they move from the entry passage (hashigakari, borrowed from no theater) to the stage proper.12 Their dance steps were taken from popular street dances (collectively called furyu), and the songs that accompany them are mostly kouta, short songs currently in vogue in Kyoto. Performed en masse by kabuki's youthful, alluring performers, how much more colorful, lively, and appealing they must have been than the stately solo dances and monotonous chanting of no, the establishment theater! These screens and scrolls show that exuberant spectacle, addiction to new fashions, and concentration on the talents of the actor—at times amounting to something very near idolatry—were the touchstones of early kabuki performance. These characteristics have remained basic to kabuki through its later development into a mature, and indeed today a classic, theater art. They have never been abandoned, though often they have been criticized, and they have never

FORM IN KABUKI ACTING

6$

become so overlaid by later artistic aims as to become indistinct. Visual and aural spectacle provide the structure around which a performance is organized; this is not a literary frame, as in dialogue plays in the West. While a number of kabuki dramas are superior plays in the literary sense, their written scripts should be viewed only as performance guides. From Okuni's first performance of kabuki in 1603, for a full three centuries, everything contemporary in Japanese culture found its way onto the kabuki stage. It was not a static theatrical art, but an ever-changing one, constantly adapting itself as living theater to changing tastes and times. At the center of both spectacle and change, stood the actor. It was perhaps inevitable that the actor should have been the focus of the crude spectacles of early kabuki. But even when kabuki dramaturgy developed to where multiact plays were being written (after 1664), 1 3 and the playwright rose to a stature sufficient for his name to be listed in the play bill (in 1680), 1 4 the actor's importance remained immense. KATA, OR FORM, IN ACTING From their pivotal position in kabuki, virtuoso actors created a rich vocabulary of acting techniques that gradually crystallized over the years into codified traditions of performance. The traditional ways of performing are called kata, literally form, pattern, or model. The actor's vocal and movement techniques are the central elements of most kata, but production elements such as costuming, makeup, and scenic effects are thought of as extensions of the kabuki actor's technique, and they too are usually discussed as part of the kata of acting. 1 5 Some kata are ephemeral and pass as quickly as they are created. But other kata of "patterned acting" have been polished and perfected over generations, and these form the foundation of kabuki performing a n . When the best actors perform traditional kata, we are strongly reminded of ukiyoe woodblock prints, in the economy of means, strong visual design, and vividness of execution. Both kabuki and ukiyoe are bravura arts, and it is not by coincidence that they are manifestations of the same popular culture of Tokugawa Japan. In the limited space available here, it is possible to discuss only the most important kata of kabuki acting. Some are not yet fully understood and require further study. I will mention something of their historical development, the way they are used, and where possible, their aesthetic purpose. Most descriptions will be of kata as they are

66

BRANDON

performed today. Illustrations will be drawn from well-known plays, especially from the ten or so plays which are available in English translation (see the Bibliography). Kata exist in such numbers and variety it is no easy matter to organize them into a rational and understandable system. Generally however, Japanese writers discuss them on two levels: broad, overall styles of performance as one level, and specific performance techniques as a second. 16 In addition to this, it seems useful to discuss how different actors have created individual kata that are personal variations of specific performance techniques. W e have then, three levels to consider. Let me begin with the broadest level and end with the most specific and individualized. KATA AS PERFORMANCE STYLE There are five general performance styles in kabuki: danmari, aragoto, wagoto, maruhon, and shosagoto.17 They can be described as historical styles, by and large; that is, they arose in succession in different historical periods. So they reflect different stages of kabuki's historical and social development. Many specific performance kata (on the second level) originated in general performance styles. It might be expected that general styles of performance would be related to the two most important kabuki dramatic types, jidaimono or historical plays and sewamono or domestic plays, but as a rule this is not the case. For the most part, kabuki performance style does not correlate in any simple way with dramatic type. Here I will discuss style quite apart from play type. 1 8 1. Danmari Danmari may be the oldest historical style. Records are insufficient to determine its age with certainty, but its simple nature suggests great age. Danmari is an unassuming five- to ten-minute pantomime {danmari means ' 'wordless") in which members of the kabuki troupe successively enter the stage and display themselves, their costumes, and their special acting idiosyncracies (Plate 10). The scene is set in the outdoors and always at night (another word for danmari is kurayami, "darkness''). After the full cast is on stage, some danmari conclude immediately on a mass tableau, expressing violent opposition among the characters. In more developed danmari scenes, characters engage in a slow-motion pantomime struggle for possession of some object, after the initial entrance. This too culminates in a group tab-

68

BRANDON

leau. Seeing danmari is like peeking through "glass windows of an aquarium," says the kabuki critic Toita Yasuji. 19 The term danmari seems first to have been used in 1780, but already sixty years before this, nighttime pantomime scenes were established as a standard form.20 Neither of these dates is early. Still it seems probable that the simple parading of individual actors in danmari is a relic of the earliest kabuki when performances were little more than occasions for advertising the physical attractiveness of prostitute-performers. A danmari pantomime may be an independent piece or a scene in a longer play. Until this century, kabuki troupes commonly toured the provinces and a danmari piece was the usual way the acting company was introduced to the audience at each new location along the way. Young actors made their acting debuts and promotions to new acting names (signifying higher rank) were announced in danmari. The renowned actor Ichikawa Danjuro VII (1791-1859), after being banished from the Edo stage for nine years, chose to make his first kabuki reappearance in the danmari The Cave Mouth (Iwato) (1850). 21 Through the Tokugawa period, a danmari customarily was included in the November program of the major licensed kabuki theaters and the numerous small, unlicensed kabuki playhouses as well. It became traditional to perform an introductory (kao mise) danmari within an historical play, and through it introduce to the audience the new acting company for the coming theater season. Danmari is performed in domestic plays as well (Plate 10). Because audiences would tire of seeing the same danmari piece year after year, new theatrical twists were invented to entertain the audience. Dozens of kinds were created. Today danmari is not often performed, perhaps because of the more sophisticated tastes of contemporary playgoers. Our chief interest in danmari is that it shows us kabuki acting in its plainest and probably oldest style.

2. Aragoto A second major style of performance is aragoto, literally "rough style." It is a bravura style that projects power and masculine vigor. Every aspect of aragoto is exaggerated—elocution, movement, costuming, makeup—in order to produce a stunning theatrical effect. Aragoto is an Edo (Tokyo) acting style which reflects the martial and raw spirit of seventeenth-century Edo in its boisterousness, vitality, and lack of refinement.22 The creation of aragoto acting is credited to Ichikawa Danjuro I (1660-1704), the leading Edo actor of the Genro-

FORM IN KABUKI ACTING

69

ku period. He founded the Ichikawa family acting-tradition which has continued through eleven generations (Ichikawa Danjuro XI died in 1965). In his first stage appearance in 1673, Danjuro played the role of Kintoki, modelled after the superhuman hero Kimpira, already familiar to Edo audiences for over a decade through enormously popular puppet performances (called kimpira puppet plays, after the hero's name). He carried over into his performance the bombastic style of moving and speaking of the puppet plays and the exaggerated costumes and actions.23 The play's title was Children of the Guardians of Buddha (Shiten-no Osanadachi). The four guardians of Buddha are traditionally shown in Japanese sculpture as ferocious deities, with bulging musculature, glaring eyes, bared teeth, and defiant mien.24 Both kimpira puppet plays and the centuries-old Buddhist concept of fearsome guardian deities seem to have contributed to Danjuro's acting approach. Danjuro II (1688-1758) refined his father's aragoto style and later generations of actors have continued the process. Even so aragoto remains a rough, dynamic style. A striking form of makeup is used for many aragoto roles. It is called kumadori, or "following the shadow," and consists of bold lines of red, blue, black or grey (Plates 11, 15, 18, 19, 21, 33). Because the lines of makeup follow the natural musculature of the face kumadori does not mask expression (as do the abstract patterns of ching painted-face makeup in Chinese opera), but instead projects it with great clarity and force. Danjuro I is described as wearing "black-and-red" makeup in his kabuki debut, 25 but it is not clear whether this was kumadori as we now know it. An illustration of Danjuro II, dated 1715, shows the actor definitely wearing kumadori makeup.26 The play Wait a Moment (Shibaraku) (1692) illustrates typical elements of aragoto style (Plates 11 and 33). The hero's costume is three times the volume of a normal costume and the sleeves of the outer garment are so large they have to be fitted with stays to hold them in their proper place. His sword is an impossible eight feet in length (some aragoto heroes wear three swords instead of the usual two). Kumadori makeup of bright red lines highlight his face (his opponents will even wear kumadori makeup on their arms, chests, and legs, to emphasize the musculature of their entire bodies). When the hero moves, he struts like an emperor; when he stops, stage assistants arrange his massive costume. The audience is entertained when the actor who is playing the hero works his own name into his first

FORM IN KABUKI ACTING

71

speech; this is a long-standing tradition.27 At the climax of the play, he decapitates eight of the enemy with a single sweep of his sword, a humorous bit of spectacle apparently inspired by the kimpira chanter Izumi Dayu II who enjoyed ripping the heads from puppets and smashing them in the heat of battle.28 To act aragoto style well it is said the actor must imagine the virility and self-confidence of a sixteen-year-old.29 The actor who performs with the required degree of physical force the demanding aragoto role of Matsuomaru in The House of Sugawara (Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami) (1746) is warned that he may suffer stomach cramps during the run. 30 Skill in elocution is prized in aragoto. The voice of the hero should be pitched high and it should reverberate strongly. The vocal technique is so difficult critics say Danjuro IX (1838-1903) possessed the last genuine aragoto voice. For example, Benkei in The Subscription List (Kanjincho) (1840), is an aragoto role, but actors today do not speak his lines on a higher pitch then those of Togashi, his opponent. All the physical resources of the actor must be channeled toward powerful expression of heroic action in aragoto. It is said of Danjuro IX that he could be heard blocks away from the theater when he delivered major speeches from Wait a Moment.31 Whether true or not, the story is an indication of the importance placed on the voice in aragoto. The hero's highest emotional peaks are expressed in abstract sound, not in sentences. An example of this is the final line, "yattoko tottcha, untoko na!" in Wait a Moment.32 Like "yo ho, heave ho," the phrase doesn't mean anything literally. But it allows the actor to demonstrate through sound, as well as visually, his heroic presence as the curtain closes. We will recall that the great Modjeska once brought tears to the eyes of an American audience by reciting the alphabet in Polish. Most plays in aragoto style were created by actors of the Ichikawa family and are part of the "Collection of Eighteen Plays" (Juhachiban), compiled by Danjuro VII (1791-1859).33 The titles of some indicate as well as any description the rough nature of aragoto: The Thunder God (Narukami), Throwing the Elephant (Zdhiki), Pushing and Pulling (Oshi Modoshi), and The Whisker Tweezers (Kenuki). 3. Wagoto Wdgoto, or "soft-style" performance, is as different from aragoto as can be imagined. The style was created by Kyoto-Osaka actors, and it reflects especially the gentle refinement of imperial Kyoto. The wa-

BRANDON

goto hero is delicate to the point of effeminacy. He is spineless, penniless, irresponsible, yet immensely attractive as a lover. The great Kyoto actor Sakata Tojuro (1647-1709) is credited with creating wagoto acting in his portrayal of the beautiful young man who visits a prostitute. He became famous in 1678 in the role of the disinherited merchant, Izaemon, who loved the prostitute Yugiri (Plate 12). He played Izaemon in four productions that first year, and, in all, he acted Izaemon eighteen times during his career. The first of the dozen or so kabuki plays written for Tojuro by Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1724), Japan's greatest playwright, was about Izaemon and Yugiri.34 Wagoto acting is relatively realistic. It is suited to dialogue drama. And it is rooted in the youthful beauty of the leading actor. It is also, surprisingly, a comic style. During Tojuro's time the saying was current that, "the lover acts with the heart of comic." 35 The term hando, or "half-comic," was also used to describe wagoto acting.36 The humor of such acting arises from the contrast between the actor's physical attractiveness and the momentary pitiful condition of the character he is portraying. We laugh at the hero's foolishness and helplessness because, it seems to me, he need not seriously pursue the woman he is meeting; his beauty is such that she makes advances to him in spite of his lack of money and status and his pouting bad manners. Something of wagoto humor is apparent in the name of one wagoto hero, translated literally, Mr. Three-two-five-seven (Sannigoroshichi).37 The wagoto leading man in kabuki served as model for the townsman lover of the many love-suicide plays Chikamatsu later wrote for the puppet theater. Tojuro and Danjuro I were active during the same span of years in the Genroku period, and they knew of each other's style of performing. Wagoto acting was adopted by actors in Edo, like Nakamura Shichisaburo, while, under the influence of flamboyant aragoto, wagoto acting became more stylized.38 The conversational quality of its speaking style seems not to have been much affected by aragoto, but the overall manner of portraying the wagoto hero became more feminine. This feminine quality can be seen today in the way the wagoto actor stands, feet close together and toes pointing in, like a Japanese woman, rather than in broad masculine stance with feet at a ninetydegree angle.39 In contrast to aragoto's scenes of violent fighting, indolent and elegant love scenes (nuregoto) came to be the specialty of wagoto act-

PLATE 12. Wagoto style. Nakamura GanjirO playing Izaemon, the original role of the gentle, comic lover in Love Letter from the Licensed Quarter (Kuruwa Bunsho). (Photo courtesy of Shochiku)

74

BRANDON

ing. Especially between 1800 and 1840 wagoto love scenes were notorious for their lewdness. One contemporary writer remarks, "it appears that down until the end of the Tokugawa period, they exceeded all bounds in licentiousness and perversion.' ' 40 Today's critics hold that the true wagoto fusion of the comic and the erotic is largely lost. Much of the outer form of wagoto acting style does remain, however, as in the elegant mannerisms of movement and in the special wagoto vocal style—"not thin and high, but soft and sounding like the second string of the shamisen." 41 The foremost actor of wagoto today is Nakamura Ganjiro II. In his seventies, his charming portrayal of Izaemon visiting Yugiri, in Love Letter from the Licensed Quarter (Kuruwa Bunsho) (1808) is unmatched as an example of wagoto acting (Plate 12). 4. Marubon Danmari, aragoto, and wagoto are all "pure" kabuki acting styles. They were created within kabuki by kabuki performers (although they may have been influenced to a small degree by other theater forms). Maruhon, or "puppet style," however, originated outside of kabuki. The style developed during the middle decades of the eighteenth century when a large number of new, immensely successful jdruri, or puppet, plays were adapted for performance by kabuki actors. Before this, kabuki actors had always thought of themselves as active collaborators in creating a play text. They were not inhibited from changing lines of dialogue that the troupe's resident playwrights had written for them. In joruri, however, the text was held sacred. The performance began with the fully composed text. It was set to music, and the puppets were manipulated to illustrate and act out the meaning of the text. The essence of the art of the puppet theater lies in the complete meshing of the movements of the puppets with the rhythm of the chanted text and the shamisen accompaniment. During the performance a chanter could not improvise new words to the text—for that would throw off the predetermined puppet movements—nor could puppeteers ad lib new actions—for that would throw off the chanter. Consequently when kabuki actors began to perform these joruri texts, they found they not only had to conform to already settled patterns of physical actions taken over from the puppets, but they also had to time their acting to match the music and the chanting of a newly imported team of joruri chanter and shamisen play (in kabuki called chobo) that soon became a part of each kabuki troupe.

FORM IN KABUKI ACTING

75

As a result a new kabuki acting style arose. In time, the maruhon style of performance came to be used not only in adaptations of puppet plays, but in newly written kabuki plays as well. Kawatake Mokuami (1816-1893) was especially fond of writing into his kabuki plays "joruri scenes" that used chobo music and were acted in maruhon style (Plate 13). The term maruhon refers to the "full script" of a puppet play that was used as the basis for a kabuki adaptation, hence in kabuki a "maruhon play,'' or performance in "maruhon style.''

PLATE 13. Maruhon style. Princess Hototogisu bends backward in a puppet-style movement (ushiroburi) as she is cruelly tortured in Goroz6 of the Palace. (Photo courtesy of National Theater ofJapan)

76

BRANDON

A key feature of maruhon performance style is its emphasis upon narrative comment. The chobo chanter does more than speak the dialogue of the puppet characters. He also provides extensive exposition of past events, descriptions of time and place to set the scene, delineation of character traits, and even omniscient commentary on the probable consequence of a character's actions. All of these functions were absent in danmari, aragoto, and wagoto style performance because there was no narrator. The narration in maruhon style, therefore, added a completely new dimension to kabuki. It made this style of performance more dense, more reflective, slower in tempo. For example, when the usual kabuki act begins, the curtain is run open, a few bars of offstage (geza) music sets the scene, actors enter, and the action begins. However, when the curtain is run open to begin the typical maruhon act, a lengthy passage of chobo narration describes the situation and scene in weighty, drawn-out phrases, replete with musical elaboration. Several minutes must pass before the actors may appear and the action of the play begins. 42 The tempo of the actor's movements isgreatly slowed, because descriptive passages require more time than an actor's movement. Performance in one of the "pure" kabuki styles invariably concludes with a visual high point, a group tableau as the curtain is run closed, while in maruhon style performance very often a final phrase of commentary by the narrator is the last thing that occurs before the curtain closes. Furi is a generic term in kabuki meaning "pantomimic movement." In maruhon acting, furi movement is extremely important. It is based on gestures of the puppets, and emphasizes everyday gestures of eating, drinking tea, opening doors, combing hair, dressing and the like. These movements are accompanied by narration which describes either the action directly or the emotion underlying it. Furi is performed by male characters and by actors playing female roles, the onnagata. The puppetlike quality of movements may be purposely emphasized by the onnagata in a technique called ningyomi, literally "body-of-the-puppet." For example, a movement easily recognized as ningyomi is when a woman turns her back on the audience, droops her body slightly, and looks over one shoulder. This is ushiroburi, or "back movement." It is a difficult and beautiful movement for a puppet to make. It is easy for an actor, but still audiences are charmed by the human actor moving like a puppet (Plate 13). In ningyoburi, "puppet movement," the actor is manipulated on stage by an acting assistant just as if the actor were a puppet. 43

FORM IN KABUKI ACTING

77

Ningyomi is basic, and it is constantly seen in plays done in marubon style; ningydburi, however, is used only in certain dance plays and then primarily as a device to demonstrate an actor's mastery of technique. When the actor strictly matches the rhythm of his movements (or delivery of dialogue) to the musical rhythm of the chobo, this is called nori(or noru), meaning "riding" the music.44 In adapting puppet plays to kabuki, actors' 'kabukized'' them in a number of ways. In some cases they created whole new scenes and acts: the act titled Pulling the Carriage Apart (Kurumabiki) was worked out by kabuki actors for the famous joruri-derived play, The House of Sugawara.45 Later the act was added to puppet performances of the play, and now it is standard both in kabuki and in joruri. In the same play, a typically humorous kabuki battle-scene was created to close the first act. The usual geza shamisen and the drums and flute of the kabuki, which are light in tone, alternate with the heavy-sounding puppet shamisen so that the musical texture of maruhon kabuki is considerably brighter and more lively than the corresponding puppet performance. In joruri, every line is taken by the chanter, but in maruhon performance, the actors themselves speak many, and sometimes all, of the dialogue lines. One of the very beautiful effects in maruhon performance is when a brief line is spoken, in alternate syllables, by actor and chanter. In The Three Eras of Kamakura (Kamakura Sandaiki) (1718), the six syllables of the phrase sono ureshisa, "this happiness," are spoken alternately by the chanter and the actor playing Takatsuna. 46 In sobbing or laughing scenes, the chanter may join the actor in sobbing or laughing. One voice complements the other; it is as if the actor and his alter ego were combining forces. 5. Shosagoto Shosagoto is the usual term for kabuki "dance style" (keigoto, or "elegant style," is also used in Kyoto-Osaka). It is in kabuki plays performed in dance style that the formal musical-dance structure given in the chapter on music (pp. 133-175) comes into play. Shosagoto is the most complex of the performance styles, because it encompasses three distinct types of dance—odori, mai, and furi—and because of its long and complicated history. Odori is the main dance strain. Kabuki takes its name, in fact, from the kabuki odori, which Okuni created out of the great variety of dance forms which existed as popular, street, and folk dances toward the end of the sixteenth

78

BRANDON

century. They were commonly referred to as furyu odori, literally, "dances of fashion." 47 They were the " i n " dances of the time. The importance of the kabuki odori section of Okuni kabuki is discussed in William Malm's chapter on music. Here it will be sufficient to note that the basic characteristics of odori are its liveliness and that it may involve leaping in the air.48 Within the shosagoto dance form, individual dances which express each dancer's character (shinuki) and group dances (soodori) are important sections.49 Namba, in which the arm and leg on the same side of the body move in unison, is a characteristic odori dance step.50 The crablike walk which namba causes can be traced in scroll and screen illustrations from early folk dances, through furyu odori, women's kabuki dances, and adult (yard) kabuki (1653-1688), down to the kabuki dance of today.51 (The namba movement of puppets came later.) Mai is dance derived from no and, to a lesser extent, from other related dance forms: Buddhist ennen no mai, or "longevity dance"; rustic ta mai, or "field dance"; popular shirabydshi mai performed by troupes of professional girls; and others. Some of the dances called mai can be traced to indigenous folk or religious dance and others were directly inspired by Chinese and Korean dances first brought to Japan as much as a thousand years before kabuki.52 By the time of kabuki, mai indicated a wide variety of folk, religious, and classic dance in which deliberate movement and turning or pivoting, rather than lively leaping as in odori, were central to dance technique (Gunji suggests mai is related to the verb mawaru, "turn"). 5 3 The mai atrest posture places the weight equally on both feet (Plate 14), which contrasts with the typical kabuki posture, in which one foot is thrust strongly forward of the other and the weight is unequally distributed front and rear (Plate 15, left).54 Furi identifies those aspects of kabuki dance which are specifically pantomimic.55 In dance-plays a fan, small towel, hat, cane, drum or other small musical instrument is used as a property during the pantomime sequences. The actor performs a number of dance variations of the movements associated with the property (Plates 30, 31, 32). Compared to furi in puppet-derived plays, which tends to be a literal step-by-step pantomime of realistic actions, furi in dance-plays is more abstract, less realistic. Maruhon furi is narrative or story-telling in aim; shosagoto furi tends to be lyric and aesthetic in aim. Several terms identify differing relationships between dance mime and its accompanying lyrics. In ateburi(ate means "to suit" or "be

PLATE 14. Shosagoto style. Matsumoto Koshiro as Benkei in The Subscription List (Kanjincho) dances in no-derived style, feet evenly spaced, fan overhead, and fingers grasping the kimono sleeve. (Photo courtesy of Shochiku)

FORM IN KABUKI ACTING

81

appropriate"), the actor pantomimes concrete objects or actions one after the other as they are mentioned in the lyrics. For example, it is ateburi when in The Subscription List Benkei raises the open fan to represent a mountain as the chorus sings, "midst mountain places"; when he cradles his head to "awake and asleep . . . with armor and sleeve-pillow as sole companions''; when he sculls a boat to ' 'adrift at sea." Ateburihas an extreme form, in which each syllable is accompanied by miming an object of the same sound. The mime has no meaning. It is a game. For example, in The Barrier Gate (Sekinoto) (1784), when "Ki ya bo . . . , " written with characters meaning "living," "wild," and "evening," is sung, the actor ignores these meanings and instead mimes ' 'tree'' (ki also means tree in Japanese), "arrow" (ya also means arrow), and "pole" (bo also means pole.)' 6 This type of ateburi is nicknamed kiyabo.57 It may well be the only dance technique in the world based on a pun. Fuseiburi, "elegant furi,"complements a verbal image with a visual image which is related to it, without however, duplicating that image (as in ateburi). The sung phrase "Fuji and Asama," in Six Master Poets (Rokkasen) (1832), evokes in our mind's eye massive, powerful volcanoes; meanwhile the actor mimes a delicate thread of smoke rising from an incense stick.58 Fuseiburi demands a subtlety of expression that is not required in ateburi. As early as adult kabuki, such onnagata actors as Ukon Genzaemon were staking out dance-style performance as the exclusive province of the performer of female roles and establishing reputations in kabuki by their dancing.59 Among several types of dance-plays, one in particular provided exceptional opportunity for the onnagata actor to display his personal attractiveness and his technical dancing skill, and as a consequence became unusually popular. This was the hengemono, or "change piece." In hengemono a leading onnagata actor changes costume during performance, the number of times determined by the theme of the play (the three beauties, the four seasons, the five colors, the six mountains, on up to the twelve months). Reportedly the onnagata actor Mizuki Tatsunosuke danced the first multiple-change play in Kyoto, in 1697. It was a seven-change performance.60 Maid of the Dojo Temple is a seven-change piece, too (Plates 15, 29-32). These and other plotless shosagoto (called simply buyo, or "dance") were brilliant spectacles, but as they were dominated by the single-performer dramatic development within them was very limited.

BRANDON

The development of true dance-dramas, or buyogeki, had to wait almost another century. In the 1780s Nakamura Nakazo I, an excellent dancer, created a number of male roles in dance-plays. Typically he played the role of the onnagata's antagonist.61 New kinds of kabuki dance music (especially tokiwazu and kiyomoto) were being developed at the same approximate time, other "dancers" of male roles joined Nakazo, and the result was a major flourishing of new sbosagoto pieces, many of which were highly dramatic. The situation came full circle in 1840. In that year the famous sbosagoto play The Subscription List was first performed. The leading role, Benkei, was a male role (created by Danjuro VII) and in the total cast of eleven there was no female role at all. It is interesting to note, in passing, that while kabuki originated in dance and dance is considered of great importance to the art, most of the great early actors we have mentioned, including Ichikawa Danjuro I and II, and Sakata Tojuro, were not known as dancers. The Subscription List was closely modelled on the no play Ataka. No-style elocution, mat dance movements (including the special sliding step of no, suriashi), no-style costumes, and no dramatic structure are all apparent in it (Plates 14, 20, 27). The first performance was not successful; the audience found it uncomfortably highbrow. But since then it has become second in popularity only to The Treasury of Loyal Retainers (Chushingura) (1748) in the kabuki repertory. Following the lead of The Subscription List, more than a score of noderived dance dramas were created during the Meiji period, especially for the actors Danjuro IX (1838-1903) and Onoe Kikugoro V (1844-1904) and VI (1885-1949), including: Benkei in the Boat (Funa Benkei), The Thorn Tree (Ibaraki) (Plate 21), The Monstrous Spider (Tsuchigumo), and The Angel's Robe (Hagoromo). Comic pieces from the no-kyogen repertory were made into dance plays as well, including the delightful The Zen Substitute (Migawarizazen), Tied to a Pole (Boshibari), and others.62 Collectively, the plays that deliberately exhibit their no or no-kyogen origins are called matsubame, "pine and board" pieces, for their settings copy the wooden planking painted with a pine tree which forms the back wall of the no stage. It is characteristic of a matsubame dance-play that it exists in just one version (with perhaps minor variations), for it is based on a fixed model in no, while other sbosagoto pieces may exist in several versions. Three important dance plays that derived from no are not part of

FORM IN KABUKI ACTING

83

the matsubame group and require some explanation. In early kabuki, before the shogunate government had become official patrons of no, performers drew freely on no (and no-kyogen) for kabuki dramatic material. But by the Kanei period (1624-1644) this practice largely had ceased.63 (Two centuries were to pass before The Subscription List, intentionally patterned after no, was performed in kabuki.) But, two no plays were absorbed into the kabuki repertory: Do jo Temple (Ddjdji), first danced as shosagoto sometime between 1673 and 1680, and The Stone Bridge (Shakkyo), a lion dance initially performed as kabuki in 1704. They have been staged in kabuki endlessly through the years: the former in some twenty versions and the latter in at least thirty-five versions.64 Two and a half centuries of performance in kabuki has obliterated all but the most vestigial resemblance to no style in these spectacular show-pieces for the onnagata actor. With good reason they can be thought of as virtually pure kabuki in style, quite unlike the later no derived matsubame plays.6' Okina, a congratulatory piece in no, has been staged in kabuki from early times. The religious nature of the play in no is evident in the fact that the central dance is one celebrating long life. It is performed by the character Okina, the old man. The dances of Senzai and Sanbaso, the other characters, are relatively unimportant. In kabuki the play is called Sanbaso, and it is performed when a new theater is dedicated and during the first three days of the New Year's program. In its function, then, Sanbaso retains the celebratory nature of the no Okina. But the content of the dance has changed over the years, moving from serious ritual thanksgiving toward entertainment. In the Genroku period, the role of Okina was danced by the old master of the kabuki troupe, the most respected performer; Senzai by the nimaime, the juvenile lead; and Sanbaso by the tachiyaku, the leading man. Today, the troupe's leading man dances Okina, which is now a small role; the chief comic plays Senzai; and whoever is the troupe's most accomplished dancer performs Sanbaso, now the major dancing role.66 Because Sanbaso is performed often, many versions have been created to lend interest to each new staging of it. A half dozen versions are performed currently. The five general acting-styles may be alternated scene-by-scene or act-by-act within a play, or actors within the same scene may play in different styles. For example, overall The Barrier Gate is a dancedrama performed in shosagoto style. But it also includes an aragoto section, a lovers' quarrel (,kuruwa banashi) stemming from wagoto

84

BRANDON

technique, and a section of ningydburi.61 The only style missing is danmari. Most of The House of Sugawara is played in maruhon style, but one act is played in aragoto style (Pulling the Carriage Apart, as noted before), and there is an important michiyuki, or travel dance, in shosagoto style. Benkei, in The Subscription List, is played in moderately strong aragoto-style, while Yoshitsune, in the same play, is played "close to a wagoto role." 68 Examples could be added almost without end. There is nothing inartistic in juxtaposing the five styles in performance. Aragoto and wagoto roles naturally complement each other. A clear artistic principle underlies the alternation of styles from actto-act and from scene-to-scene. Acting technique, atmosphere, tempo, musical timbre, movement patterns, color—in fact every artistic aspect of performance—is varied through a long day's program in order to continually reengage the audience's interest. The principle is neither frivolous nor the creature of kabuki eclecticism, as has been suggested.69 In his writings on no, Zeami admonished the no actor to diligently seek variety and novelty in his performance, giving as his reason the practical fact that audiences easily become bored in the absence of variety.70 Further investigation may well show that this is a basic principle in Japanese theater art. KATA AS SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE TECHNIQUES

The second level of kata is concerned with specific performance techniques. In writing about acting, Japanese authorities list and discuss as many as several hundred specific performance techniques or kata. Here I will mention some of those which occur most frequently. For convenience, kata on the second level can be divided into acting techniques (both voice and movement), techniques of costume, makeup, and wigs used by the actor, and staging techniques which support the actor. 1. Mte Perhaps the most important, certainly the most striking, of the standard movement kata in kabuki is mie.11 To perform mie, an actor ' 'winds up'' with arms and legs, moves his head in a circular motion, then with a snap of the head, freezes into a dynamic pose. Like a visual exclamation point mie momentarily halts the action of the play and intensifies its emotion. Mie is held for several seconds (the better the actor, the longer it can be held), then is gradually relaxed, and

FORM IN KABUKI ACTING

the play continues. This basic pattern of movement will be varied considerably to suit different types of scenes. For example, head movements may be vertical or circular or feet may be spread or together. The actor may speak while executing a mie; however, it is a general principle of kabuki acting to move and to speak sequentially rather than simultaneously. Thus it is more usual for the actor to speak before and after a mie rather than during its movement. The strongest mie are accompanied by the sound of wooden clappers (see Sound Effects Katd)\ softer mie are performed in silence, without dialogue, music, or sound effects. As an illustration of how mie are used in a play, let us take The Subscription List. It runs about seventy minutes playing time and contains eight mie. The first mie precedes Benkei's reading of the subscription list; the second follows it; the third terminates Togashi's interrogation of Benkei (mondo); the fourth occurs at the end of the pushing sequence during the dance confrontation between Togashi with his soldiers and Benkei and his companions (Plate 27); the fifth is immediately after Benkei strikes his master Yoshitsune; the sixth, a "stone-throwing" (ishinagej mie, is the high point of Benkei's dance of reminiscing (monogatari); the seventh, by Benkei on the hanamichi and Togashi on the main stage, emphasizes their relationship in parting; and the eighth is performed by Benkei a few moments later, alone on the hanamichi (the ramp through the audience) before he begins his final, powerful exit. The mie mark the eight, emotional high-points of the play, and we can no more imagine The Subscription List without these visual climaxes than we can a Western opera without its climactic high notes. Mie almost certainly originated in aragoto acting. The mie posture of arms akimbo, fists clenched, and feet widely planted apart can be seen in prints as early as 1688-1699.72 In the most powerful types of mie, the actor crosses one eye over the other (nirami) to make his expression fierce (Plate 17). The prints of Torii Kiyomitsu (1735-1785) depicting Danjuro II in aragoto-style plays like Arrowhead (Ya no Ne) appear to be the first illustrations showing nirami,73 but it may well have been in use before this. There are many kinds of mie. The most common is Genroku mie, named after the Genroku period (1688-ca. 1723) in which it was created. One arm is raised behind the body with fist clenched, and the opposite leg is thrust forward. An example is Samagoro's pose at the conclusion of The Maid of Dojo Temple (Musume Dojoji, Plate 15/ In soku, or "sheaf," mie the

86

BRANDON

actor stands straight, heels together, head up. It indicates a self-contained, proud attitude and shows to good advantage an actor with an attractive physique. In fudo mie, the actor clasps a Buddhist rosary in the upturned fist of his left hand and holds a sword upright in his right hand at chest level, reproducing the well-known statue pose of thefiercegod Fudo. Benkei performs a fudo mie after he has read the subscription list to Togashi, substituting the rolled-up scroll for a sword. A stone-throwing (ishinage) mie captures the moment after the action of throwing (Plate 22). Yoko, or "profile," mie\ yurei, or "ghost"mie\ and hashiramaki, or "wrapped-around-a-post," mie take their names from their distinctive poses (Plate 18). Mie mentioned thus far are for the single actor. Others are performed by two, three, or more actors. Tenchijin, or "heaven-earthman," mie, describes a group mie for three people and takes its name from the fact that the main actor center is visually the highest, and the actors to the right and left of him are progressively lower (Plate 16).74 A two-actor mie, in which one is high and the other low, is called tenchi, or "heaven-earth" mie. The actor in the "heaven" position often mounts a small platform to increase the grandeur of the pose (Plate 15). Hippari, or "pulling," mie, illustrates conflicting emotions of a number of characters on stage at the same time. An act or scene often concludes with hippari mie. It is an impressive sight to see eight to ten principal actors and thirty or more supporting actors simultaneously perform mie appropriate to their own characters, and then pose in brilliant tableau as the curtain is run closed before them. The most vigorous mie are used in aragoto roles and include nirami, eye-crossing (Plate 17). The actor of a wagoto role or an onnagata performs mie of quite a different order: there are no large arm or leg movements, the movement of the head is less pronounced, and the eyes are not crossed (Plate 32).75 2. Roppo A second movement kata is the swaggering walk known as roppo, the literal meaning of which is "six directions" movement. It originated in pre-Genroku kabuki, and is said to be based on the strutting walk (tanzen roppo) affected by young men parading themselves through the licensed quarters and before the bathhouses where unofficial prostitutes worked. Roppo exhibits to good advantage an actor's handsome appearance and masculine carriage. The first entrance of the hero in Sukeroku: Flower ofEdo (Sukeroku Yukari no Edo Zaku-

PLATE 17. Mie showing crossed eyes (nirami). The late Ichikawa Ennosuke as HonzO, Act IX, The Treasury of Loyal Retainers (Chushingura). (Photo courtesy of Shochiku)

FORM IN KABUKI ACTING

PLATE 18. Around-the-pillar (hashiramaki) mie. Ichimura Uzaemon as Soga GorO in the aragoto style play Arrowhead (Yanone) wears bold kumadori makeup and exaggerated costume. The actor's stage assistant is seen behind, closed out of the scene. (Photo courtesy of National Theater ofJapan)

ra) (1713) contains a famous swaggering tanzen roppo section. A number of vigorous roppo have been created which conclude a play with the hero's exit down the hanamichi (Plate 19). Tobi roppo, or "flying" roppo, is the best known of these. The actor moves down the hanamichi in great leaps and bounds, his arms and legs literally flying in six directions. Benkei's exit (Plate 20), which concludes The Subscription List and Narukami's exit which concludes The Thunder God, are examples of tobi roppo. The onnagata actor playing the role of the one-armed demon in The Thorn Tree, exits down the hanamichi 'm katate, or "one-armed" roppo (Plate 21). And Tadanobu, the fox in The Thousand Cherry Trees of Yoshitsune (Yoshitsune Sembon Zakura) (1747), performs kitsune, or "fox's," roppo.

PLATE 19. Roppo exit. Ichimura Uzaemon as GongorO Kagemasu kicks forward trailing trouser leg during roppo exit in Wait a Moment. (Photo courtesy of Shochiku)

FORM IN KABUKI ACTING

91

PLATE 20. Flying exit (tobi roppo). Bcnkei in The Subscription List begins his vigorous exit down the hanamichi as the curtain is held back so the geza musicians behind the slits can time their playing to his movements. (Photo courtesy of Shochiku)

3. Tachimawari Stylized combat is a third type of movement kata.76 Called tachimawari, literally "standing-and-turning-about," these combats are the most active scenes in kabuki and are highly spectacular. Tachimawari consists of linked sequences of movements not found elsewhere in performance. Sections within tachimawari culminate in mie. The movements are performed to geza music (especially the drums), and they are reinforced by rhythmic patterns, beaten out by wooden clappers (see Sound Effects Kata). There are two general types of tachimawari movements. One type consists of slow-motion, extremely

PLATE 21. One-armed exit (katate

roppo).

FORM IN KABUKI ACTING

93

stylized slashing or stabbing actions of a character who is attempting to murder an opponent. Each attack culminates in a mie. The movements form a grotesquely beautiful dance of death. This kind of tachimawari has not attracted much attention from Japanese scholars and remains to be analyzed in detail. The second type of tachimawari pits a single hero against a group of opponents and is easily identified in performance. The hero's opponents may be a group of constables, monks, or gallants, dressed alike who move in unison as in a dance chorus (calledyoten, Plates 15, 22, 23). They may number as many as twenty or thirty and they attack the hero, sometimes en masse, sometimes in groups of eight or six or four, and sometimes singly in quick succession carrying identical weapons (swords, poles, buckets, or, in sbosagoto, flowering branches) (Plate 22). The purpose of the attack is to capture the hero, not to kill him. The hero demonstrates his prowess by easily defeating them without actual weapon or body contact. Movement kata in these group battles is generically termed tate.11 Sequences culminate in beautiful formal poses (Plate 23). The essence of tate movement is effortlessness: a deft movement, a sharp lunge, a quick evasion, a stylized flick of the hand to send an opponent flying (some two hundred such movements are listed).78 The movements are emotionless but beautiful. In other fight scenes the hero, or heroine, fights one or two opponents of equal rank using, as a rule, swords or poles. Such a scene is choreographed using the same tate movements as a group battle (Plate 16). Acrobatic flips (tombogaeri) are a striking part of tate. A somersault symbolizes the death of the attacker (Plate 24). He may jump from a platform or into a river or lake (an open trap). The nature of some of these acrobatic techniques is apparent in their names: "bodycutting" (kirimi), "monkey flip" (sarugaeri), "slow flip" (dandangaeri), "somersault of a corpse" (shiningaeri), and "linked flips" (tsuzukegaeri). 4. Entrance and Exit Kata The movement of an actor entering into sight on stage and his often protracted departure from view are classified as acting kata and have names—de, "entrance," and hikkomi, "exit" (synonymous with the dance terms deha and iriha, confer, p. 143). It is the aim of the actor in each case to make the most vivid impression possible upon the audience. Most important movements on and off stage are executed down the hanamichi, which can be thought of as an extension of the stage itself, through the audience, to the rear of the auditorium. It is

94

BRANDON

an invariable convention that a major actor pauses momentarily at the strongest point on the hanamichi, when entering and exiting. This position is seven-tenths of the way toward the stage and is called the shichisan, or "seven-three" position. Acting which takes place there is called shichisan acting.79 Good acting at the seven-three position on entering is essential, because this is the audience's first exposure to an actor and the role he is playing. The kata of Sukeroku's fifteen-minute-long entrance on the hanamichi and seven-three acting are widely admired. He swaggers, one arm cocked jauntily inside his elegant kimono, a stylish parasol over his shoulder, a silk headband of deep purple tied off at one temple, wooden clogs raucously announcing his presence. Sukeroku stops at seven-three, pivots so the audience in all parts of the auditorium can view his stylish appearance, and demonstrates through stylized dance and poses "his bravery and valor, his pride, cleverness, and energy, his championing of the rights of the people." 80 Yoshitsune's gentle, subdued posturing as the nagauta chorus sings "beautiful the hills, shrouded in the mists of spring" in The Subscription List is another example of seven-three acting, during an entrance quite different in mood. An actor at seven-three may talk with another actor who is on stage. Or in a dance-play, he may execute a fairly long section of dance on the hanamichi (the entrance is then called deha). A good example is Lord Ukyo's drunken return home in The Zen Substitute. To accompaniment of flute and drums, the chorus seated on stage sings, "How wonderful to loosen her silken gown. How glorious, down to the inner sash. He ambles home tipsily, hair awry, mussed and tumbled, hanging disheveled like weeping willow strands." Lord Ukyo appears at the end of the hanamichi and dances comically to the seven-three position. He stops and poses, his attitude changing to melancholy as the chorus continues, "Her fragrance clings still to his sleeve, her image yet to his heart.'' He mimes smelling the sleeve of his kimono and looks back into the distance as if to see her. He then speaks a single line, a thick-tongued, "She came with me a long, long way, but when I looked back where her visage once stood there lingered only a sliver of a moon.'' The fan slips from his fingers and he poses. Suddenly the onstage musicians switch to a lively melody and Lord Ukyo's mood changes. He flips open his dancing fan, twirls around on one leg, laughing gaily, and happily dances at seven-three. The instrumental music ends and the chorus sings, ' 'We see in the scattered remnants of a cloud a reminder of this morning's

PLATE 22. Group tachimawari. A young hero easily fends off a group of attacking men (yoten), posing with one foot on the back of an opponent and arms in a stonethrowing (ishinage) mie position. (Photo courtesy of Shochiku)

98

BRANDON

parting." Lord Ukyo's expression turns sad and his lively dancing slows. He lurches drunkenly to a stop. The chorus sings, "Splayfooted and staggering . . . he weaves his way virtuously home." Instrumental music continues as Lord Ukyo turns, slaps his thigh with the closed fan, and minces onto the main stage, ending his entrance, or deha. The whole scene takes four or five minutes to perform. Benkei's last mie in The Subscription List is performed at seven-three, and his roppo movement down the hanamichi to conclude the play is an important exit kata (Plate 20). Acting at seven-three during an exit is often for the purpose of expressing a change of character. We see Kumagai's new agonized mood (Plate 25) at the end of Chronicle of the Battle of Ichinotani. Lovers may reveal a comic side of their nature and make a humorous exit (Plate 26), or, conversely, a seemingly good person, alone at seven-three, will suddenly show his evil intentions through pantomime. 5. Other Movement Kata Japanese writers discuss many more movement kata. Of these I would like to mention two, both basic to kabuki acting and seen in every performance. The overriding concern in kabuki for theatrical effectiveness is shown clearly by the way leading actors perform crucial scenes while directly facing the audience. The technique is called shomen engi, or "full-front acting." 81 A good example of shomen engi is when the thief Bent en, disguised as a woman in the clothbuying scene of Benten the Thief (Benten Kozo) (1862), is being challenged by the shop manager and the impressive stranger, Nippon Daemon. If the scene were staged in a Western, realistic manner, Benten would almost certainly face his challengers and, at least part of the time, he would be physically close to his two questioners and in the same plane with them. That is, we would use physical actor relationships to project psychological character relationships. But in kabuki, Benten sits downstage center, facing front. His back is to the shop manager while Daemon sits on a slightly raised platform to his rear. Benten is given the strongest stage position and is spacially separated from the others. His is the title role and the audience is expected to focus its attention almost exclusively upon him. During the scene, Benten is abused and eventually unmasked, but he never turns upstage to face the others. Benten's actions and especially his facial expressions are too important for the audience to miss; so he plays the entire scene facing front. 82

PLATE 25. Exit (hikkomi). Kumagai (Matsumoto Koshiro) making his final departure from his family and his exalted position as a general in Chronicle of the Battle of lchinotani (Ichinotani Futaba Gunki). He stands at seven-three on the hanamichi. The curtain has been drawn to cover the main stage. A shamisen musician watches carefully, to time his playing to the actor's movements. (Photo courtesy of National Theater ofJapan)

IOO

BRANDON

PLATE 26. Comic exit (bikkomi) dance. A comic hero and his lover begin their travel dance exit in time to music at the seven-three position on the hanamichi. (Photo courtesy of Shochiku)

Shomen engi is the typical way of playing static scenes, in particular, scenes set within buildings, where normal Japanese etiquette prescribes that people sit quietly on a mat floor.83 Tsumeyori, or "closing in," is an active movement technique arising naturally out of situations in which opponents argue while they are standing (usually in an exterior scene). As the argument grows more heated, the opposing actors (or groups of actors) gradually edge in toward each other, step by step. In The Subscription List, Benkei and Togashi combine tsumeyori with shomen engi in the tension-packed interrogation scene. They glare at each other and move closer (tsumeyori) on one

101

FORM IN KABUKI ACTING

line, then turn front (shomen engi) to deliver the next, alternating the two techniques, until they are close together center. In the same play, the danced confrontation of Benkei and the retainers versus Togashi and the soldiers is pure tsumeyori (Plate 27). The two groups press in against each other, surging first one way and then the other, ending with both groups glaring face-to-face at center stage. 6. Vocal Kata Vocal kata have been less extensively studied and described by Japanese theater scholars than movement kata, perhaps because they present greater challenges to analysis. The major vocal kata are generally identified as watarizerifu, warizerifu, tsurane, yobi, yakuharai, and sutezerifu (some are also writing techniques). In watarizerifu, "passed-along dialogue," a single line of dialogue is divided among several actors, with the final phrase delivered in unison. Thus, different characters express consecutive segments of a single thought; each is aware of the other person sharing a portion of the thought and this awareness culminates in the unison final phrase. This is a conventional theatrical technique which is unknown in psychologically oriented Western drama. Passed-along dialogue is used many times in the average kabuki play. Often members of a group who have little individuality speak in watarizerifu, as in this example from The Scarlet Princess of Edo (Sakura Hime Azuma Bunsho) (1817), by Tsuruya Namboku: FIRST MAID:

Other than his excellency Seigen, there's not a priest at Kiyomizu Temple . . .

SECOND MAID:

True, not one who looks like he could read a prayer . . .

THIRD MAID:

Though they know the latest music from kabuki and songs of love, you can be sure . . .

FOURTH MAID:

They all, everyone o f them . . .

ALL MAIDS

(in unison): Stink of wordly evil. Ha, ha, ha!

Major characters may also speak passed-along dialogue, as when the villain AkugorO makes his initial appearance in the same play:

FORM IN KABUKI ACTING

3

PRINCE MATSUWAKA:

IrumaAkugoro . . .

RETAINER SHICHIRO:

Appears on his horse . . .

SAMURAI GENGO:

I n fiery spirit . . .

PRINCE MATSUWAKA:

Bearing . . .

ALL (in unison):

What command ?

Warizerifu, "divided dialogue," is similar except that lines alternate between only two characters and, while in the former the characters are conscious of sharing one thought with companions, in warizerifu the characters are unaware that their spoken thoughts are meshing with those of another person. Divided dialogue is a superb technique for expressing irony. An example of divided dialogue is the scene in which Seigen, the priest who loves Princess Sakura, and the princess, who is searching for her lost child, pass each other in the dark in The Scarlet Princess of Edo. Seigen, bitter at Sakura's rejection of him, nonetheless cares for her child, in the hope that somehow it will bring them together. They enter on two hanamichi, one on the left and one on the right side of the audience, physically separated by sixty or seventy feet. Though they look across the audience toward each other, in the darkness and pouring rain they do not see each other. SEIGEN:

When I think of how my soul sinks in misery; deeper each day for her love, then I long to meet her; that she may see the anguish caring for the child; causes me unknown to her, for if I could now . . .

SAKURA:

What person where extends to him the hand of succor; raising my child to manhood, my babe just one glimpse . . .

SEIGEN:

In one meeting to reproach with mounting bitterness . . .

SAKURA:

Of my beloved child . . .

SEIGEN:

The parent of this child, Princess Sakura . . .

infant,

my

darling

io4

BRANDON

SAKURA:

To meet again . . .

SEIGEN:

To see you . . .

SAKURA:

Oh, Merciful Buddha . .

SEIGEN:

Let the Princess . . .

SAKURA:

Let the child . . .

SEIGEN:

Please let us . . .

(drawn out, in unison):

BOTH

Meet . . . one . . . more . . . time . . .

Tsurane is an extended declamation, closely associated with a name-announcing (nanori) speech delivered by a major character, sometimes at seven-three during an entrance, sometimes on the main stage in the midst of a scene.84 In early kabuki, actors improvised speeches of tsurane in order to demonstrate their skill in elocution, much as a concert soloist improvised a cadenza in nineteenth-century Europe. Now tsurane in classic plays are set and traditional.85 Several major characters may announce themselves in succession, as when the five thieves in Benten the Thief line up on stage and introduce themselves and their pedigrees in outrageous speeches of tsurane (Plate 28). Tsurane is delivered in a musical, grandiloquent manner. Yobi, or "calling," is a brief kata designed to focus attention on an entering actor. The minor character speaking yobi drops to one knee, looks down the hanamichi to where the major character will appear, and intones, "Here he comes!'' From the early days of kabuki, speeches which incorporated poetic forms of language and which were delivered in rhythmic fashion were called keiyozerifu, "patterned dialogue." 86 The most obvious feature of a keiyozerifu passage is that it was written in alternate phrases of seven and five syllables, the classic Japanese poetic meter. Passedalong dialogue, divided dialogue, and tsurane may or may not be composed in lines of seven and five syllables (the previous examples of passed-along dialogue are not, but the example of divided dialogue is, in seven-five.) The playwright Tsuruya Namboku (17551824) is credited with first writing long speeches and even extended scenes in seven-five dialogue. A particularly beautiful style of speaking seven-five dialogue to geza musical accompaniment was developed in the plays of Kawatake Mokuami (1816-1893), and this style

io6

BRANDON

came to be called yakuharai.87 It is spoken in twelve regular beats with a pause at the end of each phrase; for emphasis the actor may also pause after the initial seven syllables and then prolong each syllable of the following five. Yakuharai is among the last important kata to be developed in kabuki. Ad-libbed dialogue is known as sutezerifu, literally "thrown-away dialogue." Famous actors of the Genroku period were their own playwrights (Danjuro I, for example, wrote a score of plays for himself under the name Mimasuya Hyogo). 88 The tradition of actors composing their own lines carried over, at least in such important speeches as tsurane, into the nineteenth century. Today ad-libbed dialogue, actually improvised by the actor himself, is rare except in the deliberately comic performances seen once or twice a year, in which stars are stagehands and the stagehands play major roles. A number of plays have important sections of sutezerifu; these are not considered part of the play text and do not appear in published scripts. For each production someone writes new sutezerifu containing contemporary references. Whether the actor contributes lines or not, he delivers sutezerifu as if it were an ad lib spontaneously thrown out for the amusement of his audience. Perhaps the scene which best captures the spirit of old-time sutezerifu is in the play Sukeroku: Flower of Edo, when the hero accosts several passersby and forces them to crawl between his legs. The whole scene is sutezerifu. No two productions of it are the same. 89 Actors who play the two, three, or four passersby vie to create new types of makeup, costume, and business, as well as new songs to sing and lines to speak. The scene is one of the funniest in the kabuki repertory and in large part this is due to its genuine spirit of spontaneity. 7. Sound Effects Kata Geza music and its contribution to kabuki performances is discussed in detail in William Malm's chapter on music. But a few remarks can be made regarding the way in which acting and music are coordinated. Music accompanies every scene of the traditional kabuki play. For dialogue plays (and these constitute the majority of plays in the repertory), offstage geza music is that accompaniment. In dance plays, or dance scenes within a long dialogue play, most music is provided by an onstage musical ensemble (debayashi), sometimes augmented by the offstage geza. It is of great interest to note that when geza music is playing—and this is most of the time—the actor does not

FORM IN KABUKI ACTING

107

match the rhythm of his acting to the rhythm of the music. He does not step in time to narimono drum patterns that are heard when he enters or exits on the hanamichi nor does he time his spoken phrases to fit the shamisen melodies that play in the background during a dialogue scene. Geza is atmospheric music. It sets a mood and the actor goes his own way within that general ambience. Put another way, we can say that the emotional connotations of the music are carefully matched to the emotional context of a scene, but that during the playing of a scene an actor does not follow the music. The kabuki actor's performing is not governed or controlled, as the Western tap or ballet dancer's performing is, by structure, tempo, and phrasing of the music. This holds true for tate fighting scenes as well. Though tate is occasionally referred to as "danced" fighting, the term is misleading, for tate movements are performed without regard to the rhythm of the accompanying geza music. We must turn to the dance-plays and dance scenes to find actors timing their movement phrases to match sung and instrumental musical phrases. (Even here, we can note that exact synchronization is shunned as inartistic: talented actors allow the conclusion of a dance phrase to lag behind the music as a deliberate ambiguity and to create tension between dance and music.) Brief comic dances within dialogue plays gain humor from the fact that the actor suddenly changes style and moves mechanically in time to lively music. And in plays performed in puppet style, those passages originally spoken in rhythm to shamisen music are performed in the same way in kabuki. The subject is complex and not fully understood, but it would seem that the basic relationship between acting and music in kabuki is contrapuntal and that only in dance or puppet style do acting and music approach fusion into a single pattern. Wooden clappers, hydshigi (also shortened to ki), are used throughout a kabuki performance for a variety of purposes. The stage manager strikes together a pair of hardwood ki, about ten inches long and two inches square, out of sight backstage to signal the opening of the curtain, the entrance of musicians, scenery shifts, and the close of the curtain at the end of an act. This use of ki is not directly connected with acting and will not be discussed here. Another shorter pair of hardwood sticks, about eight inches long, are beaten on a wooden board (laid on the stage floor beside the proscenium arch, stage left) to emphasize and to punctuate the actor's movements. These sound patterns are called tsuke uchi, ' 'accompanied beating," or just tsuke.

io8

BRANDON

The tsuke-phyet (an assistant playwright in Kyoto- Osaka, a sceneryman in Tokyo) watches the actors intently so that he can time his beats precisely to match their movements. Much as the Western concert singer uses an accompanist who knows the singer's style and requirements, each important kabuki actor before World War II had his own tsuke-mzn. Today as a rule one person will beat the tsuke through the whole play. Strong mie are accompanied by tsuke beats, usually four (weaker mie, or kimari, may be performed without tsuke accompaniment). The first beat, considered separate from the others, is struck if the actor plants one foot forward in preparation for the mie. The remaining three beats, a pattern termed battari, accompany the mie itself: the first beat as the head is brought up and the second and third beats (the second is a "grace note" to the third) as the head locks into position and the mie position is held. The loudness or prominence of the "grace note" in battari is varied to suit the preference of the actor. Most actors like it to be almost inaudible. Nakamura Kanzaburo likes to hear it sound clearly and distinctly. The grace note also can be dropped. The resulting pattern, of two beats, is called batan. Some actors prefer batan to battari to accompany their mie. Regular-paced beats, bata bata, accompany running entrances or exits down the hanamichi. Bata bata may accelerate until the tempo is several times that of the actor's running, thereby magnifying the impression of the runner's speed. Volume and tempo will vary to suit male or female characters. Several tsuke patterns support tate fighting scenes. When the main actor moves through a line of attackers, single, well-spaced beats of the tsuke mark his progress (sometimes called hirote, "one hand") and if the segment concludes in a mie, the usual battari (or batan) pattern is beaten out loudly. Some sections of tate are made up of linked sequences of lunges, parries, thrusts, and evasions. Here we hear a succession of alternating batan and battari patterns: pause, battari, pause, batan, pause, battari, pause, and so on until the section concludes. It seems that the less interesting sound of batan is used for the attackers' movements and the stronger battari sound for the countering movement of the chief actor. A single tsuke beat may emphasize the dropping of an object, the reaction of a major character in an exceptionally tense moment, or similar action which requires audience attention.90 Without doubt the most spectacular tsuke pattern is uchiage, a

FORM IN KABUKI ACTING

continuous beating which increases in volume and tempo until it thunders through the theater, softens, crescendoes again, and concludes in a sharp battari. Uchiage accompanies only the most important and strongest group-mie in a play, usually that closing an act. It may continue for up to thirty seconds, allowing the cast ample time to move into the tableau preceding the mie. The curtain closes immediately after uchiage and the mie have been completed. 8. Costume and Makeup Kata Actors use costume, makeup, and wigs, to help them portray character. In kabuki, there are hundreds of traditional kimono and other costume styles. One book minutely describes eighty-four wig types. There are numerous kinds of makeup (The Encyclopedia of Theater describes twenty-seven types of kumadori and adds that there are so many types it is impossible to list them all).91 Traditional kata of dressing major kabuki characters makes them readily identifiable. Also, types of characters—white-robed monks, a "red princess," a tattooed thief, elaborately costumed courtesans walking on high black clogs, a black-hatted court noble—are identifiable by the distinctive garb of their class. But elements of dress do more than help portray character in kabuki. Costumes, wigs, and makeup become part of the actor's performance technique used for theatrical and dramatic effect. Henge, "transformation," describes a costume and wig technique (sometimes including makeup) whereby an actor totally alters the visual representation of his character. In a very large number of no plays, the leading character, disguised in the first part of the play, reveals his true identity in the second half. This is accomplished by changing mask, or wig, or costume (or all three) offstage (hence, the division of most no plays into two parts, with an interlude between them giving the actor time to make the change). The inspiration for kabuki transformation scenes undoubtedly comes from no, but in kabuki the transformation is theatricalized by carrying it out onstage before the eyes of the audience. In kabuki the revelation of one's true nature is called jitsu wa, "in reality." The difference in no and kabuki techniques of transformation can be seen in the respective versions of The Maple Viewing (.Momiji Gari). In the no play, at the conclusion of part one the court lady retires into a set piece representing a mountain that is placed at the rear of the no stage. The actor changes appearance while out of sight, and reemerges after the interlude as a

no

BRANDON

demon wearing a hideous mask, bulky male kimono, and a bright red, flowing wig. In the kabuki version, however, the actor peels back the top half of the outer kimono with the help of a stage assistant to reveal a new kimono of different design beneath it and unfastens the bindings of his wig to let his hair fall free. This is accomplished on stage as the play progresses and the spectator can savor the skillful and exciting technique in full. To peel off the outer kimono top and tuck it in at the waist, thus revealing an under kimono, is called bukkaeri, which can be translated as "sudden change" (Plate 15, both figures). In pure dance pieces featuring an onnagata actor, the whole outer kimono may be quickly removed, revealing another kimono beneath it. The technique is called hikinuki, or "pulling o u t , " referring to the pulling out of the basting threads which hold the outer kimono together. It takes a stage assistant about thirty seconds to take out all but one of the eight basting threads. This is done while the actor dances. Then, with a final deft pull, the assistant removes the last thread and whisks away the top and bottom halves of the kimono. In the blink of an eye, the actor is seen in a totally new and brilliant costume. 92 Hikinuki is purely a theatrical technique designed for visual effect (Plates 29-32). It does not indicate that the personality of the character has been changed. The stage assistant who works on stage in view of the audience is not unique to kabuki. He appears in no, joruri puppet theater, Indonesian puppet plays, and Chinese opera. Perhaps in no other form of theater is the stage assistant used so often and with such an effect. There are two types of stage assistants seen on the kabuki stage. The personal assistant to a leading actor is called koken, literally "see behind," for he sits upstage in the shadow of his master during performance. Normally he is an actor, a pupil of the actor he is assisting; occasionally in dance-style performances he may be the choreographer or one of his assistants.93 The koken straightens the actor's costume or wig after violent actions, helps make costume changes, fetches hand properties (fan, letter, pipe, sword) and takes them away. He may even serve tea to the actor after a demanding speech (a famous example of this is when the koken of the actor playing the hero in Wait a Moment serves the actor a cup of tea at seven-three on the hanamichi) (Plate 33). In an emergency, the koken is prepared to assume his master's role. As Earle Ernst says, the koken "in freeing the actor of these obligations enables the actor to perform his true

Quick change (henge). Hanako, the leading role in Maid of the Dojo Temple changes costume seven times during the hour-long dance play. Here four costumes are for a hat dance, a furi section with a small cloth as a property, a lively drum dance-sequence, and a dance holding a small tambourine. Note that the sash and the inside kimono pattern by the feet remain unchanged. Performed by Nakamura Utaemon. (Photo courtesy of Shochiku) PLATE 29.

PLATE 30. Quick change (henge).

PLATE 31. Quick change (henge).

PLATE 32. Quick change (benge).

FORM IN KABUKI ACTING

11

5

function—that of acting." 94 The koken dresses in formal kimono, stiff wide vest, and trousers in shosagoto and some history plays to enhance the visual beauty of the scene (Plates 11, 18, 30, 31, 32). In other plays he is dressed completely in black and is conventionally assumed to be invisible. The second type of stage assistant is a stagehand, called kyogen kata, similarly dressed in black but distinguishable from the koken by his duties and demeanor. The kyogen kata moves scenery and large set pieces, and runs the curtain open and closed. He moves furtively, scurrying on and off stage as if he did not really belong there, while the koken sits unobtrusively but casually on stage for as long as he is needed. 9 ' 9. Kata of Staging Stage machinery and scenic devices make possible a number of performance kata. The hanamichi dates from the first third of the eighteenth century. The very important seven-three acting and roppo exits owe their existence to this unique stage area reaching into and through the audience. Colorful processions of thirty or forty people moving onto or off the stage are also a performance kata of kabuki made possible by the hanamichi. The present Kabuki-za in Tokyo is so large that a procession of courtesans, samurai officials, or a neighborhood gang of toughs can travel a distance of nearly 150 feet through the audience and across the stage (the hanamichi is 65 feet long, the stage 93 feet wide). And the impression of distance covered is even greater than the actual distance, because of the physical intimacy of actors and spectators. In 1793 the first permanent revolving stage was installed in the Nakamura-za in Edo. Soon thereafter it became a standard feature of kabuki stages in Edo, Kyoto, and Osaka (this was one hundred years before the revolving stage was used in Europe).96 A multiscene play can be performed with continuous action with a revolving stage. In a typical example, actors close a scene by rising and exiting from the room they are in. The revolving stage begins to turn and they walk through an adjoining exterior setting which comes into view. They continue walking through the setting until the next set appears. Assuming this is a building, the actors walk through a gate, enter the building, and the second scene begins. As long as the actors walk at the same speed that the stage turns, they are always in sight. Three settings and three adjoining exterior sections can be placed on most revolving stages. Consequently, a script, which on reading seems disjointed because of numerous

ii 6

BRANDON

PLATE 33. A formally dressed stage assistant (koken).

scene changes, appears more unified in performance when the revolving stage is used. A half century prior to the revolving stage, various types of traps were introduced to kabuki. Generically, all these devices, which raise actors or scenery up to stage level through a hole in the floor or lower them out of sight, are called seri, literally "press" or "push." When a trap is raised, this is referred to as seriage, "push up," or seridashi, "push out." Lowering is called serioroshi or serisage, both written with the same characters but pronounced differently and meaning "push down. " 9 7 Most traps are located within the revolving stage. At the Kabuki-za in Tokyo, three such traps within the sixty-foot-wide revolving stage are capable of raising or lowering entire sets. The

FORM IN KABUKI ACTING

"7

revolving stage of the National Theater in Tokyo is equipped with sixteen traps which can be raised and lowered independently or in any combination desired. The function of small traps is to allow an actor to make an unexpected and sudden appearance or disappearance, a staging kata analogous to the costume kata of transformation. This interpretation is reinforced by the fact that the single small trap which is strategically located at the seven-three position of the hanamichi, and called support, is used solely for supernatural appearances and disappearances. There is a difference between the scenic spectacle of kabuki and of Western-influenced musical revues and musical comedies in Japan, as a visit to the International Theater in the gaudy Asakusa entertainment district, for example, will show. Here spectacular burning castles, fountains of steam and water, crashing sets, and wheels of revolving lights follow each other in a dazzling visual display. But scenic spectacle of this type is never seen in kabuki; lavish and beautiful though a stage set will be, it is not allowed to become the dominant focus of interest, to exist independently of the actor. Rather, a kabuki stage setting supports the actor and caters to his needs, just as the costuming techniques do. The final scene of Benten the Thief can be taken as an example. Benten fights a long and intricately choreographed battle (tate) against scores of attacking police on the roof of a temple. The roof is constructed three dimensionally and equipped with small steps in the middle to allow Benten and the police to leap, climb, and struggle on its slanting surface (Plate 23). In stage jargon, it is a "practical" scenic unit, because it is used to support action. Then, Benten commits suicide and leaps off the roof and out of sight through an open trap. The roof, which has now ended its usefulness, is folded backwards while the elaborately painted temple building itself rises slowly on a trap until it reaches its full two-story height. Standing alone on the upper level, Nippon Daemon, the gangster leader, defiantly proclaims to the police below, "I wait! Impatient! Come, take me to retribution and to death!" The temple is painted Chinese red with multicolored panel inserts. Unquestionably the temple is a gorgeous spectacle, but its main function is the practical one of lifting an actor to a dominant stage position for the final lines in the play. The movable temple roof and the lifted temple structure serve the performance kata of the actor. Some very interesting acting kata are built around curtains. The standard kabuki curtain, called joshikimaku, or "formal curtain," is

ii 8

BRANDON

a draw curtain, pushed to stage left to open and pulled to stage right to close. Its pattern of alternating broad stripes of green, rust, and black is a distinctive mark of the kabuki theater and derives from the curtain first used by the Morita-za in Tokyo during the early Meiji period (other formal curtain patterns of the period—black, rust, and white of the Nakamura-za, for example—soon dropped out of use).98 Drop curtains, doncho maku, were known, but it was considered so inferior to draw a curtain that its use was relegated to minor, unlicensed theaters. Drop curtains still are not used in kabuki today as part of performance technique. The formal curtain is run open and run closed to steady ki clacks (the hard wooden ki are struck together in the air, making a clear, penetrating sound), which grow louder, then fade away. When the curtain is run open on the typical scene, the stage is empty of players. This kata is called hakibutai, literally "swept stage" (or karabutai, "empty stage"). Music from the chobo stage left, from a dance ensemble onstage, or from the geza musicians offstage right, create a moment of suspense before a single sharp clack of the ki signals the first actor's entrance. It is considered inartistic to open the curtain on a throng of milling actors or to catch a small group in the midst of conversation, as if peeping in on them unexpectedly, as we so often do in Western theater. If a scene must begin with a large group on stage, a special curtain kata has been devised to make such a scene opening as dramatic as possible. The formal curtain is run open to reveal another curtain behind it, a "light blue curtain," asagimaku. This is hung loosely from above and, at the sound of a single sharp clack of the ki it is released, falls, and is scooped up and run offstage by several stage assistants. In an instant, the cast is revealed in tableau. Another clack of the ki and the actors begin the scene. If but one or two actors are to be revealed, this is usually accomplished by lifting them into the scene on a trap. Two stage assistants hold a small curtain (usually black or red) in front of them until they are in place. Again, at a signal from the ki, the curtain is dropped and the actors are suddenly seen posed in dramatic tableau. If an exit down the hanamicbi occurs at a play's climax, it is often made more theatrical by performing it in a kata called "outside the curtain," maku so to. It begins as the actor moves from the main stage to seven-three on the hanamicbi. Either in silence or to a furious tsuke pattern of bata bata and loud beats of the large drum (odaiko) in the geza, the formal curtain is slowly pulled across the

FORM IN KABUKI ACTING

119

stage. But, instead of closing the curtain completely, the bottom corner is held back so as not to cover the slits in the geza wall, which look out over the hanamichi. The actor is now "outside the curtain," the main stage is closed off, and the audience's full attention is directed on the actor and his exit (Plates 11, 19). Through the slits in the geza wall, the musicians watch the actor's exit movements and time their music to them. If the actor's seven-three acting is deemed to be particularly important, a shamisen player (and sometimes a singer as well) will stand before the curtain where the hanamichi joins the stage and from there accompany the actor's movements (Plate 25). Well-known examples of maku soto acting are Benkei's tobiroppo exit, which concludes The Subscription List and Kumagai's departure in Chronicle of the Battle oflchinotani (Plates 20, 25). During the early and mid-years of the nineteenth century, a number of staging kata were developed which are referred to in kabuki as keren, literally "stage tricks." A four-volume book for backstage workers (Okyogen Gakuya no Honsetsu), published in 1858 and 1859, illustrates 342 keren techniques of acting and staging, among them, skeleton costuming, floating in the air as a ghost, pouring red liquid starch on a wound to simulate dripping blood, water pans from which an actor can arise as a dripping corpse, and a device of tubs and bamboo pipes to drench the stage with a curtain of rain." In 1784, Danjuro V plunged into a vat filled with water in the last scene of Sukeroku: Flower ofEdo and the term honmizu, or "real water,'' came into the vocabulary to describe this and numerous kata in which the actor emerged dripping wet from tubs, streams, lakes, and rainstorms. An anecdote relates how female fans of Danjuro VIII (1823-1854) fought for the privilege of buying water from the vat into which he plunged when he played Sukeroku. 100 Techniques for making quick costume changes, called hayagawari, came into use so that an actor could play several roles in rapid succession. Capitalizing on the idea, the playwright Tsuruya Namboku IV wrote The Scandal of Osome andHisamatsu (Osome Hisamatsu Ukinano Yomiuri) in 1813, so that one actor could play seven roles. The challenge was taken up by the onnagata actor Iwai Hanshiro V, who played the maiden Osome, her lover Hisamatsu, Omitsu who also loves Hisamatsu, a geisha, a maid servant, Osome's mother, and the married woman Oroku.101 Hayagawari became so highly developed, that an actor could literally walk off the stage and reappear an instant later costumed in a new role. Thanks to quick-change techniques,

no

BRANDON

Danjuro VII was able, in the November 1815 "face-showing" production at the Kawarasaki-za in Edo, to play ten different roles, a record that still stands. I saw a delightful relic of quick-change kata in a performance of The Treasury of Loyal Retainers (Kanadehon Chushingura) in Tokyo in 1961. In Act V the old man Yoichibei slips into a thatched hut looking for the man who has stolen his purse. There he is killed by a highwayman, Sadakuro. The actor playing Yoichibei slipped his right arm and leg through a slit in the hut's straw covering, looked carefully about, and then eased the rest of his body inside. Meanwhile the costume on the right side of his body was being changed (unseen, of course) and just as his left hand and leg disappeared inside, the newly costumed right arm and leg of Sadakuro slipped out through the slit and into view, and the actor gradually reemerged in his new guise, having never completely left our sight. KATA AS INDIVIDUAL INTERPRETATION

At the third, and most differentiated, level of kata there are those variations of performance technique which we can ascribe to the individual interpretation of the actor. All great actors of the past created their own special ways of playing important scenes. In conversations about kabuki acting you will hear, "Oh, he's doing Kampei (in The Treasury of Loyal Retainers) in the kata of Kikugoro VI," or "that kimono color is Utaemon's kata." In fact, the word kata is perhaps more widely used by the ordinary fan of kabuki to refer to individual actors' styles, than to the broad performance styles or to standard performance techniques. A whole genre of kabuki writing consists of books relating how different actors performed famous scenes, creating on this occasion some new kata, and on that occasion another kata. Actors change kata for a number of reasons, some valid, some frivolous. I have selected a few examples here to suggest something of the nature of these changes and what their significance is for kabuki acting in general. Actors create new kata to express a new interpretation of a role or scene. We can take the play Nozaki Village (Nozakimura) (1780) as an example (by coincidence, it happens to be another dramatization of the Hisamatsu-Osome-Omitsu story mentioned earlier). The play ends as the young ne'er-do-well Hisamatsu leaves. Remaining behind are his grieving father, Kyusaku, and the maiden Omitsu, who loves Hisamatsu but is forced to give him up. The traditional kata for Omitsu at this point has her facing full front, her hands on the old

FORM IN KABUKI ACTING

i zi

man's shoulders, creating a comforting picture of filial piety and courage. But this kata was radically changed by Kikugoro VI when he played the role of Omitsu. Because he saw her, not as a valiant heroine, but as a young girl defenseless against the implacable demands of a harsh feudal code, his Omitsu turned her back to the audience, fell to her knees before her father, and sobbed uncontrollably as the curtain was closed.102 Behind her the father stood and faced the audience, thereby making him, not Omitsu, the stronger of the two characters. Kikugoro VI was famous for this kind of personal interpretation of classic roles along new psychological lines. A number of kata came into existence simply because actors had certain abilities or certain weaknesses. Ichikawa Danjuro IX was famous for his powerful style of elocution. As a consequence, playwrights such as Mokuami composed special tsurane and yakuharai sections in which Danjuro's vocal excellence would shine. Nakamura Utaemon V (1865-1940), who was crippled by lead poisoning, found he could not perform the Ichikawa family's usual kata for Yoshitsune's seven-three entrance in The Subscription List. This calls for Yoshitsune to stop, shade his eyes with the straw hat he is carrying, and look upward to the right and to the left, as the chorus sings, "the hills, surrounded by the mists of spring.'' Unable to bend his torso as this kata requires, Utaemon created a new kata which was easier for him: while holding the hat at shoulder level, he turned back and looked down the hanamichi.103 As Kikugoro VI became increasingly stout in later years, he altered traditional kata to suit his physical limitations. It is of interest to note that once created, these new kata become standard very quickly. Other actors studied them and made them their kata as well. Thus today healthy young actors dance Utaemon V's abridged kata, thin actors are true to the kata of chubby Kikugoro VI, and actors with merely normal voices strain to reproduce the thunderous vocal kata of Danjuro IX. A kabuki actor, like an actor in any theater, does not become famous by being like everyone else. His popularity can only grow from the audience's recognition that he has some quality not the common possession of other actors. The good kabuki actor, the actor with confidence in his ability, always strives to put an individual stamp on his acting kata. Some individual differences of kata may seem of miniscule importance—Ichimura Uzaemon will tie on his hat with a white cord when playing Togashi in The Subscription List, while Ichikawa Sadanji will tie his with a purple cord. To dismiss

12.2.

BRANDON

these differences as merely trivial, however, would be to miss their point. They serve to set one actor's art apart from the other, even when the actor is performing a role in which the kata allows but little variation. There is the often-cited case of how Uzaemon came to create new kata for many standard roles. When he was a young actor trying to establish himself, his competition was Danjuro IX and Kikugoro VI, who were praised even in their time as two of the greatest actors ever to perform kabuki. He decided the only way he could possibly attract the audience's notice was to offer something neither of his competitors did and so he purposely created kata unlike theirs. For example, because Kikugoro, in The Treasury of Loyal Retainers played Kampei's suicide in a grave manner, Uzaemon played the scene lightly and subtly.104 CONCLUSION

In this discussion the most obvious types of acting kata in kabuki have been touched upon. It should be clear that to describe kabuki acting is not a simple matter. There is no single kabuki-style. Rather there are several styles operating at several levels. There are at least five, broad, historical styles: pantomime; a vigorous, bravura style; a soft, almost feminine style; a style based on performance techniques of the puppet theater; and a dance style incorporating three different dance strains. Then there are scores of standard performance techniques some of which can be traced to historical styles but most of which are not today linked directly with them but may be used with considerable freedom in any of the styles: mie, roppo, fighting kata, costume changes, seven-three acting, tsuke patterns, and so on. Finally there are the variations of these kata associated with individual actors. If we want to describe the acting style of a play in detail, all three levels of kata must be involved. To illustrate this, The Subscription List can be taken as an example. The historical style of the play is shosagoto: the action of the play is executed in dance movement to musical accompaniment. And because the play is purposely close to its no origins, it is a shosagoto of the matsubame type. Within this style, Benkei is acted in aragoto style, somewhat modified to suit the play's no characteristics, while Yoshitsune is acted close to wagoto style. Standard acting techniques include: eight mie, important entrance and seven-three acting on the hanamichi, roppo and acting outside the curtain, and passed-along dialogue vocal technique. The traditional performance kata were created by Ichikawa

FORM IN KABUKI ACTING

Danjuro VII and most actors will follow these kata. But because the play is one of the most popular in the repertory there are many minor variations in kata attributed to other actors: Nakamura Utaemon V created new movement kata for Yoshitsune's seven-three acting; Togashi's hat cord may be white or purple; Benkei moves onto the hanamichi 'm his final dance when performed according to the kata of Bando Mitsugoro; every detail of Onoe Kikugoro VI's kata for the play is published in a comprehensive prompt book and is followed by young actors in the Onoe family today, 105 and so on. I have mentioned a number of reasons for new kata coming into being. But not everything in kabuki favors change. There are strong forces which tend to preserve existing kata. Until recently the leading actor of a troupe had authority to specify which kata other actors would follow, thus considerably limiting the possibility of other actors creating new ones. From the days of early kabuki acting families, hereditary acting names and a hierarchical sytem for awarding them to actors within the family, and the concept of "secrets" of family acting tradition (ie no get) all powerfully contributed to the maintenance of existing kata. Kabuki acting is essentially a hereditary monopoly of certain families and, by and large, it is no more possible to become a member of an important acting family than it is to become a member of the British royal family. You are born into it or you are adopted into it (if you are talented enough). As an actor increases in skill, he is awarded family names of increasing prestige, the most important name being reserved for the family's leading actor, Danjuro in the Ichikawa family or Kikugoro in the Onoe family, for example. A young actor's teachers were not only masters of kabuki acting, they were likely to be his relatives as well, normally including his father. The young actor's advancement depended upon how well he learned the family kata and how well he performed them. Hence there was great pressure on him to preserve exactly his family's traditional acting kata. When a young actor was to act a role for the first time, he was taught how to do the role in its entirety. Instruction was not a right of the pupil. It was a privilege. As a rule only one actor in each generation of an acting family was taught a role. He observed minutely every nuance of the kata for that role and he practiced assiduously under his teacher's direction. He was expected to learn the kata without variation and to perform the role in public just as he had been taught. If the leading actor of the troupe requested him to alter his

BRANDON

way of performing, to better support the leading actor's role, he was expected to seek his teacher's permission. Even in later years when he performed the changed kata a second or third time, it was appropriate for him to seek out his teacher to say, "Today, I humbly wish to perform in a different way." 106 Nowadays the learning system is less strict. Several pupils may learn the same kata from one teacher and a pupil's obligation to his teacher has not the same binding force it had, say, fifty years ago. Still, the traditional kata for performing a role is valued highly and once learned it is not lightly tampered with. The process of passing on kata from generation to generation is essential to kabuki art. And it may be given several interpretations. From the point of view of the individual actor, learning and performing kata are intimately related to the actor's search for identity. The actor needs to create new kata in order to assert his individuality, yet this runs counter to his respect for traditional kata. The two forces tend to check each other, with the result that in the actor's work neither unregulated newness, applauded by some segments of the audience, nor slavish adherence to tradition, rewarded by family elders, becomes dominant. They are balanced in a state of healthy tension. The balance will differ for each actor—some inclining toward new ideas and some toward established forms—and according to circumstances, but it has always been maintained. As long as actors can continue to create within the framework of traditional kata, kabuki will remain the living theater art that it is today. Looked at in broad perspective, a kabuki actor travels a "way of art," or geido. Geido, in the world of Japanese performing arts, is parallel to shinto, or "way of the gods," in Japanese religion and bushido, or "way of the warrior," in Japanese military science and ethics. In each there is a known path to knowledge and the initiate is guided in his steps along the path by a master already proficient in its secrets. In kabuki, this means the actor learns a total "way of art" which, while it encompasses specific forms of kata, looks beyond them to a total approach to kabuki acting. The young actor must be guided by a master, for, as the great no actor and playwright Zeami wrote, an artist without a master is a "man without a way." 107 At each step of an actor's development, there is the dual knowledge that one level of artistic skill has been achieved, with its concomitant satisfaction, and that a yet higher level of attainment lies ahead, stimulating further study and improvement. Learning existing kata then does not pit pupil versus teacher's conception, or creation versus tradition

FORM IN KABUKI ACTING

(as we would expect in the West). The ideal pupil so completely absorbs the totality of the way, that his approach and his master's are one. As Gunji Masakatsu says of kabuki, "kata exists through recreation, the pupil incarnating the art of the master and the master living again in the art of the pupil." 108 Change is not denied in this view, only its importance is. It is assumed that change will take place and that when it occurs it will be incorporated into the broad stream of the actor's way of art, causing no more than a ripple on its surface. There is unanimous agreement that the creation of beauty is the principal aim of kabuki. This is accomplished chiefly through the system of kata, wherein the content of any play is molded in performance into artistically pleasing patterns of sights and sounds. The patterning of dialogue into phrases of seven and five syllables and of thoughts into divided speeches; the melodic patterns of geza, chobo, and dance music (nagauta, kiyomoto, tokiwazu) that spin a web of sound, hour after hour, around the unfolding stage action; the patterns of tsuke, insistent, demanding, blocking out in hard-edged rhythm a play's high points marked by mie poses; the pattern of depicting action in sequences of finely wrought tableaux in which actors, onstage musicians, and stage assistants are part of the visual stage picture; brilliantly costumed processions passing through the audience; kaleidoscopelike transformations of color and design in costume-changes—these are all patterns, or kata, which, irrespective of their contextual significance, give pleasure to the spectator. A foreigner or Japanese first seeing kabuki, perceives that there are patterns, vivid and colorful, though he cannot yet identify of what the patterns consist. He can respond to the beauty of form, movement, sound, and color in these patterns without knowing what they "mean." The critic Tobe Ginsaku has observed that the invariable first reaction to kabuki, "My! How beautiful!" is intuitively right.109 (The connoisseur of kabuki has a more complex reaction: he simultaneously perceives what the patterns of kata are, relates the kata to the play's meaning, and responds to the beauty of the kata.) When, in the Meiji era, Japanese scholars were called upon to interpret kabuki to the Western world, the strong emphasis in kabuki upon beauty and form proved very disconcerting. Kabuki did not fit the Western conception of what good drama should be and Japanese critics were prone to follow these imported standards derived from literature. "Those imbecile arts of the Tokugawa period—ukiyoe wood-block prints and kabuki," sniffed one well-known scholar.110

12.6

BRANDON

Now we recognize that the performing arts (geino) have aims and methods which are distinct from literature {bungaku) but equally legitimate. We can see that kabuki is one of the most thoroughly "artistic" theater forms in the world, precisely because of its concern for beauty and that it is the kata of kabuki acting which comprises the remarkably rich vocabulary through which this aim of beauty is achieved. NOTES 1. Exccpt where noted, dates are taken from Engeki Hyakka Daijiten, 6 vols. (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1960-1962); hereafter cited as Daijiten. 2. Kawatake Shigetoshi, Nihon Engeki Zuroku (Tokyo: Asahi Shimbunsha, 1956). See plate 170. A female prostitute in an almost identical pose can also be seen in plate 168; hereafter cited as Kawatake, Zuroku. 3. See plate 170 in Kawatake, Zuroku. 4. The tiger skins can be seen in a number of illustrations. One of the best is Kawatake, Zuroku, plate 167. 5. Shuzui Kenji, ed., Kabuki Zusetsu (Tokyo: Manyokaku, 1931), plate 7-b; hereafter cited as Shuzui, Zusetsu. 6. Kawatake, Zuroku, plate 168. 7. Kawatake, Zuroku, plates 167, 169, and 172. And in Shuzui, Zusetsu, see plates 2-a, 7-a, 10, and 13. 8. Plate 1 in Shuzui, Zusetsu and plate 168 in Kawatake, Zuroku probably are of prostitute-assignation plays. The plate on the third page following p. 222 of Kawatake Shigetoshi, Nihort Engeki Zenshi (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1959), is identified as an onna kabuki scene of prostitute assignation; hereafter cited as Kawatake, Zenshi. 9- Daijiten, 3: 134. 10. Shuzui, plates 7-b, 9, 10, 13 and later in the Genroku period (1688-1703), plate 23. See also plate 174, Kawatake, Zuroku. 11. Kawatake Zuroku, plates 166, 167. 12. Kawatake Zenshi, the plate on the fifth page following p. 222. 13. Kawatake, Zenshi, p. 304. 14. Kawatake, Zenshi, p. 319. 15. Music may also be considered part of kata. See Kagayama Naozo, Kabuki no Kata (Tokyo: Sogensha, 1957), p. 11; hereafter cited as Kagayama, Kata. 16. See Kagayama, Kata, p. 36; and Sato Kaoru, Nihon no Geino (Tokyo: Sogeisha, 1961), pp. 214-216, for division of kata into two levels; hereafter cited as Sato, Nihon no Geino. Gunji Masakatsu suggests kata are either in the nature of theatrical conventions that tend to be spatial and visual, or are traditional ways of interpreting a character's mental or spiritual nature, in Kabuki no Bigaku (Tokyo: Engeki Shuppansha, 1963), pp. 120-121. 17. To these five, broad styles, Kagayama would add tachimawari fighting and keren, "stage tricks" {Kata, pp. 47, 50), and Sato, tachimawari {Nihon no Geino, p. 215). 18. Jidaimono, or historical plays, may be performed in at least three styles (aragoto, maruhon, and shosagoto) and sewamono, or domestic plays, in three styles (regularly as wagoto or maruhon, and occasionally, as in Sukeroku, as aragoto).

FORM IN KABUKI ACTING 19. Quoted in Gunji Masakatsu, Kabuki Nyumon (Tokyo: Shakai Shisosha, 1962), p. 214. 20. Daijiten, 3: 547. 21. Daijiten, 1:218. 22. Daijiten, 1: 83. 23. In Kawatake, Zuroku illustrations of a kimpira puppet story (plate 118) and of Danjuro I (plate 191) can be compared. The similarity is striking. 24. Gunji Masakatsu's observation, noted in Kawatake, Zenshi, p. 339• 25. Kawatake, Zenshi, p. 338. 26. Shuzui, Zuroku, plate 112. 27. Gunji Masakatsu, in KabukiJuhachibanshti (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1965), p. 22; hereafter cited asJuhachibanshu. 28. Daijiten, 1: 142. 29. Kagayama, Kata, p. 37. 30. Kagayama, Kata, p. 37. 31. Kagayama, Kata, p. 38. 32. Gunji,Juhachibanshu, p. 164. 33. Daijiten, 2: 94. 34. Iizuka Tomoichiro, Kabuki Saiken (Tokyo: Daiichi Shobo, 1926), p. 872, Daijiten, 5: 475. 35. Daijiten, 6: 65. 36. Kagayama, Kata, p. 39. 37. Kagayama, Kata, p. 27. 38. Kagayama, Kata, p. 3939- See plates 26 and 28 in Kagayama, Kata. The pose can be seen in many other illustrations as well. 40. Kagayama, Kata, p. 40. 41. Kagayama, Kata, p. 40. 42. For example, this can be heard on a record of Kurumabiki, performed as kabuki (King Record Company, KC 1029). 43. Daijiten, 4: 362. 44. Daijiten, 4: 408. 45. Daijiten, 3: 300-301. 46. Kagayama Naozo, Kabuki (Tokyo: Yuzankaku, 1968), p. 236. 47. Kawatake, Zenshi, p. 228. 48. Gunji Masakatsu, Odori no Bigaku (Tokyo: Engeki Shuppansha, 1959), P128.

49. See page 4 of the booklet accompanying record album, Nihon Buyo Ongaku (Victor SJ 3013). 50. Takechi Tetsuji, Dento Engeki no Hasso (Tokyo: Hoga Shoten, 1967), pp. 158-160. 51. See examples of namba movement in Kawatake, Zuroku in folk dance, plate 5; furyu odori, plates 159 and 158; onna kabuki, plate 167\yaro kabuki, plate 176; and in Shuzui, Zusetsu, the yaro kabuki onnagata actor Genzaemon, plate 11. 52. See the booklet accompanying Nihon Buyo Ongaku, pp. 3-4. 53. Gunji, Odori no Bigaku, p. 128. 54. Tobe Ginsaku, Kabukino Engi(Tokyo: Engeki Shuppansha, 1956), p. 101. 5 5. Gunj i, Odori no Bigaku, p. 197. 56. Gunji, Odori no Bigaku, pp. 200-201. 57. Daijiten, 1:51. 58. Gunji, Odori no Bigaku, p. 199.

BRANDON 5960. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 6970. 71.

72.

73. 74. 75.

76. 77.

78. 79.

80. 81.

Daijiten, 1:252. Gunji, Odorino Bigaku, p. 179; and Daijiten, 5:295. Daijiten, 4:255-256. Titles arc listed in Sato, Nihon no Geind, pp. 224-226. Kawatake, Zenshi, p. 667. Iizuka, KabukiSaiken, p. 459 and 437; Daijiten, 4:143-145. Gunji, Odori no Bigaku, p. 180. Kagayama, Kata, p. 66; Daijiten, 3:48. Gunji, Odori no Bigaku, pp. 167-168. Kagayama, Kata, p. 192. See Tsubouchi Shoyo's influential argument that kabuki's complexity makes it "a monster of art," in his History and Characteristics of Kabuki (Yokohama: Yamagata Printing, I960), p. 137. See especially chapter 7 in Zeami's Kadensho, trans. Chuichi Sakurai, et al. (Kyoto: Sumiya Shinobe, 1968), pp. 82-87. Terms for specific kata are fairly standard in kabuki. I will footnote only important variations in definitions; terms can be found in Daijiten, Kawatake Shigetoshi, ed., Kabuki Jiten (Tokyo: Jitsugyo no Nihon, 1957), and other standard reference works. See Kawatake, Zuroku, plate 190 and Shuzui, Zusetsu, plate 57-b, for Genroku period illustrations of mie postures. A number of writers suggest joruri puppets inspired mie kabuki, but this theory seems extremely improbable: the simple one-man puppets of the Genroku period (when the mie almost certainly was known in kabuki) were incapable of executing such a complex movement as a mie and the three-man puppet did not come into general use until the 1720s. It seems much more likely that the puppets of that later period borrowed the mie from kabuki actors. See plate 201, Kawatake, Zuroku. The heaven-earth-man, or high-medium-low, concept of visual composition is found in Japanese flower arranging and painting, and probably originated in Chinese landscape ink-painting. Kimari (or kimaru), literally "fixed," is a term also used to describe the onnagata or wagoto pose. A difference of opinion exists as to whether kimari is distinct from mie (Gunji, Juhackibanshii, p. 486) or whether it is one variety of mie (Daijiten, 2:226). Classed as a general style, like danmari, by Sato (Nihon no Geino, p. 215) and Kagayama (Kata, p. 47). Most writers imply that tachimawari and tate are synonymous (Daijiten, 3:505; Kagayama, Kata, p. 47; Sato, Nihon no Geino, p. 215). In Kawatake, Kabuki Jiten (p. 121), tate is described as the movements of tachimawari. From observation, it seems that any type of fight or battle may be described as tachimawari, but that a murder scene would never be called tate. See Daijiten, 3:506 and for terminology accompanied by line drawings of movements, Tachimawari no Kata to Yogo, ed. Bando Yaenosuke, 3 vols. (Tokyo: Kokuritsu Gekijo, n.d.). The original shichisan position was seven-tenths of the distance away from the stage, as can be seen in plate 125, Shuzui, Zusetsu, showing a performance of 1739- In the late nineteenth-century, however, when theaters came to be built with European-style balconies projecting over the hanamichi, shichisan was moved to its present position, where it is visible from any point in the house. Earle Ernst, The Kabuki Theatre (New York: Oxford University Press, 1956), p. 96. Kagayama Naozo uses this term in Kata (p. 79). Shomen o kiru, "pausing

FORM IN KABUKI ACTING

82.

83.

84. 85. 86. 87. 88. 8990.

91. 92. 93. 94. 95. 96. 97. 98. 99. 100. 101. 102. 103. 104. 105. 106.

1x9

front," is used in Kawatake, Jiten (p. 102) and Daijiten (3:218) to describe acting while facing the audience. Gunji Masakatsu observes that shomen engi probably came from no. The shite, or lead actor, in no monopolizes center stage, almost constantly facing front, while the waki, or secondary actor, is forced to take a theatrically weak position downstage left, where he is not only out of the action but behind a pillar (Kabukino Bigaku, pp. 45-46). It is interesting to speculate to what extent the static scene in kabuki is a "realistic" depiction of formal and controlled patterns of living in pre-Meiji Japan or is a theatrical convention. Conversely in Western drama most of the constant moving of actors from table, to chair, to mantelpiece, to sofa, and back again, is not a "realistic" reflection of the way we behave in a living room; it is a theatrical device the director employs to maintain audience attention. Tsurane is not written with Chinese characters in its kabuki usage, but the term is believed to have come from tsurane, meaning "linked things," in ennen and sarugaku performance (Daijiten, 4:44). See the famous tsurane spoken by the hero in Wait a Moment, now traditional and included in published scripts (in Guri)i,Juhachibanshu, pp. 154-155). Daijiten, 4:44. Yakuharai is so named because the kabuki manner of delivery resembles that of yakuharai, or "exorcism," chants intoned to drive out demons in the February setsubun ceremony (Daijiten, 5: 432). Kawatake Shigetoshi, Kabuki Sakusha no Kenkyu (Tokyo: Tokyodo, 1940), p. 8. Three different versions are published in Gunji, Juhachtbanshu, pp. 401-402. Battariand bata bata are briefly mentioned in Daijiten, 4: 445, 454. However, I am indebted to Nakamura Toyoshi, the doyen of tsuke playing in kabuki, who kindly explained and demonstrated tsuke patterns nowhere mentioned in written sources. Daijiten, 2:318. The detailed nature of kabuki acting techniques can be seen in the listing in Daijiten (4: 533) of six types of hikinuki, each identified by a different term but differing only in the manner of kimono removal. Gunji, Odori no Bigaku, p. 224. Ernst, The Kabuki Theatre, p. 111. Kurogo, or "black boy," is an informal name often applied to both the black-robed koken and kyogen kata. Ernst, The Kabuki Theatre, p. 90. Daijiten, 3: 380. Daijiten, 3: 204. The four volumes of the original have been republished as Okyogen Gakuya no Honsetsu, in Kabuki no Bunken, Series 2 (Tokyo: Kokuritsu Gekijo, n.d.). Kanazawa Yasutaka, Haiyu no Shuhen (Tokyo: Engeki Shuppansha, 1956), p. 108; this anecdote is also attributed to Ichikawa Yaozo (herein, p. 43). Kawatake, Kabukijiten, pp. 30-31. Kagayama, Kata, p. 22. Kawajiri Seitan, Engi no Densho (Tokyo: Engeki Shuppansha, 1956), p. 78. Kagayama, Kata, p. 21. Onoe Kikugord VI, Gei (no place of publication, publisher, or date), pp. 209-248. Kagayama, Kata, p. 18.

BRANDON 107. 108. 109. 110.

Gunji, Kabukino Bigaku, p. 126. Gunji, Kabuki no Bigaku, p. 31. Tobe, Kabuki no Engi, p. 19. Gunj i, Kabuki no Bigaku, p. 9 •

BIBLIOGRAPHY Japanese Engeki Hyakka Daijiten [Encyclopcdia of the theater]. 6 vols. Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1960-1962. A monumental work, the largest single source of information on Japanese theater. Gunji Masakatsu. Kabuki Jühachibanshü [Collection of eighteen famous plays]. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1965. An excellent edition, with good notes on texts and staging. Kabuki no Bigaku [Kabuki aesthetics], Tokyo: Engeki Shuppansha, 1963. Stimulating analysis by an excellent scholar of kabuki. Odorino Bigaku [Aesthetics of dance]. Tokyo: Engeki Shuppansha, 1959. The comparison of odori with no dance is especially valuable. Iizuka Tomoichiró. Kabuki Saiken [Survey of kabuki drama], Tokyo: Daiichi Shobó, 1926. An invaluable reference work. Over 6,000 plays are discussed according to subject matter. Kagayama Naozo. Kabuki. Tokyo: Yuzankaku, 1968. The kata for twenty-seven plays are described. Much of the material duplicates Kabuki no Kata. Kabuki no Kata [Kabuki acting techniques], Tokyo: Sogensha, 1957. Major kabuki acting techniques are described. Some 400 excellent photographs illustrate kata. Kawajiri Seitan. Engi no Denshó [Acting techniques], Tokyo: Engeki Shuppansha, 1956. Historical treatment of acting traditions of some twenty kabuki plays, including The Subscription List. Kawatake Shigetoshi. Kabuki Jiten [Dictionary of kabuki]. Tokyo: Jitsugyo no Nihon, 1957. A small, excellent dictionary of kabuki terms. Kabuki Sakusha no Kenkyü [Study of kabuki playwrights]. Tokyo: Tokyodo, 1940. A description of playwrights and their works presented in chronological order. Nihon Engeki Zenshi [Complete history of Japanese theater], Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1959. Contains perhaps the best history of kabuki. By an eminent scholar of kabuki. Nihon Engeki Zuroku [Pictorial record of Japanese theater]. Tokyo: Asahi Shimbunsha, 1956. Contains 400 illustrations of Japanese theater with commentaries. Additional commentary in English is too brief to be useful. Okyogen Gakuya no Honsetsu [Book of backstage techniques]. First published 1858-1859. Reprinted in Kabuki no Bunken [Kabuki documents], Series 2. Tokyo: Kokuritsu Gekijo, n.d. Illustrations, with brief commentary, of more than 300 kabuki staging-techniques in use during the nineteenth century. Onoe Kikugoró VI. Get [Art], Place, publisher, and date of publication unknown. Descriptions, in considerable detail, of the most famous roles of the late Kikugoró VI. The staging of The Subscription List is illustrated with diagrams. Sato Kaoru. Nihon no Geino [Japanese performing arts]. Tokyo: Sogeisha, I960. Summary outline of major forms ofJapanese theater and dance. Shuzui Kenji, ed. Kabuki Zusetsu [Kabuki illustrations]. 2 vols. Tokyo: Manyokaku, 1931. A superb collection of over 700 illustrations of kabuki performances, actors, and theater architecture. Commentary in volume two.

FORM IN KABUKI ACTING Tachimawari no Kata to Yogo [Forms and terminology of fighting movements]. Edited by Bando Yaenosuke. 3 vols, in Kyozai [Educational materials], Series 2. Tokyo: Kokuritsu Gekijo, n.d. Stick drawings and terminology for fighting movements. Takechi Tetsuji, Dento Engeki no Hasso [The genesis of traditional theater], Tokyo: Hoga Shoten, 1967. A collection of perceptive articles, many on kabuki. Tobe Ginsaku, Kabuki no Engi [Kabuki acting]. Tokyo: Engeki Shuppansha, 1956. A general discussion of kabuki acting style. English Arnott, Peter D. The Theatres of japan. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1969- Contains a nontechnical appreciation of kabuki in current performance. Bowers, Faubion. Japanese Theatre. New York: Hermitage House, 1952. A general account, mostly about kabuki. Three kabuki plays are translated in an Appendix: The Monstrous Spider, Gappo and His Daughter Tsuji, and Sukeroku. Brandon, James R. Kabuki: Five Classic Plays. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1975. Contains translations of Sukeroku: Flower ofEdo, Saint Narukami and the God Fudo, Chronicle of the Battle of lchinotani, Love Letter from the Licensed Quarter, and The Scarlet Princess of Edo. Illustrated with black-andwhite photographs, and an introduction. Brandon, James R. and Tamako Niwa, ed. and trans. Kabuki Plays. New York: Samuel French, 1966. Acting versions of two kabuki dance-plays, The Subscription List (Kanjincho) and The Zen Substitute (Migawarizazen), with costume description, floor plans, and music cues. Dunn, Charles James, and Bunzo Torigoe, trans, and ed. The Actors' Analects: Yakusha Rongo. New York: Columbia University Press, 1969- Extremely useful account by actors of the Genroku period, their art and their lives. Ernst, Earle. The Kabuki Theatre. London: Seeker and Warburg, 1956. The best and most complete descriptive study. , ed. Three Japanese Plays. New York: Oxford University Press, 1959- Contains the kabuki play Benten the Thief and the joruri, also performed as kabuki, The House of Sugawara. Gunji Masakatsu. Kabuki. Tokyo: Kodansha, 1968. Lavishly illustrated with beautiful photographs. Authoritative but brief text. Buyo: The Classical Dance. Translated by Don Kenny. New York: Walker/ Weatherhill, 1971. An introduction to kabuki dance, with excellent illustrations. Halford, Aubrey S. and Giovanna M. The Kabuki Handbook. Tokyo: Tuttle, 1952. An invaluable guide to kabuki. Contains more than a hundred play synopses. Kawatake Mokuami. The Love of Izayoi and Seishin. Translated by Frank T. Motofuji. Tokyo: Tuttle, 1966. The second, fourth, sixth, and seventh acts of an all-day play which are now performed as a separate " t r u e " domestic play. Kawatake Toshio. A History of Japanese Theater, II: Bunraku and Kabuki. Tokyo: Kokusai Bunka Shinkokai, 1971. The author stresses characteristics common to joruri. Keene, Donald. Chushingura: The Treasury of Loyal Retainers. New York: Columbia University Press, 1971. A classic play of both kabuki and puppet repertories. , trans. Major Plays of Chikamatsu. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961. Contains eleven joruri plays, among which The Love Suicides at Sonezaki, The Love Suicides at Amijima, and The Battles of Coxinga are often staged as kabuki.

I 3 2.

BRANDON

Scott, Adolphe Clarence. The Kabuki Theatre of Japan. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1955. A general account with emphasis on acting and plays. , trans. Kanjinchö: A Japanese Kabuki Play. Tokyo: Hokuseido, 1953. A dance-play. Segawajökö. Genyadana: A Japanese Kabuki Play. Translated by A. C. Scott. Tokyo: Hokuseido, 1953. A "true" domestic or contemporary play. Toita Yasuji. Kabuki: The Popular Theatre. Translated by Don Kenny. New York: Walker/Weatherhill, 1970. Casually written by an expert. Photos are the best part of the book. Tsubouchi Shöyö and Yamamoto Jirö. History and Characteristics of Kabuki; The Japanese Classical Drama. Yokohama: Yamagata, I960. Miscellaneous essays mainly interesting for their nineteenth-century point of view. Zeami. Kadensho. Translated by Chuichi Sakuri, et al. Kyoto: Sumiya Shinobe, 1968. A complete translation of the most renowned of Zeami's treatises on nö acting.

Music in the Kabuki Theater William P. Malm

INTRODUCTION

An uninitiated theatergoer attending kabuki for the first time is assailed by a bewildering number of new theatrical experiences, one of which most certainly is the music. At times, the music seems to resemble a "happening" such as was popular in America during the 1960s. While one piece is being played by an onstage ensemble, a totally different piece in a different tonality emanates from other musicians hidden offstage. Later, a narrator hidden in yet a different place may call out action between actors' lines only to appear on stage later on in the same play. Drums bang, drummers shout, bells ring, flutes squeal, narrators cry, and shamisen twang in a veritable kaleidoscope of musical activity. To understand the musical and dramatic logic behind all these sounds we will look first at the history of kabuki music and then delve into the music itself, its instruments, melodies, and rhythmic patterns. Perhaps then we can begin to realize the extent to which kabuki music is a highly codified and artistic theatrical form. Perhaps also kabuki will become just that much more enjoyable for those fortunate enough to have an opportunity to see it for themselves.

*34

MALM

HISTORY

1. The Beginnings of Kabuki Music The four earliest picture books or scrolls of kabuki are the Kunijo Kabuki Ekotoba [Illustrated manuscript of Kuni's kabuki], the Okuni Kabuki Kozu [Older illustrations of Kuni's kabuki], the Kabuki Soshi [Story book of kabuki], and the Kabuki Soshi Emaki [Illustrated scroll of kabuki]. Though they are all dated rather vaguely in the early seventeenth century, the Kunijo Kabuki Ekotoba is said to be the earliest.1 Looking at this manuscript one sees on stage the standard bay ashi ensemble borrowed from the no, consisting of three drums and a flute.2 Okuni is shown playing a Buddhist hand gong (kane) and singing and dancing a Buddhist-oriented nembutsu odori.3 The text4 at this point in the book is a nembutsu one, though both the words nembutsu odori and kabuki odori are used to describe the action. The word kabuki is attached to the term odori (dance) four out of the seven times it is used in the manuscript; two of the remaining three speak of kabuki melody. Singing to the accompaniment of a drum is specifically mentioned twice. More poetical references are made to the comforting sound of the flute in early evening and the sound of short songs (kouta) at night. An allusion to the endblown shakuhachi flute is also present along with the mention of two ancient musical modes (the sojo and oshiki'). The more general theatrical term kyogen also appears, and one song is said to be sung like a joruri, a term which will become important to us later. The text for several poems, which must have been sung, are given. In addition, much of the style and form of the text is that of no (confer, p. 143). From the pictures and the text it is evident that unaccompanied dialogue, drum-accompanied song, and ensemble-accompanied dance were the three basic forms of presentation in early kabuki. It is interesting that today the kowaka ballad drama, which was still in style when kabuki developed, survives in the Kyushu village of Oe in a form that uses the first two of these forms.5 The no drama itself, of course, contains all three elements in a more complex style. However, the bawdier intentions of kabuki in the first decades of its existence required something a little livelier than the aristocratic measures of no or kowaka. The terms kyogen komai and kouta were borrowed from the comic interludes (kyogen) of no but their style and content were no doubt altered when they began to mix with the popular songs of the local brothels and frenetic street dances such as furyu and obon.6

MUSIC IN THE KABUKI THEATER

*35

The Kabuki Soshi Emaki deals with the onna (female prostitute) kabuki which grew out of the Okuni tradition. Five dances are illustrated in this scroll; Fuji no Odori, Shinobe Odori, Inaba Odori, Kane Kiki, and Shite.1 Female prostitute kabuki was outlawed in 1629 as was its male equivalent, wakashu kabuki in 1652. During this period there was a great change in kabuki music for the three-stringed plucked shamisen lute left the neighboring teahouses and puppet theaters and became a permanent part of the kabuki ensemble. 2. The Shamisen in Kabuki The earliest picture showing a shamisen on stage is a folding screen, which is attributed to the Kan-ei period (1624-1644).8 The picture is supposed to represent okuni kabuki but it is actually in wakashu kabuki that shamisen music is definitely known to have flourished. A different folding screen of the Kambun period (1661-1673) shows a koto zither and a ko tsuzumi hand drum being used in a wakashu performance, while there are at least two representations of the koto on stage in the all-male yard kabuki, one of them attributed to the Meireki period (1655-1657). These few examples notwithstanding, it is the shamisen which becomes the major source of music from the mid-seventeenth century. An interesting result of this new source of music is seen in the fact that many of the seventeenth-century pictures of stage ensembles which do have shamisen leave out the o tsuzumi, the one drum of the no ensemble which was seldom found in the folk and teahouse musics. Many of the most popular pieces from the kabuki stage have been preserved in shamisen music collections such as the Shichiku Shoshinshu of 1664. The texts of sixteen small dances (komai) used by the wakashu kabuki are found in the Bukyoku Senrin of 1686 and again in the Ochibashu of around 1704. After the appearance of the large Matsu no Ha collection of 1703, there was a regular deluge of text collections derived from kabuki songs and dances. Notation first appeared in the Shichiku Taizen of 1685, but even after that time it was an extremely rare phenomenon. However, some of the most popular songs have survived in modern reconstructions which may have retained some of the flavor of their originals. For example, Nanatsu ni Naruko,Kana no Kiku, and Fumi ga Yaritaya of the wakashu small dance tradition as well as Seki no Koman from the Matsu no Ha can be heard today while the wakashu dance Kiku Zukushi survives in every school ofJapanese dance.9

i36

MALM

3. Nagauta and Kabuki Though most of the early dance pieces of kabuki were in the style or spirit of the short songs (.kouta and hauta) of the teahouse world or were folk-inspired, it was inevitable that more extensive compositions would evolve as the kabuki theater itself gradually became less like a musical review and more like a music drama. The specific musical genre associated with these changes is the Edo form of long song, or nagauta. A shamisen form called nagauta existed in the KyotoOsaka region by the mid-seventeenth century though the first official list of nagauta pieces is a series of fifty found in the Matsu no Ha collection of 1703. However, some of these same pieces are placed under the heading of new songs (shinkyoku) in the Onusa collection of 1685. These can perhaps be considered to be an earlier indication of the popularity of the form. Both collections listed earlier deal with Kyoto-Osaka music and so the genre is called kamigata nagauta after the generic term for that region of Japan. Kamigata nagauta is distinguished from the Edo form by the fact that the word nagauta is written with the characters t I I J C while Edo nagauta is written with ° S . In addition, much of the kamigata nagauta seems to have been home or teahouse music while Edo nagauta was from the very beginning more directly connected with the theater. The term Edo nagauta is first listed as part of a theater program in a kabuki poster of 1704. 1 0 However, the genealogy charts (Ozatsuma Kineya Genfu) of the nagauta professional guild of Kineya traditionally list a shamisen nagauta from the middle of the Kei-an period (1648-1652) at the Murayama theater in Kyoto and a Kineya Kangoro, whose dates are given as 1619 to 1699, is listed as a nagauta shamisen player at the Nakamura theater in Edo. 11 Among the many other indications of nagauta in the seventeenth century, we should note finally the appearance in the kabuki time-chart (.Kabuki Nempyo) of the famous name in nagauta of Kineya Rokusaemon, listed as a performer in the Nakamura theater in 1663. 1 2 Both from the paintings of the time and from parallel lists of drummers' names we know that these nagauta musicians were appearing along with hayashi accompaniment, though there is no precise information as to when this first happened. However, in view of the great development of the kabuki drama itself, during the brilliant Genroku period (1688-1703), it seems possible that the so- called

MUSIC IN THE KABUKI THEATER

*37

nagauta ensemble might have been established by that time as an accompaniment for dance. It was later that nagauta gradually began to find a place in more serious drama as well. Kikkawa Eiji is of the opinion that up until the mid-eighteenth century, the style of Edo nagauta was rather simple and "kamigata" in style while the period from midcentury into the early nineteenth saw the development of an independent Edo nagauta style of a more virtuostic and narrative nature.13 Irrespective of these various style changes, the nagauta ensemble was the basic component of the onstage (debayashi) music of the kabuki from the early eighteenth century to the present time. This ensemble consists of singers, shamisen, and the stick drum (taiko), shoulder hand drum (ko tsuzumi), and side hand drum (o tsuzumi) of the no plus a flautist who plays either the no flute (nokan) or a more lyrical bamboo flute (takebue or shinobue).14 The ensemble is normally placed along the back of the stage with the shamisen and singers on a riser and the hayashi spread along the floor in front of them, thus earning for themselves the extra designation as the shitakata, the ones beneath. Since the number of singers and shamisen players is usually large (six of each is standard today), the hayashi is usually bolstered by using two or more ko tsuzumi and two taiko players though normally only one flautist and one o tsuzumi player appear on stage. Under modern classification systems of shamisen music, nagauta is listed as a lyrical style (utamono) along with the kouta and hauta which preceded it and which continue to flourish outside the theater. Nagauta has maintained its supremacy as kabuki danceaccompaniment but, as indicated earlier, it had and still has several rivals on stage. These are derived from the other main class of shamisen music, the narrative style called katarimono or joruri. 4. Narrative Music in the Kabuki While we have emphasized the appearance of the shamisen as dance accompaniment, we must not forget that it came not only from the teahouse, but also from the puppet theater where it was used primarily to accompany narratives. The generic term for this narrative kind of shamisen music is joruri, a word which we noted was used to describe a manner of singing in the Kunijo Kabuki Ekotoba of the early seventeenth-century. The puppet theater-derived music was apparently used in onna kabuki for dance accompaniment.15 However, as

I38

MALM

the kabuki developed into a more sophisticated dramatic form, the use of joruri music as a narrative device became common. Since one of the great playwrights of the period, Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1725), also wrote for the puppet theater, it is only logical that he would have brought the music of that theater with him when he began to write actively for the kabuki from around 1684 to 1705. The particular form of joruri he used was called gidayu after Takemoto Gidayu (1651-1714), its founder and most famous performer. Though gidayu music eventually dominated the puppet theater, it was only one of many competing narrative styles, some of which preceded gidayu (harima and kompira are particularly well known),16 while others continued to appear as recently as the nineteenth century. We have little concrete knowledge of their first appearance on the kabuki stage until the early eighteenth- century. The word joruri is found on kabuki posters by at least 1704 in Edo; and the term chobo, which stands for the combination of a narrative singer and a shamisen player, is found by 1713. Given the popularity of kabuki in both the kamigata and Edo areas, the proximity of competing puppet theaters, the known movement of several famous narrative musicians between the two centers, and the eclectic nature of kabuki music itself, there seems little doubt that many of these narrative musics appeared, at least in Kyoto and Osaka theaters, before the eighteenth century. In any case, it is their eighteenth- and nineteenth-century legacies that most concern those interested in music of kabuki today. Like the nagauta discussed earlier, the narrative musics can be thought of as developing somewhat different traditions in the kamigata and the Edo areas. However, there was a great deal of musical exchange between the two regions and today there are about a dozen joruri traditions which are either maintained as separate styles or have been absorbed as part of the general kabuki repertoire but are played by musicians from another genre. The following list of narrative musics relating to kabuki starts with gidayu and is arranged by the dates attributed to the creators of each genre. When one style was derived from another one on the list, it is so indicated. The list includes only those genre which can still be identified in some manner within the kabuki repertoire. Since Japanese artists change names as their fame rises or their style changes, the names given to the persons on this list are those most obviously connected with the genre in question.17 The first three genre began in kamigata while the rest are basically Edo forms.

MUSIC IN THE KABUKI THEATER

Gidayu bushi

Takemoto Gidayu (1651-1714)

Itchu bushi

Itchu Miyakodayu (1650-1724)

Bungo bushi

Miyakoji Bungo no jo (1660-1740)

*39

Handayu bushi Edo Handayu (d. 1743) Kato bushi (from Handayu) Kato Masumi (1684-1725) Geki bushi

Satsuma Geki (flourished 1648-1659)

Ozatsuma bushi (from Geki)

Ozatsuma Shuzendayu (1696-1759)

Tokiwazu bushi (from Bungo)

Tokiwazu Mojidayu (1709-1764)

Tomimoto bushi (from Tokiwazu) Tomimoto Buzen no jo (1716-1764) Shinnai bushi (from Bungo) Tsuruga Wakasa no jo (1717-1786) Kiyomoto bushi (from Tomimoto) Kiyomoto Enjudayu (1777-1825)

All these forms with the exception of gidayu first appeared on stage in the kabuki. Today gidayu, tokiwazu, and kiyomoto are separate traditions in the kabuki with special musicians maintained for each of them. Occasionally one hears shinnai by itself in the kabuki and the play Sukeroku is famous for its use of amateur kato musicians who, traditionally, must come from the school of the head (iemoto) of the kato tradition. Though, as their classification indicates, gidayu, tokiwazu, and kiyomoto are used frequently for narrative commentary and explanation, such musics can also be combined with the hayashi to accompany dance. This is especially true of kiyomoto though there are several famous dance pieces in the other two repertoires as well. Gidayu music, the oldest and the most directly puppet-derived style, is usually performed by the chobo, that is, one singer and one shamisen player, from their traditional position on the downstage left apron of the stage or in the alcove above the stage left entrance (the yukd). Tokiwazu and kiyomoto are usually performed by larger numbers of performers who are placed variously on platforms along the sides of the stage right or left according to the dictates of a given stage set.

140

MALM

Plays derived from the puppet theatre depend heavily on gidayu music, but in performances containing dance, narrative musics seldom appear as the only stage music. The mixture of genres on stage is called a kake at performance. The first known example of such a performance occurred in 1764 at the Nakamura theater when dzatsuma and nagauta were combined for the piece Murazakura Usano Mitegura.18 Other old joruri forms are known to us through special concerts not connected with the kabuki, through depictions of their musicians on old kabuki prints, from lists of their names on kabuki posters, or, more directly, in pieces from later genres that have sections which are marked as being derived from a former style. The best known example of the latter is ozatsuma from which forty-eight specific cadencing or recitative patterns have been taken for use in nagauta.19 During the nineteenth century, nagauta absorbed many other bits of narrative music, especially if the nagauta composition was based on an earlier piece. Thus, geki style can be heard in the nagauta piece Gekizaru (1824) and itchu is found in Ninin Wankyu (1774). 5. Offstage Music In addition to lyrical and narrative music, the third main element of kabuki music is the offstage music, the geza or kagebayashi (shadow hayashi). Such music consists of special shamisen music and percussion signals which serve as backgrounds to action or clues to mood, place, or situation. Since shamisen and some percussion instruments were already on the kabuki stage in the early seventeenth century, it is hard to say when this particular function was assumed by music. Indeed, the biggest geza drum, the odaiko, is seen in the very first drawing of the Okuni Kabuki Ekotoba, mentioned earlier, where it is placed in a tower (yagura) over the entrance of the theater, primarily to signal the beginning of a performance.20 The original Chinese characters used to indicate geza meant music placed outside or off the stage so perhaps this drum could be considered as the start of the tradition. A more direct implication of the use of a geza prototype is found on a folding screen which depicts kabuki scenes in the Nakamura-za around 1694.21 In one of these pictures a smaller version of the odaiko drum can be seen just offstage. The musician is not playing it during the dance scene, and we can only guess at how it might have been used. Perhaps it merely signaled the opening or closing of each number, a function not uncommon for the odaiko today. In any

MUSIC IN THE KABUKI THEATER

141

case, the extensive development and codification of a separate offstage tradition did not occur until the Horeki period (1751-1764). 22 In 1717 the puppet theaters in Nagoya began placing their narrative musicians in a second-floor alcove above the stage left entrance. As this practice spread, other musicians were moved into the firstfloor area below the alcove and eventually the entrance way became a room behind a bamboo screen (the kuromisu or black curtain) in which the special-effects musicians were placed while the dance accompaniments were performed on stage by other musicians. The characters used to describe this room then changed to those meaning the place below, that is, the place below the second-floor alcove.23 Since there was a change in the written characters it would seem logical that some kind of offstage tradition must have existed before this physical change in the theaters. The geza musicians were moved again, in the Meiji period (1868-1911), to the position they maintain today in a bamboo-curtained room downstage right. The term geza seldom appears in print until the early nineteenth century but the names of various geza patterns and of offstage musicians commonly appear by the mid-eighteenth.24 As kabuki productions evolved, the number and variety of percussion instruments used offstage increased greatly so that today, in addition to shamisen, singers, and the no drums, there are six other drums and eighteen different gongs, cymbals, wooden beaters, and the like plus flutes, noisemakers, and bird calls.25 While some geza musicians also play in the onstage ensembles, many specialize in geza. Today all are nominally or directly connected with the onstage genre of nagauta, though they can accompany any kind of music or operate independently. They are under the control of the hayashi gashira, who arranges all the percussion music for a given production in consultation with the head shamisen player, the actors, and the producers. The resulting selections often appear in a "lead sheet" book called the tsukecho, one of our few documents available for comparative production studies. There are an infinite number of mixtures of geza instruments and patterns. Some geza music is performed by only shamisen and voice and occasionally by voice alone, and there are many shamisen pieces which are performed with or without percussion accompaniment. There are over two hundred such pieces and interludes, each known by name and by the kind of dance or play for which it is appropriate. There are many plays whose geza part remains basically unaltered for

MALM

these many years. However, it is possible to rearrange the music, particularly in shosamono, to suit the needs of a new production. Thus, though tsukecho books exist, one must not think of the musical elements of kabuki in the same light as those of western opera. Several hands go into the creation of a given musical setting and within the bounds of traditional patterns, there is room for a variety of dramaturgically and musically "correct" versions of a piece. Improvisation is practically nonexistent in Japanese music but one must be prepared to expect variant versions of the same composition. It is good to keep this principle in mind when viewing specific examples given in this study as they may be found to vary from actual performances heard in Japan. An effort will be made to quote the most standard practice whenever possible as we turn to a study of the music itself.26 THE MUSIC

1. Functional and Formal Frameworks for the Study of Kabuki Music From the preceding discussion it is obvious that the onstage, offstage, and narrative elements of kabuki music were present by the latter half of the seventeenth century and were quite codified by the end of the eighteenth. Though the classification system of utamono, geza, and katarimono would tend to make one think of these functions as being performed by separate groups, such is not always the case. In any given performance there may be a considerable exchange of functions. For example, traditional geza interludes may be played by the onstage nagauta group while kiyomoto singers often dominate the lyrical sections of a play. As far as the understanding and appreciation of kabuki music is concerned, the important consideration is not so much who is playing as it is the manner in which the music used enhances the dramatic effect and the sense of form within the drama. There are, of course, many modern plays in kabuki today that are pure drama in which music plays almost no part except for an occasional offstage signal. Such forms of kabuki are not our concern here. Rather we will concentrate on plays which make heavy use of offstage signals, contain dances, or feature posturing (shosa), for within such plays we can find all the varieties of music that may appear in other types of productions. In order to broaden the scope of this study, occasional reference will also be made to compositions in the classical dance (buyo) tradition since it is derived directly from kabuki and

MUSIC IN THE KABUKI THEATER

*43

reflects the same musical ideals. The dance form will be used as our frame of reference realizing that full-blown plays are capable of expanding this form considerably. Kabuki dance-form, taking its clue from the jo-ha-kyu principle found in no drama,27 divides into three large sections: the deha, chuha, and iriha. This can be seen in the earliest kabuki in the interpretation given below of the divisions of okuni kabuki as found in the Kunijo KabukiEkotobamentioned earlier.28 JO (deha): waki shidai, nanori michiyuki HA (chuha): nembutsu odori, kabuki odori KYU (itiha): chirashi

The terms shidai, nanori, and michiyuki are all standard no terminology and are placed here in their normal order. We already have shown that the term nembutsu odori is Buddhist and kabuki odori is new. Chirashi is a term connected with koto and shamisen music. In a sense this interpretation of the Okuni scroll is symbolic of the spirit of kabuki in general. It starts trying to emulate the grandeur of no, soon quickens the pace with more popular materials, and ends up with a style very much its own. The most common level of formal abstraction below that of the three part division is the standard kabuki dance-form which is as follows: Deha: oki, michiyuki Chuha: kudoki, monogatari, odori ji Iriha: chirashi, dangirc

Speaking in broad terms the oki contains all the introductory material before the appearance of the main actor, and the michiyuki (sometimes also called the deha) section covers the entrance of the actor. The kudoki contains lyrical dance-styles while the monogatari concentrates on a narrative which is either spoken by the actor to musical accompaniment or pantomimed while the musicians declaim the text. The odoriji is the main dance of the form and is comparable to the main dance-section (the kuse) of a no play. The chirashi is a bright and faster section, leading to the final cadencing known as the dangire. With this framework in mind we can now proceed to study specific musical examples and see how they contribute to the dramaturgical and formal progression of kabuki.

i44

MALM

2. Music Indicative of Weather Conditions Weather signals in kabuki are so easily spotted that they provide a good starting point in our study of a complex musical tradition. They come from two major geza sources: the odaiko drum and the shamisen interludes (aikata). Among the patterns available on the big drum are several varieties of rain sound (ame no oto) and snow sounds (yuki no oto) plus the sound of wind (kaze no oto) and that of a snowslide (nadare). The differences between a driving rain and a drizzle are easily heard on the drum, though the soft persistent thuds struck with a padded stick may not be as obvious as the sounds of soft falling snow. However, the latter pattern is often linked with a shamisen interlude called yuki (snow).29 This piece, derived from the kamigata jiuta tradition is one of the better known aikata of kabuki and evokes the proper response in any kabuki devotee. It can be heard in the Ninokuchimura scene of KoiHikyaku Yamato Orai. The weather patterns appear most frequently at the very beginning of a scene, though they are available for use at anytime. However, their sound before the rise of a curtain is a great help in preparing an audience for the scene. A good example of a scene with weather signals is the fifth act of Kanadehon Chushingura (The Forty-Seven Ronin) which opens with the sound of rain as Kampei chases a wild pig through the rainy night while a robber sets upon Kampei's father-in-law during the same storm. The first scene of this act ends with the sound of wind and the opening of the next scene in Kampei's house begins with the rain-sound as the womenfolk await the return of the men through the storm outside. A somewhat more abstract use of the sound of rain can be heard before the curtain for the piece Gord Tokimune. The oki of the piece makes no mention of rain and is set with many ozatsuma recitative patterns. However, about two minutes into the piece, Goro enters (during the michiyuki) carrying an umbrella and wearing high shoes for walking through the rain. Thus the precurtain music has prepared the audience for the eventual appearance of the actor. Weather conditions are also implied by interludes and various naturalistic sounds used in identifying the season of the year. Such interludes appear more often in dance concerts than in the kabuki. In either case they tend to appear at the beginning of a scene. For example, the piece Yozakura (Night Cherry Blossoms) is used before some spring scenes while lsamihada Matsuri, about a festival, indicates summer. Kariobana Tsutsumi no Yushio is fall music, and Tsumoru

MUSIC IN THE KABUKI THEATER

*45

Yuki Noji no Furudera is for winter. To enhance seasonal interludes various naturalistic sounds can be added like special bird calls (the ducks for fall, the cuckoo for spring) or the sound of insects. For example, one geza percussion instrument is called the pine-tree insect (matsu mushi). It consists of a small, wooden inverted bowl, set on three legs, which when struck by a mallet gives a summer insect sound. The shamisen interlude shinobi sanju also imitates the sound of cicadas on a summer night and is used often when a dark summer night atmosphere or mystery and suspense is desired. In spring scenes one can also hear occasionally the sound of four small bells (orugoru) whose tinkling indicates the presence of butterflies. Such "butterfly sounds" show up in scenes of very different contexts—in Renjishi where the butterflies are chased by a lion and in Yasuna where they flutter around the pathetic form of a deranged and desolate lover. The sound of the orugoru is not restricted to butterflies. It frequently is used when children are depicted on stage. 3. Music for Locations There is music for both general and very specific locations in kabuki. Either the on- or offstage group can contribute to the musical identification of a place. The music for the odaiko drum is once more a convenient starting point. The most obvious odaiko drum patterns for general locations are the sound of the waves (nami no oto) for seaside scenes and the sound of water (mizu no oto) for rivers. The time drum-pattern (toki no oto) is less obvious in its implications, for it is used to depict a scene inside a castle or fortress where the hours are indicated by a drum. The rushing sound in the mountains (yama oroshi), though frequently used in mountain scenes, is less definite since it is used often before scenes of violent action. It also fills in the time while scenery is being changed in a dramatic piece. A more specific indication of a mountain scene is heard in the pattern kodama (echoes) played by two ko tsuzumi drums in imitation of the echoing of sounds across a valley. There are dozens of geza hayashi pieces which may be used alone or in combination with various aikata to set the place of a scene. The most common indications are for scenes in palaces, mansions, or the house of a warrior, and also for country, seaside, and town scenes. In addition, music can indicate that a scene is before a shrine, a temple, or in a brothel area. We will give a few representative examples for each case. Certainly the most common music for a palace is the interlude

146

MALM

kangen, which represents the sound of the imperial court music (gagaku).30 The shamisen plays many double stops to give it a "thicker" sound while the odaiko plays very slow offbeat patterns to add weight to the sound. Kangen is most commonly heard at the opening of a scene or behind long dialogues (serifu) by noble persons. The geza piece sogaku may be used in imperial palace scenes as well as in some sets at large shrines or scenes involving nobility. It can be used, for example, at the opening of Momiji Gari as the lady is supposed to be from the court though she is actually a demoness. The piece sogaku uses a rather unusual combination of instruments in an attempt to make a more direct imitation of court music. Of particular interest are the sogakubue (or beebeefue). These instruments are indefinite in pitch (rather like small noisemakers) and when two or three are played together in combination with the no flute they produce a clever imitation of the woodwind section of a court orchestra. Sogaku usually appears at the opening of such a scene as the Kinden no dan from Imoseyama Onna Teikin. By far the most common way to indicate a mansion or a warrior's home is using an imitation of no music. Most of these imitations are short versions of standard no dance pieces such as chu no mai, haya mai, jo no mai, and gaku. For example, both jo no mai and haya mai are used in the third act of Chiishingura. In kabuki it is possible to add a shamisen aikata of the same name to the no hayashi music, and the odaiko may play a few ponderous beats as it did in kangen to add a further sense of dignity. The no taiko drum and flute in combination with the odaiko and a possible shamisen interlude sometimes perform the piece midare to indicate a mansion scene, but this is done only when a female character is about to enter, as in the Masaoka Chugi no Dan from Meiboku Sendaihagi. In addition to these percussion-oriented signals, there are several voice and shamisen aikata which may appear to set a palace scene. Among them kotouta is of special interest as it is meant to represent someone in a palace singing to the accompaniment of a koto. In some productions actual koto music is used. Village scenes frequently open with a song interlude which has the flavor of a folksong. Folk drums such as the okedo and the regular taiko played with thin sticks plus the atarigane hand gong add to the flavor. The choice of songs is very great, though many are traditionally attached to specific plays such as Otsu Hachome Osaka to lute for Domomata Shogen Yakata.

MUSIC IN THE KABUKI THEATER

147

Seaside songs (hamauta) are usually combined with the sound of the waves (nami no oto) pattern on the odaiko. Like most aikata for locations, such songs tend to appear at the opening of the curtain or in the deha proper when someone enters along the hanamichi ramp. The same can be said for the pack drivers' songs (magouta) which are used to indicate mountain scenes. The odaiko drum usually enhances the mountain idea by playing yama oroshi while the jangle of horse bells (ekiro) is also heard. The best known of these songs is Hakone Hachiri (Eight Miles [ri] to Hakonej. It is used at both the opening and close of Suzugamori. Both period pieces and sewamono frequently have scenes placed at Shinto shrines or Buddhist temples. In sewamono, the most common way of indicating such a location musically is the use of a standard Shinto festival piece such as shoden or shichome played by two taiko (and using thin sticks), the odaiko, a hand gong (atarigane), and a bamboo flute. The piece miyakagura may be found in either type of play and uses cymbals (chappa) instead of the hand gong in the ensemble, as cymbals are often heard in the accompaniment of more formal shrine dances (kagura). A sung aikata called miyauta may also be used in place of or in conjunction with this percussion piece. The pattern ongaku, when played by the odaiko drum, the no flute, and the Buddhist handbell (rei) indicates a temple as would kasai nembutsu played by the taiko and the little matsu mushi wooden gong mentioned earlier. Here it represents not the sound of an insect but the accompaniment frequently used when the devout Buddhists repeat their prayers at home. There is an aikata that can be used with this pattern as well. Another Buddhist aikata is called mokugyo iri because it uses the fish-mouthed wooden slit gong (mokugyo) that one frequently hears in Buddhist ceremonies. There is a geza pattern for the odaiko drum and a knobbed gong (dora) called zen meditation (zen no tsutome), as well as an aikata with the same name. In addition to their obvious Buddhist effect, they can be used to represent scenes of general serenity such as the opening of the nagauta piece Shizu Hata Obi where the geza pattern can be heard behind an instrumental prelude (maebiki) depicting the quiet flowing of the Sumida River in Edo. It is that very prelude from which the geza shamisen musicians took their aikata for zen no tsutome that in turn, can be used for Buddhist scenes. This is only one of many examples in kabuki music of the subtle interchange of materials and meanings. For all these refinements, however, the most

148

MALM

effective temple signal in kabuki is simply the sound of a large temple bell (hontsurigane). Town scenes are common in sewamono and tend to be introduced by aikata derived from Edo-period popular music, folk music, or such geisha music as hauta. Among the various types of town songs heard in kabuki, some of the more interesting ones are the keikouta (music-lesson songs), ameyauta (the sweetshop song), and the yotsudakeuta. The first gives the impression of geisha music lessons filtering out of the houses, while the second refers to one of the common kinds of vendors found on the street. The third refers to a set of four bamboo castanets (yotsudake), which are often used by street peddlers. The latter aikata is accompanied by the sound of these castanets, while ameya is usually backed by a lion-dance accompaniment called magosa or by a pattern called ameya in which one player uses a small gong and a drum. This is an imitation of the kind of music often used by street peddlers even now.31 Common percussion accompaniments to the music-lesson songs are shoden, standard festival hayashi pieces, and kakubeidaiko, a kabuki remnant of Edo street music. Music connected with other special professions will be discussed in section 4, but we must add to our list of locations one of obvious professional implications: the brothel districts. The most common signal for a scene in such an area is the geza hayashi piece torikagura (example 1). It can be heard at the beginning and end of Tomoyakko, Kiku Zukushi, and Sukeroku. It is played by the bamboo flute and taiko drum and is derived from the slow, free rhythm introduction often used by Edo Shinto festival hayashi ensembles before their first piece, yatai. Though the original reasons behind the choice of this music cannot be reconstructed, one could interpret its use as possibly a sophisticated awareness of the proper function of subliminal theater music. The use of such prelude music sets the lighthearted mood of city life without imposing the more specific reference that the playing of a lively, rhythmic festival piece might cause. The transcription in example 1 of one performance of torikagura in the kabuki shows that the flute and drum rhythmic relations are deliberately ambiguous.32 When a shamisen piece is played over torikagura, the entire musical event becomes even more fluid, for the tune and the tonality of the flute and the shamisen are totally different as are the meters and tempos of all three parts. One might expect that such a disparity would result in a shock effect in the style of a Charles Ives orchestral piece,

149

MUSIC IN THE K A B U K I THEATER

but what occurs is an indistinct combination of sounds which all contribute to their mutual function: that of setting the mood without dominating the audience's attention. There are other hayasbi patterns such as hayawatari and hayadaibyoshi, of a more rhythmical nature which also may indicate the brothel areas, the latter appearing in example 2. Its title refers to playing fast (haya) on a drum called the daibyoshi (big rhythm). The drum is derived from the accompaniment for Shinto pantomime dances (satokagura). The odaiko and bamboo flute in example 2 are also borrowed from that tradition.33 A study of the lively rhythms of the example shows how it can relate to the festive atmosphere of the brothel district as much as to religious dance-drama. Notice how the flute maintains the same rhythmic obscurity it did in example 1. It is partly the style of festival music outside the theater, but it also may relate to the desire for covert musical expression in the theater as mentioned earlier. Musicians will note the striking modulation in measure 12 of example 2, which is used in the festival tradition as a signal for an approach to an ending. RubatO

approx. i ' - 100

m m -iEXAMPLE 1.

Torigakura,

j-

m

transcribed from

m Nihon Buyo Ongaku,

m II, SJL 3014 1-3

i5o

MALM

I = ca.180" 210 111 q

Dai byoshi Odaiko

EXAMPLE 2.

U

'

i.

Hayadaibyoshi,

—

i — n i

transcribed from

i *

H i

Nihon Buyo Ongaku,

II, SJL 3014 1 - 3

More specific brothel locations can be indicated by aikata which may appear with or without hayashi patterns. For example, Edo brothels are implied by the interlude sawagi while scenes from the Yoshiwara district of Edo often open or close with dotechiyo. This may be followed by another shamisen interlude, sugagaki, played by either the off- or onstage group. The Yoshiwara was near the Sumida River, and, therefore, there are many songs in kabuki which refer to

MUSIC IN THE KABUKI THEATER

the river or famous places along it. Thus, these songs will evoke the same general location in any play in which they are used. Songs such as From Willow Bridge (Yanagi Bashi Kara) and The Boat Leaves (Fune wa Dete Yuku), when combined with the odaiko pattern for water, are excellent settings for scenes by the bank of the Sumida River. Note that the odaiko pattern mizu no oto could be used for any river. For example, it is used at both ends of the nagauta piece Tatsumi Hakkei, which mentions the Fukugawa River at the start and the Tachigawa at the end. However, the aikata pieces just mentioned are really only good for the Sumida River. The same is true of a piece called Tsuda Bushi, which is derived from a song played on boats that took customers out to the island of Tsukuda in the Sumida River. The most famous musical indicator of the pleasure district of Kyoto is the song Hana ni Asoba which opens act seven of Chiishingura and relates to the Gion geisha of Kyoto. Because of its use in this scene, the song has become connected as well with a specific house, the Ichiriki, in which the action is set. The song itself is derived from an earlier piece, he Ondo, which began with the words "Ise ni asoba." This song was associated with the old town of Ise and by extension now relates to the kamigata area brothels in general. The shamisen accompaniment of both songs emphasizes a folk-song-like ostinato as seen in the first five measures of example 3. The drum and shamisen accompaniment patterns of example 3 are known in the kabuki world as odori ji. This name may relate to the fact that the taiko often joins the shamisen in the odori ji section of standard kabuki dance-form.34 However, the shamisen and drum patterns themselves may be used anywhere in a play, either by themselves or along with a totally different song. All that is required is that the scene be set in a brothel district. Such patterns are heard, for example, in the Fuingiri scene of Koi-bikyaku Yamato-orai. As mentioned in note 32, because of the different guilds and teachers within one guild for each instrument in kabuki, the shamisen and hay ashi patterns themselves may vary in both their content and in their relations to one another. There is, for instance, another recording of example 3 by the same Mochizuki guild but with some different performers in which the entire taiko part from measure 8 on is played one beat later.35 The precise names of the performers are not listed in either recording, therefore, one cannot ascertain whether these are two interpretations or simply one performance mistake that the producer chose to ignore or perhaps did not even notice. Since the author

E X A M P L E 3. Odori ji (Hana ni Asobaba) from Kanadehon Chushingura, transcribed from Kabuki Geza Ongaku Shusei, SJL 2011 2-3.

MUSIC IN THE KABUKI THEATER

r

53

studied in a different guild (Tanaka) it is not possible, sociologically, for him to ask the Mochizuki director which version is correct. The Mochizuki guild controls the percussion for most recordings and the Tanaka guild controls the percussion in the older Shochiku kabuki theater so the author has chosen that version of the drum part that seems most kabuki-like. A musical study of both is worthy of a separate article, but, in the context of this chapter, let us glean only a few additional sociological and musical facts from example 3. Implied in the lack of a clear statement concerning the "correct" version of example 3, is the important secret tradition o f most guilds. In this same context is the Japanese emphasis on rote learning and the existence of only mnemonic aids, tsukecho, or, at the most, part books (but not scores). Such a combination of factors makes variant versions of musical events almost assured. It should be evident, in addition, from the three examples shown so far that a flexibility in performance interpretation is necessary in a theater musical-tradition which may be applied throughout the drama repertoire. Example 3 itself may vary in length depending on how much time is required to open the curtain (thus the transcription ends with the completion of the vocal part). Musically the excerpt in example 3 seems to illustrate the "slide-rule effect" common in shzmisen-hayashi music. 3 6 By this method the percussion and melodic parts create a strong sense of forward motion through tension caused by different senses of phrase lengths and their beginnings. In example 3 the taiko seems to be one beat off the shamisen though they come out together at the end (measure 23). This is the slide-rule effect in action. However, lurking behind this ideal example is a deeper question inherent in any study of nonwestern music by a nonculture carrier of the tradition: where is the " r e a l " beat one? Remember that the Japanese performers did not learn from nor use notation for this piece. The beat one of example 3 is a western notational convenience but it may be beat two in the ear of some Japanese performers or, like rock music, the emphasis may be on a strong upbeat. The western musician may enjoy listening (in his head) to example 3 in these various manners. The reader hopefully has been made aware of a few of the many equally valuable, but not directly descriptive, aspects of kabuki music. One could go on indefinitely citing examples of songs and patterns which help to locate scenes. However, the sampling given above should suffice to show that there is a wide range of choices and a great number of combinations, each of which has a sufficiently different sound to make it

!54

MALM

an aurally distinctive and dramatically significant feature of any play. Let us move on now to music about people rather than places. 4. Music for Characterization The entrance of an important character in either a dance piece or a play is the best time to depict the personality of the individual musically. If a court noble or lady enters, the music is usally one of the slower no hayashi interludes mentioned earlier or some other noderived drum and flute pattern. In addition, such various courtly musics as kangen could be used. Warriors are often depicted with the sound of a no-derived pattern called itcho iri which is usually played by one or more ko tsuzumi. Such an entrance is sometimes used in Shibaraku and in Ichi no Tani. A shamisen aikata may be added. When there is a joruri shamisen on stage, such an entrance may be marked by the very slow and heavy melody onori, one version of which is shown in example 4. This melody may appear in a joruri-based play before a long rhythmic speech given by a warrior. The style and tempo of the melody is changed if a different kind of character delivers such a speech. Most of the other warrior patterns are indicative of situations as well for they refer in some way to battles. For example, there is a pattern called toyose (the distant sound of battle) played by the odaiko and the knobbed gong, which may be heard when warriors enter. It can be used alone or in combination with such shamisen interludes such as jintate, an aikata used when a general in full armor appears.37 A samurai identification of a rather special sort is found in the geza piece mihokagura which is only used in plays dealing with the Soga Slow, pesante

1

P"

"T" T~ p

i—i-

U" UU' U EXAMPLE

Uf u U' u

11. Shagiri, transcribed from Buyo Narimono

^ri

^Ftr

Senshu LR 671 2-7

i

J = approx. 80

12. Shidai from Tsuchigumo, transcribed from Nihon Buyo Ongaku, II, SJL 3014 1-5, and traditional notation

EXAMPLE

i68

MALM

that a play based on no could begin. As mentioned earlier, there is a large class of no-derived (hongyo) hayaski patterns which are appropriate for the early section of a piece. The patterns gaku, raijo, koiai, and isseialong with shidaiare commonly used. As with the shidaiexample given earlier, some of these same names will appear in shamisen opening sections to no-based plays. Such sections are classed as nd-kakari (in the style of no) and may be performed by the shamisen and voices alone or with the accompaniment of the proper hayashi patterns. In nagauta, for example, the opening section of Tsuru Kame is marked as a raijo and is accompanied by the drums,44 while the piece Shakkyo begins as an issei. The most obvious opening clue of a joruri origin of a kabuki play is the use of joruri music and the appearance of its musicians in their proper places on the stage (confer, p. 139). Some later plays often use chobo, though the plays are not maruhon pieces. Gidayu music is the most common since so many plays are derived from the puppet theater. If a traditional puppet theater style of opening is desired, the gidayu shamisen will perform one of the variants of two prelude prototypes called okuri and sanjuV The particular version chosen will depend on the position of the particular scene to be played in relation to the scene before it and to the overall form of the play. Example 13a shows the slow sanju played at the start of the famous baiting scene (Act 3) of Kanadehon Chushingura. The manner in which the voice enters in free rhythm is typical of gidayu-style beginnings in either puppet or kabuki plays. Example 13b is a quick sanju used at the start of the traveling scene (Act 8) of the same play. It continues in rhythm because of the predominantly dance and springtime mood of the scene. Both these transcriptions are made from the puppet theater version of the play. In kabuki, atmosphere-inducing geza might be added to gidayu openings. Other gidayu plays in kabuki may dispense with the traditional opening altogether and launch straight into the narrative music as soon as the curtain opens. EXAMPLE 13. Sanju

13. A Gidayu, transcribed from Kanadehon Chushingura third dan, King KC 1012, side 2

169

MUSIC IN THE KABUKI THEATER Quickly tuning

13.B Gidayu, transcribed from Kartadehon Chushingura, eighth dan, King KC 1012, side 1 poco a poco scceì.

13.C Tokiwazu: Shin Yamauba, transcribed from notation, Nagauta Shinkeikobon, volume 7, number 3

In addition to plays from the gidayu repertoire, we have already mentioned the existence of many pieces using other narrative musics, usually tokiwazu or kiyomoto. Such pieces will often begin with an oki-joruri, a narrative-style opening. Example 13c is the tokiwazu oki for the dance piece Shin Yamauba. Note its great similarity to the gidayu version of sanju shown in example 13b above. Joruri-style beginnings will also be found in nagauta pieces which have derived their inspiration from earlier narrative pieces or styles. As with no-derived sections, such moments are often indicated by the term kakari, preceded by the name of the particular source of inspiration. Example 14 is a sekkyo-kakari from the nagauta piece Ninin Wankyu. Note its similarity to the fast sanju of example 13b. The name of this section is derived from one of the earliest genre of shamisen music called sekkyo.i6 In speaking of /own-derived music in nagauta, one must include the forty-eight ozatsuma patterns mentioned earlier as ozatsuma was originally a narrative form.47 While these patterns are used for interludes, recitatives, and during some actors' speeches, they are most obvious during the sections of plays. Example 15 shows the opening patterns for the piece Ya no Ne as they are performed by surviving

I/o

MALM Rubato

EXAMPLE 1 4 .

Sekkyô kakari

ozatsuma musicians. This piece is said to have originally been chanted by Ozatsuma Shuzendayu in 1730, though today it survives only as a nagauta piece.48 The transcribed ozatsuma version uses many patterns still found in the nagauta list of forty-eight. Their names are given in the transcription. The ozatsuma opening shown in example 15 is so standard that, if the text were missing, it would be impossible to tell which of a dozen different pieces was being played. CONCLUSION

Our review of kabuki music history has shown the natural eclecticism of the art, while our study of the separate functions of music in the drama has revealed some of the variety and theflexibilityof the tradition. It must be remembered that it is a tradition, not a dogma. The tastes of a given theater troupe or a recent theatrical fad are able to change a production, though, admittedly, in kabuki such liberties are more limited than, let us say, in Shakespearean plays. Nevertheless, music is an adjunct to kabuki drama and musicians will play what the actors and producers want them to play. Kabuki music is functional and does not pretend to exist outside the drama except in the case of full-length dance compositions. Such works are, indeed, "art music" in the same way that the term can be applied to Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake or Stravinsky's Petrouchka. Little was said about this form of kabuki music (confer, p. 143) as it has been studied previously,49 and it is not directly germane to the topics of our other two chapters. Shively has evoked the spirit in which kabuki was first developed and Brandon has revealed the fundamental techniques and aesthetics of the actor's art through which this spirit has been maintained. The "secret" art of kabuki music is the manner in which fragments from many separate items such as those described earlier

nf—^ n

— — r

— J j

i;

_i

n

1

=

^

' J' J

j

j

So - ga

ni

lq

j-

no

Go - ro

L m / ]

r

j

—u r

1

r

J

'

J ,

j n j

To - - Ki

*

Ozatsuma patterns from Ya no Ne, transcribed from Nihon Buyo Ongaku, II, SJL 3014 1-4

EXAMPLE 1 5 .

j

]

MALM

are combined with the social and acting elements discussed in the previous chapters to create a viable and enjoyable theatrical whole. Hopefully, these three studies will enhance the reader's appreciation of kabuki whether it be vicarious in the study or visual in the theater.

NOTES

1. 2. 3.

4. 5. 6.

7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19-

Kunijo KabukiEkotoba(Kyoto: Kyoto University, 1951), p. 2. This picture plus one from the Kabuki Soshi Emaki are reproduced in the William Malm, Nagauta: The Heart of Kabuki Music (Tokyo: Tuttle, 1963), pp. 11-14. The dance to the Buddha's name (nembutsu) originated in the tenth century and is still part of the folk tradition. It and other folk theatrical survivals of early kabuki are discussed in Haruo Mizumi's Minzoku no Geino (Tokyo: Kawade Shobo, 1964), 232-56. It is interesting to compare the twelfth-century picture of nembutsu dancing in the Itsuban Shonin Kaiden with Okunistyle as shown in the Kunijo Kabuki Ekotoba. A translation of the complete text into German along with a more detailed study of the origins and background of kabuki can be found in Benito Ortolani, Das Kabukitheater (Tokyo: Sophia University Press, 1964). See James Araki, The Ballad-Drama of Medieval Japan (Berkeley and Los Angeles, Ca.: University of California Press, 1964). Furyu and obon are generic terms for two kinds of general populace dances. Obon are theoretically connected with Buddhist All-Saints festivals while furyu have both Shinto and Buddhist uses. Furyu are particularly noted for their gaiety and for their brilliant costumes, and thus they were an important element in the early development of kabuki. See Geino Jiten (Tokyo: Kokugei Kojokai, 1953), p. 581. For the texts see Tatsuyuki Takano, Nihon Kayoshi(Tokyo: Shuja-sha, 1926), pp.704-705. This dating differs from the author's previous opinion. See Malm, Nagauta, pp. 15-16. The picture in question can be seen in plate 5 of Kabuki Zusetsu, Kenji Shuzui, ed., 2 vols. (Tokyo: Manyokaku, 1931). They can be heard on the Japan Victor Company album Nihon Buyo Ongaku, (SJ 3013, 1-3), vol. 1. A modern printing of this poster may be seen in Eiji Kikkawa's Nihon Ongaku no Rekishi(Tokyo: Sogen-sha, 1966), p. 249. See Kikkawa, Nihon Ongaku, p. 2 51. Kikkawa, Nihon Ongaku pp. 246 and 251. Kikkawa, Nihon Ongaku, p. 277. For drawings and further information on these instruments see Malm, Nagauta. Koyama TiAzs\u,Jokyoku no Shinkenkyu (Tokyo: N i h a g a k u , 1962), p. 275. The history of the earliest joruri styles before gidayu can be read in C . J . Dunn's The Early Japanese Puppet Drama (London: Luzac and Co., 1966). See further Kikkawa, Nihon Ongaku, and " j o r u r i " in Ongaku Jiten (Tokyo: Heibon-sha, 1956), vol. 5, 146-147. Kikkawa, Nihon Ongaku, p. 283. These patterns are discussed and transcribed in Malm, Nagauta, pp. 331-344. They were codified by the eleventh Kineya Rokuzaemon (1829-1877), who

MUSIC IN THE KABUKI THEATER

20. 21. 22.

23. 24.

25. 26.

27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32.

33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38.

r

73

used the name Ozatsumadayu to write the piece Tsunayakata (1869), of which the first half is made up almost entirely of ozatsuma patterns. See further, Malm, Japanese Music and Musical Instruments (Tokyo: Tuttle, 1959, p. 223. See plate 416, page 231 in Masakatsu Gunji, Kabuki (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1969); also plate 58 in Kabuki Kaika by Haruo Suwa (Tokyo: Kakugawa Shoten, 1970). This is the general opinion of a group ofJapanese specialists called the Kabuki Ongaku Kenkyu-kai which meets every two months in Tokyo to study the history and former performance practice of kabuki music. I am particularly grateful to Tanaka Denzaemon, head of the kabuki hayashi musicians, and Kishibe Shigeo of the University of Fine Arts for making available to me some of the results of this group's investigations. Earle Ernst, The Kabuki Theatre (New York: Oxford, 1956), pp. 51-52. Kawatake Shigetoshi, "Kabuki no Ongakuteki Enshutsu," in Toa Ongaku Ronso (Tokyo: Yamaichi Shobo, 1944), 188-189. This term is found in the Ehon Shibai Nenchu Kagami of around 1752. Other early sources ar the Shibai Shinwa and the Sanza Reikenshi of around 1803, the Shibai Kimmo Zue (1806), and the Okyogen Gakuya Honsetsu (1859). The Shibai Hayashi Nikki is of particular value in the study of geza patterns. A copy was made available to me through the kind efforts of Kishibe Shigeo. Pictures of most geza instruments can be seen in Malm, Japanese Music and Musical Instruments, p. 227, and in OngakuJiten, vol. 3, pages 172-173. Standard practice is derived in this article from three sources: recordings, observed performances, and printed accounts of performance practices. The best sources for the latter are the Nihon Buyokyoku Shuran and the Iwanami Shoten edition of the KabukiJuhachiban. See further lAaim, Japanese Music and Musical Instruments, pp. 110-112. Derived from the notes accompanying the Japan Victor album, Nihon Buyo Ongaku (SJ 3014), vol. 2, page 6. The title of the source is incorrect in these notes. This piece is transcribed in Malm, Nagauta, p. 112. Most of the interludes mentioned in the rest of this article can be heard in the Japan Victor album Kabuki Geza Ongaku Shusei (SJL 2010-12), 1961. Transcribed in Malm, Nagauta, p. 252, meas. 90-98. See Plate 19 in Malm,Japanese Music and Musical Instruments, p. 62. While most transcriptions in this study arc derived from recorded performances, they must not be thought of as the piece. Various guilds and various performers in one guild will play a piece differently and each example is subject to changes dictated by the given scene in which the music is used. Thus each transcription should be looked at as characteristic rather than definitive. This is particularly true in all flute examples. When a transcription is from a recording, the source is listed on the score. Because there are two percussion parts, the left- and right-hand strokes are not indicated in the transcription. See Malm, Nagauta, pp. 34-36. Kabuki Geza Ongaku Shusei. SJL 2072, side 1, band 3. Malm, Nagauta, pp. 215-218. Transcribed on page 238 of Malm, "On the Nature and Function of Symbolism in Western and Oriental Music," Philosophy East and West 19, no. 3 (July 1969): 235-246. See meas. 401-428 in the transcription of Goro in Malm, Nagauta, pp. 319-320.

174 39. 40. 41. 42. 43.

44. 45. 46. 47.

48. 49.

MALM A transcription of this pattern is seen in meas. 466-487 of GOTO in Malm, Nagauta, pp. 324-326. There are three standard tunings which are, if based on the note B, as follows: honchoshi, B e b, niagari, B f # b, and san sagari, B e a. The name, "third section," is derived from the fact that the series of patterns used are normally found in the third section (dan) of a no dance piece. These are transcribed in Malm, Nagauta, p. 71. A partial list of patterns divided in this manner can be found in Malm, Nagauta, p. 95. A listing of honraiand hongyo patterns in relation to jo-hakyii along with the location of typical examples of each case can be found in Nihon Buyd Soran, pp. 170-176. Many of the basic hongyo patterns are transcribed in Japanese notation in a series of nine articles by Yamasaki Gakudo appearing between 1927 and 1928 in the magazine KabukiKenkyu. Transcribed in Malm, Nagauta, p. 245. See further the notes to the Victor record album Gidayubushi no Kyokubushi (SJ 3016-17, 1967), pp. 40-42. Concerning sekkyo see Hisao Tanabe, Nihon Ongaku-shi{Tokyo: Toyo Denki Daigaku, 1963), pp. 220-221, 270. The history of ozatsuma is rather complicated. Those wishing further information are referred to Ongaku Jiten vol. 1, p. 289: vol. 3, pp. 73-74; Hisao Tanabe, Shamisen Ongaku-shi, pp. 210-222, and Tadashi Koyama, Jokyokuno Shinkenkyu, pp. 690-694. Hogaku BuyoJiten, p. 436. See Malm, Nagauta, pp. 21 -46.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Araki, James. The Ballad-Drama of MedievalJapan. Berkeley and Los Angeles, Ca.: University of California Press, 1964. Ernst, Earle. The Kabuki Theatre. New York: Oxford University Press, 1956. Reprint. Honolulu: The University Press of Hawaii, 1974. GeinoJiten. Tokyo: Kokugeki Kojokai, 1953. Hogaku Buyo Jiten. Atsumi Seitaro, ed. Tokyo: Fuzambo, 1956. KabukiJuhachiban. Masakatsu Gunji, ed. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1966. KabukiZusetsu. KenjiShuzui, ed. Tokyo: Manyokaku, 1931. Kawatake Shigetoshi, "Kabuki no Ongakuteki Enshutsu," in Toa Ongaku Ronso. Tokyo: Yamaichi Shobo, 1944. KikkawaEiji. Nihon Ongaku no Rekishi. Tokyo: Sogen-sha, 1966. Kineya Eizaimon, Kabuki ongaku shusei. Tokyo: Gein6 hakkosho, 1976; first appeared in Geino volume 9, no. 2 (February 1976). Koyama Tadashi. Jokyoku no Shinkenkyu. Tokyo: Nihagaku, 1962. Kunijo KabukiEkotoba. Kyoto: Kyoto University, 1951. Malm, William, "On the Nature and Function of Symbolism in Western and Oriental Music," Philosophy East and West, volume 19, number 3 (July 1969). Japanese Music and Musical Instruments. Tokyo: Tuttle, 1959Nagauta: The Heart of Kabuki Music. Tokyo: Tuttle, 1963. Mizumi Haruo. Minzoku no Geino. Tokyo: Kawade Shobo, 1964. Nagauta Shinkeikobon. Yoshizumi KosaburO, ed. Tokyo: Hogaku-sha, 1955, 8 volumes. Nihon Buyo kyoku Shuran. Achiro Moriji, ed. Tokyo: Soshisha, 1965. Ongaku Jiten. Tokyo: Heibon-sha, 1956-57. 12 volumes. Ortolani, Benito. DasKabukitheater, Sophia University, 1964.

MUSIC IN THE KABUKI THEATER

175

Suwa, Haruo. KabukiKaika. Tokyo: Kakugawa Shoten, 1970. Takano Tatsuyuki. Nihon Kaydshi. Tokyo: Shuja-sha, 1926. Tanabe Hisao. Nikon Ongaku-shi. Tokyo: Toyo Denki Daigaku, 1963. Shamisen Ongaku-shi. Tokyo: Soshisha, 1963. Yamasaki Gakudo, "Taiko-fue hayashi no kiso kenkyu," in Kabuki Kenkyu, numbers 9-23 (February 1927-April 1928). Nine installments in issues: no. 9, 278-300; no. 10, 402-415; no. 11, 527-545; no. 12, 682-704; no. 14, 245253; no. 15, 329-354; no. 16, 484-508; no. 22, 467-482; no. 23, 531-548. DISCOGRAPHY Buyo Narimono Senshu. 2 10-inch LP records. Nihon Victor LR 670 and 671. Gidayiibushi no Kyokubushi. 6 12-inch LP records plus booklet. Nihon Victor SJ 3016-3017. Kanadehon Chushingura. 12-inch records. King Record Company: KC 1019

1st and 2nd dan

KC 1012

3rd dan

KC 1006

4th dan

KC 1005

5th dan

KC 1003

6th dan

KC 1010

7th dan

KC 1012

8th dan

KC 1007-08

9th dan

KabukiBuyo Nyumon Kyoku-shu. 10-inch LP record. Nihon Victor LR 781. Kabuki Geza Ongaku Shusei. 10-inch LP record. Nihon Victor SJL 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Kabuki Geza Uta Shusei. 5 12-inch LP records plus booklet. Nihon Victor SJL 2071, 2072, 2073, 2074 and 2075. Kanjincho. 2 12-inch LP records. King Records SKC 1001 and 1002. Kurumabiki. 12-inch LP record. King Record Company KC 1029. Momiji Gari. 12-inch LP record. Toshiba TH 7063. Narukami. 2 12-inch LP records. Columbia ADX 308 and 309. Nihon Buyo Ongaku. 3 volumes of 3 12-inch LP records each, plus booklet. Nihon Victor 3013, 3014 and 3015. Sukeroku. 2 12-inch LP records. Victor SJ 3001-3003.

Index

Actor: classification, 50; life, 36-45; relation to audience, 3, 18, 21. Aesthetics: in acting, 124, 125; in music, 170. Ageya, 8. Aikata, 144, 145. Ame no oto, 144. Ameya, 148. Ameyauta, 148. The Angel's Robe. See Hagoromo. Aragoto, 40, 68-74, 83-86, 122, 157. Arashi San'emon, 42. Arrowhead. See Ya no Ne. Arukimiko, 5. Asagimaku, 118. Ataka, 82. Attingane, 146, 147. Ateburi, 78. Audience: modern, xii, xiv, 1; relation to actor, 3, 18, 21. Ayumi, 16. Bamboo flute. See Takebue. Bando Mitsugoro, 123. Banzuke, 22, 50, 58. The Barrier Gate. See Sekinoto. Bata bata, 108, 118. Batan, 108. Battati, 108. Battle scenes. See Tate.

Beebeefue, 146. Benkei, 48, 71, 81, 82, 119. Benkei in the Boat. See Funa Benkei. Benten Kozö, 98, 104, 117, 158. Böshibari, 82. Brothels, 3, 151. Bukkaeri, 110. Bukyoku Senrin, 135. Bunchö, 48. Bungo bushi, 139. Butaiban, 21. Butaiko, 37. Buyö, 142. Buyögeki, 82. Caboques, 6. Catamites, 37-39. The Cave Mouth. See Iwato. Chappa, 147. Chaya, 8. Chikamatsu Monzaemon, 52, 72, 138. Children of the Guardians of Buddha. See Shiten-no Osanadachi. Chirashi, 143, 160, 161. Chobo, 74, 77, 118, 125, 138, 139, 168. The Chronicle of the Battle oflchinotani. See Ichinotani Futabagunki. Chü, 50. Chüha, 143. Chünikai, 36.

INDEX

I78 Chit no mai, 146. Chushingura, 82, 120, 122, 144, 146, 151, 168. Classifications: of acting styles, 122; of actors, 50; of dance, 77; of drum patterns, 163; of kata, 66, 84; of music, 142; of prostitutes, 8; of teahouses, 24; of theaters, 24. Clubs of kabuki fans, 21,48. Cocks, Richard, 6. Comedy, 77, 83, 94, 98, 106, 107. Confucianism: comments on kabuki, 4, 6, 51. Costumes, 1, 9, 44, 53, 54, 63, 65, 69, 82, 109, 122. See also Fashions. Courtesans. See Geishas; Prostitutes. Critics and critical booklets, 18, 20, 42, 45, 49, 68, 125. Curtains, 117, 118. Cymbals, 155. Daibyöshi, 149, 158. Daikon, 20. Dance and dancers, 3, 5, 6, 29, 37, 46, 51, 64,77,82,93,94, 134, 135, 164. Dandangaeri, 93. Dangire, 143, 160, 163. Danjürö. See Ichikawa Danjürö. Danmari, 66-68.

De, 93. Debayashi, 106, 137. Deha, 93,94, 143, 147. Deiri bayashi, 163. Dekata, 27. Döjöji, 81, 83. Dökeyaku, 63. Dorna, 11, 14. Domomata Shugen Yakata, 146. Donchomaku, 118. Dontappo, 158. Dora, 147, 157. Dotechiyo, 150. Dötombori, 11. Dressing rooms, 15. Drum, 23, 133, 134. See also Daibyöshi, Hayashi, Ko Tsuzumi, Ödaiko, Okedo, Ö Tsuzumi, Taiko. Echigojishi, 158. Economics of the theater, 43. Edo nagauta, 136. Eight Miles to Hakone. See Hakone Hachiri. Ejima, 29-35. Ekiro, 147. Ennen no mai, 78. Fan clubs. See Clubs. Fashions, 42, 51.

Food vendors, in the theater, 27. Fudömie, 86. Fuingiri, 151. Fuji no Odori, 135. Fukushima no Hama, 157. Fumiga Yaritaya, 135. FunaBenkei, 82, 156. Fune wa Dete Yuku, 151. Furi, 76, 77, 78. Furyw, 64, 78, 134. Fuseiburi, 81. Gaku, 146. Geido, 124. Geisha, 8, 38, 151, 155. Geikibushi, 139, 140. Gekizaru, 140. Genrokumie, 85. Geza, 76, 77, 91, 104-107, 118, 119, 125, 141, 142, 144. Gidayü bushi, 138, 139, 168. GoröTokimune, 144, 159Guide books, 49. Gunji Masakatsu, 125. Hagoromo (The Angel's Kobe), 82. Hakibutai, 118. Hakone Hachiri (Eight Miles to Hakone), 147. Hamauta, 147. Hanamichi, 15, 16, 20, 43, 85, 89, 93, 94, 103, 107, 115, 118, 121, 122, 147, 159, 163. Hana ni Asobaba, 151. Handayü bushi, 139. Handö, 72. Hane no Kamuro, 155. Hanjö, 12, 20. Harima, 138. Hashigakari, 15,64. Hashijörö, 8. Hashimoto Kinsaku, 10. Hashiramaki mie, 86. Hatsuzuki, 158. Hatsuzuki no Na, 158. Hauta, 136, 148. Hayabue, 156. Hayadaibyoshi, 149. Hayagawari, 119. Haya mai, 146. Hayashi, 134, 136, 139, 145, 148. Hayashi gashira, 141. Hayashi Razan, 6. Hayawatari, 149, 158. Heike Monagatari, 11. Hengemono, 81, 109. Higehiku, 157.

m

INDEX Hikinuki, 110. Hikkomi, 93. Hipparimie, 86. Hiragana Seisui Ki, 157, 158. Hirote, 108. Hishikawa Moronobu, 27, 29, 45. Homekotoba, 20. Homosexualism, 4, 9, 39Hongyó, 163. Honmizu, 119. Honnikai, 36. Honrai, 163. Hontsurigane, 148. Horie, 11. The House of Sugawara. See Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami. Hyóbanki. See Critical books. Hyòshigi, 107, 157. lbaraki, 82, 89. Ichiban daiko, 165. Ichikawa Danjuro, 43, 44, 48. Ichikawa Danjuro: I, 68, 83, 106; II, 45, 69, 82, 85; IV, 44; V, 44, 119; VII, 44, 68, 71, 82, 120, 122, 123; VIII, 119; IX, 71, 82, 121, 122.

Ichikawa Gennosuke, 38. Ichikawa Monnosuke III, 37. Ichikawa Sadanji, 43, 121. Ichikawa Yaozo II, 43. Ichimura Uzaemon, 121. Ichimura-za, 12, 16, 17, (pi. 2), 46. lchinotani Futabagunki (The Chronicle of the Battle oflchinotani),98, 119, 154. Ietsugu, 34. Ieyasu, 6. Ikushima Daikichi, 42. Ikushima Shingoro, 29. Ikushima Shingoto, 42, 43. Imoseyama Onna Teikin, 146. Inaba Odori, 135. International Theater, 117. ¡riha, 93, 143. Iroko, 37. Isamihada Matsuri, 144. Ise Ondo, 151. Ishinage, 85, 86. Issei, 163, 168. ltchii bus hi, 139, 140. Itchoiri, 154. Itsutsu gashira, 157. Iwai Hanshiro V, 119lwato kagura, 158. Izumi Dayu II, 71. Jidaimono, xiv, 66. fintate, 154.

fitsuwa, 109. Jo-ha-kyu, 143, 163. Jojokichi, 50. fo no mai, 146. Joruri, 74, 110, 134, 137, 154, 156, 165, 168. foshiki maku, 117. fuhachiban, 71. Kabesu, 27. Kabuki Nempyo, 136. Kabukiodori, 134, 143. Kabuki SoshiEmaki, 134, 135. Kabuki-za, 14, 115. Kagebayashi, 140. Kagema-jaya, 38. Kagura, 147. Kagura sandame, 161. Kaigetsudd, 46. Kakeai, 140. Kakegoe, 20. Kakubeidaiko, 148. Kamakura Sandaiki (The Three Eras of Kamakura), 77. Kamigatajiuta, 144. Kamigata nagauta, 136. Kamuro, 49, 53Kanadehon Chushingura. See Chushingura. Kana no Kiku, 135. Kanazoshi, 49. Kane, 134, 158. See also Atarigane. KaneKiki, 135. Kangen, 146,154. Kanjincho, 71, 81, 82, 84, 85, 89, 94, 98, 1 0 0 , 1 1 9 , 121, 122, 1 6 5 .

Kanjin no, 6. Kaomise, 21, 22, 50, 68. Karabutai, 118. Kariobana Tsutsumi no Yushio, 144. Kasai nembutsu, 147. Kashira, 161. Kata, 12, 65-126. Katarimono, 137, 142. Kata shagiri, 164. Katate, 89. Katobushi, 51, 139. Kawara kojiki, 3. Kawarasaki-za, 120. Kawatake Mokuami, 75, 104. Kazenooto, 144. Keigoto, 77. Keiko Musume, 155. Keikouta, 148. Keiseigoto, 9. Keiyozerifu, 104. Kenuki, 71. Keren, 119. Ki, 85,91, 107, 118, 157.

i8o

INDEX

Kido geisha, 12. Kikkawa Eiji (Eishi), 137. KikuZukushi, 135, 148. Kimari, 108. Kimpira, 69, 138. Kinden no dan, 146. Kineya Kangoro, 136. Kineya Rokusaemon, 136. Kirimi, 93. Kiyabo, 81. Kiyomoto, 82, 125, 139, 142, 155, 169. Kitsune roppo, 89. Kodama, 145, 160. KoiHikyaku Yamato Orai, 144, 151, 157. Ko-jaya, 24. Kojo, 18. Kojoyaku, 63. Koken, 110. Komai, 134, 135. Koshi, 8. Koto, 51, 135, 143, 146, 155. Kotouta, 146. Kotsuzumi, 135, 137, 145, 154, 158, 163. Kouta, 64, 134, 136. Kowaka, 134. Koya mono, 3. Kudoki, 143, 159Kumadori, 69, 109. Kumagai, 119. KunijoKabukiEkotoba, 134, 137, 143. KuroKami, 156. Kuromisu, 141. Kurumabiki (Pulling the Carriage Apart), 77, 84. Kuruwa bayashi, 83. Kuruwa Bunsho (Love Letter from the Licensed Quarter), 74. Kuruwa mono, 103. Kuse, 143, 161. Kyogen, 134. Kyogen kata, 115.

Maruhon, 74, 78, 168. Masaoka Chugino Dan, 146. Masu, 14. Matsubame, 82, 122. Matsumoto Köshirö IV, 43. Matsumushi, 145, 147. Matsu no Ha, 135. Meiboku Sendaihagi, 146. Meriyasu, 156. Michiyuki, 84, 143, 144, 155, 156, 159. Midäre, 146. Mie, 46, 84, 85, 93, 108, 109, 122, 125, 157. Migawarizazen (The Zen Substitute), 82, 94. Mihokagura, 154. Mimasuya Hyögo, 106. Mitsudaiko, 157. Mitsumen Komori, 155. Miyakagura, 147. Miyauta, 147. Mizu-jaya, 24. Mizuki Tatsunosuke, 36, 43, 81. Mizu no oto, 145, 151. Mnemonics, 108, 153. Mochizuki, 151, 153. Mokkin, 155. Mokugyo, 147. MomijiGari, 109, 146, 156. Mondo, 85. Monogatari, 85, 143. The Monstrous Spider. See Tsuchigumo. Morita-za, 56, 118. Moronobu. See Hishikawa Moronobu, 25 (pi. 4), 28 (pi. 5), 30 (pi. 6), 32 (pi. 8), 33 (pi. 9), 56-58. Motoori Norinaga, 22. Mugen no Kane, 156. Muki tokoro, 49. Murayama-za, 136. Murazakura Usano Mitegura, 140. Muro Kyüsö, 4. MusumeDöjöji, 81, 85, 165.

Love Letter from the Licensed Quarter. See Kuruwa Bunsho.

Nadare, 144. Nagauta, 94, 96, 97, 125, 136, 137, 140-142, 155, 156, 158, 168. Nakabashi, 11. Naka-jaya, 24. Nakamura Ganjirö II, 74. Nakamura Kanzaburö, 108. Nakamura Kikugorö VI, 121, 122. Nakamura Kikuyo, 37. Nakamura Nakazö 44; I, 45, 82; III, 57. Nakamura Rikö II, 37. Nakamura Utaemon: III, 44; V, 121, 123. Nakamura-za, 11, 12, 13 (pi. 1), 14, 16, 27, 56, 57, 115, 118, 136, 140. Namba, 78.

Maebiki, 147. Mae-jaya, 24. Magosa, 148. Mai, 77, 78, 82. The Maid of Do/o Temple. See Musume Dojoji. Maigoto bayashi, 163. Magouta, 147. Makeup, 65, 69, 109. Makusoto, 118, 119. The Maple Viewing. See Momijigari. Mariuta, 155.

INDEX Nami no oto, 145. Nanatsu niNaruko, 135. Naniwa monogatari, 49. Nanori, 16, 104, 143. Nanori-dai, 16. Nanshoku ókagami, 39. Narimono, 107. Narukami (The ThunderGod), 71, 89. Nembutsu odori, 134, 143. Nezumi kido, 12. Nimaime, 83. Ningyóbun, 76, 84. Ningyómi, 76. Ninin Wankyu, 140, 169. Ninokuchimura, 144, 157. Nirami, 85, 86. No, 15, 63, 78, 82, 84, 112, 129, 134, 143, 146, 156, 165. Nókan, 137, 163. Noren, 12. Non, 11. Notation, 135, 141, 142. Nozakimura (Nozaki Villagej, 68, 120. Nuregoto, 72. Obon, 134. Ochako, 26. Ochibasbu, 135. Odaiko, 88\ff, 118, 140, 144, 145. Odori, 77, 134. Odoriji, 143, 151, 160. Odoriko, 8. Oiran, 53. O-jaya, 24. Okedo, 146. Oki, 143, 144. Oki-jòruri, 169. Okina, 83. Okiya, 8. Okumura Masanobu, 16, 17 (pi.2), 47. Okuni, 5, 63-65, 134. Okuni kabuki, 143. Okuni Kabuki Ekotoba, 140. Okuni Kabuki Kozu, 134. Okuri, 165, 168. Omote-jaya, 24. Omukó, 15. Onnagata, 4, 9, 10, 15, 20, 22, 37, 38, 40-42, 44, 47, 49, 76, 81-83, 86, 110, 119. Onnakabuki, 6, 55, 135, 137. Onoe Baikò: I, 45; IV, 44. Onoe Kikugoró, 37. Onoe Kikugoró: V, 82; VI, 123. Onoe Shóroku, 37. Onori, 154. Onusa, 136.

i8i Orugdru, 145, 155. Osaka: teahouses, 27; theaters, 23. Osbiki, 134. Osbi Modosbi (Pushing and Pulling), 11. Osome Hisamatsu Ukinano Yomiuri (The Scandal of Osome and Hisamatsu), 119Otsu Hoc home Osaka to lute, 146. Otsuzumi, 135, 137, 161. Ozatsuma, 139, 140, 144, 169. Ozatsuma Kineya Genfu, 136. Ozatsuma Shuzendayu, 170. Pantomime, 6, 66, 76, 78, 81, 94, 98. Playbills. See banzuke. Playwright, 2, 21, 65. Prints, 1, 29, 43, 45-49, 65. Prostitute, 4, 38, 45-49, 50-53, 64. Pulling the Carriage Apart. See Kurumabiki. Puppet: style of acting, 107; theaters, 74, 110, 137. Pushing and Pulling. See Oshimodoshi. Raijo, 168. Rankandai, 18. Ret, 147. Regulations: on actors, 7, 44; for brothels, 3, 7, 8; for homosexuals, 9; for prostitution, 8; on salaries, 43, 44; for theaters, 11, 12, 35. Renjishi, 145. Rokudan, 155. Roppo, 86, 98, 115, 122, 159, 163. Sadoshima Yosanji, 6. Sagariha, 155. Saikaku, 39. Sajiki, 11. SakataTojuro, 36, 42-44, 72, 82. Sakura Hime Azuma Bunsho (The Scarlet Princess of Edo), 101-103. Salaries, 43. Samisen, 27, 51. See also Shamisen. Sambaso, 23, 83. Sandanme, 161. Sanju, 168. Sannegoroshichi, 72. Sarashi, 158, 163. Sarugaeri, 93. Saruwaka-za, 11. Satokagura, 149. Sawamura Kito, 37. Sawamura Sojuro: I, 45; V, 44. The Scandal of Osome and Hisamatsu. See Osome Hisamatsu Ukinano Yomiuri. The Scarlet Princess of Edo. See Sakura Hime Azuma Bunsho. Segawa Kikunojo: I, 37, 42; II, 43.

INDEX SekinoKoman, 135. Sekinoto (The Barrier Gate), 81, 83. Sekkyó-kakari, 169. Seri, 116. Seriage, 116. Seridashi, 116. Serifu, 146, 156. Serioroshi, 116. Serisage, 116. Seven-three. See Shichisan. Sewamono, xiv, 66, 147, 148, 164. Shakkyó (The Stone Bridge), 83, 168. Shakuhachi, 27, 134. Shamisen, 63, 74, 77, 107, 119, 135. Sharaku, 48. Shibaijaya, 24. Shibai mono, 3. Shibaraku (Wait a Moment), 69, 71, 110, 154. Shichiku Shoshinshù, 135. Shichiku Taizen, 135. Shichisan, 94, 115, 117, 119, 121, 122. Shichome, 147. Shidai, 143, 165. Shijó, 11. Shimabara, 7, 10, 11, 49, 64. Shiningaeri, 93. Shinkyoku, 136. Shinnai bus hi, 51, 139. Shinobi Odori, 135. Shinobi sanju, 145, 156. Shinobue, 137. Shinuki, 78. Shin Yamauba, 169. Shirabyòshi, 78. Shitakata, 137. Shite, 135, 156. Shitennò Osanadachi, 69. Shizu Hata Obi, 147. Shóchiku kabuki, 153. Shoden, 147, 148. Shómen engi, 98. Shosa, 142, 157. Shosagoto, 77, 84, 115, 122. Shosamono, 142. Shudògoto, 9Shuko, 48. Shunga, 49. Shunsho, 48. Shura hayashi, 158. Slide-rule effect, 161, 153. Socio-economics, xiii, 2. Sògaku, 146. Sòfò, 134. Soku mie, 85. Sóodori, 78. Stage position, 41, 98, 139.

The Stone Bridge. See Shakkyo. The Subscription List. See Kanjincho. Suehirogari, 161. Sugagaki, 150. Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami (The House of Sugawara), 71, 77, 84. Sukeroku, 21, 43, 86, 94, 106, 119, 139, 148, 155. Suppon, 117. Surisashi, 82. Sutenzerifu, 106. Suzugamori, 147, 156. Tachimawari, 91, 157. Tachiyaku, 40, 49, 83. Taiheiki, 11. Taiko, 137, 146-148, 151, 160. Takebue, 137, 147, 160. Takemori no Dan, 158. Takemoto Gidayu, 138. Tanaka guild, 153, 161. Tanzen roppo, 86. Tataki, 160. Tate, 93, 107, 108, 117. Tatsumi Hakkei, 151. Tayu, 8,49, 51-53. Teaching in kabuki, 123. Teahouses, 8, 24, 29, 34-35, 38-39, 45. Tenjin, 49. Tenchijin mie, 86. Tentsutsu, 159Theater construction or design, 2, 6, 7, 10, 12, 14-18, 36, 115, 141. The Thorn Tree. See Ibaraki. The Thousand Cherry Trees of Yoshitsune. See Yoshitsune Sembon Zakura. The Three Eras of Kamakura. See Kamakura Sandaiki. The Thunder God. See Narukami. Ticket prices, 14. Tied to a Pole. See Boshibari. TobeGinsaku, 125. Tobiroppo, 89, 119. Tobisari, 159Togenshu, 49. Toita Yasuji, 68. Tokonooto, 145. Tokiwazu bushi, 82, 125, 139, 155, 169. Tombo gaeri, 93. Tomimoto bushi, 139. Tomoyakko, 148. Torii school, 47. Torii Kiyomitsu, 85. Torii Kiyomoto, 46. Torikagura, 148, 155. Toyose, 154, 157. Tsuchigumo (The Monstrous Spider), 82.

183

INDEX The Treasury of Loyal Retainers. See Chüshingura. Tsudabushi, 151. Tsuke, 108, 118, 122, 125, 157. Tsuke-butai, 16. Tsukecho, 141, 142, 153. Tsuke uchi, 107. Tsumeyori, 100. Tsumoru Yuki Noji no Furudera, 144, 145. Tsurane, 104, 106, 121. Tsuru Käme, 168. Tsuruya Namboku, 101, 104, 119. Tsüten, 18. Tsuzukegaeri, 93. Uchiage, 108. Uchi dashi, 165. Uchikomi, 165. Uchiwadaiko, 155. Uemura Kichiya, 42, 43. Ukiyoe. See Prints. Ura-jaya, 24. Ushiroburi, 76. Utabikuni, 5. UtagawaToyokunilll, 19 (pi. 3). Utamaro, 48. Utamono, 137, 142. Utsubozaru, 155. Uzura sajiki, 18. Wagoto, 71-74, 83, 86, 122. Wait a Moment. See Shibaraku. Wakashü, 15. Wakashü-gata, 39, 40, 59. Wakashükabuki, 9, 55, 64, 135. Wakishidai, 143. Watarizerifu, 101-103. Western theater: compared with kabuki, xv. Wigs, 109.

Woodblock print. See Print. Wooden clappers. See Ki. Yagö, 20,43. Yagura, 140. Yakuharai, 106, 121. Yakusha hyöbanki, 18,49. Yakusha kuchijamisen, 49. Yakusha no uwasa, 49. Yakusha nichö jamisen, 50. Yamashita Kinsaku, 37. Yamamura-za, 34, 37. Yama oroshi, 145, 147, 156. Yanagi Bashi Kara, 151. Yano Ne (Arrowhead), 85, 169. Yaw, 10, 78. Yarn hyöbanki, 49. Yarn kabuki, 9, 10, 40, 78, 135. Yam mushi, 38, 49. Yoko mie, 86. Yoshitsune Sembon Zakura (The Thousand Cherry Trees of Yoshitsune), 89, 156. Yoshiwara, 7, 11, 21, 24, 31 (pi. 7), 46, 47, 53, 150. Yoshizawa Ayame, 41. Yoten, 93. Yotsudake uta, 148. Yozakura, 144. Yüjo hyöbanki, 49. Yüjo kabuki, 6. Yuka, 139. Yukinooto, 144. Yurei mie, 86. Zato, 155. Zeami, 84, 124. Zen no tsutome, 147. The Zen Substitute. See Migawarizazen. Zohiki (Throwing the Elephant), 71.

About the Authors

JAMES R. BRANDON, author of Kabuki; Five Classic Plays, has written or edited six books on Asian theater. He has directed six kabuki plays in English production and has received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fulbright and Ford foundations for research in Japan and other Asian countries. He is currently Professor of Drama and Theater at the University of Hawaii. WILLIAM P. MALM, professor of Music at the University of Michigan, is a well-known author and lecturer on Asian music, especially that of Japan. He has studied the musical instruments of kabuki for two years. He has written Japanese Music and Musical Instruments, a standard reference text, and Nagauta: The Heart of Kabuki Music, the first detailed study of this genre. DONALD H. SHIVELY, especially interested in the relationship of literature and drama to the social and cultural history of eighteenthand nineteenth-century Japan, has written extensively on this period. Currently Chairman of the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University, he is also Executive Director of the Japan Institute. He was managing editor of the Journal of Asian Studies and is now editor of the HarvardJournal of Asiatic Studies.