Kabuki
The history of kabuki began in 1603 during the Edo period when former shrine maiden Izumo no Okuni, possibly a miko of Izumo-taisha, began performing with a troupe of young female dancers a new, simple style of dance drama in pantomime, on a makeshift stage in the dry bed of the Kamo River in Kyoto[4][5][6][7] In the earliest forms of kabuki, female performers played both men and women in comic playlets about ordinary life.In the wake of such success, rival troupes quickly formed, and kabuki was born as ensemble dance and drama performed by women.The widespread appeal of kabuki often meant that a diverse crowd of different social classes gathered to watch performances, a unique occurrence that happened nowhere else in the city of Edo.As an art-form, kabuki also provided inventive new forms of entertainment, featuring new musical styles played on the shamisen, clothes and fashion often dramatic in appearance, famous actors and stories often intended to mirror current events.[4] Since fights would usually erupt among the young samurai patrons, shogunal authorities, who wanted to maintain order, banned women from performing on stage.[4] During the early seventeenth century, within a culture where pederasty was pervasive among samurai, her decision didn't significantly harm the theater's popularity.However, after Iemitsu's death in 1651 and with samurai now fighting for the attention of boys rather than girls, the shogunate imposed further restrictions, allowing only males over 15 to perform on stage.[13] In the mid-18th century, kabuki fell out of favor for a time, with bunraku taking its place as the premier form of stage entertainment among the lower social classes.In the 1840s, repeated periods of drought led to a series of fires affecting Edo, with kabuki theatres—traditionally made of wood—frequently burning down, forcing many to relocate.[9] The shogunate, mostly disapproving of the socialisation and trade that occurred in kabuki theatres between merchants, actors and prostitutes, took advantage of the fire crisis in the following year, forcing the Nakamura-za, Ichimura-za and Kawarazaki-za out of the city limits and into Asakusa, a northern suburb of Edo.Deemed unattractive, he mainly performed buyō, or dancing, in dramas written by Kawatake Mokuami, who also wrote during the Meiji era to follow.Beginning in 1868, enormous cultural changes, such as the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate, the elimination of the samurai class, and the opening of Japan to the West, helped to spark kabuki's re-emergence.Both actors and playwrights strove to improve the reputation of kabuki in the face of new foreign influence and amongst the upper classes, partially through adapting traditional styles to modern tastes.[20] Today, kabuki is the most popular of the traditional styles of Japanese drama, with its star actors often appearing in television or film roles.[26] Kabuki troupes regularly tour Asia,[27] Europe[28] and America,[29] and there have been several kabuki-themed productions of Western plays such as those of Shakespeare.Regardless, since incorporating more advanced technology in the new stage sets, costumes, and lighting, Super Kabuki has regained interest from the young demographic.[38][39] In addition, Square Enix announced a Super Kabuki adaptation of Final Fantasy X collaborating with Tokyo Broadcasting System in 2022.[40][41] The kabuki stage features a projection called a hanamichi (花道, "flower path"), a walkway which extends into the audience and via which dramatic entrances and exits are made.Chūnori (riding in mid-air) is a technique, which appeared toward the middle of the 19th century, by which an actor's costume is attached to wires and he is made to "fly" over the stage or certain parts of the auditorium.Also common are stagehands rushing onto the stage adding and removing props, backdrops and other scenery; these kuroko (黒子) are always dressed entirely in black and are traditionally considered invisible.[44] Since feudal laws in 17th century Japan prohibited replicating the looks of samurai or nobility and the use of luxurious fabrics, the kabuki costumes were groundbreaking new designs to the general public, even setting trends that still exist today.Both otoko and onnagata wear hakama - pleated trousers – in some plays, and both use padding underneath their costumes to create the correct body shape for the outfit.Rice powder is used to create the white oshiroi base for the characteristic stage makeup, and kumadori enhances or exaggerates facial lines to produce dramatic animal or supernatural masks.Kanadehon Chūshingura, one of the most famous plays in the kabuki repertoire, serves as an excellent example; it is ostensibly set in the 1330s, though it actually depicts the contemporary (18th century) affair of the revenge of the 47 rōnin.Some of the most famous sewamono are the love suicide plays, adapted from works by the bunraku playwright Chikamatsu; these center on romantic couples who cannot be together in life due to various circumstances and who therefore decide to be together in death instead.The main actor has to convey a wide variety of emotions between a fallen, drunkard person and someone who in reality is quite different since he is only faking his weakness, such as the character of Yuranosuke in Chūshingura.Kabuki, like other forms of drama traditionally performed in Japan, was—and sometimes still is—performed in full-day programmes, with one play comprising a number of acts spanning the entire day.Chief amongst these was the concept of jo-ha-kyū (序破急), a pacing convention in theatre stating that the action of a play should start slow, speed up, and end quickly.The stories and actors have been recreated in many different art forms, including woodblock prints, books, magazines, oral storytelling, photography in later years, and others.[56] Also referred to as "amateur kabuki", these performances took place at the local level across Japan, but were most commonly held in the Gifu and Aichi prefectures.
Kabuki danceKabuki (disambiguation)ShibarakuIchimura-za theaterTriptychwoodblock printUtagawa Toyokuni IIIJapanese theatretraditional dancekumadorimake-upEdo periodIzumo no OkuniUNESCOUNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanityetymologykabukimonosamuraishrine maidenIzumo-taishapantomimeKamo RiverprostitutionYoshiwarared-light districtmerchantsmusical stylesshamisenteahousespederastyshogunIemitsuonnagataSharakuGenrokubunrakuChikamatsu MonzaemonSonezaki ShinjūIchikawa Danjūrō IYoshitakidroughtAsakusaTenpō ReformsClaude MonetUtagawa HiroshigeKawatake MokuamiMeiji erarestoration of the EmperorgenresKabuki-zaWorld War IIoccupationTetsuji TakechiKansaiBandō Tamasaburō VJapanese popular cultureŌshikaNaganoShakespeareGerald VizenorYukio MishimaZa KabukiAustralian National UniversityUNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage ListsIchikawa En-ōYamato TakeruSquare EnixFinal Fantasy XTokyo Broadcasting SystemhanamichiYoshitsune Senbon ZakuraPeter PanNational TheatreMinami-zakurokoNihongaukiyo-ehakamaRice powderoshiroitraditional mannerhabotaijidaimonosewamonoshosagotoGenpei WarNanboku-chōKanadehon Chūshingura47 rōninChūshinguratownspeoplelove suicideMusume DōjōjiRenjishiNagautakakegoejo-ha-kyūTale of the Heikecommitting suicideMinamoto no YoshitsuneYoritomoTaira clankitsuneGenkurōSugawara Denju Tenarai KagamiSugawara no MichizaneTenjinMisono-zaShūmeiKosakaMeiji-zaShinbashi EnbujōNational TheaterNagoyaSuehiro-zaFukuokaHakata-zaKagawaKotohiraKanamaru-zaKabuki shinpōTheatre of JapanGlossary of Japanese theaterKyōgenOshigumaIchikawa Danjūrō