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than drama, it is spectacle! It is a feast for the
eyes, a delight for the ears and an occassion
for feeling and expressing emotion.
According to legend, kabuki had
its origin in
the early seventeenth
century
when a renegade
Shinto priestess (Okuni)
and
her troupe of dancers
and actors began
performing dances in
the dry
river beds in the ancient capital
of
Kyoto. Soon
other troupes of female
dancers
began to lure
audiences with their
sensuous
performances as
well as their off stage
activities.
In the early
years, the
interests of such
acting groups seems to
have
been more in sex
than in serious dramatic
performance. Alarmed
by the immorality of
the
theater, the government
banned all
women performers from the stage in
an
effort
to safeguard the public's
morals.
This move radically changed the direction of
kabuki, because now, more importance was
placed on
skill over beauty and more stress placed
on
drama than dance. These changes put kabuki
on
the path of developing into a dramatic art
form
and the ban on women performers
resulted in the
appearance of the "onnagata",
men who became
highly skilled in playing women's roles. Some
of kabuki's greatest actors have
gained a large
following by specializing in just such
roles
Kabuki was, in many ways, a child of the Genroku era, Common
people soon became enamored
when the merchant
class emerged
as a strong
economic force in
the urban areas.
of these dramas
with their gaudy and bright
costumes, violent
actions and strong emotional
tension; the
colorful day-long performances
attracted
people from all ranks of society, from
shop
keepers and merchants to
samurai.
To
appreciate its appeal, one must see
kabuki Kabuki had its
ownShakespeare in the person of A favorite theme was the
love suicide drama.
as
a fusion into a single form of the arts of
music,
dance, acting, literature as well as
the graphic arts.
Color and motion are
important elements in kabuki;
ingenious
mechanical devices such as the
revolving
stage, trapdoors, and the passageway
('hanamichi"-flower road) that runs directly
through
the audience enabled production
managers to
heighten the dramatic effects of
the plays.
Chikamatsu
Monzaemon (1653-1725) who wrote
more than one
hundred and sixty dramas and
puppet plays. His plays
dealt not only with
significant historical
events but also with the
lives of ordinary
people of his time.
The plot usually
involved a hero who was either a
samurai or
townsman and a heroine who was a
courtesan
from the "pleasure quarters"
("yoshiwara").
The focus then was on the
conflict between
love and duty or "ninjo" (human
feelings) and
"giri" (social and moral obligations).
Too
often, the only solution to this conflict for
the lovers was suicide. This struggle between
"ninjo" and "giri" continues to be a
constant
in Japanese life.
As a
"traditional" form of theater, kabuki
today faces
competition from modern forms
of entertainment like
movies and television.
Its position as "traditional
theater" often
makes it seem "stuffy" to some.
Still, the
kabuki stage is very much alive
today, being
ably maintained by hereditary
lines of great
actors at the kabuki theater in
Tokyo
("Kabukiza") and elsewhere in Japan.
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