Review: 2019 Kabuki Kaomise – the National Theatre of Japan and the Shinbashi Enbujo

PART TWO

The November 2019 performance at the National Theatre of Japan was ‘Koko no Yushi Musume Kagekiyo: Hyuga-Jima’ (孤高勇士嬢景清: (四幕五場) 日向嶋. A Brave and Solitary Warrior Kagekiyo and his Daughter. 4th Act 5th Scene: At Hyuga Island). It was adapted from two Bunraku ‘Kagekiyo pieces’, the puppet plays ‘Daibutsuden Bandai no Ishizuen’ (The Eternal Foundation Stone of the Great Buddha Hall at Todaiji – 大仏殿万代石楚) by Nishizawa Ippu and a later re-working of this called

Review: November 2019 – the Festive Annual Kabuki Kaomise

PART ONE

The start of the Kabuki season, around November each year, is marked by what is referred to as the Kaomise (lit. face showing) performances. This is the time when the pre-eminent actors are seen on stage during performances intended to show off their skills. It has been a very important event in the Kabuki calendar in Edo, Osaka and Kyoto during and since the

Book Review: The Forty-Seven Rōnin: The Vendetta in History

John A. Tucker presents the first comprehensive historical study of one of the most famous events in Japanese history.

Published in February 2018 this seminal work about the Forty-Seven Rōnin, one of the most famous historical tales in Japan, is probably one of the most accessible academic studies in the English language. It is very well laid out, the structure eminently logical, the referencing structure precise and the bibliography pleasantly well-stocked. Unsurprisingly, whilst Tucker does mention less reliable sources, he does not dwell on the conjectural discrepancies that arise from these, his suppositions being based on his analysis of empirical texts. There are a few black and white illustrations ranging from location and portrait photographs through to reproductions of illustrations both

Review: January 2019 New Year Kabuki: Part Two – Asakusa Kokaido Public Hall and the Kabukiza

Part two of a two part review!

Asakusa Kokaidō Public Hall Shinshun New Year Kabuki

The matinee kicked off with an Otoshidama – Nenshi Goaisatsu, a special kōjō (ceremony), for new year greetings during which one of the company appears on stage, on this occasion Onoe Matsuya, dressed in formal Edo era attire during which he described some of the conventions of Kabuki, highlights to watch out for in the upcoming performances and which are his favourite local hang outs.

…and of course the ever popular famous thief Ishikawa Goemon made his appearance with the first performance of the matinee in the very entertaining Edo style dance drama ‘Modorikago Iro ni Aikata’ (The Returning Palanquin). The two palanquin bearers, Yoshirō (Nakamura Tanenosuke), the chic one who is

Review: January 2019 New Year Kabuki: Part One – Shinbashi Enbujo and the National Theatre of Japan

Part one of a two-part review.

Shinbashi Enbujo

The first performance of the afternoon was ‘Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura’, (Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees), one of the three most popular plays of the Kabuki repertoire (which includes ‘Sugawara and the Secrets of Calligraphy’, and ‘Chūshingura: The Treasury of Loyal Retainers’). The particular act of the play performed was ‘Torii Mae’, (Before the Gate of the Fushimi Inari Shrine). This part of the play focuses on the story of how Shizuka Gozen (Otani Hiromatsu) the lover of Minamoto Yoshitsune (Otani Tomaemon) who is following Yoshitsune on his flight from his older brother Yoritomo, is restrained in her attempts to follow Yoshitsune. To restrain his lover Shizuka Yoshitsune enlists the help of his retainer Satō Tadanobu (Nakamura Shidō) who is in fact not the real Tadanobu but is indeed a magical fox. As a fairly standard and very popular act from

Review: Tokyo Year End Kabuki – December 2018

Two reviews in one.

There were two main Tōkyō theatres holding end of year performances in December 2018. The National Theatre of Japan in Hanzōmon and the Kabukiza in Higashi Ginza, and a lucky attendance on the final auspicious day or senshūraku (lit. music of a thousand autumns, an old entertainment industry term for the final day of a performance run) at the Kabukiza andas a result was a full house.

The December 2018 Kabuki at the National Theatre of Japan was the Tōshi Kyōgen (full length play) Zoho Futatsu Domoe (The New and Improved Story of the

Review: Shochiku Grand Kabuki – Salle Jean Vilar

Théâtre National de Chaillot, Paris, France, 13 – 19 September 2018

‘Japonismes 2018: les âmes en résonance’ (souls in resonance) is a celebration of Japanese culture taking part in Paris and other cities in France to mark 160 years of friendship between France and Japan. As part of the celebrations two Kabuki actors, Nakamura Shidō II and Nakamura Shichinosuke II (whose grandfather Nakamura Kanzaburō XVII was one of the first Kabuki actors to perform Kabuki in Paris at

Review: Ehon Gappō ga Tsuji

 

Evening performance of the Grand April Kabuki at the Kabukiza Theatre, Tōkyō: 2 April – 26 April 2018.

Ehon Gappō ga Tsuji (’The Revenge of Gappō at the Crossroads’) is a ‘kizewamono’ (gangster play) which premiered in the 5^th lunar month of 1810 at the Ichimuraza Theatre in Edo (modern day Tōkyō). Dramatised by Tsuruya Namboku IV from a popular novel this rarely performed full length play (toshi kyōgen) was last staged in April 2012 at the National Theatre in Tōkyō with, as in this performance, the 74 year old veteran

Yago no Kai (Yajūrō–Shingo Company) European Tour 2016

A great introduction to an art which is still able to reach an overseas audience!

In Paris the Yago no Kai Kabuki Company’s performances took place in the Grande salle, the 300 seater theatre, at the Maison de la Culture du Japon à Paris (May 12-14).

Two other European countries are scheduled on their whistle-stop tour this May, in Switzerland at La salle Théodore Turrettini at the Bâtiment des Forces Motrices in Geneva (May 17 & 18), and in Spain Kabuki returns for the first time since 1987, after an

Ningyo: The Art Of The Japanese Doll Competition Closed And The Winner Is…

A winner has been chosen!

Thanks to everyone who entered the competition to win a copy of the book Ningyo: The Art Of The Japanese Doll.

Sadly there can only be one winner.

And the winner is…

Art Exhibition: Kabuki – Japanese Theatre Prints

Come face to face with Kabuki theatre’s most famous characters!

Venue: National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh

Date: 4^th October 2013 – 2^nd February 2014

The opening up of Japan to the rest of the world after Commodore Perry’s 1853 visit sparked a craze in the West for Japanese art and design. Called Japonisme it began in the late 1850s and peaked with and after what is considered by some the most pivotal event in the history of Japanese art in the West; the exhibition of Sir Rutherford Alcock’s collection of

Okamoto Kidō On The Kabuki Theatre Of The Meiji Period – Part Two

Second in a four-part series by kabuki collector Trevor Skingle!

Published as a series in 1935 and then in full as “Meiji Gekidan Ranpu no Moto ni te” (On the Theatre of the Meiji Period – Under the Lamp) by Iwanami Shoten in 1993. These extracts are from the serialisation which appeared in the late 1920s early 1930s in the Tokyo Kabukiza Monthly Kabuki Review magazine as

Okamoto Kidō On The Kabuki Theatre Of The Meiji Period – Part One

First in a four-part series by kabuki collector Trevor Skingle!

Published as a series in 1935 and then in full as “Meiji Gekidan Ranpu no Moto ni te” (On the Theatre of the Meiji Period – Under the Lamp) by Iwanami Shoten in 1993. These extracts are from the serialisation which appeared in the late 1920s early 1930s in the Tokyo Kabukiza Monthly Kabuki Review magazine as

Tokyo Kabukiza Monthly Kabuki Review April – May 1930

Second and final part of the Tokyo Kabukiza Monthly Kabuki Review series by Kabuki collector and researcher, Trevor Skingle!

The second of the Tokyo Kabukiza Monthly Kabuki Review magazines No. 64 covers the period 15^th April – 1^st May 1930. Unfortunately missing from the series is magazine No 62 covering the period from March – April 1930.

The magazine cover, from a print by Toyokuni III, depicts a scene from a Sankatsu-Hanshichi mono – dances or dramas whose main characters are the lovers Akaneya Hanshichi, the son of a sake merchant in the Yamato province, and Minoya Sankatsu, an Ōsaka courtesan. Both characters really existed and committed shinju, double suicide, on the

A True-Life Kabuki Crime Story: An Actor And His Geisha Mistress Murder Her Patron

An historical tale of love and murder that resulted in the death penalty!

Between 1868 – 1869 Kobayashi Kinpei, the boss of a successful money lending business, had prospered as a result of the economic downturn caused by the Boshin Wars between the Imperial and Shōgunate forces which led to the Meiji Restoration and the modernisation of Japan. In 1869 he met and bought the contract of a Geisha, Yoarashi Okinu and set her up in Saruwaka-cho in a shōtaku (a house in which a mistress is kept) and with a haneri (kimono under collar) shop in the

Meiji Era Kabuki: Three Shintomiza Tsuji Banzuke Part Two – 1899

Second in a three-part series by Kabuki collector and researcher Trevor Skingle!

Having adopted the Western calendar in 1873 the turn of the century was on the horizon in Japan. Many changes had taken place in the previous century, not least some pivotal ones for Kabuki.

In 1872, with the ending of the Tokugawa prohibitions on the location of the Kabuki Theatres, following the lead of Morita Kanya XII (the owner of the Shintomiza) the Kabuki theatres had