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

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

Spring and New Year Kabuki in Tōkyō – Part Two National Theatre of Japan and Asakusa Kōkaidō

The second and final part of a selection of Kabuki plays in review!

Apart from the performances at the Shinbashi Enbujo and the Kabukiza there were two other theatres also putting on New Year-Spring performances.

A Tōshi Kyōgen was performed at the National Theatre of Japan and there were two, matinee and evening, Shinshun

Review: Spring and New Year Kabuki in Tōkyō – Part One Shinbashi Enbujo and the Kabukiza

Plays in Review: Futago Sumidagawa, Genpei Nunobiki no Taki – Yoshikata Saigo, Shikorobiki, Shōgun Edo wo Saru, Otsu-e Dōjōji, Igagoe Dochu Sugoroku – Numazu, Matsuura no Taiko

This year, 2017, to mark the New Year and Spring in Tōkyō seven Kabuki shows were scheduled during January. Matinee and evening performances at the Shinbashi Enbujo, the Kabukiza and the Asakusa Kōkaidō Public Hall, and a Tōshi Kyōgen, full length play, at the National Theatre of Japan.

There were two Tōshi Kyōgen included in the New Year/Spring

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

Meiji Era Kabuki: Three Shintomiza Tsuji Banzuke Part One – 1891

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

After completing my research on a 1922 Shintomiza Kabuki theatre face pressing or oshiguma I bought three Kabuki playbills or tsuji banzuke advertising performance runs at the Shintomiza.

Initially located in the Pleasure Quarter of Saruwaka-cho the Shintomiza, originally called the Moritaza, was one of the three major Kabuki theatres or Edosanza of Tokyo. It was