Arts & Crafts - Kyoto - page 372

Okuni's dancers were not above prostituting their talents, and when fights for the
ladies' affections became a bit too frequent, the order- obsessed Tokugawa officials de-
clared the entertainment a threat to public morality. When women's kabuki was banned,
troupes of adolescent men with unshorn forelocks took over, a development that only fed
the flames of samurai ardour. Finally, in 1653, the authorities mandated that only adult
men with shorn forelocks could perform kabuki, a development that gave rise to one of
kabuki's most fascinating and artistic elements, the onnagata (an actor who specialises in
portraying women).
Other ingenious features of kabuki include the revolving stage (a kabuki invention), the
hanamichi (a raised walkway connecting the stage to the back of the theatre and used for
dramatic entrances and exits), on-stage assistants (koken) and on-stage costume changes
(hiki-nuki) .
Unlike Western theatre, kabuki is an actor-centred, actor-driven drama. It is essentially
the preserve of a small number of acting families, and the Japanese audience takes great
enjoyment in watching how different generations of one family perform the same part.
A kabuki program is generally five hours long and is made up of sections of four or five
different works. One of the pieces is often a dance-drama. Only the most diehard fans sit
through an entire program. Many spectators slip out to enjoy a bentō (lunchbox) or a
smoke, returning to their seats to catch the scenes they like best.
Kyoto boasted seven kabuki theatres in the Edo period. Now only one, the Minami-za (
CLICK HERE ), remains. Completely renovated in 1990, it stands just east of Shijō-Ōhashi,
the same site it occupied back in 1615. Every December (and sometimes also November)
it hosts Kaomise, during which Tokyo's most famous kabuki actors come to Kyoto to
show (mise) their faces (kao) .
A statue of Okuni, fan in hand and with a samurai sword slung over one shoulder,
stands at the east end of Shijō-Ōhashi, diagonally across from the Minami-za.
During kabuki performances, diehard kabuki fans may ritually shout out the names of the
acting houses to which their favourite performers belong. These shouts are known as kakegoe .
The men who deliver these kakegoe usually lurk in the upper reaches of the theatre.
Kyōgen
Designed to provide comic relief during a program of nō plays, kyōgen is farce that takes
the spectator from the sublime realm of nō into the ridiculous world of the everyday.
Using the colloquial language of the time, kyōgen pokes fun at such subjects as samurai,