Actors and Outcasts - Everyday Life in Traditional Japan - page 133

into the seventeenth century, for the first theatres were set up near the River Kamo in
Kyoto, in the district where the Fourth Avenue crosses by a bridge, and where the only
surviving kabuki theatre in Kyoto still stands. The term “river-bank folk” had originally
included members of several handicraft trades as well as that of entertainer, but after the
sixteenth century it was virtually restricted to actors and entertainers, whoformed the most
respectable group of the various kinds of those excluded from polite society.
It was not only the traditional unacceptability that kept actors apart from others; the
military rulers mistrusted them more specifically for what they were sure would be their
disastrous effect on the morality of their audiences. However, they took the view that the
merchants were engaged in such reprehensible pursuits that they were almost incapable
of further corruption, so that if the theatre helped keep them from making a nuisance of
themselves, it was free to operate. Foot-soldiers, too, had to have some sort of crude enter-
tainment to keep them out of mischief, so that in Kanazawa, for example, the authorities
ran a theatre themselves for a while, but did not allow warriors or farmers to go to see the
plays. Nevertheless, samurai were not above visiting the theatre on the quiet, for on one
occasion a special watch was kept on the audience as it left after a performance, and some
warriorswereapprehended,whileothersgotwordofwhatwashappeningandeitherstayed
in the theatre until the watch was removed—which was not for some weeks— or escaped
disguised as women or servants. For their part, farmers had to be protected—blindfolded
might be a better word—from having experience of anything that could make them think
that another livelihood might be better than their own, so that visits to towns were not en-
couraged.
Any sort of disorderly conduct in the theatre was visited with immediate reprisals; the
famous Ejima episode has been mentioned (in Chapter 2 ) , one result of which was the per-
manent closure of one of the Edo theatres, and the sending into exile of at least three of the
actors and managers involved. Another, earlier, incident had occurred in a Kyoto theatre in
1656, when an actor had been invited into a side-box by a warrior in the audience and had
there been treated to drinks; the jollity had been brought to an end by the warrior draw-
ing his sword on the actor, who fled in alarm. This was all the incident amounted to, and
whetherthewarriorwaspunishedornotwedonotknow,butallthetheatresinKyotowere
closed for some months, and before they were allowed to open again, side-boxes had to be
removed and a ban was placed on drinking in the auditorium.
Individual samurai became great followers of kabuki. For visits to the theatre it was
fairly common for them to hide their faces beneath a deep, basket-like hat, but they also
saw performances in their houses or in those of their lords. The actors in Edo looked for-
ward to being invited to act on such occasions, and get the special fees that this brought in.
Wehearofanencounterbetweenthefamousactor-manager,SakataTōjūrō,anda samurai,
which indicates the sort of relationship that might occur. Tōjūrō had taken the opportunity