Kabuki

keren

Stage

• stage tricks such as trapdoors, slides, lifts.
• most spectacular is the chunori (use of harness and winch) to represent flight through the air with supernatural powers.

hayagawari

• quick changes of costume & even makeup, sometimes.
• actors play more than one role (same-sex or male-female, female-male transformations).
• to show actor's virtuosity.

1629–1673:

Transition to yarō-kabuki

ningyo buri

• puppet style, actor imitates jerky movements and gestures of puppet.
• actor manipulated by 1 or 2 koken (stage assistants).

roppoōōō

• fantastic exits in which hands and feet are said to move north, south, east, west, to heaven and to earth.
• expresses boldness and vigour of character.
• usually accompanied by tsuke (wooden blocks).

- jidai-mono (historical)

set within the context of major events in Japanese history.

focused upon the samurai class.

hikinuki

• cords holding entire garment together at the seams are removed.
• outer kimono whipped off to reveal completely different one underneath.
• visual effect, transition from one section of music to another.

- Izumo no Okuni began performing a new style of dance drama on the dry riverbeds of Kyoto.

- female performers put up comic performances of both male and female roles.

- immediate popularity and asked to perform in the Imperial Court.

- banned in 1629 for being too erotic.

- structure of a kabuki play was formalized during this period.

- conventional character types were established

- kabuki theater and ningyō jōruri, the elaborate form of puppet theater (later known as "bunraku"), became closely linked with each other and influenced the other's development.

bukkaeri

• garment secured at the waist.
• threads removed to reveal new design on the garment underneath, cloth from shoulders will fall over waist and legs.
• symbolises the revelation of character's true identity.

mie

• powerful, glaring poses by male characters
• emphasise moments of great import or tension.
• all action stops.

ACTING

onnagata: one of the most remarkable features.

all young actors have to receive training on the basic movement patterns, postures and speech of typical male and female roles.

1603–1629: Female kabuki

(onna-kabuki)

DANCE

kabuki actors also study traditional Japanese dance, Nihon Buyō, from as young as 3.

very close connection between dance and literal meaning of text.

- sewa-mono (domestic)

also known as "domestic plays", generally related to themes of family drama and romance.

focused primarily upon commoners, namely townspeople and peasants.

‘sing'

'act'

'dance'

classical Japanese dance-drama.

forefront of Japanese popular culture for 400 years.

highly developed and organised to the last detail.

3 main categories of kabuki play:

- young boys as replacements, known as wakashū-kabuki and then switched to adult male actors, called yaro-kabuki.

- all-male kabuki playing both male and female characters.

- after women were banned from performing, cross-dressed male actors, known as onnagata ("female-role"), took over.

kudoki

• in dances featuring female characters in a passionate expression of sorrow or yearning.
• about 5minutes long in a tragic lament.
• either in words or mime.

ebizori

• exaggerated pose of actor bending backwards from a kneeling position into a shape resembling an ebi (prawn).
• performed by animals and creatures of the other world at times of extraordinary stress or emotion.