VI
Odori is closely allied to the Kabuki arts, and forms an essential part of a great variety of pieces. Since without it no theatre programme would be considered complete, odori becomes one of the most important Kabuki forms.
Tamura Nariyoshi, a theatre manager with a long experience of Kabuki behind him, a genius of the Meiji period, who died a few years ago, once said that the mere movement of the limbs was not dancing. Should a dancer wish to suggest that he was looking at Mount Fuji, gazing at the sea, or watching a shadow, the three ideas must be expressed in different ways. Dancing, like acting, he said, should have a meaning, and the performer must keep steadfastly to the central idea, otherwise interest would be lost.
This is the clue to the understanding of odori. The least gesture made by the dancer has significance, and nothing is left to chance. The training in dancing the yakusha undergoes gives him control over all parts of his body. He uses his head and shoulders equally with the eyes and face; the arms, hands, and fingers are all expressive, while the waist and feet play no small part in the presentation of the idea of the dance. Pantomime is first cousin to odori, and rhythm and song next of kin.
Of the many material objects the Kabuki dancers have chosen as media of expression, the chief is the fan. For a thousand years this has been a symbol of the dance, and its technique has come about through the desire of centuries of dancers to convey emotion through the movements of the dance.
What magic this fragile object is able to create is clearly visible when some dancer of long training who has acquired a mastery of movement, opens and shuts his fan, causing flowers to bloom, and rain to fall; or waving it outstretched, butterflies flutter and a boat tosses on the waves. He closes it and traces the outline of a mountain and points to the stars; or opens it sweepingly in imitation of the frolic of the wind.
What a world of romance the fan discloses, suggesting shyness, affection, disapproval, consent! How the widespread silver fan beckons to some enchanted moonlit garden; upraised, reveals a triumphant mood; or the dancer, with a stamp of feet and swift motion of the body and fan thrown about from hand to hand, describes some merry festival under the falling petals of the cherry trees.
In connection with odori there is an important Kabuki expert, the furitsuke-shi (lit., movement-to-make master), who is largely responsible for the charm of the descriptive dance, but who has received scant recognition for his work. The furitsuke-shi has trained the actors, assisted in the production of the music-posture dramas and innumerable short dances, and when given an opportunity to create has left behind him pieces that are still the stock-in-trade of the actors.
Since the early Kabuki performances largely consisted of dances, the players were accustomed to manage according to their own ideas and tastes. With the rapid development of Kabuki a dance specialist was necessary.
Onoe Baiko, as the Wistaria Maiden, in a descriptive dance.
Pantomime as an element of dancing had long been old on the Nō stage, but it came afresh to Kabuki from the Doll-theatre, where the movements of the marionettes were so remarkable in the sphere of the dance that the actors were obliged to imitate them. Gradually there came into existence experts who devoted their time and talents to the teaching of this art to the actors.
The furitsuke-shi was an obscure profession, but nevertheless very important for the stage. The sakusha furnished the libretto for the odori, or shosagoto, while the furitsuke-shi planned the movements, studied the relation of the dancers to each other, calculated the picturesque groups, and produced the ensemble so characteristic of these Kabuki forms.
The furitsuke-shi were the repository of the complicated dancing technique of their day, yet they were quite subordinate to the actors, and when they wished to carry out an idea they were obliged to consult their superiors, and in consequence worked under great difficulties. Apartments were assigned to the stage dignitaries as became their rank in the shibai world, but such was the position of the humble dancing-master that he generally fraternised with the men who furnished the incidental music for the plays, and who were considered far beneath the regular musicians performing out in front, the Nagauta, Tokiwazu, and Gidayu performers. The furitsuke-shi were regarded as merely hangers-on behind the stage.
It often happened, however, that these men became actors. The fourth Nakamura Utayemon was the son of a furitsuke-shi. A modern instance of this is Matsumoto Koshiro, the seventh, the most versatile actor of the Tokyo stage, who was adopted when a child to become the head of the Fujima school of dancing, but later was taken under the patronage of the ninth Danjuro Ichikawa, and is the master’s most brilliant follower.
On the other hand, actors who were good in dancing but failures on the stage, often followed this profession. Bando Mitsugoro, one of the best dancers of the Tokyo stage to-day, has practically given up acting, appearing only in dancing pieces. He gives his time largely to the instruction of young actors.
At present the Fujima house of dancing is the most flourishing in Tokyo. The founder of this family was a Nō Kyogen actor called Kambei, who hailed from a village named Fujima. He migrated to Yedo and taught dancing, and was succeeded by his son. The third Kambei, however, was one of the most original exponents of this school, and how he came to inherit the headship of the family forms an interesting story.
He was employed as a boy of all work in the fish market, that stronghold of independent Yedo citizens, and was sent by his employer to escort his little daughter to and from her dancing lessons. Having to wait in the entrance of the house, the boy soon came to take a vivid interest in the proceedings, and by dint of peeping within he learned the dances much quicker than the legitimate pupils. The second Kambei recognised the lad’s ability, and not only took him under his wing, but eventually married him to his daughter, and made over to him the Fujima school.
Kambei, the third, died under strange circumstances. It was found out that he had carried on a love affair with the mistress of a daimyo who was one of his patronesses. The lord is supposed to have had him secretly dispatched, and then sent his body home with the explanation that he had suddenly expired. It was thought by his wife and pupils that he had been poisoned, but the mystery was never solved.
His wife carried on the teaching but, being a woman, she had no relation with the theatre. Among the third Kambei’s pupils was Nishikawa Senzo, who became a star of the Nishikawa school.
Onoe Kikugoro, the sixth, as the transformation of a maid into a white fox, in a descriptive dance, Kagami Shishi, or the Mirror-Lion.
After the third Kambei’s time the Fujima house had two branches founded by his pupils; one was called Fujima Kangoro, and the other Fujima Kanyemon. As the Kangoro line has always had a woman at its head, it has not been employed by the theatre. That carried on by Kanyemon is now the first school of Tokyo, with Hanayanagi second. Nishikawa maintains its prestige in Nagoya; Kyoto possesses the Katayama school, while the leading schools of Osaka are the Umemoto and Yamamura.
Crest of Nakamura Denkuro
(Metal cross).
Crest of Sawamura Sojuro
(Alphabetical character repeated).