Nor can I fail to acknowledge the kindness of the three leading managers of Tokyo who allowed me free access to their theatres, Mr. K. Yamamoto of the Imperial, the late Nariyoshi Tamura of the Ichimura-za, and later his son and successor, and Mr. Otani, head of the Matsutake Company, which now controls the greatest number of playhouses in Japan.

For twelve years I sat among the critics of the Tokyo stage at the regular performances, and cannot forget the unfailing courtesy of my journalistic associates.

To my good friends among the actors, Nakamura Utayemon of the Kabuki-za; Onoe Baiko and Matsumoto Koshiro of the Imperial; Onoe Kikugoro, the sixth, of the Ichimura-za; Nakamura Kichiyemon of the Kabuki-za, and Nakamura Ganjiro of Osaka; to Mr. Y. Ninomiya, stage producer and playwright of the Imperial; Miss Ritsu-ko Mori, leading actress of the Tokyo stage; Mr. Kiyotada Torii, the theatre artist; Mr. Beisai Kubota, stage designer,—to all the friends of long standing in the theatre, I take this opportunity to express my gratitude for the privilege of their friendship and kind assistance.

ZOË KINCAID.

London, March 2, 1925.

CONTENTS

PAGE
Acknowledgement[v]
Introduction[xv]
KABUKI
CHAPTER I
Kabuki[3]
CHAPTER II
Kabuki Audiences[9]
CHAPTER III
Conventions of Kabuki[17]
CHAPTER IV
Craftsmanship of Kabuki[28]
CHAPTER V
Kabuki’s School of Acting[35]
CHAPTER VI
Actor Ceremonials[40]
ORIGIN OF KABUKI
CHAPTER VII
O-Kuni of Izumo[49]
CHAPTER VIII
Onna Kabuki: The Woman’s Stage[58]
CHAPTER IX
Wakashu Kabuki: The Young Men’s Stage[64]
CHAPTER X
Theatres of the Three Towns[74]
YAKUSHA
CHAPTER XI
Danjuro and Tojuro[87]
CHAPTER XII
Yakusha of Genroku[99]
CHAPTER XIII
Yakusha of Horeki[111]
CHAPTER XIV
Yakusha of Pre-Restoration Period[121]
CHAPTER XV
Onnagata[132]
CHAPTER XVI
Yakusha and Marionette[144]
CHAPTER XVII
Lives of the Yakusha[153]
SHIBAI
CHAPTER XVIII
Customs of Shibai[169]
CHAPTER XIX
Shibai and Outside Influence[183]
CHAPTER XX
Music of Shibai[192]
CHAPTER XXI
Shibai and Interference[201]
CHAPTER XXII
Externals of Shibai[215]
SAKUSHA
CHAPTER XXIII
Customs of the Sakusha[225]
CHAPTER XXIV
Representative Sakusha[232]
PLAYS
CHAPTER XXV
Kabuki Play Forms[253]
CHAPTER XXVI
Motives of Kabuki Plays[276]
CHAPTER XXVII
Kabuki Rôles[310]
MEIJI KABUKI
CHAPTER XXVIII
Meiji Kabuki[323]
I. Yakusha of Meiji [323]
II. The Ninth Ichikawa Danjuro [330]
III. A Theatre Manager of Meiji [337]
IV. Rise and Fall of Shimpa [342]
V. Reforms of Meiji [347]
VI. Actresses of Meiji [353]
VII. Playwrights of Meiji and Taisho [358]
KABUKI TO-DAY
CHAPTER XXIX
Contemporary Kabuki[367]
Bibliography[377]
Index[379]

ILLUSTRATIONS

FACE PAGE
The character of Kamakura Gongoro, a warrior of Old Japan, as presented in Shibaraku! (lit., Wait-a-Moment). A famous actor improvisation, or aragoto play, one of the hereditary eighteen pieces of the Ichikawa Danjuro family. (From a painting on silk by Torii Kiyotada, the present head of the Torii School)
[Frontispiece, in colour]
Onoe Kikugoro as a brave samurai woman mounted on a white velvet stage steed [22]
Nakamura Matagoro, the leading boy-actor of the Tokyo stage in the rôle of a girl-pilgrim, O-Tsuru [36]
Announcing Ceremony. Kojo, or announcement ceremony, in which the central figure is Ichikawa Danjuro. The modest actor whose name is to be changed or rank raised bows low, hiding his face from view. (Colour print by Hasegawa Kampei, the fourteenth, and Torii Kiyosada, father of Kiyotada) [40]
The last of the Ichikawa family, the granddaughter of Ichikawa Danjuro, the ninth [42]
Theatre Treasures exhibited. At the Nakamura-za, founded by Saruwaka Kansaburo, the gifts given to him by the Shogun were considered as treasures of the theatre and exhibited on certain anniversaries with much respect, the actor holding the gold sai, or battle signal, and covering his mouth with a piece of paper lest his breath soil it. (Colour print by Hasegawa Kampei, the fourteenth, and Torii Kiyosada, father of Kiyotada) [69]
Ichimura Uzaemon, the thirteenth, as Yasuna in a posture dance descriptive of a man who has become demented because of the loss of his wife [82]
Onoe Matsusuke as Komori Yasu, or Bat Yasu, so called because of the birth-mark on his cheek which resembles a bat. A bold, bad man of Yedo [99]
Matsumoto Koshiro, of the Imperial Theatre, in the character of Townsend Harris, the first American Minister to Japan. A photograph of the intrepid Kentucky Colonel is on the actor’s dressing-table [111]
Nakamura Utayemon, leading actor of the Tokyo stage, in the rôle of Yayegaki-hime, the young princess in the play Nijushiko, or Twenty-four Filial Persons [132]
Three onnagata of Asia: in the centre Mei Ran-fan of the Peking stage, to the left Nakamura Utayemon, the leading onnagata of Japan, and on the right Nakamura Fukusuke, the son of Utayemon and one of the most fascinating impersonators of women in Tokyo [136]
Nakamura Jakuyemon of Osaka, an onnagata who imitates the acting of the marionettes [140]
Yoshida Bungoro, a doll-handler of the Bunraku-za of Osaka, who has devoted his life to the management of female marionettes [144]
A scene from Chushingura, as played by the marionettes in the Bunraku-za of Osaka [148]
O-Sato, heroine of a ballad-drama of the Doll-theatre. Reproduced from an oil painting by an Osaka artist and shown in a Tokyo art exhibition. The doll-handlers are grouped behind like shadows [150]
Yakusha making a round of New Year calls. In the foreground a member of the Ichikawa family, with two pupils and his servants, following behind an onnagata similarly attended. The kites in the picture show the favourite pastime of children during the New Year holidays. (Colour print by Hasegawa Kampei, the fourteenth, and Torii Kiyosada, father of Kiyotada) [154]
Matsumoto Koshiro in the rôle of an otokodate, or chivalrous commoner, ready to defend the oppressed lower classes from the blustering two-sworded samurai [160]
Nakamura Kichiyemon as Kumagae, a warrior of Old Japan [166]
To mark the opening of the theatre season when actors, playwrights, and musicians were engaged, there was a gathering called Seeing- for-the-First-Time. (Colour print by Torii Kiyonaga) [175]
Advertising the Play. During the performances two men garbed in long trailing feminine attire, their heads covered with cotton towels, attracted the passers-by by their verbal advertisement. One imitated the lines of the actors, and the other handed out wooden tickets. (Colour print by Hasegawa Kampei, the fourteenth, and Torii Kiyosada, father of Kiyotada) [177]
Face Lights for the Actors. When the theatre became dark it was necessary to illumine the actor’s face with candle-light. Here property men are holding out candles on the ends of pliant rods that the face of the dancer may be seen, and candles form the footlights. The performer is the serpent princess in the disguise of a beautiful dancer in the piece Dojo-ji. (Colour print by Hasegawa Kampei, the fourteenth, and Torii Kiyosada, father of Kiyotada) [181]
Ceremony of welcoming an actor. It represents the onnagata, Segawa Kikunojo, returning to the Nakamura-za in Yedo after an absence of two years in Osaka. (From colour print by Utagawa Toyokuni) [182]
Nakamura Ganjiro of Osaka as a melancholy lover in a play of the people [186]
Nakamura Fukusuke of Tokyo in an onnagata rôle [215]
A Kaomise, or face-showing ceremony at the Nakamura-za in 1772. By this time the roof of the stage had disappeared and only its symbol remained over the front of the stage, which now approached the long narrow style in vogue in the Doll-theatre. (Colour print by Utagawa Toyoharu) [217]
Interior of the Nakamura-za in 1798 when Ichikawa Danjuro, the sixth, was promoted to the head of the theatre. By this time the roof of the stage had become a decoration overhead. (Colour print by Utagawa Toyokuni) [218]
The largest Nō theatre in Japan, that of Onishi Ryotaro in Osaka, a modern structure combining architectural features representing the different periods of Nō theatre development [220]
Kataoka Nizaemon, the eleventh, as Yuranosuke, the leader of the Forty-seven Ronin, in the play Chushingura [228]
Nakamura Ganjiro of Osaka in his favourite rôle, that of Izaemon, the lover of Chikamatsu Monzaemon’s drama, and played for two centuries by the Kabuki actors [256]
Matsumoto Koshiro, the seventh, as Watonai, the grotesque hero of Chikamatsu Monzaemon’s drama, Kokusenya Kassen, or the Battle of Kokusenya. The inner garment is bright red studded with brass, the lower purple with a design of twisted white rope [262]
Matsumoto Koshiro, the seventh, as Benkei, the warrior-priest in Kanjincho. He performed in this rôle when the Prince of Wales visited the Imperial Theatre [264]
Sawamura Sojuro, the seventh, of the Imperial Theatre, as Togashi, the keeper of the barrier, in Kanjincho, Kabuki’s music-drama masterpiece [266]
Morita Kanya, the thirteenth, son of the aggressive theatre manager of Meiji, as Yoshitsune, the young hero of the music-drama, Kanjincho [268]
Onoe Baiko as the Wistaria Maiden, in a descriptive dance [272]
Onoe Kikugoro, the sixth, as the transformation of a maid into a white fox, in a descriptive dance, Kagami Shishi, or the Mirror-Lion [274]
Nakamura Ganjiro of Osaka as Genzo, the village schoolmaster in Terakoya, or The Village School, by Takeda Izumo [278]
Ichikawa Chusha as Matsuomaru in Terakoya (The Village School), who sacrifices the life of his son that the Michizane heir may survive [280]
Jitsukawa Enjaku of Osaka as Gonta in the sacrifice play, Sembonzakura, by Takeda Izumo [282]
Ichikawa Sadanji as Sadakura, the highwayman, in the play Chushingura [284]
The Harakiri scene from Chushingura [286]
Scene from Yotsuya Kaidan, or The Ghost of Yotsuya, by Namboku Tsuruya. Onoe Baiko is seen as the disfigured O-Iwa, and Onoe Matsusuke the kind old masseur who holds up the mirror that she may learn the truth [294]
Banzuiin Chobei, a man of the people, rôle by Matsumoto Koshiro [300]
Nakamura Kichiyemon as Sakura Sogoro, the Village Head who sacrificed his life for the good of the people [302]
Nakamura Fukusuke of Osaka as a belle of the gay quarters. Letters are made as long as possible to produce the better effect [304]
Onoe Baiko as the demon woman in Ibaraki, escaping with her severed arm [306]
Matsumoto Koshiro and Onoe Baiko in Seikinoto, the music-drama piece, in which Baiko appeared as the spirit of the cherry tree [316]
Ritsu-Ko Mori, the leading actress of the Tokyo stage [347]
The Imperial Theatre of Tokyo, completed in 1911. The building withstood the earthquake shocks of the great disaster of 1923, but the interior was destroyed by fire. It has now been entirely restored. The Imperial is becoming an international theatre centre, and has welcomed actors, musicians, and dancers from England, America, Russia, Italy, and China [368]
Onoe Baiko, leading actor of the Imperial Theatre in an onnagata rôle [370]
(1) The new Kabuki-za. (2) Entrance Hall of the new Kabuki-za. The new Kabuki-za, with a seating capacity of 4000, which was opened on January 6, 1925. Under construction at the time of the earthquake disaster, September 1, 1923, the concrete structure remained intact. Japanese architectural features have been used throughout the Kabuki-za, and, rising out of the ruins of the city, it is one of the most imposing buildings in Tokyo [374]

INTRODUCTION