Kabuki

by Zoë Kincaid

Just as he was about to begin he found that he had forgotten to bring an obi required for his costume, and the Court noble who had introduced him took a red cord and tassel attached to a thin bamboo curtain near the Mikado, and gave it to the performer who wore it during the play. As it was far too long and dragged upon the floor, Kansaburo was obliged to put one end around his neck. Ever after he wore the cord and tassel rather than an obi when he performed in this piece, and passed it on to his successors so that it became part of the conventional Saruwaka costume.

On this occasion Kansaburo was given a black velvet haori, or over-garment, adorned with a crest that had as a design three leaves, and he also received a rich kimono embroidered in gold and silver. His son Shimbochi was only nine years at this time, and he danced in a piece called Shimbochi’s Drum. The Emperor was so much pleased with the child’s performance that he exclaimed: “Akashi! Akashi!”—Never tired of seeing! This cognomen was bestowed upon the boy by the Emperor. Like the costume and the cord and tassel, this name became hereditary in the family. The present Nakamura Akashi, now living in Tokyo, is over seventy years of age, and the fifteenth of this actor line.

Kansaburo died soon after his return to Yedo. His second son inherited his name, but died young, and a cousin became the third Kansaburo, while the fourth was Nakamura Denkuro, a famous actor of the Genroku period. Kansaburo had two brothers, one of whom was a Nō Kyogen actor, Kanjuro, while the other was Kineya Kangoro. The grandson of Kineya Kangoro, called Kineya Kisaburo, first introduced the samisen into the orchestra of Kabuki, and is the founder of the Kineya line of musicians, who have been connected with the theatre ever since, and are to-day the chief house of Kabuki musicians.

In Ayame Gusa, or the Sayings of Ayame, concerning the ideas of Yoshizawa Ayame on the theatre in general, and the onnagata specialty, of which he was a genius, in particular, he writes about the treasures of the Nakamura-za, Kansaburo’s theatre. When he founded the first theatre in Yedo he called it the Saruwaka-za, but his descendants later changed the name to Nakamura. Here for 150 years, says the Ayame Gusa, the treasure of the theatre was a gold sai, a duster-like equipment of war used for signalling in battle by the warriors of Old Japan, consisting of a short handle with stripes of thick gold paper attached. This had been presented to Kansaburo when he sang a sailor’s song on the Shogun’s pleasure craft as it entered Yedo Bay. Still another article treasured by the Nakamura-za was a costume of gold brocade worn in the piece Saruwaka, also a fine bamboo screen presented to Kansaburo by a daimyo, and a drum from some equally exalted personage.

With regard to the other theatre proprietors of Yedo, Miyako Dennai obtained permission to build a theatre in 1633, and the following year Murayama Matasaburo erected the Murayama-za. He was the younger brother of Murayama Matabei, the actor-manager of Kyoto. Both had come from Sakai, the old seaport near Osaka, which flourished greatly when it was opened to Western trade, and declined when the Tokugawa policy closed the country to foreign intercourse. Their father had been a retainer of the Ashikaga Shogunate, and was a follower of Nagoya Sansaburo. Yamamura Kobei was given permission to build the Yamamura-za. Kawarasaki Gonnosuke established the Kawarasaki-za in 1648. He was a Nō actor, but later went to Yedo from the provinces and started a theatre.

Not only did the theatres increase in numbers in the three towns, but they spread to the provinces as well. The audiences received better accommodation, curtains and stage furniture began to be used. Theatres had been somewhat like side-shows, and the audience changed at the end of each performance, which continued indefinitely, but with improvements in all directions plays of several scenes began in all three theatre centres.

It was in 1644, when the Wakashu Kabuki was in full swing, that another prohibition by the Government laid it low for the very same causes that had put Onna Kabuki out of existence. The charming young actors were responsible for moral abuses that undermined the Spartan code of the samurai. There was a scandal because of the relations between a daimyo’s wife and a young actor, and the Government, always on the alert to punish the sins and omissions of the theatre, ordered that the front hair of the Wakashu actors be shaved off. Shorn of their locks they no longer presented an attractive appearance, and as they had existed only to please through their persons their usefulness was gone. The prohibition of the Wakashu Kabuki was a blow at the luxurious and effeminate habits that were then indulged in by the samurai and aristocracy. Wakashu Kabuki had much to do with the spread of these habits, and to suppress them was then considered the only remedy against the social evil of the time.

The prohibition of Wakashu Kabuki in Osaka and Kyoto differed from that of Yedo. A quarrel of two samurai over a young actor playing a female rôle took place in Yedo. The theatre was closed, and on this account the doors of all the other theatres were shut. As they did not reopen for long years, the actors were in dire distress.

In Osaka the theatres were closed in 1656 because of a disturbance in the audience, but permission was given to continue the following year. The Kyoto theatres, however, went out of existence for twelve years, and it was only in 1668 that Murayama Matabei, Kyoto’s actor-manager, was allowed to restart.

Not much is known about Matabei, quite contrary to the case of Saruwaka Kansaburo of Yedo, but an interesting side-light is thrown upon him by Kabuki Koto Hajime, or Beginnings of Kabuki, which says that Murayama Matabei asked the governor when he was going to pay his respects at Gion; meaning by this, at what time the theatres of the Gion district in Kyoto were to begin again, but the governor withheld his consent. Thereupon Matabei followed him to his residence, and slept under the eaves, where he was exposed to rain and his clothes were spoiled so that he became ill and thin as a ghost. His followers brought him food, and afterwards his patience was rewarded, for his petition for the reopening of the Kyoto theatres was granted.