In this early period of expansion there were many good actors whose traditions were carried on and who made a firm foundation for the brilliant Genroku age, Kabuki’s greatest period of growth and out-flowering.
Among the tateyaku, or leading actors, before Genroku, there were three men of influence—Arashi Sanyemon, of Yedo; Fujita Koheiji, of Kyoto; and Araki Yojibei, of Osaka.
Arashi Sanyemon was born in 1635 and died in 1690. He came to Yedo from Settsu Province, where his father was a prosperous fish dealer. In one of his popular plays there was a line about the moon having its clouds and the flowers their storms, and people quoting this called out “Arashi!” when he appeared on the street. This was a poetical term meaning mountain-wind, or storm. Sanyemon thought this a good stage name, and thereafter adopted it, a cognomen that has been used by actors ever since.
Sanyemon was not content to play to Yedo audiences, but went to Osaka, where he became the proprietor of a theatre. He greatly improved plays, wore magnificent garments, and acted to the accompaniment of flute, drum, and samisen. His plays served Chikamatsu Monzaemon as originals when that dramatist wrote two of his best-known doll-dramas. Arashi Sanyemon was succeeded by his son, who became one of the noted actors of Genroku.
Contemporary with Arashi Sanyemon was Fujita Koheiji, of Kyoto. He had come from the adjacent province of Ise, after acting in small country theatres, and was a close rival to Arashi Sanyemon. It is said that he never lost his popularity on the stage during his career, although he did not attempt to hide the ravages of time by using face powder in making up. His gestures were those of real life, and were considered as models that were handed down to his successors. Fukui Yagozaemon, of Osaka, the first playwright to compose long pieces of several acts, had much to do with increasing Koheiji’s reputation, writing plays for him that pleased the public.
Likewise, Yagozaemon was largely responsible for the fame of another influential actor, Araki Yojibei, of Osaka, who ended his earthly career in 1700. This early playwright, Yagozaemon, was not only a stage writer, but a good actor as well, and was successful as a kawashagata, or middle-aged woman character. He was one of the stage authorities of his day, and wrote a play for Yojibei that was the great success of the time. It was Hinin Adauchi, or The Beggar’s Revenge, the first long play to be composed in Osaka, free from all association with the Nō drama, a piece that has long survived, with modifications, and is still a favourite with modern actors. Yojibei was versatile; he was praised as clever in stage fighting and excellent when impersonating a wounded man, so that he was an early advocate of realism in acting.
Among the dokegata, or comedians, there was an actor who could boast of blue blood when it came to theatre lineage. He was Sadoshima Dempachi. His father before him was Sadoshima Denbei, who had headed one of the Onna Kabuki companies in Kyoto. Dempachi had been brought up in the theatre atmosphere. From the theatre chronicles it is found that he was ugly and did not have a pleasing voice, two disqualifications for a tateyaku, or chief actor, but he was a dancer par excellence, and this covered a multitude of sins, since dancing is the basis of the Japanese actor’s art. Sadoshima Dempachi was fortunate in the possession of a son who inherited his genius, Sadoshima Chogoro, who, although less of an actor than a dancer, had much to do with the movements and postures of the newly arisen music-drama, and left behind him a journal concerned largely with the secrets of dancing, the Sadoshima Nikki, or Journal of Sadoshima.
When the Wakashu Kabuki went out of existence and plays were produced that required complicated characters, a strict division of labour among the actors was carried out, and they were obliged to play only their own specialties.
In the Onna Kabuki the rôles had been fixed as in the Nō theatre. There was a shite, or chief actor; a waki, or secondary player; and tsure, or assistants. In Wakashu Kabuki, the handsome youth who was selected as star of the company was called taiyu, or chief, while older actors acted as secondary and supporting players. As in the Nō there were kyogen shi, or comedians, so there were dokegata, or funny men, in the Wakashu Kabuki.
The specialties of the newly established male stage were simple at first, then became more and more complex. They were the tateyaku, or chief actor, who played the hero, always a good, courageous, and loyal personage. The katakiyaku was the name of the specialty in villains,—the bold, bad characters who caused all the trouble. There were the onnagata, or actors playing women’s rôles; the dokegata, or comedians; oyajigata, or elderly men, and the kawashagata, or females of middle age. Youthful heroes were played by wakashugata, while koyakugata was the name given those who took children’s rôles.