Kabuki

by Zoë Kincaid

Another tateyaku who acted with Danjuro, and was regarded as equal to Nakamura Denkuro, was Miyasaki Denkichi. He was put in prison with other actors in connection with a scandal in a nunnery. The abbess of the institution was a favourite at the Shogun’s Court, and in consequence of her high position, and because the entrance of the despised playfolks within her female fold was regarded as a laxity of moral practice that deserved high punishment, she was sentenced to death and the actors were imprisoned. Miyasaki Denkichi played on the stages of the three towns, but died in obscurity, very likely as a result of his irregular life.

Among the deshi, or followers, of Danjuro, the first and most noted was Ichikawa Danshiro. An actor bearing the name died in 1922, a veteran member of the Kabuki-za company in Tokyo.

In the middle of his career this first Danshiro shaved his head and became a Buddhist priest, retiring to a provincial temple. As Yedo Kabuki of those days was lacking in good actors, messengers were frequently sent to his distant temple asking him to return to the stage, but he repeatedly refused. At last he consented upon the condition that at the end of the performances he was to return to his holy profession.

He acted the rôle of Mongaku Shonin, the samurai who made love to the heroic Kesa Gozen, or the Lady Kesa. Wishing to get rid of her husband, the samurai planned to kill him in his sleep. Kesa Gozen gave Mongaku a sign by which he would know the right head to cut off—the hair was to be freshly washed. But to his horror the assassin found that he had killed the Lady Kesa herself, who had thus sacrificed her life to preserve her honour and by her act had saved the life of her husband. In penitence for this deed, Kesa Gozen’s lover became a priest, and the interest of the Yedo playgoers in Danshiro’s return to the stage in this priestly rôle may well be imagined. True to his word, this follower of Danjuro returned to his temple and died there in 1717.

As to the celebrated villains who played with the above actors, the two stars were Yamanaka Heikuro and Nakajima Hiroyemon.

Senior to Tojuro and Danjuro, Yamanaka Heikuro died at the age of 83, and played with both the first and second Danjuro. He adopted a son, who did not live to succeed him. Many stories are told of the impressiveness of this stage villain, and how even the actors playing with him sometimes became frightened at his appearance. He was of large physique and a man of forceful character, so that he was eminently fitted to play the diabolical katakiyaku whose fierceness and violence caused the Yedo audience of those days to feel thrills of horror.

Great stage changes took place during the second part of the Genroku period, and the rapidly developing Doll-theatre began to influence Kabuki and its actors. The public tired of the sentimentality introduced by Tojuro, and expressed a taste for the loyalty and sacrifice plays such as were in vogue in the Doll-theatre, that had begun to capture the public imagination.

The actor genius of the latter part of the Genroku period was undoubtedly Sawamura Chojuro, who was born in 1680 and died in 1734. He was the son of an Osaka merchant. His elder brother was also an actor of repute, and a younger brother an expert drum performer. Although he played with Tojuro, he did not confine himself to this school exclusively, but was influenced by the different styles of the Genroku stage. He assimilated and harmonised the characteristics of the celebrities who had preceded him, and so did much towards the establishment of the rules of acting that pertain to modern Kabuki. He made himself popular in samurai plays, in those of everyday life that reflected the manners and customs of his time, and he was equally at home in historical pieces that required the exploitation of the unreal, while he excelled also in dancing. His son, called Chosaburo, became the second Chojuro.

A follower who took the name of Sawamura Chojuro, the third, was destined to found a strong actor family that is flourishing in Tokyo to-day, half a dozen members of this name now being prominent. He was known on the stage as Sawamura Sojuro, a name to reckon with in Japanese stage history. The present Sawamura Sojuro of the Imperial Theatre, Tokyo, with his four actor sons, and a nephew, Sawamura Chojuro, make a formidable family array of players, there being no fear for some time to come that this line will suffer extinction.

When Yedo Kabuki lost its two Genroku stars, Danjuro and Hichisaburo, there was a vacancy that no one else could fill, and the Yedo people must have felt a lack of interest when witnessing the performances of those who tried to take their places. There were in reality only two actors in Yedo at this time who upheld the past glory of the stage. One was Ikushima Shingoro, and the other Nakajima Kanzaemon.