The one hundred years previous to 1868—the year Emperor Mutsuhito began his epoch-making reign—is regarded as the period of Kabuki’s modern history. By 1868 the Tokugawa Shogunate had come to an end, the Emperor had been restored to power, and his capital removed from Kyoto to Yedo, and Japan, which had been closed to the outside world, was thrown open to trade with other countries.
The Tokugawa Shogunate’s steadily diminishing power, and the general stagnation of society due to the lack of stimulus from without, were faithfully reflected in Kabuki. From 1764 to 1788 the people continued to idolise the favourite actors, the productiveness of the critics continued as before. But in the Kwansei era, 1789–1800, the theatre began to decline, and during the years of Bunsei, 1818–1829, the climax of Kabuki’s downward plunge was reached.
These were lean years for the people, and unless they saved their money they could not afford to attend the theatre, for the price of admission was high. It was the custom for Yedo people after they had seen a performance to go through the streets imitating the actors’ delivery of their lines, much as the popular airs of the latest musical comedy are heard in the thoroughfares of London, Paris, or New York. In these slack years the theatre audiences fell off steadily, and no echo of Kabuki was heard. At this time, too, the actors demanded an increase in their salaries, as it was impossible for them to carry on their former easy and extravagant existence during the hard times. The theatres were involved in greater and greater financial difficulties. Many of the good old theatre customs began to be neglected.
There was, however, no decrease in theatre genius, and very many actors rose high above their fellows, although they lived through an unprofitable period.
The most representative actor during Kwansei (1789–1800) on the stages of Osaka and Kyoto was Nakamura Utayemon, an actor of the same name and line being at present the senior of the Tokyo stage. This first Utayemon was the son of a physician, who had led a life of dissipation and finally took to the stage. He kept steadfastly to one specialty, that of katakiyaku, or villain rôles. When he played in Yedo he was well received, but on a visit to Osaka, he said something on the stage which offended his audience, and they returned the compliment by giving him the cold shoulder for some time. The famous bad characters of the doll-dramas he made his own, particularly the heavy villain Iruka, the formidable tyrant in Imoseyama, and the evil-doing but loyal Gonta of Sembonzakura, two characters that modern audiences are never tired of seeing portrayed. When he was 68 he gave his name to a follower; at 75 he played his best villains, and died three years later. Although a pupil succeeded as second, his own son became Utayemon, the third, and was an actor of great prominence.
Some years junior to the first Utayemon was Asao Tamejuro, who was a famous onnagata of the Kyoto and Osaka stages. He was a small man, possessed a light, bright style, and appeared best in plays depicting everyday life rather than those dealing with the unreal.
In Yedo also there were two bright and particular stars at this time. They were Nakamura Nakazo and Matsumoto Koshiro.
The career of Nakamura Nakazo is one of the most varied of all the actors. He was possessed of many theatre gifts, but he had inherited a samurai temperament and exercised his genius just when social conditions had begun to dampen the enthusiasm of the people for the theatre.
Nakamura Nakazo was the son of a ronin called Saito, and was born in Fukugawa ward of Yedo. Left an orphan when young, he must have had no relatives to care for him, but by chance O-Shun, a dancing mistress, saw the boy, and adopted him at the age of five. She went to pay her respects at a temple, and a ferryman plying across the Sumida River gave the boy to her. His only sponsor was the keeper of a sake shop, so far had fallen the child from his rightful position in society as the son of a samurai.
The dancing mistress not only belonged to a well-known school of dancing, but her family were costumers to the Nakamura-za. Her husband was a teacher of Nagauta, the special Yedo Kabuki music, so the boy was brought up in the theatre atmosphere. At 7 he began to be instructed in dancing, in which he did not take much interest at that early age, and he was often chastised. His adopted father tried to make him a Nagauta singer, but he proved a failure. From childhood he substituted on the stage when the regular actors were unable to attend. Nakazo has left a journal in which he wrote of his boyhood and how pleased he was when he was allowed to wear a good kimono, had a little room upstairs all to himself, and was not scolded so much for his many lapses from grace. O-Shun, his adopted mother, saw to it that he grew up proficient in dancing, and he repaid her, for he was very graceful, and was often asked to perform at the residences of the nobility when they entertained.