Kabuki

by Zoë Kincaid

Quite necessary to the management of an audience that remained under the roof of the theatre for twelve hours were the dekata, or servitors of shibai. The rank and file of the dekata were ushers, and wore dark kimono tucked into baggy Turkish trousers. They showed the people to their seats, brought them cushions on which to kneel, supplied them with programmes, tea, cakes, and tobacco, and were as busy as the denizens of an ant-hill the entire day.

There were two divisions of dekata, headed by leaders, or managers whose higher rank permitted them to wear haori, or overcoats, which sometimes bore the crest of the theatre. The duty of some of these servants was to wait upon the actors in their comings and goings. Others had charge of the seats in the gallery reserved for special playgoers. Two of these men were selected to sit on either side of the stage, to see that the play was not disturbed, for the presence of a fighting man who had partaken not wisely but too well of sake would sometimes cause great confusion.

Another was stationed at the end of the hanamichi, where some of the best acting was done. His special duties, as keeper of the way, were to see that it was kept clear for the entrances and exits of the actors. Others were given the task to guard the actors’ dressing-rooms, to prevent the intrusion of unwelcome outsiders, who sometimes strayed unbidden into the calm atmosphere of the world over which the actors held sway.

While the dekata wore dun-coloured garments, the personal servants of the actors were truly theatrical in appearance, for they donned bright blue or red kimono that had for pattern a design showing the crest of the actor to whom they were attached. It was their custom to pay special courtesies to a patron of their chief when he visited the theatre, and the more consequential or wealthy this individual happened to be, the greater the number of actor attendants who waited upon him, which marked him out as a playgoer of first importance.

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 foot lights. The performer is the serpent princess in the disguise of a beautiful dancer in the piece Dojo-ji. (Colour print by Hasegawa Kanpei, the fourteenth, and Torii Kiyosada, father of Kiyotada.)

For footlights, there were candles set in tall wooden candlesticks along the front of the stage. These were not sufficient on a stormy or gloomy day, and tsura akari, or face-lights, were introduced the better to illuminate the actor’s countenance and costume. Stage assistants to right and left held these candles up, adapting themselves with great dexterity to the movements of the actors.

Now and then this custom is still to be seen in the theatres of Tokyo and Osaka, when the effect is so pleasing that the electric light with its harsh glare appears to be anything but a happy invention for stage illumination.

Perhaps one of the most picturesque shibai customs in Yedo was the ceremony of Norikomi,—literally, to-come-riding. When an Osaka or Kyoto actor travelled along the Tokaido, the main highway between Kyoto and Yedo, he was accorded a special reception at the end of his long journey, and was generally met some distance out of Yedo.

His means of conveyance was a kago, or palanquin, something after the fashion of a sedan chair, which was firmly fastened to a stout pole borne on the shoulders of many bearers in front and behind. Often an actor of importance accompanied by his pupils and servants made quite a retinue, and caused a small sensation among the townspeople as the procession wound through the streets.