Kabuki

by Zoë Kincaid

There are several branches to Kineya—offshoots of the main line a hundred or more years ago—such as Yoshizumi, Fujita, and Yoshimura. The last two companies of musicians are chiefly attached to the Kabuki-za of Tokyo, although they occasionally appear at other theatres. Tokyo critics consider Yoshizumi Kosaburo to possess the best voice, but it is not strong, and his activities are confined to entertainments given in small halls or private residences. He is a ronin among the musicians, and is not a regular member of a theatre company. The two most popular Kineya singers at present are Yoshimura Ejuro, of the Imperial Theatre, and Fujita Utazo, of the Kabuki-za. Kineya Rokuzaemon, although young, has proved himself worthy to assume the responsibilities as head of this old family.

After Nagauta, the most popular theatre music is Tokiwazu. It belongs to Joruri, or balladry set to the samisen, one of the innumerable streams of this music of the people. The minstrel who founded this line was Miyakoji Bungojo, and his tune was styled Bungo-bushi. This became all the rage in Yedo, for the words that went with the new airs were highly sentimental, treating of love adventures, elopements, and kindred subjects. It had an unwholesome effect upon society, however, the Bungo-bushi inducing men and women to step out of the prescribed paths of virtue. The authorities did everything in their power to suppress it, but without success. It was but a reaction against the Puritanic rule in force, and the themes of Bungo-bushi—adultery, elopement, suicide, and gambling—were but an expression of dissatisfaction on account of the rigid feudal laws which continually interfered with the people, and caused them to break loose by way of protest.

Miyakoji Bungojo lived the life of which he sang, for he was the victim of an unhappy love affair and committed shinju, or double suicide, with a young woman. His adopted son, Mojidayu, succeeded to and completed his father’s work. When Bungo-bushi was forbidden, Mojidayu founded his own school. He was afraid that his new style of music might suffer the same fate as Bungo-bushi and made great changes. In order that it might survive he took all the life and sensation out of it, so that it now gives an impression of stiffness and repression.

When Mojidayu looked about for a name for his music, he hit upon one that offended the authorities. It was considered much too assuming and high-sounding, and was taken away from him in consequence. As Mojidayu lived near one of Yedo’s bridges, the Tokiwa-bashi, or Evergreen-Bridge, not far from the modern Bank of Japan, he selected Tokiwazu, and by this name his music has been known ever since. The present Mojidayu is the seventh in succession. Kiyomoto, another branch of Gidayu, is closely allied to Tokiwazu, and a great variety of these tunes may be heard among the people.

Shibai has faithfully preserved the most characteristic musical elements, and it is within the theatre that Japanese music is best represented. Gidayu Joruri, Yedo Nagauta, Tokiwazu, and Kiyomoto, with a variety of minor styles, form the musical settings for Kabuki productions.

The Gidayu Joruri in vogue in shibai is taken bodily from the Doll-theatre, and is used whenever a drama written originally for the marionettes is produced. In these masterpieces the actors are responsible for the dialogue, while the minstrel sings the descriptions to the accompanying rhythms of the samisen, giving the players an opportunity to posture and gesture to their hearts’ content. The Gidayu minstrel and samisen player kneel on cushions on a raised rostrum to the right of the stage, a silver or gold screen behind them. In front of the minstrel is a lacquered book-rest, where lies the ballad book (joruri-bon) in which the passages of the play are written by hand in large, bold characters. Sometimes the minstrel enters into the conversation, when he scolds or weeps, laughs or pleads, according to the emotion of the moment.

The difference between Gidayu and Nagauta is that the first is balladry and requires both recitation and song, conversation and description, while Nagauta is but a series of songs, solo or chorus, interspersed with sustained orchestral effects of samisen, drum, and flute in complicated rhythms. A full Nagauta corps, composed of many singers and samisen players, all in ceremonial stage costume, kneeling in a row on a red-covered dais across the stage, with the drummers grouped below, forming a background for the gorgeous characters of the music-drama, is an unforgettable and truly representative Kabuki picture.

In Nagauta the singers commit the words to memory, or have a small book close beside them. Like the chorus of the Nō stage, they carry a closed fan which is taken up in one hand as they sing, and placed in front of them at the end of their song. Tokiwazu and Kiyomoto partaking of the nature of Gidayu, the singers kneel behind the lacquered stands supporting their books, and are generally stationed on a high platform to left or back of the stage, the only instrument being the samisen. The movable platforms on which the musicians and singers sit are pushed on and pulled off as the exigencies of the descriptive dance require. Sometimes a curtain is held up in order that they may make good their escape from the stage.

As Nagauta had an affinity with the Nō, and treated of poetic and mystical subjects, the upper classes patronised the Kineya family, and it has therefore always enjoyed a superior position. These singers and musicians were regarded in the theatre as guests of honour, who had condescended to accept the hospitality of shibai. They were never classed so low in the social strata as the yakusha, but had a recognised rank and place.

With the members of the Gidayu, Tokiwazu, and Kiyomoto companies it was different. Their patrons were the wealthy merchants and tradespeople. And because Tokiwazu and Kiyomoto were so closely related to shibai, they came to be considered as something low class and vulgar. In addition, as the whole world of popular songs and short dances that formed the accomplishment of the geisha were associated with the samisen, this instrument was never heard in the homes of persons of taste and breeding, or those who valued their position of respectability.