Kabuki

by Zoë Kincaid

During the first years of Genroku, a roof to cover the audience was built, and galleries added for the accommodation of the increasing attendance. The construction of the theatre made great progress when Government regulations demanded that playhouses be of one story and straw mats used to keep out rain and sunshine.

After the segregation of the Yedo shibai to Sakai-machi, many improvements came about. The Ichimura-za used drop as well as drawn curtains, and large stage furniture was seen for the first time.

A Kaomise, or Face Showing ceremony at the Nakamura-za in 1772. By this time the roof of the stage had disappeared and only its symbol remained over the front of the stage, which now approached the long narrow style in vogue in the Doll-theatre. (Colour print by Utagawa Toyoharu.)

But by 1750 the main externals of the shibai were fixed and showed a striking change. The bridge passage of the Nō used by shibai for entrances and exits had given place to the hanamichi, or flower-way—the continuation of the stage through the audience. There were galleries behind which were sliding doors and movable screens of fine bamboo, ensuring privacy for those occupying these elevated seats. In Yedo three galleries were a feature of the shibai, but these were not seen in Kyoto and Osaka. This was because the Yedo playhouses enjoyed greater prosperity and were more crowded than those of the other towns. Drawn curtains were used, the stage was decorated with artificial flowers, and elaborate stage furniture came into use.

Owing to the scandal of Lady Yenoshima and Ikushima Shingoro in 1714, the architecture and developments of shibai externals received a severe check. Substantial roofing was forbidden and straw mats were ordered instead. The building was limited to one story, and galleries were abolished. As the result of a petition filed by the three chief theatres in 1718, permission was granted to cover the theatres with boarding, and afterwards, when frequent fires threatened to destroy these flimsy erections, more substantial structures were allowed with tiled roofs, and thick mud walls, like those of warehouses, or godowns, in which valuables are still stored. Until recent years this type of playhouse persisted in the three towns.

One of the most interesting facts concerning the development of the externals of shibai was the rapidity with which the stage outgrew its original form.

The place for performances in the Nō, later in O-Kuni Kabuki, and likewise in the first Yedo theatres, had all been square. Greater space was needed for the representation of complex plays, and the back pillars were eliminated. When Chushingura was to be presented in Yedo in 1757 the two large front pillars to right and left of the stage were found to be in the way, and were sacrificed. With the four supports gone, the temple-like roof of the stage also went out of commission. This roof, associated with the Nō stage for hundreds of years, and about which clung something religious and sacred, had so long been a familiar external of shibai, that the theatre people, while realising that it had served its purpose, did not wish to part with it altogether. It was therefore represented in relief, projecting over the proscenium.

Nowhere is this adaptation of the stage to the new requirements of a developing drama more clearly to be seen than in the illustrations of shibai left by the print artists. A picture attributed to Masanobu shows the interior of the Nakamura-za in 1740. The thatched roof of the stage is still in existence, as well as the two front-pillars, but those at the back have disappeared in order to give greater room. Slightly elevated to the left is a platform for the musicians, and although the square platform had not been dispensed with, it was becoming too cramped.

In this picture the second Danjuro appears in one of the family pieces, Yanone, or Arrow-Point, acting on a small apron-like projection of the stage. His big three-rice-measure crest is clear upon one shoulder, and in front of him there is an exaggerated whetstone on which he is about to sharpen a huge arrow. The small enclosure in which he sits represents the temporary dwelling-place of this highly imaginary character. There are two galleries, and a narrow passage-way through the pit, while lanterns bearing the actor’s crest are suspended from the ceiling.