Kabuki

by Zoë Kincaid

The hanamichi, or flower-way, was a continuation of the stage through the audience, a place for entrance and exit, where the intimacy of actor and audience was firmly established.

As to its origin, there is an opinion that it was a path leading to the stage through the pit, bordered on either side by a low bamboo fence decorated with flowers. There is also the idea that it came about to accommodate admirers of particular actors who started the custom of bestowing gifts upon their favourites. According to the ceremony of the East, their presentations were elaborately wrapped up, the string that tied the parcel was decorated with an artificial flower, and for the bearer of these gifts a regular path was made connecting with the stage.

These are fanciful ideas that can hardly be justified. For the presence of the two hanamichi in shibai shows conclusively how consistently the Kabuki actors and playwrights conformed to that inherent desire of the audience to be on intimate terms with the gorgeous personages of the theatre.

The largest Nō theatre in Japan, that of Onishi Ryotaro in Osaka, a modern construction combining architectural features representing the different periods of the Nō theatre development.

When the bridge-stage connecting with the square platform, purloined from the Nō theatre, was abandoned, the hanamichi, raised just above the heads of the playgoers, was substituted, an audience stage designed for striking entrances and sensational exits, a place to display to the fullest extent beautiful garments, fascinating actors, to intensify emotion, and heighten a dramatic situation.

In the same manner, the revolving stage became of great assistance in staging the long plays with many acts, for while the actors were playing out in front, the carpenters were busy with their creations behind, and the change of scene could be quickly effected.

With long use it developed a special technique, and was turned to suit a variety of landscape and architectural requirements. It has been very largely responsible for the undeniable beauty of Kabuki settings. This was acquired in the same manner as so many other good things of shibai that had not emanated from within; it was borrowed from the Doll-theatre. Among the complex apparatus of the Doll-theatre was found the revolving stage long before it came into the possession of Kabuki.

Outside the shibai, the most characteristic feature was the yagura, or drum-tower. This was a small square platform built out from the roof and above the main theatre entrance, where was placed the big drum used to announce the opening of the shibai. Around it on three sides a curtain was stretched, bearing the crest of the theatre. This had been used by O-Kuni and Nagoya Sansaburo when they established their new entertainment, and it was supposed to resemble a castle tower with a battle drum. It was the custom to erect five spears in this tower, which Kabuki Koto Hajime, or Beginnings of Kabuki, mentions as representing five retainers who held the lances for their feudal lord. But the origin of the yagura is vague.

Since the time of O-Kuni, however, until the present, it has continued to adorn the outside of the theatre, and although it is seen no more in Tokyo, in the shibai of Kyoto and Osaka it is still preserved. The drummer no longer beats his signal from the big-drum tower, but he now performs this duty within the theatre just previous to the drawing of the curtain, making a stirring sound that causes playgoers to hurry to their seats with pleasurable anticipations.