Kabuki Theater

Last night we attended a play at the Kabuki-Za Theater in Ginza, pictured on the left. In about 6 weeks time, the theater will be pulled down and rebuilt. Apparently, it does not comply with current earthquake building codes. It is quite a landmark and so many people were outside taking photographs and watching the large clock count down the time until its demolition. Extra performances are being put on so that many people have a chance to attend as there will no doubt be a gap in time while the rebuilding takes place.

Kabuki is a traditional Japanese form of theater with its origins in the Edo period. In contrast to the older Japanese art forms such as Noh,  Kabuki was the popular culture of the common townspeople and not of the higher social classes. Kabuki plays are about historical events, moral conflicts and love relationships. The actors use an old fashioned language which is difficult to understand even for some Japanese people. Actors speak in monotonous voices accompanied by traditional Japanese instruments. In the early years, both men and women acted in Kabuki plays. Later during the Edo period, the Tokugawa shogunate forbade women from acting, a restriction that survives to the present day. Several male kabuki actors are therefore specialists in playing female roles. One actor we saw last night was an eighty year old man known as a Living National Treasure and he was acting with his 9 year-old son. There was also another father/son pair of actors, the son playing a major female role and the father the main male role in the play. The story was the final act in a three-part play, parts one and two having been performed earlier in the day. Kabuki Theater is extremely stylized and the actors move very slowly and deliberately with minimal facial expression. Clues to their character are in their costume, hair and make up. The 'bad guy' has an orange/red face and the more elaborate the hairstyle and a beautifully embroidered red kimono on a 'female' character shows that they are high born. The actors entered and exited along a catwalk to one side of the theater and their exit was very slow, with specific moves, and particularly significant. We were fortunate to have the wife of one of Tony's work colleagues with us and as a lifelong fan of Kabuki, she explained many of the nuances to us. We also had radio earpieces and were able to understand the (very complicated) story through an excellent narration. The performance was 3 hours long..... Kabuki is not to be rushed. However, once we became accustomed to the very slow and deliberate pacing, it was a truly fascinating experience. Oh yes-thank you, Henry, for the reminder (see posting below), Tony bought peanuts in the intermission that, to his great surprise, were liberally sprinkled with small, whole, dried fish. Such was his hunger (dinner was still a long way off) he actually ate them.....