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Introduction

Kabuki Costume is designed to acquaint the reader with a little known segment of a great theater: theater costume. The presentation of all phases of Kabuki, or any one aspect completely, within the confines of a single book is an impossibility. It is, however, necessary to give some account of what Kabuki is and how it has developed in order to understand the place and importance of the costumes.

A brief orientation to Kabuki through a discussion of it historically and as an art form will precede chapters on various aspects of Kabuki costume, such as male and female costumes, make-up, wigs, and accessories.

Kabuki is one of the most captivating and fantastic legitimate theatrical forms in the world, though most enthusiasts, both Japanese and foreign, admit it to be a diversion not for the intellect but for the senses. The nobility and warrior classes for centuries rejected this unpredictable, plebeian theater, holding their favorite Nō drama to be the epitome of elegance and good taste. Yet by its own artistic energy, Kabuki long ago raised itself to an admissibly fine classical dramatic expression and today far surpasses Nō in general appeal.

This truly native theater of Japan has been compared to the ancient Greek, to the Elizabethan, and to the Chinese theaters, as well as to the Western opera. Few admit that anything ever originated in Japan. The Japanese are looked upon as the world's most facile borrowers, even in the arts. But Kabuki, composed of dance, song, and histrionics, does not admit to being an offshoot or a development of any other entertainment, other than possibly folk dances of strictly Japanese origin; nor has any serious study of Kabuki proved it to be modeled after a foreign theater. A study of the historical background of Japan at the time of the beginning of Kabuki supports the belief that the art is indigenous.

In Kabuki, the actor is the pivotal force. This is not so apparent to the playgoer upon his first attendance, but the majority of a Japanese audience arrives in a spirit of great anticipation to see how well each role will be reproduced, for invariably comparisons are made of the acting stylizations of the current stars and their forebears. Reputation and popularity are founded on the preservation of a tradition. Only the young ever admit that present-day actors excel the illustrious greats of the past, and the young-in-heart in their dotage undoubtedly will revert to the narrower view of comparisons.

Second in importance to the actor is the over-all pictorial beauty which pervades the stage, and of course the actor's costume is a primary element in composing that beauty. The costume need not necessarily be realistic or logical. Reasonableness is for Western or modern Japanese plays. Until recent times, research was never done to make costumes authentic as to period. The public had little or no knowledge of historical customs and dress. As a consequence, the actors chose to use costumes in current use with which the audience was familiar, because the performers felt that the play would then have a more pertinent meaning.

Psychiatrists say that we see ourselves in characters in dramatic production; we cry and we laugh, usually because of our identification with them. People feel more comfortable if they see traits which they believe to be their own or if they fancy themselves in a similar light. Whether experience, instinct, or the astute Japanese psychology brought Kabuki actors to the realization of what was effective is impossible to say, but when actors used costumes familiar to the people, the audience felt a greater personal concern in the drama, for the playgoers had little vision beyond their own environment. Kabuki therefore developed an imaginative atmosphere of the immediate present which has always endured.

Since Kabuki reached its peak of perfection during the Edo, or Tokugawa, period (1603-1868), practically all the characters, regardless of the age of the play, appear on the stage in costumes of that period. The court beauties of the ninth century, as well as wives of samurai of the eleventh century, are dressed like women in Edo times, and their coiffures also reflect the Edo fashion.

Changes of costumes, materials, and patterns are made for various roles, and costumes are designated in accordance with individual roles. Not only the dress—for garments alone do not make the characterization—but also wigs and make-up fulfill extremely important functions in Kabuki. Patterns are not inflexible. Leading actors do make changes on occasion, but in general most present-day costumes remain identified with those originated by the past masters who popularized the roles. An actor must be a great idol indeed to be able to effect a change or to develop a part in a way that does not conform to the classical tradition.

One of the distinguishing traits of Kabuki, then, is the ease with which habitual playgoers recognize the type of play and the roles by the actors' costumes. The audience depends upon the array of splendid costumes to give vivid impressions of certain characters and to emphasize stage effects. Some costumes in their original form followed the social trends of the day; others were figments of the imagination, beautified and highly exaggerated. Imitations of costumes worn in the Nō dramas and in the ningyō-jōrurishibai (puppet theater) were used in plays adapted to Kabuki from these media. Even though a plot depends upon a specific period or impersonation of an actual individual, costumes which are not historically correct are used unhesitatingly even today.

It is not unusual to have queer costumes, the like of which never existed anywhere at any time. For instance, the costume called yoten—worn in historical plays by brave men, valorous brigand chiefs, and notorious thieves, as well as lowly policemen—exists only on the Kabuki stage. It was never a garb worn in real life. Most costumes worn in the jidai-mono (plays based loosely on historical or semihistorical events) and aragoto (drama designed for a highly stylized, vigorous form of acting) are not realistic. In many instances they are merely symbolic and grotesque.

In the same scene, some actors may be somewhat conventionally attired, while others may wear unbelievably fantastic costumes—a peculiarity which is accepted as quite natural in Kabuki.

What is the cause of these oddities? One of the principal reasons for the fantastic and imaginative costumes—especially those of samurai and noble classes, since imitation of their dress on the stage was proscribed by law—was that luxurious display of rich materials in Kabuki was strictly banned by the feudal government, so that ingenious methods had to be found to make the costumes theatrical and representative of important personages through color, pattern, and design.

Second, the costumes fulfilled the public's love of glamor, for Kabuki originated among and for the unaffected townsmen and the nouveau-riche merchants. Consequently, not only the simple, emotional stories of the plays but also the extravagant costumes satisfied the public's sense of beauty.

Actors made special effort to enrapture their audiences by impassioned acting. In consequence, the costumes, as well as the acting for each role evolved into accepted styles or forms which were completely removed from reality. Thus the weird make-up of kumadori: nonrealistic, stylized makeup used for aragoto (vigorous, swashbuckling) roles, the costumes exaggerated to a maximum degree for the heroic aragoto plays, the supremely colorful richness of kimono for female roles, the costumes of samurai and nobles are all products of the Edo period, resulting from the demands of the nonaristocratic audiences and the sensitive, artistic creativeness of the actors.

Unlike the jidai-mono based on ancient events among samurai or court nobles, there is a general type of play, the sewa-mono, which has a lowbred offspring, the kizewa-mono, which narrates many facets of the daily lives of the lowest commoners, including bad women, thieves, gamblers, prostitutes, vagabonds, beggars, and the like. The actors' dress worn in kizewamono reflects quite accurately that of the commoners of the lowest strata.

New fashions worn by the townspeople, especially the kabuki-mono (outlaws or "free-life" people), were readily adapted to the stage, although usually dramatized for more striking effects. Kabuki-mono received their name from one early-seventeenth-century meaning of kabuki signifying free life—that is, life without respect for law. Kabuki-mono were considered outlaws, and commoners were afraid of these wayward individuals. Yet when such characters were impersonated on the stage, the people adored them—much as today's movie gangsters are esteemed.

Actors often created patterns or selected special colors for their effectiveness on the stage. These subsequently reached the height of fashion for the public at large. Not only the actors' modish kimono but also the intricate tying of the obi, the choice of accessories, and even the way of wearing the costumes were appropriated by men and women alike. For example, the use of mon or individual family crests on clothing became widespread during the eighteenth century after the actors had made such devices familiar.

In classic, or pure, Kabuki plays there are no careful recreations of Heian-period (794-1185) dress. The majority of the known Heian styles were those worn by royalty. Therefore, according to law, they could not be reproduced for stage use. Prior to the end of World War II, Bandō Mitsugorō VIII (then Bandō Minosuke VI) wished to appear in a Genji play (that is, a play based on the life and loves of the fictional Heian Prince Genji) for which he had as true reproductions as possible made of Heian clothing, but he was not allowed to appear in the costumes, since doing so was proscribed by law as an act of Use-majeste. He eventually did wear the costumes during the dance recitals of Nenchū Gyōji Emaki (nenchu, during the year; gyōji, festival customs; emaki, picture scroll), whose choreography was based on the year's seasonal festivities, but Kabuki itself was no richer in its variety of costumes.

True Heian styles were not introduced to the Kabuki stage until 1951, when two plays in the modern Japanese vernacular were produced: Nayotake (Glowing Princess of the Supple Bamboo), dramatized from the story Taketori Monogatari (Tale of the Bamboo Cutter) by Katō Michio in 1943, and Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji), dramatized from Murasaki Shikibu's famous novel of the same name by Funabashi Seiichi, one of Japan's prolific contemporary novelists.

Even though the costumes for these plays have the correct flowing, widely opened sleeve lines of Heian dress, they necessarily are modified for the electrically lighted outsized stage of modern times. Although these costumes give us a visual perception into the past, when overrefinement in wearing apparel was one of the ardent passions of the nobility, they are admittedly of much bolder theatrical design and of brighter-colored cloth than ever was seen in the ancient days, when colors were fixed according to rank.

Heian literature, including the Eiga Monogatari (Tales of Prosperity and Luxury of the Fujiwara Family), regales us with stories of noble-women who wore more than twenty layers of garments with hi-no-hakama (scarlet culottes) for formal occasions both in summer and in winter, the textiles differing only according to season. This jūni-hitoe (literally "twelve-fold costume,"although the number of layers was not fixed) was the correct formal feminine attire, but it is not used identically on the Kabuki stage for obvious reasons. Although the sumptuary laws of Edo times had permitted the wearing of such a costume, the actor, swathed in layer after layer of even the most diaphanous of materials, would have been hindered in his movements, and costuming would have been far too costly. In order not to discard the semblance of this lovely old-fashioned ensemble, the ingenious costumers sew layers of edges along the underneath border of the top garments, thereby creating the effect of many robes worn one over another.

The many-layered effect is also used in a most fanciful voluminous costume for the onnagata—the female impersonator also known as oyama (a less polite term which in the past had some implication of prostitution)—in the role of an of ran, the renowned courtesan of Edo days. In appearing as an of ran, the onnagata never wears more than two uchikake, the elaborate outer robe originally worn for formal occasions by well-born women, yet it appears that he could peel off several of these ornately brocaded robes with large rolled and wadded hems and long, trailing sleeves. Again the costumers have deceived the playgoers by their ingenuity.

With relation to sleeves, it should be noted here that "long" or "short,""wide" or "narrow" refers not to the length of the sleeve as measured against the outstretched arm's length but to the length as it falls along the sideseam of the kimono (from shoulder to hem). The conventional kimono sleeve is terminated at the wristbone, which it should normally touch. Certain theatrical roles call for outsized sleeves—sometimes double the width of the material—so that the hands are completely lost in their volume. These garments and their accompanying pieces usually go to extremes. By trailing along the floor, they give the wearer the comic (or terrifying) appearance of an awkward giant.

Unlike Kabuki, the Nō employs certain types of costumes which possibly may have been based on the classic dress of the Heian and Kamakura periods (794—1392). These generally are called hirosode-mono or ō-sode-mono, the extra wide-open or big-sleeve apparel. Belonging in this class are the kariginu, the nōshi, and the chōken. The kariginu (kari, hunting; kinu— ginu in compounds—clothes), a brilliant brocaded outer robe worn in male roles, was used by court nobles in real life as a sporty outdoor dress in the Heian age. After the Kamakura period it became a ceremonial costume among the warrior classes. The nōshi was the court gentleman's long silk coat. The chōken, an outer robe made of woven silk gauze, is used in both male and female roles that call for a somewhat long and important dance part in the drama, since the large and light long sleeves work effectively for dancing.

Among male costumes of the No, the foremost in elegance is exemplified by the nōshi and, next to it, the kariginu. There is another costume in this category: the maiginu, a robe which is a substitute for the chōken, made of the same material but somewhat shorter and used in mai (dance numbers) by actors portraying women, but never for men's roles.

The happi (short coat), worn for men's roles only, comes to just above knee length and has tucked-up sleeves. It represents or symbolizes armor. The character Tomomori wears such a coat in Funa Benkei (Benkei in the Boat). The mizugoromo, an unlined topcoat, not necessarily elegant, was used by priests, yurei (ghosts), and sometimes by common people as a simple outer garment. In reality, since the happi did not exist during the Heian period, it was in all probability devised by the costumers as apparel for the Nō stage.

There are two kinds of happi and kariginu used in the No: for robust characters the costumes are made of elegant gold brocade with lining, and those for refined characters are sewn with exquisite patterns brocaded on gauze without lining, representing the ultimate in splendor, next only to the nōshi. The unlined kariginu is known as hitoe-kariginu, the lined as awase-kariginu.

The kosode-mono, or tsume-sode-mono, are little-sleeve or narrowly-opened-sleeve garments, including the following: the karaori, the sumptuous brocaded outer robe worn mostly by upper-class women, sometimes by their attendants, and rarely by aristocratic young boys; the atsuita, a kind of kitsuke (kimono; see below) for men's roles only, resembling the karaori but having a more masculine or a checkered pattern; the nuihaku, a kimono imprinted with gold or silver leaf and patterned with embroidery, worn only for women's roles; and the surihaku, a kind of kitsuke (kimono) of satin, seigo, or other silk with imprint patterns of gold or silver leaf and no other embellishment. (Seigo is a warp-rib-weave taffeta, the weft threads being thicker than the raw-silk threads of the warp.) These costumes are based on the dress of Muromachi times (1392-1573), when the Nō first appeared on the boards.

The above-mentioned kitsuke is a difficult word to explain. It derives from the verbs kiru (to wear) and tsukeru (to attach), and the meaning is "to attach to the body with an obi."The difference between the regular kimono and the kitsuke lies in the manner of wearing the garment. The kitsuke is the top kimono, over which the obi is tied, but it is called kitsuke usually when a coat or an outer robe is worn over it, sometimes almost concealing it. The term is used in connection with both women's and men's apparel.

The karaori, listed first in the above categories of small-sleeved garments, deserves somewhat more detailed attention. It is of two types. The first, for young women, is called iro-iri (iro, color; iri, containing or put in), meaning that the colors include red. The second, for older persons, is called iro-nashi (iro, color; nashi, without), meaning that red is not among its colors. Karaori is a word employed originally, and still used, for a particular kind of material imported from China—as Alan Priest describes it in Japanese Costume, a "silk (usually twill) brocaded with colored silk floss in large 'float' patterns resembling embroidery, and usually with a separate pattern brocaded in gilt-paper strips."Because elegant robes were made from this material, the robes were also called karaori.

The original outline of the kimono was taken from the kosode, a short-sleeve undergarment worn next to the skin by people of the middle and higher classes before the Kamakura period (1185-1333). Kosode originally meant a short-sleeved or narrowly-opened-sleeved kimono contrasting with the hirosode, the kimono with large and widely opened sleeves. In the Edo period (1603-1868), kosode referred to the lined and wadded silk kimono with short sleeves worn during three seasons, excluding summer. The same type of kimono without lining was called a hitoe or plain kimono, and the hitoe, when made of hemp or ramie cloth, was called a katabira. These were summer garments. The kimono as we know it today became widely used as an outer garment for men and women from late Muromachi (1392-1573) or early Azuchi-Momoyama (1573-1603).

It is regrettable that Edo Kabuki costumes have not survived the years. Many exquisite Nō costumes of the Momoyama and Edo periods exist in private or public collections, since the No, as the formal theater of the noble and military classes, was well protected by the shōgun (military ruler) and the daimyō (feudal lords), and its refined hand-woven costumes were preserved by aristocratic collectors or by Nō masters. Kabuki costumes, made for the moment, were kept in the theater warehouses or by the actors themselves, eventually to be worn out by repeated use. We cannot, therefore, rely on any actual costumes for the study of the old Kabuki costumes. All of our information comes secondhand and somewhat sketchily from old books, from ukiyo-e or woodblock prints (in which we must allow for some poetic license as to color and design), from costumes made after the Meiji Restoration of 1868, and from word-of-mouth reports handed down from generation to generation within the Kabuki world.

The Theater Museum of Waseda University in Tokyo has the largest Kabuki library in existence, but none of its collection embraces antique Kabuki costumes. Its oldest authoritative information covers costumes worn by Ichikawa Danjūrō IX during the latter part of Meiji (1868-1912). Interestingly enough, what are probably the oldest known remaining costumes—all in excellent condition—are those used by a Kabuki actress, Bandō Mitsue, who died in early Meiji, and are the property of the Tokyo National Museum. It should be explained here that in past generations only the okyōgen-shi or women's Kabuki troupe was permitted to perform Kabuki in the oku-goten, the innermost palace of a feudal lord's establish-merit and the precinct in which the wives and daughters of daimyō lived. Although Kabuki actresses were the only ones to perform in the oku-goten, they were never permitted to appear in their dramatic roles on the traditional Kabuki stage.