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CHAPTER 2

Genro Kabuki

Japanese culture attained the peak of bourgeois fulfillment in the fifteen years of the Genro era (1688-1703), which falls in the middle of the Edo period. This era, though brief, is frequently referred to as the Japanese Renaissance. Its influence was pronounced through the succeeding Hōei (1704-10), Shōtoku (1711-15), and Kyōho (1716-35) eras, covering some thirty-two years of unparalleled maturity in the arts. Even today, aspects of the Genro era remain.

It has been said that at about this time the writing of the word Kabuki changed from kana, the Japanese syllabary script, to kanji, Chinese ideographs, though this is not accepted as true by some authorities. The three ideographs ka meaning song, bu dance, and ki woman were used. In this combination, the third character ki indicated prostitute, singing girl, dancing girl, or courtesan. During the latter part of the Edo period, the radical indicating woman in the character ki was cleverly replaced by the radical for man or person. This changed the meaning of ki, in combination with ka and bu to "skilled person."It did not, however, change the pronunciation of the character or the word Kabuki as a whole. By the time the new meaning was established, Kabuki was composed solely of men.

Sparked by the rapidly expanding influence of the merchant class, plebeian arts reached the zenith of their expression in the Genro era. The growing self-consciousness of the citizenry demanded beauty and entertainment peculiarly their own. In this milieu, Kabuki found the freedom it needed for creative growth. The imagination, foresight, and great talent for mimicry of the Genro actors brought forth the basic kata, the peculiar stylized Kabuki forms of acting which encompass direction, makeup, costuming, dancing, hair-styling, hand- and stage-properties, musical accompaniment, elocution, and stage settings. During the early years of Genro, the dramatists wrote plays in several acts and scenes with plots of increasing intricacy. For the first time Kabuki plays were produced in an indoor theater. The roofless theater ceased to exist for Kabuki.

Among playwrights who rose on the crest of the cultural tide was Japan's foremost dramatic poet and first professional dramatist, Sugimori Nobumori, better known by his pen name Chikamatsu Monzaemon. The novelist Ihara Saikaku, the haikai (seventeen-syllabled verse) poet Matsuō Basho, and Chikamatsu formed a trio of the most illustrious writers of the Japanese Renaissance.

Chikamatsu wrote for both contemporary popular theaters: first for the Kabuki; then for the ningyō-jōruri-shibai, today generally referred to as Bunraku (the puppet theater). Chikamatsu's great and popularly acclaimed masterpieces were jōruri dramas (dramas in which the puppet action is accompanied by a musical narrative) written expressly for the puppet theater. Jōruri dramas were readily adapted to the Kabuki stage. Chikamatsu's plays continue to be presented with persuasive appeal to modern-day audiences, much as Shakespeare's plays are performed in the West.

DANJŪRŌ I AND ARAGOTO

The founder of the ranking dynasty of Kabuki actors in Edo, Ichikawa Danjūrō I, was also the guiding spirit of the stage during the Genro era. Danjūrō, writing under the pseudonym of Mimasu Hyōgo, was an amazingly versatile playwright as well as an inventive actor. He created the vigorous masculine style of acting called aragoto, which was to continue as the gei (special art) of the Ichikawa family.

The aragoto drama, written to be performed in a grandiose and exaggerated form of acting, is a type of play or sequence of acts in which the central character displays superhuman qualities or spiritual strength and even occasionally represents a divine or an evil spirit. It readily appealed to the masses, who found in the aragoto actors substitute heroes for the valiant warriors of the glorious past. This romantic appeal reflected the temper of the Edo populace, which had always shown great enthusiasm for the legendary events in its history. While the theatergoers of Edo accepted without question the highly stylized characterizations of the aragoto plays, they rejected the soft feminine love stories of the wagoto plays of Kamigata. In wagoto plays, acting is noticeably predominant, whereas there is a preponderance of dancing or rhythmic movements throughout an aragoto drama. Musical accompaniment with a distinct personal style is therefore essential to aragoto drama.

Kimpira jōruri (puppet plays about a supernaturally strong man) were the favored dramatic fare preceding aragoto. The puppets used in this medium do not exist today; only pictures of them remain. The hero of Kimpira jōruri was Sakata Kimpira, a picturesque character who symbolized matchless strength and who destroyed evil characters. Sometimes Kimpira would demolish an entire army single-handedly. When he annihilated demons, he displayed such great power and roughness that the head and limbs of many of the puppets were hurled off into space. It was largely from this vigorous theater that Danjūrō I is said to have taken his aragoto, its costumes, and possibly its make-up. Responsibility for the eventual unpopularity of this type of jōruri was attributed to the performance of a play entitled Kimpira Saigo (The End of Kimpira), in which the sustaining character dies. Without the hero, fans lost interest and deserted the puppet theater for the live theater of Kabuki.

Danjūrō I is credited with originating kumadori, the art of special and unusual make-up. Kumadori refers not only to make-up of the face but also to make-up of the arms and legs. In 1673, when Danjūrō was fourteen, he made his initial appearance in the role of Sakata no Kintoki in Shitennō Osanadachi (The Childhood of Four Strong Warriors or Four Faithful Bodyguards) wearing the first recorded kumadori, a weird make-up produced by the use of bold colored lines (see Chapter 23). Danjūrō had his face painted entirely red, and black lines were drawn over this to delineate and emphasize his features. The most prominent features of the make-up were large, fierce, upward-curved eyebrows exemplifying vitality. This style of kumadori later became known erroneously as Genroku-guma. Kumadori continued to develop during the Genro era, and Danjūrō was its most versatile exponent.

Danjūrō's costume for the role of the hero Kintoki was patterned with alternating purple and white squares called dōji-gōshi (Fig. 71), and to accentuate Kintoki's virility he wore a dark blue obi—an immense, round, wadded obi tied in a tombo-musubi (dragonfly knot). Kumadori extended to the arms and legs in those early times. Today, flesh-colored tights, or nikujuban (niku, flesh; juban, underneath garment), on which the kumadori pattern is painted, are worn instead of make-up, thus allowing actors to change costumes rapidly without danger of soiling their garments.

Niku-juban were devised in 1904 by Kawachi Hanshichi, a maker of tabi (bifurcated socks). He offered the niku-juban to Onoe Kikugorō VI, who at first was hesitant to use them, feeling that it would be difficult to move his arms with his accustomed grace, but on the advice of Band5 Mitsugorō VII, a great Kabuki dance star, Kikugorō yielded, and nikujuban (flesh-colored tights) are now in general use.

The original niku-juban covered the body to the elbow. Ichikawa Shinjūrō, student of Danjūrō IX, is thought to have been the first actor to order niku-juban which extended below the elbow to the wrist. Eventually, it was designed to cover the hands. It should be noted here that costumers still persist in making the niku-juban with such outmoded knitted material that even on the first day's performance it looks as long underwear does after it has been worn for a number of days. Topped off with a brocaded costume, nothing could be more incongruous or ghastly in appearance.

Although Danjūrō I revolutionized Kabuki with his introduction of aragoto plays, he did not confine his playwriting exclusively to this medium. Three of his dramas still survive: Narukami (Thunder God or The Fall of the Recluse Saint Narukami), Shibaraku (Wait a Moment), and Fuwa, the original drama of saya-ate, the "rude challenge." Saya-ate (saya, sheath of a sword; ate, to hit) was the extremely rude and offensive act of a samurai's deliberately bumping into another's sword. If no apology was forthcoming, a fight ensued, for the sword was the embodiment of the spirit of the samurai. For the overly aggressive warrior, saya-ate was a perfect means of promoting a fight, and instances of it abound in the drama.

ACTORS AND ROLES

Kabuki made steady progress under the effective guidance of Danjūrō I and other celebrated actors. Among the most outstanding of these were two Kamigata actors: Sakata Tōjūrō I (1647-1709), a great tachi-yaku (actor of leading male roles) whose hata (stylized format) was copied by the puppet theater, and Yoshizawa Ayame I (1673-1729), probably the foremost onnagata of all time, whose training and style of acting had the greatest influence in molding later onnagata. Yoshizawa Ayame I wrote the Ayame-gusa, the standard textbook for the female impersonator.

Another famous actor, Nakamura Denkurō I (?—1714), created saruguma, the "monkey-type" make-up, in the third year of Genro (1690), as well as the acting style for the role of Asahina as it is seen today in Yakko Asahina Ōiso Gayoi (The Dandy Asahina Haunting the Famed Pleasure Quarter in Ōiso).

The actor Yamanaka Heikurō (1632-1724) was known for his katakiyaku (villain roles), especially those of the kuge-aku (wicked noblemen). He also invented a favorite and devilishly effective make-up, variously called Heikurō-guma, hannya-gwna, or kijo-guma, for the demoness who appears in the last scene of the dance-drama Kyō-Ganoko Musume Dōjōji (The Gay Scene of the Maiden in Kanoko Kimono at Dōjō Temple). Heikurō first presented his demoness make-up in 1705 at the Ichimura-za during his seventy-third year, a ripe age at which to be creative. The costume and make-up for the kuge-aku (wicked noblemen) roles of today are taken from those originated by Heikurō and another famous actor, Nakajima Mihoemon (1699-1762), who followed Heikurō.

Ogino Sawanojō I (1656-1704), who later became a tachi-yaku, was an onnagata and for many years was Danjūrō I's acting partner. He displayed especial brilliance in waka-oyama (young woman) characterizations. At the Nakamura-za in 1698, during his second performance of Onna Narukami (Priestess Narukami), Sawanojō set a precedent-breaking style by wearing a wide obi for the first time on the stage. Thereafter, the wide obi became fashionable, not only on the stage but also off, and its use has persisted to the present. Prior to this performance, it was the accepted fashion to wear a narrow obi only four or five inches wide and approximately six feet long.

As wigs and make-up developed, the drama became more complex. The full-length tsuzuki-kyōgen, plays of several acts, appeared and roles became more diversified. These roles usually fell into one of the following eight important categories, the male roles being generally known as otokogata, the female as onnagata.

tachi-yaku: (yaku, role) leading male character or man of eminence

wakashu-gata: (kata, role) young man or boy

oyaji-yaku: (oyaji, old father) old man

kataki-yaku: (kataki, enemy) villain

nyōbō-gata: (nyōbō, wife, although not limited to wife's roles) leading female character, around thirty years of age; later known as tachioyama (tachi, matured)

kasha-gata or fuke-oyama:(kasha, originally a woman servant in a pleasure-house, teahouse, etc.; fuke, old) old woman

waka-oyama: (waka, young) unmarried girl, fourteen to eighteen years old

ko-yaku: child's role

Actors were type-cast and rarely ventured from their designated roles. On occasion, however, they would change their roles. An onnagata might change from women's roles to become a tachi-yaku. The child actors of Genro were trained to become either onnagata or tachi-yaku. A wakashu or young man's part was not left in the hands of an old man, as neither acting nor make-up had been perfected to the level where an actor could, regardless of his own age, present himself as a character of greatly different age. Many actors bowed from the stage in their prime to enter other fields of endeavor, usually becoming merchants. During Genro, it was inconceivable for an actor to remain in the theater until feeble in the knees, as did the beloved Nakamura Kichiemon I, who performed until his death in 1954.

Under the aegis of Danjūrō I and his son Danjūrō II, the kata took form for two of the most highly esteemed and spectacular plays in the Kabuki repertoire, Shibaraku (Wait a Moment) and Sukeroku Yukari no Edo-Zakura (Sukeroku's Affinity for Edo Cherry Blossoms, or The Love Story of Sukeroku and Agemaki). The latter play, incidentally, is generally performed in the springtime. The present-day costumes for both of these plays remain almost identical with those of Genro times.

SHIBARAKU AND ITS COSTUMES

The flamboyant aragoto dramas of Danjūrō I have left an eloquent imprint on the Kabuki world, but none has attained the prominence of Shibaraku. The hero of the play, Kamakura no Gongorō Kagemasa, appears in the most enormous and fantastically styled costume and wig, which makes him anything but alluring to Western eyes insofar as color and beauty are concerned. The play, moreover, has practically no plot to impress the beholder, yet it is a tour de force, for it is difficult to discard the remembrance of a mounting so overwhelming in feeling of greatness and power.

Present-day performances of Shibaraku are brought vibrantly alive by such actors as Ichimura Uzaemon XVII, Matsumoto Kōshirō VIII, and Kōshirō's younger brother, Onoe Shōroku II. Shōroku is perhaps the most excitingly skillful aragoto actor of all by reason of his winning personality, stalwart physique, and full-throated diction, in addition to his superb kata (acting format). Some Japanese critics, however, considered the aragoto of the late Bandō Mitsugorō VII the most perfected kata among contemporary artists. (Mitsugorō died in 1961 at the age of seventy-nine, after seventy-two years of stage life. His real name was Morita Jusaku.) It is difficult to agree with this opinion, because Mitsugorō was small of stature and had a small, almost childish voice, both of which detracted from the bombastic character of the aragoto role in which he played. Perhaps the point in question is one in which the Westerner fails in his concept of Kabuki. He is still looking for some type of reality, be it imaginative or realistic. The Japanese sees the force within the less noisy spectacle.

Shibaraku's costuming and make-up were set in the tenth year of Genro (1697), which saw the initial performance of the play under the title Sankai Nagoya. The Kabuki Nendai-ki (Chronological History of Kabuki Drama) gives us our only hint of the costume worn by the energetic Danjūrō I in this first performance. The third and final revision, the fantasy we know today, was the creation of Danjūrō II, who wore it on his first appearance in Shibaraku, then known as Jumpū Taihei-ki (The Story of Peaceful Days like Good Wind on the Sea), at the Edo Kawarasaki-za in 1736.

The first costume in which Danjūrō I appeared was an atsuwata-no-hirosode (atsu, thick; wata, padded; hiro, wide opening; sode, sleeve): a thickly padded wide-sleeve garment, commonly called atsuwata, worn over yoroi (armor) under which was a juban (undergarment), probably of white silk, and one other garment (Fig. 7). Kote (arm protectors) covered the lower half of the arms, and sune-ate (leg guards) encased the legs to the ankles. The atsuwata was belted with a nawa (rope) obi made of oversized wadded cloth rope through which was thrust a single long sword that extended high above the opposite shoulder in the back. The feet were bare. The katsura (wig) was dressed in furiwake-no-sumi-maegami (furiwake, center-parted; sumi, corner; maegami, forelock) style—that is, with the hair parted in the middle and shaved at the corners of the forehead where the forelock had already been cut in the gempuku or gembuku (coming-of-age) ceremony. A chikara-gami (chikara, strength; kami, paper), a hair decoration made of fine-quality hōsho paper, was tied around the mage, the ponytail. Originally it was inconspicuous, but it gradually took on the shape of a pair of bat wings to denote power.

The pattern of the first costume for Shibaraku was one of the most novel of Kabuki origin. The reddish-brown atsuwata was designed with three distinctive motifs, including a demon's red arm, taken from the story of Watanabe no Tsuna and the demon who lived in the famed Rashōmon gate in Kyoto; a kinsatsu or prohibitory sign (from the same story); and the back view of a kabuto (helmet) with its laminar folds. The kabuto was ornamented in front with the golden "helmet horns" called kuwagata (kuwa, hoe; gata, shape or type) because its shape was taken from that of the lowly hand hoe. The blade end and sides form an outline similar to that of horns.

The second costume of Danjūrō I in Shibaraku (Fig. 8) was a blue suō, a set of clothing consisting of an uwagi (outer garment) with wide-open sleeves and naga-bakama (long trailing trousers). The right arm was removed from the sleeve, revealing the bare upper right portion of the torso and arm. Through the left side of the obi was thrust an unusually long sword that curved upward past the shoulder. A huge kamahige, a sickle-shaped mustache, rose to meet the yarō-atama (adult male hair styling) wig, and a samurai eboshi (hat) was firmly fixed to the head. Relieving the severity of the monochrome costume, a daimon (large crest) was worked into the center of each sleeve. In this instance, Danjūrō's crest, the mimasu mon (mi, three; masu, dry-measure box; mon, crest) was used. The crest is called the mimasu mon because the three concentric squares are said to be patterned after three rice-measuring boxes.

The third costume, the final refinement of the aragoto costume for Shibaraku, was evolved by Danjūrō II and is essentially the costume used even today (Fig. 9). The suō, now of enormously exaggerated proportions, is kaki or kakishibu, a reddish-brown color taken from the color of the astringent juice pressed from the skin of the Japanese persimmon. It is a color that gives an impression of colossal strength, and its sturdiness is sharply enhanced by the use of rough cotton cloth. Probably the most distinguishing characteristic of this Shibaraku suō is the out-sized sleeves with the mimasu crest set in their centers. Each sleeve stretched out makes a large square by the insertion of cloth-covered bamboo splints. Only a great actor could survive this monstrous costume, which not only completely envelops the man but also extends far beyond his arms and trails behind his covered feet.

The existing ishō-no-tsukechō (costumers' notebooks) clearly show that little change has been made throughout the years in the Shibaraku costume. In comparison, a costume worn by Ichikawa Danjūrō IX during the November 1895 performance at the Tokyo Kabuki-za and that worn forty-one years later by Matsumoto Kōshirō VII for the January 1936 Kabuki-za performance are found to be almost identical.

The form of the costume was identical, but Danjūrō wore a plain kaki (reddish brown) suō with immensely long, trailing trousers, whereas Kōshirō's suō was designed with lateral stripes of persimmon brown. Both costumes had large mimasu crests in white. As usual, the sleeves were made to look like large square shields by the insertion of cloth-covered bamboo splints.

7. First Shibaraku costume: atsuwata-no-hirosode. This thickly padded wide-sleeve garment, worn over armor, was devised by Danjūrō I.

8. Second Shibaraku costume: suō. The second costume chosen by Danjūrō I for his role in Shibaraku was a blue suō, a set of clothing consisting of an uwagi with wide open sleeves and the long trailing trousers known as naga-bakama (here drawn up for combat).

9. Third Shibaraku costume: suō. The third costume for Shibaraku was evolved by Danjūrō II and is essentially the costume still used today for the role of Kamakura Gongorō Kagemasa.

10. Sukeroku costume. The costume evolved by Danjūrō II for the role of Sukeroku was almost identical with that seen today on the Kabuki stage. The chief difference is that the earlier costume employed the stylized peony crest called gyōyō-botan mon, as shown here.

The kitsuke (kimono) which Danjūrō wore was fashioned with green cranes in lozenge shape, dyed on white ground and outlined with black-thread embroidery. Black silk banded the wrist hems. Although Kōshirō's kitsuke was the same, the dressmaker's book mentions that it was made of white Mōka cotton, a fine cloth made in the Mōka district.

Danjūrō's juban had a white eri (collar) of cotton with a checkerboard pattern known as ichimatsu made with the mimasu crest. Kōshirō's juban was made of rinzu (figured silk in satin weave) with a saya-gata (stylized cross) pattern over which the mimasu crest was rendered in applique" outlined with embroidery.

Danjūrō wore two garments of red silk under the juban: the marushitagi (maru, full length; shitagi, undergarment) and the maru-juban. In this instance, Kōshirō favored two half-length undergarments: the dōgi (dō, trunk; ki, garment), a sleeveless garment of scarlet silk crepe, and the dō-juban, also without sleeves but having a white collar.

All the remaining accessories for both actors were reasonably the same. The obi was a black maru-guke or rope-style (not flat) obi. The sekitai obi with the suō had a flat section at each end decorated with white mimasu crests. The chikara or niō-dasuki (niō, two Deva kings; tasuki, band to hold up sleeves) was made of green and purple bands twisted together. Both actors wore suji-guma kumadori (blatant line make-up) with red lines on a white painted ground.

The wig in each case was the maegami-tsuki-abura-gome-no-gohon-kurumabin (maegami, forelock; tsuki, with; abura-gome, coated and hardened with pomade; gohon, five; kuruma, wheel; bin, sides, sidelocks) decorated with hōsho-no-chikara-gami (hōsho, thick Japanese paper; no, of; chikara, strength; kami, paper). The hōsho-no-chikara-gami, as noted earlier, is a large paper decoration made to look like a bat's wings to denote strength.

Danjūrō and Kōshirō wore the samurai hat called eboshi. Danjūrō's was styled with fancy strings braided with red, white, and green skeins of thread and with himo (ties) of white silk attached. Kōshirō's eboshi strings were colored red, white, green, and purple, and the ties were of twisted green threads.

Today the leading character of Skibaraku appears in the Danjūrō version with a plain persimmon-brown suō.

SUKEROKU AND ITS COSTUMES

Ichikawa Danjūrō II, like his illustrious father, contributed to the development of Kabuki, especially in the arts of make-up and costuming. His fresh ideas led to improvements and changes in the kata for a number of the Jūhachiban, the eighteen favorite plays of the Ichikawa family. One of these is Sukeroku Yukari no Edo-Zakura, first produced in 1713 with Danjūrō II in the leading role of Sukeroku.

The costume for the role of Sukeroku passed through two formative stages before reaching the style accepted as standard. The first costume was a kimono of black pongee on which large bush-peonies were appliquéd from the hem almost to the shoulder. The kimono was topped off with the mimasu mon, Danjūrō's family crest. The pattern and color of the obi are unknown, but probably the obi was of the karuta-musubi type, broader than a man's yet not so wide as a woman's. Accessories were an orange cotton hachimaki (headband) bound around the head, dark-blue tabi socks, and one sword, the longer of the usual pair worn by samurai.

The famous karakasa (kara, China; kasa, umbrella; actually a lacquered umbrella), which so unmistakably identifies Sukeroku today, was not used at that time. Instead, Sukeroku, pursuing an enemy, rushed onto the hanamichi (runway through audience) brandishing a shakuhachi (a five-hole bamboo flute). The shakuhachi is still retained, but it is shoved into the obi at the back. Sukeroku wore his kimono in hadanugi fashion: the upper part of the outer garment slipped off the shoulders and tucked into the obi. His feet were bare, a Kabuki convention thought to give additional beauty to the mise en scène.

A second performance of Sukeroku was not to reach the boards until three years later. In 1716, Danjūrō II again appeared in a black kimono, retaining the mimasu mon, but with a purple hachimaki, as used today. He wore taka-geta (high-stilted wooden clogs), and held in one hand a shakuhachi (bamboo flute) and in the other a karakasa, undoubtedly of the same style as the ja-no-me, an umbrella with a double ring or bull's-eye design.

It is hard to understand why Sukeroku went begging for thirty-three years before its third performance in 1749, when again Danjūrō II mounted this favorite play. Danjūrō's costume was almost identical with that seen currently except that he used the gyōyō-botan mon, a crest containing a stylized peony flower with leaves dyed in many colors (Fig. 10). His garment was not made of pongee but of red-lined black habutae (plain silk) without pattern, decorated only with five crests: on the sleeves, at each breast, and at center back.

There is a story, fact or fiction, concerning Danjūrō's use of the gyōyō-botan mon. It relates that Misaka, a ranking lady-in-waiting and an enthusiastic admirer of Danjūrō II, presented him with a valuable kimono crested with the gyōyō-botan of the celebrated Konoe family of Kyoto. This garment had been a gift to Misaka from her mistress, the daughter of Konoe Iehiro and wife of the Shōgun Ienobu. Konoe Iehiro was considered a fount of knowledge on all matters relating to imperial ceremony and etiquette and therefore had been invited to the Edo court to instruct officials in protocol. The legend may well have authenticity. Danjūrō's wearing of the kimono would have been a subtle compliment to a distinguished lady.

The shitagi (undergarment) was put on as one with the uwagi (outer garment), the two overlapping and held trimly to the body by a blue obi made of a twill-weave fabric with an over-all woven pattern of mimasu, the three nested concentric squares, peony blossoms, and the congratulatory Chinese character kotobuki. An inrō (medicine box) hung at the right hip. A single sword, the sheath decorated with the tubercled skin of a shark, was thrust into the left side of the obi. The flute protruded from the center back of the obi. Geta (wooden clogs for outdoor wear) of Paulownia wood with black hanao (thongs), were worn with bright yellow tabi socks to form an excellent contrast. Thus garbed, Danjūrō IPs Sukeroku was, all in all, an extremely gorgeous fellow—so gorgeous, in fact, that the costume was referred to as kuramae (kura, storehouse, granary; mae, before, in front of) because of its aura of great affluence.

There was in this capsule description of the costume more than a little of the aptness that often characterizes such tags. Kuramae was the name of a street in the Asakusa district of Edo. Facing this street were the government warehouses in which the rice exacted as land tax was stored. The fudasashi, or licensed merchants, received the rice from the government, sold it to the ordinary rice dealers, and exchanged it for money for the samurai class. Accordingly, the fudasashi were very wealthy and lived in a very extravagant style, and this style, in turn, received the name of kuramae-fū: in-front-of-the-storehouse style.

DANJŪRŌ'S PRECEPTS FOR ACTORS

Danjūrō II kept notes of his so-called secrets concerning his kata, but unfortunately his writings were never published. His ideas, however, were handed down by word of mouth or jotted down by other actors and were thus preserved for posterity. Twelve of his precepts are listed here.

1. For aragoto roles, the best tasuki (cloth band used to hold back kimono sleeves) is braided blue and purple, and the shigoki (soft sash) should be purple, as the combination of these colors lends additional feeling of strength to the roles in Shibaraku and Yanone (Arrowhead).

2. When a short person wears the great pleated hangire (wide trousers with stiffened back, copied from the Nō), in order to appear stronger and taller, he should have them styled longer than normal and should wear them high above the waistline. This will give a short actor dignity and authority.

3. In order to appear taller in aragoto plays, one should wear high geta under the sud. (Prior to Danjūrō's time, only short hakama were worn with the sud.) To avoid clacking the geta, pad the teeth (upright supports) with wadded cotton. (Wadded footgear is worn today by the characters Wata-nabe no Tsuna in Ibaraki [Demon Ibaraki] and Gongorō in Shibaraku.)

4. Unlined garments should never be worn in aragoto plays. To give them body, they should be lined with wadded cotton—never with silk, since silk, being soft, would not give the necessary fullness. The juban should always be red, for red is the color most successful in portraying a robust character.

5. One must not wear tabi with the kamishimo—that is, the combination of hakama and a jumper with winglike shoulders worn over the kimono. To be shod with tabi when wearing this costume makes a person appear weak. (Danjūrō learned this from his own experience in later years.)

6. White tabi make one appear frail.

7. The white base of kumadori make-up should be applied unevenly in order to make the kumadori appear less flat.

8. Before striking a mie (stylized cross-eyed pose), it is best to close the eyes, for when they are opened again they will appear larger. (At first the mie appears extremely ridiculous to the Western observer, but it is very much admired and appreciated by the true Kabuki fan.)

9. Portray the feelings and bravado of a child of seven when performing aragoto. Do not act in the manner of a good-for-nothing or a gambler, for this leaves only the impression of vulgarity.

10. Use beni (red coloring), not rouge or lipstick, on the face and around the eyes, but it must not be too bright. If it is too dark, however, it will look black from a distance. (Lighting for performances was provided by natural light during the day and by candlelight in the evening.)

11. For roles calling for seppuku (suicide by disembowelment) or the portrayal of illness, paint the lips white rather than blue, since white lips give a bluish tinge to the face. Also, purse or tighten the lips to make them look narrow, since this gives a person the appearance of suffering or the approach of death. (Seppuku is the formal word for hara-kiri: ritual suicide performed in order to the with honor. The samurai performed it by thrusting a short sword into the left side of his abdomen, pulling it across and then up; others by simply cutting from left to right across the abdomen. Danjūrō's advice regarding the portrayal of seppuku and illness is still followed today.)

12. For a role that calls for a lost or wounded eye, to keep the eye closed constantly would be difficult and would distort the muscles of the face; so the eye should be painted black, which makes it appear to be blind or wounded.

GENROKU THEATERS OF EDO

At the beginning of the Genro era (1688-1703) there were seven theaters in the city of Edo. Only four of these—the Morita-za, the Murayama-za, the Yamamura-za, and the Nakamura-za— were yagura: theaters licensed by the government. The remaining three—the Miyako-za, the Tamagawa-za, and the Kawarasaki-za, which were unlicensed—served alternately as hikae yagura (reserve or unlicensed managements) for the Nakamura-za which was in financial straits and could not afford a run. The hikae yagura had authority to sponsor stage performances for the yagura when they were financially unable to give a scheduled program.

In 1652, the Murayama-za sold its yagura rights to Ichimura Uzaemon, who changed the name of the theater to the Ichimura-za. The Murayama-za thereby forfeited its right to resume business under its original name, but subsequently it became a potential unlicensed or reserve management under the name of Kiri-za.

A scandalous love affair between Ikushima, an actor attached to the Yamamura-za, and a ranking lady-in-waiting by the name of Ejima resulted not only in their exile but also in the closing of all theaters in Edo on February 6, 1712. Later three of the previously licensed theaters were allowed to reopen, but the Yamamura-za was excluded. Two of the three hikae yagura were re-established, and the third, the Miyako-za, was replaced by the Kiri-za.

The three licensed theaters of Edo, known collectively as Edo San-za (the Three Theaters of Edo) were called Aon (main) yagura. The word yagura was used interchangeably to refer to the management and, in its literal sense, to the drum tower which was built on the roof over the main entrance of the theater and from which floated bunting emblazoned with the theater owner's crest. The right to fly his flag actually certified that the theater owner had official permission to give performances.

Friction was inevitable between the hon yagura (licensed theaters) and the hikae yagura (unlicensed managements), for the hikae yagura would refuse to close their theatrical performances when the hon yagura reached financial independence. Even though the managements of the theaters changed, actors usually remained with their respective theaters.

Generally performances were given during six alternate months each year: November, January, March, May, July, and September. The acting year began in November with the kaomise, the face-showing or formal introduction of a theatrical season, at which the actors were presented. The roles in which they would appear during the season were announced.

The intervening months were equally busy for the actors, who spent this time in intensive rehearsal. They took dancing, singing, and samisen lessons. The theater managers used these intervals to raise the money for the following month's performance. Since banks and moneylending establishments did not exist, management had to turn to prosperous chōnin to finance each season's runs. If a production proved popular, the chōnin received a percentage of the profits, plus interest on the original loan. For lack of attendance, plays would sometimes close after a week's run. On the other hand, programs that appealed to the public would run until the "beginning of the next season"—that is, a program begun in January might run until March, perhaps for sixty days.

THE JŌSHIKI MAKU, KABUKI'S STANDARD CURTAIN

Activities of the Edo San-za (the three licensed theaters of Edo) are only memories, but contemporary audiences have a constant reminder of these illustrious theaters in the three colors of the jōshiki maku, Kabuki's standard striped draw curtain, which represents these three never-to-be-forgotten playhouses that did so much to further the prestige of the Kabuki. The Ichimura-za, in 1664, was the first to use the three-colored striped cotton curtain of black, kaki (reddish brown), and moss green. These same colors are used today in all traditional Kabuki theaters. The Nakamura-za varied the colors, using stripes of black, kaki (reddish brown), and white. The Morita-za also used the classic striping but changed the order, using green, kaki (reddish brown), and black. It can be assumed that the inspiration for the three-colored curtain came from the five-colored agemaku, the entrance curtain of the Nō stage.

An exact replica of the Nō curtain could not be used: the aristocratic Nō actors would have felt it a reprehensible breach of ethics if the "river-bed beggars" had encroached upon their domain. The jōshiki maku is an unvarying feature of all pure Kabuki. The curtain is pulled by hand from one side of the stage to the other, from stage left to stage right at the beginning of the play, of an act, or of a scene, from stage right to stage left at the end—or vice versa. The types of plays are not identified by the direction in which the jōshiki maku is drawn, but the use of a drop curtain or donchō, which was introduced into Japan after 1868, signifies that the drama is not of classic Kabuki origin.

REGULATIONS GOVERNING COSTUMES

BEFORE AND DURING GENROKU

The government kept a wary eye on both costumes and properties of Kabuki from the days of the early Wakashu Kabuki throughout Genro. This was not unnatural, for the government often issued restrictive bans not only upon actors but also on all other classes of people, including the nobles. To stem the spread of excessive luxury in the spirited Genro era, the Tokugawa shōgunate repeatedly imposed limitations on the wearing of extravagant clothing, on the display of wealth, and on free indulgence in luxury. Such injunctions were often ignored, and this led to additional, more repressive bans.

In January 1662, one such follow-up order was posted to the effect that actors and dancers must refrain from extravagant living on and off the stage; stage properties could not be covered with gold or silver plating; and costumes could not be fashioned from Chinese karaori (brocade). Similar regulations were again imposed in March 1668, limiting Kabuki actors' off-stage dress to plain-woven, patternless silk, cotton, or pongee. On the stage, in the same year the casts were permitted to wear costumes of striped silk in plain weaves, habutae (the most popular Japanese plain-woven silk), and tsumugi (rough-textured pongee). Embroidered cloth and dyed materials, including the customary red linings and purple zukin (hoods), were forbidden, since the dyes were very expensive.

Even today, it should be noted, eight pounds of red dye will cost about ¥15,000 or approximately $42.00, a substantial sum by Japanese standards. Red dye or beni-mochi is made by crushing buds of the beni (a flower similar to a small chrysanthemum) into a paste which in turn is made into small, flat, circular pellets. Beni-mochi pellets are now made only in Yamagata Prefecture in the northern part of Japan. It can thus be understood why the Tokugawa shōgunate considered red-dyed materials a luxury.

There were two pertinent reasons for proscribing the use of purple. Purple dye was made from the roots of a rare weed and was the most expensive of dyes; and the color was reserved exclusively for the upper classes, such as the various ranks of the daimyō and their overlord the shōgun. Contrary to the belief of some, murasaki (purple) never was and is not the color of the emperor. There are two emperor's colors or kinjiki (prohibited colors): kōrozen, a yellowish brown, and kikujin—popularly called ao-iro—a yellowish green, said to be the color of mildew on malted rice. In the emperor's ceremonial costume, the sokutai, the hō (outer robe) dyed in kōrozen is the most formal; that dyed in ao-iro, the semiformal. These are respectively known as the kōrozen-no-ho and the ao-iro-no-ho.

As early as 1635, Satsuma Jōun, owner of the puppet theater called the Satsuma-za and initiator of the jōruri ballad-dramas in Edo, was sent to prison for using a purple silk-crepe curtain imprinted with the Shimazu crest (a cross in a circle), although the curtain was a personal gift from the Lord of Shimazu, an influential daimyō, to the ningyō-jōruri-shibai—that is, the puppet theater—in appreciation of Jōun's artistry. For the hikimaku (draw curtain) of the smaller-sized stage of Genro, the authorities permitted the use of silk crepe or cotton cloth, but the color purple was taboo.

With monotonous regularity, restrictive laws continued to be imposed or reimposed, only to be ignored by those at whom they were directed. Two of these edicts, however, left a decided imprint on classical Kabuki and its kata (format).

One order, enacted in 1703, directed that henceforth plays were not to depict current events, especially any activity of the daimyō or the shōgun. Playwrights found the events of the day too fruitful to avoid, and plots based on current events were merely placed in other periods, and fictitious names were used for the characters. Moreover, as most actors and many in the audience had never seen the actual apparel of a daimyō or a shōgun, the costumes for these plays were the creations of fertile imaginations.

By the other order the use of real swords on the stage was prohibited in February 1704, just one month too late to prevent a tragic disaster. Suginami Toranosuke, a talented wakashu, became a tachi-yaku taking the name of Ikushima Zenjirō. He then became a pupil of Ichikawa Danjūrō leaking the name of Ichikawa Zenjirō. It is presumed that ill feeling developed between the two, for Danjūrō noticeably neglected his pupil. Danjūrō's actions very much upset Zenjirō's father, Ikushima Hanroku (not to be confused with the Ikushima of the earlier-mentioned Ejima-Ikushima affair). In great anger, Ikushima thrust a sword through Danjūrō. Thus ended the life of one of the most illustrious actors ever to appear on any stage.

COSTUMES AND MAKE-UP

All actors of the time put on make-up in their own dressing rooms, just as they do today. Dressing was a different matter. With the exceptions of the zagashira (head of the troupe), the star tachi-yaku, and the onnagata,—who used private dressing rooms—actors were dressed in the ishō-gura, the costume room located, during this period, next to the todori-beya, the backstage management office.

It was the accepted practice to behave toward the onnagata as if they were women, a courtesy befitting the feminine gentility for which the onnagata strove both on and off stage. The Genro onnagata were careful not to expose their bodies. They had separate baths and usually dressed themselves, even tying their own long obi—a time-consuming practice, since short cuts were then unknown. The onnagata had separate toko-yama or wig dressers, and it was the toko-yama who gave them assistance in dressing if it was needed, particularly when they performed a kayaku role: one not characteristic of the onnagata, such as a male role. At this time, the katsura-shi (today called katsura-ya), the artisan who made the copper bases for the katsura, and the toko-yama, the man responsible for dressing and maintaining the wigs during a run, were one and the same.

Actors generally paid for their own costumes, but minor performers were provided for from the kura-ishō (kura, warehouse; ishō, costumes) by the theater management. However, the kura-ishō—that is, costumes kept in the theater warehouse—also included full complements of costumes for roles that were often repeated, such as the following:

asa-gamishimo: kamishimo (formal samurai costume consisting of jumper with winglike shoulders and short pleated culottes) made of asa (ramie) cloth, without lining

bōzu ishō: priests' robes

hitatare: wide-sleeved costume, based on Nō costume patterned after the real-life formal dress of high-ranking daimyō and the shōgun

juban: undergarments, usually red, although not necessarily so

jūni-hitoe: many-layered formal dress worn by ladies of the imperial court in Heian times

kamishimo: formal samurai costume consisting of jumper with winglike shoulders and short pleated culottes (Hakama)

kappa: raincoat

kariginu: set of clothing consisting of a wide-open-sleeve uwagi—that is, a coat with an ate-obi (ate, from Attu, to apply or touch; obi, sash or belt)—and hakama, used only for stage nobleman's costume

kesa: surplice worn over outer robe as an official symbol of priesthood

keshin-mono: (ke, disguise; skin, body) animal costumes including those for toads, horses, monkeys, boars, and badgers, which are the property of the kodōgu (hand properties) department

kyahan: leggings or gaiters

momohiki: very tight, long, thick navy-blue cotton trousers, opened at the back, with a lapover so as not to expose the body as the wearer moves

shikake-mono: trick costume for bit players (It does not include hikinuki costumes—that is, those used for quick changes of costume in view of the audience.)

suō: set of male clothing consisting of uwagi (coat) with wide-open sleeves and naga-bakama (long trailing trousers) or hakama (short pleated trousers or culottes)

tenugui: hand towel, usually cotton

tekkō: long cloth mittens covering lower arms and backs of hands

yoten: wide-open-sleeved garments with hems split at sides

zukin: ready-made hood (If any other article of clothing is used as a hood, it is not called a zukin.)