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Japan Kabuki and Bunraku
Kabuki and bunraku theater developed as popular
forms of
entertainment in the seventeenth century. Kabuki combined
contemporary music, acrobatics, and mimicry like that of
No, and it
was originally performed by troupes that included
actresses. Women
were soon barred from appearing, so the often large casts
consisted
entirely of male performers. Classical Kabuki somewhat
resembles
Western drama, except that dialogue was supplemented by
chanting
and accompanied by music provided by the samisen, a
threestringed lute perfected during the seventeenth century.
The plot
was often clarified by the use of a storyteller who
recounted the
major action, as was also customary in No.
Kabuki conventions include the use of artificially
high-pitched
voices, exaggerated gestures and miming, and flamboyant
costumes
and makeup, but no masks. Elaborate stage
devices--trapdoors,
revolving stages, and runways through the
theater--heighten the
excitement. Historical and legendary themes were extended
to
include events from the urban life of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, such as a townsman's dislike for the
samurai.
A common theme in the late-seventeenth-century and early
eighteenth-century works of Chikamatsu Monzaemon, "the
Shakespeare
of Japan," is the conflict between personal desires and
the
Confucian sense of loyalty and duty. By the early 1990s,
there were
two national Kabuki theaters in Tokyo featuring a growing
repertoire of lesser known as well as classic work. Among
contemporary masters working to "update" Kabuki and
attract modern
audiences were Ichikawa Ennosuke III, whose deft acting,
clever
acrobatics, and swift costume changes evoked nearly
magical
illusions, and Tamasaburo Bando, the top player of a wide
range of
feminine roles. These and other superb Kabuki actors
brought record
audiences to performances in the late 1980s.
Bunraku, puppet theater native to Osaka, was
regarded as
a serious dramatic medium for adults (unlike puppetry in
many
Western countries), and it flourished along with Kabuki
begining
with the Tokugawa period. Chikamatsu turned to writing for
the
bunraku when he became dissatisfied with the
liberties some
Kabuki actors took with his plays. A narrator, who sings
all the
parts, and a samisen-playing chorus are the main
elements of
bunraku. The narrator-singer conveys the emotional
content
of the play and generates the illusion of life in the
large
puppets, who move realistically in complex roles,
manipulated by a
master and black-hooded, robed assistants. These
narrator-singers
derive from the ancient tradition of storytellers, whose
exponents
continue to flourish in modern forms, now including women
and such
uproarish comics as Katsura Shijaku.
Data as of January 1994
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