Theatre History Overview - Part 9 - Kabuki theatre

Kabuki is another form of Japanese theatre. It originated in the 17th century when a female dancer named Okuni became popular because of her parodies of Buddhist prayers. She assembled a group of female performers and they would dance and act. However, the female performers were also prostituted, so all females were banned from acting in Japan in 1629. After this, young boys would dress as women and continued to perform Kabuki. Eventually older men took over the roles and that is the style of Kabuki that continues today.

Kabuki was the first form of dramatic entertainment created for the common people that reached any form of importance. It is usually performed on a stage in a hall. The stage is often modeled after the stage used for nogaku, but also extends into the audience.

The name kabuki means "song, dance, and skill" with each syllable representing each word. Kabuki uses dance, mime, extravagant makeup, spectacular staging, and spectacular costuming. By the early 18th century, Kabuki was not just for entertainment. It was able to present serious and dramatic situations. As commoners in Japan started to rise on the economic scale, Kabuki provided vivid commentary on society. Actual historical events, such as Chushingura (1784), were transferred to the stage.

There is usually a constant interplay between the actors and the audience when Kabuki is performed. The subject matter is clearly separated into historical plays and domestic plays. These two plays are usually separated by one or two dance plays featuring supernatural and exotic creatures.

The basic idea of Kabuki is to allow actors to demonstrate their skills and to entertain teh audience. However, there are often didactic elements dealing with religion, society and morality. Kabuki can still be seen today almost all the time at theatres in big cities such as Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto. Performances are usually divided into two or three segments and tickets are usually sold for each segment. Each ticket costs raound 2,000 yen or $18.33 US.

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