Kabuki Plus
Kabuki’s longest act
Sukeroku has the most classic taste and the greatest element of celebration among the Eighteen Select Plays. The entire act is set in front of the Miura pleasure house, but there are easily more than 80 persons on stage in a show lasting over two hours. This may be the longest one-act piece without change of set in the current repertoire. The colorful scene produced by the array of distinctive characters makes the audience feel as though they have fallen into the real Yoshiwara in Edo times.
Actually Soga Goro
notable!During the Edo Period, it was standard to play shows related to the Soga Brother revenge in January. Sukeroku is such a play. The lead turns out to be Soga Goro in disguise, while the sake seller is his brother Juro. They have lost their social status and have set out to avenge their father’s death and find a treasured sword.
Sukeroku the idol
Sukeroku is intimately related with Edo culture. First, the “kato-bushi” music played at Sukeroku’s entrance is not Kabuki music but a style associated with refined young men in the old Kuramae district of Edo. Such musicians are specially hired for this show. Following this tradition, the narrator at the start of the play calls attention specifically to the presence of the kato-bushi musicians behind the hidden screens to pay his respects. In addition, Sukeroku’s “snake-eyed” umbrella and tobacco pipe were donations from Yoshiwara, and the character’s purple headband and shoes were traditionally provided by the fish market. Sukeroku takes a light bow upon his entrance and points to the headband in gratitude for those gifts.
Kato-bushi music
This play, having been produced and developed in Edo, is known as an Edo-bushi work. The music is currently handled by a preservation society for kato-bushi music. These amateur performers are joined by singers and shamisen players from other genres such as nagauta and kiyomoto, who must learn kato-bushi for this piece. For this reason, kato-bushi is called a post-graduate art.
Deha
The entrance of important characters during the late 18th century was accompanied by a special swagger and a musical style called Deha. The beautiful movements of Sukeroku on the hanamichi stem from trends current at that time and mark a rare and very classic form.
Many Sukeroku
Sukeroku’s entrance is normally accompanied by narrative joruri stage music, but the Ishikawa Danjuro family of actors uses kato-bushi when they perform it as one of their Eighteen Select Plays. The name of the song in this case is “Sukeroku Yukari no Edozakura”, the show’s title. When the Onoe family performs the piece, it uses lyrical kiyomoto music, the Kataoka family uses typical Kabuki nagauta music, and so forth. The various families all have their own songs to accompany the scene.
Yoshiwara cherry tree
notable!Yoshiwara ranked as Edo’s largest pleasure quarters in both size and status. Along with entertainment by the individual shops, there were various events throughout the year. Yoshiwara’s main street featured different flowers each season. In spring, fully blooming cherry blossoms would be planted on the streets overnight, and taken away within the day once the flowers have dropped. It was an illusion appropriate to the so-called Town of Dreams.
Costumes for five celebrations
The costumes for Agemaki, Yoshiwara’s top courtesan, are fabulously over-the-top. She first wears a robe embroidered with rice cakes and lobsters, symbols of New Year’s (1/1). Another robe has a pattern of picnic curtains and fire drums, associated with Girl’s Day (3/3). She has obis with carp swimming upstream (Boy’s Day, 5/5) and star festival decorations (Tanabata, 7/7). If the show includes the water scene, she also has a robe with a chrysanthemum pattern representing the autumn celebrations (9/9).
Lighting a pipe
Traditionally tobacco was smoked in a pipe. The cut leaves were rolled and put into the tip of a pipe, which was then lit on a charcoal brazier. The smoker would suck on the pipe to light it. Passing a lit pipe to someone is like sharing a sake cup after taking the first sip, a gesture of love. Both men and women smoked for pleasure and fashion.
Agemaki’s defiant speech
Agemaki makes a speech known as a tsurane, a long speech using puns, quips, and cynical comments that make the lines interesting. The linkage of different words give the speech a rhythm and sense of fun. Agemaki’s tsurane is full of clever and untranslatable humor that makes it one of the show’s highlights.
Commercialism of Kabuki
Sukeroku is a diligent reflection of the real Yoshiwara, including actual place names like the Miura pleasure house. On the stage are shops and products that were popular at the time, creating a super-reality making the audiences feel they are in Yoshiwara. The sweets shop Takemura Issei and noodle delivery shop Fukuyama were both Edo fixtures. The morning glory rice cracker was a new and popular item, and the lines mention various cracker varieties.
Udon, not soba
notable!It is udon noodles that Sukeroku throws at Monpei. While soba was the popular noodle in Edo, the type of thin buckwheat noodles we know as soba today did not appear until the end of the 18th century. Prior to that, the thick udon noodles were the mainstay even in Edo.
Crawling under legs inspired by Chinese story
notable!When Sukeroku stands astride the street demanding that passersby crawl through his legs, they say they will crawl like the Chinese warrior Kanshin (Chinese: Hanxin), one of the three great warriors of the Early Han dynasty. Kanshin was once ordered by ruffians to crawl through a gangster’s legs. He figured that the embarrassment would be temporary and not worth fighting over. He thus ignored the people’s ridicule and obeyed. This incident represents a great man not making a big deal over small things and enduring humiliation for the greater good.
Water-diving scene
There is a Japanese phrase, “mizu mo shitataru ii otoko”, literally meaning a man who’s handsome even when dripping wet, i.e., nothing can ruin his beauty. In rare occasions, the show includes a scene where Sukeroku attacks Ikyu, commonly known as the “water diving” scene. After slashing Ikyu, Sukeroku is chased and hides in a barrel, which is filled with actual water. When Sukeroku jumps in, the water overflows on stage. When he reappears, he is literally a water-drenched handsome man.
