Kabuki Plus
Plate-breaking plays
notable!There are several noted Kabuki plays based on this folk tale, in which a servant who has been killed by her master for breaking a plate emerges from a well as a ghost. This version, one of the most popular, removes the ghost and complicated sidelines, focusing on the pure love tragedy between two different-ranked individuals. That innovative approach makes this a major modern Kabuki piece.
Neo-Kabuki
Kabuki scripts from the 17th to late 19th centuries were written by writers contracted to specific theaters. In the modernist Meiji Period, independent novelists began to write scripts with the aim of updating the theater to more contemporary sensibilities. Tsubouchi Shoyo set the path in 1894 with his Kirihitoha (The Paulownia Leaf), and Okamoto Kido, author of this play, was one of many to follow.
Hatamoto yakko and machi yakko
notable!A hatamoto is a middle rank between a lord and servant. They had salaries ranging from 100 to 10,000 koku (one koku was defined as enough rice to feed one person for one year) and are able to meet with the Tokugawa shoguns. Harima supposedly has a salary of 700 koku. Youngsters in hatamoto families were known to team up in violent groups called hatamoto yakko, as opposed to similar groups among commoners called machi (townsmen) yakko who helped police the towns.
Ichikawa Sadanji II
Eldest son of the popular Sadanji I and active in the early 20th century. After extensive travel in Europe and the US for eight months in his mid 20s, he performed Western dramas, promoted theater reforms and created new Kabuki pieces in an aim to revitalize the performing arts. He resurrected old plays and ghost plays and made a huge contribution to modern Japanese theater. His acting style was bold and, while he was not particularly handsome, erotic in young dandy roles. His honesty was such that he would reportedly go back to the start when he muffed his lines, but his dignified approach won him many dedicated fans.
“A woman like Shocho”
In the early 1910s, Sadanji II often performed with the female-role specialist Shocho II, who became particularly popular among university students. His realistic portrayal of women gave rise to the popular phrase “a woman like Shocho”. He had an elegant look with big attractive eyes, and his approach was a marked contrast from the exaggerated feminism of traditional female-role actors. The combination of his rugged masculinity and pure female style in Okamoto Kido’s works won him great fame.
