kabuki

/kah booh"kee, keuh-, kah"booh kee/, n.

1. popular drama of Japan, developed chiefly in the 17th century, characterized by elaborate costuming, rhythmic dialogue, stylized acting, music, and dancing, and the performance of both male and female roles by male actors. Cf. No.

2. (cap.) Also called Grand Kabuki. public performances of this type of drama.

[1895-1900; < Japn: orig., as v., to act dissolutely; usually written with phonograms that carry the meanings "song-dance-skill"]

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Popular Japanese entertainment that combines music, dance, and mime in highly stylized performances.

The word is written using three Japanese characters

ka ("song"), bu ("dance"), and ki ("skill"). Kabuki dates from the end of the 16th century, when it developed from the nobility's nō theatre and became the theatre of townspeople. In its early years it had a licentious reputation, its actors often being prostitutes; women and young boys were consequently forbidden to perform, and kabuki is today performed by an adult all-male cast. Its texts, unlike nō texts, are easily understood by its audience. The lyrical but fast-moving and acrobatic plays, noted for their spectacular staging, elaborate costumes, and striking makeup in place of masks, are vehicles in which the actors demonstrate a wide range of skills. Kabuki employs two musical ensembles, one onstage and the other offstage. It shares much of its repertoire with bunraku, a traditional puppet theatre.

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▪ Japanese arts

 traditional Japanese popular drama with singing and dancing performed in a highly stylized manner. A rich blend of music, dance, mime, and spectacular staging and costuming, it has been the chief theatrical form in Japan for almost four centuries. The term kabuki originally suggested the unorthodox and shocking character of this art form. In modern Japanese, the word is written with three characters: ka, signifying “song”; bu, “dance”; and ki, “skill.”

      Kabuki's highly lyrical plays are regarded, with notable exceptions, less as literature than as vehicles for its actors to demonstrate their enormous range of skills in visual and vocal performance. These actors have carried the traditions of Kabuki from one generation to the next with only slight alterations. Many of them trace their ancestry and performing styles to the earliest Kabuki actors and add a “generation number” after their names to indicate their place in the long line of actors.

      Traditionally, a constant interplay between the actors and the spectators took place in the Kabuki theatre. The actors frequently interrupted the play to address the crowd, and the latter responded with appropriate praise or clapped their hands according to a prescribed formula. They also could call out the names of their favourite actors in the course of the performance.

      Because Kabuki programs ran from morning to evening and many spectators often attended for only a single play or scene, there was a constant coming and going in the theatre. At mealtimes food was served to the viewers. The programs incorporated themes and customs that reflected the four seasons or inserted material derived from contemporary events. Unlike most Western theatres, in which since the late 17th century a proscenium arch has separated actors and audience, the Kabuki performers constantly intruded on the audience. When two hanamichi, elevated passageways from the main stage to the back of the auditorium, were used, the audience was fenced in by three stages.

      The Kabuki form dates from the early 17th century, when a female dancer named Okuni (who had been an attendant at the Grand Shrine of Izumo), achieved popularity with parodies of Buddhist prayers. She assembled around her a troupe of wandering female performers who danced and acted. Okuni's Kabuki was the first dramatic entertainment of any importance that was designed for the tastes of the common people in Japan. The sensuous character of the dances (and the prostitution of the actors) proved to be too disruptive for the government, which in 1629 banned women from performing. Young boys dressed as women then performed the programs, but this type of Kabuki was suppressed in 1652, again because of concern for morals. Finally, older men took over the roles, and it is this form of all-male entertainment that has endured to the present day. Kabuki plays grew in sophistication, and the acting became more subtle.

      Eventually, by the early 18th century, Kabuki had become an established art form that was capable of the serious, dramatic presentation of genuinely moving situations. As merchants and other commoners in Japan began to rise on the social and economic scale, Kabuki, as the people's theatre, provided a vivid commentary on contemporary society. Actual historical events were transferred to the stage; the great play cycle Chūshingura (1748), for example, was an essentially faithful dramatization of the famous incident of 1701–03 in which a band of 47 rōnin (masterless samurai), after having waited patiently for almost two years, wreaked their revenge upon the man who had forced the suicide of their lord. Similarly, nearly all the “lovers' double suicide” (shinjū) plays of the playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon were based on actual suicide pacts made between ill-fated lovers.

       bugaku, the dance ceremony of the imperial court, and the Noh theatre, both of great antiquity, were long the exclusive domain of the nobility and the warrior class known as samurai; Kabuki became the theatre of the townspeople and the farmers. Bugaku and Noh have a fragile elegance and an extreme subtlety of movement. Kabuki is somewhat coarse and unrestrained, and its beauty is gaudy and extravagant. It appeals more to the senses than to the intellect.

      The strongest ties of Kabuki are to the Noh and to jōruri, the puppet theatre that developed during the 17th century. Kabuki derived much of its material from the Noh, and, when Kabuki was banned in 1652, it reestablished itself by adapting and parodying kyōgen (sketches that provide comic interludes during Noh performances). During this period a special group of actors, called onnagata, emerged to play the female roles; these actors often became the most popular of their day.

      Kabuki subject matter creates distinctions between the historical play (jidaimono) and the domestic play (sewamono). A Kabuki program generally presents them in that order, separated by one or two dance plays featuring ghosts, courtesans, and other exotic creatures. It ends with a lively dance finale (ōgiri shosagoto) with a large cast.

      Although the basic purposes of Kabuki are to entertain and to allow the actors to demonstrate their skills, there is a didactic element, an ideal represented by the notion of kanzen-chōaku (“reward the virtuous and punish the wicked”). Thus, the plays often present conflicts involving such religious ideas as the transitory nature of the world (from Buddhism), and the importance of duty (from Confucianism), as well as more general moral sentiments. Tragedy occurs when morality conflicts with human passions. Structurally, the plays are typically composed of two or more themes in a complex plot, but they lack the strong unifying element for which Western drama strives. Kabuki plays include a variety of intermingled episodes which develop toward a final dramatic climax.

      Despite the ease with which it can assimilate new forms, Kabuki is a very formal theatre. It retains numerous conventions adapted from earlier forms of theatre that were performed in shrines and temples. Kabuki dance is probably the best-known feature of Kabuki. Rarely is an opportunity missed to insert dancing, whether the restrained, flowing movement of the onnagata or the exaggerated posturings of the male characters. The acting in Kabuki can be so stylized that it becomes virtually indistinguishable from dancing.

      At present, regular performances are held at the Kabuki Theatre (Kabuki-za)—with a capacity of 1,600—and the National Theatre, both in Tokyo. Other theatres have occasional performances. Troupes of Kabuki actors also perform outside of Tokyo. There are several such companies, but their memberships often overlap. At the Kabuki Theatre, the length of an average program is about five hours; at the National Theatre it is about four. The Kabuki Theatre upholds the actors' traditional position by adopting a conservative approach, planning its program around the major stars. The National Theatre stresses the importance of the play itself, trying to maintain the historical tradition and to preserve Kabuki as a classical form.

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