Kabuki+Theater

The Kabuki Theater By: Mathew Ferreira




 * Kabuki Theater is the most popular traditional form of Japanese drama and is characterized by dance, song, mime, colorful costumes, heavy makeup, and lively exaggerated movements that tell stories about historical events.
 * The Kabuki theaters’ origin is in the edo period
 * The passion for Kabuki Theater began with first performance by the shrine dancer Okuni at Kyoto in 1603. This performance was a unique blend of folk dance and religious dance and soon became popular with the lower classes.
 * The beginning of the 18th century marked the development of Kabuki into a more matured form and was starting to become popular even with the higher classes of society.

The Kabuki Stage:


 * The Kabuki Theater stage has a unique design. It is equipped with various mechanical contrivances for dramatic effect.
 * One of these is the Seri, a platform that can be raised and lowered from below the stage to make actors appear and disappear

The Kabuki Make-up:



> The Kabuki Costumes:
 * The Kabuki Theater is a classical Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers.
 * Japanese Kabuki Actors Apply makeup heavily to create a brightly painted mask that uses colors in symbolic ways to indicate the age, gender, and class of each character, as well as their moods and personalities.
 * The makeup of Kabuki actors is considered such an important aspect of the performance that it is common for actors to press a silk cloth to their faces to make a print of their makeup when the play is over. These cloth face-prints become valued souvenirs of the Kabuki performance.




 * The actors/performers wear costumes that reflect the contemporary styles of the day. The costumes play a major role to emphasize the character’s role being portrayed by the performer, as they themselves are full of complexity and hidden meaning.

The Kabuki Theater Today:




 * The immediate post–World War II era was a difficult time for kabuki. Besides the war's physical devastation, many rejected the styles and thoughts of the past, kabuki among them.
 * Today, kabuki is the most popular of the traditional styles of Japanese drama—and its star actors often appear in television or film roles.
 * Interest in kabuki has spread in the West. Kabuki troupes regularly tour Europe and America, and there have been several kabuki-themed productions of canonical Western plays such as those of Shakespeare.

Famous Kabuki Plays:
 * [|Kanadehon Chūshingura] (Treasury of Loyal Retainers) is the famous story of the [|Forty-seven Ronin], led by Oishi Kuranosuke, who track down their enemy and exact revenge upon him before committing [|seppuku] as required by their code of honor upon the death of their lord, Lord Takuminokami of the Asano clan.[|[23]] This dances is still used a lot in the culture today
 * [|Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura] (Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees) follows [|Minamoto no Yoshitsune] as he flees from agents of his brother [|Yoritomo] . Three [|Taira clan] generals supposed killed in the [|Genpei War] figure prominently, as their deaths ensure a complete end to the war and the arrival of peace, as does a [|kitsune] named [|Genkurō] .[|[24]]
 * [|Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami] (Sugawara and the Secrets of Calligraphy) is based on the life of famed scholar [|Sugawara no Michizane] (845–903), who is exiled from Kyoto, and upon his death causes a number of calamities in the capital. He is then deified, as [|Tenjin], [|kami] (divine spirit) of scholarship, and worshipped in order to propitiate his angry spirit