New Kabuki in America

"A stage and a story" for the people of New York

Nakamura Kankuro talks about performing new kabuki in America

In advance of their 2004 U.S. tour, Alex Kerr interviewed Kankuro and his son Shichinosuke backstage at the Kabuki-za Theater in Tokyo.

AK: What are your feelings about the upcoming tour?

Kankuro: Bringing an Edo-period stage to New York is something I've wanted to do for a long time. Now that it's almost a reality, I feel like I'm fulfilling an American dream—or maybe I should say a Japanese dream. I kept talking about it all these years and the staff made it possible. It shows that dreams do come true. I believe that.

But it was a slow process that started when I played at the old Konpira-kabuki theater in Shikoku, then at the Cocoon tent-theater in Shibuya. There was a time when people were asking, "What in the world are you doing?"

AK: I heard that even your father Kanzaburo was skeptical at first.

Kankuro: It's all about history, about the times we live in. What was difficult then is possible now. If you look at the Kabuki-za this month you'll see that audiences are flocking to see even plays produced in the most traditional way. There's a synergistic effect between the new productions and the old. Kabuki has so many different aspects to it—that's what we can show to the world with pride.

AK: Why did you choose New York?

Kankuro: While I've performed in many places, New York is special. It's a theatrical nation unto itself. The Boston and Washington performances will be different. We can't build the Nakamura-za theater in those cities, so I chose dances that I thought would go better with modern theaters. Bo-shibari, which I've done at the Met, and Renjishi, which I performed at Beacon Theater, are favorite pieces of mine with special memories.

AK: And why Natsumatsuri at Lincoln Center?

Kankuro: This performance will be completely unlike any kabuki taken to America before. Earlier performances such as Sumidagawa, Sagimusume, and Kumagai Jinya—put on at the Met in 1982—were of the highest artistic quality but were actually just one act out of longer plays. It's as if we kept staging just the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet.

This is the first time a complete kabuki play will be presented in America. Even when my father and other actors did Chushingura on their first post-war visit in 1960, they just performed a few selected acts. This time, American audiences will be able to see a full kabuki story. So we're bringing two things to New York: a stage and a story. This gives me special pleasure.

AK: And yet this Natsumatsuri is very unconventional. For one thing, you have a modern director who added avant-garde stage effects.

Kankuro: Because it hasn't been done before, people tend to think it's "new." But actually we're applying modern sensibility to what people used to do in the old days. For example, when we produced the play Hokaibo at Nakamura-za, we used the oldest script. Over centuries the play has been refined and polished but we went back to the original. There's a scene where a woman is murdered, and it's truly grotesque and gruesome. When it's performed at the Kabuki-za Theater, it becomes high-class and restrained. But the true Edo-period work is nothing like that. It's outrageous! The same thing goes for Natsumatsuri. If the action takes place in the mud, we use real mud. At Kabuki-za fire regulations prohibit candles, but we use real candles.

AK: So you see what you're doing as a return to the original?

Kankuro: Yes! That's what the Nakamura-za team is trying to do—we're reviving the old. But the fact is I happen to be alive right now, not in the Edo period. So we've tried to create a version of Edo-period intensity that works for people living now. For example, the theater opens up at the back; things and people appear who never would have appeared in Edo—we know that. But it seems natural in the space of Nakamura-za.

And the music. They didn't have jazz in the Edo period. Kabuki developed when Japan was cut off from the world. This year commemorates the 150th year since Commodore Perry opened up Japan. Thanks to him, we don't wear kimono any more. Well, I do, but most people don't. And we don't tie our hair in topknots either.

Japan has certainly changed and there's nothing to be done about it. Instead of topknots, we dye our hair like the SMAP boy band. That's the world we live in, yet we're also performing kabuki. It was always a popular art—my passion is to keep it interesting.

AK: I heard that your inspiration was the contemporary dramatist, Juro Kara.

Kankuro: Yes, it started when I went to see Kara-san perform in his red-tent theater, and I saw how the audience reacted with such liveliness, shouting the names of the actors. There was a concrete walkway. The atmosphere was messy, full of life. It reminded me of those old prints of Danjuro and Kanzaburo, where you could see women suckling their babies, people eating and drinking—kabuki was down-to-earth back then.

The messy part was cleaned up, kabuki was performed for the emperor, and high society began to attend the theater. I don't say there's anything wrong with that. We owe a debt of gratitude to our forefathers for raising kabuki to a higher artistic standard. Nevertheless, something was lost.

It might not be my place to say it, but you could feel this when we performed Natsumatsuri in the Theater Cocoon tent. People gave us a 40-minute ovation. These were Japanese, mind you! They were dancing in the aisles, both inside and outside, hundreds of people. At Kabuki-za they would certainly never dance.

AK: And what do think will happen in New York?

Kankuro: Well, if people respond like they did at Cocoon, it would really be something. When I performed Hokaibo, there was an African-American seated right below where I was posing with an umbrella, and he shouted out "Come on, come on!" I thought if a foreigner can get that excited when he sees kabuki up close, then we can pull this off in New York.

New Yorkers are sophisticated. They've seen a lot. But one thing I'd like to say is: Please don't come wearing your minks and your tuxedos. Please come relaxed and low-key to Nakamura-za. Of course high society is welcome, but most of all I'd love it if Broadway actors and actresses could find time to see us. Usually when we visit New York we only meet famous stars like Leonard Bernstein, but this time I hope to perform for ordinary actors and production staff.

AK: What is it you want them to see?

Kankuro: Naturally I'm pleased if they see kabuki as art, but this time, more than that, it's drama. I'd like them to see kabuki as a form of dramatic theater. This production is new, but I guess in the end I'm the descendant of ancient theater managers, so I'm thinking like one. It's in the blood. I can't help but think of various things to try—new theatrical productions.

AK: What do you think your father Kanzaburo would have thought about this if he were still alive?

Kankuro: Father was very proud of his family tradition, and I think he'd weep if he could see our family crest flying on banners at Lincoln Center. This year marks the 17th anniversary of his death, so I feel I'm fulfilling a filial duty.

AK: Next year you'll take the name Kan-zaburo XVIII. How do you feel about that?

Kankuro: Well, once I become Kanzaburo, I'll be taking on the name of the old theater managers, won't I? So I want to do much more! For example, I'd like to work with directors from other countries—it could be America or India. When new light shines on kabuki in this way, it will make many new things possible. I'd like to do so many things.

AK: What changes have you made to the Nakamura-za theater to adapt to America?

Kankuro: Regulations don't allow us to build a second floor and we also can't build the "cherry-blossom seats" where the audience sits right beside the stage and can actually see backstage when the curtain falls. Also, we have arranged that people won't have to remove their shoes, and we're changing the seating so the audience can sit with their legs dangling in horikotatsu-style openings rather than sitting cross-legged on the floor as in Japan. And we're making the seats 50 percent wider to handle bigger people.

AK: Does the stage still open up at the back as in the grand finale in Japan?

Kankuro: Yes, we think the New York audiences will enjoy that.

Articles from the 2004 SUMMER issue:

Kateigaho International Edition Issues:

2005 SUMMER - 2005 SPRING - 2005 WINTER

2004 AUTUMN - 2004 SUMMER - 2004 SPRING - 2004 WINTER

2003 AUTUMN - INAUGURAL ISSUE