New Kabuki in America

Classic Yet Contemporary: Preview Kabuki Tour of U.S.A Productions

Natsumatsuri

©shochiku

Natsumatsuri Naniwa Kagami (The Summer Festival: A Mirror of Osaka) was first performed as a bunraku puppet play in Osaka (formerly called Naniwa) in 1745. It vividly depicts the lives of a group of downtown Osaka youths and their lovers, their struggles with each other and the law. The climax of the play comes when Danshichi no Kurobei, driven past patience by the insults of his father-in-law Giheiji, snaps and murders him in a most gruesome manner while the festival procession for Sumiyoshi Shrine continues in the background. It's considered one of the great murder scenes of world theater. The Nakamura-za production features a surprise finale in staging the capture of Kurobei and his friend Tokubei.

KANKURO SAYS...
The plot of Natsumatsuri is something like an old mafia story. It's about young people—kind of amateurish gangsters—and a battle of wills. Their attempt, at risk of their lives, to aid one of their gang ends in tragedy. After Kurobei kills his wife's father, the stage suddenly lights up. I think this represents his coming to his senses—after all, it's night. This is not traditional kabuki staging. It's a new idea. The killing takes place in the dark just behind the carnival area, and then after the murder, Kurobei's brain shorts out, and suddenly everything he's done is exposed to the harsh light of day. I think it's fantastic stage direction.

Bo-shibari

©shochiku

First performed in 1916, Bo-shibari (Tied to a Pole) is a matsubame-mono, a dance derived from the comical kyogen plays of the noh theater. It features the typical noh stage layout: no scenery except wooden panels on which an ancient pine tree is painted and a hanging banner through which actors make their entrances and exits. As in classic kyogen, the play features three characters: a feckless lord and his retainers, Tarokaja and Jirokaja. To prevent his servants from drinking while he is away, the lord ties Jirokaja to a pole and binds Tarokaja's hands. Nevertheless, they still find a way to drink and thoroughly amuse themselves until the lord returns, at which point all is in an uproar. Bo-shibari is one of kabuki's masterpieces, combining comedy, the inventive and irreverent movements of kabuki, and the classic poise and artistry of noh drama.

KANKURO SAYS...
Bo-shibari is something you see and you just understand it. After all, every country has its drinkers, people who just love to drink. The key thing about this play is how it was created by my grandfather, Kikugoro VI and Mitsugoro VII. They did it together. They were both famous for their dancing. Perversely, they thought, what would happen if you took two famous dancers and tied them up? So when my friends and I first performed this, some of the cranky old men of the theater said, "Take people like you, who can't even dance, and tie you up—what's the use?"

Renjishi

©shochiku

Renjishi (The Lion Dance) was first performed in 1861. Like Bo-shibari, it is a matsubame-mono derived from noh drama and kyogen comic plays. It belongs to a genre of dances related to the sacred lion on which Monju, the god of wisdom, rides. This dance features two performers who portray a lion and its cub. They act out the classic Chinese tale in which a lion pushes its cub into a ravine to force it to fend for itself. At first the cub seems unable to manage and the lion grieves. When the cub finally clambers to the top, he is recognized as an adult. At this point the two actors withdraw, reappearing in the finale as long-maned lions, one with white hair, the other with red. They fling their lion manes dramatically at the climax.

In kabuki it's especially moving to see this dance performed by an actual parent and child, as it symbolizes the passing of this art form to the next generation. Kanzaburo XVII and his son Kankuro performed Bo-shibari at the Met in 1982; this summer Kankuro and his son Shichinosuke will perform it in Boston and Washington.

SHICHINOSUKE SAYS...
Renjishi has been a very important dance for our Nakumuraya family. The father lion pushes the cub into a ravine, and only when the cub is able to climb out on his own is he recognized as an adult. At first the two dance together, but then the parent pushes the cub over the cliff. The parent looks for the child, but can't find him and worries, thinking, "He's not going to make it." But the cub climbs out. At this point the two retire, and then both come back on stage in their finery as fully maned lions.

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