Kabuki

About: Kabuki is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 453 publications have been published within this topic receiving 2975 citations.

Takarazuka: Sexual Politics and Popular Culture in Modern Japan

Abstract: The all-female Takarazuka Revue is world-famous today for its rococo musical productions, including gender-bending love stories, torridly romantic liaisons in foreign settings, and fanatically devoted fans. But that is only a small part of its complicated and complicit performance history. In this sophisticated and historically grounded analysis, anthropologist Jennifer Robertson draws from over a decade of fieldwork and archival research to explore how the Revue illuminates discourses of sexual politics, nationalism, imperialism, and popular culture in twentieth-century Japan. The Revue was founded in 1913 as a novel counterpart to the all-male Kabuki theater. Tracing the contradictory meanings of Takarazuka productions over time, with special attention to the World War II period, Robertson illuminates the intricate web of relationships among managers, directors, actors, fans, and social critics, whose clashes and compromises textured the theater and the wider society in colorful and complex ways. Using Takarazuka as a key to understanding the 'logic' of everyday life in Japan and placing the Revue squarely in its own social, historical, and cultural context, she challenges both the stereotypes of 'the Japanese' and the Eurocentric notions of gender performance and sexuality.

The Japanese theatre: From shamanistic ritual to contemporary pluralism

Abstract: Preface to the Revised Edition Introduction Periods in Japanese History Ch. I. The Beginnings Jomon Period (-ca. 250 B.C.) Yayoi Period (ca. 250 B.C.-ca. 300 A.D.) Kofun Period (ca. 300 A.D.-710 A.D.) The Haniwa Kojiki and Nihongi (Eighth Century) Uzume's Trance Umisachi's Pantomime Utagaki "Indigenous" versus "Imported" Ch. II. Kagura The Word Kagura Use of the Name Kagura Division of Kagura Mikagura Satokagura Ch. III. Gigaku History Contents and Style Controversy about the Origins Survival of Gigaku Ch. IV. Bugaku The Words Bugaku and Gagaku History of Gagaku and Bugaku Division of Bugaku Historical Outline of Bugaku Dances Bugaku Costumes Bugaku Masks Bugaku Props Musical Instruments The Bugaku Stage Ch. V. Theatrical Arts in the Ninth to the Thirteenth Century The Words No, Kyogen, Nogaku The Sangaku and Sarugaku Traditions The Words Sangaku and Sarugaku Relation between Sangaku and Sarugaku Heian Shin Sarugaku in Performance The Shushi Sarugaku The Okina Sarugaku The Furyu Tradition The Ennen Tradition The Dengaku Tradition The Shugen Tradition Kusemai, Shirabyoshi, Ko-uta and Rambu Social Position of the Performers Ch. VI. Nogaku Theories on the Origins of No History of Nogaku Zeami's Secret Tradition of the No Basic Concepts of Zeami's Aesthetics Zenchiku's Theories on the No The No Plays The Performance of No The No Stage Costumes, Props, and Masks Kyogen: A New Perspective The Theories of Okura Toraaki Classification of Kyogen Plays The Performance of Kyogen Mystery Plays and School Theatre of the Jesuits Ch. VII. Kabuki Background of Kabuki and Joruri History of Kabuki: An Overview Kabuki in Performance Costumes and Make-up Theatre Buildings, Stage, and Decor Kabuki and Joruri Playwrights Kabuki Juhachiban Geidan: Actors' Memoirs Ch. VIII. The Puppet Theatre The Words Joruri and Bunraku History of Joruri Bunraku after the Meiji Restoration The Stage Bunraku Aesthetics Ch. IX. The Modern Theatre: Shimpa Origins of the Shimpa Movement: Sudo Sadanori Kawakami Otojiro Seibikan and Other Companies The Golden Age of Shimpa The Decadence of Shimpa Shimpa from World War II Ch. X. Shingeki: The New Drama The Period of Trial Plays (1906-1913) The Period of Commercialization (1914-1923) The Early Tsukiji Little Theatre Movement (1924-1927) The Leftist Propaganda Plays (1928-1932) The Artistic Period (1933-1940) Shingeki after World War II (1944-1994) The Underground Theatre Movement (1960-1985) Ch. XI. Modern Music and Dance Theatre Opera The Takarazuka Revue Company Revue, Operetta, Miscellaneous Entertainments Buto and the Phenomenon of Circularity Ch. XII. History of Western Research on the Japanese Theatre From Mid-Sixteenth to Mid-Nineteenth Century From Mid-Nineteenth Century to Showa The Showa Period to the End of World War II Following World War II Japanese Contributions to Western Languages Glossary Bibliography Index

Autosomal dominant inheritance of the Kabuki make-up (Niikawa-Kuroki) syndrome.

Abstract: We report on three individuals (two sibs and their father) with the Kabuki make-up syndrome. The two sibs had congenital dislocation of the hips and all three individuals had short stature and the facial characteristics of the syndrome. To our knowledge this is the first report of familial occurrence of the Kabuki make-up syndrome.

Vengeance and Its Toll in "Numazu": An Eighteenth-Century Japanese Puppet Play

Abstract: "Numazu" is the sixth act in a long ten-act play, written by Chikamatsu Hanji and a collaborator, Chikamatsu Kasaku, for the Japanese puppet theatre (known today as bunraku). The full play, Through Iga Pass with the okaido Board Game (Igagoe dochu sugoroku), was first performed at the Takemoto Ichiza Theatre in Osaka on the twenty-seventh day of the Fourth Month of 1783, according to Japan's old lunar calendar. The play's best-known act (Act VI) is "Numazu," translated here in full. The complete play is based on an actual vendetta that came to its bloody conclusion in the town of Ueno near Iga Pass in old Iga province (modern Mie prefecture) in the Eleventh Month of 1634. Rarely is the complete drama produced today (it would take some ten hours), though several of the more popular acts are performed fairly often both in sequence and separately.1 "Numazu" is the only act that is consistently and regularly staged independently. Three great vendettas in Japanese history are commemorated in eighteenth-century popular theatre. The first is the twelfth-century Soga brothers' revenge for the murder of their father, a tale that has been told in many forms but is best known in the dramatic genre by the 1713 kabuki work Sukeroku (Brandon 1975; Thornbury 1982). Most famous of all is the

An Edo Anthology: Literature from Japan's Mega-City, 1750-1850

Abstract: During the eighteenth century, Edo (today's Tokyo) became the world's largest city, quickly surpassing London and Paris. Its rapidly expanding population and flourishing economy encouraged the development of a thriving popular culture. Innovative and ambitious young authors and artists soon began to look beyond the established categories of poetry, drama, and prose, banding together to invent completely new literary forms that focused on the fun and charm of Edo. Their writings were sometimes witty, wild, and bawdy, and other times sensitive, wise, and polished. Now some of these high spirited works, celebrating the rapid changes, extraordinary events, and scandalous news of the day, have been collected in an accessible volume highlighting the city life of Edo. Edo's urban consumers demanded visual presentations and performances in all genres. Novelties such as books with text and art on the same page were highly sought after, as were kabuki plays and the polychrome prints that often shared the same themes, characters, and even jokes. Popular interest in sex and entertainment focused attention on the theatre district and "pleasure quarters," which became the chief backdrops for the literature and arts of the period. Gesaku, or "playful writing," invented in the mid-eighteenth century, satirised the government and samurai behaviour while parodying the classics. These entertaining new styles bred genres that appealed to the masses. Among the bestsellers were lengthy serialised heroic epics, revenge dramas, ghost and monster stories, romantic melodramas, and comedies that featured common folk. An Edo Anthology offers distinctive and engaging examples of this broad range of genres and media. It includes both well-known masterpieces and unusual examples from the city's counterculture, some popular with intellectuals, others with wider appeal. Some of the translations presented here are the first available in English and many are based on first editions. In bringing together these important and expertly translated Edo texts in a single volume, this collection will be warmly welcomed by students and interested readers of Japanese literature and popular culture.