OKAY SO SINCE LIKE, WHAT, 24 HOURS HAVE PASSED SINCE THIS BLESSING CAME INTO OUR LIVES, I FIGURE I SHOULD COMPILE ALL OF THE KABUKI-RELATED QUESTIONS IâVE BEEN ANSWERING
What does his make-up mean?
This style of kabuki make-up is called kumadori ( éĺ) and is pretty much the first thing you think of when you think âkabuki make-upâ. Itâs bold and easy to see from the back of the theater. Red make-up signifies a heroic role, the protagonist, someone of vigor. (The other traditional kumadori colors are blue and brown, representing villains and the supernatural, respectively.) So basically, it means that he is playing the role of a hero.
Ukiyo-e print by Kunisada of Ichikawa Danjuro VII, bearing similar make-up
https://www.japansociety.org/page/multimedia/articles/kabuki_at_the_time_of_kunisada
The pattern is a somewhat generic âbaseâ for samurai and warrior-related characters (as individual performers will customize their make-up depending on the role, their own face, the directorâs vision, their interpretation of their character, their own personal style and application, etc.).Â
This specific skin seems to be referencing the character Genkurou from âYoshitsune Senbon Zakuraââalthough this is probably because images of Ichikawa Ebizo IX in this role are some of the firstâand most strikingâimages to pop up if you google âKabuki Samuraiâ:
Ichikawa Ebizo IX as Genkurou, a kitsune, disguised as Satou Tadanobu
https://elliottfranks.photoshelter.com/image?&_bqG=27&_bqH=eJxL9wypMPRMLsypLE8NTva1yPayzLXwDDLMSTOwMjO2MjQwAGEg6RnvEuxs656al11alK8G5sU7.rnYlgDZocGuQfGeLrahIJXeuaVhPkE54Y4prmrxjs4htsWpiUXJGQCpEiBJ&GI_ID=
(Thanks, no thanks, Pinterest)
Similar kumadori cam be found on the god Hachiman in the play âMomijigariâ.
Mountain god kumadori on the actor Ichikawa Enshi. Enshi usually performs womenâs roles; more on this subject later.
http://www.en-4.com
Hachiman is the patron god of warriors (hence a variation on the âsamuraiâ kumadori), but as he is consistently portrayed wearing green (mountain gods are also agricultural deities; Hachiman blesses crops and fishermen as well as warriors), it cannot be what Hanzo is dressed as.
I donât think Hanzo is portraying a particular character in this skinâwhich, in a sense, means he is portraying himself, but in kabuki.
Something something kabuki and prostitutes???
Yes, yes, back in the 1600â˛s when kabuki was in its infancy, it was an advertising method for prostitutes.
The first kabuki troupe was all women, mostly individual prostitutes who then became actresses by day under Izumo no Okuniâs expert tutelage. Okuni herself wrote and choreographed many of these early performances, which were more like vaudeville revues than what we know as kabuki today. They performed outside in a dry riverbed where everyone could come and watch and it was basically a really elaborate busking routine.
Izumo no Okuni, the mother of modern Japanese theater
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rekishinotabi/4378370669
Brothels began to organize their own revues to advertise their services, teaching their girls how to sing and dance and act and generally improving the customer experience by offering more than just sexânow you could go to the theater, enjoy a show, get something to eat and drink, mix and mingle with other townsfolk, and then have sex. This is why women ended up being banned from the stage in 1629, thoughâmen would get into public fistfights over who would get to sleep with which actress/prostitute. The Tokugawa bakufu figured banning women would make people stop visiting the theaters (and thus stop the social classes from mixing and overall keep people from having too much funâthe Tokugawa bakufu had a VERY love-hate relationship with the pleasure districts from day one of their government).
This lead to brothels simply hiring more wakashu, handsome teenagers, to fill the role of actors-cum-prostitutes, pun absolutely intended. Now, wakashu have a pretty unique place in the pre-modern Japanese gender and sexual identity spectrum; thereâs really no equivalent in modern day (although their legacy continues on today in host clubs and in bishounen anime/manga characters) but suffice it to say, wakashu were desired by e v e r y o n e in Japan, and the age of consent was significantly lower back then. (You know how youâve heard âthe age of consent in Japan is 13âł? That was the beginning of âyoung adulthoodâ in medieval through early modern Japan, with 25-ish being âreal adulthoodâ.)Â
Ukiyo-e print by Harunobu Suzuki, depicting a young couple in autumn. One of these two figures is male, and the other is female. Iâll let you guess which (answer in the source link)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kannazuki,_Harunobu_Suzuki,_c._1770.jpg
So now people were getting into public fistfights over who would get to sleep with which young handsome actor/male prostitute. So the Tokugawa bakufu again banned young men from the theatre, only allowing men who everyone agreed were very much adults to act on stage (basically ages 30+).
ThisâŚdidnât really work to curb prostitution and class mixing, like the government had intended. But now that kabuki had been around for about 50 years, there were established actors and acting troupes that were able to focus just on acting. Prostitutes no longer had to pull double duty, so the fighting generally stopped, at least. Now that you probably couldnât sleep with the actors anymore, though, these new theatre companies had to focus more on the scenery, drama, costumes, etc. and created a theatrical experience where the story and spectacle kept you focused rather than wondering what was under the actorâs kimono.
So only male actors? That meansâ
YES, okay, yes it does. There are actors who specialize in female roles called onnagata, and they wear womenâs clothing, womenâs hair and make-up, and dance the female parts in kabuki. This has been done since the first all-male troupe was founded in 1617âjust like how in the original all-female troupes, the women played menâs roles, too. Typically, onnagata specialize in performing womenâs roles for their whole career, but some actors are known for doing both, and itâs not uncommon for actors to start out as onnagata as kids and teenagers early in their career when theyâre more flexible and energetic (as these roles are often dance-heavy) and later switch to performing menâs roles as they get older and their voices and build change; learning onnagata techniques is just part of learning the craft of kabuki, after all.
Bando Tamasaburo V, performing Sagi Musime (The Heron Maiden). He was in his 50â˛s when he danced this particular performance iirc, so kabuki actors must maintain incredible physical fitness to perform these long scenes and dances.
These actors are not necessarily LGBTQ (and again, pre-modern Japanese gender and sexual identity was quite differentânotably, more fluid and with more attention focused on age and oneâs level of social responsibility rather than genitalia), and it is NOT an instance of the feminizing of Asian men on its own. In the kabuki context, it is perfectly normal and natural for some actors to play men, some actors to play women, and for all of them to be Japanese, with the onnagata living as men outside of their roles, appearing in the playbill as men, etc.Â
If you make a Japanese man play a womanâs role opposite a Western man, this is problematicâespecially if you try to argue âbut in kabuuuukiiiiiiiâŚâ No. Donât do this. (And also donât forget that wakashu and onnagata were considered the sexiest men in Japan; historians often have a difficult time identifying whether a young beauty in a woodblock carving is male or female because women would copy the fashions worn by onnagata on stage. This includes the period where young men were required by law to shave their headsâkabuki actors would shave a spot on the very top of their heads about the size of a half-dollar, and would often wear elaborate hairstyles and a little silk hat to cover their legally mandated bald spot. Women, too, began wearing these menâs hairstyles and little hats because itâs what the hottest actors were wearing on stage.)
AND PLEASE NOTE, HANZO IS CLEARLY NOT PORTRAYING AN ONNAGATA IN THIS SKIN. ONNAGATA DO NOT WEAR KUMADORI, EVEN IN ARAGOTO PLAYS WHERE KUMADORI ORIGINATES. (Women were considered to be more logical and cool-headed in this period of Japanese history, so the bombastic, overly emotional kumadori make-up was only for male roles.)
Hey, arenât ninja dressed in black because of kabuki?
Ukiyo-e print by Kuniyoshi depicting Nakamura Shikan II, with 3 stagehands helping him strike a dramatic pose; his kimono is meant to billow dramatically.Â
Yup! Kabuki stagehands and tech crew (usually) wear black to indicate that they arenât supposed to be part of the sceneâthey were literally dressed like shadows so the audience should ignore them. But if a play called for, say, someone to be assassinated unexpectedly by a ninja, the director might have the actor playing the assassin dress as a stagehand. They could then be present in the scene, âhidden in the shadowsâ, and would be ignored by the audience until the shocking moment came when the stagehand assassinated the doomed character and then returned to the backstage area like any other stagehand would. (Real-life ninja dressed like normal people, because they were spies and saboteursâthey had to blend in with ordinary people to do their jobs.)
