kabuki　歌舞伎

KEY WORD :　art history / general terms

The most popular form of theatre among townspeople in Japan since the early Edo period. The form has its origins in the early 17c in Kyoto as a dance performance by women, onna kabuki 女歌舞伎, but in 1629 the Tokugawa 徳川 shogunate banned women from the stage because of widespread prostitution. The resulting young men's kabuki, wakashuu kabuki 若衆歌舞伎, was the origin of the tradition which persists to this day of all women's roles being performed by male actors, onnagata 女形. In 1652 this form was also proscribed because of the actors' tendency to offer their favours for money, and older more responsible actors were found to take their place in yarou kabuki 野郎歌舞伎 or men's kabuki. Kabuki has absorbed influences from *nou 能, bunraku 文楽 and especially kyougen 狂言, and remains a vibrant art form to this day. Artists of the shitamachi 下町 culture of the merchant classes in cities, where kabuki flourished, have always found it a rich source of inspiration, especially woodblock print *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 artists.

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