In this video, we make a quick recap of the traditions regarding the appearance of women, particularly those of the Ichikawa family, on the main kabuki stage, and put it in the context of the the upcoming name-taking ceremony of Ichikawa Ebizō XI.
Much of the information in this video is based on Loren Edelson’s wonderful 2009 book “Danjūrō’s Girls: Women on the Kabuki Stage”. Please, check it out if you want to learn more about the relationship between the Naritaya and women in kabuki!
As always, special thanks to the Patreon members who make these videos possible, including C. H. White, Eric Pan, SuperGingernutz, calvin and Valerie!
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15 Comments
YES! HAI! OUI! SI! JA! DA! IGEN! Definitely! 😀 Such wonderful news that Botan san will perform with his father! Ladies really deserve now to be back on kabuki stage and I highly support the Danjuro clan with this idea. Kabuki should move on and progress now, it's the 21st century. This art was once famous about its innovative and sometimes provocative features, now it feels like you are eating a conserve. (A very beautiful one though…) Allowing actresses back on the kabuki stage would attract a lot of attention to this theater again and give many new opportunities to the art itself. And just to repeat myself, I'm not against onnagata actors. I highly appreciate and acknowledge their art, and I'm not saying that they should completely disappear from the kabuki stage. My point is just please stop the ban against actresses. Onnagata actors and female actresses still could work on the same stage.
I'm relatively new to kabuki but i dont see any issue with his daughter performing. Just like any other form of art there will always be "traditionalists" who would want things the way they always were so i'm not surprised that Ebizo is being criticized.
I think that the RUMOUR about people objecting to Botan appearing during the shūmei is made up by the media. I don't believe that anybody really objects at all. As you said, it is nothing new to have an actor's daughter appear at these ceremonies. Furthermore, girls are very often seen on the Kabuki stage in children's roles, such as Tsuruchiyo in 'Meiboku Sendai Hagi', even when they are not the daughters of famous actors. Girls are said to be better behaved and better at remembering their lines than boys. I also remember seeing Matsu Takako appear with her father Matsumoto Kōshirō IX (now Hakuō II) when she was already a teenager.
HOWEVER, it is very different to assert that women should appear in major adult roles alongside male actors in Kabuki. The people who say that, despite their claim that they are "not against onnagata", are, of course, PREJUDICED against men playing women's roles. Women are NOT banned from the public stage anymore and there are plenty of opportunites for them to act. I'm not sure what happened to the 'Women's Kabuki' that was featured in the video, but it would be great for that to be revived. All-female troupes would be very welcome indeed! But to mix real women with onnagata, which they already tried in Shinpa, would not be successful. It would destroy Kabuki's unique aesthetic and spell the end of the great art of the onnagata.
Well, as someone who has been following everything about Kabuki for several years, I can say that the situation involving the daughter of Ichikawa Ebizō XI is a double-edged sword: on the one hand, it is excellent that Ichikawa Botan IV performs alongside her father, as this could somehow bring women back to Kabuki theater and back to playing roles after hundreds of years, but on the other hand, Ebizo knew he was messing with a wasp nest when he made that decision, as not all of it into the scene of the Kabuki theater has the open mind that he has (the Otowaya house so say). So I think in my opinion, this should have been done very carefully, as many actors are still not very open with that possibility. It's a taboo and I think it will take some time for this taboo to be broken…
I think that Ebiza is perfectly within his rights to have his daughter perform. A woman brought up in Kabuki family traditions has much to give in interpreting female roles, respecting the onnagata traditions but adding a fresher take. I also think the time of a complete ban is long over as you have shown in these examples.
YES YES YES
Here we go. This is Kabuki performed by men AND women. It already exists so you have nothing to complain about. You can watch it whenever you like… if you think this is good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sC23BXBYgw&ab_channel=%E3%83%9E%E3%83%AA%E3%81%95%E3%82%93%E3%81%A8%E3%80%90%E5%A5%B3%E6%B5%81%E6%AD%8C%E8%88%9E%E4%BC%8E%E3%80%91
At the risk of repeating myself, I am still learning about the beautiful world of Kabuki. As we probably know, Kabuki began with a woman. As time passed, women were banned from acting on the Kabuki stage for the same reason as in Shakespeare's England of the time: morals were corrupted and men took on female roles.
However, in Japan, there came the skill, grace, humour and magic of the onnagata.
Writing this as a woman, I find that onnagata actors carry themselves with more femininity than most real-life women. Another female commentator on another video about onnagata on YT held this point of view and here I concur.
It would be a crying shame if the role of onnagata was lost for the sake of certain people and viewpoints baulking at the mention of the word 'tradition' and therefore thinking they have the right to ride roughshod through its timeless consistency. In my life so far, I've seen many who have not understood the saying that if it ain't broke don't fix it … and made a pig's ear i.e. a total mess of things that are taking a lot of precious time to repair. It is painful to experience.
If any change happens, it is when it is needed and be done gently.
As Mavio Jordan Gomes Rosa writes, it is a double-edged sword.
As ever, KID, I bow to your superior knowledge and expertise in the history and development of Kabuki Theatre down the ages, and by bringing it to us in a comprehensive way you have helped us understand and enjoy it even more.
We should keep the traditions of kabuki alive instead of appealing to the leftist movement where we are trying to modernize every single thing…the ONNAGATA are a very unique part of Kabuki and this art form would lose a piece of its charm if female actresses start appearing on stage
Whether or not this girl appears on stage is not really of any interest. It has happened before and such a performance has nothing to do with the Kabuki world in general. What I take exception to is this extremely misguided idea that women should appear in classical Kabuki, together with or in place of the onnagata. The art of the onnagata was refined of centuries and is nothing to do with "female impersonation". The onnagata is a refined and artistic interpretation of what a woman should be – not what one actually is – or was during the Edo Period. If the art of Kabuki is to survive – and it is still a great art – then real women, acting naturally, would destroy it. Indeed the only way a woman could act on the Kabuki stage – and for the art to remain true – would be to have the absurd situation of a woman imitating a man who is imitating a woman.
Thanks for another informative video!
Kabuki is an art, and the only rule that matters in art is that it has to be good. Should women take the Kabuki stage? To date there has been no compelling artistic reason to do so (in contrast to the aesthetic of artifice behind the onnagata tradition). Danjuro IX seemed to have understood it – the choice to have his daughters appear onstage on the debut of a now classic dance was his starting the process of preparing the public for the idea of women's return to Kabuki. But that wasn't enough, the girls could easily be substituted (as is often the case) with boys. Danjuro XI seemed to have understood this too, and he seemed to have known that he needed to take the process forward – Danjuro Musume was an explicitly woman's dance (in that regard, Danjuro XII's decision to have Jakuemon perform it was a step back). The challenge for Danjuro XIII now is to create a play that can only work for Botan or a woman. He should work with a good playwright on this.
(On a sidenote, I think a more creative way forward is for women to start playing men, in the tradition of onnagata's artifice. Takarazuka is already a good creative template)
It might be wasp’s nest to open, but the Danjuros seem to be taking bold steps throughout kabuki. And it seems that his daughter, Reika, is a solid force in the family after her mother’s death. And she and Kangen seem to be very close.
Very interesting topic and well covered!
Just create a co-ed Kabuki along with the all-male Kabuki.