It was the most important character in the original Nô drama "Okina" but, in Kabuki versions, emphasis was not on the okina but on the sanbasô. Literally, the okina is the "old man". The okina prays on stage for long life, peace, and prosperity. In Japanese: 翁 Okiya A geisha...
A former rich man fallen into the lower classes because he spent all his money for the love of a courtesan. In Japanese: 俏し Yatsushigata Nimaime actor excelling in yatsushigoto roles. In Japanese: 俏し方 Yatsushigoto One form of wagoto, with the main character being a yatsushi. In ...
This play is a late masterpiece by KAWATAKE Mokuami, perhaps the last of the great traditional Kabuki playwrights. The main character, Kochiyama, is a notorious gambler and extortionist masquerading as a Buddhist Priest. NAKAMURA Kichiemon plays the lead role, which was also a specialty of his...
TOKYO —For a quarter of a century, Baiko Onoe VII has been one of Japan’s “living treasures,” an officially certified master of the multiple arts of Kabuki and one of the bestonnagata(performer of women’s roles) in the all-male Kabuki. Yet, he says, he still hones his skills b...
For one thing, noh actors playing women— shite (main characters) actors in the noh lexicon—do not specialize in women's roles alone, because shite actors are, by definition, expected to perform all five categories of noh's main character types: deities, male warriors, women, the crazed,...
Interestingly, the productions only other male character, Cassio, spoke in a high-pitched voice and walked with his toes inward like the women. Through its only two non-feminized men, the play proposed a close link between masculinity and violence. It also offered a clear explanation for Iago...
Nakamura Nakazō I was a Japanese kabuki actor who introduced male roles into the kabuki theatre’s dance pieces (shosagoto), which had been traditionally reserved for female impersonators. Nakamura was left an orphan and adopted at the age of five by th
s Kabuki was the first dramatic entertainment of any importance that was designed for the tastes of the common people in Japan. The sensuous character of the dances (and theprostitutionof the actors) proved to be too disruptive for the government, which in 1629 banned women from performing. ...
In Kabuki, he was one (evil) character of the drama "Ôtô-no-Miya Asahi no Yoroi". In Japanese: 北条範貞Hôjôshi The Hôjô clan was a powerful clan during the Kamakura Shogunate. The leader of the clan had the hereditary title of shikken, the highest post of power during ...
Kabuki dramas whose main character is Kohata Koheiji, a travelling actor who was murdered by his unfaithful wife. The most famous example in the current Kabuki repertoire is "Ikite-iru Koheiji". In Japanese: 小幡小平次物Koina-hanbêmono ...