Kabuki: Baroque Fusion of the Arts

331 Pages·2006·53.072 MB·English

by  Kawatake Toshio

Photo by Aizawa Minoru
Kawatake Toshio
Born in Tokyo in 1924. He studied physics at Tokyo Imperial
University and graduated from the Arts Department of the
School of Literature at Waseda University, where he also
received his masters’ degree. He has been a visiting fellow at
Harvard University, a professor in the School of Literature,
Arts and Sciences at Waseda University and at Kyoritsu
Women’s University, and a visiting professor at the University
of Vienna; and has served as president of the Japan Theatrical
Institute and the Comparative Literature Society of Japan.
He is a professor emeritus at Waseda University, Ph.D.
(University of Tokyo), Corrsponding Member of the Austrian
Academy of Sciences (Vienna), president of the Japan Theatre
Arts Association, chairman of the board of directors of the
Metropolitan Theatre Guild and chairman of the Agency of
Cultural Affairs’ Arts Festival executive committee.
In 2001 he was named a “Person of Cultural Merit” by the
Japanese government and received an award for Distinguished
Services to Art from Waseda University in 2002 and the 54th
NHK Broadcast Cultural Award in 2003.
His more than eighty books, many of them prize winning,
include Hikaku Engekigaku (Comparative Theatre), which
received the 1979 Education Minister’s Prize; Sakusha no le
(Playwright’s House), the recipient of the 1980 Yomiuri Prize
for Literature and the 1980 Mainichi Publishing Culture Prize;
Butai no Oku no Nihon {Japan on Stage), winner of the 1982
Tokyo Maritime Kagami Memorial Foundation Prize for
Excellence; Kabuki Biron (Kabuki Aesthetics), recipient of the
Koizumi Yakumo Prize and the Mayor of Dublin Prize; and
Kawatake Toshio Kabuki Ronshu (Anthology of Kawatake
Toshio’s Studies on Kabuki), winner of the 2000 Japan Arts
Academy prize, the Onshi-sho.
Other works of his in English are Japan on Stage: Japanese
Concepts of Beauty as Shown in Traditional Theatre, trans.
P.G. O’Neill (Tokyo 1990); Kabuki, Eighteen Traditional
Dramas, trans. Helen Kay (San Francisco 1985); and, with
Inoura Yoshinobu, The Traditional Theater of Japan (New
York 1981).
Frank and Jean Hoff
Frank and Jean Hoff have been Kabuki fans for the past 35
years. They live in Toronto, Canada, 6500 miles from the
Kabuki-za, and are indebted to Kanai Takashi of the Kanai
Odogu Company for sending them Engekikai every month.

KABUKI: Baroque Fusion of the Arts
The LTCB International Library Trust
The LTCB (Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan) International Library Trust
was established in July, 2000, with the liquidated assets of the LTCB
International Library Foundation, which was dissolved in the same year,
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The world is moving steadily toward a borderless economy and deep­
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tional movement of capital.
As a result, interest in Japan’s politics, economy, and society and in
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However, the overseas introduction and dissemination of transla­
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main reason for this is that the high costs involved in translating and
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The LTCB International Library Foundation has been founded to ad­
dress this pressing need. Its primary activity is to disseminate informa­
tion on Japan in foreign countries through the translation of selected
Japanese works on Japan’s politics, economy, society, and culture into
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these translations. To commemorate the completion of The Long-Term
Credit Bank of Japan, Ltd.’s new headquarters and its 40th anniversary,
LTCB has provided the LTCB International Library Foundation with an
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In pursuing these objectives by way of publishing and distributing the
English translations of books written by Japanese authors in the broad
fields of Japanese politics, economy, society and culture, the LTCB
International Library Trust hopes to be able to contribute to enhancing in­
ternational understanding and to the intellectual enrichment of the human
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While the assets management of the LTCB International Library Trust
is being handled by the Chuo Mitsui Trust and Banking Company,
Limited, the implementation of the publication project has been
entrusted to the International House of Japan.
LTCB International Library Trust/International House of Japan
K R B U K I
Ba r o q u e f u s i o n of the A r t s
Kawatake Toshio
Translated by Frank & Jean Connell Hoff
LTCB International Library Selection No. 13
1. A matter of perspective: the “Suma Bay” scene from lchinotani Futaba Gunki (Chronicle
of the Battle of lchinotani); Matsumoto Koshiro as Kumagai Naozane with a child actor
in the role of Atsumori in the technique known as tomi (distant view) (cf. p. 214)
Transcription of names
The Hepburn system of romanization is used for Japanese terms, including the names
of persons and places. Long vowels are indicated by macron. Chinese terms are ro-
manized using the pinyin system. The Wade-Giles system is used, however, for certain
place-names outside mainland China. The romanization of Korean terms follows the
McCune-Reischauer system.
With regard to Japanese, Chinese, and Korean personal names, we have followed
the local custom of placing the family name first.
This book was originally published in 2001 by University of Tokyo Press under the
title Kabuki
English Translation rights reserved by The International House of Japan, Inc.
under contract with Kawatake Toshio and through the courtesy of University of
Tokyo Press.
© 2003 by The International House of Japan
All rights reserved by The International House of Japan. No part of this book may be
used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except for
brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First English edition published March 2003
by The International House of Japan
11-16, 5-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032, Japan
Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone]
Printed in Japan
2. Ichikawa Danjuro performs the aragoto technique of nirami (glare) (cf. p. 148)
3. Nakamura Ganjiro as Sadaka, left, and Ichikawa Danjuro as Daihanji Kiyozumi,
right, enter on the two hanamichi in the “Yoshino River” scene of Imoseyama (Mt.
Imo and Mt. Se) (cf. p. 45)
4. Onoe Shoroku II as Daihanji Kiyozumi, right, receives the severed
head of his son’s bride from her mother Sadaka (Nakamura
Utaemon VI) in the “Yoshino River” scene of Imoseyama (Mt.
Imo and Mt. Se) (cf. p. 222)