What does the Japanese word kabuki mean?
In modern Japanese, the word is written with three characters: ka, signifying “song”; bu, “dance”; and ki, “skill.” Kabuki’s highly lyrical plays are regarded, with notable exceptions, less as literature than as vehicles for actors to demonstrate their enormous range of skills in visual and vocal performance.
What is the inspiration for kabuki?
This technique was inspired by bunraku, Japanese puppet theater. Hikinuki: a specialized technique that involves changing one’s costume onstage, often perfectly timed with music. Since kabuki dramas tend to be set in the past, performers usually wear kimono, Japanese traditional clothing.
What is a kabuki program?
A Kabuki program generally presents them in that order, separated by one or two dance plays featuring ghosts, courtesans, and other exotic creatures. It ends with a lively dance finale (ōgiri shosagoto) with a large cast.
What is the role of a young man in kabuki?
The roles of adolescent men in kabuki, known as wakashu, were also played by young men, often selected for their attractiveness; this became a common practice, and wakashu were often presented in an erotic context. The focus of kabuki performances also increasingly began to emphasise drama alongside dance.
What does the Japanese characters Ka Bu and Ki mean?
The word 'ka-bu-ki' itself is made up of three characters that mean 'song' (ka-歌), 'dance' (bu-舞) and 'acting skill' (ki-伎), indicating the composite nature of this art that includes elements of music, dance and drama, disciplines that would in most other cases be performed separately.
What is the symbol of kabuki?
Kabuki (歌舞伎) is made up of three kanji (Chinese characters): ka (歌) meaning sing, bu (舞) representing dance, and ki (伎) indicating skill. Literally, kabuki means the art of song and dance, but performances extend well beyond these two elements.
What is the definition of terms and origin of kabuki theater?
/ kɑˈbu ki, kə-, ˈkɑ bu ki / PHONETIC RESPELLING. 🎓 College Level. noun. popular drama of Japan, developed chiefly in the 17th century, characterized by elaborate costuming, rhythmic dialogue, stylized acting, music, and dancing, and the performance of both male and female roles by male actors.
What is the musical theater of kabuki?
Kabuki (歌舞伎) is a traditional Japanese form of theater with roots tracing back to the Edo Period. It is recognized as one of Japan's three major classical theaters along with noh and bunraku, and has been named as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.
What are the 3 elements of kabuki?
The characters with which the term is written also represent the three core elements of kabuki: song 歌, dance 舞, and skill 伎. These characters are a modern spelling, however, and the original term is believed to derive from the verb kabuku, which means “out of the ordinary.”
What are the props of kabuki?
Kabuki props are largely classified into two categories: honmono everyday items, and koshiraemono items that are crafted to be shown and used effectively on stage. Koshiraemono clearly convey the characters and personalities of the roles that use them, and so they are generally more effective on stage than honmono.
What are the 4 elements of kabuki theater?
The most popular traditional form of Japanese drama, kabuki features dance, song, mime, colorful costumes, heavy makeup, and lively, exaggerated movements to tell stories about historical events.
Who are the characters in kabuki theater?
Katakiyaku (Enemy） This stock character is a villain whose antagonism towards the tachiyaku moves the story forward. ... Oyajigata (Older Man） ... Wakashugata (Young Man） ... Dokegata (The Comic） ... Musumeyaku (Young Woman） ... Keisei (Courtesan） ... Akuba (Evil Woman） ... Fukeoyama (Older Woman）More items...
What is a kabuki Girl?
Kabuki is thought to have originated in the very early Edo period, when founder Izumo no Okuni formed a female dance troupe who performed dances and light sketches in Kyoto. The art form later developed into its present all-male theatrical form after women were banned from performing in kabuki theatre in 1629.
What is the opposite of kabuki?
"In Japan, we have the kabuki culture in which men play women's roles. The Takarazuka are the opposite.
Is kabuki all male?
Originally, both men and women acted in Kabuki plays, but eventually only male actors performed the plays: a tradition that has remained to the present day. Male actors specialized in women's roles are called onnagata. Two other major role types are aragoto (rough style) and wagoto (soft style).
What is the symbol of fan in kabuki theater?
In this video, Kabuki master Shozo Sato discusses the origin of fan use in Kabuki theater and demonstrates the common usage and symbolism of the various fan movements, using the fan to represent a tray, a sunrise, the wind, rain, cutting with a knife, drinking, and other items and ideas.
Where do the kabuki theater originated?
Kabuki is a Japanese traditional theatre form, which originated in the Edo period at the beginning of the seventeenth century and was particularly popular among townspeople.
What are the musical terms of kabuki performance which are considered as signaling accents?
There are also musical terms such as “Ki” and “Tsuke” which are "signaling" accents complementing the action of the performers and transition of one scene to the other.
What is the theme of the musical theater kabuki?
Common kabuki themes include loyalty, love, honor and revenge and consummating love with suicide. Many kabuki masterpieces are adaption of bunraku puppet pieces.
What is the meaning of the word "kabuki"?
In modern Japanese, the word is written with three characters: ka, signifying “song”; bu, “dance”; and ki, “skill.”. Hey, bookworm! In between reads, try this novel idea: a quiz on all things literature.
What is kabuki in Japanese?
Kabuki, traditional Japanese popular drama with singing and dancing performed in a highly stylized manner. A rich blend of music, dance, mime, and spectacular staging and costuming, it has been a major theatrical form in Japan for four centuries. The term kabuki originally suggested the unorthodox and shocking character of this art form.
What is the difference between Kabuki and Bugaku?
Bugaku, the dance ceremony of the imperial court, and the Noh theatre, both of great antiquity, were long the exclusive domain of the nobility and the warrior class known as samurai; Kabuki became the theatre of the townspeople and the farmers. Bugaku and Noh have a fragile elegance and an extreme subtlety of movement. Kabuki is somewhat coarse and unrestrained, and its beauty is gaudy and extravagant.
Why did Kabuki theatres run?
Because Kabuki programs ran from morning to evening and many spectators often attended for only a single play or scene, there was a constant coming and going in the theatre. At mealtimes food was served to the viewers. The programs incorporated themes and customs that reflected the four seasons or inserted material derived from contemporary events. Unlike most Western theatres, in which since the late 17th century a proscenium arch has separated actors and audience, the Kabuki performers constantly intruded on the audience. When two hanamichi, elevated passageways from the main stage to the back of the auditorium, were used, the audience was fenced in by three stages.
What is Kabuki subject matter?
Subject, purpose, and conventions. Kabuki subject matter creates distinctions between the historical play ( jidaimono) and the domestic play ( sewamono ). A Kabuki program generally presents them in that order, separated by one or two dance plays featuring ghosts, courtesans, and other exotic creatures.
What is the strongest ties of Kabuki?
The strongest ties of Kabuki are to the Noh and to jōruri, the puppet theatre that developed during the 17th century. Kabuki derived much of its material from the Noh, and, when Kabuki was banned in 1652, it reestablished itself by adapting and parodying kyōgen (sketches that provide comic interludes during Noh performances). During this period a special group of actors, called onnagata, emerged to play the female roles; these actors often became the most popular of their day.
What is Kabuki art?
Eventually, by the early 18th century, Kabuki had become an established art form that was capable of the serious, dramatic presentation of genuinely moving situations. As merchants and other commoners in Japan began to rise on the social and economic scale, Kabuki, as the people’s theatre, provided a vivid commentary on contemporary society. Actual historical events were transferred to the stage; Chūshingura (1748), for example, was an essentially faithful dramatization of the famous incident of 1701–03 in which a band of 47 rōnin (masterless samurai), after having waited patiently for almost two years, wreaked their revenge upon the man who had forced the suicide of their lord. Similarly, nearly all the “lovers’ double suicide” ( shinjū) plays of the playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon were based on actual suicide pacts made between ill-fated lovers.
What is kabuki in Japanese?
As it’s commonly derived, the word kabuki combines the Japanese words ka (“song”), bu (“dance”), and ki (“skill”). However, The Japan Times reports that kabuki comes from the verb kabuku, meaning “to slant or to sway” and is used to describe “people who were out of the ordinary and preferred to dress in extravagant attire.” As an art form, Kabuki is characterized by colorful costumes, music, stylized performances, and broad dramatic postures and gestures called kata. With plots often derived from historic warriors and scholars, common themes include honor, justice, and order.
Who uses Kabuki theater?
Kabuki theater is still commonly used by Western political pundits across the political spectrum. Kabuki, Kabuki theater, and Kabuki dance are used interchangeably in punditry. Some have argued that this use of Kabuki is a misunderstanding of the artform, contrasting the form’s subtleties and nuances with the political meaning of “empty show.” However, some commentators do use Kabuki to indicate the complexities of political performance as opposed to a shorthand for “style over substance.”
When did Kabuki start?
American political pundits began to describe political showmanship and posturing as Kabuki in the early 1960s, with one early instance in 1962 characterizing President Kennedy’s New Frontier policy as “financial kabuki” making for a “colorful, carefree sight.”
Why do commentators use Kabuki?
However, some commentators do use Kabuki to indicate the complexities of political performance as opposed to a shorthand for “style over substance .”. Of course, Kabuki and Kabuki theater are still used to talk about the theatrical form, as well.
Etymology
The individual kanji that make up the word 'kabuki' can be read as "sing" (歌), "dance" (舞), and "skill" (伎). Kabuki is therefore sometimes translated as "the art of singing and dancing". These are, however, ateji characters which do not reflect actual etymology. The kanji of "skill" generally refers to a performer in kabuki theatre.
History
The history of kabuki began in 1603 when Izumo no Okuni, possibly a miko of Izumo-taisha, began performing with a troupe of female dancers a new style of dance drama, on a makeshift stage in the dry bed of the Kamo River in Kyoto, at the very beginning of the Edo period, and Japan's rule by the Tokugawa shogunate, enforced by Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Post-Meiji period kabuki
Beginning in 1868, enormous cultural changes, such as the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate, the elimination of the samurai class, and the opening of Japan to the West, helped to spark kabuki's re-emergence.
Post-war to modern day kabuki
The ensuing period of occupation following World War II posited a difficult time for kabuki; besides the war's physical impact and devastation upon the country, some schools of thought chose to reject both the styles and artforms of pre-war Japan, kabuki amongst them.
Elements
Shibai Ukie ("A Scene from A Play") by Masanobu Okumura (1686–1764), depicting Edo Ichimura-za theatre in the early 1740s.
Performance
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Play structure and performance style
Kabuki, like other forms of drama traditionally performed in Japan, was—and sometimes still is—performed in full-day programmes, with one play comprising a number of acts spanning the entire day.
