pierdolapaciencia®

-Kabuki-

On Friday July 13th I went to a Kabuki Theatre in Ginza. It was the first time in almost 3 years in Japan. I must admit I was sort of worried since I learnt the play would last four hours. Four hours! However, I came out to love the play and even not noticing that time was passing by. I attended the night performance, which started at 4.30p.m. and finished c.a. 8.30, when I had to leave to meet my friends for dinner in Shibuya.

What a delightful experience I've had! It was expensive, in absolute terms. From my point of view, art has no price. Art, in any of its expression is the absolute supremacy of aesthetics, and so is kabuki, without question.

They play itself was based on Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night, or What You Will' comedy, directed by famous Yukio Ninagawa, particularly known for his Japanese language productions of Shakespeare plays and Greek tragedies.

Kabuki (歌舞伎) is a form of traditional Japanese theatre originated in the Edo Period. Kabuki theatre is known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by its performers. Kabuki is said to be the popular culture of the townspeople and not of the higher social classes.

Kabuki plays are about historical events, moral conflicts in love relationships and the like. The actors use an old fashioned language which is difficult to understand even for some Japanese people. They speak in a monotonous voice and are accompanied by traditional Japanese instruments.

Basically, the differences between Japanese Kabuki theatre and Western theatre are as follows: Kabuki is based on beauty and it reaches emotions through senses; while Western theatre reaches the emotions through the mind. After Renaissance, Westerners turned the theatre into a representation. This representation of theatre is centred on text, while kabuki, on the other hand, is a presentation of the theatre centred on the actors.

A kabuki-za (a kabuki theatre) has a rotating stage and is further equipped with several gadgets like trapdoors through which the actors can appear and disappear. Another specialty of the kabuki stage is a footbridge that leads through the audience.

In the early years, both, men and women acted in Kabuki plays. Later during the Edo period, the Tokugawa shogunate forbade the acting to women, a restriction that survives to the present day. Several male kabuki actors are, therefore, specialized in playing female roles.

Apparently, the best place for tourists to see a kabuki play is in the Kabukiza Theatre in the Ginza district in Tokyo, where it is possible to rent English headphones (which I did) and see just one act of a play instead of sitting through a whole performance. In case the tourist wants to leave before the end of the play, it must be done during the intermissions and of course no refund of the ticket will be paid back.

I have heard that during kabuki plays, it is common for fans in the audience to shout the name of their favorite actor just in the right moment during short pauses; but I did not witness such a thing.

I took plenty of pictures of the play, but during the intermission I learnt that it is not allowed (I didn't hear the announcement before, nor did the foreigners sitting to my right). I was forced to delete all the pictures I had taken, one by one. Somehow, I managed to keep only two or three of those pictures (included in this set). Apart from these two exceptions, the pictures featuring this set are of the theatre itself, and people attending the play.

As an anecdote, I would like to add that, during the intermission, I noticed a kind of buzz in the theatre house, and when I turned and looked around, I discovered, to my surprise, that everybody had taken their bento (box meal, or packet lunch) out of their packages and were eating on their seats!

Further to this, I was well impressed (and yet not surprised) of the organization of the event. It reminded me of an aircraft previous to the boarding time... It struck me there were stewardesses everywhere!

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