The real reason behind the banishment of actresses was a little more involved. During the Tokugawa shōgunate social grades were kept separated, since the shōgunate frowned upon samurai and high officials mixing with people at the lower levels because it often brought about the drawing of swords. Also many samurai lost their full substance when attending the Kabuki, since it cost an enormous amount of money to associate with a courtesan. Therefore the banishment of women from the stage not only stemmed from public-order reasons but social and political reasons as well.
WAKASHU KABUKI
Wakashu Kabuki, or Kabuki in which wakashu (youths of thirteen and fourteen) took leading roles, developed gradually but did not attain prominence until after the ban on actresses (Fig. 2). The term wakashu derives from olden times when a youth of kuge (nobility) or samurai family, upon becoming an adult, went through a ritual known as gempuku: the ceremonial cutting off of the maegami or forelock. Youths who still wore the maegami were called wakashu.
Except for the fact that the actors were young men instead of young girls, Wakashu Kabuki offered little or no change in audience appeal. The sensual dance, executed by the star actor in a provocative and suggestive manner, remained the foremost attraction. Supporting actors merely lined up on the stage to display their handsome faces and figures or danced as a group.
Undoubtedly to offset the inevitable boredom of all-male casts, the role of the onnagata—the female impersonator—the ultimate in Kabuki allurement, was born. Murayama Sakon is credited with being the original onnagata of an all-male troupe, though Nagoya Sanza previously had appeared in female dress. Sakon first appeared as a woman in Kyoto in 1649. Later he brought his act to Edo, where he danced at the Murayamaza, a theater owned by his elder brother, Murayama Matasaburō. Sakon's innovation was enthusiastically accepted and became so popular that he soon had onnagata rivals, among whom the most highly acclaimed during the next form of Kabuki, known as Yarō Kabuki, were Ukon Genzaemon, Nakamura Kazuma, and Kōkan Tarōji.
2. Wakashu Kabuki. Kabuki in which boys in their teens took leading roles attained prominence following the ban on actresses in 1629.
Although the Kokon Yakusha Taizen (All about Actors Old and New) furnishes some facts about Sakon, it has little to say about his costumes. It is known only that he wore a silk kimono and a beautifully colored oblong silk cloth over his partially shaven head and that he used cloths of different colors for various roles. It can be assumed that he used female make-up.
Wakashu Kabuki was short-lived. Only twenty-odd years after Onna Kabuki vanished from the scene, Wakashu Kabuki disappeared in the same way. In 1652, wakashu actors were abruptly banished from the stages of Edo, Osaka, and Kyoto by the shōgunate for the same reasons that actresses had been banned from the theater. During the civil wars wakashu had been allowed to accompany warriors to the battle front, where no women were permitted. They were invited for the express purpose of homosexual prostitution, although their agreeable talents as entertainers were not overlooked. The passing of civil strife by no means ended the intimate association between samurai and wakashu. Open indulgence in homosexual affairs became common, and the excesses committed ranged from the lurid to the absurd. Finally a public brawl between two samurai over the favors of a young actor evoked the shōgunate ban.
To carry out the order of the shogunate, Ishigaya Shōgen, the famous Edo marshal, issued an edict requiring all wakashu in the area of his jurisdiction to shave their forelocks in conformity with the adult male fashion. His rigorous order was copied in Osaka and Kyoto.
YARŌ KABUKI
In 1653, the year after the disappearance of Wakashu Kabuki, the shōgunate unexpectedly gave permission, subject to three specific restrictions (to be noted presently), for the reopening of the theaters. This came about, quite probably, in response to earnest appeals made by the theater managers. When the government reinstated Kabuki, however, permits to open were issued to only four of the fifteen existent Kabuki theaters in the city of Edo: the Ichimura-za, Morita-za, Nakamura-za, and Murayamaza. The Nakamura-za was the oldest theater in Edo and bore the name of its actor-owner Nakamura Kanzaburō, also formerly known as Saruwaka Kanzaburō.
Upon the reopening of these four theaters, managers and actors agreed to abide by the following three restraining conditions: that only those whose hair was shaved in front and dressed in adult yarō-atama style could appear on the stage; that their performances should not degenerate into a state of immorality; and that wakashu should not perform Kabuki, which meant they were not permitted to dance, but could appear in monomane-kyōgen-zukushi (realistic drama).
Presumably the government officials concerned with the banning of Wakashu Kabuki understood monomane as being a sober, decent, and realistic stage art. They were correct, for monomane is the basic art of every dramatic diversion—the art of imitation. Monomane was the closest form to a drama, featuring both dialogue and pantomime. Thereafter, Kabuki was referred to by its fourth name, Yarō Kabuki, and so continued to be burdened with the stigma of its name—this time yarō, a not too respectable term used colloquially in referring to men of low class.
At the outset the main elements of Yarō Kabuki still were song and dance, but the actors realized that they projected little theatrical magnetism. With forelocks shaven, they felt denuded of much of their physical beauty. The theatergoer might as well stand on the street and watch the passing scene. They recognized also that the public was ready for something more substantial and interesting in theatrical effort.
Through necessity, Yarō Kabuki began to produce plays with simple plots. This was a progressive movement in the history of Kabuki, for the new drama demanded sincere, realistic acting. The study of histrionics and stage techniques was taken up and rose quickly to unprecedented heights. Furthermore, with the development of plots that introduced an array of new roles, actors and others attached to the theaters were afforded unlimited opportunity to display their creative abilities in many ways. Inherent genius for color and design brought forth a variety of costumes (Fig. 3). These were enhanced by the invention of katsura (wigs), which for some inexplicable reason had not been thought of previously. All of these innovations gave new life to the performances of these stage productions.
3. Yarō Kabuki. As the successor to Wakashu Kabuki, Yarō Kabuki began to produce plays with simple plots, thus making the first progressive movement in Kabuki's history.
No one attached to the theater at this time could be called a playwright. The one-act plays, known as hanare-kyōgen, were produced from mere outlined suggestions for plots, to which dialogue was added as freely conceived by theater managers and leading actors, and performed ad libitum. Audiences never expected to hear a definite or established dialogue. In successive performances, actors would experiment and improvise according to their diverse whims and temperaments, and such lines or actions as appeared to be well received were retained, until, through repeated use, they became standard parts of a play. One new play followed another.
Eventually a play was so enthusiastically received that the manager had it recorded for repeat performances. The emergence of this script or daihon (dai, subject; hon, book) was the origin of Kabuki