• Kabuki: 熊谷陣屋 (Kumagai’s Battle Camp)、木挽町芝居前（口上） (Kojo Name-Announcing Ceremony)、忠臣蔵七段目（祇園一力茶屋）(Gion Ichiriki Teahouse)

2/16/18 (Fri), Tokyo

A friend was suddenly unable to attend and asked me to escort his date. It didn’t take much to convince me: this was the second month of a two-month name-taking celebration for three generations in the Matsumoto acting family, the first such occurrence in 37 years, and tickets had been sold out well before the show opened. The atmosphere was electric. Koshiro has taken the name Hakuo, Somegoro has become Koshiro, and Somegoro’s 12-year-old son Kintaro is now Somegoro. It’s going to take a while to get used to that.

Koshiro took on one of his father’s iconic roles in Kumagai’s Battle Camp. In this scene, the most famous act of a long and complicated plot, the enemy that Kumagai is revealed to have killed in battle is the son of his benefactor, raising questions of his duty to the state versus his personal obligations. When he presents the head for inspection, however, the story takes an unexpected turn.

It’s not at all unexpected to the audience, of course, who will have seen this many times and are fully aware of the identity of the victim, Kumagai’s anguish on various levels and the motivations of all concerned. They are there to see how the actor interprets the part. It’s an immensely challenging role: Kumagai has to hint at his internal agony without actually showing it, maintaining a high degree of tension up until the climactic moment in the head inspection scene. Koshiro, not a consistent performer in the past, was brilliant in the performance of the night, squeezing all the pathos from the role and then some all the way through to an exquisitely moving exit along the hanamichi. The role is in safe hands. Both Kaishin (Sagami) and Jakuemon (Fuji-no-kata) did well as the main ladies, and Kikugoro was excellent as always in a star turn as Yoshitsune. I’ve always found the part involving the minor character of Midaroku unduly long, and this was no exception, though played well enough by Sadanji (the role makes more sense when the lesser-performed earlier acts are presented). But other than that irritation, this is a great show, and today was a near-perfect production.

Kobikicho Shibai Mae was basically an excuse to bring on the big stars ahead of the name-announcing kojo scene. A crowd is portrayed waiting outside the Kabukiza for the big production, with the 50-strong cast including some of the biggest names in the business – three National Living Treasures (Kichiemon, Tamasaburo, Nizaemon), superstar Ebizo, Ennosuke and many more. Some were playing characters in colorful costumes supposedly all excited about the show – teahouse proprietress, samurai, ticket tout, ticket holders – while others played themselves as actors in the pretend show in a name-announcing scene of their own, with twenty actors marching onto and posing on the hanamichi (males) and temporary hanamichi (females). It was a hugely impressive sight. They eventually go into the “theater”, leaving an empty stage. An elevated lift then appears from below to reveal the three actors of the night bowing to the floor in their kojo scene. I don’t know what prompted this unusually glamorous kojo, which is usually just a large number of actors lined up on their knees singing the praises of the celebrants. It was easily the best scene of this type I’ve ever seen.

Gion Ichiriki Teahouse from the ever-popular Chushingura was Hakuo’s big piece, with his grandson Somegoro performing Rikiya as his father did when he took the same name nearly four decades earlier. Okaru and the brother were played by Kikunosuke and Ebizo. (On alternate nights, the latter roles were taken by Tamasaburo and Nizaemon, which I would have preferred.) Hakuo was fine in a part he knows well, while Somegoro, still a bit young, will need time to grow into the role. The best performance was Kikunosuke, who had a Tamasaburo-like take on the role – nothing wrong with that when done well, which it was. Ebizo is not a natural comic, and the exchange between him and his sister felt even longer than usual; we get the point way before the interminable scene ends. Still, he has star presence, and his huge fan base must have been delighted (he had by far the biggest applause in the previous name-announcing scene). As with Kumagai (written by the same author), I always think a bit of trimming would improve this wonderful show immeasurably. But maybe that’s just me. A very good production of a great show.