• Bunraku: 大文字屋 (Daimonjiya)

12/13/14 (Sat), Tokyo

This play hadn’t been done for several decades, so it was a highlight this month (the entire run was sold out). Continue reading →

Noh: 経政 (Tsunemasa)

9/14/14 (Sun), Karasumori Hachiman Shrine

This was an evening show being performed at a neighborhood shrine as part of an annual festival. I had hoped for candlelight rather than artificial lighting, especially since it’s called for in this case in the script itself, but I guess fire laws (and common sense on a wooden stage) prevailed.  Continue reading →

KABUKI: Terutora Haizen, Tanuki, 8/26/14 (Tues), Tokyo Kabukiza

I especially wanted to see the rare first show, originally a Bunraku puppet piece by the great Chikamatsu Monzaemon of 1721 that was adapted for Kabuki in 1742. Continue reading →

Kabuki: 髪結新三 (Shinza the Barber)

4/17/14 (Thurs), Tokyo

I was interested in this play after seeing the Bunraku puppet version based on the same source just a few months back. It turned out to be different in every way.  Continue reading →

Noh: 望月 (Mochizuki)

11/20/16 (Sun), Tokyo

Mochizuki belongs to a class of Noh works that actors aren’t allowed to do until they are deemed ready by their elders. As such, the lead’s performance was a big honor for him. In a lecture on the show a week earlier, he noted that the story was basically scratched out some centuries ago to give young performers a chance to do the popular lion dance from an even-higher ranking show called Shakkyo. Here it’s presented as a show within a show, so technically doesn’t violate the hierarchy keeping the unworthy actors from the lions, a very Japanese compromise — though the fact that this show is now itself a ranked show is ironic.  Continue reading →

BUNRAKU: 大塔宮曦鎧、恋娘昔八丈

12/14/13 (Sat), Tokyo

Bunraku was showing off some of the younger singers and performers this month. Continue reading →

Konpira Kabuki: Shunkan, Ninokuchi Village, The Zen Substitute (俊寛、新口村、身代座禅)

4/18/09 (Sat), Konpira Kabuki, Kotohira City (Shikoku)

I finally got a chance to see Konpira Kabuki, the series performed in April each year at the foot of the famous Konpira Shrine in this small Shikoku town. The theater, Kanamaruza, dates from 1835 and is not only Japan’s oldest active Kabuki playhouse but the only extant theater from the Edo Era. I love regional Kabuki and their typical small old theaters, but this is a step way beyond that, featuring the biggest names in the business with full costumes and specially made sets and extremely high production values. Continue reading →

BUNRAKU：敵討襤褸錦 (Vendetta of a Samurai in Rags)

2/7/09 (Sat), 国立劇場

I had never even heard of this show, a 1736 drama translated variously as “Vendetta of a Samurai in Rags” and “The Outcast’s Revenge and the Brocade of Rags”, and there’s little information about it out there. So I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. It turns out to have been memorable for unexpected reasons.  Continue reading →

KABUKI: 柳影澤蛍火 (The Ambition of Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu)

7/19/16 (Tues), Kabukiza

The first Tokyo revival of a show written by Uno Nobuo for the National Theatre in 1970. A young ronin manipulates friends, acquaintances and his own fiancée to claw his way to the shogun’s inner circle before overplaying his hand. The ruler is the eccentric Tsunayoshi, the disastrous “dog shogun” in the late 17th-century Genroku Era known for his edict protecting animals. Continue reading →

獅子王 (Shishi-Oh), 5/3/16 (Tues), Las Vegas MGM Continue reading →

KABUKI: 小春穏沖津白浪（子狐礼三）

26 January 2016 (Tues), Tokyo National Theater

I’m a big Mokuami fan, and this 1864 show hasn’t been done in years – the last production, in 2002, was apparently the first full showing in 138 years. I decided on the spur of the moment to catch it on its penultimate day. Continue reading →