Kabuki Plus
Benten and Nango
Benten, supposedly a beautiful girl but in actuality a heavily tattooed gangster, is a unique character in Kabuki, where women are typically played by onnagata female specialists. Benten is handsome with an androgynous appeal. His transformation from woman to man is one of the show’s highlights. He removes the black sleeve to reveal in turn a blue and red kimono, a red under-kimono, and finally a cherry blossom tattoo. This colorful array is like an ukiyoe print. Meanwhile, Nango pretends to be a poor fisherman, representing a masculine, muscular elder-brother figure to Benten. These roles are both played by male-role specialists. It is worth noting the differences in costume, makeup, delivery of lines, and facial expressions. This is notable in their humorous exchange as they try to foist the costumes on each other as they exit.
Men of Hamamatsuya
notable!The numerous characters surrounding Benten and Nango comprise various male roles in Kabuki: the witty head clerk, the apprentices, the honest old shop owner, the owner’s young son, the typical Edo fireman character, the samurai who briefly appears at the beginning. These supporting actors bring the Edo world alive.
Rarely performed Kuramae scene
Generally only the two scenes here are performed, but in between there is in fact another scene that provides crucial information. It omission makes the storyline rather confusing. In this scene, the samurai who had exposed the attempted scam reveals his identity to everyone’s astonishment as the famous thief Nippon Daemon – meaning that he knew Benten and Nango all along. In the beginning of the previous scene, he had his underling come to stake out the shop, and he had given Benten and Nango the cue to leave the shop by tapping his pipe on the tobacco tray. We discover these actions are all connected. Benten discovers that he is the shop owner’s long-lost son, and the shop owner’s adopted son Sonosuke proves to be Nippon Daemon’s own long-lost boy. The joy of the reunion is brief as the gangsters have to escape the police, running to the river in the beautiful kimonos made by the shop.
Beauty of script, visual splendor and music
notable!Mokuami is a skillful playwright. In this work, he adeptly uses the traditional 7-5 rhythm of Japanese poetry in dialogue form, creating speech that is almost musical. A noted example is Benten’s speech in the Hamamatsuya Shop after he has been exposed as a man, which opens with the celebrated line, “Shirazaa itte kikaseyasho” (“Since you don’t know, let me tell you”). The thrilling monologues by the five thieves on the riverbank, when they reveal their identities, are also in this style. In that final scene, the thieves all wear purple costumes but with differing patterns. Benten’s kimono has a chrysanthemum and white snake, symbols of the Benten shrines; Tadanobu Rihei, a cloud and dragon; Akaboshi Juzaburo, stars and phoenix; Nango, clouds, lightning and thunder god; and Nippon Daemon, magnets, anchor cable and rough waves, all representing his leadership. Kabuki costumes, as much as the performance style and wigs, often reflect the nature of the character. Furthermore, each thief has an accompanying musical pattern and instrument. The show is a feast for both the eye and ear.
Kamakura Era is nominal setting
The play is set in the Kamakura Period (12th century). Thus, the shop’s location is in Kamakura, and the river is Kamakura’s Inase River. The dialogue includes many references to place names around eastern Japan. However, the imagery portrayed on the stage is unmistakably Edo (present-day Tokyo). Inase River is clearly Asakusa’s Sumida River, and the shop’s method of taking the customer’s request and gathering the products from the back was standard business practice from the Edo through Meiji Periods. The way the characters handle the hand towels and pipes, the music that Benten whistles at the Hamamatsuya Shop scene’s end, and many other instances throughout the work are replete with Edo atmosphere.
