Kabuki Plus
Household treasures
notable!Household treasures are nearly always featured in plays dealing with household succession battles. They may be swords, mirrors, scented wood or other items. In many cases, the loss of such treasures leads to the termination of the household, and the main characters must find them to resurrect the family name. In this play, the lost treasure is a carp scroll. It is not explained why it was lost or why it is so important, but that too is a convention for Kabuki audiences.
Osome and Hisamatsu plays
Okumi and Yosuke in this play are equivalent to Osome and Hisamatsu, familiar to audiences of puppet plays and Kabuki from the popular play Iro Moyo Aoyagi Soga. This latter work saw a monk named Dainichibo merge with Hisamatsu’s ghost into a single spirit that haunted the other characters. That was presented within the world of the “Soga brothers” vendetta, where Dainichibo is the father of (and later killed by) Kiyokage, a key name in the Soga world. When Danzo IV performed that play in Osaka and Kyoto, he changed the names of the main characters to Okumi, Yosuke and Hokaibo. He took that version to Edo, where the names have continued to date.
Sumida River and Mukojima
The name Mukojima means “the island on the other side [of the river]”, referring to Sumida River. For Edo people, it was a convenient resort destination. The riverbank was a popular place for cherry blossom viewing in spring or strolls on a summer evening, attracting those with a passion for sophisticated activities. Such activities were a common subject in ukiyoe paintings, just as impressionist painters portrayed Parisians picnicking, boating, or dining. Mukojima was a mecca for good dining, including famed restaurants like Yaozen and Daishichi known for their Edo-style cuisine. The crossing at Kototoi, known from a verse in the ancient Tales of Ise, took travelers to the Mimeguri Shrine, where only the top of the shrine gates were visible from the waters. The cherry-flavored rice cakes at Chomei Temple were also renowned. Further upstream was Mokubo Temple, which was dedicated to the life of Umewakamaru from the Noh play Sumida River. In the play, a mother travels in search of her son after he was kidnapped by slave traders. She learns from the boatman that her son died on the riverbank, and breaks down in front of the grave. A common thread in the Tales of Ise and Sumida River is the element of the “Far East” (from the perspective of Kyoto and Osaka in western Japan). The Twin Sumidagawa by Chikamatsu Monzaemon introduced Matsuwaka as Umewakamaru’s twin brother. Tsuruya Nanboku IV’s Sakurahime Azuma Bunsho gives him a sister as well. The story thus became an established genre in Kabuki and Bunraku. Further up from Mokubo Temple was Kanegafuchi, the location for the legend of the sunken bell. Sumida River and Mukojima were featured in a wide variety of media from medieval poetry to modern haiku, aristocratic Noh to common-man’s Kabuki, temple scrolls to ukiyoe prints. As Edo culture matured, these locations became symbols of joy, nostalgia and young death.
Parroting
notable!“Parroting” refers to scenes where actors mimic the words or gestures of another character. In this play, the lines of the head clerk and Hokaibo in approaching Okumi are mimicked by the child clerk, helping to lighten the atmosphere.
“Shimeko no usa-usa”
The head clerk Chokuro kidnaps Okumi in the dark and pushes her into a palanquin, which he locks with a rope. He sings, “Shimeko no usa-usa”, a pun that means capturing a rabbit but refers to a successful deed, i.e., “Well done!” Another character extends the pun when he wraps up rice cakes.
Real-life Hokaibo
The Hokaibo created by Chikamatsu in 1720 was an imaginary character. However, there was later a real-life monk named Hokaibo who sought donations and preached to courtesans in Yoshiwara. He raised money in Edo for the construction of a bell tower at Johon Temple in the western province of Shiga Prefecture, and made news when he carried the bell himself from Edo to that location in 1768. The bell still stands in Johon Temple. He was actually quite a serious monk, so it is ironic that his name should be remembered as the corrupt but comic villain from the play.
Two faces and herb seller
A ghost identical to Okumi appears in the final act of this play, which is often performed independently under the name Futa Omote (“The Two Faces”). The technique of two persons appearing in identical look originated in the Noh play Futari Shizuka (“The Two Shizukas”). In Kabuki, this is taken a step further as male and female ghosts merge into one body. One side is a woman and the other side a man, and the skill of the actor delights the audience. This is sometimes characterized as an androgynous or dual personality and is a Kabuki technique that has proved popular in overseas productions. Nakamura Nakazo I first performed the merged form of Dainichibo and Princess Nowake in a dance piece within a larger Kabuki work, Iro Moyo Aoyagi Soga. This was carried down into other plays, including the present one, and remains popular today. A bombastic aragoto warrior often appears to confront the ghost at the end of the story, as in Dojoji (“Dojo Temple”). The herb seller’s costume was there from the beginning, suggesting that this occupation was popular in the Edo Era.
Heisei Nakamuraza’s Hokaibo
notable!The Heisei Nakamuraza Troupe began life in a temporary structure in Sumida Park in November 1999, opening with Hokaibo. This brought the priest back to his origins. Director Kushida Kazuyoshi reinterpreted the drama, changing names and relationships in a major update. The owner of the Eirakuya shop reverted to a man named Gonzaemon, a brutal murder scene was incorporated, and the androgynous ghost soars above the audience in the world’s lowest flying sequence. It was an outstanding mix of horror and laughter and has been frequently revived. The show was performed in New York in 2007, incorporating a monologue in English by Hokaibo. The New York Post praised the “guilty pleasures of comic kabuki”. A production in Asakusa in 2008 was filmed and broadcast as part of the Cinema Kabuki series.
