THE FIRST KABUKI-ZA (1889-1911). Chapter 10: 1896 (Meiji 29)

Chapter 10

1896 (Meiji 29)

Samuel L. Leiter

[Note: This is Chapter 10 in a series devoted to the early history of the Kabuki-za (1889-1911). It is largely based on Vols. 1 and 3 of Kabuki-za Hyakunen-Shi (A Hundred Year History of the Kabuki-za), edited by Nagayama Takeomi (1995), composed by a team of 10 writers none of whose contributions are specifically identified. Some material has been cut, some expanded, and other material added from different sources. Links are given selectively and usually only for items not so identified in previous entries. Prof. Kei Hibino of Seikei University offered helpful comments during the preparation of this and all previous entries. A new blog, "The First Kabuki-za," is being created to provide all these chapters in chronological order. Corrections and documented additions are welcome.]

Eighteen hundred and ninety-six was the year in which the modern Olympics were inaugurated in Athens, Greece, and Japan opened a mail boat route to Europe. In Japan women enjoyed the fashionable “Eastern” or azuma coats, designed to be worn over kimono to protect against bad weather, while men took to sporting Inverness-style cape-coats, called nijūmawashi. There were also popular new women’s hairstyles, called yakkai musubi (evening-wear knot) and furansu musubi (French knot).

January saw the beginning of what became the Shōchiku producing conglomerate, which eventually acquired the Kabuki-za as part of its holdings. According to Shōchiku cofounder Ōtani Takejirō’s biographer:

The production that should be celebrated as the one that launched Ōtani Takejirō from being the son of a concessionaire [Ōtani Eikichi] to that of a theatrical producer took place in January 1896 at Osaka’s Sakai-za. The plays were Soga no Jitsuroku (The True Story of the Soga Brothers) and Chichimorai (Breast Feeding), and the theatre’s resident troupe was led by male-role specialist (tachiyaku) Jitsukawa Enjirō, who later became Enjaku. From this moment on there was an inseparable connection between Enjaku and Shōchiku. (From Tanaka Junichirō, Ōtani Takejirō.)

After this, his older brother, Ōtani Matsujirō, became the representative (dairijin) of Osaka’s Kyōgoku-za. In Tokyo this month, the Shintomi-za changed managements and was renamed the Miyako-za. And the vice-president of the Actors’ Union, Kataoka Ichizō, was promoted to president (tōdori) on January 31. 

Late in 1895, Chiba Katsugorō, increasingly disturbed by the Kabuki-za’s continuing losses over the past two or three years, began thinking of selling it if a suitable buyer could be found. He turned for advice in the matter to Tamura Nariyoshi. Tamura would earn 4,000 yen as a commission if he succeeded in finding a buyer.

Thus began what became the founding of the Kabuki-za Joint Stock Corporation, a story recounted by Tamura himself in his oral history, “Kabuki-za Konjaku Monogatari” (“The Kabuki-za Story, Past and Present”), serialized in Shin Engei (New Entertainment), from March 1930, and by playwright/kabuki scholar Kimura Kinka (1877-1960), in his 1936 Kinsei Gekidan-Shi: Kabuki-za Hen (History of Modern Theatre Companies: Kabuki-za Volume). Their accounts form the basis of the one in Kabuki-za Hyakunen-Shi, whose version, with several revisions, is given below; however, a number of discrepancies in the accounts of Tamura and Kimura have been uncovered by Terada Shiasa, based on extensive research, including the examination of public records. 

Those readers of Japanese who wish to compare her closely researched 2004 article “Kabuki-za Kabushiki Gaisha no Setsuritsu: Sono Saikentō to Hyōka” (“The Formation of the Kabuki-za Joint Stock Corporation: A Re-examination and Evaluation”) with the present chapter can find it here. Terada’s essay also includes brief notes on who all the people mentioned as being involved in the transactions were. Later in this chapter, Terada’s conclusions are given.

Tamura figured that the best approach would be to sell shares in the theatre by organizing it as a joint stock company. Inoue Takejirō, brother-in-law of the important statesman, Count Gotō Shōjirō’s (1838-1897), was interested, and Count Gotō also recommended Miyake Hyōzō. Tamura further settled matters by getting Fukuchi Ōchi to join in, creating a situation that placed Inoue and Miyake on one side and Fukuchi and Tamura on the other. Despite daily meetings their talks failed to progress. It then was learned that future politician Minagawa Shirō (1852-1911), brother-in-law of the very successful businessman Count Shibusawa Eichi (1840-1931), manager of the Tokyo Electric Light Company, wanted in.

His involvement spurred the others to move forward and, as noted in Chapter 9, on December 25, 1895, all the participants met, signed a contract, and gave Chiba a deposit of 10,000 yen; the theatre was priced at 50,000 yen and, with the 2,000 tsubo plot (1 tsubo=3.95 sq. yds.) valued at 25 yen per tsubo, the land was worth 50,000 yen. It was agreed that the land would be purchased as soon as the company was established. Immediately, Tamura put up a sign at his Ginza 3-chōme home, saying: “Founding Office of the Kabuki-za Joint Stock Corporation.”

Meanwhile, Chiba asked Tamura to allow him to handle all the theatrical arrangements for the January production, which opened at 10:00 a.m. on January 23 and featured Danjūrō’s company; the production was advertised as “Chiba Katsugorō’s Final Production.” Its successful run was extended from 25 to 29 days and it closed on February 20. 

The first play was Mokuami's 1869 “Jishin Gatō” (“Katō and the Earthquake”) part of Zōho Momoyama Monogatari (Supplementary Tale of Momoyama), starring Danjūrō as the famous 16th-century samurai Katō Kiyomasa; the second was the “Ninin Shinbei” (“Two Shinbeis”) section of Namiki Gohei’s 1789 play, Tomigaoka Koi no Yamabiraki (Love’s Mountain Climbing Season Opens at Tomigaoka); the third was the popular Dōjōji, with the 59-year-old Danjūrō giving his second “once in a lifetime” final performance of this major dance play; and the final work was Shinnen Kai (New Year’s Gathering), the auspicious title given to a children’s performance of the colorful aragoto scene, “Kuruma Biki” (Pulling the Carriage Apart), in the great classic, Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami, with the triplets played by Kawarasaki (?) Gonza as Matsuomaru, Ichikawa Dankō (later Ichikawa Ennosuke II) as Umeomaru, and Ichikawa Shachimaru (later Ichikawa Beishō II) as Sakuramaru.

The ceremony during Shinnen Kai in which Kataoka Tsuchinosuke (front row, left) took that name. Next to him, as his sponsor, is Kataoka Ichizō III. Ichikawa Danjūrō is at the right. The insert in the upper left corner shows "Kuruma Biki," which was performed as part of this name-taking ceremony. From Kabuki-za Hyakunen-Shi.

Playing a minor role in Zōho Momoyama Monogatari was the recently orphaned, 14-year-old, adopted son of Osaka star Kataoka Nizaemon X (1851-1895), Kataoka Tsuchinosuke II (later Kataoka Gadō IV and Kataoka Nizaemon XII). He had debuted at three at Tokyo's Chitose-za (later, the Meiji-za) in 1885. During the performance of "Kuruma Biki" in the Shinnen Kai part of the program, he formally changed his name from Kataoka Tōkichi to Tsuchinosuke in an onstage ceremony during which Danjūrō made the public announcement (kōjō) on his behalf.

According to Takenoya Gekihyō Shū, a collection of Takenoya no Shujin’s (Aeba Kōson) theatre criticism, the critic couldn’t get over Danjūro’s ability to play both the “Devil-General” Kiyomasa in “Jishin Gatō,” a man so awesome that merely touching his armored sleeves could cause men to stumble and fall, and the weak and gentle shirabyōshi dancer Hanako in Dōjōji. One was fearful to behold while it was hard not to take one’s eyes off the other’s jewel-like skin. It was equally hard to believe the cast list said both were played by the same actor, Danjūrō. When remembering the extreme qualities of both hardness and softness in Danjūrō’s face, the critic was certain that there was no one like him anywhere. 

The performance proved so popular that the 25-day run was extended for an additional four. Chiba, on the verge of retirement, was widely credited with the success and stirred much laughter by joking that he was going to delay his handing over the theatre for 10 years. A sad note, though, was the continuing eye disease of Ichikawa Shinzō V, who was forced to leave the show on January 30.

One of the most unusual features of Dōjōji, which stirred much interest, was the addition of piano and violin accompaniment to the musical background.

The group of five prospective founders, Inoue, Minagawa, Miyake, Fukuchi, and Tamura agreed that Minagawa and Inoue would spend 50,000 yen to create a provisional company and then sell it for 70,000 yen, dividing the 20,000 yen profit among the members. Chiba asked to be included in the distribution and to be one of the founding members.

On April 8, 1896, the investors held a founders’ meeting on the third floor of the Kabuki-za. Their agenda included:

1) A contract to purchase the Kabuki-za and transfer its managerial authority.

2) Approval of the initial expenses

3) Confirmation of the articles of incorporation

4) Salaries and bonuses for the top management (jūyaku)

5) Election of the top managers

Five managers were elected: Inoue Takejirō, Minagawa Shirō, Chiba Ninosuke, Nishikawa Tadaaki, and Noda Jōjirō. In addition, three “auditors” (kansayaku) were chosen: Umagoshi Kyōhei, Hayakawa Matsunosuke, and Sakamoto Shōzō. And the managers, voting for one another, chose Minagawa as chairman (kaichō) and Inoue as vice-chairman (fuku kaichō), while Tamura, in recognition of his achievements, was named executive secretary (kanji).

Vice-chairman Inoue, originally a rice exchange broker, was an ardent theatre fan and amateur, and even asked Fukuchi if he could be an onstage assistant (kōken), to which Fukuchi immediately responded by introducing him to Danjūrō. Danjūrō, in order to guarantee that the theatre produced six shows a year, as per its articles of incorporation (something that Terada’s article questions even existed), hoped to avoid disruptions by appointing a single, permanent producer. He thereby suggested to Inoue that the famous Shintomi-za producer, Morita Kanya, then unoccupied, be considered for the position. Inoue reached out and Kanya agreed to be employed by the Kabuki-za for the third time. Tamura objected because the company hadn’t yet been formally approved by the authorities, which meant Kanya would have to produce under the name of the previous manager, Chiba Katsugorō, which Tamura argued was a serious handicap. He thus tried persuading Chairman Minagawa that the April production be postponed. 

Vice-Chairman Inoue, however, was prepared to provide the production funds out of his own pocket so he could play at running Japan’s foremost theatre, while giving little consideration to the company’s needs, deepening the rift with Tamura.The Inoue-Kanya alliance moved ahead immediately and, in a single day, a large company was put together combining Danjūrō’s troupe with Onoe Kikugorō, who was previously a source of discord. Tamura, hearing that the budget would be over 20,000 yen, a record-breaking sum for the time, laughed cynically about its resemblance to festival goings-on.

Opening day was April 30, starting at 11:00 a.m., with the first play being Fūkigusa Heike Monogatari (The Pachysandra Tales of the Heike), a revision and expansion by Kawatake Shinshichi III of Kawatake Mokuami’s 1876 Natorigusa Heike Monogatari (The Peony Tales of the Heike); its “Shigemori Kangen” (“Shigemori’s Remonstrance”) scene was so successful for Danjūrō, despite an earlier failure with it, he added it to his Shin Kabuki Jūhachiban collection of greatest hits. Next came the always popular Sukeroku Yukari no Edo Zakura (Sukeroku: Flower of Edo), with Danjūrō as the dashing Sukeroku, Nakamura Fukusuke as the glorious courtesan Agemaki, and Fukusuke’s adoptive father, Nakamura Shikan, as the white-bearded villain, Ikyū. As was traditional, an amateur group of katōbushi musicians played during the production. It was followed by Mokuami’s Hakogaki Tsuki Totoya no Chawan (The Certified Totoya Tea Bowl), starring Kikugorō, who was also appearing at the Meiji-za in a kakemochi (acting at two theatres in the same month) arrangement.

Ichikawa Danjūrō as Sukeroku. From Kabuki-za Hyakunen-Shi.

Takenoya no Shujin wrote of Danjūrō: “In playing Shigemori he looked every inch the flesh and blood of the interior minister (komatsu naidaijin), and his remonstrance and sincerity were such that this reviewer was deeply impressed.” Ichikawa Shinzō, whose eye disease had worsened, had to leave the show on the second day, with his roles taken over by others.

Novelist Junichirō Tanizaki, eleven at the time, later wrote in his memoir, Shoshō Jidai (Childhood Years), that he “was dying to see” Sukeroku “but it proved impossible so I spent my days loitering in front of the Shimuzuya bookshop and gazing at the large three-leaf prints of Sukeroku displayed there.” He goes on:

In the illustrated booklets that circulated at the time, the ruddy, bearded face of Ikyu as played by Shikan made the strongest impression me, more so even than Danjuro’s Sukeroku or Fukusuke’s Agemaki.

In fact, though, I was still more eager to see the Heike monogatari play than Sukeroku itself. I had developed an intense interest in tales of the twelfth-century wars between the Genji and the Heike through reading Owada Tateki’s works, so I was convinced that plays featuring such characters as the lay priest Jokai, the monk Saiko, Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal Shigemori, and New Grand Councillor Narichika could not fail to be fascinating Then by chance it happened that the chrysanthemum-doll exhibition at Dangozaka for that year was based on the current Heike monogatari play, with figures representing Danjuro as Saiko, Gonjuro as Narichika, and the late Chusha in his Yaozo days as Kiyomori. Seeing the displays, I regretted all the more that I had been forced to miss the play itself. (Trans. Paul McCarthy.)

Nakamura Fukusuke IV as Agemaki. From Kabuki-za Hyakunen-Shi.

This was Danjūrō’s fourth performance as Sukeroku and, from his hanamichi entrance to his hiding in the water barrel (which was added to the show on May 29), his energy, even at 59, put younger men to shame. With Shikan, doing Ikyū for the third time, and the incomparably beautiful Fukusuke as Agemaki, this was a matchless production.

While picture postcards of Danjūrō and Kikugorō were selling for 2 sen 5 rin, those for Fukusuke IV were going for 7 sen 5 rin and it was said they couldn’t be printed fast enough before they were sold. Cosmetics or various sundries with endorsements on them saying “Fukusuke’s favorite,” and even inferior goods, went flying off the shelves. On countless occasions the rickshaws gathered around the stage door were so encircled by Fukusuke’s fans they were unable to move.

All we have to recall the Agemaki of his Fukusuke and Shikan periods are photographs. And even these photos, half a century afterward, have faded and grown dim, no longer capable of offering a whiff of times gone by. Still, the beauty of his Agemaki, performed alongside Danjūrō’s Sukeroku and Shikan’s Ikyū at the Kabuki-za in May 1896, has never been equaled, before or since. (From Funahashi Sei’ichi, Kokoro Kawari.)

The result was a major hit, with sold-out houses. Just like the old days, there was great excitement among fan groups associated with the Yoshiwara brothel quarters and the riverside fishmongers, the first group attending on the ninth and the second on the 14th, according to tradition; the program ran for 33 days, bringing in a clear profit of 25,000 yen. Inoue, given great credit for the success, was given 10,000 yen with the remainder going to Chiba and the other company officers.

Then, in June, for seven days beginning on the seventh, there was a Red Cross charity production in which Danjūrō and Kikugorō took part, and which was seen by members of the imperial family. The program included Youchi Soga Kariba no Akebono (Dawn at the Hunting Field after the Sogas’ Night Attack), the kiyomoto dance Inaka Genji Tsuyu no Shinonome (Country Genji and the Dew at Daybreak), followed by two dances with texts by Fukuchi Ōchi, the first being Kagamijishi, starring Danjūrō, and the second Fukitori Zuma (Flute Blowing for a Wife), a premiere based on the kyōgen Fukitori, with nagauta music by Kineya Rokuzaemon XIII and choreography by Fujima Kan’emon. This was followed by Kawatake Mokuami’s 1887 history play Sekigahara Kami no Aoiba (Sekigahara and the Paper Green Leaves), with its takemoto accompaniment, with the fully packed program ending with another Fukuchi piece, Akajūji (The Red Cross), in which members of the Music Club from Hiroshima Hospital appeared.

Years later, a writer using the penname of Kusunoya Shujin wrote:

*Speaking of Inaka Genji (Country Genji), when it was presented at a Red Cross benefit at the Kabuki-za in June 1896, it was excellent, with Kikugorō V as Shinonome, the late Kikunosuke as Mitsuuji, and Onoe Baikō VI as Tasogare.

*Someone at the Kabuki-za was talking about exactly this the other day, saying Inaka Genji was an unprecedented, never-to-be-repeated performance.

*The beauty of Kikunosuke’s Mitsuuji and Baikō’s Tasogare is even now unforgettable. (From Kusanoya Shujin, “Meifu Engeki Tsūwa” in Engei Gahō, September 1939.)

Inaka Genji, with Onoe Eizaburō V as Tasogare (right), Onoe Kikugorō V as Shinonome, and Onoe Kikunosuke II as Mitsuuji. From Kabuki-za Hyakunen-Shi.

On June 15 Japan experienced one of its most powerful earthquakes and two tsunamis, one soon after the other, in Sanriku, off the coast of Iwate Prefecture. More than 27,000 people died. In July, the magazine Shin Shosetsu (New Novels) was launched by Shunyōdō.

Tamura Nariyoshi didn’t show much interest in the results of these productions. Moreover, sensing danger in a struggle for control between himself and Kanya and Fukuchi, he told Minagawa it would be wise to close the theatre during July and August’s dog days, to which Minagawa agreed. But Kanya and Fukuchi had already hired actors for those months and it was too late to cancel. Also, the teahouse staffs would have been unhappy with losing two months. The rapidly constituted and inaugurated Kabuki-za Joint Stock Corporation had become clearly split into two factions, the Minagawa-Tamura faction facing off against the Fukuchi-Kanya-Inoue faction, with the infighting becoming continuous.

The fateful production came off when Inoue, without depending on the company but acting on his own, put up 10,000 yen of his own, acquired backers, and opened at 11:00 a.m. on July 11. The opening play was Tsuruya Nanboku IV’s Katamigusa Yotsuya Kaidan (Keepsake Flower: The Ghost Stories at Yotsuya); this was the classic ghost play Tōkaidō Yotsuya Kaidan (Ghost Stories of Yotsuya on the Tōkaidō) under a title it had been given in 1884, when it was performed by Kikugorō, who also starred in this version. (The play had a close relationship with his acting line.) Second was Sanzen Ryō Omoni no Wakagoma (Three Thousand Gold Pieces and the Burdened Colt). Closing the show was the tokiwazu and kiyomoto dance Koi no Fumi Tsuki Goen no Ochikochi (Love Letters and the Moon’s Mistaken Perspective).  

Danjūrō was expected to appear but he had hurt himself the previous month while performing at the Meiji-za and was obliged to stop performing. Kikugorō manned the stage alone but the box office suffered seriously, forcing the production to close on the 23rd after 23 days. This cheered the Tamura-Minagawa faction but angered the Inoue-Fukuchi-Kanya one. Getting wind of the conflict, the Jiji Shinpō newspaper began a daily series covering its details. 

Minagawa cared little about the article of incorporation that presumably called for six productions a year, and would have been happy with less, while Inoue believed that he would earn more profits from a full production schedule.

Inoue told Count Gotō that Tamura was a troublemaker, so Gotō summoned Danjūrō and asked if Tamura was creating problems, something the actor couldn’t deny. Kikugorō agreed that it was time to be free of Tamura, the root of all evil. Gotō brought these complaints to Minagawa but he stood up for Tamura. Such ongoing troubles caused a delay in preparations for the fall season.

Meanwhile, on July 2, Kawakami Otojirō opened a three story theatre, the Kawakami-za, built in Western style, at Misaki-chō, in the Kanda district. And on August 26, Okamoto Kidō, who would become an important kabuki writer, published his maiden work, Shishenden (Hall of Ceremonies). On August 31, actor Nakamura Jusaburō (brother of Ichikawa Sadanji I and Ichikawa Arajirō) died at 62.

On September 1 the Kabuki-za Joint Stock Corporation was officially approved as a business enterprise for the regular buying and selling of stocks and was listed on the stock exchange. Favorable progress was being made when, at 1 p.m. on October 4, the first general meeting of the shareholders was held on the theatre’s third floor. First, Minagawa, as chairman, presented his business report covering May to September, setting the profit dividend at 75 sen per share (less than 10.6 percent for the year). Two articles of incorporation were revised, one with the added condition, “For the sake of convenience, a single vice-chairman shall be elected,” after which a special election was held, with Minagawa being unanimously elected chair, Tamura as executive secretary, and Kanya as advisor (komon), at which point the meeting ended.

Five persons were absent and did not participate in the voting, so the votes were considered provisional. On October 5 there was a meeting of the management at which the position of chairman (kaichō) was changed to president (shachō), and Inoue was chosen vice-president. It was announced that the company’s opening ceremony would be on November 1. At a special meeting that same day, Nishikawa Tadaaki and Chiba Ninosuke resigned as directors (torishimeyaku) and Yoshikawa Yasunosuke and Itō Kenkichi were added as directors.

After the announcement of the forthcoming November stockholder’s meeting the market improved and stocks trading at 12 yen 50 sen shot up to 17 or 18 yen; this confirmed the Kabuki-za’s profitable prospects.

October saw the publication of Futaba Shimei’s translation of Ivan Turgenev’s First Love (Kata Koi), which had a major impact on modern Japanese literature. Also that month the promising female writer Higuchi Ichiyō passed away of consumption at only 25. And October also saw a catastrophic outbreak of dysentery that claimed over 19,000 lives.

The only performances at the Kabuki-za in October were fundraisers for the Tokyo Poorhouse (Tōkyō Yoikuin), beginning at 2:00 p.m. on the 10th, 11th, and 12th. The crowded program included scenes from Kamakura Sandaiki, Yoshitsune Koshigoejō, Hirakana Seisuiki, Ashiya Dōman Ōuchi Kagami, Jiraiya Gōketsu Monogatari (The Story of the Great Jiraiya), Otokoyama Moritate Genji, and Dōchū Hizakurige (Shank’s Mare). Danjūrō and Fukusuke were among the cast members. During the break between Kamakura Sandaiki and Yoshitsune Koshigoejō there was a performance of the music from Kanjinchō played by the Japan Music Club and nagauta orchestra. Danjūrō also gave a speech honoring the spirit of the emperor’s father, who had died 30 years earlier.

The first production of the Kabuki-za’s newly licensed company opened at 10:00 a.m. on November 10 following a ceremony in the company’s honor; the same was also held on the 11th, during which the stockholders were introduced to the public.

The theatre’s external appearance on those days was enhanced by crossed national flags, the hanging of countless round, colored lanterns, and piled-up barrels of sake at either side donated by various patrons. Draped across the theatre’s face was a large, horizontal banner on which Hara Tesseki, who worked at a second-floor concession, had written in huge characters: “Kabuki-za Joint Stock Corporation Ceremonial Opening Production.” Inside, round red and white lanterns hung above and below the galleries, there were brand new, crimson-carpeted “knee-hiders” (hizakakushi), and everything was as gorgeously decorated as possible. (From Kimura Kinka, Kinsei Gekidan Shi: Kabuki-za Hen.)

First, President Minagawa offered his greetings, then Danjūrō, joined by Ichikawa Somegorō, danced Kodakara Sanba (Blessed Child Sanbasō), a ceremonial piece performed in hakama trousers. At intermission, invitees received a two-tiered lunch box (bentō) and cakes, along with sake and sake cups, after which they viewed Fukuchi Ōchi’s new, three-act play, Ninin Kagekiyo (Two Kagekiyos), which pushed the final curtain to past 11:00 p.m., forcing it to be trimmed in mid-run. It was inspired by the 1732 puppet play classic, Dan no Ura Kabuto Gunki (War Story of the Dan Bay Helmet). The middle play was Ōshū Adachigahara (Adachigahara in Ōshū), for which Ichikawa Yaozō and Ichikawa Ennosuke alternated daily as Hachiman Tarō and Abe no Munetō. Closing the program was Mokuami’s Nami no Soko Shinboku Kai (Beneath the Waves Friendship Society), a dance piece using tokiwazu, kiyomoto, and takemoto music.

The production, intended to commemorate the reorganization of the Kabuki-za’s management, worked hard to draw audiences and many people attended out of duty, but aside from Sundays and festival days, attendance was generally weak and the production limped along for 25 days until closing on December 4. On November 21, it should be noted, Yaozō hurt himself during a stage fight (tachimawari) and had to take time off, his multiple roles being taken by various company members.

Thus was the Kabuki-za Joint Stock Corporation born, and, though it had opened for business, managerial difficulties gradually worsened and an atmosphere of dissatisfaction infected life inside the theatre.

According to Terada, on November 22, Itō Kenkichi sent three notes to the board, the last one by registered mail. In it he expressed his misgivings about Minagawa possibly having illegally withdrawn 50,000 yen in production funds deposited by the company in the Daisan Bank. It was then explained that the bank had loaned the money to Minagawa and the matter was cleared up by the 23rd. However, Minagawa was enraged by the allegation and, on December 1, suddenly announced his resignation. Inoue said nothing. The details can be found in Terada but the blame ultimately rested on both sides of the quarrel.

Inoue did not immediately assume the presidency, which was temporarily filled by Itō Kenkichi. The public reason given for Minagawa’s resignation was that, “For reasons of convenience, he has sold off his stock.” The top managers’ positions were renamed so that Inoue became “managing director of production” (kōgyō senmu), which put him in charge of production. Yoshikawa Yasunosuke was treasurer (kaikei) and Noda Jōjirō was in charge of “general affairs” (shomu).

By this time, Tamura, of the Minagawa faction, had completely left the Kabuki-za and moved to Osaka where, with Akiyama Gishirō, he became active in Kansai area theatricals, planning and establishing the Dōtonbori Joint Stock Corporation to run the Kado-za and the Naniwa-za.

Even before this Inoue and Minagawa were like the proverbial two great rivals who cannot coexist, and unless only one of them took over it would be forever impossible to get things done smoothly. Inoue rapidly bought up stock with the aim of establishing his power. I advised Minagawa that Inoue had somehow gotten attached to Count Gotō so there was no way he could compete with him in buying up stocks. There was a better way to defeat him by using a clever plan, which was to openly purchase 20 stocks while secretly selling 200. Inoue wouldn’t know that the stocks were being sold secretly but, seeing that only 20 stocks were being bought daily, he grew excited and, using his power to buy up 200 and 300 at a time, they went from 12 yen 5 sen to 18 or 19 yen a share.

When Inoue eventually realized that Minagawa and I had thus disposed of our stocks he was so surprised he practically fell on his ass. (From Tamura Nariyoshi, “Kabuki-za ga Kabushiki ni Natte Kara,” in Shin Engei, June 1930.)

Terada Shiasa’s essay on the founding of the Kabuki-za Joint Stock Corporation concludes thusly:

This company, whose goal was to make a profit from the Kabuki-za, applied for permission in February 1896, was approved in April, and was a joint stock company based on the modern type of stock. Its major characteristic was that its managerial structure was completely reorganized by businessmen and investors who had had nothing to do with theatrical production at the Kabuki-za, which until then had been operated principally as the individual enterprise of Chiba Katsugorō. However, discord arose among those who had been involved in the theatre’s productions and, from early August this became clear to the outside world. At the October shareholder’s meeting it was announced that, for the moment, the company had achieved its goal, but, by this time, the Minagawa faction already had crumbled. Consequently, at the end of November, President Minagawa was forced to resign. Thereafter, Inoue, who had taken a familiar position from the hitherto production-related personnel, became president and continued running the business.

It’s well known that Shibusawa Eiichi, who had established hundreds of companies and was Japan’s first founder of a joint stock corporation, was deeply connected to the opening in 1911 of the Teikoku Gekijō (Imperial Theatre). If he himself had been directly involved in his brother-in-law Minagawa’s running of the Kabuki-za Joint Stock Corporation as managing director perhaps the Kabuki-za, like the Teikoku Gekijō, would have inclined toward shortening the running time of productions and offering more variety in its programming. The Teikoku Gekijō’s architectural structure and production methods had a variety of influences on later kabuki, and it’s possible to think these might have come even earlier from the Kabuki-za itself.

Shibusawa’s name appears as the president of the theatre’s bank and as the chair of the October 1896 charity production at the Kabuki-za, but it does not appear before or after in connection with his involvement with the Kabuki-za Joint Stock Corporation. As has been noted by Akiniwa Tarō in his Nihon Shingeki-Shi (History of Japanese New Theatre), this may have been because of a difference of opinion with Fukuchi Ōchi that arose in 1888 when the Theatre Reform Society proposed the establishment of a new theatre. And there was the success, such as it was, of many theatre outsiders in running the joint stock corporation, as well as the resignation of Chairman Minagawa, who was vastly more experienced than Inoue in managing the company organization. Even afterward, no major changes in the Kabuki-za’s production system, performance time, the theatre’s physical equipment, etc., appeared until January 1907, when the first production under the presidency of Ōkōchi Terutake was given.

For all that, the facts are that the main purpose in creating the company was not to repay debts; there was a positive acceptance of non-theatre world businessmen and wealthy persons as a management team; the public offering on the stock exchange for up-to-date buying and selling of stocks to raise capital funds, while risky, allowed, provisionally, for balanced books; stockholders’ meetings were announced in the same way as most companies; dividends were paid out; the business continued for many years; and, more than the Shintomi-za stock company of the 1870s, the Kabuki-za’s methods were valued as progressive steps forward. (From Terada Shiasa, “Kabuki-za Kabushiki Gaisha no Setsuritsu: Sono Saikentō to Hyōka.”)

Another theatre that became a joint stock operation was the Haruki-za in Hongo, which made the change on November 20.

In December 1896 Morita Shiken’s translation of Jules Verne’s 1888 novel Two Years Vacation was published as Jūgo Shōnen (Fifteen Boys), an important step in the history of Japanese children’s literature. Also this year, courses on Western art were established at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts (Tōkyō Bijutsu Gakkō), and motion pictures, gramophones, and motorcycles were imported and made available for public consumption. Political developments in Japan included the smuggling of Korea’s king and prince out of their palace by pro-Russian and pro-American forces to keep them from Japanese control; the killing of Korean ministers favoring Japan and the dismissal of Japanese advisors; the formation of a pro-Russian Korean government; and, for the time being, the end of Japanese control in Korea. European powers forced Japan to return the Liaotung Peninsula to China. In September Matsukata Masayoshi again became prime minister.

Abroad, Utah became the 45th state; Fannie Farmer published her first cookbook; the first X-rays were taken; Puccini’s La Bohéme premiered in Turin; the first college basketball game between women’s colleges was played; racial segregation was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson;Henry Ford built his first vehicle, the Ford Quadricycle; gold was discovered in the Klondike, starting a gold rush; a woman in London became the first automobile fatality; Queen Victoria became the longest reigning British monarch; William McKinley defeated Willian Jennings Bryan for the U.S. presidency; and John Philip Sousa composed “The Stars and Stripes Forever.”

Cultural figures born in 1896 include French artist André Masson; author John Dos Passos; comedian George Burns; French writer André Breton; Greek conductor Dimitry Mitropoulos; baseball player Rogers Hornsby; film director Howard Hawks; playwright Philip Barry; socialite Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor; Russian ballet dancer/choreographer Léonide Massine; Canadian actor Raymond Massey; French actor/director Antonin Artaud; dancer Fred Astaire; writer F. Scott Fitzgerald; German writer Carl Zuckmeyer; Italian writer Eugenio Montale; actress/singer Ethel Waters; actress Marie Prevost; opera star Lawrence Tibbett; composer Virgil Thomson; actress Jessie Royce Landis; lyricist Ira Gershwin; writer Louis Bromfield; and composer Roger Sessions.

Important Western plays of 1896 include Henrik Ibsen’s John Gabriel Borkman, Chekhov’s The Sea Gull, Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi, and Gerhart Hauptmann’s The Sunken Bell, while the Japan-based British musical The Geisha was a big international hit. Major theatres completed this year were Brazil’s Teatro Amazonas, in Manaus, located in rainforest territory; the Comedy Theatre of Budapest; Romania’s Iasi National Theatre; Columbus, Ohio’s Southern Theatre; Chicago’s Steinway Hall; the Teatro Diogo Bernardes in Ponte de Lima, Portugal; and the Vale Hotel and Grand Opera House, all of which are still operating except for Steinway Hall, demolished in 1970.

THE FIRST KABUKI-ZA (1889-1911). Chapter 9: 1895 (Meiji 28)

Chapter 9

1895 (Meiji 28)

[Note: This is Chapter 9 in a series devoted to the early history of the Kabuki-za (1889-1911). It is largely based on Vols. 1 and 3 of Kabuki-za Hyakunen-Shi (A Hundred Year History of the Kabuki-za), edited by Nagayama Takeomi (1995). A team of 10 writers worked on the project but none are identified for their contributions. Some material has been cut, some expanded, and other material added from different sources. Links are given selectively and usually only for items not so identified in previous entries. Prof. Kei Hibino of Seikei University offered helpful comments during the preparation of this entry. A new blog, "The First Kabuki-za," is being created to provide all these chapters in chronological order.  Corrections and documented additions are welcome.]

Young women enjoying tea on a verandah across from the Kabuki-za. From Tōkyō Meisho Bijin Gō Kobikichō Kabuki-za.

The Sino-Japanese War had a significant effect on theatre and literature of the time. It was all that was on anyone’s mind in both the theatrical and literary worlds as 1894 slipped away and 1895 began, and it colored everything it touched. The publishing industry quickly capitalized on the mass hysteria. In January, for example, Hakubunka, the Tokyo publishing house, issued three major periodicals: the general-interest magazine Taiyō (The Sun, 1895-1928), the literary magazine, Bungei Kurabu (The Literary Club, 1895-1933), and the young readers’ magazine, Shōnen Sekai (Boys’ World, 1895-1934). Also making its debut was the literary magazine Teikoku Bungaku (Imperial Literature, 1895-1920).

Koyama Fumio writes of what the war meant for Kabuki-za playwright Fukuchi Ōchi:

The fighting was trending toward success for Japan. In February 1895, with victory in the offing, a conference was held at the Momiji-Kan in Shiba to discuss playwriting reform, and Ōchi attended along with Ichikawa Danjūrō, Suematsu Kenchō, and Minister of Education Saionji Kinmochi. It was reported that Tsubouchi Shōyō also had been asked to take part. A decision was made that there henceforth would be a meeting at the Genroku-Kan photo studio in Kobiki-chō to critique new dramas on the second Wednesday of every month.

On this day, the subject of discussion was Ōchi’s play Mukai Shōgen, about Tokugawa Ieyasu’s naval commander. Right in the middle of the meeting it was announced that the commander of the Chinese fleet, Ding Ruchang (Ting Ju-ch’ang; Tei Jōshō in Japanese), had surrendered and a shout of “Hurrah!” went up from all. Ōchi’s Mukai Shōgen and Shōyō’s Kiri Hitoha were about the only fruits of this year’s crop of new plays.

Ōchi wrote other works inspired by the war but when the Diet met in Hiroshima instead of Tokyo that year, and the Kabuki-za thereby lost a good portion of its usual clientele, Danjūrō is said to have had the idea of temporarily closing the theatre. And that was all that Ōchi had to do with the Sino-Japanese war. (From Koyama Fumio, Meiji no Isai Fukuchi Ōchi.)

Chiba Katsugorō, the Kabuki-za’s owner, who lost money even when producing topical war plays, was growing increasingly unhappy with theatre management and once more turned over the reins to Tamura Nariyoshi. The latter had not done any plays based on the writings of storyteller San’yutei Enchō since Kikugorō’s Annaka Sōza flopped in 1893, even turning down a proposal to do Awataguchi, an Enchō-based play originally seen at the Haruki-za in 1889. Anticipating a production after the New Year’s festivities, he took Awataguchi to Yokohama for a tryout where he could polish it before bringing it to the Kabuki-za but the anti-Tamura faction at the theatre wouldn’t have anything to do with second-hand goods from Yokohama.

After Tamura produced Awataguchi for 12 days in Yokohama he put it on at the Shintomi-za on a bill shared with the classic Kamakura Sandaiki. The show played to full houses, leaving Chiba with egg on his face.

Ichikawa Danjūrō as Otokonosuke in Date Kurabe Okuni Kabuki. From Kabuki-za Hyakunen-Shi. 

Danjūrō and Ichikawa Kyūzō (the later Ichikawa Danzō), learning of the discord, tried to broker peace with the Chiba faction and, for the first time in 13 years, agreed to perform together. After a long period of inactivity the first Kabuki-za production of 1895 opened on February 28. First on the bill was the four-act Date Kurabe Okuni Kabuki (The Date Rivalry and Okuni Kabuki) with Kyūzō as Nikki Danjō and Danjūrō as Masaoka, a female role, and Otokonosuke, played in the powerful aragoto style. The middle play was Ōchi’s aforementioned Mukai Shōgen and the final piece was Teikoku Banzai Ueno no Nigiwai (Celebrating the Empire: The Goings-On at Ueno).

A street poster (tsuji banzuke) listing all the details for the February 1895 Kabuki-za program. From Kabuki-za Hyakunen-Shi.

The popular actor Ichikawa Shinzō, who had been suffering from an eye disease, took a turn for the worse and had to stop performing the roles of Yorikane and Katsuyori, which were taken, respectively, by Sawamura Tosshō and Ichikawa Somegorō from March 16 to the end of the 25-performance run, on March 24. Stirred by the joint performance of Danjūrō and Kyūzō audiences turned out in large numbers at first, but the tide turned and empty seats prevailed.

At the Meiji-za in March the 15-year-old son of Ichikawa Sadanji, Ichikawa Botan (later Sadanji II), took his father’s previous name of Ichikawa Koyone.

On September 17 of the previous year, 1894, the Imperial Japanese Navy defeated China’s Beiyang Fleet near the mouth of the Yalu River, and took over control of the Yellow Sea. By November 21 the Japanese had occupied Port Arthur (Lüschunkou), conducting the infamous slaughter of Chinese called the Port Arthur Massacre. In February 1895 the Japanese won the Battle of Weiweihai, which fell on the 12th, soon afterward taking command of the approaches by sea to Beijing. In March the Japanese were victorious in the Pescadores Islands Campaign, and China sent Li Hung-chang (Ri Kōshō in Japanese) to Japan to sign the controversial Treaty of Shimonoseki on April 17, which forced China to recognize Korea’s independence, among other painful concessions forced upon the defeated nation.

April witnessed the death of Osaka star Kataoka Nizaemon X, aged 45. Also in April, at the fourth Domestic Exposition to Promote Industry, in Kyoto, famed Western-style painter Kuroda Seiki (1866-1924) exhibited his Morning Toilette, the first painting of a nude to be publicly shown in Japan, winning a prize but also creating a great scandal for its flaunting of standards of public morality.

Kawakami Otojirō’s play, Kawakami Otojirō Senchi Kenbunki having been a big hit the previous spring at the Ichimura-za, in January he produced at that same theatre his Meiji Yonjūsan Nen (Meiji 43); his acting greatly impressed Fukuchi Ōchi. This was all the inspiration needed by Kawakami, who had longed for some time to perform on the Kabuki-za stage, and he took advantage of it to wrangle a production there. Danjūrō and Kikugorō’s objections were expected but Chiba, increasingly dissatisfied with recent kabuki plays, shook Kawakami’s hand and welcomed him to the Kabuki-za.

The news that Kawakami was going to perform at the Kabuki-za immediately caused a fuss; the teahouses and theatre personnel, learning that Kawakami’s very popular “Oppe-kepe” number was going to be sung in battledress on Japan’s most respected cypress stage (hinoki butai), made their apologies to Danjūrō and Kikugorō; Danjūrō went off to perform at the Meiji-za while Kikugorō took over the Shintomi-za. The replacement actors did poor business, though, and the opposition movement fizzled.

The Kabuki-za program opened on May 17, beginning with Fujizawa Asajirō’s Sino-Japanese war drama Ikaiei Kanraku (The Fall of Weiweihai), followed by the four-act Mawari Dōrō (Revolving Lantern), dramatized by Hirooka Ryūkō from a Victor Hugo novel translated as Gen’ei (Phantom) by Morita Shiken. The show was popular enough to run until June 9, for 23 days, although on May 30 the production was cancelled so Kawakami’s company could welcome the emperor at Shinbashi Station.

The success of Kawakami’s Kabuki-za production was largely owing to its capitalizing on the Sino-Japanese War. An advance had been made from the old days when acting skill conquered, but their so-called “new drama” (shin engeki) was, after all, quite crude and shallow. Their success this time ultimately had no roots. . . . Mounting war plays to gain popularity could be said to disregard the new theatre’s original mission by returning to the sensationalism it had at the time of its creation. (From Akiniwa Tarō, Tōtō Meiji Engeki-Shi.)  

For a time in which there were no film or TV news media and when newspapers were the only source of news, the informational role played by theatre based on direct observation of events was huge. This was truly the idea behind Kawakami’s plays. (Kawatake Toshio, Kindai Engeki no Tenkai.)

These are two representative views regarding Kawakami’s theatre. But the new theatre’s having advanced to the point of being produced at the Kabuki-za was an epochal event.

Chiba, having tasted success with this experience, rehired Kawakami’s company for the July production, which opened at 11:00 a.m. on the 14th. First on the bill was actor-playwright Fujizawa Asajirō’s dramatization of the Western-style Gohan Roku (Record of a Mistake), published by the Ministry of Justice. The second piece was Fukuchi Ōchi’s two-act Ōeyama (Mount Ōe), but since it was a history play it was beyond the abilities of Kawakami’s company; both Kawakami, as Yorimitsu, and the onnagata Fujizawa, as Shūten Dōji (a mythical demon living on Mount Ōe), were completely out of their depth. The piece was criticized as goods unsuited for the Kabuki-za stage and business was so bad the show was forced to close after only 19 days. 

On July 20, 1895, 55-year-old Osaka actor Nakamura Jakuemon II contracted cholera and died while performing in Kobe. The spread of the disease through the three main Kansai cities, Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe, led to a suspension of all theatrical performances that lasted through August and lifted in early September.

Chiba’s July experience with Kawakami taught him a lesson; he decided that, henceforth, only mainstream kabuki actors would appear at his theatre, and he asked Danjūrō to serve as their exemplar. However, the star replied, “I’ll not set foot on a stage on which sōshi shibai actors have trod unless it’s shaved clean with a plane.” This only served to anger Chiba so Tamura Nariyoshi stepped in and the matter was resolved by having the stage washed with lye, and Danjūrō’s salary raised.

On October 6 the Hakuhōdō public relations and advertising agency, now a global enterprise, began doing business. On October 29, Nakamura Kanzaburō XIII, 69-year-old hereditary manager of the recently burned-down Nakamura-za, died at a traveler’s inn in Asakusa. On November 21, Ichikawa Gonjūrō resigned as head of the kabuki actors’ union.

The next production at the Kabuki-za was supposed to begin on November 7 but Prince Kitakawa no Miya Yoshihisa died of malaria (some say he was killed by guerillas) while militarily involved in Taiwan; an official declaration was therefore made for the suspension of song, dance, and music for three days. The production, which had to wait for the completion of funeral services, was moved to November 12. Nakamura Tomijūrō III, so popular recently at the Haruki-za, joined Danjūrō’s company, as did Nakamura Kametarō (now called Ichikawa Kasen).

The program opened with a revision of Kawatake Mokuami’s 1880 history play, Chausuyama Gaika Jindate (The Battle Formation’s Song of Victory at Chausuyama), renamed Ōsaka Jin Shoke Kakitome (A Record of the Families at the Osaka Battle Camp). The middle play was the major aragoto classic Shibaraku (Wait a Minute!), which Danjūrō hadn’t done in years, and the final piece, a domestic drama, was another classic, Igagoe Dōchū Sugoroku (Through Iga Pass with the Tōkaidō Board Game), the scenes shown being those at Shinseki and Okazaki, and the revenge scene.

Ōchi’s new version of the famous tsurane speech in Shibaraku was criticized for its crudity but otherwise the program was a hit, with full houses day after day, and the show didn’t close until December 12, after 28 performances.

On closing day, Danjūrō arranged to have famed Genroku-Kan photographer Kajima Seibei bring his equipment to the theatre, where he set it up at the front of the second-floor balcony. Shibaraku was moved to the last place on the program. Powerful arc lights were installed in the western gallery (sajiki) seating and photos were taken of Shibaraku. First, a photo was successfully taken of the grand pose called the genroku mie, then another of the play’s final tableau, but the power line was cut and the photo was spoiled. Nonetheless, this was the first time a mid-performance photo was taken of a Japanese production.

Ichikawa Danjūrō in Shibaraku at the Kabuki-za on December 12, 1895. Taken by Kajima Seibei, it is the first photo ever taken of kabuki in mid-performance. From Kabuki-za Hyakunen-Shi.

A studio shot Ichikawa Danjūrō as Kamakura Gongoro no Kagemasa in the December 1895 production of Shibaraku. From Engekikai.

According to the reminiscences of theatrical connoisseur Fujiura Tomitarō, headmaster of the San’yutei school of rakugo, born the son of a produce dealer in Kyōbashi, Danjūrō was very fond of luxury. The local Kunii carriage shop sold both one-horse and two-horse carriages. Danjūrō had the two-horse kind, which seated four, and used it to get from his home to the dressing rooms and back, even though it was a very short distance and would have cost very little to hire a carriage for the trip. This was considered a very extravagant way of entering the dressing room. (From Tōkyō Kandan: Kyōbashi—Nihonbashi no Omoide.)

Print of Shibaraku, December 1895, by Utagawa Kunisada III. From Kabuki-za Hyakunen-Shi.

In December, Eikichi, chief concessionaire at Kyoto’s Gion-Kan and Kyōugoku-za, became manager of Osaka’s Sakai-za, in Shinkyōgoku, and put his son, Ōtani Takejirō, to work in the box office as his agent. It was at this time that Takejirō got to know the actor Jitsukawa Enjirō (later Enjaku II). The family’s Shōchiku enterprise came into being this year.

On December 25, Tamura Nariyoshi and businessmen Inoue Takejirō and Kaigawa Shirō received the Kabuki-za’s managerial rights from Chiba Katsugorō and put up a sign outside Tamura’s Ginza 3-chōme home declaring: “Kabuki-za Kabushiki Gaisha Ritsu Jimusho” (Founding Office of the Kabuki-za Joint Stock Company).

In Tokyo, the exceptionally talented female writer Higuchi Ichiyō published her masterpiece novella Takekurabe (Growing Up [a.k.a. Child’s Play]), which was serialized in Bungaku Kai, and quickly followed by Nigorie (Troubled Waters) and Jūsanya (The Thirteenth Night). This was dubbed her “miraculous year” (kiseki no ichinenkan) but, living in poverty even as her fame spread, she contracted tuberculosis and died in 1896. Also in 1895 Japan, Toyoda Sakichi (1867-1930), “father of Japan’s industrial revolution” and founder of Toyota Industries, invented the automatic power loom.

On the international front, 1895 saw Alfred Dreyfus sentenced to life imprisonment in France, the creation of volleyball, the arrest and conviction of Oscar Wilde for “gross indecency,” the first professional American football game (in Latrobe, Pennsylvania), the first patent for an American automobile, Rontgen’s discovery of the X-ray, the first American automobile race, the receipt by W.E.B. Du Bois of the first Ph.D. granted by Harvard to an African-American, and the first screening of a film in Paris by the brothers Auguste and Louis Lumiére.

Cultural figures born in 1895 included actor Raymond Griffith, actor Louis Calhern, novelist and playwright Marcel Pagnol, comic Shemp Howard (of The Three Stooges), German writer Ernst Jünger, comics illustrator Milt Gross, singer Alberta Hunter, violinist Olga Rudge, composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, conductor Malcolm Sargent, actor Rudolph Valentino, actor Richard Barthelmess, writer Jiddu Krishnamurthi, documentarian Dorothea Lange, actress Hattie McDaniel, boxer Jack Dempsey, composer Carl Orff, singer Kirsten Flagstadt, architect Buckminster Fuller, critic F.R. Leavis, painter Xi Beihong, poet Léon de Greiff, writer Robert Graves, singer and actress Yvonne Printemps, comedienne Gracie Allen, composer Ernest Lecuona, actor Paul Muni, actor Buster Keaton, poet Sergei Aleksandrovich Yesenin, writer Caroline Gordon, composer Paul Hindemith, historian Lewis Mumford, philosopher and scholar Mikhail Bakhtin, and director and choreographer Busby Berkeley.

Major plays premiering in 1895 included Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest and A Woman of No Importance, Frank Wedekind’s Earth Spirit, David Belasco’s The Heart of Maryland, Maurice Maeterlinck’s Interior, Arthur Wing Pinero’s The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith, and Wilson Barrett’s The Sign of the Cross. Among new theatres were England’s Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, New York’s Olympia Theatre (built by Oscar Hammerstein), and the Valentine Theatre, in Toledo, Ohio.

THE FIRST KABUKI-ZA (1889-1911). CHAPTER 8: 1894 (Meiji 27)

Chapter 8: 1894 (Meiji 27)

Samuel L. Leiter

[Note: This is Chapter 8 in a series devoted to the early history of the Kabuki-za (1889-1911). It is largely based on Vols. 1 and 3 of Kabuki-za Hyakunen-Shi (A Hundred Year History of the Kabuki-za), edited by Nagayama Takeomi (1995). A team of 10 writers worked on the project but none are identified for their contributions. Some material has been cut, some expanded, and other material added from different sources. Links are given selectively and only for items not so identified in previous entries. Prof. Kei Hibino of Seikei University offered helpful comments during the preparation of this entry. Corrections and documented additions are welcome.]

I can still remember how it felt to go with mother by rickshaw from Minami Kayaba-cho toward Tsukiji, where the Kabuki-za was, my heart beating fast with excitement as we raced along. Mother still referred to Shintomi-cho, which in the 1870s had housed a licensed quarter called the “New Shimabara,” by that name; and so, crossing Sakurabashi bridge, we passed through “Shimabara,” where the Shintomi Theater now stood, turned south along the bank of the river just in front of Tsukiji bridge, and, approaching Kameibashi bridge, caught our first glimpse of the large, cylindrical section crowning the roof of the Kabukiza. The theater had been built in 1889, so it was only four or five years old at the time. Nearby were some eleven teahouses affiliated with the theater, and these displayed bright flowered hangings on their second floors whenever the Kabukiza was open. We always left our rickshaw at an establishment called Kikuoka and then, with hardly a moment to rest in the guest room, we were bustled off by the maids. Slipping into the “lucky” rush sandals supplied by the teahouse, we crossed a wooden-floored corridor and entered the theater. I remember how, after we had slipped off our sandals and stepped up into the theater corridor, the smoothly polished wooden floors felt strangely cool even through the thick soles of my tabi socks. Generally one felt a kind of chill in the air as one came in, with a breath of wind as cool as mint entering from the sleeves and from below one’s holiday kimono and prickling the underarms and nape of the neck. The slight sensation of chilliness was like the fresh, bright days of plum blossom viewing in very early spring, making one shiver pleasantly.

“The curtain’s going up!” Mother would call, and I would hurry so as not to be late, running down the cool corridors. (From Tanizaki Jun’ichirō, Childhood Years: A Memoir, trans. Paul McCarthy.)

In January 1894, as was now usual, Tamura Nariyoshi occupied the Kabuki-za, this time with Kikugorō and company. The show opened on January 12 and ran till February 5 for 25 performances. First on the bill, which began at 10:00 a.m., came Kawatake Mokuami’s Yume Musubi Chō ni Torioi (A Dream of Butterflies Chasing the Birds Away at New Year’s), with the star playing the clog mender (getanaoshi) Chōgorō; it was followed by the two major scenes in the puppet theatre classic Honchō Nijūshikō (Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Virtue), with Kikugorō as Princess Yaegaki, performing in ningyō buri (puppet gesture) style in the “Okuniwa Kitsunebi” scene. The show ended with the domestic drama, Akegarasu Haru no Awayuki (The Crow Cries in the Light Spring Snowfall), with Kikugorō as Tokijirō.

It was Kikugorō’s first stab at Chōgorō, and, being the fastidious artist he was, he closely studied the kata or business for the role created by Kodanji IV, the original, called in an actual clog mender, and studied how to fix clogs by having the man work on 11 pairs of family clogs.

On January 29 Fukusuke took ill and his role of the handsome Katsuyori in Nijūshikō was taken by Onoe Kikunosuke, and the courtesan Urasato in Akegarasu by Onoe Eizaburō.

New Year’s Day corresponded to the holiday of Hatsumōde, when people make their first shrine or temple visit of the year, so the Kabuki-za personnel distributed 20,000 advertisements resembling good luck talismans to the crowds crossing Tenjinbashi Bridge and Hōon-ji Bridge on their way to paying their respects to the deities at Honjo’s Tenjin Shrine. Moreover, the workers at the teahouses gave out silver-backed sugoroku board games illustrated with woodblock prints of the plays, providing glittering publicity for the month’s program. But, when the midmonth performance came around, the program was still running too long, lasting over eight hours with drawn-out intermissions; despite an abundance of notes about the problem the problem remained unfixed, so eventually a sharp warning was issued to suspend the production. The show ran for 25 days, causing Tamura to say that the new play by Takeshiba Kisui at the Meiji-za, Date Moyō Konomi Oriwari, was January’s box-office winner.

Kabuki program (sujigaki) for January 1894. This old style program shows an illustration above and a cast list below. From Kabuki-za Hyakunen-Shi. 

From February 23 to February 25 a charity production for the Fukuda Association Childcare Center was held at the Kabuki-za. It included a performance of imayō nō (a.k.a. Sensuke nō), a new style of nō starring Izumi Saburō, who created it during the Meiji period; it included a female performer (Izumi’s wife) and shamisen playing, and abandoned masks. Imayō nō  died out in the Taishō era (1912-26). The Izumis performed Mochizuki, Funa Benkei (Benkei on the Boat), and Ataka, as well as three kyōgen plays, Nio, Tsuri Gitsune (Fox Trapping), and Sannin Katawa (Three Invalids). Supplementary entertainment included a performance of the tokiwazu dance Yamanba, with Sawamura Tosshō.

For the March Kabuki-za program, which ran for 25 days from March 10 to April 3, beginning daily at 11:00 a.m., Chiba Katsugorō tried replicating Tamura Nariyoshi’s managerial success. His program began, unconventionally, with a domestic play, Mokuami’s Miyakodori Nagare no Shiranami (Black-headed Gulls and the Flow of White Waves), starring Kikugorō as Nin no Sōuta and Fukusuke as Matsuwaka. It was followed by Danjūrō as Yaegiri in Komochi Yamanba, with Kikugorō as Genshichi, with the final play being a classic history play, Imoseyama, starring Danjūrō as both Daihanji and Fukashichi; the scenes were those at Yoshino River and the palace.

The unusual arrangement of beginning with a domestic and ending with a history play, when the normal practice was the opposite, arose because Danjūrō was also performing at the Meiji-za that month in a kakemochi (acting at more than one theatre) arrangement. At the latter venue he acted in the newly commissioned Kiyomasa Seichū Roku (Record of Kiyomasa’s Loyalty), which opened the bill, after which he rushed over to the Kabuki-za for its middle play, which made doing Imoseyama first impossible. The result, though, was that both the first and second plays at the Kabuki-za were sharply panned while Imoseyama was highly praised in the newspapers, with Danjūrō being lauded for his Daihanji and Kikugorō for his Teika, and with the Yoshino River scene considered outstanding. Still, audiences stayed away in droves and the production barely eked out its 25-day run.

On March 28, Kim Ok-kyun, leader of the Korean progressive movement who sought to resist the influence of the Western powers in Asia, and who had long taken refuge in Japan, was assassinated in Shanghai. In May followers of Korea’s nativist, anti-foreign Eastern Learning (Donghak or Tonghak) religion went on a rampage which prompted China and Japan to send troops to Korea in keeping with their mutual national interests; a dangerous standoff between them continued. In the U.S., on March 25, thousands of unemployed marched in Coxey’s Army, the country’s first major protest march.

In the midst of this drumbeating turmoil Danjūrō’s troupe opened the Kabuki-za’s May program (25 days, from May 8 to June 1, beginning at 10:00 a.m.) with a new play by Fukuchi Ōchi, Nichirenki (Chronicle of Nichiren). It was considered a valuable contribution to the extensive dramatic repertory—called Nichirenki mono—already in existence dealing with the life of the foundational Buddhist priest Nichiren Shōnin (1222-82). Then came Act Four of the classic history drama Genpei Nunobiki no Taki, followed by Namiki Sōsuke’s Yotsu no Ito Urami no Kagekiyo (Four Strings and the Bitter Kagekiyo), whose “Biwa no Kagekiyo” scene starred Ichikawa Danjūrō as Kagekiyo. The program concluded with the dance piece, Hana Tachibana Gogatsu Ningyō (The Flower Citrus and the May Puppet).

There was a major religious display (kaichō) of Nichiren artifacts at Fukagawa’s Jōshin-ji Temple this month, the coffin (reiyo)—presumably with the saint’s remains—traveling on a course from Mibusan via Shiba Kanasugi’s Endama-dera Temple to Jōshin-ji but the event, expected to give the dull business at the Kabuki-za a shot in the arm, with 140 religious groups mobilizing 20,000 people, did anything but. Instead, it gathered less than 1,000, leaving many seats empty. Meanwhile, the Meiji-za was doing the dance play Ori-hime (Princess Weaver), which drew textile makers from Kiryū and Ashikaga, while the Shintomi-za presented Ichikawa Kyūzō in the title role of Sakura Sōgo, which attracted religious groups from Narita. Thus the three big Tokyo theatres were vying for visitors from regional centers with the result being that the Meiji-za came in first, the Shintomi-chō second, and the Kabuki-za last.

On May 31, Osaka actor Arashi Rikan IV, who played both leading female and males roles, passed away, at 57.

The third general election was held on May 15 with the Seiyūkai (Association of Political Friendship) gaining 193 seats, the Kensei Hontō (True Constitutional Party) getting 65 seats, and the Daido Kurabu (Club) gained 29.

From June 15 to June 19, the Kabuki-za was turned over to another charity performance, this one for the Red Cross. The program opened at noon with the prologue, Act Three, and the attack on Moronao’s mansion in Chūshingura. Then came the premiere of Ninin Bakama (Two Men in Hakama Trousers), a matsubame mono adaptation by Fukuchi Ōchi of a kyōgen play, with tokiwazu and nagauta music; it starred Danjūrō. Fujima Kaneimon did the choreography and the score was by Kineya Seijirō. Kanjinchō came next, with Danjūrō as Benkei, followed by the nagauta dance Shunshoku Ninin Dōjōji (Two Person Dōjō-ji Temple amidst the Spring Scenery). The lengthy program ended with Mokuami’s 1879 play Ningen Banji Kane Yo no Naka (Money Makes the World Go Round).  

Around this time the Kabuki-za owner, Chiba Katsugorō, announced he was sick and tired of the business, wouldn’t be doing any more theatre for the time being, and was handing the managerial position of ōfuda over to Suzuki Kōhei. On June 7, sōshi shibai actor Sūdō Sadanori, who became a leader of the shinpa genre, made his Tokyo debut at Asakusa’s Azuma-za. And on June 30, Ichikawa Sadanji resigned as president of the Japan Actors’ Union (Haiyū Kumiai), with his position taken by Ichikawa Gonjūrō, and the vice-president being Kataoka Ichizō.

On July 14, the Ichimura-za, which had burned down in February of the previous year, was reopened with a new, three-story, ferroconcrete structure. Kikugorō and Shikan performed for its opening program.

On July 15, at 9:00 a.m., the next Kabuki-za program opened, starring Shinzō, Joen, Ennosuke, and Tosshō, rising young stars, with Tama no Ase Benkyō Kurabe (Beads of Sweat Study Competition). It included scenes from five classics: Koi Musume Mukashi Hachijō (Beloved Girl and the Old Silk Cloth), Meiboku Sendai Hagi (The Precious Incense and the Autumn Flowers of Sendai), Kanadehon Chūshingura, Goban Taiheiki Shiraishi Banashi (Chronicle of the Great Peace on a Go Board), and Ashiya Dōman Ōuchi (A Courtly Mirror of Ashiya Dōman), concluding with the big dance piece, Kokkei Bakemono Yashiki (Comical Goblin Mansion), for which famous photographer Kajima Seibei created electrical lightning effects.

The young actors put their hearts and souls into their performances, sweating beads, as one of their titles suggests, but news of the breakoff of diplomatic relations between Japan and China had the nation sweating even more, and few people were in the mood to see kabuki. There were commotions at city police boxes, where draft notices were posted. Attendance was off so badly the show was forced to close on July 22, after only eight days.

Just at this moment, a French actress named Madame Théo arrived in Japan, someone who had played before the imperial family of Russia, and hoped to act alongside the famed actors of Japan. Through the good offices of politician and admiral Enomoto Takeaki, Ōchi, and Danjūrō, three days—from July 29 to 30—were set aside at the Kabuki-za for a joint Japanese-European performance. The bill began with Buyū no Homare Shusse Kagekiyo (Victorious Kagekiyo, Renowned Warrior); a one-woman play for Theo, Hakushi Chigai (The Doctor’s Mistake); and Tagai no Giwaku (Mutual Misgivings), in which Danjūrō and Théo played opposite each other in a play using Japanese, French, and English.

Ichikawa Danjūrō IX (seated) and the French actress Théo. From Kabuk-za  Hyakunen-Shi.

Little is known of this actress, then in her 40s; the best English-language account is in Loren Edelson’s Danjūrō’s Girls, which notes that Danjūrō and she, having been introduced through the mediation of a Russian diplomat, had struck up a friendship and—though neither spoke the other’s language—met several times before they acted together, “marking the first performance by an adult woman at the” Kabuki-za. Danjūrō, who thought her beautiful, was reported to have been very impressed by the truthfulness of her acting and came to feel that actresses should play a more important role in modern Japanese theatre, if not specifically in kabuki.

Ichikawa Danjūrō IX and Théo. From Kabuki-za Hyakunen-Shi. 

Audiences were listless, however, leading Théo to complain to Ōchi: “Japanese audiences watch theatre through very childish eyes, reacting to the most intense moments without a sound of appreciation while, on the contrary, applauding the most trivial bits.” (From Kimura Kinka, Kinsei Gekidan-Shi. Volume on Kabuki-za.)

The production had been scheduled at European theatre hours, opening at 8:00 p.m. and closing at 11:00, and the foreigners who attended, many having made the trip in from Yokohama, bought programs printed in both French and English. The attendance for these three days brought in over 2,700 yen. Once expenses are considered, the remaining proceeds of 700 yen were exchanged for tobacco, which was sent to the soldiers at the front.  

July saw a massive outbreak of cholera in Japan, with at least 39,000 fatalities. In Paris, Sarah Bernhardt began performances of Oscar Wilde’s Salomé, which had been banned in England.

On August 1, Japan declared war on China and the military forces in Tokyo were mobilized. Shinbashi and Shibuya train stations echoed with the war songs “Thousands of Enemies May Come” (Teki wa Ikuman) and “Brave Seamen” (Yūkan naru Suihei). Kawakami Otojirō, who’d made his Tokyo debut in 1891, took advantage of the situation and immediately thought up a war drama, Sōzetsu Kaizetsu Nisshin Sensō (The Sublime, the Delightful Sino-Japanese War), which he produced at the Asakusa-za beginning on August 31. 

Kawakami Otojirō's Sōzetsu Kaizetsu Nisshin Sensō. Kawakami is the second from the left in the circular inset. From Kabuki-za Hyakunen-Shi.

Kawakami played a war correspondent. The program declared: “We assume it goes without our saying, but we should like the audience to bow when the illustrious name of His Majesty the Emperor is mentioned,” as well as “To add to the dignity of the actors who play the parts of our soldiers and sailors, we have dressed them in formal uniforms. The audience will understand of course that for this reason our battle is somewhat different from the real thing.” (From Komiya Toyotake, comp. and ed., Japanese Music and Drama in the Meiji Era, Vol. III [Music and Drama], trans. Edward G. Seidensticker and Donald Keene.) And Okamoto Kidō reported: “During the battle scene they fired guns at Nanjing using live ammunition and launched exploding fireworks. The audience was in danger and frightened; it was a huge success.” (From Okamoto Kidō, Meiji Gekidan Ranpu no Moto Ni Te. Trans. by Trevor Skingle.)

Moreover, since it drew unusually large crowds, other theatres began to compete with topical war plays. In September, the Haruki-za offered Ichikawa Yaozō and Nakamura Shikan in Nihon Daishōri (Japan’s Great Victory), while October at the Meiji-za featured Sadanji and company in Nihon Homare Chōsen Shin Hanashi (The New Story of Japan and Honorable Korea). The vivid scenes of battle and victory thrilled audiences and resulted in full houses. Seizing the main chance, the ambitious Kawakami traveled to the war front to see it in person and, in December, produced Kawakami Otojirō Senchi Kenbunki (Kawakami Otojirō’s Battle Report), in which he played himself as a “front-line observer.” This dramatized version of events at the front was another big hit.

On August 4, with Danjūrō’s support, a celebratory event was held at the Momiji-Kan in Shiba Park featuring actors and theatre personnel on behalf of those going off to war. On August 21 the actor Onoe Fujaku VII, a disciple of Kikugorō V, took ill during a performance at the Tokiwa-za and died.

The first issue of Kisha Kisen Ryōkō Annai (Guide to Train and Boat Travel) came out on October 5, beginning the regular publication of train schedules. Also in October, the newly rebuilt Ichimura-za in Tamaike, Akasaka, used the excuse of its reconstruction to rename itself the Engi-za. On October 15 Alfred Dreyfus was arrested in Paris for spying, beginning the infamous Dreyfus affair. (He was convicted of treason on December 22.) On November 1, Nicholas II became czar of Russia. The Port Arthur Massacre began in the port city of Lüschunkou on November 21, killing thousands of Chinese.

Because of the war the Kabuki-za was closed from late July until October but, eventually, the pressure was too much for the management and it became necessary to open again in November with a company led by Danjūrō and Kikugorō. However, by this time the city was on fire with the war spirit, and theatres, variety halls (yose), and woodblock prints were brimming with it, while kids played war with rifles, sabers, and trumpets. Picture-book stores were packed with crowds looking at the latest offerings about the Sino-Japanese War, Thus the mood was such that if the theatres didn’t provide plays smelling of gunpowder nobody went to them and even the Kabuki-za bit the bullet, so to speak, and decided to put on topical plays about the war.

The first play on November’s program, which began at 10:00 a.m., and ran from the first to the 25th, was Fukuchi Ōchi’s new war drama Kairiku Renshō Asahi no Mihata (The Rising Sun of the Japanese Flag Flying over Victories by Land and Sea), which Okamoto Kidō noted “was a dramatization of the negotiations of Minister Ōtori [sic] Keisuke and the storming of the Genbu Gate in Pyongyang by Harada Jūkichi.” (From Okamoto Kidō, Meiji Gekidan Ranpu no Moto Ni Te. Trans. by Trevor Skingle.) Harada in the first play was a war hero whose story was known everywhere in Japan at the time but neither Kikugorō nor the play added much to his luster. Danjūrō played three roles, Minister Ōmori, Kondō Shiniemon, and the sailor Kajizō. Kikugorō played four characters. The storming of the gate by Harada sought to capitalize on the much talked-of event, but the result was a dud.

Ichikawa Danjūrō IX as the sailor Kajizō. From Kabuki-za Hyakunen-Shi.

When Danjūrō wore his sailor’s uniform on his old body he looked more pitiful than heroic. And he looked splendid when, as Minister Ōmori, he wore formal clothes and a formal hat; beyond that there was nothing. “Actors appearing in war plays were like marginal notes on the newspaper accounts and Danjūrō and Kikugorō’s artistry was nothing but self-indulgent,” as the writer Takenoya Shujin (Aeba Koson) succinctly put it. (From Ihara Toshirō, Meiji Engeki-Shi.)

In contrast, Danjūrō was outstanding as Matahei in the barely rehearsed second play, Domo Mata (Matahei the Stutterer), and Kikugorō excelled as his wife, Otoku. Nonetheless, the program flopped and it closed after 25 days.

Onoe Kikugorō V as Vice-Admiral Obuchi in Kairiku Renshō Asahi no Mihata. From Kabuki-za Hyakunen-Shi.

In November Waseda University Professor Tsubouchi Shōyō’s play Kiri Hitoha (A Single Paulownia Leaf) began its serialization in the important new journal Waseda Bungaku (Waseda Literature); it was considered the start of modern Japanese drama. And on November 11, opera was introduced to Japan in an excerpted version of Gounod’s Faust, sung by foreign amateurs at a Red Cross charity event at the Tokyo Music School (Tōkyō Ongaku Gakkō), whose students were in the chorus. And on November 22 journalist Kanagaki Robun, who had coined the genre term katsureki (living history), passed away.

He was the oldest novelist in Tokyo and his publications, which covered many genres, included Seiyō Dōchū Hizakurige (Shank’s Mare to the Western Seas), which was widely appreciated. . . . He also loaned his brush to writing news of kabuki and the traces of his contributions to theatre are very many. (From Tamura Nariyoshi, Zoku Zoku Kabuki Nendaiki.)  

Kanagaki’s death was said to symbolize the demise of kyūha (i.e., “old school,” or kabuki). In December the up-and-coming Higuchi Ichiyo, Japan’s first important modern female writer, published “Ōtsugomori” (On the Last Day of the Year”) in Bungaku Kai.

On December 4th and 5th the Kabuki-za was used for a Red Cross benefit featuring a magic lantern show and a kiyomoto concert. In 1894 the Hattori Clock Shop was established on the Ginza.

During 1894 the Western powers gave up their extraterritorial rights in Japan. Cultural celebrities born this year included composer Walter Piston, bandleader Isham Jones, actor Percy Helton, film director John Ford, artist Norman Rockwell, comedian Jack Benny, actress Enid Markey, writer Ben Hecht, writer Paul Green, blues singer Bessie Smith, dancer Martha Graham, writer Martha Graham, writer Dashiell Hammett, film director Josef von Sternberg, comedian Fred Allen, film producer Gabriel Pascal, comedian Billy Gilbert, writer J.B. Priestley, film director Jean Renoir, poet E.E. Cummings, cartoonist of “Popeye” E.C. Segar, cartoonist/writer James Thurber, and silent film star Pola Negri.

Important non-Japanese plays of 1894 include Shaw’s Arms and the Man, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, and Candida, and Ibsen’s Little Eyolf. Important new theatres included Paris’s Théâtre de l'Athénée.