Kabuki Woogie began in 2011 as a way to record a research trip to
Japan I took on a Mellon Fellowship a year earlier. My day-to day-experiences
on that trip, including videos and photos, are archived at the beginning of the
blog. For the past couple of years, Kabuki Woogie has been providing entries on
the history of the first Kabuki-za, Japan’s leading kabuki playhouse, founded
in 1889, and still on the same site after four additional incarnations. It
continues to reign as Japan’s foremost theatre.
This is the final chapter in the saga of the first Kabuki-za.
Samuel L. Leiter
Chapter 25
1911 (Meiji 44)
“The
Imperial Theatre (Teikoku Gekijō) Is Built; The Second Kabuki-za Is Born”
\
[Note: This is Chapter 25 in a series
devoted to the early history of the Kabuki-za (1889-1911), the years of the
first Kabuki-za. It is largely based on Vols. 1 and 3 of the Kabuki-za Hyakunen-Shi (A Hundred
Year History of the Kabuki-za), edited by Nagayama Takeomi (1995). A team of 10
writers worked on that project although none are identified in the books for
specific contributions.
Each chapter includes not only data on the Kabuki-za but information regarding
each important theatrical development of the specific year, including
non-kabuki genres such as shinpa, shingeki, and so forth. The series
thus serves as a survey of Japanese theatre in the Meiji period (1868-1912), as
well as a detailed account of the Kabuki-za in particular. Also cited are the
major cultural and political developments of each year, as well as
notifications of the deaths of important figures, mainly theatrical but often
from other fields as well.
Some material has been cut, some expanded, and other material has been 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 and answered translation queries during the
preparation of this and all previous entries.For this chapter, additional advice regarding architectural features was given by Profs. Takayuki Hioki and Tadayoshi Kako. Corrections and documented
additions are always welcome.
The year’s activities will again be
provided in segments, the first covering January to June.]
1. January to March
1911
Seeing
the audience’s mobile faces in the light shining on them created a feeling akin
to that of an artist. With the light striking the people in front of the sajiki galleries, and the beams of
evening light streaming in from the open doors behind the galleries, the effect
of the rays falling on the spectators’ faces was quite fascinating. This was,
at any rate, understandable since, within such a broad structure, light and
shadow were being encountered where they normally never appeared.
The square,
surrounding galleries of Japan’s theatre are kept open so when it moves from
dusk to darkness it feels truly strange to see the color of the air inside the
theatre changing as it moves through the muddying air of the pit to high and
distant places. I once went to the Kabuki-za when it was rather cold. The
unforgettable sight of the residential roofs outside, bathed in an
indescribable purple, was more memorable than the performance itself,
[From Nagai Kafū, Kōcha no Ato.]
In January 1911, the Shōchiku Gōmei Kaisha (Shōchiku Unlimited Partnership Company) changed its name to the shorter Shōchiku Gōmeisha, meaning basically the same thing. On January 2, the renovations of the company’s
Shintomi-za were completed and Osaka sent such actors as Jitsukawa Enjirō, Ichikawa
Seitarō, Arashi Rikaku, and Onoe Usaburō
to star in the theatre’s first program under Shōchiku’s
management.
Goban Taiheiki was one of
the plays they did.
Also this month, Okamoto Kidō’s still popular
Shuzenji Monogatari (Tale of Shuzenji), one of the best modern
kabuki plays, was published, with
its stage premiere coming in May at the Meiji-za, starring Ichikawa Sadanji II
as Yashio.
A new Osaka theatre opened in January, the Dōjima-za, with a bill
starring Nakamura Ganjirō, Nakamura Baigyoku, and Ichikawa Sainyū. And, on
January 31, the Tōkyō Haiyū Gakkō (Tokyo Actors’ School), founded for
shinpa actors in 1908, began giving
trial performances at its new experimental theatre, the Ushigomi Kōtō Engeijō,
with a program including Kunikida Doppō’s
Gyūniku
to Bareisho (Meat and Potatoes).
On January 18, as Donald
Keene describes it in
Emperor of Japan:
Meiji and His World, 1852-1912, “the supreme court passed death sentences
on twenty-four persons [including radical socialist
Kōtoku Shūsui]
who had been found guilty of planning to assassinate the emperor. Two other
defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor.” On January 19,
because of the emperor’s request, 12 of the defendants in this
case
of high treason had their sentences reduced to life imprisonment;
the rest (including anarcho-feminist
Kanno Suga) were
executed on January 24 and 25.
January 1911 also witnessed the death of 50-year-old bunraku shamisen player Toyozawa Danpachi, chief disciple of the late Toyozawa Danpei, who died backstage at the Tenka-za in Ogawa-chō, Kanda, Tokyo. In addition, the following actors rose to billboard (
nadai) status: Ichikawa Kurisaburō, who became Ichikawa Kaijūrō II, and Bandō Sumigorō, who became Bandō Takegorō. Further, Nakamura Wakanosuke became a disciple of Shikan, taking the name Nakamura Kannosuke.
The January Kabuki-za production opened at 11:00 a.m. on the
14th, the two-part curtain raiser being the dances called Suzuna no Tanemaki (Turnip-Planting Time) and Soga no Harukoma (The Soga Hobby Horses). The first regular play
was Enomoto Torahiko’s adaptation of Chikamatsu Monzaemon’s original script for
Nebiki no Kadomatsu (Uprooting the
Pine). It was followed by Ihara Seiseien’s new play, Kasugayama (Kasuga Mountain), after which came Kami no Megumi Wagō no Torikumi (The “Me” Company of the Gods and a
Harmonious Match), a.k.a. Megumi no Kenka
(The “Me” Company Quarrel).
 |
Nebiki no Kadomatsu, Kabuki-za, January 1911. L-R: Onoe Baikō VI as Azuma Tayū; Sawamura Sōjūrō VII as
Yojibei; Nakamura Shikan V as Okiku. From Kabuki-za
Hyakunen-Shi.
|
The most prized part of the program was
Nebiki no Kadomatsu’s second act, at Yamazaki Jōkan’s villa,
with Kataoka Nizaemon XI, who was also appearing that month at the Meiji-za (appearing
at more than one theatre during the same month is called
kakemochi), gaining plaudits for his performance as Jōkan.
Seiseien’s play borrowed a hint from Russian literature in a fictional account
of early days of 16th-century daimyō
Uesugi Kenshin.
The Metropolitan Police interfered when they considered the story’s point about
someone punishing his own brother for his bad behavior to be a corruption of
public morals
Many years later, Nizaemon’s son, Nizaemon XIII, recalled:
At the time,
the Kabuki-za was Japan’s foremost theatre. Even the dressing rooms were
luxurious. First, my father’s dressing room was in a separate building whose
entrance area (genkan) you reached
via a long, board-covered passageway. There, at the right, was a 12-mat room
with a tokonoma alcove, staggered
shelves, and a dresser for father and me. To its right was a garden. The
six-mat inner room to the left was used by my elder sister, Mineko, and the
daughters of the late Danjūrō IX, Suisen and Kyokubai, who had been entrusted
to my father’s care.
On
crossing the passageway connected to the rear garden there was a lavatory to
the left and a bathroom to the right. Inside a waiting room within the entrance
area, were the wig dressers (tokoyama)
and apprentices (deshi), and a
six-mat room for the manservants (otokoshū),
and it seemed like they passed through from there to inner room, as well. It
was more like a house than a dressing room. Moreover, my father completely
rebuilt the old rooms with a totally new bath and toilets. When both
Narikomaya-san [Nakamura Shikan] and Ichimura-san [Uzaemon] saw this and noted
that Matsushimaya [Kataoka Ichizō] had built a toilet and bath, they immediately
undertook construction themselves and, soon, both Narikomaya-san and Ichimura-san’s dressing
rooms had baths and toilets. [From Kataoka Nizaemon, Yakusha Shichijū Nen].
Manager Tamura Nariyoshi later wrote:
In the
New Year production’s curtain raiser, Harukoma
Soga, Onoe Baikō played the courtesan Tora and Sawamura Sōjūrō played the
courtesan Shōshō. There was a moment when the pair entered on the hanamichi. The two of them, with no one
else involved, were standing in the agemaku
[the room leading on to the hanamichi]
talking about something. Later. I learned in the street somewhere, that what
they’d been discussing in the agemaku was moving to the Teikoku Gekijō (Imperial Theatre) one day. I, of course,
I had no way of knowing if this was true or false. [From Tamura
Nariyoshi, “Kabuki-za Kokon Monogatari no Dekiagaru Made,” in Shin Engei, June 1917.]
Sure enough, during this production, Baikō, Sōjūrō, and Onoe
Matsusuke announced that they were leaving the Kabuki-za for the about-to-open
Teikoku, so the three were reviled as traitors. 4\
The newspaper mocked the
Kabuki-za’s unpreparedness, the production was faulted, and the year’s first
production limped through 25 performances, closing on February 7.
And, on February 10, the
Teikoku
Gekijō, or as we’ll henceforth call it, the Imperial Theatre,
finally opened for inspection.
Edward Seidensticker has written:
The
improvers still were not satisfied. Even after the opening of the Kabukiza,
they lacked a place where a gentleman might enjoy, in gentlemanly company, the
traditional theater. So, in the last full year of Meiji, the Imperial Theater
was opened beside the palace moat, on the western edge of Mitsubishi Meadow.
Plans were begun in 1906. Shibusawa Eiichi, most energetic and versa tile of
Meiji entrepreneurs, was chairman. He was born in 1840, in what is now a part
of metropolitan Tokyo. To the true son of Nihombashi he may have been a
bumpkin, but his case further demonstrates that Osaka people were not the only
successful ones in emergent Tokyo. He was everywhere, doing everything, among
the organizers of the Bank of Japan, the First National Bank (the first
incorporated bank in the land), the Oji Paper Company, Japan Mail Lines
(N.Y.K.), and the private railway company that put through the first line to
the far north. His as the somewhat Moorish house . . . that seemed so strange
to the young Tanizaki and other children of Nihombashi. Among the other
organizers of the Imperial Theater were Prince Saionji and Prince Itō.
The first
Imperial, which survived the disaster of 1945, was a highly Gallic structure of
marble, hung with tapestries, and provided with seventeen hundred Western-style
seats. Initially it had a resident Kabuki troupe, but it never really caught on
as a place for Kabuki. The High City liked it better than did the Low City,
which had a happy simile: seated in the Imperial, one felt like a cenotaph in a
family shrine. The Imperial was the place for gala performances when, in the
years before the earthquake, celebrities like Pavlova began appearing. [From
Edward Seidensticker, High City, Low City:
1867-1923.]
 |
The new Imperial Theatre (Teikoku Gekijō). From Tōkyō
Fūkei Shashin-Chō.
|
The Kabuki-za’s reaction is noted in a discussion years
later:
Shibusawa (Hideo): Then, the next year, in March 1911,
the Imperial gave its first production. How did Shōchiku feel about this?
Enzō Tameharu: Shōchiku hadn’t yet taken over
the Kabuki-za when the Imperial was built. It was still under the Kabuki-za
management, with Tamura Nariyoshi in total control of production.
Tamura-san said that the Imperial was in Western style, but the Kabuki-za would always be in Japanese style. However, with the arrival of the Imperial, what
was going to happen regarding the actors? Nishino Einosuke asked each of the
actors about this.
Shibusawa: They worked for Tamura. At the
time, Baikō went to him to ask for time off. He discussed it, saying, “I’ve
served the Kabuki-za for a long time, and I’m truly grateful to have done so,
but since I’m an onnagata I’d like to
play Masaoka [in Meiboku Sendai Hagi]
once. However, the Kabuki-za has Narikomaya—Shikan, soon to be Nakamura Utaemon
V—and since Narikomaya is there, he gets the part and no one thinks I can do it.
Again, won’t you let me play it? Luckily, the Imperial has asked me to perform
there, so, if I go, I’ll be able to get cast as Masaoka.” Tamura
agreed that this was okay and told him go ahead. It wasn’t going
to be a permanent separation, so Baikō simply figured he was getting time off. He discussed it openly with Tamura, didn't he? At the time, Matsumoto Kōshirō
VII, who was still Ichikawa Komazō, and Sawamura Sōjūrō, had similar
inclinations, but they seem not to have caused much of a problem.
Enzō: Sōjūrō was a good actor, wasn’t
he?
Shibusawa: I realized that later but the
Imperial picked only those who could dance, you know. That included Baikō, of
course, but also Komazō and Sōjūrō. The only dancer left at the Kabuki-za was
Ennosuke. When Kanjinchō was done at
the Kabuki-za, it was Kōshirō [Komazō] who played Benkei [in Kanjinchō]. [From Shibusawa
Hideo, Enzō Tameharu, “Rensai Taidan Kabuki Yomoyama Banashi,” in Kikan Kabuki, No. 2.]
 |
Interior of the Imperial Theatre. From Tōkyō
Fūkei Shashin-Chō.
|
When, on February 10, the Imperial was opened for inspection,
visitors noted the dominant influence of French Renaissance design. Covering 640
tsubo (1 tsubo=3.95 square yards), with a frontage of 67 ken [1 ken=1.818
meters], and a depth of 33 ken, it was an impressive building, five stories
high, including the basement, with an exterior wrapped in white brick, a
standing statue of the nō character Okina on the roof, and marble interior
walls covered with paintings, tapestries, and sculptures, creating an extremely
lavish effect. From the stage to the overhead beams was more than nine ken,
with a stage width of eight ken. Box seats were situated on two levels at
either side of the stage and a
hanamichi could
be installed on an as-needed basis. All seating was in Western style, with
first-class seating on the first floor for 54, and on the second floor for 26.
First floor, second-class seating held 282 patrons, and 170 on the second
floor. Third-class seating totaled 390 on each of the first three floors, with
an additional 250 seats on the fourth floor. Altogether, the theatre could hold
over 1,700 paying customers. In addition, the theatre was equipped with
restaurants, cafés, lounges, makeup rooms, an exercise room, and a roof garden.
Managerial reforms under Chairman
Shibusawa Eichi
included the prohibition of eating, drinking, and smoking at one’s seat, the sale of seat-numbered tickets purchasable ten days before a show opened,
the delivery of tickets anywhere within the city, the abolishing of the tearoom
and usher (
dekata) system which
was replaced by male receptionists and female guides, and the banning of tips
and other gratuities. Some such things had been instituted at the Yūraku-za but
with their introduction at this new theatre they spread and were welcomed
widely.
According to Imano Nobuo:
Mitsukoshi
was contracted to design the interior and the drop curtain (donchō). As a result, each newspaper ran ads like the following:
“Don’t
talk about theatre without seeing it at the Imperial. Don’t discuss fashion
without visiting Mitsukoshi. Just as the Imperial is Japan’s foremost new
theatre, Mitsukoshi is the Orient’s prime department store. We, the Mitsukoshi
Dry Goods (Gofukuten), manage the Imperial’s costumes.”
From
early on, Mitsukoshi had targeted well-off female theatregoers. In 1907, an
Ichimura-za pamphlet had printed this ad; “Please visit Mitsukoshi Dry Goods.
Theatre is truly interesting but since the gorgeous draperies and the like on
display at Mitsukoshi Dry Goods are red and eye-opening it’s a place you’ll
enjoy seeing at least once. Anyone at the theatre today, be doubly sure that
you go to Mitsukoshi tomorrow or the day after.” The Kabuki-za’s ads urged:
“The day after seeing the play we must certainly pay a visit to Mitsukoshi.” [From
Imano Nobuo, Kōkoku Sesō—Kopii no Genten
o Saguru.]
Beginning with the Kabuki-za, theatres large and small felt
the impact of the arrival of this impressive new theatre, located in the
Marunouchi section, across from the Imperial Palace in the heart of the capital
city. Thus, this new playhouse was asserting its emerging power by pilfering
the Kabuki-za’s Baikō, Sōjūrō, and Matsusuke, the Meiji-za’s
Ichikawa Komazō and Sawamura Sōnosuke, and welcoming Osaka’s Nakamura Ganjirō
for its premiere production.
Avoiding the folly of a direct reaction, the Kabuki-za moved
its contracted players, Ichimura Uzaemon, Ichikawa Yaozō, and Ichikawa
Danshirō, from Nagoya, where they were appearing, to Osaka and sought to open with the Ichimura-za’s young actors. However, Nakamura Kichiemon, Nakamura
Karoku, and Morita Kan’ya were contracted to appear at Osaka’s Kado-za, so,
faced by a lack of manpower, the Kabuki-za had to make do for two months with a company led by Onoe Kikugorō VI, which also included young
Bandō Mitsugorō.
The February Kabuki-za program opened on the 17th, at 11:00
a.m. The curtain raiser was the pantomime, Danmari
Momoyo Guruma, followed by Hasegawa Shigure’s new play Sakura Fubuki (Cherry Blossom Blizzard), with Kikugorō scoring
highly as Kachiko. The play was also published in Engei Gahō. Then came the kyōgen-inspired
dance play Tsuri Onna (Fishing for a
Wife), the popular domestic play Bunshichi
Mottoi, and the jōruri dance
closer Yayoi Matsuri Sanja no Nigiwai.
Top honors went to Kikugorō for his first-ever performance
in
Bunshichi Mottoi as the plasterer
Chōbei, which mirrored the style of his late father, Kikugorō V. He went on to
perform the role 14 times over the years in his inimitably forceful way. His
outstanding work succeeded in drawing packed houses for the 20-day run, leading
Tamura Nariyoshi to declare with wry determination: “Even though all the
leading actors (
kanbu haiyū) have run
off to the Imperial Theatre, we didn’t suddenly collapse.”
 |
Bunshichi Mottoi at
the Kabuki-za, February 1911. Onoe Kikugorō VI (L.) as Chōbei, the plasterer;
Bandō Mitsugorō VII as the clerk, Bunshichi. From Kabuki-za Hyakunen-Shi.
|
However, the
Kabuki-za, without Baikō, Sōjūrō, and Matsusuke, soon began to have play selection
and casting difficulties, creating serious programming headaches. This month at
the Kabuki-za featured the promotion to
nadai
status of Onoe Kikugorō V’s disciple Onoe Kikumatsu, who changed his name
to Isaburō. And Onoe Kōshichi took the name Onoe Kosaburō.
On February 11, the Bungei Kyōkai leadership was
reorganized, with Tsubouchi Shōyō as its chairman. On February 18, bunraku
chanter Takemoto Ayasedayū II died, aged 46. On February 20, the Ministry of
Education awarded a doctorate in literature to novelist Natsume Sōseki, which
drew public attention. On the 21st, the revised Japanese-American Treaty of
Commerce and Navigation was signed, after which other countries signed
similarly revised treaties with Japan. On February 22, bunraku shamisen master
Nozawa Kichibei died, aged 71. And the Shinjidaigeki Kyōkai (New Age Theatre
Society) produced its second offering, Kusuyama Masao’s translation of Gogol’s The Inspector General (Kensatsukan), at
the Yūraku-za. Also on the program was Mayama Seika’s Daichi Ninsha (Man of the First Rank).
In March, Ōtani Takejirō of Osaka’s Shōchiku Gōmeisha
cooperated in the opening of the Imperial Theatre by making available the
services of Nakamura Ganjirō, which began a close relationship between Shōchiku
and the Imperial. In Osaka, the Naniwa-za held a memorial production honoring
Kataoka Nizaemon X, with a company including such relatives as Nakamura Karoku
and Nakamura Kichiemon, who traveled there from Tokyo.
On March 1, 1911, the Imperial Theatre officially
opened, with ceremonies honoring the occasion. Among the company members
introduced were the actresses Mori Ritsuko and Murata Kakuko, who went on to
have distinguished stage careers.
The first day for production was March 4, with a program that
opened with a prize-winning historical drama, Yamazaki Shikō’s Yoritomo, starring Komazō as Yoritomo
and Baikō as Masako. The next play starred Ganjirō as Masaemon in the “Manjū
Musume” (Bean Jam Bun Girl) scene of the classic Igagoe Dōchū Sugoroku, while the closing dance play starred Baikō
in Hagoromo. The show was a big hit,
filling seats daily, and running until April 3 with numerous members of the
elite in attendance.
On March 5, Ichikawa Danzō VII presided at the Narita Temple
over the unveiling of statues honoring Ichikawa Danjūrō VII and Danzō’s father,
Danzō VII. On March 10, the
Antarctic
expedition led by Lt. Shirase Nobu got only so far into the Ross Sea
before being forced to return to Sydney, Australia. Also in March, the
soon-to-be-famous Café Plantain opened near Kyōbashi, in Tokyo, at the south
end of the Ginza, where it remained until 1945. Edward Seidensticker writes in
Low City, High City that it was the
first of a rash of such cafés, where “elegant and alluring female company came
with the price of one’s coffee, or whatever." And from March 25 to March 26, the
Kabuki-za hosted a dance concert featuring Fujima Masaya.
2. April to June
1911:
The next Kabuki-za program opened at noon on April 7 with
Enomoto Torahiko’s new play Yoshino Shūi (Yoshino
Gleanings), followed by Kanjinchō starring
Danshirō as Benkei, Uzaemon as Togashi, and Kikugorō as Yoshitsune. Then came Igagoe Dōchū Sugoroku’s “Numazu” scene,
with Nizaemon as Heisaku, and, instead of a dance play to close the show, the
popular bandit play, Benten Kōzō,
starring Uzaemon as Benten, Shikan as Tadanobu Rihei, Yaozō as Nango Rikimaru. Kanjinchō, with Uzaemon as Togashi,
Danshirō as Benkei, and Kikugorō as Yoshitsune, was notable for the successful
collaboration between the nagauta
musician partnership of Ijūrō and Kangorō with Okayasu Nanpo and Rokuzaemon.
Ihara Seiseien noted that “Compared to them, the acting on stage was like
something pale and lifeless.” The program played to full houses through May 1,
a total of 25 days.
The Shinjidaigeki Kyōkai offered its third and final
production at the Yūraku-za this month before disbanding. Two European and one
Japanese play were performed, the former being Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s
The Gate and the Death (Der Tor und Der Tod) and Leopold
Lewis’s
The Bells (an adaptation of
Erckmann-Chatrian’s
The Polish Jew [Le
Juif Polonais]), one of Sir Henry Irving’s greatest hits. Inoue Masao was the
star. The Japanese play was Nakamura Shun’u’s
Shin Kichōsha (The New Returnee).
On April 9, 1911, a great fire in the Yoshiwara district
burned down the tatami rooms that Ichikawa Danshirō was renting out for
entertainment purposes. The fire, which cost many prostitutes and entertainers
their livelihood, was dramatized in the film
Tokyo Bordello (Yoshiwara Enjō). And on April 20,
Sawamura Shirōgorō IV, actor-manager of Nagoya’s Suehiro-za, died at 51. And
the Imperial Theatre put a group of Kabuki-za musicians under contract for its
next production, among them
nagauta artists
Kineya Kangorō V, Kineya Rokuzaemon XIII, Yoshimura Ijūrō VI, Okuyasu Nanpo,
Mochizuki Tazaemon VII, and Tanaka Denzaemon IV. This forced the Kabuki-za to
scramble for replacements.
The only thing at the Kabuki-za in May, from 15th to the 17th,
was a series of railway lecture meetings.
Elsewhere in May, the Shōchiku Gōmeisha company took over
Osaka’s Dōtonbori theatres, the Naniwa-za, home to the Nakamura Baigyoku
troupe, and the Kado-za, from producer Takagi Tokubei, and began producing at
them in June. At the Meiji-za, Danshirō disciple Ichikawa Kichibei changed his
name to Sawamura Tsuruzō. Shamisen master Kiyomoto Umekichi, composer of the
music for Sumidagawa, died on May 14.
Shūzenji Monogatari premiered at the
Meiji-za, as mentioned earlier, starring Sadanji. And the Imperial presented
its first production with the actresses who had just graduated from its acting
school.
And the Bungei Kyōkai, which had presented four
rehearsal-like performances of Hamlet at
its center in March 1910, now performed a full, five-act production at the
Imperial for a week, beginning Ma 20. Doi Shunshō was Hamlet, Matsui Sumako was
Ophelia, and Tōgi Tetteki was Claudius. Company head Tsubouchi Shōyō, it is
said, “frayed the skirt of his hakama walking
back and forth between the dressing rooms and the audience each day.” [In
Komiya Toyotaka, Japanese Music and Drama
in the Meiji Era, tr. by Edward G. Seidensticker and Donald Keene.] The
production played at Osaka’s Kado-za in July.
May 1 saw the opening of the Chūō Line. That date also
marked the opening by
Kobayashi Ichizō
of the Takarazuka Shin-Onsen (Takarazuka New Hot Springs) in the town that
would soon be the home of the
Takarazuka Revue.
On May 30th, the
Imperial Gift
Foundation, created in February, contributed 1,500,000 yen to the
relief of the poor. And, as described as early as
Tokutomi Roka’s
popular 1898 novel,
Hototogisu (
The Cuckoo; translated as
Namiko), the tuberculosis epidemic
flooded clinics.
On June 10, the fifteen members of t4he first class to
graduate from the Bungei Kyōkai’s theatrical training school received their
diplomas. Among them were Katō Seiichi, Mori Eijirō, Hayashi Yawara, Yokogawa
Tadaharu, Takeda Masanori, Sasaki Tsumoru, and Matsui Sumako. And the Tōkyō Haiyū Gakkō gave its new graduates
their first production, at the Yūraku-za, with Satō Kōroku’s Haiba (Worn-Out Horse).
The same month, the Jiyū Gekijō gave its fourth public
performance, at the Yūraku-za, with Nagata Hideo’s Kanraku no Oni (Devil of Pleasure), Yoshii Isamu’s Kawachi-ya Yohei, and others.
The Kabuki-za opened on June 5, at noon, with a program
including Shikan in Enomoto Torahiko’s “heroine drama” (retsujo mono) Onna Rōnin (The
Female Rōnin), the classic “Kinkakuji” section from Gion Sairei Shinkōki, Chikamatsu Monzaemon’s Shinjū Yoi Gōshin, and, as the conventional nagauta dance piece closer, Rokkasen,
showing the “Bunya” and “Kisen” segments. Rokkasen
featured a name taking ceremony for Kiyomoto Umesaburō, the son of the
musician Kiyomoto Umekichi, who succeeded to his father’s name. Both musician
Kiyomoto Enjudayū and actor Nakamura Utaemon V gave speeches in his honor.
 |
Shinjū Yoi Gōshin at
the Kabuki-za, June 1911. Kataoka Nizaemon XI (L.) as Hanbei; Nakamura Utaemon
V as Ochiyo. From Hyakunen Kabuki-Shi.
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Enomoto’s play was based on one by the late Fukuchi Ōchi
dealing with the Meiji Restoration and emphasizing loyalty to the emperor; at
the same time, another imperial loyalty-themed play, was being produced at the
Imperial Theatre, creating an unexpected loyalty to the throne rivalry, but Onna Rōnin losing the battle. The
Kabuki-za even opened an exhibition room on its second floor to display artifacts
belonging to distinguished patriots involved in the Restoration.
Shikan was an excellent Yuki-hime in “Kinkakuji,” Aeba Kōson
saying, “With superb presence, admirable tone, and perfect form, his
performance was first-rate.” Uzaemon’s Hisayoshi was also outstanding but poor
houses did the show in, although it got racked up 25 performances, closing on
June 29.
This June was also when Kitahara Hakushū’s collection of
lyric poetry Omoide (Memories), was
published. And Shōchiku gave up its management of the Asahi-za, in Tokyo’s Shin
Kyōkoku. Also this month, Osaka actor Onoe Usaburō II moved to Tokyo with his
son, Onoe Kakutarō (later Kitsusaburō).
3. July to September
1911
When the June production ended, the Kabuki-za, on July 1 and
2, offered a memorial concert for the 13th anniversary of musician Kiyomoto
Oyō, the presentation being under the leadership of Kiyomoto Enjudayū V. When
it ended, the theatre was closed down for several months at Tamura Nariyoshi’s
suggestion so that it could undergo a thorough internal and external
renovation.
Since the
Kabuki-za will hereafter be competing with the Imperial Theatre, it’s necessary
for the former to begin by making extensive renovations. The Imperial Theatre’s
beauty comes from its Western-style architecture. However, the Kabuki-za is in
the old Western style, it has been roughed up by wind and rain, its faded walls
are crumbling, and its outside is an eyesore. In contrast to the Western-style
Imperial Theatre I want by all means to rebuild it in pure Japanese style. I’ve
therefore made this proposal to the board. [From Tamura Nariyoshi,
“Baishū Mondai,” in Kabuki-za Ima Mukashi
Monogatari.]
 |
| The second Kabuki-za, rebuilt in pure Japanese style. From Kabuki-za Hyakunen-Shi. |
With the appearance of such a strong rival, the Kabuki-za,
once the home of the great Dan-Kiku combination, could no longer take it easy.
Not only was this true with regard to the contrast between new and old
architectural styles. but also in the production system. While the Imperial
Theatre abolished its teahouses and
dekata
usher system and adopted a low price method of theatergoing, the Kabuki-za
still felt like it was still mired in outdated customs.
The
theatre closed down for the summer and Yokohama shipping magistrate Kashiwagi
Tashichi contracted with the Nagoya Shimizu Group to reconstruct it. Leaving
the structural frame as it was, the place was completely rebuilt in pure
Japanese style and enlarged, with construction being hurried and the exterior
completed with, as opposed to the Imperial, the look of an ancient palace. The
carriage drive in front was in Chinese gable style (karahafu), with two large, bronze-encased pillars, a coffered
ceiling, and copper-thatched hanging eaves. A pair of one-story structures at
either side had the same gables. That on the right led to the third floor sajiki gallery, that on the left to the
one-act only seating (hitomakumi).
Inside the main entrance was a lobby with a mirrored ceiling, with offices to
the right and a customers’ information stand at the left.
Passing through the
wide lobby one entered the auditorium, with its second and third-floor omukō balconies with Japanese cypress (hinoki) railings that ran all the way around. Over the orchestra or pit
was a two-fold, gold-plated, coffered ceiling, with two, large chandeliers
providing 5,000 candlepower illumination. All around were numerous electric
lights. Behind the upper stories were corridors with lounges for the general
theatregoers, including separate Western and Japanese powder rooms. Moreover,
the traditional teahouses attached to the theatre were abolished, and new
information places installed. The theatre’s appearance was altered, including a
drum tower (yagura) crest (mon) of a mythical phoenix dyed on a
large curtain of purple crepe. Old folks passing by mistook the theatre for a
place of worship and there are stories claiming they stopped to make offerings
or otherwise show their obeisance. [From Kawajiri Seitan, “Kobiki-chō no
Shibai,” in Kabuki-za.]
On July 17, Kanze Kiyokado, 23rd head of the
Kanze nō school, died, aged 45.
In early August, right after the Kabuki-za’s ridgepole
raising ceremony, the theatre’s management ran smack into a huge internal
problem. The Kabuki-za had been doing poorly of late, its June receipts taking
a major loss. What happened involved a small group of board members, Inoue
Kakugorō, Fujiyama Raita, Okamoto Teikyū, and Miyake Hyōza, who hailed from
Mita, had gone to Keiō University, and were known as the Dōshi Kai (Association
of Kindred Spirits). Going behind the back of Kabuki-za production chief Tamura
Nariyoshi, they signed a contract to sell off their approximately 3,000 shares to
Inoue Shizuo, the financier backing the rival Shōchiku Gōmeisha company, which
was sinking its claws into the Tokyo theatre market. Naturally, Tamura was
furious:
This
group of Kabuki-za investors was always scheming to be on the lookout for an
opportunity to unload the burden of their stock holdings. Inoue, Fujiyama,
Okamoto, and Hyōza, all of them Keiō alumni, had connections with fellow Keiō
alums who constituted the majority of the board at the Imperial Theatre, but were
unable to merge with them, which made them their rivals. Since they frequently
used their influence in other matters, they believed that if they could now
make a profit on their holdings and simultaneously sever their connection with
the Kabuki-za, they would be killing two birds with one stone. [From
Kimura Kinka, Kinsei Gekidan Shi:
Kabuki-za Hen.]
Hyōza was growing increasingly impatient with such things as
the Kabuki-za’s June losses; Tamura’s making plans for himself, Kikugorō, and
Kichiemon while paying little attention to the Kabuki-za; the departure of
various actor; the unexciting play selections; the flight of theatregoers to
the chair seating of the Imperial Theatre; the Kabuki-za’s renovation needs;
sensing this, someone appeared seeking to buy Miyake Hyōza’s stock. Hyōza spoke
to the other three board members and they decided to sell the 3,000 shares of
the “Dōshi Kai” group for 60 yen each.
The contract listed seller Inoue Kakugorō as seller, and
Inoue Shizuo as buyer, the transaction occurring over three days from August
21, when a 15,000 yen down payment was made. Tamura was so angry that when
Hyōza said there was no way to revise the deal he considered stabbing him to
death. At a discussion with the four members of the Dōshi Kai, Inoue Kakugorō
said to him:
We “kindred
spirits” bought our shares in the Kabuki-za with the aim of improving the
quality of the drama. However, it’s indisputable that, thus far, absolutely no
such improvement has made. Since our initial goal hasn’t been achieved there’s
no need to hold onto these stocks forever. We were thinking that if there were
a suitable buyer we’d like to sell our shares when, unexpectedly, a buyer
appeared in the person of Mr. Inoue Shizuo of Kyoto. Later, when we learned
that he’s the financier of the Shōchiku company we thought about not selling to
him but with no better prospects we had no alternative than to sell to him. Our
getting the jump on you ends here. [From Kimura Kinka, Kinsei Gekidan Shi: Kabuki-za Hen.]
Tamura replied that what Inoue said was quite reasonable but
he wrote that business practice made it possible to break the contract by
buying back the down payment for twice its value and that if they sold the
shares to him he would bear the penalty costs. This incident was immediately
picked up by the newspapers, almost every one of which came down hard on the
Dōshi Kai for their unethical behavior.
Tamura
Nariyoshi, a rube from the Kamigata area, in his conquest of Tokyo’s Kobiki-chō
(home of the Kabuki-za), behaved like a true son of Edo in his money-raising
attempts, with the papers reporting that he “will fight to the last to protect
the Kabuki-za, a Tokyo landmark, and not hand it over to someone from
Kamigata.” Such words inflamed Edo-centrism, leading to public support for his
desperate maneuvers to buy back the shares. However, when the contract was
canceled, Shōchiku’s Ōtani Takejirō made the momentous decision to hand back
the 15,000 yen penalty for breach of contract, saying he would not take over
the Kabuki-za until he had overcome resistance to his doing so. He paid an
arbitrator a stipend and suffered considerable other expenses but, with this
incident, Ōtani shifted from his policy of patience and prudence to a more
forthright one, which was worth a lot more than an exchange of money. Many
Tokyoites were impressed by his spirit, negative opinions of him softened, and he
even gained sympathy. The loss suffered from the stock purchase ultimately
became secondary to the acquisition of the Kabuki-za, and a new day was
awaited. [From Kido Shirō, “Denki: Ōtani Takejirō” in Kikan Kabuki, No. 8.]
On August 27, through the intercession of the Kabuki-za’s
biggest shareholder, Mitsuwa Zenbei, of the main branch of Mitsuwa Soap, Tamura
and the 35-year-old Ōtani, making his first ever visit to Tokyo, were invited
the Hyakuseki restaurant in Yoshi-chō. After each made various compromises they
were properly introduced and the “Kabuki-za Acquisition Incident” (Kabuki-za kaishū jiken) came to a happy
conclusion. The situation inspired this ironic take:
The Kabuki-za acquisition problem has been peacefully
resolved. Along with Shōchiku’s admirable act of returning the 15,000 yen penalty
payment, we have the brazen use of economic and legal power to break a contract
while selling one’s one shares for an outrageously high price. Then, even though
earning no salary from the theatre, behaving despicably by lecturing the house
staff (dekata) like an ex-board
member. The character of the so-called theatre man is enhanced while that of
the so-called gentleman sinks. [From “Gekidan Jiji,” Kabuki, No. 136.]
As for why, in the first place,
Shōchiku chose to acquire the Kabuki-za, we have this from Tamura himself.
The reason why Shōchiku originally decided to take over
the Kabuki-za began with the Utaemon problem. Shochiku wanted its star actor,
Nakamura Ganjirō, to succeed to the name of Nakamura Utaemon V. So Tokyo’s
Nakamura Shikan got out in front of this to take the name himself, the
ceremonial announcement clearly to be at the Kabuki-za. The acquisition of the
Kabuki-za was definitely part of a plan attempting to prevent this from
happening. Therefore, I absolutely had to buy the theatre back. [From
Tamura Nariyoshi, “Kabuki-za Ima Mukashi Monogatari—Kaishū Mondai,” Shin Engei, July 1917.])
There is thus a belief that the
reason for the Utaemon name accession had its basis in a dispute over who
should succeed to the name. Tamura wanted the first production at the newly
reconstructed Kabuki-za to feature the name accession ceremony (shūmei hirō) of Shikan to Nakamura
Utaemon V. Osaka’s Ganjirō, who heard the rumor, and was the illegitimate son
of Utaemon IV’s adopted son, Nakamura Ganjaku, believed he, too, had the right
to become Utaemon V, as did Shōchiku, to whom he was contracted and who wanted
him to take the name. Thus, coursing beneath this conflict over the acquisition
of the Kabuki-za between the great theatrical powers represented by Tamura and
Ōtani/Shōchiku was the question of who should become the next Utaemon.
On August 10, the famous Café Lion
opened at Owari-chō in the Ginza. On August 14, actor Jitsukawa Enzaburō, a
disciple of Jitsukawa Enjaku I, died at 41. Also this month, the price of rice
skyrocketed for a number of consecutive days and, on August 11, trading was
suspended. And on August 30, the second Katsura Tarō cabinet replaced the
second Saionji Kinmochi cabinet.
On September 9, a general meeting
of Kabuki-za shareholders was held at the Shinbashi Club. Tamura. Tamura
Nariyoshi was nominated for reelection to the board of directors, as were five
new board members (torishimariyaku),
with one of them, Namura Mataemon, recommended for chairman (kaichō). Further, Shikan and five other
actors were installed as consultants (sōdanyaku).
Tamura was head of production. The meeting also voted unanimously to abolish
the Kabuki-za’s traditional teahouse system.
September 1911 also saw the first
publication of the women’s literary magazine
Seitō (Bluestocking), the organ of the
burgeoning feminist movement; it continued until 1916. The first issue included
Hiratsuka Raichō’s controversial declaration, “In the beginning, woman was the
sun” (
元始、女性は太陽であった).
 |
| Ichikawa Danzō VII, From Kabuki-za Hyakuen-Shi. |
Ichikawa Danzō VII, one of
the era’s top actors, died on September 12, at 76. Great in villain roles, he
made an indelible impression as Nikki Danjō in
Meiboku Sendai Hagi, which still uses his kata. The month also saw Sawamura
Chōnosuke become Sawamura Chōjūrō VI at the Imperial Theatre, while, at the
Meiji-za, Ichikawa Kigan IV became Asao Kuzaemon IV, and Ichikawa Kisaburō
became Ichikawa Kigan V (later, Onoe Taganojō III).
Also in September, the
shingeki movement saw the completion of
a 600-seat theatre built for the Bungei Kyōkai’s practice performances. It
opened with a production of Ibsen’s
A
Doll’s House, with Matsui Sumako as Nora. The program also offered two
experimental dance dramas by Tsubouchi Shōyō,
Kanzan Jittoku (Kanzan and Jittoku) and
Oshichi Kichiza (Oshichi and Kichiza). And on September 27, Okamoto
Kidō’s
Minowa no Shinjū (Love Suicides
at Minowa), which became a staple of the modern kabuki repertory, opened at the
Meiji-za, starring Sadanji II.
4. October to December 1911
On October 1, at a special general meeting
of shareholders, three ex-board members, Inoue Kakugorō, Fujiyama Raita, and
Okamoto Teikyū, presented a set of silver cups and a letter of appreciation to
Miyake Hyōza for his accomplishments while in office. Also, this October, the
Osaka publishing company Tachikawa Bunmeidō produced the first of its
enormously popular children’s books in the Tachikawa Bunkō (Pocket Book)
series, the first title being
Sarutobi Sasuke,
a
kōdan-based story about a popular boy ninja. October
1911 was also when Katayama Sen and others founded Japan’s Socialist Party
(Shakaitō), which was frequently suppressed. Further, on October 10, China
witnessed the
Wuchang Uprising
led by the New Army, followed by the Revolution of 1911 (a.k.a. the Xinhai
Revolution or Chinese Revolution), which overthrew the Qing Dynasty and gave
rise to the Republic of China.
In November, the Kōdan Club was
founded and the great novelist
Shimazaki Tōson’s
Ie (
Family)
was published. On November, the French crime movie
Zigomar (Jigoma), the first in a series, opened at the Asakusa
Kinryūkan and was not only enormously popular but
sparked a big
scandal.
Incidentally, with regard to the
Utaemon V name-taking controversy, Shikan eventually was comfortable telling
anyone who asked that he was Utaemon V. Ganjirō, for his part, said that, in
the future, artistic standards would not be attached to a specific name so he
gave up the idea of succession and the matter came to a satisfactory end.
The Kabuki-za reconstruction was
now complete, with its pure Japanese style contrasting with the Imperial
Theatre’s Western style, while the content and format of its productions would
also undergo various reforms. But Tamura lamented that “The Kabuki-za, which
was to be rebuilt for 30,000 yen, actually cost 120,000 yen.”
According to a contemporary
anecdote:
Someone commenting on the reconstruction said, “It’s
completely like Monzeki-sama,” to which someone else remarked, “It should be
since that’s what Ōtani wants.” There were many jokes like this at the time.
[From Kimura Kinka, Kinsei Gekidan Shi:
Kabuki-za Hen.] s
The joke is based on the word
monzeki (an important temple’s head
priest), a nickname for the abbot of Hongan-ji Temple (which serves the nearby
Kabuki-za) which was also used to refer to Hongan-ji itself. The ceiling and
electric lights from the former Kabuki-za had been sold for re
use to the
Ichimura-za, along with various other appurtenances, so patrons at the
Ichimura-za are said to have had the illusion they were sitting at the
Kabuki-za.
 |
| The name-taking ceremony (shumei hirō) of Nakamura Utaemon V during the opening program of the second Kabuki-za, November 1911. Notice how the audience is squeezed into their boxed-in spaces on the auditorium floor as per traditional practice. From Kabuki-za Hyakunen-Shi. |
Finally, on November 3, 1911, the
second Kabuki-za opened, the chief attraction being the name-taking ceremony of
Nakamura Utaemon V, for which the Meiji-za’s Ichikawa Sadanji II hastened over
to take part. The program opened with Enomoto Torahiko’s new play
Kamakura Bukan (The Kamakura Book of
Heraldry); the classic
Ōmi Genji Senjin
Yakata, starring Uzaemon as Moritsuna; the
shūmei hirō announcement ceremony (
kōjō), which immediately followed, with Nizaemon, Karoku, and
Shikaku giving speeches; the popular
nagauta
dance play
Kyōganoko Musume Dōjōji,
starring the new Utaemon;
Horikawa,
with Kataoka Nizaemon in the lead; with the fifth and last piece being a
tokiwazu-takemoto dance play,
Ushiro Men Hagi no Tamagawa (The Rear-Facing
Mask and Bush Clovers at the Tama River).
 |
| Floor plan of the ground floor seating (hiradoma) in the second Kabuki-za. From Kabuki-za Hyakunen-Shi. |
The first play was an adaptation (hon’an) of Corneille’s 1636 French
neoclassical drama Le Cid, set
against the background of the Mongol invasion, with the new Utaemon in one of
his popular pigtail roles. The second featured Nizaemon XII in the “Moritsuna
Jinya” scene, which his son, Nizaemon XIII, recalled in this piece from the
Kabuki-za program of January 1988:
NIZAEMON: In November 1911, “Moritsuna Jinya” was
produced with Uzaemon XV as Moritsuna, my father as Mimyō, Ichikawa Chūsha
(when he was still Yaozō) as Wada Hyōei, and Ichikawa Monnosuke VII (when he
was still Otora). In addition, there were Nakamura Kichiemon as the messenger (gochūshin) Shigaraki Tarō, which he was
playing for the first time, and Onoe Kikugorō VI as the comic messenger Ibuki
Tōta. I recall Utaemon V saying to them, “It would be wonderful if you could do
it.”
This was during the youthful days of the Kiku-Kichi acting
partnership, right? What a great cast . . .
NIZAEMON: They were probably in their twenties. Around
this time my father’s disciple, Kataoka Tarō, was adopted by Uzaemon and took
the name Ichimura Kamezō when he played Hayase in “Moritsuna Jinya.” [This
is incorrect, as the actor became Kamezō at the Kabuki-za a few months earlier,
in April 1911, during Kiri Hitoha.
SLL] I played Koshirō, and
the actor who became Uzaemon XVI (then called Takematsu) played Kosaburō. We
were pals and I would call him by his real name, “Isamu-chan, Isamu-chan.”
. . .
This was when, in March, the Western-style Imperial
Theatre had opened and the Kabuki-za followed with a purely Japanese look.
NIZAEMON: The interior was in authentic Japanese style.
The auditorium of the previous building contained not only electric lights but,
hanging over the regular and temporary hanamichi
were huge gaslights. The switch to using only electric lights happened with the
production of “Moritsuna Jinya.” As a child, I was overwhelmed by what we now
call a chandelier, thinking “How great!” Tungsten filaments hadn’t yet replaced
carbon in lighting instruments.
The Imperial’s seating was entirely in Western style.
The renovated Kabuki-za used traditional Japanese style seating, including the
retention of boxed-in masu seating in
the pit. It had a hanamichi as well
as a kari (temporary) hanamichi and was a superb theatre.
[From Kataoka Nizaemon, “Kabuki-za o Kataru,” in Kabuki-za Sujigaki, January 1988.]
In his essay collection,
Isasa Muratake (Isasa Village Bamboo),
Prof.
Uchida Hyakken has
a brief piece called “Kichiemon” where he recalls the death of Nakamura
Kichiemon I, who lived in the same neighborhood.
It was in 1910, or perhaps 1911, after I’d moved to
Tokyo, that I saw Ōmi Genji Senjin Yakata
at the old Kabuki-za. With the general, Moritsuna, facing front on stage,
two messengers dashed breathlessly down the hanamichi
through the agemaku curtain, one played
by Kikugorō, the other by Kichiemon. This happened around 40 years ago so both
were young and it was during the time when these actors were gaining great
popularity as costars at the Ichimura-za, from which they had come to perform
at the Kabuki-za.
I had just moved from the country so I was amazed at
the excited reaction in the theatre. It compared to the tumult at a baseball
game. First, Kikugorō [playing the comic messenger, Ibuki Tōta] came racing in.
The connoisseurs already knew what was going to happen because the place
thundered with shout-outs (kakegoe) in the moments before he entered. After
Kikugorō had entered amidst the tumult and finished his message, he held a tiny
folding fan in his palm and fanned his imposing face.
Then, the house sent up an even more enormous roar than
before. I had no idea of what was going on until the youthful Kichiemon
[portraying the traditional messenger, Shigaraki Tarō] ran onto the hanamichi. After delivering his speech—which
resounded in every nook and cranny, suppressing the waves of excitement roiling
the theatre—he, just like Kikugorō, took out with a fan but a much, much bigger
one. It was the size of a zabuton
cushion with a design on it, and Kichiemon struggled to fan himself with it,
doing so very, very slowly. [From Uchida Hyakken, “Kichiemon,” in Isasa Muratake.]
These paragraphs raise some
questions concerning the accuracy of Hyakken’s memory as he places the order of
the characters’ entrances backwards; the traditional gochūshin appears first in the scene, not second. And, while Tōta
always does some business with a tiny fan (and hat), Shigaraki, who is mainly
concerned with martial movements using a sword, has no such business with a
large fan, at least not in most performances. Either Hyakken simply
misremembers or Uzaemon’s business has been discarded.
The November 1911 production, which
celebrated both the opening of the second Kabuki-za and the name-taking of
Nakamura Utaemon V, closed on the 29th, its full houses necessitating the
addition of two days to the schedule for a total of 27. Profits surpassed
30,000 yen. Other actors who changed their names this month included Nakamura
Komasuke, who became Nakamura Tōzō V (later Ōtani Tomoemon VI); Nakamura
Kojaku, who took the name Nakamura Shishō, etc.
The same month, at the Imperial,
Ichikawa Komazō took the name of Matsumoto Kōshirō VII, who would be one of the
greatest kabuki actors of the next four decades. Also in November, the
revolutionary actor-producer Kawakami Otojirō, one of the most important
founders of shinpa, died at the young age of 48, leaving
behind his widow and partner, Kawakami Sadayakko.
Tokyo’s first employment agency
opened this November. In China, the Qing rulers summoned Yuan Shikai from
retirement to become prime minister. A few days later, the “Nineteen Articles”
were passed, ending autocratic imperial rule. On November 17, Japan’s cabinet
decided to support the Qing government in its struggle against the Xinha
Revolution.
Then, for seven days beginning on
November 28, the Bungei Kyōkai revived its recent trial performance of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House for a professional
showing (the company’s second) at the Imperial Theatre, with Matsui Sumako repeating
her acclaimed role of Nora. As before, the bill also included Kanzan Juttoku and Oshichi Kichiza. And another important modern theatre group, the
Jiyū Gekijō offered its fifth public production, Gerhardt Hauptmann’s 1891
drama Lonely People (Sabishiki
Hitobito), translated by Mori Ōgai.
Major events of December 1911
included
naniwabushi star
Tōchūken
Kumoemon making his first recording. On December 12, the
Brazilian-themed Café Paurisuta (Paulista) opened in Kyōbashi. For three days,
beginning on December 15, the Tōkyō Gekijō hosted a festival celebrating the
work of 18 theatres, with young actors performing traditional dance and music.
The money earned was put into a joint fund for the participating theatres.
Rakugo star Katsura Bunji died at 66 on
December 17. Onoe Baikō’s disciple, Onoe Kikutarō (eldest son of dancer Hanayagi
Jusuke, and later Hanayagi Jusuke II) left kabuki to specialize in
nihon buyō and took the name Hanayagi
Yoshitarō.
The year 1911 ended on December 31
with a Tokyo streetcar strike, led by Katayama Sen, which lasted for three days
until January 2. Over six thousand workers took part, forcing traffic to stop
on New Year’s Eve.
Among major events of 1911, Japan’s
production of raw silk surpassed China’s, making it number one in the world. Fur
overcoats and the like became all the rage, as did sailor-style clothes for
children and women. Dr.
Hideo Noguchi
discovered the agent of
syphilis as
the cause of progressive paralytic disease. And Roald Amundsen reached the
geographic South Pole.
T
