ENGEKIKAI (#1) January 2020: Cover and Contents

Kabuki Woogie is devoted to a variety of kabuki-related subjects. It began with a series of essays, including photos and videos, of a research trip to Japan in 2010, subsequently added my 25-chapter history of the first Kabuki-za, and then began a series of covers of and selected photos from Japanese books about kabuki from my collection. The current posting continues that series.

Kabuki Woogie also posts monthly covers of the kabuki magazine ENGEKIKAI, with details on their contents, and, when available, essays by guest contributors, including papers delivered at conferences and the like.

One can poke around in its archives to find past posts.

Nakamura Baigyoku, Nakamura Kangyoku in Kiichi Hōgen Sanryaku no Maki. Photo: Sasayama Kishin.

The January 2020 issue (#1) of ENGEKIKAI, the kabuki magazine of record, has a cover showing Nakamura Baigyoku IV (left) as Chienai (in reality Yoshioka Kisanta), and his disciple, the newly named Nakamura Kangyoku I, formerly called Nakamura Umemaru, during this production of KIICHI HŌGEN SANRYAKU NO MAKI at the Kabuki-za in November. The issue’s chief contents, headlined on the cover, include a major section called “Good Luck to Kabuki in 2020!” It contains discussions between actors Kataoka Nizaemon and Kataoka Sennosuke, and between actors Nakamura Tōzō and Nakamura Tamatarō. It also includes interviews with the actors scheduled to appear in January’s Asakusa Kabuki program: Onoe Matsuya, Nakamura Kashō, Bandō Tomoenosuke, Bandō Shingo, Nakamura Yonekichi, Nakamura Hayato, and Nakamura Hashinosuke. On the right of the cover is an announcement that purchasers of the issue will receive a kabuki actor calendar, each month of which is graced by the cover photo used for that month in 2019.

Kabuki and Chaplin

Of greatest interest in this issue is the title at the bottom of the cover “Kabuki X Chaplin,” a section devoted to Charlie Chaplin and kabuki. It describes the background to a production that actually came off in December of a play, KOMORI NO YASUSAN (Bat-man Yasu), written by Kimura Kinka as a kabuki version of Chaplin’s 1931 City Lights. Its first performance was at the Kabuki-za in August 1931, only months after the film itself was released, with Morita Kanya XIII as the Chaplinesque tramp, Komori no Yasu (a popular character in the kabuki play GENJIDANA). 

Matsumoto Kōshirō X as Komori no Yasusan.

Charlie Chaplin.

The 2019 revival was the work of actor Matsumoto Kōshirō X and writer Ono Hiroyuki. “From Chaplin to Kabuki,” a fascinating talk by Ono, in English, about how the show came to be is here. I regret not having been in Japan to see the production but Ono’s excellent talk—written when the project was in its preparatory stages—should prove of considerable assistance in describing it.

Left: Sidney Chaplin (Charlie's brother), Nakamura Kichiemon I, and Charlie Chaplin; right: Sidney Chaplin, Charlie Chaplin, and Onoe Kikugorō VI.