ENGEKIKAI (#4) April 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.

Photo: Sasayama Kishin.

The cover for the April 2020 issue (#4) of ENGEKIKAI, the kabuki magazine of record, pictures Kataoka Nizaemon XV as Kan Shōjō in the “Dōmyōji” scene of SUGAWARA DENJU TENARAI KAGAMI as produced in February 2020 at the Kabuki-za. The issue’s leading section contains illustrated articles about “Kabuki Gidayū,” the style of narrative accompaniment used in plays, like SUGAWARA, adapted by kabuki from the bunraku puppet theatre, where aone or more narrators and shamisen players provide the auditory part of the performance. The music is also called takemoto, and the “Appeal of Takemoto” forms a major part of the discussion. Interviews with the gidayū chanter Takemoto Aoidayū II and shamisen master Tsuruzawa Shinji are included. The issue also contains an interview with actor Nakamura Kankurō, an archival segment providing photos and discussion of famous actors of the late 20^th century when they were kids doing fully staged children’s productions kabuki, “Chibiko Kabuki,” an explanatory overview of the kabuki play KOKORO NO NAZO TOKETA IROITO, and the latest installment of actor Matsumoto Kōshirō’s monthly series, “Kōshirō’s Thousand and One Nights.”