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| Onoe Shōroku II as the spirit of the Earth Spider in Tsuchigumo. (Photo: Shinoyama Kishin.) |
The cover for the July 2021 (#7) issue of Engekikai, the monthly kabuki magazine of record, shows Onoe Shōroku II in the role of the monstrous Earth Spider in Tsuchigumo, as performed at the Kabuki-za in May of this year. The main section of the issue, as noted on the cover at the right, is a collection of essays and exquisite photos devoted to “The World of Sakura-hime Kuruwa Bunshō,” a major early 19th-century drama of sex and violence by Tsuruya Nanboku IV, the greatest playwright of his generation. You can see an abridged version of the recent Kabuki-za production here.
Among featured articles
on the cover, representing only a partial list of the issue’s contents, is one about a filmed performance (in the Cinema Kabuki series) of Mishima Yukio’s
“Iwashi Uri Koi no Hikiami,” one of the
best modern kabuki plays, starring the great female-role specialist (onnagata) Bandō
Tamasaburō V.
Another beautifully illustrated piece focuses on two child actors, Onoe Ushinosuke and Bandō Kamesaburō, and their performance in Kagami Jishi. Also present is another in the long-running series by actor Matsumoto Kōshirō, “Kōshirō’s One Thousand and One Nights.” Sad news for fans of bunraku awaits them in the essay devoted to the retirement at 88 of the great puppeteer, Yoshida Minosuke III, whose handsome face is so evident in thousands of production photographs taken during his lengthy career.
Finally, there’s an essay on the revision by one of today’s
top stars, Nakamura Kichiemon II, of a 19th-century bunraku play, “Hachijin
Shugo no Honjō,” later adapted for kabuki, which Kichiemon starred in at the
Kabuki-za in May. Kichiemon’s interest was stirred by the character of Katō
Kiyomasa, a famous samurai hero who had appeared in several kabuki plays and
was one of the roles most closely associated with his predecessor, Kichiemon I. For his writing credit, Kichiemon II used the pen name, Matsu Kanshi. The first Kanshi was an
Edo-period bunraku playwright, but Kichiemon, while using the name, doesn’t
designate himself as the second in the line.
