ENGEKIKAI #1 (January 2022): COVER AND CONTENTS

 

Bandō Minosuke as Soga no Gorō in Kotobuki Soga no Taimen. Photo: Shinoyama Kishin. 

This is the cover for the January 2022 issue of Engekikai, the great kabuki magazine of record that ends its remarkable well-over a century reign (it began as Engei Gahō in 1909) this month (April 2020). (I have an advance copy but will wait to show its cover and contents following the arrival of the February and March issues, which are presently floating to me by sea mail.) It shows Bandō Minosuke II in the aragoto role of Soga no Gorō in the classic play Kotobuki Soga no Taimen at the Kabuki-za in November 2021. It was part of a memorial program honoring the seventh anniversary of the death of Bandō Mitsugorō X, Minosuke’s father. The issue’s main contents, as listed on the cover, include a gallery of well over 100 photos of famous actors making their theatrical debuts as children, covering the years from the Taishō (1912-1926) to Reiwa (2019- ) periods. Such photographic galleries are among the enormously valuable measures by which this marvelous magazine has helped sustain kabuki theatre in modern times.

Also in the issue, as noted at the top of the cover, are interviews and conversations with actors participating in the recent annual kaomise performances at Kyoto’s Minami-za. Participants are Kataoka Nizaemon, Nakamura Ganjirō, Nakamura Senjaku, Nakamura Shikan, Kataoka Kōtarō, Matsumoto Kōshirō, and Kataoka Ainosuke. There also are articles about the great actors Bandō Tamasaburō V and Onoe Kikugorō VII regarding their December 2021 performances at the Kabuki-za. At the left of the cover is mention of a kabuki calendar, which accompanied purchase of the issue, showing the cover photos for each month of the previous year.

 

 

 

 

ENGEKIKAI #12 (December 2021): COVER AND CONTENTS

 

Nakamura Baigyoku as Fukuoka Mitsugi in Ise Ondo Koi no Netaba.  (Photo: Shinoyama Kishin.)

The legendary kabuki magazine Engekikai published its last issue this month (April). I’m in possession of three of the last five issues and will be posting images of each, with a selected list of their contents. First will come the December 2021 issue, then the January 2022 issue. I’m waiting for the February and March issues, which, as usual during the pandemic, are taking an extremely long time to arrive. When they do, they’ll be posted. A friend who wasn’t aware I had a subscription sent me the final issue, which, apparently, sold out quickly as a collector’s item. So, eventually, I will have two copies when my subscription is completed.

The cover for the December 2021 issue shows veteran Nakamura Baigyoku IV as Fukuoka Mitsugi in the classic Osaka drama, Ise Ondo Koi no Netaba, a translation of which by Stanleigh H. Jones is in my and James R. Brandon’s four-volume series Kabuki Plays on Stage. This production was seen in October 2021 at the Kokuritsu Gekijō (National Theatre). Almost every previous Engekikai cover used a photo from a Kabuki-za production, so this one represents a shift from tradition.

The selected contents listed on the cover include a section devoted to articles about dramatizations of the story of the 47 rōnin, perhaps kabuki’s most frequently staged event. But these essays are not about the classic version of the story, Kanadehon Chūshingura, of 1748, but about variant versions dealing with different characters in the story, with anecdotes about actors who appeared in them. Star actor Matsumoto Kōshirō continues his series, “Kōshirō’s 1001 Nights”; a photo essay about the seventh-year memorial production of Soga no Taimen honoring the late Bandō Mitsugorō X (1956-2015), starring his son Bandō Minosuke as Gorō; and discussions of their current performances between the great star Kataoka Nizaemon XVIII and his 22-year-old great-grandson, Kataoka Sennosuke; and the brothers Nakamura Kankurō and Nakamura Shichinosuke, two of today’s most popular young stars.