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.