ENGEKIKAI #2 (February 2022): COVER AND CONTENTS

 

Onoe Ukon II as Sakurako in Meoto Dōjōji. (Photo: Shinoyama Kishin.)

Thanks to the ridiculously slow progress of sea mail from Japan, I have finally received the last three issues of the historically important kabuki magazine, Engekikai, which ended publication in April. It was founded in 1943 when wartime conditions forced the government to consolidate magazine publishing. It succeeded Engei Gahō, which similarly focused on kabuki, while also finding room to cover most other forms of Japanese theatre. Over the years, kabuki became its exclusive focus. 

Among its extremely important features was its listing of all the previous month’s kabuki productions, with titles, casts, curtain times, ticket prices, etc. Now that it’s gone, scholarship will lose an extremely important record of kabuki performance, one I have made extensive use of over the years. For my essay on the magazine, and the evolution of its covers, please see “Engekikai: Kabuki’s Magazine of Record,” Impressions: The Journal of the Japanese Art Society of America, No. 37 (2016), pp.74-87, which can be accessed through JSTOR.Org. 

Postings on these final issues will appear over the next week or so. We begin today with the February 2022 issue, whose cover shows Onoe Ukon II as Sakurako in Meoto Dōjōji, an unusual adaptation of the classical Dōjōji story in which two actors, instead of one, seek revenge on a priestly lover. One, as in the picture, however, turns out to be a man. For more information on this dance-play, see this link. It was performed in December 2021 at the Kabuki-za. 

The main article in the issue, noted at the bottom, right, is an illustrated overview of last year’s kabuki world. Other entries include a piece about the actor Nakamura Shidō, about what was then an upcoming New Year’s performance in which his young son, Ogawa Haruki, was to make his debut. The issue also has reviews of various productions, including at Kyoto’s Minami-za, the latest installment of actor Matsumoto Kōshirō’s series, “Kōshirō’s Thousand and One Nights,” and an overview of the career of the late Nakamura Kichiemon II, one of the great stars of the last six decades.

 

 

 

 

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