ENGEKIKAI (December 2020, #12): COVER AND CONTENTS

Matsumoto Hakuō II. (Photo: Shinoyama Kishin.)

The cover for the December issue of ENGEKIKAI, the kabuki magazine of record, shows Matsumoto Hakuō II as the sumo wrestler Chōgorō in the “Sumō Scene” of Futatsu Chōchō Kuruwa Niki (Chōgorō and Chōkichi: Diary of Two Butterflies in the Pleasure Quarters) as produced at the Kabuki-za last October. This is the same character seen on the cover of the November 2020 issue, which I recently posted, but from another scene. As per the cover headlines, the issue again leads with a section on how several actors feel about performing at this time, the actors covered here being Nakamura Kaishun, Nakamura Karoku, and Nakamura Shidō. There is a new installment of Matsumoto Kōshirō X’s long-running series, “Kōshirō’s Thousand and One Nights,” “Trends in September-October Theatre,” reviews of October’s kabuki, a reprinting of archival materials from 1946 about touring Japan with kabuki, right after the war, and a lengthy obituary about the late Onoe Kikujūrō IV, who died last September at 88.

ENGEKIKAI, #11 (November 2020)

 

Nakamura Kichiemon II, Photo: Shinoyama Kishin.

Sorry for the delay, partly due to slower mail service from Japan during the pandemic, and partly because I’ve been so busy with other things, but here, at last, is the cover of ENGEKIKAI, the kabuki magazine of record, from last November, 2020 (#11). After a bit, I’ll post other recent issues as well. Theatre activity, of course, has slowed considerably during Covid-19. 

On the cover is Nakamura Kichiemon II as the sumo wrestler Chōgorō in the “Hikimado” (“Skylight”) scene of Futatsu Chōchō Kuruwa no Nikki (Chōgorō and Chōkichi: A Diary of Two Butterflies in the Pleasure Quarters), performed last September at the Kabuki-za. 

The chief article headlined on the cover is about how actors are feeling about performing at this particular time, covered in illustrated discussions with three stars, Matsumoto Hakuō, Nakamura Baigyoku, and Nakamura Shikan. Other selected highlights mentioned on the cover are reviews of last September’s limited productions; a section on kabuki productions given independently of the mainstream by important actors over the years; trends in last August and September’s theatre world; the latest in the series called “Kōshirō’s Thousand and One Nights,” by star actor Matsumoto Kōshirō X; and an essay with photos of Nakamura Kichiemon II’s special performance last August at Tokyo’s Kanze Nōgakudō noh theatre of a solo dance-drama called Suma no Ura (Suma Bay), derived from the classic history play Ichinotani Futaba Gunki, and performed in noh style. Its one performance was filmed with no audience present. 

ENGEKIKAI (No. 10, October 2020)

Ichikawa Ennosuke IV in Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura. Photo: Shinoyama Kishin.

Apologies for the delay in posting covers from Engekikai (Theatre World), Japan’s kabuki magazine of record. Postal restrictions stemming from the coronavirus are to blame. The issues themselves are less robust, of course, because of the limits placed on production over the past year. Two more issues recently arrived, closing out 2020. This cover is for October 2020 issue, #10. It shows the “Yoshinoyama” scene from Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura, starring Ichikawa Ennosuke IV as Satō Tadanobu, in reality Genkurō the fox.

 

While the issue has many other things in it, the headlines on the cover point to several of its leading articles. The biggest headline, at the right, is for “The Opening of Young Stars [Hanagata] Kabuki in August,” a series of commentaries by fifteen of the actors involved. At the left is mentioned an interview with the great star Nakamura Kichiemon II. Headlines at the bottom point to an essay on “Zoom Kabuki,” the streaming of kabuki productions during the pandemic; a transcript of the September “earphone guide” to that month’s productions at the Kabuki-za, a service inspired by the limitations on audience attendance in the wake of Covid-19; August and September theatre trends; the next installment in actor Matsumoto Kōshirō’s long-running series “Kōshirō’s Thousand and One Nights”; and the reprinting of an old essay about Nakamura Kichiemon I, one of the greatest stars of the first half of the twentieth century.

ENGEKIKAI (Nos. 8 and 9: August and September 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. 

Kabuki Woogie also posts monthly covers of the kabuki magazine ENGEKIKAI, as here, 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: Shinoyama Kishin.

As per the shipping delays from Japan caused by the pandemic (outlined in my last  Kabuki Woogie posting), my copy of Engekikai, a combined issue of numbers 8 and 9 (more Covid-19 collateral damage), arrived three months after being mailed. Its cover picture is a rather unusual one, showing a kabuki performance being produced for a videotaped presentation. In it, Matsumoto Kōshirō X performs the role of Yuranosuke in Kanadehon Chūshingura, while sharing the stage with a video camera, at the right, and a masked stage assistant (kurogo) at the left. The performance was streamed as “Zoom Kabuki.”

The major section of the issue, headlined at the upper left (“Kokoro ni Nokoru Meibutai”), is devoted to 30 writers recalling their greatest memories of kabuki. Each gets an illustrated two-page spread, the remembrances including such things as the Benkei in Kanjinchō performed by Ichikawa Danjūrō XII at his 1985 name-taking (shūmei) performance, or the quick-change of Kataoka Nizaemon in Sakaya. Another big section covers the reopening of kabuki (under limited circumstances) during the plague, with comments by star actors Kōshirō, Ennosuke, Ainosuke, Kankurō, and Shichinosuke. Another piece covers theatre trends of the midyear months, May through July

There also are interviews with Ichikawa Ennosuke and Onoe Kikunosuke, a conversation between actor Nakamura Ichitarō and Onoe Ukon, and the latest in the ongoing series, “Kōshirō’s Thousand and One Nights.”

 

ENGEKIKAI (Nos. 6 and 7: June and July 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. 

Kabuki Woogie also posts monthly covers of the kabuki magazine ENGEKIKAI, as here, 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.

Ichikawa Ebizō XI. Photo: Shinoyama Kishin.

Kabuki Woogie is happy to return to posting cover images of Engekikai, the monthly kabuki magazine of record. Sadly, as might have been expected, Engekikai was unable to continue publishing on a monthly basis because of Covid-19, which, as elsewhere, either completely put theatre production on hold or allowed performances only under very limited circumstances. Thus, we see here an issue covering two months, not one: June and July (#6 and #7). This was mailed to me from Tokyo the first week in August but arrived about two weeks ago. Apparently, mail like this has to go through rigorous custom procedures necessitated by the pandemic. A second issue, for August and September, arrived in the same package and will be revealed here in another week or so.

The near-cessation of live kabuki performance led the editors to change their standard policy of multiple articles and interviews related to recent activity, supplemented by exquisite pictures of the previous month’s performances, to a brief piece about the actor Ichikawa Ebizō XI . This is followed, under the title “Kabuki Haiyū kara Minasama e” (“From the Kabuki Actors to Everyone”), by a list of all practicing kabuki actors, followed by an album of brilliant photos focusing on each of them. The back matter, however, contains the usual valuable data and news about kabuki during these stressful times, but also includes leading actor Matsumoto Kōshirō’s running series “Kōshirō’s Thousand and One Nights” and a detailed overview of a famous play, in this case Gotaiheiki Shiraishi Banashi.

The cover picture shows Ebizō, the extremely popular star who was set to ascend to the name Ichikawa Danjūrō XIII (his father was Danjūrō XII and his grandfather, Danjūrō XII) this past spring. Danjūrō is  kabuki’s most prestigious name, but, because of the pandemic, the three months scheduled to celebrate the name-taking with ceremonies and performances had to be indefinitely postponed.  Here is the handsome Ebizō in one of his line’s greatest roles, Sukeroku, from Sukeroku Yukari Edo no Sakura.  

 

 

ENGEKIKAI (#5) MAY 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.

Nakamura Baishi as the apprentice courtesan Matsugae in Kuruwa Sanbaso at the Kabuki-za, October 2019. Photo: Sasayama Kishin.

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, kabuki, like theatre in most countries, was forced to close down in April until health conditions improved. This led to the fifth issue of Engekikai, 2020, being delayed both in publication and shipping, and to the issue itself, for the first time, forgoing a gallery of photos documenting the previous month's productions. Most of the beautiful color photos included instead are devoted to the careers of a group of rising stars who specialize in playing young women's roles (wakaonnagata). The cover shows Nakamura Baishi, a rising young wakaonnagata, in a role he played last October.

  

The only kabuki productions described and documented in the depressingly slim issue are brief, irregular ones: 1) a four-day production of Nobunaga, a new history play about Oda Nobunaga, its story fancifully heightened with vampires, from February 13 to 16 at the Otsuka Museum of Art's (Ōtsuka Kokukusai Bijutsukan) Sistine Chapel, a perfect recreation of the Vatican’s world-famous Renaissance site, where it was the tenth annual such presentation of kabuki; and 2) a month-long tour from January 31 to March 1 of Ichikawa Ebizō intended to present his final performances under that name of one of his family's most popular plays, Kanjinchō, before he ascends to his family's greatest name as Ichikawa Danjūrō XIII. 

The ceremony honoring that accession was scheduled for May but is still in abeyance. Ebizō's program, also included the dance play Hagoromo (The Feather Robe), which did not include Ebizō, and a formal scene of greetings from the star and his company. Their tour visited Nagoya, Komatsu, Kanazawa, and Hakata.

The headlines on the cover, announcing the issue's chief contents, begin with the one at the upper right, pointing to the long section on "The Blossoming of Young Onnagata." The young onnagata (female-role specialists) discussed, along with many photos, are Nakamura Baishi, Nakamura Kazutaro, Bando Shingo, Onoe Ukon, Nakamura Yonekichi, Otani Hiromatsu, Nakamura Kotaro, and Nakamura Kangyoku. 

In the lower right corner, the headline announces a section devoted to archival material. This turns out to be an article taken from the January 1934 issue of Engei Gahō, the predecessor of Engekikai, called "Hyaku Makuuchi Hyakutai" (This and That about Leading Actors"). In it, 37 stars several paragraphs each discussing how they spend their dressing-room time. Each is also shown in one of his favorite roles.

"This and That about Leading Actors" from a 1934 issue of .Engei Gahō

There is also an article, noted at the lower right, about the forthcoming name-taking ceremony of Danjūrō XIII, and the debut of his son, Ichikawa Shinnosuke VIII. Finally, at the left, we see a headline announcing an interview with the actor Matsumoto Kōshirō X.  

The articles listed here are only representative of the contents, which include other material as well, including an essay on the effect of Covid-19 on the Japanese theatre world. 

14. KABUKI BOOK COVERS: ICHIKAWAWA EBIZO: NARITAYA NO IKI TO TSUYA

This magazine-style book contains numerous photos of the actor Ichikawa Ebizō XI, who is scheduled to attain kabuki’s most renowned name, Ichikawa Danjūrō XIII, this year. It was published by Shōgakukan in 2010 and, as explained to me by Prof. Kei Hibino, was compiled for a bimonthly cultural publication called Waraku Mook. Waraku means "peace and harmony" and "mook" is a neologism for a combination of "book" and "magazine." I see no author's name. 

The book also contains a rather thorough English-language essay on the actor, and even an English-language title. Whereas the Japanese title could be rendered Ichikawa Ebizō: The Style and Luster of Naritaya (the last word being the family’s guild name or yagō), the English title given is Ichikawa Ebizō: “Ichikawa Ebizō XI, a young leader of kabuki for the 21^st Century: Ebizō and the Ichikawa Danjūrō family.”

The photos are credited to Sasayama Kishin, the chief photographer of Engekikai, the kabuki magazine of record whose monthly issues are chronicled in this blog.