Editing Kabuki (section)

== History ==
===1603–1629: Kabuki===
[[File:Okuni kabuki byobu-zu cropped and enhanced.jpg|thumb|The earliest portrait of [[Izumo no Okuni]], the founder of kabuki (1600s)]]
The history of kabuki began in 1603 during the [[Edo period]] when former [[shrine maiden]] [[Izumo no Okuni]], possibly a {{transliteration|ja|[[miko]]}} of [[Izumo-taisha]], began performing with a troupe of young female dancers a new, simple style of dance drama in [[pantomime]], on a makeshift stage in the dry bed of the [[Kamo River]] in [[Kyoto]]<ref name="Murphy">{{cite book |last1=Murphy |first1=Taggart |title=Japan and the Shackles of the Past|date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York|isbn=978-0190619589 |pages=45–46 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9byvBAAAQBAJ }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Okuni|title=Okuni {{!}} Kabuki dancer|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=5 May 2019}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Haar|1971|p=83}}</ref><ref name="Masato 2007">{{harvnb|Masato|2007}}</ref>

In the earliest forms of kabuki, female performers played both men and women in comic playlets about ordinary life. It did not take long for the style to become popular, and Okuni was asked to perform before the Imperial Court. In the wake of such success, rival troupes quickly formed, and kabuki was born as ensemble dance and drama performed by women.

Much of the appeal of kabuki in this era was due to the ribald, suggestive themes featured by many troupes; this appeal was further augmented by the fact that many performers were also involved in [[prostitution]].<ref name="Frederic"/> For this reason, kabuki was also known as {{nihongo|'prostitute kabuki'|遊女歌舞妓}} during this period.

Kabuki became a common form of entertainment in the red-light districts of Japan, especially in [[Yoshiwara]],<ref name="Flynn Patricia - Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute ">{{cite web | url=http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1982/4/82.04.03.x.html | title=Visions of People: The Influences of Japanese Prints Ukiyo-e Upon Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century French Art | access-date=9 April 2015 | author=Flynn, Patricia | website=Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute}}</ref> the registered [[yūkaku|red-light district]] in Edo. The widespread appeal of kabuki often meant that a diverse crowd of different social classes gathered to watch performances, a unique occurrence that happened nowhere else in the city of Edo. Kabuki theatres became well known as a place to both see and be seen in terms of fashion and style, as the audience—commonly comprising a number of socially low but economically wealthy [[chōnin|merchants]]—typically used a performance as a way to feature the fashion trends.

As an art-form, kabuki also provided inventive new forms of entertainment, featuring new [[nagauta|musical styles]] played on the {{transliteration|ja|[[shamisen]]}}, clothes and fashion often dramatic in appearance, famous actors and stories often intended to mirror current events. Performances typically lasted from morning until sunset, with surrounding [[teahouses]] providing meals, refreshments and place to socialise. The area surrounding kabuki theatres also featured a number of shops selling kabuki souvenirs.

After performances, women performers would offer sexual services for those who could afford it.  Since fights would usually erupt among the young samurai patrons, shogunal authorities, who wanted to maintain order, banned women from performing on stage. Following this ban, Okuni replaced the women with boys in Kabuki performances. During the early seventeenth century, within a culture where [[pederasty]] was pervasive among samurai, her decision didn't significantly harm the theater's popularity. In fact, it may have even benefited Kabuki, as it caught the attention of the third [[shogun]], [[Iemitsu]], known for his interest in pederasty. He even arranged special performances. However, after Iemitsu's death in 1651 and with samurai now fighting for the attention of boys rather than girls, the shogunate imposed further restrictions, allowing only males over 15 to perform on stage.<ref name="Murphy"/>

Kabuki switched to adult male actors, called {{transliteration|ja|yaro-kabuki}}, in the mid-1600s.<ref name="Ernst 1956 10-12">{{harvnb|Ernst|1956|pp=10–12}}</ref> Adult male actors, however, continued to play both female and male characters, and kabuki retained its popularity, remaining a key element of the Edo period urban life-style.

Although kabuki was performed widely across Japan, the Nakamura-za, Ichimura-za and Kawarazaki-za theatres became the most widely known and popular kabuki theatres, where some of the most successful kabuki performances were and still are held.<ref name="Masato 2007"/>

===1629–1673: Transition to {{transliteration|ja|yarō-kabuki}}===
During the time period of 1628–1673, the modern version of all-male kabuki actors, a style of kabuki known as {{transliteration|ja|yarō-kabuki}} (lit., "young man kabuki"), was established, following the ban on women and young boys. Cross-dressing male actors, known as "{{transliteration|ja|[[onnagata]]}}" (lit., "woman role") or "{{transliteration|ja|[[oyama (Japanese theatre)|oyama]]}}" took over previously female- or {{transliteration|ja|wakashu}}-acted roles. Young (adolescent) men were still preferred for women's roles due to their less obviously masculine appearance and the higher pitch of their voices. The roles of adolescent men in kabuki, known as {{transliteration|ja|wakashu}}, were also played by young men, often selected for their attractiveness; this became a common practice, and {{transliteration|ja|wakashu}} were often presented in an erotic context.<ref>{{harvnb|Leupp|1997|pp=91–92}}</ref>

The focus of kabuki performances also increasingly began to emphasise drama alongside dance. However, the ribald nature of kabuki performances continued, with male actors also engaging in sex work for both female and male customers. Audiences frequently became rowdy, and brawls occasionally broke out, sometimes over the favors of a particularly popular or handsome actor, leading the shogunate to ban first {{transliteration|ja|onnagata}} and then {{transliteration|ja|wakashū}} roles for a short period of time; both bans were rescinded by 1652.<ref>{{harvnb|Leupp|1997|p=92}}</ref>

===1673–1841: Genroku period kabuki===
[[File:Toshusai Sharaku- Otani Oniji, 1794.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|left|Oniji Ōtani III (Nakazō Nakamura II) as Edobee in the May 1794 production of {{transliteration|ja|Koi Nyōbo Somewake Tazuna}}]]
[[File:SharakuTwoActors.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Kabuki actors Bando Zenji and Sawamura Yodogoro; 1794, fifth month by [[Sharaku]]]]

During the [[Genroku]] period, kabuki thrived, with the structure of kabuki plays formalising into the structure they are performed in today, alongside many other elements which eventually came to be recognised as a key aspect of kabuki tradition, such as conventional character tropes. Kabuki theater and {{transliteration|ja|ningyō jōruri}}, an elaborate form of puppet theater later known as {{transliteration|ja|[[bunraku]]}}, became closely associated with each other, mutually influencing the other's further development.

The famous playwright [[Chikamatsu Monzaemon]], one of the first professional kabuki playwrights, produced several influential works during this time, though the piece usually acknowledged as his most significant, {{transliteration|ja|[[Sonezaki Shinjū]]}} (''The Love Suicides at'' {{transliteration|ja|Sonezaki}}), was originally written for {{transliteration|ja|bunraku}}. Like many {{transliteration|ja|bunraku}} plays, it was adapted for kabuki, eventually becoming popular enough to reportedly inspire a number of real-life "copycat" suicides, and leading to a government ban on {{transliteration|ja|shinju mono}} (plays about love suicides) in 1723.

Also during the Genroku period was the development of the {{transliteration|ja|[[mie (pose)|mie]]}} style of posing, credited to kabuki actor [[Ichikawa Danjūrō I]],<ref>"[http://www2.ntj.jac.go.jp/dglib/edc_dic/dictionary/dic_ma/dic_ma_04.jsp Mie] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120206043545/http://www2.ntj.jac.go.jp/dglib/edc_dic/dictionary/dic_ma/dic_ma_04.jsp |date=6 February 2012 }}". Kabuki Jiten. Retrieved 9 February 2007.</ref> alongside the development of the mask-like {{transliteration|ja|kumadori}} makeup worn by kabuki actors in some plays.<ref name="Kincaid">[[Zoe Kincaid Penlington|Kincaid, Zoe]] (1925). ''Kabuki: The Popular Stage of Japan''. London: MacMillan and Co. pp21–22.</ref>

In the mid-18th century, kabuki fell out of favor for a time, with {{transliteration|ja|bunraku}} taking its place as the premier form of stage entertainment among the lower social classes. That occurred partly because of the emergence of several skilled {{transliteration|ja|bunraku}} playwrights in that time. Little of note would occur in the further development of kabuki until the end of the century, when it began to reemerge in popularity.

===1842–1868: {{transliteration|ja|Saruwaka-chō}} kabuki===
[[File:Brooklyn Museum - Kabuki Scene (Diptych) -85.282.6a- Hokushu.jpg|thumb|Kabuki Scene (Diptych) by [[Utagawa Yoshitaki|Yoshitaki]]]]
In the 1840s, repeated periods of [[drought]] led to a series of fires affecting Edo, with kabuki theatres—traditionally made of wood—frequently burning down, forcing many to relocate. When the area that housed the Nakamura-za was completely destroyed in 1841, the {{transliteration|ja|shōgun}} refused to allow the theatre to be rebuilt, saying that it was against fire code.<ref name="Ernst 1956 10-12"/>

The shogunate, mostly disapproving of the socialisation and trade that occurred in kabuki theatres between merchants, actors and prostitutes, took advantage of the fire crisis in the following year, forcing the Nakamura-za, Ichimura-za and Kawarazaki-za out of the city limits and into [[Asakusa]], a northern suburb of Edo. This was part of the larger [[Tenpō Reforms]] that the shogunate instituted starting in 1842 to restrict the overindulgence of pleasures.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Successful Period {{!}} History of Kabuki {{!}} INVITATION TO KABUKI |url=https://www2.ntj.jac.go.jp/unesco/kabuki/en/history/history4.html |access-date=2022-04-26 |website=www2.ntj.jac.go.jp}}</ref> Actors, stagehands, and others associated with the performances were also forced to move as a result of the death of their livelihood; despite the move of everyone involved in kabuki performance, and many in the surrounding areas, to the new location of the theatres, the inconvenience of the distance led to a reduction in attendance.<ref name="Masato 2007"/> These factors, along with strict regulations, pushed much of kabuki "underground" in Edo, with performances changing locations to avoid the authorities.

The theatres' new location was called Saruwaka-chō, or Saruwaka-machi; the last thirty years of the Tokugawa shogunate's rule is often referred to as the "Saruwaka-machi period", and is well known for having produced some of the most exaggerated kabuki in Japanese history.<ref name="Masato 2007"/>

Saruwaka-machi became the new theatre district for the Nakamura-za, Ichimura-za and Kawarazaki-za theatres. The district was located on the main street of Asakusa, which ran through the middle of the small city. The street was renamed after Saruwaka Kanzaburo, who initiated Edo kabuki in the Nakamura-za in 1624.<ref name="Masato 2007"/>

European artists began noticing Japanese theatrical performances and artwork, and many artists, such as [[Claude Monet]], were inspired by Japanese woodblock prints. This Western interest prompted Japanese artists to increase their depictions of daily life, including the depiction of theatres, brothels, main streets and so on. One artist, [[Utagawa Hiroshige]], produced a series of prints based on Saruwaka from the Saruwaka-machi period in Asakusa.<ref name="Masato 2007"/>

Despite the revival of kabuki in another location, the relocation diminished the tradition's most abundant inspirations for costuming, make-up, and storylines. Ichikawa Kodanji{{nbsp}}IV was considered one of the most active and successful actors during the Saruwaka-machi period. Deemed unattractive, he mainly performed {{transliteration|ja|[[buyō]]}}, or dancing, in dramas written by [[Kawatake Mokuami]], who also wrote during the [[Meiji era]] to follow.<ref name="Masato 2007"/> [[Kawatake Mokuami]] commonly wrote plays that depicted the common lives of the people of Edo. He introduced {{transliteration|ja|shichigo-cho}} (seven-and-five syllable meter) dialogue and music such as {{transliteration|ja|[[kiyomoto (music)|kiyomoto]]}}.<ref name="Masato 2007"/> His kabuki performances became quite popular once the Saruwaka-machi period ended and theatre returned to Edo; many of his works are still performed.

In 1868, the Tokugawa ceased to exist, with the [[Meiji restoration|restoration of the Emperor]]. Emperor Meiji was restored to power and moved from Kyoto to the new capital of Edo, or Tokyo, beginning the Meiji period.<ref name="Ernst 1956 10-12"/> Kabuki once again returned to the pleasure quarters of Edo, and throughout the Meiji period became increasingly more radical, as modern styles of kabuki plays and performances emerged. Playwrights experimented with the introduction of new [[genre]]s to kabuki, and introduced twists on traditional stories.