the dance performances and fees from the eager patrons for her troupe's after-hours profession, prostitution. The shrine's needs were forgotten.
Okuni was the only woman of her troupe privileged to wear male costume. Her costume, after she joined with Sanza, was a wide departure from her original priestlike garb. It was an ankle-length figured kimono, probably made of silk with tie-and-dye and embroidery, without the customary pleated skirtlike hakama (culottes), but with full sleeves extending to just below the elbow. The kimono was worn with a simple, narrow, stiff obi tied in karuta-musubi style: a flat, oblong bow, the squared loops and knot of which are all exactly the same size.
The tailoring of the kimono was unique. The width of each mihaba, one of the four identical sections of the kimono body, was almost double the width of the sode-haba (width of sleeves) used today; consequently, the kimono was extremely wide, and when closed in front, overlapped somewhat in the manner of Nō costumes. Okuni's hair was styled in the young man's, or wakashu, mode, with a white hachimaki (headband) tied around the head. Her accessories included an ōgi (folding fan) probably an all-white haku-sen, and a leather bag. A small hyōtan (the gourd many men carried for holding sake or water) hung from the right side of her obi, and a juzu (a Buddhist rosary) adorned her neck. To emulate the samurai, Okuni tucked a set of katana, the long and short swords, through the left side of her obi. The sheaths and hilts of the swords were gaudy with gilded metal mountings.
It is curious to note that some paintings show actresses of Onna Kabuki, which followed Okuni Kabuki, impersonating Sanza wearing a Roman Catholic rosary with a cross. Though the cross had no definitive meaning to the people in general, and certainly not to the actresses, it was thought to be an exotic accessory. Since the spread of Catholicism in Japan was approaching its zenith, the wearing of a rosary with a cross was not an unusual sight. Whenever a daimyō became a Christian, all of his retainers likewise had to become Christians, and each undoubtedly took to wearing the emblem of Christianity.
When Okuni's form of entertainment reached its peak of popularity, presumably in 1603, it was called Kabuki, with its inference of something degenerate or unorthodox. This appellation was Kabuki written in kana, the Japanese syllabary script. Okuni is well delineated by the word kabuki or kabuki-mono, so that the application of this contemptuous term to the entertainment she popularized seems plausible.
Okuni was the creator of the Natsu Kagura no Mai (Dance of the Summer Kagura). The choreography for the dance was based on the Kagura, an ancient religious pantomimic dance form brought down through the centuries in ceremonies performed at Shintō shrine festivals. The costume for the dance was an elegant white silk suikan, similar to robes worn by court nobles in ancient days, and red naga-bakama, long pleated trousers which trailed for two feet or more, giving the wearer the appearance of crawling on his knees. Her hair was plainly dressed. It was tied chastely just below the nape of the neck and hung free down the back. The simple beauty of this costume was accentuated by a branch of the sacred sakaki, the camellia-like shrub used in Shintō ceremonies, carried in the hand. It is probable that Okuni patterned this costume after the masculine white robe and red naga-bakama (long trousers) worn by the shirabyōshi, the gay professional dancers who flourished during the Heian and Kamakura periods, and who sometimes are said to have been predecessors of the geisha. The shirabyōshi wore this costume in imitation of men's wardrobe.
The fact that Okuni and her troupe were occasionally invited to perform before samurai is an indication of the rapidly expanding popularity of Okuni Kabuki. It remained, however, essentially, an expression belonging to the world of the commoner, who had only enough artistic sensibility to enjoy its suggestions of obscenity. He remained complacently unaware of its lack of inspiration or imagination. Denied any stimulus to advance, Okuni Kabuki found it difficult to break through an accepted level of mediocrity. However, Okuni Kabuki with its element of novelty was sufficiently appealing as a performing art to continue as popular theater.
Okuni continued her chosen profession long after her short-lived liaison with Sanzaburō ended. Possibly tired of the gay life, Sanzaburō changed his given name to Kyūemon and became a samurai attached to the feudal lord Mōri Tadamasa at Tsuyama in Mimasaka Province. One of the few instances where fully documented evidence about Sanzaburō is obtainable records the fact that Sanzaburō died in 1604 in a quarrel with a fellow retainer. As for Okuni, historical records mentioning her last years are so confusing that it is useless to speculate when and where she died.
ONNA KABUKI
During Okuni's ascendancy, troupes of actresses were rapidly formed to capitalize on the popularity of her art. These female imitators achieved such acclaim that their presentations became widely known as Onna Kabuki—that is, women's Kabuki. Improvements in repertoire made by Onna Kabuki enlarged its audience to include members of many classes of society. Its influence spread rapidly into the realm of the courtesans. who adopted it as another means by which they could charm and attract customers. Courtesan troupes were referred to significantly as Yūjo Kabuki, meaning prostitutes' or pleasure-women's Kabuki. The background connection of prostitution with Okuni Kabuki, Onna Kabuki, and Yūjo Kabuki (the latter two judged to be the same by some authorities) was identical. The link was accepted and ignored until the prostitute-actress became so notorious that, in 1629, all women in any capacity were banished from the stage by the shōgun's order, on the grounds that their appearance there corrupted the public morals.
The real reason behind the banishment of actresses was a little more involved. During the Tokugawa shōgunate social grades were kept separated, since the shōgunate frowned upon samurai and high officials mixing with people at the lower levels because it often brought about the drawing of swords. Also many samurai lost their full substance when attending the Kabuki, since it cost an enormous amount of money to associate with a courtesan. Therefore the banishment of women from the stage not only stemmed from public-order reasons but social and political reasons as well.
WAKASHU KABUKI
Wakashu Kabuki, or Kabuki in which wakashu (youths of thirteen and fourteen) took leading roles, developed gradually but did not attain prominence until after the ban on actresses (Fig. 2). The term wakashu derives from olden times when a youth of kuge (nobility) or samurai family, upon becoming an adult, went through a ritual known as gempuku: the ceremonial cutting off of the maegami or forelock. Youths who still wore the maegami were called wakashu.
Except for the fact that the actors were young men instead of young girls, Wakashu Kabuki offered little or no change in audience appeal. The sensual dance, executed by the star actor in a provocative and suggestive manner, remained the foremost attraction. Supporting actors merely lined up on the stage to display their handsome faces and figures or danced as a group.
Undoubtedly to offset the inevitable boredom of all-male casts, the role of the onnagata—the female impersonator—the ultimate in Kabuki allurement, was born. Murayama Sakon is credited with being the original onnagata of an all-male troupe, though Nagoya Sanza previously had appeared in female dress. Sakon first appeared as a woman in Kyoto in 1649. Later he brought his act to Edo, where he danced at the Murayamaza, a theater owned by his elder brother, Murayama Matasaburō. Sakon's innovation was enthusiastically accepted and became so popular that he soon had onnagata rivals, among whom the most highly acclaimed during the next form of Kabuki, known as Yarō Kabuki, were Ukon Genzaemon, Nakamura Kazuma, and Kōkan Tarōji.
2. Wakashu Kabuki. Kabuki in which boys in their teens took leading roles attained prominence following the ban on actresses in 1629.
Although the Kokon Yakusha Taizen (All about Actors Old and New) furnishes some facts about Sakon, it has little to say about his costumes. It is known only that he wore a silk kimono and a beautifully colored oblong silk cloth over his partially shaven head and that he used cloths of different colors for various roles. It can be assumed that he used
