cranes in lozenge shape, dyed on white ground and outlined with black-thread embroidery. Black silk banded the wrist hems. Although Kōshirō's kitsuke was the same, the dressmaker's book mentions that it was made of white Mōka cotton, a fine cloth made in the Mōka district.
Danjūrō's juban had a white eri (collar) of cotton with a checkerboard pattern known as ichimatsu made with the mimasu crest. Kōshirō's juban was made of rinzu (figured silk in satin weave) with a saya-gata (stylized cross) pattern over which the mimasu crest was rendered in applique" outlined with embroidery.
Danjūrō wore two garments of red silk under the juban: the marushitagi (maru, full length; shitagi, undergarment) and the maru-juban. In this instance, Kōshirō favored two half-length undergarments: the dōgi (dō, trunk; ki, garment), a sleeveless garment of scarlet silk crepe, and the dō-juban, also without sleeves but having a white collar.
All the remaining accessories for both actors were reasonably the same. The obi was a black maru-guke or rope-style (not flat) obi. The sekitai obi with the suō had a flat section at each end decorated with white mimasu crests. The chikara or niō-dasuki (niō, two Deva kings; tasuki, band to hold up sleeves) was made of green and purple bands twisted together. Both actors wore suji-guma kumadori (blatant line make-up) with red lines on a white painted ground.
The wig in each case was the maegami-tsuki-abura-gome-no-gohon-kurumabin (maegami, forelock; tsuki, with; abura-gome, coated and hardened with pomade; gohon, five; kuruma, wheel; bin, sides, sidelocks) decorated with hōsho-no-chikara-gami (hōsho, thick Japanese paper; no, of; chikara, strength; kami, paper). The hōsho-no-chikara-gami, as noted earlier, is a large paper decoration made to look like a bat's wings to denote strength.
Danjūrō and Kōshirō wore the samurai hat called eboshi. Danjūrō's was styled with fancy strings braided with red, white, and green skeins of thread and with himo (ties) of white silk attached. Kōshirō's eboshi strings were colored red, white, green, and purple, and the ties were of twisted green threads.
Today the leading character of Skibaraku appears in the Danjūrō version with a plain persimmon-brown suō.
SUKEROKU AND ITS COSTUMES
Ichikawa Danjūrō II, like his illustrious father, contributed to the development of Kabuki, especially in the arts of make-up and costuming. His fresh ideas led to improvements and changes in the kata for a number of the Jūhachiban, the eighteen favorite plays of the Ichikawa family. One of these is Sukeroku Yukari no Edo-Zakura, first produced in 1713 with Danjūrō II in the leading role of Sukeroku.
The costume for the role of Sukeroku passed through two formative stages before reaching the style accepted as standard. The first costume was a kimono of black pongee on which large bush-peonies were appliquéd from the hem almost to the shoulder. The kimono was topped off with the mimasu mon, Danjūrō's family crest. The pattern and color of the obi are unknown, but probably the obi was of the karuta-musubi type, broader than a man's yet not so wide as a woman's. Accessories were an orange cotton hachimaki (headband) bound around the head, dark-blue tabi socks, and one sword, the longer of the usual pair worn by samurai.
The famous karakasa (kara, China; kasa, umbrella; actually a lacquered umbrella), which so unmistakably identifies Sukeroku today, was not used at that time. Instead, Sukeroku, pursuing an enemy, rushed onto the hanamichi (runway through audience) brandishing a shakuhachi (a five-hole bamboo flute). The shakuhachi is still retained, but it is shoved into the obi at the back. Sukeroku wore his kimono in hadanugi fashion: the upper part of the outer garment slipped off the shoulders and tucked into the obi. His feet were bare, a Kabuki convention thought to give additional beauty to the mise en scène.
A second performance of Sukeroku was not to reach the boards until three years later. In 1716, Danjūrō II again appeared in a black kimono, retaining the mimasu mon, but with a purple hachimaki, as used today. He wore taka-geta (high-stilted wooden clogs), and held in one hand a shakuhachi (bamboo flute) and in the other a karakasa, undoubtedly of the same style as the ja-no-me, an umbrella with a double ring or bull's-eye design.
It is hard to understand why Sukeroku went begging for thirty-three years before its third performance in 1749, when again Danjūrō II mounted this favorite play. Danjūrō's costume was almost identical with that seen currently except that he used the gyōyō-botan mon, a crest containing a stylized peony flower with leaves dyed in many colors (Fig. 10). His garment was not made of pongee but of red-lined black habutae (plain silk) without pattern, decorated only with five crests: on the sleeves, at each breast, and at center back.
There is a story, fact or fiction, concerning Danjūrō's use of the gyōyō-botan mon. It relates that Misaka, a ranking lady-in-waiting and an enthusiastic admirer of Danjūrō II, presented him with a valuable kimono crested with the gyōyō-botan of the celebrated Konoe family of Kyoto. This garment had been a gift to Misaka from her mistress, the daughter of Konoe Iehiro and wife of the Shōgun Ienobu. Konoe Iehiro was considered a fount of knowledge on all matters relating to imperial ceremony and etiquette and therefore had been invited to the Edo court to instruct officials in protocol. The legend may well have authenticity. Danjūrō's wearing of the kimono would have been a subtle compliment to a distinguished lady.
The shitagi (undergarment) was put on as one with the uwagi (outer garment), the two overlapping and held trimly to the body by a blue obi made of a twill-weave fabric with an over-all woven pattern of mimasu, the three nested concentric squares, peony blossoms, and the congratulatory Chinese character kotobuki. An inrō (medicine box) hung at the right hip. A single sword, the sheath decorated with the tubercled skin of a shark, was thrust into the left side of the obi. The flute protruded from the center back of the obi. Geta (wooden clogs for outdoor wear) of Paulownia wood with black hanao (thongs), were worn with bright yellow tabi socks to form an excellent contrast. Thus garbed, Danjūrō IPs Sukeroku was, all in all, an extremely gorgeous fellow—so gorgeous, in fact, that the costume was referred to as kuramae (kura, storehouse, granary; mae, before, in front of) because of its aura of great affluence.
There was in this capsule description of the costume more than a little of the aptness that often characterizes such tags. Kuramae was the name of a street in the Asakusa district of Edo. Facing this street were the government warehouses in which the rice exacted as land tax was stored. The fudasashi, or licensed merchants, received the rice from the government, sold it to the ordinary rice dealers, and exchanged it for money for the samurai class. Accordingly, the fudasashi were very wealthy and lived in a very extravagant style, and this style, in turn, received the name of kuramae-fū: in-front-of-the-storehouse style.
DANJŪRŌ'S PRECEPTS FOR ACTORS
Danjūrō II kept notes of his so-called secrets concerning his kata, but unfortunately his writings were never published. His ideas, however, were handed down by word of mouth or jotted down by other actors and were thus preserved for posterity. Twelve of his precepts are listed here.
1. For aragoto roles, the best tasuki (cloth band used to hold back kimono sleeves) is braided blue and purple, and the shigoki (soft sash) should be purple, as the combination of these colors lends additional feeling of strength to the roles in Shibaraku and Yanone (Arrowhead).
2. When a short person wears the great pleated hangire (wide trousers with stiffened back, copied from the Nō), in order to appear stronger and taller, he should have them styled longer than normal and should wear them high above the waistline. This will give a short actor dignity and authority.
3. In order to appear taller in aragoto plays, one should wear high geta under the sud. (Prior to Danjūrō's time, only short hakama were worn with the sud.) To avoid clacking the geta, pad the teeth (upright supports) with wadded cotton. (Wadded footgear is worn today by the characters Wata-nabe no Tsuna in Ibaraki [Demon Ibaraki] and Gongorō in Shibaraku.)
4.
