Similar regulations were again imposed in March 1668, limiting Kabuki actors' off-stage dress to plain-woven, patternless silk, cotton, or pongee. On the stage, in the same year the casts were permitted to wear costumes of striped silk in plain weaves, habutae (the most popular Japanese plain-woven silk), and tsumugi (rough-textured pongee). Embroidered cloth and dyed materials, including the customary red linings and purple zukin (hoods), were forbidden, since the dyes were very expensive.
Even today, it should be noted, eight pounds of red dye will cost about ¥15,000 or approximately $42.00, a substantial sum by Japanese standards. Red dye or beni-mochi is made by crushing buds of the beni (a flower similar to a small chrysanthemum) into a paste which in turn is made into small, flat, circular pellets. Beni-mochi pellets are now made only in Yamagata Prefecture in the northern part of Japan. It can thus be understood why the Tokugawa shōgunate considered red-dyed materials a luxury.
There were two pertinent reasons for proscribing the use of purple. Purple dye was made from the roots of a rare weed and was the most expensive of dyes; and the color was reserved exclusively for the upper classes, such as the various ranks of the daimyō and their overlord the shōgun. Contrary to the belief of some, murasaki (purple) never was and is not the color of the emperor. There are two emperor's colors or kinjiki (prohibited colors): kōrozen, a yellowish brown, and kikujin—popularly called ao-iro—a yellowish green, said to be the color of mildew on malted rice. In the emperor's ceremonial costume, the sokutai, the hō (outer robe) dyed in kōrozen is the most formal; that dyed in ao-iro, the semiformal. These are respectively known as the kōrozen-no-ho and the ao-iro-no-ho.
As early as 1635, Satsuma Jōun, owner of the puppet theater called the Satsuma-za and initiator of the jōruri ballad-dramas in Edo, was sent to prison for using a purple silk-crepe curtain imprinted with the Shimazu crest (a cross in a circle), although the curtain was a personal gift from the Lord of Shimazu, an influential daimyō, to the ningyō-jōruri-shibai—that is, the puppet theater—in appreciation of Jōun's artistry. For the hikimaku (draw curtain) of the smaller-sized stage of Genro, the authorities permitted the use of silk crepe or cotton cloth, but the color purple was taboo.
With monotonous regularity, restrictive laws continued to be imposed or reimposed, only to be ignored by those at whom they were directed. Two of these edicts, however, left a decided imprint on classical Kabuki and its kata (format).
One order, enacted in 1703, directed that henceforth plays were not to depict current events, especially any activity of the daimyō or the shōgun. Playwrights found the events of the day too fruitful to avoid, and plots based on current events were merely placed in other periods, and fictitious names were used for the characters. Moreover, as most actors and many in the audience had never seen the actual apparel of a daimyō or a shōgun, the costumes for these plays were the creations of fertile imaginations.
By the other order the use of real swords on the stage was prohibited in February 1704, just one month too late to prevent a tragic disaster. Suginami Toranosuke, a talented wakashu, became a tachi-yaku taking the name of Ikushima Zenjirō. He then became a pupil of Ichikawa Danjūrō leaking the name of Ichikawa Zenjirō. It is presumed that ill feeling developed between the two, for Danjūrō noticeably neglected his pupil. Danjūrō's actions very much upset Zenjirō's father, Ikushima Hanroku (not to be confused with the Ikushima of the earlier-mentioned Ejima-Ikushima affair). In great anger, Ikushima thrust a sword through Danjūrō. Thus ended the life of one of the most illustrious actors ever to appear on any stage.
COSTUMES AND MAKE-UP
All actors of the time put on make-up in their own dressing rooms, just as they do today. Dressing was a different matter. With the exceptions of the zagashira (head of the troupe), the star tachi-yaku, and the onnagata,—who used private dressing rooms—actors were dressed in the ishō-gura, the costume room located, during this period, next to the todori-beya, the backstage management office.
It was the accepted practice to behave toward the onnagata as if they were women, a courtesy befitting the feminine gentility for which the onnagata strove both on and off stage. The Genro onnagata were careful not to expose their bodies. They had separate baths and usually dressed themselves, even tying their own long obi—a time-consuming practice, since short cuts were then unknown. The onnagata had separate toko-yama or wig dressers, and it was the toko-yama who gave them assistance in dressing if it was needed, particularly when they performed a kayaku role: one not characteristic of the onnagata, such as a male role. At this time, the katsura-shi (today called katsura-ya), the artisan who made the copper bases for the katsura, and the toko-yama, the man responsible for dressing and maintaining the wigs during a run, were one and the same.
Actors generally paid for their own costumes, but minor performers were provided for from the kura-ishō (kura, warehouse; ishō, costumes) by the theater management. However, the kura-ishō—that is, costumes kept in the theater warehouse—also included full complements of costumes for roles that were often repeated, such as the following:
asa-gamishimo: kamishimo (formal samurai costume consisting of jumper with winglike shoulders and short pleated culottes) made of asa (ramie) cloth, without lining
bōzu ishō: priests' robes
hitatare: wide-sleeved costume, based on Nō costume patterned after the real-life formal dress of high-ranking daimyō and the shōgun
juban: undergarments, usually red, although not necessarily so
jūni-hitoe: many-layered formal dress worn by ladies of the imperial court in Heian times
kamishimo: formal samurai costume consisting of jumper with winglike shoulders and short pleated culottes (Hakama)
kappa: raincoat
kariginu: set of clothing consisting of a wide-open-sleeve uwagi—that is, a coat with an ate-obi (ate, from Attu, to apply or touch; obi, sash or belt)—and hakama, used only for stage nobleman's costume
kesa: surplice worn over outer robe as an official symbol of priesthood
keshin-mono: (ke, disguise; skin, body) animal costumes including those for toads, horses, monkeys, boars, and badgers, which are the property of the kodōgu (hand properties) department
kyahan: leggings or gaiters
momohiki: very tight, long, thick navy-blue cotton trousers, opened at the back, with a lapover so as not to expose the body as the wearer moves
shikake-mono: trick costume for bit players (It does not include hikinuki costumes—that is, those used for quick changes of costume in view of the audience.)
suō: set of male clothing consisting of uwagi (coat) with wide-open sleeves and naga-bakama (long trailing trousers) or hakama (short pleated trousers or culottes)
tenugui: hand towel, usually cotton
tekkō: long cloth mittens covering lower arms and backs of hands
yoten: wide-open-sleeved garments with hems split at sides
zukin: ready-made hood (If any other article of clothing is used as a hood, it is not called a zukin.)
CHAPTER 3
Hōreki Kabuki
The
