Utagawa Kunisada I, Ichikawa Danzō V (市川団蔵) as Nikki Danjō (仁木弾正), 1839 The Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum Digital Archives Collection, Waseda University Library 002-0122

Utagawa Kunisada I, Matsumoto Kōshirō V (松本幸四郎) as Nikki Danjō (仁木弾正), 1836 IHL Cat. #953

The Play Date Kurabe Okuni Kabuki

Meiboku Sendai Hagi (The Precious Incense and Autumn Flowers of Sendai) and its derivative play Date Kurabe Okuni Kabuki  (The Date Rivalry and Okuni Kabuki)

While people often like to describe kabuki as having beenperformed in the same way for hundreds of years, this rarely has been thecase.  Plays changed with eachperformance as different actors assumed the roles and fans expected somethingnew....  Over the course of two centuriesof adaptations, not only were new scenes added to The Precious Incense and Autumn Flowers of Sendai, but the storywas almost completely altered from its original form.  Through all these changes, Precious Incense has proved to be one ofthe durable of kabuki classics, having had, with few exceptions, at least oneperformance annually since its premiere in 1777.

Precious Incensedramatizes historical events – an attempted coup, in 1660, by retainers of theDate household and the gallant efforts of loyal retainers to thwart the coup.  The scandal caused a sensation in itsday.  Some earlier plays had dealt withthe subject, but the first to bear the title Meiboku Sendai Hagi was staged in 1777 at Osaka’s Naka noShibai.  It is usually considered to havebeen the play’s “first” performance.  Thefollowing year saw Sakurada Jisuke I’s (1734-1806) The Date Rivalry and Okuni Kabuki (Date Kurabe Okuni Kabuki)produced at Edo’s Nakamura-za.  Thepopularity of these two works led to a 1785 adaptation by Matsu Kanshi andothers for the puppet theatre, which used the title Meiboku Sendai Hagi, and this was then reimported back into kabuki,where the play’s development continued through the nineteenth century.

The play’s continuing popularity is undoubtedly due to thefascinating role of Masaoka.  Shedemonstrates unwavering loyalty even as she watches her own child killed beforeher eyes, an act she must endure with supreme stoicism.  Masaoka is considered the greatest and mostdifficult of all kabuki roles for a female-role specialist (onnagata).

Because of the strength of Masaoka’s character, the actorplaying the evil Nikki Danjō must be ofthe highest artistic standing in order to share the stage with her.  The kata¹ for Danjō go back even earlier than do Masaoka’s, to Matsumoto Kōshirō V (1764-1838).  Actors today will even go so far as to placea mole on their forehead, imitating Kōshirō’s, as homage to his masterfulperformance. 

The Scene Under the Floor (Yukashita no ba)²

(The entire roomrises, revealing supporting wooden pillar underneath.  STAGE ASSISTANTS remove a red cloth to reveal ARAJISHI OTOKONOSUKE TERUHIDE, an exaggeratedly powerful [aragoto] samurai, rising from the enter lift to rapidtsuke beats. He wears a green kimono with red trim and black and gold formalover-wear [kamishimo].  His face and limbs are red with bold red,white, and black stylized makeup [kumadori], all expressing his youthful strength. He is seated with one leg holding down a rat, played now by a small,acrobatic actor in a rat costume [nuigurumi].  Heholds a fan above his head in his right hand and his sword hilt ready in hisleft. Ki.)

OTOKONOSUKE: How strange. (Turning the sword hilt, he performs a mie to two tsuke beats.)  I, Arajishi Otokonosuke Teruhide, have beenbanished from my lord’s presence because of the lies of evil men, but I haveset up camp here under his bedroom.  Now,from out of nowhere, comes this rat.  Ican tell it is no ordinary rat.  (Mie to two tsukebeats.) Give up that scroll and disappear before I stuff this iron fan downyour throat.

(Spitting on his handand snorting, he again poses to two tsuke beats with fan lifted.  During a brief combat [tachimawari] OTOKONOSUKE fights the rat with large, slow, stylizedmovements.  He swings his fan at the rattwice, once down to the left, once down to the right in the “mountain” pattern [yamagata].  Heflips the rat and kicks it back.  Eachmovement is emphasized by tsuke aswell as loud beats of the offstage drum. He hits the rat on its forehead with his fan.  The rat spins quickly on one knee and then crossesto shichisan, where it disappearsdown the open elevator trap [sappon]. To the sound of fast dorodoro drumbeats indicating the supernatural,smoke billows from the trap as  NIKKIDANJŌ – the rat in human form – rises onit, holding a scroll in his mouth and forming a spell with his fingers.  His grey formal garb and kimono echo hisearlier grey rat costume.  His trailing hakama [nagabakama] must be carefully manipulated as he walks.  A crescent-shaped wound scars his foreheadwhere the rat was hit on the head with the fan.)