Kabuki and its costumes
Monday, September 8th, 2008
To the East side of one of Tokyo’s business shopping districts, Ginza, is one of its oldest theatres; the Kabuki-za. One of the few remaining venues for this traditional form of drama, people flock to see this elaborate and colourful mixture of theatre, music, dance and costume that originated in the early 17th century. On my recent visit to Tokyo I had the good fortune to see it for the first time and it was fabulous.
In some ways it has much in common with Shakespearean theatre with a smattering of pantomime thrown in. For complex historical reasons the parts are all played by men, even the women’s roles (onnagata), and the actors who take these parts, some of whom can be in their 70’s, are highly admired. In Kabuki’s early history the costumes worn by the onnagata in performance were quite influential on the fashionable trends of the day
The costumes can be extremely extravagant and in the play I attended, Onna Shibaraku, they extremely exaggerated in order to emphasise the ‘super-hero’ status of some of the characters.
As one might imagine in a theatrical context, there is a certain degree of sleight of hand with regard to the making of the garments. From the audience’s perspective they look extremely opulent and as was the tradition of the day, they were many-layered. In fact from a cost point of view it would have been impossible for a theatre company to afford garments made entirely from these expensive materials, so instead, apart from the outer kimono, only the edges of the undergarments that showed were made from these fabrics, a more economical solution being found for the rest.
There are lots of subtleties in design such as the cords built into some of the costumes which enable the technique known as ‘hikinuku’, where outer layers can be removed speedily by the black-clad stage attendants (deshi) by removing the cords which allow the outer sections to fall away.
One particular subtlety is the way in which the kimono fits around the back of the onnagata’s neck, the only place where the white ‘oshiroi’ make-up is not used. It was considered by the Japanese that this was a highly erotic feature of a woman’s body therefore the collar stands away from the neck in order to emphasise this feature.
Don’t pass up an opportunity to see one of these performances, but make sure to purchase the earphone guide which gives simultaneous commentary.
