Kabuki, the classical Japanese Song-Dance-Drama
which was born in the year 1603 is popular even today. It is simply because the
Japanese love and respect old traditions. They strive to improvise and keep
them alive. They respect and encourage the artists of these ancient arts and
automatically the old traditions survive and are still popular. In contrast, in
India most ancient dance forms are dead or dying. In Andhra Pradesh Harikatha
and Burrakatha are dead and once common and popular forms of entertainment:
Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi have very few students and patrons. Except
Doordarshan TV Channel none of the other Telugu TV channels ever show old
traditional forms of entertainment. Modernisation is killing traditions in
India but not so in countries like Japan.
During my two trips to Japan, I got to watch and
hear a lot about Kabuki. The above pictures are of a Kabuki advertisement and
the next picture is of some Kabuki souvenirs I brought home.
Initially, Kabuki was mostly comic plays on
ordinary life performed exclusively by female artists who played the role of
men and women. This form of drama became a great success and a common form of
entertainment. However, a few years later as the plays became vulgar and the
female artists misbehaved Kabuki was banned in 1629. But very soon it picked
up again with all-male actors. Now male actors started playing both
female and male characters.
Over the years the storylines changed and many
influential and classic plays came into prominence. Despite on and off turmoil
due to various reasons, Kabuki has survived. It is today the most popular of
the traditional styles of Japanese drama. There are several popular Kabuki
performing troupes in Japan and a few abroad. And many actors are national
heroes who have a big fan following. Kabuki is still an all-men performance but for
a very few local troupes which have some actresses. With Kabuki troupes
regularly touring Australia, Europe and America, it has become popular in these
continents too and the interest is growing. To suit foreign patrons the local
drama like Shakespeare’s works are also being adapted into Kabuki!
In November 2005, Kabuki was inscribed on the
UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists. You may see the below videos to
understand Kabuki better. The first video is a Kabuki dance performance and the
second video is a documentary on Kabuki Theatre:
No comments:
Post a Comment