kabuki lecture

so i have a very informative blog this time around. my school is allowing a number of students to go to a kabuki play next week. sadly, i forgot to turn in the paper and...i'm not going. but i went to the lecture today instead! that was awesome-sauce beyond words! the teacher talking to us was in a television show that portrayed the life of a kabuki actor a few years ago. he had props and everything. sadly, i forgot to bring my camera...

first off is the word kabuki. 歌舞伎（かぶき）is broken up into three words. ka 歌　（か）is the same kanji for song (uta) 歌, bu is the same kanji for art 舞, and ki is the same for dance. therefore, kabuki means song, art, dance. originally, it was called kabuku 化負く which means unusual or out of the ordinary.

this is an appropriate term as kabuki started off in a very unusual manner. started back in 1603 in the river bed of kyoto by a woman named izumo no okuni (okuni of izumo). at the time, women wore kimonos and were forbidden to show anything past their neck. izumo lifted her kimono up to her knees in order to perform her dancing, which, at the time, was extremely odd and made no sense to go with her odd music. this was seen as almost prostitution at the time.
over time, kabuki became very popular as more and more women joined izumo and it attracted the wrong type of crowd. because of this, women were thus banned from kabuki in 1629

after around 1630, men came into kabuki. it was thus transformed into what's now known as yarou kabuki or young men kabuki. young men would then perform the stories, including the female parts, opting to cross dress and create a form of kabuki theater still popular today known as onnagata, where men would raise their voices to match a woman's. it's a very impressive thing and those who can master it are given a title that's named after the guy who did the best woman's impersonation (sadly, i didn't write down his name).

in the 1700s, many of the traditions in kabuki seen today were created. they are listed and described below:

* 語る　（かたる）－kataru which is the style of talking used in kabuki. because kabuki is a theater of unusual devices, the manner of talking is extremely elongated. so to say good morning in japanese would be the normal ohayou gozaimasu (おはようございます）, but in kabuki it would be more like oooooooooohayoUUUUUU goZAIIIIIImasuuuuuu.
this is similar in sumo when the referee/ shinto priest is introducing the sumo wrestlers (which is why that guy in the bond movie talks that way, dad. i finally figured it out! haha!)

*唄う　（うたう）- utau which is the style of singing commonly used in kabuki. singing is very important in kabuki as it moves the story along and is in time with the music used in the play.

*鳴らす　（ならす）- narasu which are the sounds and music involved in the theater. the music used include the clapping with the wood blocks onto of slabs of wood (called kitotsuke) that go in time to certain scenes (dramatic or fighting scenes especially) and are meant to be extremely poetic. certain sounds represent different meanings.
for example, the stereotypical sound of kabuki (the slow DING DING that speeds up) is meant to represent the cicadas most commonly heard in summer. this is normally seen when an actor is frozen, then slowly starts to move, and then does a strange dance on one foot. that type of dance is called: じょはきょう　(johakyou) which is broken down into three meanings. jo in this word means no rhythm, ha in this sense means starting of the slow rhythm, and the kyou here means quick, fast rhythm. it's meant to symbolize the sound of space because as a cicada comes takes off or lands, it starts off slowly and then gets faster and faster. when it lands, it's very wobbly and messy which is portrayed in the wood clappers. it takes 10 years to master jumping on one foot the way they do and looks very hard considering everything else they have to wear.

the cymbals used in the plays are played during women's roles or dances.
there's also a very long rod with many small cymbals on them that priestesses (or miko) shake are what're used to call down the gods.

drums and flutes are also an important part of kabuki music and play. it's roughly $300 for the wood block and $2,000 for the clappers...and that's the cheapest and worst ones to get. the ones actually used in the plays are MUCH more expensive...

*踏む　（ふむ） － fumu is the stomping or long steps seen regularly in kabuki performances

*見得　（みえ）－mie is the poses seen regularly in kabuki performances.

*さしがめ－sashigame are the people who dress all in black are meant to be viewed as invisible in the play. they carry sticks that have bugs or other things attached to them. in this, they create atmosphere.

last, but not least is the most exciting part of kabuki

*立ち廻り （たちまわり）－tachimawari, which, again, can be broken down into parts (there's a pattern here). tachi means to kill and the mawari is to spin around. that's right, this is the action part of the kabuki plays. not all kabuki plays have an action scene in them, but when they do, it's not the same.

we were shown the props used in the action scenes. the katana created is actually not a real katana at all. it is a bamboo sword with a silver leaf laid over the bamboo. the teacher said he thinks the process involves egg white and knows that there cannot by any air between the two. sadly, because this is such an intensely hard production, there are only 1 or 2 people left in japan that can make these swords. it takes 10 years, also, to master this art as well. probably even more to just get credit enough to sell anything to a kabuki production.

when the katana was shown, we were also given a very nice and short history lesson on why the katana is called "katana". the sharp edge of the sword, also called the ha, (歯) or tooth, is on one side of the sword, it's called the katana. if both sides were sharp it would be called a kataha. there are some double edge swords, but it's rare and they're called something else.
there's a blunt side because if there's a fight that doesn't call for blood shed, the wielder of the katana can just knock their opponent out with the other side of the sword.
katana's in kabuki aren't heavy at all, so the actors have to pretend like they are heavy.

seppuku (せっぷく) is the famous stereotype of japanese suicide. it is actually known as the honorable way to die because it allows the person dying to call out surrender and repent (in a sense) while keeping their family's name and land still in tact. they hold a paper or a cloth while they grasp the sword and then cut open their gut. but that doesn't just kill someone. a second person, called かいしゃにん　(kaishanin) is there to then cut off the head. the government, back then, recognized this as an honorable way to die.
however, if one was a criminal, they would get their head cut off without any ceremony and lose all their name to their family and land, thus completely extinguishing the name.

fighting scenes in kabuki go along with the wood clappers that play in the background and are almost comical. the actors make faces and move like a robot. it's kind of like an overly dramatic death seen in funny television shows.

finally, in kabuki is an important part. normally, one can't just decide to join kabuki and then become an actor in kabuki. if you want to be in kabuki, too effin' bad. kabuki is strictly within the family names or the kabuki houses (家元制度 iematoseido). this is not just with the actors, but with the musicians. so every actor and musician now that is involved in kabuki had their father, grandfathers, and great grandfathers involved in kabuki and were raised solely to be involved in kabuki. even the guy in the horse costume had his father in the horse costume (sucks for them...). they also didn't jump around from different parts in the theater. if you were a horse/actor/sashigame/musician...then your family was it for life.

in order to know who was who in the plays, old men made to look like they fit in with the crowd join the audience and shout out the actors names when the actors pose. it's part of the play and no one else in the crowd is meant to shout out as well. apparently this was a problem last year as students did that and we were told not to repeat the same action. it was pretty amusing.

to close this off, the teacher ended by showing us these little balls of paper strands that are flung out during the plays. he called for three volunteers and i instantly jumped up. i got to go second and mine didn't go as far as everyone else's, but DAMN there was a lot of paper in that little ball. it was amazing. i rolled it back up and took the mass home with me. haha.

so that's it for the day! sorry i didn't take any pictures. i hope you enjoyed this little lesson and kudos to you for getting through the entire thing!

～星子☆

normalcy

so it's been over a month now since i invaded japan. i still have yet to fully take it over, but i'm starting to find ways to do my best to just fit in. i know this will never be possible, though, and frankly...i'm a bit glad i won't fit in.

my clothes have changed a lot recently and i wear a lot more clothes that normally i wouldn't wear in the states. it's jsut the clothes in japan are irresistible and i can find anything to my liking. but see...this is where japan has accomplished something i don't think america quite grasps. in america, there's a high demand or, in some cases, just a medium demand for something and it's granted with excessive amounts for the masses to be happy. in japan, there's a high demand for something...too fucking bad. if it's gone, it's fucking gone. when they say it's seasonal, it's seasonal. if you see it one day, you might not see it ever again.

i find this extremely true with almost everything. it's a bit annoying because if i really like something, but decide i'll sleep on it for a few days or i just plum forgot to bring enough cash, i can't buy the item. if i go back, it's gone and it's GONE. this is very true with clothes. that's where most of my money has vanished to...clothes. i just can't help it. i find new clothing stores every single time i go out, even in my small little town of nisshin. sakae...oh my lord... i've found 5 different places to go shopping all of them are something in the range of 5-7 stories tall of just fashion for girls. osu was more of a guy's place, but it was still cute! even had some loli stuff! (too expensive, though!)

but i've stopped my spending (today was literally the last day until i get my next scholarship payment), so it's food buying ONLY until then. i'm only going to buy my stamps for letters and that's it.

so an update on my health: a lot better. i still have a bit of a cough that seems to only act up at night when i lay down or sometimes, if i sit for too long. not quite sure why, but i'm going to have the doctor take a look at it later this week.

classes are going well and i might be bumped up sometime soon. i'm excited if that happens, though my other classmates in the section right above mine tell me to stay down because theirs is too hard. from what i see...it's more like they're self-taught and the teacher doesn't actually teach them. could be just how they do it, but i'm not totally sure. in any case, i would rather be higher and learning than reviewing.

so as this post title says, things have settled into a state of normalcy and i'm starting to find my pace. i've made quite a nice bunch of friends and while i generally get along well with the people in the entire house, there are still some people i stay away from or some i'd rather not see. but if things get tough, i know i can always come to my room where i have decorated it with pictures of home, friends, family, and my cats. always a plus.

ah! on a final note! i got the new kingdom hearts game and i can hardly put it down! it's so much fun! but it doesn't get in the way of studying, i swear.

much love!

~星子☆