:: Kabuki Theater at Nortom Simon, Pasadena, california
Last week I attented my first Kabuki theater performance over at the Norton Simon Museum. Up until then, I've only been familiar with Kabuki through the te-lie-vision. So you can imagen how exited I was. It was also a first to the Norton Simon, I'm not much in to what everyone cosiders art, so I wasn't exited for the museum. Personally, I consider everything to be an art. The chairs we sit on, the food we eat, the computers we look at, the automobiles we drive, the homes we live in. Everything is an art. It takes skill and passion to create quality products, designs and food. Especially food. My mother always tell me, 'if the cook is in a bad mood, be sure you'll be constipated on the morning to come.'
The first act titled Nagauta Echigo Jishi {The Lion Dancer from the Province of Echigo}. Echigo Jishi describes a lion folk dance from the Kanabra area in the Echigo province. The piece itself is composed into various 'mini' dances, all describing the different products and landscapes that makes Echigo famous. The highlight of this Kabuki dance drama was when Nakamura Gankyō wears an ippon-geta {one-slate wooden clogs} and performs a tap dance followed by the mimicking of the washing ofsarashi {long strands of silk}. The dance itself took around 20mins.
The second act, an instrumental performance titled, Nagauta Genroku Hanami Odori {The Dance of the Cherry-Blossom Viewing in Genroke Era}. Composed by Kineya Shōjirō III in 1878, this Nagauta song consists of various melodies and flower dances representing the Genroku period {1688~1704}. A period considered to be Japan's second Golden Age, this song reflects the extravagance and lavish lifestyle during the time.
Third act titled Kiyomoto Onatsu Kyōran {The Plight of Onatsu} is a story that originates from a 17th-century novel by Ihara Saikaku, while the lyrics of the dance were written by Tsubouchi Shōyō and first performed in 1914.It is one of the best surviving examples of early 20th-century theater reform, seeking to do away with the many illogicalities of traditional Kabuki dance and instead concentrate on the 'psychological realism' of the characters. Sixteen-year-old Onatsu, falls madly in love with her father's clerk Seijūrō; however, their love is forbidden by Tokugawa law, for a lowly clerk could not marry the merchant's daughter. After their arrest, Seijūrō is sentenced to death and upon hearing the news, Onatsu goes insane.
