Kabuki

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were principally women, and with the increasing popularity of kabuki, many of the actresses began to attract undue attention from male admirers. The authorities felt that this would lead to a serious demoralization of the public and in 1629 the theatrical appearance of women was officially banned.
However, since the public already accepted kabuki, men immediately took over and have continued performing to the present. The ban on actresses was in effect for about 250 years. In the mean time kabuki brought to perfection the art of the onnagata. As a result, there was no room for actresses in kabuki when the ban was lifted. Moreover, the art of onnagata had become such an integral part of kabuki that, if deprived of this element, the traditional quality of kabuki could be lost forever.
Another important characteristic of kabuki is that it is a wide-ranging and accumulative theatre (Hsu, 73). Born at the turn of the 16th century, it incorporated parts of all the preceding theatre forms of Japan. Among the traditional arts from which kabuki has drawn from, stage techniques and repertoire are the noh drama and the kyogen play. The kyogen plays are the comic interludes presented between the noh performances. Today, the number of Japanese who appreciate noh proper is far smaller than that of those who favor kabuki, but those kabuki plays adapted from or inspired by noh plays enjoy a wide popularity and constitute an essential portion of the entire kabuki repertoire (Mackerras, 132).
Another area from which kabuki has borrowed elements is the puppet theatre, often referred to as bunraku. The development of bunraku roughly paralleled that of earlier kabuki. In kabuki, the primary importance has always been placed on the actor rather than on any other aspect of the art, such as literary value of a play. During the early 17th century, some of the great writers, including Monzaemon Chikamatsu, often called the "Shakespeare of Japan”, left ...