world cultures & travelWikipediaEarly Edo period · Japan
Kabuki began as a Kyoto dance troupe led by a woman, and women were banned from it in 1629
Kabuki is a classical Japanese theatre form that mixes drama with stylised dance, known for lavish costumes and kumadori makeup, the bold painted patterns worn by some performers. It is thought to have begun in the early Edo period, when Izumo no Okuni formed a female dance troupe that performed in Kyoto. Women were banned from kabuki in 1629, and the art settled into the all-male form it has today, in which male actors trained to play women are called onnagata. It developed through the late 1600s and reached its height in the mid-1700s. UNESCO recognised it as intangible heritage in 2005 and added it to its Representative List in 2008.
Performers use stylised movement, exaggerated voices and makeup such as kumadori to make characters readable from the back of a large theatre. Onnagata actors study female movement and speech through long training, so the illusion of a female character relies on technique rather than on the performer's gender.
Kabuki shows how a popular art can be reshaped by rules and social norms, turning a women's troupe into a male-only tradition that is still performed today. Its recognition by UNESCO has helped keep its stagecraft and performance traditions going.
Female roles in kabuki are played by male actors called onnagata, a specialised tradition that developed after women were banned.
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