Week 8a Outline:
Tradition of Performing Arts in Japan: Kabuki
Section from Act 4 of Yoshitsune senbon zakura (Yoshitsune and the 1000 Cherry Trees), performed by Ichikawa Ennosuke
as the fox Genkuro who has been impersonating the retainer Tadanobu as he escorts Shizuka Gozen back to her lover
Minamoto Yoshitsune.
Pre-Recorded Lecture 6
I. Intro to the Edo/Tokugawa period (1603-1868)
1. 1467 (Onin Wars) to 1615 perpetual civil war between powerful samurai clans ("Warring States Period")
2. Toyotomi Hideyoshi takes control of the country in 1582, but dies in 1598, leaving his infant son, Toyotomi Hideyori,
to be Shogun; his former retainer Tokugawa Ieyasu takes control of the country with the Battle of Sekigahara (1600) and
is appointed Shogun in 1603; in 1614-15 Ieyasu completely consolidates his control with the siege of Osaka Castle;
with the fall of the castle, Ieyasu forces Hideyori to commit seppuku.
3. Tokugawa clan controls the country from 1615 to 1868, when the Meiji "restoration" of the Japanese emperor occurs.
a. Hierarchy of roles originating in the basic notion of filial piety
b. Four class system1) Samurai
2) Peasants
3) Artisans
4) Merchants
5) outside the system: emperor and court aristocracy; religious figures; doctors;
actors and prostitutes; other outcaste groupsc. Destruction of major Pure Land Buddhist temple in Osaka (same time as the siege of Osaka Castle); 15,000 people died
d. 1639: Seclusion of the country (country closed to foreigners, persecution of Christian converts)
C. Economics
D. If samurai can no longer fight, what can they use to defend their claim to be the appropriate
rulers of the country?
1. "Code of the Samurai" (Bushidô) develops
2. Tension between merchants and samurai
a. fixed rice stipend and inflation causes samurai to get in debt to merchants
b. government periodically cancels the samurai debt
3. Righteous vendettas
a. Neo-Confucianism versus Buddhist ideas about passionate attachment
b. sympathy of audience
2. Who was the audience/patron for these genres?
3. What was the main goal?
a.
b.
4. How (and why) did samurai Neo-Confucian values affect stories?
a. Censorship, eg. "Reward the good, Punish the evil" (but level of censorship changes over time)
1. What they want
2. Patronage and authorship
3. How female ghosts in Noh look
a. ghosts of women tormented by love
b. angry, vengeful ghosts
III. Visual Representation of Female Ghosts in the late 18th- 19th centuries
A. Edo period ghosts (yûrei, "dim/hazy spirits")
1. Major influences: Kabuki and woodblock prints
B. Ghost of Oyuki, mistress of Maruyama Ôkyo (1733-1795)
1. Characteristics
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.Influence of Kabuki
C. Yugao (mistress of Genji killed by Rokujo), by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892)
1. Characteristics
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
D. Okiku (killed by Aoyama Tessan or Tetsuzan)
1. Image 1 characteristics
2. Image 2 characteristics
3. Image 3 characteristics
Wikipedia on various verisons of Sarayashiki (The Plate Mansion)
Kabuki version (synopsis) known as Banshû Sarayashiki or just Sarayashiki (1824 and 1850,
based on a 1741 puppet play, set in Himeji castle) follows the original story pretty closely,
but makes Tetsuzan a traitor who is trying to take over Himeji castle and is
trying to get Okiku to join him in betraying and killing her lover, Tomonosuke, the rightful heir.
There is a second, modern version (synopsis), Banchô Sarayashiki (1915), set in Banchô area of Edo.
This version blames Okiku for the incident. She breaks the precious family heirloom as a test of love;
her lover Aoyama Harima at first pardons her when he thinks she did it by mistake, but then kills her
in a rage when he finds out she did it on purpose, and then in a fit of despair, kills himself.
1. Other stories involving pregnant women
a. woman who buys rice candy every night
b. Ubume1, Ubume2 (cf Blood Pool Hell)
2. Comparison to Heian period mononoke possession of pregnant women (which was highly political)
3. Contemporary anxiety about abortion
a. Statues of Bodhisattva Jizo (traditionally used to memorialize/ritually help miscarried or aborted children,
or any child who dies young) imageb. Modern form of the Mizuko-kuyô ritual develops in the 1970s in response to modern abortion--why?
III. Neo-Confucian ideal of "onna-rashisa" (female-likeness)
A. Developed by male Neo-Confucian scholars
1. Supposed inherent qualities of females (because of their biologically inferior bodies)
that they must work hard to overcome:
a. stupidity
b. lazyness
c. lust
d. hot temper
e. a tremendous capacity to hold grudges.
1) female demons exemplify?
2. Male ideal of femininity
a. submissive to male authority (since women can't think for themselves)
b. hardworking in support of their families
c. virtuous
d. long suffering, forgiving
e. retains determination, but now willing to suffer in defense of her virtue and her family's honor
For discussion questions due tomorrow, consider how female victim ghosts might exemplify
(or fail to exemplify) the male ideal of femininity.
