Leiter S.L. Historical Dictionary of Japanese Traditional Theatre

Подождите немного. Документ загружается.

TSUUCHI JIHEI • 411

ﬁght the spider spirit in Tsuchigumo. In some cases, they are also

given speciﬁc character names, like Asagao in Yuya.

TSURIEDA. The decorative borders of ‘‘hanging branches’’ or artiﬁ-

cial ﬂowers suspended over the stage in kabuki’s more stylized

pieces, often contributing a strong seasonal feeling. Sukeroku Yukari

no Edo Zakura uses cherry blossoms, while Momijigari has maple

leaves. See also SCENERY.

TSURUYA NANBOKU IV. Three generations of actors and three of

playwrights. The only one of historical impor t was Nanboku IV

(1755–1829), one of kabuki’s three or four greatest dramatists. He

began writing as a minarai sakusha in 1775 and struggled under dif-

ferent names for many years, gaining little recognition until he rose

to become a tate sakusha in 1803 at age 49. But true fame did not

come until his 1804 Tenjiku Tokubei Ikoku Banashi, with its use of

real water effects (hon mizu) and quick changes (hayagawari). Over

the next quarter century, he wrote for the great stars of the day (espe-

cially Onoe Matsusuke I, Onoe Kikugoro

III, and Ichikawa Dan-

VII), published numerous illustrated books, and became

Nanboku IV in 1812 when he married into Nanboku III’s family.

Although he wrote all types of plays, he was most renowned for

his sewa mono, and especially the subdivisions of kizewa mono and

kaidan mono, both of which he pioneered. These plays, although

aesthetically always striking in their mixture of the grotesque and the

realistic, reﬂected the decadence of their time in their ability to cap-

ture the lowliest of living standards and the most horriﬁc ghosts and

murderous violence. Many of kabuki’s unique special effects (keren)

were ﬁrst created for them. Among his many still-produced classics

are Ehon Gappo

ga Tsuji, Kasane, Osome Hisamatsu Ukina no Yomi-

uri, Sakura-hime Azuma Bunsho

,andTo

kaido

Yotsuya Kaido

Japan’s greatest ghost play.

TSUUCHI JIHEI. Four generations of kabuki playwrights.

Jihei

I was

a late 17th-century Osaka actor who wrote under this name from

1688. After a period of activity in Osaka, he had a successful career

in Edo and, in 1703, was considered one of the top dramatists of the

day, along with Chikamatsu Monzaemon and K anek o Kic hiza e-

PAGE 411

.................15687$ $CH1 12-20-05 11:07:49 PS

412 • TSUYOGIN

mon. He may have introduced Kamigata methods into Edo play-

writing.

Jihei II (1673–1760), son of Jihei I, wrote around 200 plays over

half a centur y. He initiated the standard Edo ‘‘four-act play’’ and

pioneered the writing of jida i-se wa mo no (see also NAIMAZE), a

peculiarly Edo style. Plays he wrote for Ichikawa Danju

II in

1713 and 1716 were the predecessors of what developed into Su-

keroku Yukari no Edo Zakura. Late in life he became Tsuuchi Eishi

I. He was also known as a Zen master called Dontsuˆ.

TSUYOGIN. Also go

gin, the ‘‘dynamic mode chanting’’ method in no

used to express boldness, excitement, or profound emotion. It is

much less melodic than its counterpart, yowagin. Rhythm is privi-

leged over melody, and it has a narrow pitch range, varying more

through levels of intensity t han through melodic range. It did not

appear in early no

and was ﬁrst introduced during the Genroku

period; the version heard today dates from the mid- to late 19th cen-

tury. It is heard mainly throughout hatsubanme mono, in the kiri

part of nibanme mono, and in the second half of gobanme mono.

Some plays are chanted entirely in tsuyogin while others mingle it

with yowagin. See also MUSIC: NO

; UTAI; YO

KYOKU.

TSUZUKI KYO

GEN. Following a period in which early kabuki con-

sisted of one-act, mainly dance-type plays (hanare kyo

gen), ‘‘contin-

uous-act plays’’ came to be written during the second half of the 17th

century once yaro

kabuki was established and there was a need for

serious artistic development. The ﬁrst two-act play (niban tsuzuki)

may have been Fukui Yagozaemon’s Hinin Katakiuchi, shown in

Osaka in 1664. Toward the end of the century, Kamigata started

presenting three-act plays (sanban tsuzuki) and Edo offered four-

acters (yonban tsuzuki) and ﬁve-acters (goban tsuzuki). See

also

DRAMA

TIC STRUCTURE: BUNRAKU AND KABUKI;PLAY-

WRIGHTS: BUNRAKU AND KABUKI.

TSUZUMI. Drums, speciﬁcally the kotsuzumi and o

tsuzumi heard in

all forms of traditional Japanese theatre. See also GEZA; MUSIC:

; NARI MONO.

PAGE 412

.................15687$ $CH1 12-20-05 11:07:50 PS

UJI KAGA NO JO

(1635–1708) • 413

UCHIAI HATARAKI. A subdivision of the hatarakigoto category of

maigoto used in no

plays. They are ﬁght sequences between evil

demons and samurai or heavenly beings in gobanme mono in which

the fue joins in the rhythm of the taiko. Examples are in Tsuchigumo

and Momijigari.

UCHIKAKE. A formal, embroidered, trailing over-robe with padded

hems, worn over their outer kimono by samurai wives in bunraku and

kabuki. Masaoka in Meiboku Sendai Hagi is an example. See also

COSTUMES: BUNRAKU; COSTUMES: KABUKI.

UEMURA BUNRAKUKEN (1751–1810). Also known as Uemura

Bunrakken, a theatre manager thought to have been born Masai (or

Masaki) Yohei on the island of Awaji, well known for its puppet the-

atre tradition. The name Uemura derives from that of Awaji’s Uem-

ura Gen’no jo

puppet troupe. He seems to have moved to Osaka

sometime in the late 18th century. Around 1800, he established a

ruri school and a successful puppet theatre in Osaka at Ko

zu Shin-

chi called the Ko

zu Shinchi no Seki. His style was reminiscent of that

in Awaji and was considered refreshingly novel.

The second in his line, his adopted son, produced puppet plays at

the Inari Shrine from 1811 until being closed down in 1842 by the

Tenpo

reforms. His work and that of two more generations bearing

the same name (or a variation) led to the word bunraku becoming

synonymous with the puppet theatre, especially after being used in

the name of the new Bunraku-za in 1872.

UJI KAGA NO JO

(1635–1708). The last great Kamigata chanter of

ko jo

ruri. He abandoned no

chanting (utai) when he was refused

artistic secrets because he was not a family member, and became the

pupil of Isejima Kunai, a master of Satsuma Jo

un’s style. He art-

fully blended the virile style of Inoue Harima no jo

with the music

of no

and the medieval styles called heikyoku and ko

wakamai.H

performed

in t he dry riverbed at Kyoto’s Shijo

in 1675 under the

name Uji Kidayuˆ, but changed to Uji Kaga no jo

in 1677. In 1678,

he published his collected works, includin g his nota tion , and th ey

PAGE 413

.................15687$ $CH1 12-20-05 11:07:50 PS

414 • UKON GENZAEMON

were used as practice texts for amateur chanters. Later, attempting to

compete in Osaka against his former student, Takemoto Gidayu

,he

came up short with his ﬁrst offering but did better with his second.

After his theatre burned down, however, he moved back to Kyoto.

Extremely inﬂuential, he is remembered as the ﬁrst chanter to have

successfully blended yo

kyoku and jo

ruri. Many of his works were

based on no

plays, which gave jo

ruri a hitherto unknown literary

cachet. He also increased the element of realism by borrowing from

kabuki, especially for scenes set in the brothel district. Moreover, he

wrote a short treatise explaining jo

ruri as musical theatre in terms

suggesting its structural relationship to a no

program. Chikamatsu

Monzaemon began his career writing plays for Uji, and these are

said to have revealed indebtedness to no

. As a result, jo

ruri expres-

sion grew varied and classically elegant, appealing to Kyoto’s reﬁned

tastes.

Moreover, Kaga no jo

’s jo

ruri used kabuki plots so that it became

more realistic and three-dimensional. The kabuki inﬂuence led to a

more logical foundation and more believable characters than ko jo

uri, with its superhuman and fantastical persons, had known. Kaga

no jo

thus moved toward the kind of modern sensibility that resulted

in the sewa mono of Chikamatsu and Gidayu

UKON GENZAEMON. A kabuki actor during the wakashu kabuki

period who is said to have founded onnagata acting. He moved to

Edo from Kamigata in 1652. When wakashu kabuki was banned and

actors had to shave their forelocks, he devised the murasaki bo

shi

covering for the bald area.

UMA. The ar tiﬁcial horses used in kabuki. Most are rather re alisti c.

Two men ﬁt inside the framework (nuigurumi)

and,

apart from the

rear man’s legs bending forward rather than backward, closely

resemble real animals. A gauze-covered portion in the neck lets the

front man look out, and another such place at the stomach provides

the same service for the rear man. Glass or marble is used for the

eyes and real hair for the tail and mane. The basic colors are white,

chestnut, brown, and black. The low-ranki ng actors whoplaythe

front and rear legs are called uma no ashi and, although the term has

a pejorative connotation, connoisseurs respect these hidden actors

PAGE 414

.................15687$ $CH1 12-20-05 11:07:50 PS

UTA • 415

when they execute their important function well. See also PROPER-

TIES: BUNRAKU AND KABUKI; HAIYU

NO KAIKYU

UMEWAKA MINORU (1828–1901). A no

actor of shite roles who,

something of a prodigy, was adopted into the Umewaka family, a

tsure branch of the Kanze ryu

. The Meiji Restoration of 1868 placed

, the shogunate’s shikigaku, in a precarious position. Numerous

actors left the profession, but Umewaka persevered, performing on a

makeshift stage using cryptomeria wood (sugi) rather than Japanese

cypress (hinoki) and ﬁve silk bundling cloths (furoshiki)forthe

agemaku. In 1877, he was invited to perform for the imperial family,

the program including Tsuchigumo and other pieces. This led to his

appearing for the family on several later occasions, and helped

restore conﬁdence in no

’s future.

Eventually, he became one of the three great masters of the Meiji

period, along with Sakurama Sajin and Ho

sho

Kuro

. He excelled

especially in Matsukaze and Shikichi O

chi. At 78, he made his fare-

well performance. His sons, Mansaburo

(1868 –1946) and Rokuro

(later Minoru; 1878–1958), also became great actors.

UNO NOBUO (1904–91). A shin kabuki playwright who wrote

many respected plays, such as Hitoyo and Ko

dan Yomiya no Ame.

Nobuo was appreciated for his ability to evoke the life of the Edo

townsman in modern terms, using a richly emotional style and strong

seasonal qualities. He also made popular adaptations of the novel Jii-

san Baasan and Chikamatsu Monzaemon’s Sonezaki Shinju

.He

was elected to the Nihon Geijutsuin (Japan Arts Academy) in 1972.

URA KATA. The backstage personnel of bunraku and kabuki.(See

also

OMOTE

KATA.) These include the people who work on all the pro-

duction elements, technical and artistic.

USUDORO. In bunraku and kabuki, a light beating of the offstage

drums in dorodoro fashion to create a spooky atmosphere in ghost

scenes. See also GEZA.

UTA. In a gidayu

bushi script, a notation to indicate when a ‘‘song’’

melody has been incorporated into the chanting.

PAGE 415

.................15687$ $CH1 12-20-05 11:07:50 PS

416 • UTAI

In no

, uta is a chanted verse passage, one type of which is the

ageuta (‘‘raised song’’), chanted in the upper register, while the other

type is the sageuta (‘‘lowered song’’), chanted in the lower register.

It is chanted by the shite, the waki, or the jiutai. See also YO

KYOKU.

UTAI. No

-style chanting. (See also UTAI BON; YO

KYOKU.) Also, a

notation in a jo

ruri script to indicate no

-style chanting.

UTAI BON. The ‘‘chant book,’’ or ‘‘play book,’’ containing all the

words of a no

play. Traditional utai bon are used for both practice

and performance, and may be pocket-sized. They are published in

both Japanese and Western-style bindings. Differing from school to

school in minor ways, they generally contain ﬁve plays each, but

much larger editions include over 100 plays. Two such volumes can

contain practically the entire repertory. Stage directions and aikyo

gen sections are omitted, but simple musical notation are placed

alongside the words, and there are line drawings of the actors’ posi-

tions in important scenes at the top of the pages. Pictures of masks,

costumes, and properties may also be included.

Utai bon began to appear in the 16th century when utai became

widely popular in what are loosely called amateur performances

(tesarugaku) by aristocrats, samurai, and wealthy townsmen. No

actors were forced to make a living by teaching their art—especially

chanting (su-utai) outside of production—and utai bon were essen-

tial aids. As printing advanced their number and quality grew, espe-

cially during the Edo period when people had increased leisure time

and income. Kyoto was the original center of utai bon publishing, but

later Osaka and Edo became important as well. By the late 17th cen-

tury, over 500 utai bon were in print, and there were even collections

of excerpts, koutai bon (‘‘small chant books’’) or dokugin-shu

(‘‘solo

chant collection’’), for use at social gatherings. Those containing an

entire play are ban utai bon (‘‘program

piece chant books’’).

t utai bon reﬂect the melodic notation of the Kanze ryu

whose music had the widest appeal. Utai bon are published not only

by schools of shite, but by those of waki and kyo

gen as well.

UTAIGOTO. Of the four principal categories of no

sho

dan, the one

devoted to chanted (utai) verse passages. It includes ageuta, issei,

PAGE 416

.................15687$ $CH1 12-20-05 11:07:51 PS

WAGOTO • 417

kakeai, kiri, kudoki, kuri, kuse, machi utai, michiyuki, rongi,

sageuta, sashi, shidai,andwaka. See also HAYASHIGOTO; KATARI-

GOTO; SHIJIMAGOTO.

UTEI ENBA (1742–1822). An Edo bunraku playwright, poet, writer

of comic stories (kokkeibon and sharebon), who was a master builder

by trade. He was instrumental in the development of the storytelling

art of rakugo. Moreover, he had a close artistic and personal relation-

ship with the great kabuki actor Ichikawa Danju

V, and one of

his various artistic names was Danshu

. His Hana no Edo Kabuki

Nendaiki (Flower of Edo Kabuki Chronology, 1811–15) is an impor-

tant document. He began his career as a puppet theatre dramatist in

1779 with his collaboration on Date Kurabe Okuni Kabuki, based on

a recent kabuki play and produced at the Hizen-za. Among his few

other plays was Gotaiheiki Shiroishi Banashi.

UTTE KAE. The alternation of bunraku puppeteers for the same pup-

pet during the performance of a scene. It is also known by the English

term ‘‘double casting.’’

UZURA. The lower-level sajiki seating at both sides of Edo-period

kabuki theatres, whose protective fronting o f horizontal wooden

crossbars was thought to resemble a ‘‘quail’s’’ cage (uzura kago).

WAGOTO. The delicate ‘‘soft style’’ of kabuki acting used by various

romantic male characters. The actor behaves in a somewhat effemi-

nate manner, but more or less realistic manner, in contrast to the

overtly masculine aragoto style. The approach was established in the

early play category called keiseigai (see KAMIGATA KYO

GEN; SHI-

MABARA

KYO

GEN)

by Sakata To

IofKamigata and Naka-

mura Shichisaburo

I of Edo. It came to be most closely associated

with Kamigata sewa mono, but examples are found in jidai mono

and even in aragoto. Sukeroku in Sukeroku Yukari no Edo Zakura is

a combination of wagoto and aragoto, while Nan Yohei in Futatsu

PAGE 417

.................15687$ $CH1 12-20-05 11:07:51 PS

418 • WAJITSU

Cho

cho

Kuruwa Nikki has elements of both wagoto and jitsugoto.