Leiter S.L. Historical Dictionary of Japanese Traditional Theatre

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KYOKU • 431

gen-based plays of the sanbanme mono, they provide the contrast

needed to provide a well-rounded program.

‘‘Orthodox fourth-group plays’’ are hon yobanme mono; when a

play from another category is produced in place of one of them, it is

called ryaku yobanme mono (‘‘alternative four th-group play’’).

Yobanme mono plays have been classiﬁed in several different ways.

One system divides them into genzai mono, jun kazura mono, jun

waki no

mono, monogurui mono, nesshin-yu

rei mono, ninjo

mono,

and yu

kyo

-yu

gaku mono.

YODA GAKKAI (1833–1909). Meiji-era playwright, schol ar, a nd

theatre reformer. (See ENGEKI KAIRYO

UNDO

.) He served the

government in various cultural assignments, seeking to advance

reforms in the theatrical world, where h is ideas included creating

mixed companies of actors and actresses. He advocated for the new

genre of katsureki mono and wrote one for Ichikawa Danju

in 1886, although it was not produced.

YOKANBEI. Bunraku puppet head inspired by a male character by

that name from Ashiya Do

man O

uchi Kagami. It is used for comical

villains, like Iwanaga Saemon in Dan no Ura Kabuto Gunki. The

face is gruff and squat, with a thin, horizontal mouth, a bushy mus-

tache, and bulging, movable eyes.

YOKO MIE. A mie in which the actor stands in ‘‘proﬁle.’’ Matsuo

maru

in ‘‘Kuruma Biki’’ (Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami) performs it.

KYOKU. One of the two principal terms for the words or textual

component of a no

play, the other, older term being utai (see

UTAI

BON

); a play is thus a yo

kyoku. It also refers to no

chanting, also

called utai. Kayoku may also be used.

• Yo

kyoku as text: A yo

kyoku script contains the dialogue between

the shite and waki, as well as jiutai passages explaining the dra-

matic circumstances or characters’ state of mind. It is thus both

script and narrative (katari mono). Despite their obvious literary

values, many being masterpieces, no

plays were originally

judged by their effectiveness in performance, not as works of lit-

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432 • YO

KYOKU

erature. Thousands were written over the past 600 years but only

around 250 remain in the repertory.

Some plays, especially genzai mono, contain the element of con-

ﬂict, so crucial to Western drama. In no

, however, conﬂict is gener-

ally weak or nonexistent, atmosphere and mood being the primary

goal. Character psychology, too, is secondar y. No

’s personages,

according to Keene, usually are ‘‘the incarnation of some powerful

emotion. . . .’’ (1968, 24).

Most no

dance (mai) occurs in the second act (nochiba), although

a small number of plays have dance in the ﬁrst act (maeba), generally

of a fairly simple nature, accompanied by chanting. The climactic

part occurs in the nochiba and may depend mainly on singing, in

which case it is a kaimon (‘‘ear-opening’’) sequence, or on dance,

which would make it a kaigen (‘‘eye-opening’’) sequence. See also

MAIGOTO; SHO

DAN.

Most plays also have an aikyo

gen interlude that is generally omit-

ted from the yo

kyoku. And all components are organized within the

jo-ha-kyu

system.

Not all plays have a two-act dramatic structure. There are many

one-act plays, in which the shite remains the same throughout (many

are genzai mono). The convention of the shite remaining on stage

throughout, even if he changes part of his costume there, is monogi

(‘‘wearing clothes’’). It always conveys a change in the atmosphere,

as when the angel in Hagoromo dons her robe after the ﬁsherman

returns it. It occurs as well in Funa Benkei when Shizuka puts on her

cap before dancing. These changes are made upstage and do not draw

much attention, but the costume changes in Matsukaze and Fuji

Daiko are on the stage proper, facing the audience, as part of the

performance. In all cases of monogi,theko

ken visibly assists in

making the change. Funa Benkei is also one of a small number in

which the maejite and nochijite are two different characters (although

played by the same actor).

• Yo

kyoku as

chant: No

chanting

(some call it ‘‘singing’’) began in

Buddhist chanting (sho

myo

) and suggests the sonorous solem-

nity of religious music; it is sometimes compared to Gregorian

chant. Some lines are performed to musical accompaniment, and

some are not. The words of a chant are called kotoba and the

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YOROI • 433

music is fushi. Both actors and chorus chant. Minor variations

in the tonal methods exist among the schools of no

,andthe

words, too, particularly in the prose par ts, may also differ

slightly. See also LANGUAGE; TSUYOGIN; YOWAGIN.

The voice does not alter to play characters according to gender or

age, but the actor does control the tone and emotional attitude with

which he produces his sounds. Both the prose and verse portions are

written in archaic Japanese that even educated Japanese may not fully

comprehend, so the words are often learned by rote without full

understanding of their meaning.

kyoku chant employs traditional, non-metronomic rhythms

(nori), divided into hiranori (‘‘ﬂat rhythm’’), chu

nori (‘‘middle

rhythm’’), and o

nori (‘‘large rhythm’’), the ﬁrst being the most com-

mon. In it, the 12 syllables of the seven-ﬁve shichigocho

meter are

spread over eight beats (hachi byo

shi); the feeling is like that of read-

ing waka poetry. Chu

nori (heard after the departure of a ghost or

spirit) uses one beat for every two syllables, and o

nori (heard when

a ghost or spirit appears) has 16 beats for the 12 syllables. When a

passage is to be chanted to a speciﬁc rhythm, i t i s hyo

shiniau

(‘‘keeping time’’); the opposite, when the chanting is noncongruent

with the percussion, is hyo

shi ni awazu (‘‘not keeping time’’).

Although the latter is freer, it too must conform to strict conventions.

Texts are marked with special dots, curved, and angular markings

and Japanese syllables that indicate a variety of vocal and rhythmic

requirements, but can only be used as guides to what the student has

learned by heart and what he understands of the character’s nature.

No notation is provided for the prose passages, which may suggest

gender or age differences in some schools, but in others may not.

YONTATEME. The second act of the jidai mono that formed the ﬁrst

half of an 18th-century kabuki program. It was actually the sixth

piece on the program after the bantachi, waki kyo

gen, jobiraki, futa-

teme, and mitateme.

YOROI. The ‘‘armor’’ worn by bunraku and kabuki samurai,

which

originally

meant something rather artiﬁcial, since the Edo-period

government banned actors from wearing authentic samurai armor or

anything too closely like it. More realistic armor appeared during the

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434 • YOSHIDA BUNGORO

III (1869–1962)

Meiji period, especially in katsureki mono. The armor now worn

resembles that of the pre-Edo period. Young samurai wear bright

crimson armor, while generals lean toward purple. Some characters

use the happi coat as a symbolic replacement for armor; Tomomori

in Funa Benkei is an example.

Standard armor is constructed of a corselet to which small leather

or metal plates are attached with pieces of silk or leather. The unit

consists of four sections, two sleeve or arm pieces, the torso, and an

eight-leaf thigh-covering skirt. Usually worn with the armor, which

comes in a number of different types, each with its own name, is an

ornate helmet (kabuto), a hachimaki to which a gold plate is attached

at the temple, or a tall, backward-curved hat. Footgear is worn over

tabi; generals usually wear bearskin boots or straw sandals. Under

the armor, samurai wear a square-cut coat (hitare) and o

guchi. High-

ranking warriors lik e Yos hits une i n ‘‘K umag ai Ji nya’’ (Ichinotani

Futaba Gunki) may wear the sleeveless jinbaori coat. A battle fan is

carried by generals, and all samurai bear two swords. See also COS-

TUMES: BUNRAKU; COSTUMES: KABUKI; YOTEN.

YOSHIDA BUNGORO

III (1869–1962). A bunraku puppeteer who

specialized in female puppets. He debuted at 16 at the Bunraku-za,

studied with the future Yoshida Tamazo

II, became Bungoro

1897, and was granted the honorary name of Yoshida Naniwa no jo

in 1957. For many years, his colorful, sensuous, extravagant artistry

was contrasted with the dry, rational, digniﬁed style of Yoshida Eiza

I. In 1948, he was made a member of the Nihon Geijutsuin (Japan

Arts Academy). Despite blindness and frailty, he continued on stage,

if for ever-briefer appearances, into extreme old age and was one of

the most beloved ﬁgures of 20th-century bunraku.

YOSHIDA BUNZABURO

(?–1760). A bunraku puppeteer, one of

the most talented and inventive ever. Son of the great puppeteer Yos-

hida Saburobei, who performed with Takemoto Gidayu

,hewas

responsible for many of the technical improvements in puppets with

movable facial features, as well as for the creation of the sannin-

zukai system.

Bunzaburo

, ﬁrst known as Yoshida Hachinosuke, began handling

puppets at the Takemoto-za,

showing

expertise at both female and

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YOSHIDA EIZA I (1872–1945) • 435

males. In 1748, he was at the heart of a famous dispute over artistic

autonomy between puppeteers and chanters during the premier pro-

duction of Kanadehon Chu

shingura, which led chanter Takemoto

Konotayu

(later Toyotake Chikuzen no shojo

) to leave the Takem-

oto-za for the rival Toyotake-za. In Act 9, the most challenging,

Bunzaburo

was handling the puppet of Yuranosuke, the leading role.

Prior to a performance, Bunzaburo

requested that Konotayu

make a

change in his delivery at the place where Yuranosuke, having per-

ceived Kakogawa Honzo

’s true character, reveals how the shutters

can be removed to allow access by the avenging samurai to the vil-

lain’s mansion. Bunzaburo

felt it was necessary for the chanter to

alter his delivery by pausing so the puppet’s behavior could be timed

to it. Konotayuˆ refused. Neither artist would budge and manager

Takeda Izumo II, afraid of losing his popular puppeteer, sided with

Bunzaburo

, asked Konotayuˆ to leave the troupe, and persuaded a

chanter from the Toyotake-za to replace him.

This incident was a symbolic victor y on behalf of the hither to

diminished authority of the puppeteer. Moreover, it led to the

increasing exchange of chanters between the Toyotake-za and

Takemoto-za, regardless of the past association of each theatre with

a speciﬁc musical style (fu

). This, in turn, led to a mixing of the

styles and to their gradual weakening as distinct entities in favor of

the chanters’ individualistic approaches. Moreover, the increasingly

realistic puppet handling, which included borrowing kabuki stage

business, may have robbed bunraku of its uniquely romantic and fan-

tastical qualities. This, in turn, may have deprived bunraku of its

competitive edge.

In 1759, Bunzaburo

and his son, the future Bunzaburo

II, departed

to become freelancers in Kyoto, but he died a year later.

Bunzaburo

collaborated (gassaku) on plays under the name Yos-

hida Kanshi, his best-known work being Koi Nyo

bo Somewake

Tazuna, an adaptation of a well-known earlier play. The line ended

with Bunzaburo

III.

YOSHIDA EIZA I (1872–1945). A bunraku puppeteer who debuted

as Yoshida Mitsue II in 1883, performed at Osaka’s Hikoroku-za

and Inari-za theatres, and joined the Goryo

Bunraku-za in 1898, but

was forced by debts to moonlight at the Meiraku-za. From 1902, he

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436 • YOSHIDA TAMAZO

I (1828–1905)

performed exclusively at the Bunraku-za where, in 1927, he became

the head puppeteer. Yoshida Tamazo

super vised his training,

although Eiza’s introspective style differed from Tamazo

’s more

realistic one. Originally restricted to female puppets, he began to

handle males in 1912. A small man, and not very strong, he neverthe-

less excelled at powerful characters like Mitsuhide and Kumagai, and

his range extended to high-class men, comical ones (see CHARIBA),

and distinguished court ladies. Unusual for puppeteers, he was a

close analyst of the texts in order to best interpret his puppets’ move-

ments based on psychological motivations. He believed in suiting the

puppets’ behavior to the chanter’s art, which is said to have con-

trasted with the work of those who sought to show off their puppetr y

without close attention to the words. Even so famous a kabuki actor

as Nakamura Kichiemon I asked Eiza for his ideas on a difﬁcult

character. He died of malnutrition incurred during World War II.

YOSHIDA TAMAZO

I (1828–1905). Bunraku puppeteer. The son

of the popular puppeteer Yoshida Tokuzo

, he debuted in 1839 at 11.

In 1840, he became Tamazo

. When the Tenpo

reforms closed down

shrine theatres, he gained his training by touring to various venues

with his father. He was instrumental in introducing to bunraku the

then popular kabuki spectacular techniques of hayagawari and chu

nori, which he learned from such actors as Ichikawa Kodanji IV.

His greatest role was the fox-Tadanobu in Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura,

and he was good in other works requiring special effects, including

one in which both he and his puppet were immersed in a tank of

water (hon mizu). Tamazo

gained fame for his versatility handling

both male and female puppets, but he was greatest at male roles, also

being acclaimed for the realism of his art. When the Bunraku-za

opened in 1872, he became the ﬁrst puppeteer to hold the position of

monshita, which he shared with the chanter Takemoto Harudayu

V. Along with chanter Takemoto Nagatodayu

III and shamisen

player Toyozawa Danpei II, he was considered one of the three

greatest bunraku artists of the Meiji era.

YOSHINO. Also tsuten, the cheap, onstage seating on the upper level

at upstage right of an Edo-period theatre, over the rakandai.The

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YOTEN • 437

name came from Mount Yoshino, whose cherry blossom views were

reminiscent of the tsurieda bordering the upper edge of the stage.

YOSHIZAWA AYAME. Five generations o f kabuki actors. Yago

Tachibanaya. The most renowned was Ayame I (1673–1729), a

Kamigata onnagata whousuallyperformedoppositeYamashita

Hanzaemon. He ﬁrst was known under different spellings of Yoshi-

zawa Ayame and Yoshizawa Kikunojo

. His most famous role was

Miura in Keisei Asamagatake, which he introduced in 1698, receiv-

ing the highest ranking, jo

-jo

-kichi (‘‘upper-upper-excellent’’), in the

yakusha hyo

banki. In 1711, he was awarded the even higher rank

of kyoku-jo

-jo

-kichi (‘‘zenith-upper-upper-excellent’’), being the ﬁrst

actor so honored. Beginning in late 1713, he spent a year in Edo,

gaining even more acclaim and leading to his receiving yet a new

ranking, kyoku-jo

-jo

-kichi-murui (‘‘extreme-upper-upper-excellent-

peerless’’), which subsequently was outreached by a series of ever

more superlative ones. In 1721, he became Yoshizawa Gonshichi and

began to play tachiyaku roles, but the public was not happy and he

resumed onnagata acting.

Ayame I was more distinguished for his acting realism than for his

dancing. He is remembered today mainly because of his comments

on onnagata acting, the ‘‘Ayamegusa’’ (see YAKUSHA BANASHI)in

which he said that the onnagata must live offstage as a woman if he

is to be completely believable as one on stage.

YOSOGOTO JO

RURI. Kabuki sewa mono scenes accompanied by a

ruri background played in the geza; the lyrics are only vaguely

related to the action. The premise is that the music is being played

‘‘somewhere else’’ (yosogoto) nearby, thereby justifying its presence.

An example is heard during the scene in Fudeya Kobei’s home in

Suitengu

Megumi no Fukagawa.

YOTEN. A kabuki costume consisting of a kimono slit at the sides from

the lower hem, with wide sleeve openings. It is hiked up at the waist,

showing the calves, over which tights are worn. It may have come

into use as a symbolic substitute for armor (yoroi) when the shogun-

ate forbade armor from being worn on stage

. The principal divisions

include

those

worn by major characters, and those used by uniform

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438 • YOWAGIN

groups of ﬁghters or policemen (torite), who may also be called

yoten. Various technical names for subdivisions exist, including the

gold brocade (nishiki yoten), the white (shiro yoten), the black (kuro

yoten), the ﬂower (hana yoten), and the scaly (uroko yoten). See also

BAREN; MOMOHIKI; SUAMI.

YOWAGIN. Also wagin and ju

gin, ‘‘weak singing,’’ a fundamental

mode of no

chanting capable of being transcribed to a Western staff,

and used to express pathos or elegance. It is contrasted with tsuyogin

in having a distinct melody and subtle emotion. It is best suited to

sanbanme mono. There are plays that are entirely in yowagin but it

is more likely for yowagin and tsuyogin to be mixed. See also

KYOKU.

TAI. An Edo bunraku playwright, said to have been a physi-

cian, who collaborated on Gotaiheiki Shiroishi Banashi.Healso

adapted a kabuki play into the still-produced Kagamiyama Kokyo

Nishiki-e. Although these were his only plays, they earned him an

important place in bunraku history.

GAKU SHU

KEN. ‘‘Disciplines for the Joy of Art,’’ a secret

treatise (hiden)byZeami written about 1424. Drawing upon Confu-

cian, Buddhist, and poetic examples, it discusses the need for an

actor’s talents to develop in accord with his increasing maturity,

ability, and level of achievement corresponding to age; the inadvis-

ability of a young actor learning monomane when he should be

learning nikyoku (‘‘dance and chant’’); the dangers for his later

career of a young actor’s abilities being overrated; the actor’s need

aware of his faults so he may conquer them; the meaning of the

highest level of achievement, when ‘‘Emptiness is no other than

Form,’’ when right and wrong, good and bad cease to exist, and even

errors are effective; and how, just as nature is an empty vessel from

which all things are born, a gifted actor is a vessel from which art

somehow arises.

GEN. An aesthetic principle of no

that alludes to a subtle ideal of

inexpressibly elegant beauty, summed up in Zeami’s secret writings

(hiden) in metaphors like ‘‘A white bird with a ﬂower in its beak.’’

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JO KABUKI • 439

Zeami promoted yu

gen (associated with O

mi sarugaku) as more

impor tant than monomane (associatedwithZeami’sownYamato

sarugaku until Kan’ami infused it with yu

gen); that is, a play should

be more concerned with the unique poetic beauty it conveys than

with acting based on characterization or role playing. The play Se-

kidera Komachi—in which the shite bare ly mo ves thr ough out— is

deemed the ﬁnest exemplar of yu

gen.

Many commentators have tried to explain and deﬁne yu

gen

according to various medieval Japanese systems of thought. Yu

gen

originally had religious associations suggesting darkness, profundity,

and mystery, and was used in discussions of 12th-century poetry to

describe evocativeness; it gradually underwent various alterations of

its early meanings and ﬁnally came to represent the peak of exquisite

performance as represented by the hidden beauty beneath the

demeanor of elegant court ladies. Its no

usage includes an element

of spirituality not found in earlier meanings. J. Thomas Rimer and

Masakazu Yamazaki render it as ‘‘Grace’’ (1984), and Yamazaki

explains (xxxviii–xxix) that it appears not by a speciﬁc focus on pro-

ducing beauty in and of itself but through its contrastive relationship

with elements of reality. Thus, as Zeami notes (12), a realistic depic-

tion of a decrepit old man creates the effect of ‘‘an old tree that puts

forth ﬂowers’’ by tempering his performance with ‘‘grace and dig-

nity.’’ Zeami talks in Kakyo

of a yu

gen of the body, a yu

gen of lan-

guage, a yu

gen of music,ayu

gen of dance, and a yu

gen of

monomane in playing the three basic roles ( santai). Even a lowly

peasant, a decrepit crone, or a violent demon must have yu

gen.

There are obvious differences between later uses of the word and

what was considered theatrically beautiful in Zeami’s day, when

gen included the appeal of handsome boys’ faces. Today, yu

gen

can apply equally as well to an aged actor’s performance of a beauti-

ful woman. However, the actor himself does not perform yu

gen; the

term

applies

to what the spectator feels when watching the perform-

ance. And without yu

gen, the crucial aesthetic quality called hana

cannot arise.

JO KABUKI. ‘‘Prostitutes’ kabuki,’’ which was popular in the early

17th century in the wake of Izumo no Okuni’s okuni kabuki and the

subsequent onna kabuki. It ﬂourished from 1615–29. In Kyoto, a

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440 • YU

JO NO KOI

troupe afﬁliated with a brothel in Rokujo

, Misuji-cho

, began per-

forming in the dry bed of the Kamo River at Shijo

, while Edo saw

a troupe arise in the Yoshiwara district. Stages and companies soon

appeared elsewhere as the women competed with one another with

their songs and dances. Unlike onna kabuki, these groups performed

to the accompaniment of the shamisen, had as many as 60 women

in their ranks, increased the use of spectacle, and drew mobs in the

thousands. A number of stars emerged, among them Ikujima Tango

no Kami and Murayama Sakon. Disputes among their patrons led to

their ultimately being banned.

JO NO KOI. ‘‘Prostitutes’ love,’’ a common theme in bunraku and

kabuki, where prostitutes of all levels play a prominent dramaturgic

role. Most such persons are depicted as having hearts of gold, despite

their oppressive circumstances, and they typically display deep sin-

cerity on behalf of the men they love. Often, they allow themselves to

be sold into prostitution in order to rescue their lovers from ﬁnancial

difﬁculties. This is true, for example, of the lady-in-waiting Chidori

in Hirakana Seisuiki; she becomes the courtesan Umegae on behalf

of her lover, Kajiwara Genta, who needs the money in order to

redeem armor (yoroi) he needs for battle. She is even willing to ring

a bell said to grant the ringer’s wishes, in return for which that person

will go to hell. See also KAMIGATA KYO

GEN; SHIMABARA

KYO

GEN.

JO TO NYO

BO. ‘‘Prostitutes and wives,’’ disputes among whom

occur in many bunraku and kabuki plays. Men who have a prostitute

mistress in the brothel district often have a neglected wife at home.

The wives invariably are gentle creatures, like Osan in Shinju

Ten no

Amijima, who devotedly wait upon their spouses. Sometimes, how-

ever, as in ‘‘Obiya’’ (Katsuragawa Renri no Shigarami), the other

woman is not a prostitute. See also SHIMABARA KYO

GEN.

YUKA. Also yokoyuka, the small ‘‘ﬂoor’’ platform found slightly

angled toward the audience at the stage left side of a bunraku stage

for the performance of the chanter and shamisen player. It is also

used by the chobo in kabuki plays borrowed from bunraku (maruhon

mono). It came into use in 1728. Originally, the chanter and shami-

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