The onnagata Iwai Hanshirō V as the grocer’s daughter Oshichi. Artist: Utagawa Kunisada I. c.1815. On stage, it is a cold, dark night towards the end of the 12th month. At this late hour in the Hongō district of old Edo, the city gates are already firmly barred and there seems no way for […]
The Noh play Teika by Bunzo Otsuki, the Kanze school shite-kata actor and Living National Treasure “I want to grow wings and fly to him…” She yearns for her lover. The enduring passions of love from the Japanese civil war era overflow from Princess Yaegaki, brought to life by the Bunraku puppeteer, Kanjuro Kiritake. […]
