In the second year of Kanzheng (1790 AD), December 4——

Nishikino Town, inside a certain house——

As soon as Ogata entered the house, he saw Nishino Jiro.

Nishino Jiro was sitting cross-legged on the ground, carefully watching the rehearsal of the members of Takarashimaya in front of him.

When Nishino Jiro and the members of Takarashimaya saw Ogata entering the room, they immediately stopped what they were doing and faced Ogata and saluted him.

With the concerted efforts of Ogata and Nishino Jiro, they finally successfully completed the script the day before yesterday - it must be said that Nishino Jiro is very talented in writing.

In such a short period of time, a script was completed that made Ogata very satisfied.

Ogata actually doesn't understand Kabuki, and he doesn't know what kind of Kabuki script is considered a good script.

He only knew that under his guidance, Nishino Jiro's kabuki script was basically in line with historical facts and could be read as a history book.

In Ogata's eyes, as long as the script based on his deeds is consistent with the real situation, it is a good script.

After finishing the script around 9 a.m. the day before yesterday, Nishino Jiro excitedly took the script with him and took Ogata to find their only kabuki troupe in Nishikino Town - Takarashimaya.

According to Jiro Nishino, although Takarashimaya is a kabuki troupe, all the members only regard kabuki as a full-time job, and there are no people who rely solely on kabuki for their livelihood.

All the members of Takarashimaya usually have their main jobs, and only regard kabuki as a hobby and part-time job. They usually work on their main jobs, and only when there are festivals, they get together to perform a play to satisfy their hobbies

You can also use this to make some extra money.

Because they do not rely on Kabuki to make a living, but rely solely on enthusiasm to perform Kabuki, every play performed by Takarashimaya is of high quality. It is famous in Nishikino Town and is popular among the people of Nishikino Town.

welcome.

Whenever there is a kabuki performance at Takarashimaya, the tickets are sold out quickly, and every performance is almost always full.

Every New Year, Takarashimaya performs kabuki in Kinkino Town.

Because of Takarashimaya's high popularity, watching Takarashimaya's performances has become one of the things that many people in Kinkino Town must do every New Year.

Nishino Jiro, who aspires to become a "Kabuki playwright", has a very good relationship with Takarashimaya.

Previously, Nishino Jiro had made an agreement with Takarashimaya - this year's New Year, Takarashimaya will perform a new play written by Nishino Jiro.

Therefore, the members of Takarashimaya have been waiting for this script written by Nishino Jiro for a long time.

The morning before yesterday, when Jiro Nishino handed the completed script to the members of Takarashimaya for reading, all the members of Takarashimaya praised the script written by Jiro Nishino and said that this is a movie that may be a big hit.

A welcome drama.

There are 15 members in Treasure Island House, 8 of whom are responsible for playing music and 7 for acting - all of them are eager to give it a try. They just received the script the day before yesterday and started rehearsing in full swing immediately.

Chinese opera and Japanese kabuki are very similar in many aspects. For example: these two performing arts have dedicated people responsible for playing background music on the spot.

In Chinese opera, there are dedicated people behind the scenes who are responsible for playing the erhu, playing the castanets, and providing background music for the performances in front of the curtain.

The Japanese kabuki is similar - there are dedicated people behind the scenes who are responsible for playing the shamisen, shakuhachi, and various musical instruments to provide background music for the performances in front of the curtain.

In a professional kabuki troupe, in addition to those who are responsible for playing music and performing drills, there are also those who are responsible for makeup, setting up the stage background, and doing odd jobs...

And Takarashimaya is just an amateur theater troupe where all the members only take kabuki as a side job, so it is barely enough to have two types of people who are responsible for playing music and responsible for performing.

The play written by Jiro Nishino requires at least seven people to star in it - just the right number.

Through the time he spent writing scripts with Nishino Jiro a few days ago, Ogata also became somewhat curious about the art of kabuki.

Since the script was compiled the day before yesterday and rehearsals have begun, Ogata's daily morning activities have changed from "writing the script with Nishino Jiro" to "coming and watching their rehearsals."

The room Ogata is currently walking into is the place where the members of Takarashimaya rehearse kabuki.

"Good morning! Majima-kun!" Jiro Nishino greeted Ogata with a warm tone as always.

"Good morning." Ogata nodded in agreement and sat cross-legged next to Nishino Jiro, "How is everyone's rehearsal going?"

"So far it's going well!" Nishino's tone was filled with excitement that could not be concealed. "Everyone is very enthusiastic! We can't wait to perform "Ittōsai" as soon as possible in the New Year."

"Ittosai" - the name Ogata and others gave to this play.

A good name determines the life or death of a drama to some extent.

If we can come up with a loud and catchy title that even illiterate people can remember, it will greatly promote the spread of this drama.

After finishing writing the script, Obanon and Nishino racked their brains to think of what name to give the play.

In the end, Ogata made the decision to name the play "Ittousai".

Although Ogata now has a lot of titles, "Ittosai the Executioner", "Ogata Ittosai", "Renzai Yishi", "Shura"...

But the most widely circulated one is undoubtedly "The Executioner Ittosai".

Since Ogata left the feudal clan, almost all the people he has met who call him by his title have chosen to call him "Ittousai" or "Ogata Ittousai", and very few people have called him by other titles.

he.

The three characters "Ittosai" only have three syllables, are catchy, and are widely circulated.

This play is based on his deeds, so it is appropriate to use the title "Ittousai" as the title of this play.

After Ogata proposed the name "Ittosai", Nishino Jiro immediately nodded in agreement with his eyes shining.

So the name of the show was decided.

"That's good." Ogata smiled and nodded, and then silently followed Nishino Jiro to watch the members of Takarashimaya who were rehearsing "Ittōsai" in front of them.

While writing the script with Nishino Jiro, Ogata also learned a lot about Kabuki from Nishino Jiro.

Early Kabuki was not something that could be put on the stage. It was a bit like a modern gray industry.

When Kabuki first came into being, it mainly relied on showing off its colors to attract attention.

Many female kabuki actors rely on their beauty to attract people to watch their performances.

A very small number of female kabuki performers often engage in body trade while performing kabuki.

After the Edo shogunate noticed this chaos, they felt it was immoral. So in the sixth year of Kanei (1629 AD), the Edo shogunate issued a ban on "female kabuki", and women were prohibited from performing kabuki.

Without women to perform, what will happen to the female characters in the play?

Then let a cute boy play the role.

After the Edo shogunate issued a ban on "female kabuki", "Wakazo Kabuki" was born.

"Ruozhong" refers to underage men.

The ban on "Ononna Kabuki" caused people to shift their attention more to the lovely "Wakazo Kabuki".

The important task of playing female roles and selling out the beauty to attract attention has been transferred from the "female kabuki" to the shoulders of "wakazuki kabuki".

In the first year of the agreement (Convention 1652), the Edo shogunate also banned Ruozhong Kabuki on the grounds that it was immoral.

At this point, neither women nor underage men can perform in Kabuki, and only adult men can perform in Kabuki.

But the troubled history of Kabuki is not over yet.

As the saying goes, "There are policies from above and countermeasures from below." After the Edo shogunate banned minors from performing in Kabuki, many minors still pretended to be adults and continued to perform in Kabuki.

And it’s not just underage men who have cute looks. There are also a lot of cute looking people among adult men.

Therefore, even if the shogunate issued a ban on "female kabuki" and "wakazuki kabuki", kabuki relies on selling its sex appeal to attract attention, and the current situation of a large number of kabuki actors doing immoral things has not changed at all.

The Edo shogunate was furious and thought that all the kabuki actors could not be saved.

Therefore, in the second year of the Mei Dynasty (1656 AD), the shogunate ordered the demolition of all the theaters in Kyoto, the center of kabuki, on the grounds of the Kabuki riots.

When Kabuki was almost swept into the trash can of history, later, with the efforts of many defenders of Kabuki, the shogunate agreed to let Kabuki go on the condition that "the sex appeal should be removed and orthodox drama should be performed."

Since then, Kabuki has officially embarked on the path of "serious" drama.

Thanks to the efforts of many Kabuki playwrights and Kabuki actors, Kabuki has gradually changed from a "gray industry" that is not very popular on the stage to the current performing art that is very popular on the stage and is loved by all classes.

However, the shogunate has not yet lifted the ban on "female kabuki" and "wakazuki kabuki".

Therefore, all members of Takarashimaya who are currently rehearsing in front of Ogata are, without exception, all adult men.

On the Kabuki stage, all roles are played by adult men, regardless of whether they are male or female.

So you don't need any doubt - every female character you see on the Kabuki stage, no matter how beautiful "she" looks, is a master of cross-dressing.

In "Ittosai" written by Ogata and Nishino, there are female characters - two female characters based on Asaki and Fuku from the izakaya where Ogata used to work.

When he learned that the two characters based on Asaki and Afu had to be played by men, Ogata felt very complicated.

Fortunately - the ones responsible for playing these two female characters based on Asaki and Afu are two very handsome men from Takarashimaya.

According to Jiro Nishino, these two are the actors who specialize in playing women in Takarashimaya.

After women and minors were banned from performing in kabuki, the female roles in the play were all taken by handsome-looking young people, preferably boys and girls.

After accompanying Nishino Jiro to watch the rehearsal of Takarashimaya for a while, Obanon excused himself and left.

Although Ogata comes to watch rehearsals almost every morning, it is impossible to spend the whole morning here watching others rehearse, otherwise he will be bored to death.

So Ogata would just look at him briefly, then leave, and then rush to the Hosei Sword Hall to gain experience... Ah, no. He was giving pointers to the apprentices of the Hosho Sword Hall and gaining some experience at the same time.

Anyway, the rehearsal venue of Takarashimaya is quite close to the Hosei Kenkan, so it won’t be in the way.

…
To be continued...