Meet Japan’s Greatest Kabuki Star, Danjuro Ichikawa XIII

TOKYO (AP) — Onstage, Danjuro Ichikawa, one of many greatest stars of Japan’s Kabuki theater, is a virtuoso in switching roles.

In his newest manufacturing, he performs 13 elements, together with a princess, a sushi chef and a fox. He hobbles offstage as a feeble previous man, then dashes again on moments later as a fierce warrior. He will get in a number of sword fights, dies tragically greater than as soon as, and takes flight on wires.

Offstage, he’s questioning if it’s time for the usually inflexible function of a Kabuki star to alter.

The thirteenth man to bear the identify Danjuro Ichikawa — which has been handed down between generations of Kabuki stars for over 300 years — he’s a family identify in Japan, displaying up in adverts, films and TV reveals.

Kabuki, an all-male theatrical custom that mixes music, dance and acrobatics, stays fashionable, however Danjuro grants that it may be out of step with trendy tastes. Audiences accustomed to TikTok movies and streaming don’t at all times have the persistence for four-hour performances in archaic formal Japanese. Social distancing restrictions through the pandemic hit theaters onerous, and audiences are nonetheless coming again.

Danjuro has made efforts to replace Kabuki in “Hoshiawase Jusandan,” on the Kabukiza Theater in Tokyo by July 24, trimming longer scenes and modernizing some dialogue.

“Conventional tradition could be onerous to comply with and get tiresome, however I hope folks can have enjoyable. The motion strikes shortly as a result of I’m one particular person enjoying 13 roles,” Danjuro informed The Related Press.

Dapper and tanned, Danjuro, 46, might be disarmingly playful for a well-known artist. Amid discussions of the way forward for reside efficiency, he gamely posed for photographs, putting the sort of pose you’d see on the romantic lead of a manga comedian guide.

The all-male theatrical style might be intensely conservative, preserving a lot of its traditions practically unchanged from the Edo court docket.

Right this moment’s Danjuro took on the identify in 2022, after going by earlier names he and all of the earlier Danjuros have gone by: Shinnosuke, after which Ebizo.

Coaching begins at childhood. When he was 20, about to go on stage for the primary time because the monk Benkei — a task that his father, grandfather and all of the Danjuros earlier than him had made well-known — the stress was so intense he ran away and spent the evening sleeping within the park. He did get again in time for the present.

Right this moment’s Danjuro inherited the identify from his father, Danjuro XII, who died in 2013 at 66 of leukemia.

The dying price him each a beloved guardian and a trainer he desperately want. At 35, he was nonetheless a novice by Kabuki requirements, an artform through which stunning maidens are sometimes performed by octogenarian masters. He had to turn to uncles and veterans from other families to learn the craft, defying criticism from friends and even household who stated solely a Danjuro can educate one other Danjuro.

However nowadays, critics say the thirteenth Danjuro resides as much as his identify.

Regardless of the artwork’s agency dedication to custom, Danjuro says, Kabuki tales comprise common feelings that younger folks and foreigners who’re new to the style can join with.

In “Hoshiawase Jusandan,” he performs a fox who disguises himself as a warrior to stalk a court docket dancer who’s carrying a drum comprised of the disguise of his dad and mom.

When on the climax, a merciful samurai provides the fox the drum, Danjuro’s takes flight on wires, bouncing with pleasure over the gang towards the third-floor balcony seats, accompanied by drums, flute and music.

The showy, considerably dated impact may appear like one thing out of a circus — but it surely sells a transferring scene that contrasts the human folly of battle and revenge with the straightforward love proven by an animal.

For all his fear, Danjuro says he trusts that the ability of human efficiency will survive.

He’s coaching his son Shinnosuke to take his place, and taking good care of his well being to make sure future generations of Shinnosukes have an opportunity to know their ancestor.

In the future, Shinnosuke will turn into Ebizo, and later, he’ll be Danjuro XIV.

“One should reside,” stated Danjuro. “That’s my duty.”