The culture of play: kabuki and the production of texts

Abstract

This article examines the role of performance (defined in its broadest sense) in Japanese literary culture, specifically the relationship between performance and the production of physical texts, both script and illustration. It postulates the thesis that performance has been an essential part of artistic creation even among highly literate artists/writers in the genres of poetry (waka, renga, haikai, kyōka), Nō and kabuki drama. A case is made that artists' salons (including professionals and amateurs) were an integral part of cultural life and that their activities were as important as the physical texts produced in response to such performances. The core of the article focuses on the Kabuki ‘culture of play’ in Osaka, through which actors, poets, artists and fans participated both in performances and in the production of texts such as books on actors (yakusha ehon), books on theatre (gekisho), surimono (privately-commissioned prints commemorating a poetry gathering), single-sheet actor prints, and actor critique books (yakusha hyōbanki).