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The Birth of the Hanamichi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2009

Suwa Haruo
Suwa Haruo
Affiliation:
Suwa Haruo isProfessor of Theatre Studies at Gakushuin University, Tokyo.
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Extract

Of all the various features associated with the kabuki theatre, few are as well known outside Japan as the hanamichi, the raised runway joined to the stage at the actors' right and proceeding through the auditorium to a curtained room at the rear. Used for major exits and entrances, it is also the site of important acting sequences. Because the hanamichi brings actors and spectators into close proximity without abandoning a stage-auditorium relationship similar to that in Western proscenium theatres, it has been of considerable interest to international theatre artists. Although its aesthetic and practical uses have been described in various Western sources, little attention has been paid to the hanamichi's origins. Among Japanese scholars, there is nearly as much contention surrounding this question as there is among Western scholars regarding the origins of the proscenium arch, the Elizabethan theatre's alcove, or the classical Greek theatre's use of a raised stage.

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Research International , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , Spring 1999 , pp. 24 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 1999

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References

Notes

All notes followed by (trans.) are those of the translator.

1. The premodern kabuki theatre, which had additional features that would require too much space to detail here, used what might be called a combination endstage and thrust arrangement. In the nineteenth century, the thrust was eliminated, and, finally, under Western influence, a proscenium was installed (trans.).

2. There are a number of examples of the hanamichi's influence on leading Western practitioners. One of the earliest attempts to employ it was Max Reinhardt's pantomime Sumurûn (1910), which, after being shown in New York, is believed to have inspired similar ramps in vaudeville and burlesque. More recently, Ariane Mnouchine's Les Atrides (1992) used a moving ramp through the audience that seemed to me a modern reconceptualization of the hanamichi. For an excellent discussion of the ways in which the hanamichi figured in the development of modern Western theatre, see Fischer-Lichte, Erika, The Show and the Gaze of Theatre: A European Perspective (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1997) (trans.).Google Scholar

3. For supporters of the hashigakari into hanamichi theory, see Cavaye, Ronald, Kabuki: A Pocket Guide (Rutland, Vt., and Tokyo: Tuttle, 1993), p. 24Google Scholar; Scott, A. C., The Kabuki Theatre of Japan (London: Allen and Unwin, 1956), p. 277Google Scholar; and Ernst, Earle, The Kabuki Theatre (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1956), pp. 49–50.Google Scholar Ernst, whose work is based largely on the writings of Japanese scholar Suda Atsuô, provides a good account of the kabuki theatre's architectural history (trans.).

4. Those who support one or another version of the idea that front steps used for gift giving evolved into the hanamichi include Kawatake, Toshio, in Inoura, Yoshinobu and Kawatake, Toshio, The Traditional Theater of Japan (New York and Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1981), p. 184Google Scholar; Gunji, Masakatsu, Kabuki (Tokyo and Palo Alto, Ca.: Kôdansha, 1969), p. 45.Google Scholar Donald Shivery refers not to steps but to a small frontal platform for the placement of gifts. See ‘The Social Environment of Tokugawa Kabuki’, in Brandon, James R., Malm, William P., and Shively, Donald, eds., Studies in Kabuki: Its Acting, Music, and Historical Context (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1978), p. 16 (trans.).Google Scholar

5. Bowers, Faubion, Japanese Theatre (New York: Hermitage House, 1952), pp. 144–5 (trans.).Google Scholar

6. (Tokyo: Benseisha, 1991) (trans.).

7. I wish to thank Professor Torigoe Bunzô (Waseda University), Professor Masako Yuasa (Leeds University), and my graduate assistant Mr. Ikawa Yasukazu for very helpful suggestions regarding translation problems (trans.).

8. This famous book is known in Japanese by the titles Yakusha Rongo and Yakusha Banashi (trans.).

9. Dunn, Charles J. and Torigoe, Bunzo, eds. and trans., The Actors' Analects (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1969), p. 113 (trans.).Google Scholar

10. For background on these architectural features, see Ernst, , The Kabuki Theatre, pp. 24–66Google Scholar, and Leiter, , ‘Butai’, in New Kabuki Encyclopedia: A Revised Adaptation of ‘Kabuki Jiten’ (Westport, Ct.: Greenwood, 1997), pp. 49–53.Google Scholar Suwa's article provides background on the tsuke butai not found in any English-language source. All technical terms used by Suwa are described in Leiter (trans.).

11. ‘Za’ means ‘theatre’ in this context, but I prefer to keep the original Japanese usage rather than to say ‘Hayakumo Theatre’ (trans.).

12. Kenji, Shuzui, reviewer, Nihon Meicho Zenshû: Kabuki Kyakuhonshû [Complete Collection of Famous Japanese Authors: Kabuki Playscript Collection] (Tokyo: Nihon Meicho Zenshû Kankôkai, 1928).Google Scholar

13. These are references to actors, not the characters they are playing (trans.).

14. Kabuki Daichô Shûsei Daiikkan (Kabuki Script Collection: Volume One) (Tokyo: Benseisha, 1983).

15. Theatres were lit by daylight streaming in from windows high up at both sides of the interior. These can be seen in most woodblock prints of theatre interiors (trans.).

16. The kabuki stage of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, being under the influence of noh architecture, long retained the noh theatre's front pillars, and the roof that—under the theatre's regular roof—they supported (trans.).

17. ‘Hanamichi Kô’, in Edo Kabuki Ron [Discussions of Edo Kabuki] (Tokyo: Hôsei Daigaku Shuppan Kyoku, 1980).

18. Kabuki o Mini Hito no Tame ni [For People Who View Kabuki] (Tokyo: Tamagawa Daigaku Shuppanbu, 1979).

19. Nihon Gekijô Shi [History of Japanese Theatres] (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1925).

20. Hayashiya Tatsusaburô, ‘Kabuki no Gekijô Kôzô no Shinka’ [Evolution of Kabuki Theatre Construction], in Kabuki Gashô [Kabuki Pictorial Evidence] (Tokyo: Tokyodo, 1931).

21. Ennen is a still surviving medieval ritual dance that played a role in the formation of noh (trans.).

22. Ikeda Yasaburô, ‘Gekijô [[Kankyaku Seki, Sajiki, Butai, Hanamichi) Sono Geinoh Shiteki Kôsatsu’ [Theatres (Seating, Private Boxes, Stage, Hanamichi): Performative-Historical Considerations of Them], in Kabuki Zensho Daiichi Ikkan [Complete Kabuki Writings: Volume One] (Tokyo: Tôkyô Sôgensha, 1956). Reprinted in Nihon Rekishi Shinsho: Edo Jidai no Geinô [New Writings in Japanese History: Performing Arts of the Edo Period] (Tokyo: Shibundo, 1960).

23. Aoe Shunjirô, ‘Hanamichi Shikô’ [Hanamichi Thoughts] in Nihon Geinô no Genryu [The Sources of Japan's Performing Arts] (Tokyo: Iwasaki Bijutusha, 1971). Bowers's explanation of sumo's connection with the kabuki hanamichi is slightly different from this.

24. Origuchi Shinobu, ‘Muromachi Jidai no Bungaku’ [Literature of the Muromachi Period] in Chû Kobun Gura: Origuchi Shinobu Zenshû Daijûnikan [Treasury of Middle Age Archives: Complete Collection of Origuchi Shinobu's Writings, Volume Twelve] (Tokyo: np, 1976).

25. Hana—Bi e no Kôdô to Nihon Bunka [Flower—The Behavior Toward Beauty and Japanese Culture] (Tokyo: Nihon Hôsô Shuppan Kyôkai, 1969). Reprinted in Nishiyama Matsunosuke Chosakushû Daihakkan [Collection of the Writings of Nishiyama Matsunosuke, Volume Eight] (Tokyo: Yoshikawa Hiroshi Bunkan, 1985).

26. The kaomise production was the first of the season. Held in the eleventh month, it was the most gala event of the kabuki calendar, as it introduced the actors (thus the term ‘face showing’) making up a theatre's new company (trans.).

27. According to a volume in the Japanese Literature Study Archives of Gakushuin University. There are portions missing from the book.

28. This quotation does not include the word hanamichi, and I was going to exchange that word for kaomise, suspecting a misprint; Professor Torigoe has suggested to me, however, that the original is correct. He says it implies the use of the hanamichi because it was there that, during the kaomise production, male and female characters interacted (trans.).

29. Yakusha Gan Hodoki (Kyoto, 1716). Variously titled volumes containing critiques of all actors worthy of billing were published annually in Edo, Osaka, and Kyoto from the late seventeenth century to the years shortly after Japan was opened to the West. These provide a detailed record of theatrical accomplishments unparalleled in any other culture (trans.).

30. There is a reproduction of this picture in Gunji, Kabuki, p. 229 (trans.).

31. Saruwaka was a major comical character in early kabuki, appearing in numerous works (trans.).

32. They were introduced in Narasaki Muneshige, ‘Saruwaka Kanzaburô Shijô Gawara Shibai Kôgyô Zukan’ [Picture of Kabuki Performance by Saruwaka Kanzaburô in the Dry Riverbed at Shijô, Kyoto], Kokka (National Pride), 1127 (October 1989).

33. Hanaikusa was a kind of colorful game involving fighting with flowers (trans.).

34. The phrases Wakoko hanaikusa / Shimoyo no kaze were part of a tradition in which characterizing expressions were painted on the theatre's billboards preceding the actual title as a way of summing up the dramatic contents. This tradition was called ‘horn writing’ or tsunogaki (trans.).

35. Translated as Kagotsurube in Richie, Donald and Watanabe, Miyoko, trans., Six Kabuki Plays (Tokyo: Hokuseido, 1963).Google Scholar

36. Suwa is especially interested in the relation between Danjûrô I and his performances of Kinpira, the character most instrumental in the development of aragoto-style acting (trans.).

37. A reproduction of Moronobu's picture is in Gunji, Kabuki, p. 230 (trans.).

38. (Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten, 1970).

39. Sakaomodaka is a kind of armour braiding (trans.).

40. Professor Suwa does not mention the fact that, once it became a permanent feature, the hanamichi in Edo theatres was first installed in the auditorium at an oblique angle, while in Kamigata theatres it ran at a right angle, which is how all hanamichi soon were built (trans.).

41. In Shuzui Kenji and Akiba Hami, eds., Kabuki Zusetsu [Explanations of Kabuki Pictures] (Tokyo: Manyôkaku, 1931). Reprinted in Shuzui Kenji Chosakushû Bekkan [Collection of the Writings of Shuzui Kenji, Supplementary Volume] (Tokyo: Kasama Shoin, 1977).

42. There is a full-color reproduction in Lane, Richard, Images from the Floating World: The Japanese Print (New York: Konecky and Konecky, 1978), p. 77.Google Scholar

43. In Genshoku Ukiyo-e Daihyakka Jiten Daikkan [Encyclopedia of Colour Pictures of the Floating World, Volume One] (Tokyo: Daishûkan, 1982).

44. Reproduction in author's collection.

45. ‘Tsuke Butai’, in Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum, ed., Engeki Hyakka Daijiten [Great Encyclopaedia of the Theatre] (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1962).

46. A reference to plays such as Ashiya Dôman Ôuchi Kagami (1734), also known as Kuzu no Ha, in which a fox takes the form of a hunter's absent wife, and lives with him (trans.).

47. In the woodblock prints, unlike in Suwa's diagram, what he terms the C-type tsuke butai is shown running through the audience at an oblique, not a right, angle, [trans.]

48. ‘Nanoridai’, in Tsubouchi Museum, Engeki Hyakka Daijiten.

49. Nihon Engeki Shi no Kenkyû. (Studies of Japanese Theatre History) (Tokyo: Sagami Shoten, 1949).

50. One of the most important features of the shichi-san is an elevator trap at this position, the suppon, used for the entrances of strange or supernatural figures (trans.).

51. Imao, , Kabuki o Mini Hito no Tame ni.Google Scholar

52. Ningyô Butai Shi Kôhen: Daini Bunsatsu: Kaisetsu no Bu [Puppet Stage History, Later Edition: Second Separate Volume: Explanatory Section] ((Tokyo: Kokuritsu Gekijô, 1980).

53. The tesuri is the low, horizontal flat behind which the puppet manipulators stand, pretending that the upper edge of the flat is the floor on which the puppets they hold are standing or sitting (trans.).

54. Ningyô Butai Shi.

55. Following his endnotes, Suwa adds a postscript. He notes that, subsequent to the completion of his essay, he was given the opportunity of a single viewing of a rare manuscript in someone's (unidentified) private possession. Dated 1674, the manuscript shows a captioned illustration of the interior of a temporary noh theatre. Remarkably, this noh theatre is equipped with a hanamichi and is labelled as such. A bamboo railing runs along both sides of a ramp that is about two and a half feet wide and that extends from the front of the approximately eighteen square foot stage to the boxes at the rear. Because the ramp is somewhat lower than the stage, Suwa concludes that it would have been inconvenient for entrances and suggests that it may more likely have been used for gift presentations. He also wonders whether this document does not contain the first recorded use of the word hanamichi.