Kabuki is the classical and popular larger-than-life Japanese music theater tradition. Our 2023 festival has invited guest Kabuki dancers Kikuhiro Otowa and Ritsuyo Wazaogi, both from Tokyo, to produce and present a Kabuki dance extravaganza, replete with live music, drama, dance and stage effects, audience participation and much more.
With its elaborate makeup, gorgeous costumes and stylized pantomime, there are few forms of entertainment that are as iconically Japanese as the ancient mix of dance and drama known as Kabuki. And yet, modern Japanese students tend to have little interest in it, which frustrates Kurogo Kurusu. Kurogo has loved Kabuki ever since he was […]
Kabuki is the classical and popular larger-than-life Japanese music theater tradition. Our 2023 festival has invited guest Kabuki dancers Kikuhiro Otowa and Ritsuyo Wazaogi, both from Tokyo, to produce and present a Kabuki dance extravaganza, replete with live music, drama, dance and stage effects, audience participation and much more.
Showcasing pieces from the collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, this presentation will introduce Kabuki prints, featuring some beloved repertoires such as Chūshingura (Treasury of Loyal Retainers) and Musume Dōjōji (The Maiden at Dōjōji), in addition to portraits of famous Kabuki actors.
This lecture will examine how the history of kabuki theater – particularly the influence of the Tokugawa-era government in its early days – gave rise to the gender-subverting onnagata, or men who play female roles, and a comparison of them against the modern-day otokoyaku – women who act the parts of men in the Takarazuka Revue performance group.
In this 90-minute-long workshop participants will use their folding skills to make two of following kabuki themed origami models: a Kimono and a traditional Hannya mask.
Kabuki is the classical and popular larger-than-life Japanese music theater tradition. Our 2023 festival has invited guest Kabuki dancers Kikuhiro Otowa and Ritsuyo Wazaogi, both from Tokyo, to produce and present a Kabuki dance extravaganza, replete with live music, drama, dance and stage effects, audience participation and much more.