Kabuki 3

The Sorrows of Oyama (女形)’s life

Mitsumi Yamamoto

 

              In 2012, Tamasaburou Bandou (坂東　玉三郎), who is one of Oyama (女形) actors in Kabuki theater, was certified as a Japanese Preserver of Important Intangible Cultural Properties, so called 人間国宝 (Ningen-Kokuhou). Oyama (女形) refers to male actors who pretend to women in Kabuki theater. As I wrote in early blogs, the Edo government prohibited women from appearing on the Kabuki stage because it encouraged sex industry and trouble between female actress and male audience. Therefore, the only way for Kabuki business to survive was adopting Oyama in the performance. This is the origin of current Oyama. These days Oyama is one of the essential parts of Kabuki. The certification as a Japanese Preserver of Important Intangible Cultural Properties tells us that Oyama was accepted as the special skill of all the Japanese traditional entertainments. However, this role was not proud or respectful at all in the Edo Period, when Oyama was just a “substitute” for real women.  

              In 1793, when Japan was in the Edo period, a popular writer visited Godaime Danjyuurou (五代目　團十郎) in his dressing room. He was a 53 year-old famous Kabuki actor and dressing for a women’s role for the coming Kabuki performance when the writer entered the room. According to the writer, he started to sob out his sorrow as Oyama, “If I did not engage in this Kabuki business, my son would have taken over a family business and I would have spent the rest of my life in retirement about this time. But I am pretending to women even at my old age. That is simply because I was an actor of humble birth. What an inevitable fate…” The writer did not know what to say. After this event, he wrote like this, “Kabuki actor should not think about his life as Oyama. Once he starts to think about that seriously, his performance does not look attractive in the least and it will not last that he can play his role well on the stage.” As the writer expected, Danjyuurou bowed out of Kabuki business after 3 years.   

              This interesting anecdote tells me some sorrows of Kabuki actor. Almost all Kabuki actors were born in the specific village, called Buraku, which suffered severe discrimination at that time. There must have been the sorrow as people belonging to the lowest class in the Japanese society. They attracted audiences as Kabuki actors, on the other hand they were discriminated and despised from the audiences because of their lowest class in the society. Also, there must have been the sorrow that they can become whatever they want to be such as feudal lord, general and even a beautiful princess on the stage, but they are completely made-up story, so called fiction when they are out of the stage. However, his biggest sorrow I felt from this story is that he had to act as Oyama in Kabuki theaters. Now in Japan, this role is so respectful and special that Japanese people cannot imagine Kabuki performance without Oyama. However, it was entirely unnatural for men to behave like women in the Edo period. Sometimes they felt ashamed of pretending to women.

Nowaday there is no prohibition that women must not appear on the stage. This style of Kabuki might change and male actors do not have to play women’s role anymore. In the Meiji period, there was actually a controversy that male should not play female’s role. However, Oyama has been preserved since the Edo Government’s command. That is because they overcame those sorrows and struggled to reach the top of their profession. Oyama actors have dedicated theirs to Kabuki business and spent their lives as “women” even when they were out of the stage. It means that they lived their lives as if it was performance and fiction story. It is not possible to know how difficult and big their determinations to live as Oyama were. At the present time, Oyama’s behavior as women is said to be much more feminine than real women. There must have been those struggles and sorrows in this background.

References

Yoshinosuke. (n.d.). Oyama no kanashimi. Retrieved from http://www5b.biglobe.ne.jp/~kabusk/dentoh14.htm  

Syodai kara godaime danjyuurou. Retrieved from

http://www.arc.ritsumei.ac.jp/archive01/theater/html/200412ebizo/set-a.htm

Kabuki to burakusabetsu no kankei. Retrieved from

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~mg5s-hsgw/tkburaku/history/danzaemon03.html