{"id":51,"date":"2009-02-10T23:24:01","date_gmt":"2009-02-11T03:24:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/?p=51"},"modified":"2018-07-27T18:00:42","modified_gmt":"2018-07-27T18:00:42","slug":"kuromori-kabuki-%e3%81%8f%e3%82%8d%e3%82%82%e3%82%8a%e3%81%8b%e3%81%b6%e3%81%8d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/kuromori-kabuki-%e3%81%8f%e3%82%8d%e3%82%82%e3%82%8a%e3%81%8b%e3%81%b6%e3%81%8d\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese Culture: Kuromori Kabuki (\u304f\u308d\u3082\u308a\u304b\u3076\u304d)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Around February 15th in the city of Kuromori (<strong>\u304f\u308d\u3082\u308a<\/strong>) in Yamagata (<span class=\"t_nihongo_kanji\"><strong>\u5c71\u5f62<\/strong><\/span>) prefecture, the local people of Kuromori (<strong>\u304f\u308d\u3082\u308a<\/strong>) perform a kabuki (<strong>\u304b\u3076\u304d<\/strong>) play.\u00a0 The play is performed at the Hie jinja (<span class=\"t_nihongo_kanji\"><strong>\u65e5\u679d\u795e\u793e<\/strong><\/span>) or the Hie Shrine.\u00a0 It&#8217;s performed to honor the god that resides on Mount Hie (<span class=\"t_nihongo_kanji\"><strong>\u65e5\u679d<\/strong><\/span>).\u00a0 I always find these plays amusing because unlike the noh (<span class=\"t_nihongo_kanji\"><strong>\u80fd<\/strong><\/span>) festival, the actors have no professional training.\u00a0 Anything can go wrong.\u00a0 I&#8217;ve had some good times trying not to laugh when the actors mess up their lines.\u00a0\u00a0For those of you who are unfamilar with kabuki (<strong>\u304b\u3076\u304d<\/strong>), it&#8217;s a play where actors wear heavy makeup and elaborate costumes while singing and acting.<\/p>\n<p>Everything about the Kuromori Kabuki (<strong>\u304f\u308d\u3082\u308a\u304b\u3076\u304d<\/strong>) festival depends on teamwork.\u00a0 The plays are performed outside with a stage constructed by the local residents of the town.\u00a0 These makeshift plays always\u00a0have a hanamichi (<strong>\u82b1\u9053<\/strong>).\u00a0 A hanamichi (<strong>\u82b1\u9053<\/strong>) is a walkway that allows the actors to move through the audience.\u00a0 You can get a close up view of the actors and at the same time see their facial expressions.\u00a0 It allows the audience to connect with the actors that much more.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"float: left\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lakelandschools.us\/lh\/modonnell\/virtualjapan\/pictures\/kabukistagefloor.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" \/>The coolest part of the stage for me, is the mawari butai (<strong>\u307e\u308f\u308a\u3076\u305f\u3044<\/strong>).\u00a0 A mawari butai (<strong>\u307e\u308f\u308a\u3076\u305f\u3044<\/strong>) is a revolving stage that allows the scene of the play to change in an instant.\u00a0 From time to time I can see the stage hands move some props, but other than that, the mawari butai (<strong>\u307e\u308f\u308a\u3076\u305f\u3044<\/strong>) allows scenes to change flawlessly.\u00a0 Another cool aspect: the seri (<strong>\u305b\u308a<\/strong>).\u00a0 The seri (<strong>\u305b\u308a<\/strong>) is a trap door where actors can magically reappear before the crowd.<\/p>\n<p>Besides the feat of engineering required to pull off a kabuki (<strong>\u304b\u3076\u304d<\/strong>) play, the cooperation and sweat involved to put this together is what makes the festival enjoyable to watch.\u00a0 It&#8217;s just nice to see how working together can create an awesome result!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"232\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2009\/02\/kabukistagefloor-350x232.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2009\/02\/kabukistagefloor-350x232.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2009\/02\/kabukistagefloor.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>Around February 15th in the city of Kuromori (\u304f\u308d\u3082\u308a) in Yamagata (\u5c71\u5f62) prefecture, the local people of Kuromori (\u304f\u308d\u3082\u308a) perform a kabuki (\u304b\u3076\u304d) play.\u00a0 The play is performed at the Hie jinja (\u65e5\u679d\u795e\u793e) or the Hie Shrine.\u00a0 It&#8217;s performed to honor the god that resides on Mount Hie (\u65e5\u679d).\u00a0 I always find these plays amusing&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/kuromori-kabuki-%e3%81%8f%e3%82%8d%e3%82%82%e3%82%8a%e3%81%8b%e3%81%b6%e3%81%8d\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":6346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2761,2777],"class_list":["post-51","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-japanese-play","tag-kabuki"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6264,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions\/6264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}