6 shows in Tôkyô (Kabukiza, Shinbashi Enbujô, National Theatre), 1 in Nagoya (Chûnichi Theatre) and 1 in Kyôto (Minamiza)!

Ichikawa Danjûrô, Onoe Kikugorô, Sakata Tôjûrô, Nakamura Tokizô, Bandô Mitsugorô, Nakamura Tomijûrô, Nakamura Shikan, Ichikawa Ebizô, Onoe Kikunosuke, Nakamura Baigyoku, Nakamura Kaishun, Nakamura Kanjaku and Nakamura Senjaku perform at the Kabukiza!

Nakamura Kichiemon, Nakamura Shibajaku, Nakamura Fukusuke, Nakamura Kinnosuke and Ichikawa Danshirô perform at the Shinbashi Enbujô!

The Omodakaya guild performs at the Chûnichi Theatre!

Young talented actors perform at the Minamiza!

The Zenshinza troupe performs at the National Theatre!

Ichikawa Danjûrô, Onoe Kikugorô, Sakata Tôjûrô, Nakamura Tokizô, Bandô Mitsugorô, Nakamura Tomijûrô, Nakamura Shikan, Ichikawa Ebizô, Onoe Kikunosuke, Nakamura Baigyoku, Nakamura Kaishun, Nakamura Kanjaku, Nakamura Senjaku, Ichikawa Danzô, Ichikawa Sadanji, Kataoka Hidetarô, Bandô Yajûrô, Onoe Shôroku, Bandô Hikosaburô, Nakamura Tôzô, Bandô Shûchô, Ichikawa Monnosuke, Kawarasaki Gonjûrô, Ôtani Tomoemon, Nakamura Baishi

5th of the 16 Kabukiza Sayonara Kôen, the Kabukiza Farewell Performances, which will be held up to April 2010.

Shibaraku:
(Wait a Minute!)
More ceremony than play, "Shibaraku" is one of the oldest pieces in Kabuki. Just as an evil villain is about to execute a group of loyal retainers, a voice calls out for him to wait and a hero of justice (Ichikawa Ebizô) appears to save the day. This play features the bombastic aragoto style of acting, which is the specialty of the Ichikawa Danjûrô line of actors and is part of the collection of the Eighteen Favorite Plays (Kabuki Jûhachiban) of the Ichikawa Family.

Kotobuki Shôjô: the shôjô is a mythical sake-loving spirit that lives in the sea. In this dance, a sake seller has a mysterious customer that appears daily and drinks enormous amounts with great satisfaction. The sake seller has a dream with instructions to go by the beach with a large tub of sake. As it turns out, the customer has actually been the shôjô in disguise and he drinks and dances joyfully. Starring Nakamura Kaishun as the sake seller and Living National Treasure Nakamura Tomijûrô as the shôjô.

Tenaraiko: a girl dawdles on her way home from school, plays with the butterflies in the field and dreams of love. Starring Living National Treasure Nakamura Shikan.

Kagatobi: the firemen serving the fabulously wealthy Kaga clan were famous for their colorful spirit. This play features a short pageant of these firefighters combined with a dark story of the sinister masseur Dôgen who uses murder, theft and extortion to satisfy his lust and greed. The actor playing Dôgen doubles as one of the gallant bosses of the firefighting gang alongside the firefighter that unmasks Dôgen’s villainy. Starring Onoe Kikugorô as Dôgen and Nakamura Baigyoku as Matsuzô, the firefighter that defeats him.

Modori Kago: two palanquin bearers, one from Ôsaka, the other from Edo (pre-modern Tôkyô), decide to stop and rest. As they do so, each boasts of the respective merits of his native town. Finally, the little apprentice courtesan (kamuro) they have been carrying, alights from the palanquin and joins them in their dance. Featuring Onoe Shôroku as the palanquin bearer from Ôsaka (in reality Ishikawa Goemon), Onoe Kikunosuke as the palanquin bearer from Edo (in reality Goemon's arch-enemy Mashiba Hisayoshi) and Onoe Ukon as the kamuro.

Kezori: one of the most spectacular plays in Kabuki, "Kezori" shows a man who has grown wealthy as a smuggler and shows his exotic lifestyle and expansive spirit. A merchant named Sôshichi (Sakata Tôjûrô) is in love with a courtesan named Kojorô (Onoe Kikunosuke). He boards a boat unaware that it is owned by the smuggler Kezori (Ichikawa Danjûrô) who is also his rival in love. Sôshichi happens to see illicit merchandise being unloaded and Kezori has him thrown into the sea. The boat revolves and Kezori poses on its prow, gazing proudly out at the world he rules. However, Sôshichi survives and goes to Kojorô for help. She says that she will ask one of her patrons for money and Sôshichi greets the patron only to find that it is Kezori. Magnanimously, Kezori forgives Sôshichi and will help him, but on the condition that Sôshichi become a member of his gang.

Yûdachi: a dance to Kiyomoto music with decadent mood of the end of the Edo period. The music was originally composed for a drama "Shiranami Gonin Otoko" but it is now more often used as a music to a dance version of a scene from the drama "Kosaru Shichinosuke". Takikawa (Nakamura Tokizô), a maid of the Edo palace, faints away by a hard roll of thunder. Shichinosuke (Onoe Kikugorô) holds her out from a palanquin. After a fighting scene, they make love in a hut.

Kanda Bayashi: a heart-warming drama by a famous playwright Uno Nobuo (1904~1991) which shows the life of the commoners in Edo in the end of the Edo period. One day at the end of a year, a cooper Tomekichi (Ichikawa Ebizô) is suspected of stealing money which the society of nenbutsu prayers has gathered for a year. Though he did not steal, he rented and paid the sum and worked very hard after that. In September of the next year, the lost money is found and they are reconciled. Tomekichi is not angry as he also doubted them at that time, and thanks them as he could become richer by working harder. Featuring Bandô Mitsugorô as the landlord Hikobê

Oshidori:
(The Lovebirds)
A rare performance of a dance showing two men fighting over a beautiful woman in the guise of a sumô match only to show that the woman and one of the men are actually the spirits of birds, conjugal birds that are an image of faithful love. Starring Onoe Kikunosuke, Onoe Shôroku and Ichikawa Ebizô.

Source: Earphone Guide website

Nakamura Tomijûrô, Nakamura Kichiemon, Nakamura Kanzaburô, Nakamura Shikan, Nakamura Baigyoku, Nakamura Kaishun, Nakamura Hashinosuke, Nakamura Kinnosuke, Ichikawa Danshirô, Nakamura Fukusuke, Ichikawa Somegorô, Onoe Shôroku, Nakamura Kashô, Onoe Ukon, Nakamura Takanosuke

Nakamura Tomijûrô celebrates at the Kabukiza his 80th birthday. This is an important age and it is a custom to celebrate it with a sanju kinen performance, which is this time a short dance program of the association Yaguruma no Kai (yaguruma is the mon of Nakamura Tomijûrô). The Living National Treasure performs the role of Musashibô Benkei in the spectacular dance-drama "Kanjinchô". He also performs with his son Nakamura Takanosuke in the dance "Renjishi".

Nakamura Kichiemon, Nakamura Shibajaku, Nakamura Fukusuke, Nakamura Kinnosuke, Ichikawa Danshirô, Ichikawa Komazô, Nakamura Karoku, Nakamura Kashô, Ichikawa Somegorô, Arashi Keishi, Nakamura Kichinojô, Sawamura Yoshijirô

Nakamura Kichiemon is for the 4th time the zagashira of a troupe performing at the Shinbashi Enbujô. The star plays the roles of Matsunaga Daizen, Kyûroku and Hasegawa Heizô in the dramas "Kinkakuji", "Rakuda" and "Kitsunebi".

Kinkakuji: "Kinkakuji" retains the epic scale of plays adapted from the Bunraku puppet theater and is full of miracles and larger-than-life characters common on the puppet stage. It is full of the classical forms of all kinds of stylized characters and the role of Princess Yuki is considered to be one of the most difficult and beautiful roles for an onnagata female role specialist. Matsunaga Daizen (Nakamura Kichiemon) has defeated the Shôgun and has set up base in the Golden Pavilion. The brilliant strategist Hisayoshi, disguised as a disgruntled retainer named Tôkichi (Ichikawa Somegorô), pretends to come under Daizen's employ to try to sabotage his plans from within. Princess Yuki (Nakamura Shibajaku) is being held prisoner by Daizen, but is able to free herself by drawing a mouse in the cherry petals of the tree that she is tied to. It comes to life and chews the ropes holding her.

Shin'en: this rare and lively dance is about a sacred monkey, messenger of the God in the Hiyoshi shrine in Ôtsu, who dances with a sacred white horse of the shrine. Starring Nakamura Fukusuke in the role of the sacred monkey.

Ômi no Okane: Okane was a famous strong woman living on the shores of Lake Biwa and is known for stopping a runaway horse with her bare hands. This has become a Kabuki dance that combines strength and charming femininity. This production stars Nakamura Fukusuke as Okane.

Both "Shin'en" and "Ômi no Okane" are from the same hengemono, "Mata Koko-ni Sugata Hakkei", which was premiered in the 6th lunar month of 1813 at the Moritaza.

Rakuda: this is a popular dramatization of a rakugo comic story. A petty gang boss named Rakuda has died after eating blowfish. Hanji (Nakamura Kashô), one of his gang members, finds him and hopes to bury him, but has no money. When he tries to get the neighbors to contribute, everyone is overjoyed that such a nuisance is dead, but won't contribute a cent towards his burial. Finally Hanji pulls in a passing waste paper collector named Kyûroku (Nakamura Kichiemon) and forces him to carry around Rakuda's body and threaten to make it dance if the neighbors won't pay up. They get a great sum of money and start drinking together. But as he drinks, the hapless Kyûroku becomes surprisingly aggressive.

Kitsunebi: Onihei Hankachô is a popular series of novels, written by Ikenami Shotarô from 1967, and successfully adapted to television. In all, 135 stories were published. The hero is Hasegawa Heizô, head of the special police who had jurisdiction over arson and robberies in Edo. His nickname is "Onihei," which means "Heizô the Devil". He leads a band of law-enforcers and cultivates reformed criminals as informants to solve difficult crimes. This episode, "The foxfires (or St. Elmo's Fires)" is about the violent and bloody burglary, which has annihilated all the people working in a drugs wholesale shop in Edo Ichigaya. Foxfires labels are found plastered on the walls, hinting to the involment of Kitsunebi Yûgorô gang in the massacre. Heizô is informed by the spy Omasa that Yûgorô has died but his two sons might be involved. Featuring Nakamura Kichiemon and Nakamura Shibajaku in the roles of Onihei and Omasa.

Source: Earphone Guide website, except "Kitsunebi"

Ichikawa Ukon, Ichikawa Danjirô, Ichikawa Emiya, Ichikawa Emisaburô, Ichikawa Shun'en, Ichikawa En'ya, Ichikawa Juen, Ichikawa Kôtarô

Ichikawa Ennosuke's troupe of young and talented actors perform Kimura Kinka's Kabuki adaptation of Jippensha Ikku's picaresque comic novel "Tôkaidôchû Hizakurige".

Hizakurige: this is a rare performance of what was once one of Kabuki’s most popular plays. Based on Jippensha Ikku’s Edo period novel, the play follows the wandering edokko Yaji and Kita as they travel down the Tôkaidô highway with comic adventures along the way. Starring Ichikawa Ukon as Yaji and Ichikawa Danjirô as Kita.

Nakamura Hashinosuke, Kataoka Ainosuke, Nakamura Kantarô, Nakamura Shichinosuke, Ichimura Manjirô

"Ogasawara Sôdô" is a spectacular but hardly performed Kamigata play full of stage tricks (keren). This play was revived in September 1999 at the Minamiza, in March 2000 at the Shinbashi Enbujô and in April 2001 at the Misonoza.

Ogasawara Sôdô:
(The Troubles in the Ogasawara Clan)
This play is based on a true incident in Kyûshû in which the head retainer of a clan gained great power and tried to take over. It was dramatized in the late 19th century in the showy, theatrical style of Kamigata Kabuki. It takes the sober story of the inner workings of a samurai clan and combines them with the scheming of a sexy geisha who has become the lover of a lord, and a magical fox who takes the form of a samurai footman to repay the lord for saving his life. This play was revived in recent years to showcase both this style of Kabuki and the talents of young stars and promises to be an exciting experience of Kabuki. Featuring Nakamura Hashinosuke (Inugami Hyôbu, Okada Ryôsuke), Kataoka Ainosuke (Ogasawara Haito, the yakko Kikuhei, in reality the fox of Mt. Myôjin), Nakamura Shichinosuke (Odai-no-Kata, Koheiji's wife Ohaya) and Nakamura Kantarô (Ogasawara Buzen-no-Kami, Koheiji).

Source: Earphone Guide website

Nakamura Umenosuke, Arashi Keishi, Kawarasaki Kunitarô, Segawa Kikunojô, Fujikawa Yanosuke, Arashi Hironari, Yamazaki Ryûnosuke, Nakamura Seinosuke

The first item of this program is Mayama Seika's shinkabuki 3-part drama about the submission of the Shogunate forces to the Imperial Army in 1868. The second item is a newly-created sewamono, based on a novel written by Matsumoto Seichô. This new drama is the occasion for the Zenshinza troupe to celebrate the 70 years on stage of the great actor Nakamura Umenosuke and the 100th anniversary of the birth of Matsumoto Seichô.