広島工業大学紀要研究編
第 44 巻（2010）pp.369-382

論文

Seventeenth Century Kabuki: Rationales of Control

Donald FOWLER *(Received Oct. 30, 2009)

Abstract
During the course of the seventeenth century, kabuki was accommodated within the concurrently developing Tokugawa order. Starting as deviant, subversive, bawdy entertainment in
the aftermath of the wars of unification, by the end of the century kabuki was effectively an established form of theatre undergoing formalization of its every aspect, with the important proviso that it was deemed fit only for commoners. This paper traces the ideological, historical andaesthetic pressures that came to bear on the development of this now iconic form of Japaneseculture. A four-fold schema is proposed: public order concerns; policing the boundaries of theTokugawa social order; maintaining samurai identity and pre-eminence; and long-standing
samurai – merchant political contestation.
Key Words: Kabuki, control, seventeenth century, Tokugawa

more violent and subversive than punk even

Introduction

threatened to be. When the battle of Sekigahara

At the beginning of the seventeenth century great

secured the hegemony of Tokugawa Ieyasu ininterest was aroused in Kyoto in a subversive new

1600, peace finally settled on the country after

dance-based performance that came to be known

over a century of strife. A carnival eruption of “lustas kabuki. In strong contrast to noˉ, the stately,

for life and extravagance” took place. Kabuki-

refined drama patronised by upper samurai sincemono with strange hairstyles roamed the streets

its establishment as an elite art form two centu-

wearing outlandish clothes and carrying exagger-

ries earlier, kabuki was rough, bawdy, and multi-

ated accoutrements such as absurdly long tobacco

farious in its elements. When the Tokugawa au-

pipes (Ortolani 1990,153-4). It is in this immedi-thorities issued edicts on performance arts, they

ate context that kabuki the performance art

deemed the smoothly-integrated, high aesthetics

emerged.

of noˉ appropriate viewing for the ruling samurai,
and banned attendance at kabuki, which was

At the time the slang word kabuku, meaning ‘tothought to be low entertainment, fit only for com-slant’, referred to a range of non-conformist activi-

moners.

ties ranging from unconventional appearance topolitical subversion. Many of the kabuki-mono were

In the first two decades of the seventeenth century

dispossessed samurai, known as roˉnin, masterless

kabuki was less an art form than an attitude; as-and homeless after the recent wars of unification.

sociated with the so-called kabuki-mono, kabuki

They flocked to the cities, particularly Kyoto, somewas part of a wider cultural movement that has

looking for entertainment and employment, somebeen compared by serious scholars to the punkintent on political agitation against the newly pow-

movement in Britain in the 1970s, though it waserful Tokugawa1. In 1603 the governor of Kyoto in-＊＊＊

Department of Environmental Design, Faculty of Environmental Studies, Hiroshima Institute of Technology― 369 ―

Donald FOWLER

troduced as a countermeasure a law that “divided

which kabuki formed an integral part. Samurai –all citizens into groups of ten and made all ten re-townsmen contestation was further complicatedsponsible for any crime committed by any member

by the imperative of quarantining outcasts in theirof that group” (Ortolani 1990,157). In the samenew urban context.

year, skits and dances performed on the dry riverbed of Kyoto’s Kamo River by the legendary found-

The purpose of this paper is to explicate the pro-er of kabuki and self-styled shrine maiden, Okuni,

cess whereby the new art form kabuki became ac-

attracted the appellation ‘kabuki’ due to their ris-commodated in the emerging Tokugawa order.

qué and subversive content. In the face of repres-This should not be viewed simply as a successful

sive government policies, theatricality was possibly

neutering of fertile folk culture on the part of thethe only safe mode of dissent.

bakufu. The extravagant show of force by the third
Tokugawa shogun when, in 1632, he marched an

In addition to roˉnin, Okuni’s kabuki attracted thearmy of 307,000 through the old capital, Kyoto,attention of merchants, who were subject to theshould not lead us to assume that the bakufu

indignity of being placed lowest on the hierarchy

could behave with impunity in all fields. Culturalof classes (the shinoˉkoˉshoˉ system: samurai shi;contestation is a more subtle business. To somepeasant farmers noˉ; artisans koˉ; and merchants

extent, at least, power was distributed betweenshoˉ). During the rule of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, sam-different constituencies of Tokugawa society. In

urai had been encouraged to move from villages toaddition to the military and administrative powertowns; under the Tokugawa this movement wasof the Tokugawa, there was the economic power ofenforced. Peasants were to live in the villages tothe merchants2 and the symbolic power of margin-

farm the land, and the other classes were to live inal groups3.

towns and cities. Previously itinerant outcast performers also settled in the cities. Kabuki actors,

In his book, Representations of Power, Michele

while remaining outcasts, attracted the patronage

Marra called for further research “on the neutral-

and adoration of the choˉnin, presenting a potent

ising forces of Tokugawa cultural institutions” andcultural challenge to the nascent Tokugawa order.

“further clarification of the cultural politics of theTokugawa government” (1993,172). Interesting

In the urban context, with which we are con-evidence of this exists in the form of edicts direct-

cerned, the most important social division was

ed at kabuki, and it is the import of these prohibi-that between samurai, on the one hand, and arti-

tions and stipulations that we will seek to clarify,sans and merchants, collectively known as choˉnin

though care must be taken not to over-emphasize(townsmen), on the other. The authorities sought

official intervention. Considering kabuki’s origins,to distinguish samurai from choˉnin, one direct

the question that requires answering is why themethod being frequently issued sumptuary regula-bakufu chose to accommodate kabuki rather thantions, another the containment of choˉnin culture.

ban it outright as they did satirical kyoˉgen and as

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, wealthy

bakufu of previous centuries had done with othertownsmen, known as machishuˉ, had created an

troublesome merchant-backed cultural forms. Un-

urban culture centred around satirical kyoˉgen andlike the Ashikaga bakufu, for example, whichostentatious annual festivals such as that held atbanned many machishuˉ gatherings, the Tokugawa

Gion in Kyoto. Just as the Ashikaga shoguns had

bakufu pursued successive strategies of toleration,

been concerned to contain the development of acontainment, and then more active intervention,

distinctive machishuˉ cultural identity, the Toku-

culminating in the institutionalisation of kabuki

gawa government was faced with the problem ofby the end of the century4.

dealing with a potentially disruptive focal point ofchoˉnin identity, that of the pleasure quarters, ofComparing the regularised glories of Genroku ka-― 370 ―

Seventeenth Century Kabuki: Rationales of Control

buki at century’s end to its bawdy beginnings, it isthrilling subject matter (Ortolani 1990,158). An

clear that kabuki was accommodated (and, indeed,

early kabuki song7 is markedly anti-Buddhist inaccommodated itself) within the Tokugawa order

tone, exhorting viewers to hedonism in the face ofas it developed over the course of the seventeenth

ephemeral existence, eschewing asceticism andcentury. The story of that transformation is closely

praising human love above the dictates of authori-

related to the theme of this paper but requires sep-ty, religious and temporal:

arate treatment. What is sought in this paper are
the rationales of control for the exciting and seem-

Be in a frenzy

ingly anarchic dance-based performance art which

In this dream-like floating world.

emerged amid the chaos of the wars of unification.

Even the thunderThat rumbles and rumbles

Ikegami asserts: “The consolidation of the Toku-

Cannot put you and me

gawa state and the rise of the kabuki theatre canAsunder.

be regarded as twin progeny of the preceding civil
war period” (1997,156). Policies fundamental to

It may be significant that despite evidence of ori-

the Tokugawa order were initially implemented ingins in the Kansai area, Okuni claimed affiliation

the context of late sixteenth century military, ide-with Izumo taisha8, thereby giving herself an extra

ological, and symbolic conflict. This indicates thefrisson of contrariety amidst the constraints of thenecessity of seeking rationales of control in thetimes, at the same time gaining nominally official

preceding decades. Before turning to that task,

status as a putative shamaness. Travel restric-

however, sketches of early and late seventeenth

tions of the day meant that it would have been dif-

century kabuki will serve to illustrate the trans-

ficult for Okuni and her troupe to move aroundformation of kabuki across the course of the seven-

without documents testifying to such affiliation

teenth century that is part of the subject of our(genuine or not). Was it the case that Okuni ad-

enquiry.

opted the pose of a religious mendicant9 until amore acceptable role presented itself in the form of

Early Kabuki

urban patronage?

Pictures and screens of early kabuki give an ideaof what kind of spectacle it was. Depictions of

In its new urban environment, Okuni’s innovative

Okuni show her on a stage set up on the Kamo

performance style was quickly adopted by bordel-

riverbed, dressed in masculine fashion, leaning ca-

los10, where the name of the game was eclecticism.

sually on a long sword, with a short sword set in

Bordellos were in the business of attracting cus-

her obi . Around her neck are slung a gold neck-tomers and to do so courtesan/prostitutes per-lace and a Portuguese crucifix, and from her rightformed kabuki, sarugaku, nenbutsu odori, andhip hang gourds, inroˉ, a tobacco pouch, and othereven noˉ11, in cavalier disregard of the stipulations

containers. Sometimes she wears Portugueseof categorising aestheticians/ideologues. Religious

pants and a foreign hat, an odd and challenging

institutions made way for the pleasure districts,

get-up, especially for a woman. According to writ-bordellos stepped in to provide patronage, itiner-

ten sources , she performed dances and skits, mix-

ant performers sought settled accommodation ining religious nenbutsu-odori with profane popular

the theatre districts, and religious ritual moved

dances, indulging in sexual innuendo, and invok-

even further in the direction of entertainment.

5

6

ing the spirit of the famed roˉnin, Nagoya Sanza,according to “an unproven but persistent

Genroku Kabuki

tradition....the lover and main collaborator” of

From such humble beginnings, by the end of the

Okuni, but more likely a notorious kabuki-mono

seventeenth century the glories of Genroku Kabuki

whose daring exploits provided early kabuki withhad developed. Kabuki was performed in officially― 371 ―

Donald FOWLER

licensed theatres in the three main cities; plays

The guiding principle of Tokugawa policy-makers

had characteristic and easily recognised structures

was pragmatism. Confucianism certainly provided

which tended to affirm official ideology even within

ideological support for socio-political policies sucha plebeian context; interaction with the audienceas shinoˉkoˉshoˉ but, as we shall see later, shinoˉkoˉshoˉ

had been formalised; actors were bound in a strict

itself was instituted in the context of a politicalin-house hierarchy; female roles were played bystruggle between samurai and merchant goingmen in increasingly codified fashion; famous actors

back to the fourteenth century. Decision-making

endorsed products and were themselves objects ofbefore and after 1600 took place against the back-desire and veneration in a nascent consumer soci-drop of a complex and shifting national scene.

ety; a trade in woodblock prints of actors flourished

Ooms correctly portrays the three unifiers of Ja-

in symbiosis with kabuki as an integral component

pan as opportunists, and it need scarcely be point-of urban Tokugawa life.

ed out that opportunists are invariably pragmatists. At the same time, Ooms dates “the first

Having provided brief sketches of early and latestirrings of a discourse that took some one hun-seventeenth century kabuki, we can turn attention

dred years....to mature” to around 1570 (Oomsto the social, political and ideological dynamics

1984,38). How is it that such a discourse came intothat account for the way kabuki became accommo-

being in the face of pragmatic leadership and thedated within the Tokugawa order. Starting fromabsence of an official ideology?

the perspective of the bakufu, we consider on what
grounds policy towards kabuki was formulated.

Utilising a conception of hegemony derived from
Gramsci, one can avoid ascriptions of “aims andRuling Ideology either side of 1600

motivations of alleged main actors” in the creation

It might be taken for granted that elucidation ofof ideology (ibid.,36). Establishment of an ideology

rationales of control rests on explication of under-“is not an event but a....never-ending process of

lying ideology, and such an approach would haveregularisation and situational adjustment in a cli-

been mandatory when the received scholarly view

mate of indeterminacy” (ibid.). This process of reg-

was that the Tokugawa order rested on the foun-ularisation and situational adjustment took the

dation of a coherent body of neo-Confucian

form of “minute and precise status stipulations”,

thought. However, Herman Ooms, among others,

an issue directly addressed in the Kiyomizu mo-

has questioned the existence of a neo-Confucian

nogatari12 (Ooms 1985, 155). It is in this sense thatorthodoxy in the Tokugawa period, certainly in

specific edicts directed against kabuki have a rele-

the seventeenth century. Contrary to the asser-

vance far beyond the theatrical world itself. Con-

tions of an anterior generation of historians, theresidered against a broader array of political, social,

was no official ideology, let alone an “epochal deci-and religious controls, the accommodation of ka-

sion by Tokugawa Ieyasu to shift the spiritual au-

buki elucidates the ongoing (and to some extent

thority from Buddhism to....neo-Confucianism”

non-conscious) construction of samurai identity,(quoted in Ooms 1984,31). The closest we have toparticularly in opposition to merchant culture.

an official statement of ideology is the Ieyasu testament, produced under Iemitsu for enshrinement

Legitimising Samurai Rulein the Nikkoˉ mausoleum. This document “indis-

Samurai had ample opportunity to pursue theircriminately uses Confucian, Shintoˉ, and Buddhist

vocation during the wars of the fifteenth and six-terminology....with the sole purpose of sanctifying

teenth centuries. Samurai identity was defined on

the political order” (Ooms 1985,66). Clear elucida-the battlefield. Yet with national unification andtion of rationales of control with reference to a sin-

the cessation of conflict samurai had to re-invent

gle, coherent ideology (or even tradition ofthemselves as virtuous exemplars with a mandate

thought) is simply not possible.

to rule. The significance of samurai strategies of― 372 ―

Seventeenth Century Kabuki: Rationales of Control

administrative legitimacy for our theme is the in-

1985,89). Furthermore, Iemitsu effectively bal-

fluence of antagonistic relationships between the

anced the grounds of legitimacy of his own title ofsamurai and other sectors of Japanese society on

shogun by subjecting the imperial institution to asocial policy and what light that sheds on samurai

number of coercive indignities, including annual- merchant contestation.

observances at Nikkoˉ, thus making it plain where
true power lay.

Nobunaga, upon his rise to prominence, employed
two concepts of legitimisation, both of which were

The legitimising strategies of the three unifiers,

consonant with Confucianism: “koˉgi, the public

and successive Tokugawa shoguns, ‘naturally’good, and tenka, the realm” (Ooms 1985,26). How-

placed merchants in a position of subservience.

ever, the efficacy of these legitimising strategies

This was no accident: to a large extent such op-

came under strain with Nobunaga’s confrontationpression was directed at the economic, political,

with the Ikkoˉ-ikki, a sect of warlords and associat-

ideological and religious challenge mounted by theed peasant proprietors whose threat lay in the fact

merchant class13. Shinoˉkoˉshoˉ was polemical, for allthat they had a “full-fledged world view that

its Confucian justifications. It constituted a ratio-

legitimised....the stance they took against the newnale of control of the bulk of society. Admittedly,

daimyo power” (ibid.,31). The confrontation be-

the Confucian emphasis on the importance of pro-tween these two loci of sixteenth century power isduction justified ideologically the superior social

significant because many innovations that later

status of farmers over merchants, but the increas-

became part of the Tokugawa order (such as a dis-ing power of the merchant class had been of great

armed peasantry, land surveys, and tying peas-

concern to the ruling elite for a long time and inants to the land) “took shape as anti-ikki policies”

this case the language of Confucianism fit the(ibid.,30-1). Ikkoˉ-ikki discourse was a threat to No-

pragmatic aims of the authorities.

bunaga because followers recognised no intermediaries between themselves and the emperor. A

The kiyomizu monogatari identifies three ideologicalcomparable threat was posed by the Hokke sect,threats in seventeenth century Japan: “the Chris-which since the fifteenth century had been gener-

tians, the Ikkoˉ believers, and the Nichiren followers”

ously patronised by Kyoto merchants in an at-(Ooms 1985,155). The samurai were a warrior class.

tempt to “constitute themselves as an autonomous

If a military solution was available, it would be pur-centre of power whose ideological legitimation

sued. Christians could be and were suppressed bythey found in the epistemology of Nichiren’s fol-

violent means, as the Ikkoˉ-ikki had been several de-

lowers” (Ooms 1985,37; Marra 1993,137).

cades earlier. But merchants in the cities had to becontained with less martial methods.

Nobunaga’s response to this double-barrelled ideological challenge was to create a Shintoˉ-inspired

In a time of peace, samurai ethics and identity had

cult with himself as its presiding deity. By so do-

to be recast, or, at the very least, maintained in a

ing, Nobunaga claimed power without reference todifferent way. Japan was changing from a medi-

the imperial and shogunal institutions. This was aeval to a pre-modern society. Emblematic of thisstrategy of legitimisation befitting the expedien-

was the punctilious attention the Tokugawa baku-

cies of military rule, and as such also appealed tofu came to pay to what different social groups wereHideyoshi. Ieyasu, however, saw fit to accept thepermitted to wear. A sudden switch from matterstitle of shogun, thereby nominally deriving legiti-

martial to those sartorial may appear abrupt andmacy from the imperial house. A parallel Tokuga-

arbitrary, but is indicative of the epochal shift fromwa strategy of legitimisation was rule under the

Hideyoshi to Ieyasu, from a period of incessantconcept of tendoˉ (the “Way of Heaven”) as statedconflict to the enforced political and social stability

in the Ieyasu testament housed at Nikkoˉ (Oomsof the Tokugawa Era. Attire was one means by― 373 ―

Donald FOWLER

which the Tokugawa bakufu protected the preroga-

called forth a steady stream of repetitive edicts

tives of the samurai as a dominant class.

from the bakufu, which simultaneously bemoaned
the disobedience of their target group. Moreover,

The social order & attire

the enduring political importance of kabuki-mono

Tokugawa Japan was a closed society, greatly con-

(Ikegami 1989,131) ensured that the policing of

cerned with the balance of its multifarious parts.

fashion remained a priority, the bakufu evidently

Great energy was expended in ordering the mosttaking the view that “body images ‘speak’ social

minute elements of the different social groups,

relations and values with particular force” (Stally-

with the aim of maintaining stability. Regulations

brass & White 1986,10).

directed at kabuki extended to the type of hat actors were required to wear when on the move, andWithout labouring the point, we have establishedwhich public toilets female impersonators werethat pragmatism was the name of the game for

entitled to use. In such ways the authorities po-

the Tokugawa bakufu. Rather than policy being

liced the body. Marks of the samurai were theconsistently based on a solid and unchanging ide-kamishimo (starched shoulders), hakama (trou-

ology, edicts were introduced ad hoc. A cynicalsers), and long and short swords, the overall effectview would be that samurai ideology, in the final

being one of vigorous agency. Forbidden to wear

analysis, came down to an assertion of samurai

hakama, and restricted to a specified cut of kimo-

superiority14, and a consequent search for meansno, merchants expressed their wealth through theby which such superiority was to be buttressed.

quality of material, and became subject to a bar-

Predicating pragmatism, then, we should turn to arage of sumptuary regulations designed “to regu-

historical approach, seeking precedents for cultur-late the marginal population of the samurai classal contestation in Ashikaga and Momoyama times.

by drawing a clear line between samurai and commoners” (Ikegami 1989,128).

Cultural Contestation in Preceding Centuries

The significance of such policing of the body andCultural contestation in the medieval period took

its accoutrements can be approached in various

place against the backdrop of a power struggle be-ways. Fisher and Cleveland assert that “the whole

tween the militarily strong samurai and the eco-concept of body-image boundaries has implicit innomically strong merchants. Political legitimacy

it the idea of the structuring of one’s relations

rested on virtue (koˉgi). One manifestation of suchwith others” (Stallybrass & White 1986,10). Ac-

virtue was cultivation. Aspirations to legitimacy ofcording to Bourdieu, the reason societies control

Ashikaga shoguns and the samurai warrior class“[seemingly] insignificant details of dress, bearing,as a whole required the (appropriation and) utili-

physical and verbal manners” is to encourage em-sation of extant forms of culture (often with thebodiment in subjects of the governing principles ofaid of ambitious commoners) and the protection of

the society (ibid.,88). The rationale behind bakufu

cultural prerogatives from the challenge of theedicts on class specific dress can be found in such

wealthy merchant class. Given the difficulty of di-twentieth century scholarship. This scholarship

rect political challenge in a political order that

also explains why fashion became such a locus ofrested on military power, forms of culture playedcontention during Tokugawa times (Ikegami

an important role in the struggle between samurai

1989,116). Although, in terms of cut, urban fash-and machishuˉ. We shall briefly consider three ar-ion was largely unchanging, the entertainment

eas: sarugaku and its offshoots, noˉ and tesaru-

districts centred on kabuki and the brothel engen-gaku; public dancing; and chanoyu.

dered whatever invention was possible. Wealthy
merchants, denied participation in politics, mani-

The first shoguns made use of commoners to gain

fested mute resistance in the form of fashion, andcredibility as cultivated rulers. Zeami’s “transfor-― 374 ―

Seventeenth Century Kabuki: Rationales of Control

mation of a popular/ religious/ magical/ pragmatic/

already come to rely on “independent corps of po-

temple-oriented art form known as sarugaku intolice”, funded by merchants, to suppress peasantan elitist/ entertaining/ representational/ military-unrest (Marra 1993,136). The machishuˉ, then,oriented artistic practice” involved deliberate “ob-posed a considerable threat, armed as they werefuscating of the popular origins of noˉ ” (Marra

with great wealth, religious and cultural under-

1993,56 & 55). In turn the popular antecedents ofpinnings, and even their own quasi-military forc-noˉ were patronised by machishuˉ in the form of

es. It is this that accounts for the 1506 order thattesarugaku, which subsequently became subject to“forbade the performance of dances inside the city

shogunal suppression. “The parodying nature offor fear that political criticism would arise fromtesarugaku, combined with the energy of a bloom-

the gathering of the machishuˉ” (ibid.,137).

ing urban society, made it a perfect candidate foran act of silencing and erasure” (ibid.,138). It was

Chanoyu (known in English as the ‘tea ceremony’)

not tesarugaku per se that concerned the authori-

was exploited by powerful sixteenth century

ties but “the creation of a cultural identity bydaimyo for its cultural cachet. This trend reached[machishuˉ] who were distinguishing themselves

its apogee under the unifying warlords Nobunaga

as a growing and threatening political competitor”

and Hideyoshi. However, patronage of chanoyu(ibid.).

was not simply to demonstrate koˉgi. In fact Bodart-Bailey goes so far as to assert that these two

Public dancing in the capital constituted anotherwarlords could not have come to prominence with-

important locus of contention. Amidst the chaos ofout the close relationships they forged with thethe warring period the intent behind gatherings

merchant tea masters of Sakai and Kyoto

on the streets was not easily interpreted. Berry(1985,31). As well as cultural capital, chanoyu af-

asserts that the “residents of Kyoto....saw politicalforded contact with wealthy merchants who sup-theatre in the conduct of popular mobilisations”

plied Nobunaga, for example, with musket balls(1994,253). There might be “circular processions ofand other provisions necessary to quelling domes-

Hokke sectarians”, fuˉryuˉ dancing, or possibly an

tic dissent. Tea masters, moreover, were able toassembly of machishuˉ in a show of strength. Since

act as political intermediaries due to their freedomfuˉryuˉ dancing is one of the ascribed roots of kabu-

of movement. Here, ideological strategies of legiti-

ki, it is interesting that contemporary diarists de-misation, cultural appropriation, machishuˉ - sam-scribe the ‘havoc’ associated with public dancing

urai contention and, indeed, co-operation, andwith its “flute and percussion accompaniment.”

hard-headed pragmatism came together. Tea mas-Moreover, it was associated with “nenbutsu odori -ters were merchants, officially at the bottom of theecstatic dancing invoking the Buddha Amida,” an-social hierarchy, but through chanoyu and judi-

other supposed root of kabuki (ibid.,248).

cious attraction of patronage, negotiated a way
into the corridors of power.

In the absence of official channels for political energies, the machishuˉ exploited public gatherings

Dealing with Kabuki

to display their power; the Gion festival being an

Considering that the Tokugawa bakufu came

extravagant example. Moreover, wealthy and in-

down so hard on kabuki-mono, executing and ban-fluential merchant families patronised theishing “a large number of the dangerous rebels” inNichiren religious heritage in the form of thethe opening decades of Tokugawa rule, why was it

Hokke sect, which, as we have seen, was antitheti-

that kabuki escaped prohibition? After all, kyoˉgen,cal to samurai strategies of legitimisation. As Ber-long patronised by merchants, was banned. Partry says, “fuˉryuˉ deeply resembled the politics ofof the answer lies in the hoary old nugget of wis-demonstration” and posed a challenge to an “inad-

dom that popular energies cannot be quashed, andequate police force” (ibid.,254). The shogunate had

a people provided with ‘bread and circuses’ is a

― 375 ―

Donald FOWLER

people more amenable to control. Direct evidence

The actor playing the merchant hero may win out

for this proposition comes from a guide for bakufu

over the samurai, but only because he is morepolicy known as Ieyasu’s legacy:

closely adhering to samurai morality. By predicating performances on the moral structure of the[C]ourtesans, dancers, catamites, streetwalk-ruling class, kabuki was consonant with Gluck-ers and the like always come to the cities andmann’s famous assertion that “while rites of rever-prospering places of the country. Although thesal obviously include a protest against the estab-

conduct of many is corrupted by them, if theylished order ….. they are intended to preserve andare rigorously suppressed, serious crimes will

strengthen the established order” (S&W 13; myoccur daily …(quoted in Leiter 2002,41)

italics). Such intention can be attributed to bothbakufu in its rationale of toleration and the mer-

The more overtly political, and long-established,chants and outcasts of the established theatre it-

kyoˉgen was chosen for suppression over the more

self, themselves having a considerable stake in theallusively subversive kabuki. Kabuki, despite its

establishment, at least by Genroku times15.

novelty, was, in its origins, an overflowing of folk
culture, a topsy-turvy world where gender, status,

In the first century of the Tokugawa period thehierarchy, and mores were ebulliently subverted

city of Edo, effective if not official capital, vastly

and erased, and as such would be instantly recog-

expanded its population. Edo needed to attract

nisable to scholars of European carnival. Policing

merchants and artisans in considerable numbers.

kabuki simply was not a priority in the early days.

Without thriving pleasure quarters this would
have been practically impossible. Tokugawa offi-

As for kabuki-mono, many were veterans of thecials took the view that ‘low’ entertainment was fit

recent wars of unification and the Hideyoshi-led

for the low social classes. However, there were two

invasion of Korea. Tens of thousands of dispos-

problems with this policy: it was not only choˉnin

sessed samurai (roˉnin) flocked to the cities. We

who came to dwell in the great new city, outcasts

may speculate that pragmatism dictated that it

and samurai came as well.

was preferable that unsettled elements spent theirenergies in dissipation rather than political agita-

For centuries, itinerant performers, feared and po-tion, motivated by grievances against the new re-tentially polluting outcast outsiders acting as me-

gime that many inevitably nurtured. As well as

diators to the divine realm, came into the villages

merchants, samurai and roˉnin were attracted toto perform rites of renewal and revitalisation in

the seamy world of gambling, prostitution and en-

accordance with a divine calendar. Kabuki per-tertainment of which kabuki was an integral part.

formers were of this ilk, part of a ritual purity sys-

Admittedly, there was soon a veritable flood oftem, frequently associated with Shintoˉ, with ori-

edicts aimed at containing the popularity of kabu-

gins in Japan’s ancient past. The accommodation

ki and the trouble it attracted and caused, but inof kabuki in its new urban surroundings saw a re-the early days, and arguably throughout its Toku-

versal of motion. Outcasts were confined and quar-

gawa existence, kabuki was tolerated as a neces-antined. No longer did outcasts come into the vil-sary evil, one of the two wheels of the chariot oflage/urban area and leave after rituals/

pleasure, the other being prostitution.

performances were complete. Now the non-outcast
audience entered the outcast enclave. The psychol-

A more subtle argument for tolerance, one thatogy of invaded and invader was reversed.

gains credence from a more extensive analysis ofGenroku era kabuki than the brief sketch in thisThe process of settlement of itinerant performers

paper, is that kabuki was not so much subversivein theatres under the aegis of the Tokugawa is one

as containing a mere frisson of subversiveness.

of the crucial elements of control16 exercised by the― 376 ―

Seventeenth Century Kabuki: Rationales of Control

authorities in our period of interest. Though Toku-

the alternative ‘culture’ of the pleasure quarters

gawa officials desisted from an outright ban of ka-

gave birth to a language known as kuruwa kotoba,

buki , their attitude certainly could not be de-which facilitated communication stripped of thescribed as laissez-faire. Outcasts generally lostdemands of social hierarchy. Even present-day

their prior freedom and “their place in society [be-Japanese have to consider carefully the status ofcame] rigidly fixed by laws of domicile, dress, andthe person they are addressing and adjust theiroccupation”(Law 1997,69). The import of this was

vocabulary accordingly, a custom that significantly

fresh housing for the chosen few outcasts and in-inhibits communication between different genera-

creased marginalisation for the rest, since a con-tions and between people of different status. In

comitant development was the increased suspicion

Tokugawa times samurai were forbidden contact

and enmity afforded itinerant performers, theirwith merchants, let alone outcasts, yet in therole as mediators having been usurped by official

pleasure quarters chatted, joked and flirted on aforms of entertainment . In other words, the rituallevel of linguistic equality.

17

18

purity system of the medieval period was recast in
pre-modern Japan; transformed almost beyond rec-

It was this challenge to the social boundaries soognition in the form of urban kabuki, and shifted

meticulously put in place by the ruling authorities

further from even a symbolic centre in the village.

that accounts for the cascade of apparently trivial
edicts directed at kabuki throughout the seven-

The majority of the hundreds of samurai who

teenth century and beyond, as we shall see in thecame to live in Edo were deprived of the society ofnext section. Public order was unquestionably atheir wives and children who remained in theirconcern, but was more frequently the pretext forhome domains. Constrained by official mores of

the implementation of policies conceived in a dif-sobriety and frugality, and the more direct expedi-

ferent spirit.

ent of official edicts banning attendance at thepleasure districts, samurai themselves became

Intervention

susceptible to dissatisfaction with their station.

The concern here is not to enumerate the innu-

Nominal high status was little compensation formerable interventions in kabuki made by the ba-

what could be a barren existence in the capital. It

kufu, which went so far as to stipulate, as men-is easy to appreciate the pull on the imagination

tioned above, exactly what kind of hat actors hadthat kabuki and its attendant pleasures could ex-

to wear outside the theatre districts, but to seek

ert. Samurai gave in to their desires and in poi-rationales behind both minor and major interdic-

gnantly symbolic fashion exchanged theirtions. The sheer number of edicts directed at ka-

kamishimo and swords for merchant robes inbuki might seem to contradict the case for bakufu

booths specially set up for this purpose on thetoleration put forward in this paper, but the“Road of Transformation” that led to the entrance

numbing repetitiveness of the edicts reflects lessof the famed Yoshiwara pleasure quarters in Edo;

the zealousness of control than the laxity of en-then they could indulge themselves incognito.

forcement and the determination of those in theworld of kabuki to defy the authorities.

Inside the pleasure quarters was a realm where
outcast and merchant were sanctioned to consort.

Though it is true that the authorities paid special

It would be false to claim that there was no hier-attention to kabuki, this point should not be exag-archy within the walls of Yoshiwara , but once in-gerated. Many of the edicts directed at kabuki

side, samurai were effectively free of the normal

were merely specific instances of general prohibi-

prohibitions of their station and, as Shively so fe-

tions aimed at all townsmen and outcasts. A caselicitously expresses it, “could ill afford to insist on

in point is the interdiction against riding in palan-

the prerogatives of their class.” It is striking thatquins or on horseback, which was the prerogative

19― 377 ―

Donald FOWLER

of samurai (Shively, 48). This was very much true

Imperial consorts into the shade” (Shivelyof sumptuary regulations stipulating, among

1968,233). Stallybrass and White assert that,many other matters, the cut and type of material“points of antagonism, overlap and intersection

for kimono. Actors and theatre managers for obvi-

between the high and the low....provide some ofous reasons sought ever more spectacular cos-

the richest and most powerful symbolic dissonanc-tumes and fought a never-ending battle withes” in any culture (1986,25). Kabuki in the seven-

Tokugawa officials. Such push and pull, conces-

teenth century was just such a point. Forgetting

sion, disobedience and periodic crackdown, ac-themselves, those from the samurai elite lost theircounts for the minute detail of many kabuki regu-

heads in worship and desire of lowly outcasts, anlations. It is also important not to ignore mundane

attitude entirely antithetical to the Tokugawa re-matters of public safety when seeking rationales

quirement of samurai self-restraint and physicalof regulations. Banning night performances of ka-

and moral separation from the lower classes. Pro-buki on windy nights is easily understood when

tection of samurai morality, thereby samurai iden-

one considers the method of illumination and thetity and, implicitly, their fitness to rule, was part

frequency of fires, known as the flowers of Edo,of a wider concern to police the social boundaries

that ravaged the city. Having stated these caveats

whereby Confucian morality was reified in the es-

we should turn to two major interdictions the ba-

tablished Tokugawa order. Indeed, that is the im-

kufu made against kabuki: the 1629 ban against

port of the intent to separate the professions of ac-

onna kabuki and the 1652 banning of wakashuˉ

tor and prostitute. It was a question of order.

(youth) kabuki.
From the point of view of the authorities, however,Some commentators interpret the 1629 ban as a

it was equally important to meet the challengemeans to put an end to public disorder (sometimes

presented by the increasing economic, social, andinvolving samurai) connected with kabuki. Others

cultural strength of the choˉnin. It is no coincidenceemphasise the intent to enforce proper separationthat the first decree under the Tokugawa specify-of the professions, since, in the early days, yuˉjo ka-

ing restrictions on swords for commoners was also

buki and prostitution were barely distinguishable.

issued in 1629 (Ikegami 1989,131). As shinoˉkoˉshoˉ

Ortolani cites the immediate causes of the decree

was a response to the sixteenth century challenge

as prominent daimyo inviting kabuki troupes toof the machishuˉ, the 1629 ban was part of the con-their castles, and a riot involving rival samurai attinuing power struggle, carried out in the culturala kabuki performance in Kyoto (1990,166-7).

arena, between samurai and merchant.

It goes without saying that public order was a ra-

The second important intervention came in 1652

tionale of control; that is obviously a priority forwith the banning of wakashuˉ kabuki, which was

any form of government. But we can infer (though“intended to separate homosexual prostitution

not entirely at face value as the preceding analysis

from kabuki and to relegate the kabuki theatres

demonstrates) from an examination of the wholeand actors’ residences to one or two quarters of thegamut of edicts that ‘contamination’ of the ‘high’city” (Shively 1978,8). Within the confines of theby the ‘low’ was of great concern to the bakufu.

samurai class, “during the early modern period,

This is how a contemporary writer described thecommitted relationships between older men andscene at an Edo performance of yuˉjo kabuki: “High

younger boys were often considered the purestand low thronged” to the performance, which wasform of love in the samurai community” (Ikegami

so exciting that “the people in the pit and in the1997,175). One of the meanings of the verb kabu-boxes....rocked about forgetting themselves”. The

ku was ‘to bend over’, which has obvious sexual

writer himself was so spellbound, he wrote that

connotations, and kabuki-mono, with their back-one of the courtesan’s smiles “would throw the six

ground in comradeship in warfare, were strongly― 378 ―

Seventeenth Century Kabuki: Rationales of Control

associated with homosexuality. When they tram-(Moeran 1989,13). As Yamaguchi Masao confirms,

pled on “convention and decency by performing“the two worlds of the theatre and the geisha....hadsuch acts as playing the flute with one’s anus” (Or-their own form of speech” (1977,173). Kuruwa ko-

tolani 1990:164), they were also cocking a snook attoba “enabled guests to conceal their various social

those who opposed indiscriminate homosexuality.

statuses, and hostesses their low-class regional ac-

Playing the shakuhachi has long been a euphe-cents” (Moeran 1989,13). It is easy to imagine thatmism for fellatio. Penetrating the ‘samurai body’the very act of speaking kuruwa kotoba could freewith a shakuhachi, therefore, had multiple sub-the mind to range beyond the constraints imposedversive valences. Exploiting the opportunities of-by the norms of the Tokugawa order.

fered by the theatre, homosexuality was a realm ofintercourse between men of different status, sub-In the same century, the respective theatres inverting the samurai ideal of intra-class committed

England and Japan were subject to a ‘civilising

relationships. A 1648 ban on homosexuality wasprocess’20. As part of the same dynamic of a bur-designed to prevent this contact.

geoning bourgeoisie (it must be remembered that
Edo grew into probably the largest city in the

The Political Impotence of Kabuki

world during the eighteenth century), just as the

One of our points of departure was Marra’s chal-theatre and coffee houses in London ‘cleansed’

lenge to examine the “neutralising forces of Toku-themselves of the lower habits associated with thegawa cultural institutions.” This paper has con-tavern and the burlesque, so kabuki and the shi-tended that one of the most important dynamics

bai-jaya progressively insisted on increased stan-

the Tokugawa government was concerned to neu-

dards of decorum. So far the comparison holds.

tralise was burgeoning merchant wealth and po-

However, whereas European coffee houses “had atential power. If it is true that the “history of po-

habit of metamorphosing into professional or busi-

litical struggle has been the history of theness institutions” such as Lloyd’s, the London

attempts made to control significant sites of as-

Stock Exchange and the Royal Society, shibai-jayasembly and spaces of discourse” then we need toconspicuously failed to spawn comparable institu-

address the question: what of political signifi-

tions. Whereas the bourgeois discursive space cen-

cance came of kabuki as a site of assembly (Stally-

tred on the English coffee house gave birth to The

brass & White 1986,80)?

Tatler and The Spectator, which provided an influential forum for discussion of national and inter-To this end a brief comparison of Edo tea houses,

national issues, kabuki and shibai-jaya publica-

known as shibai-jaya, connected (often literally)tions, apart from visual representations of actors,

to kabuki theatres, with contemporary London cof-theatres and performances, consisted merely offee houses is instructive. Both were at root bour-

the politically irrelevant hyoˉbanki, which were lit-

geois institutions and aspired to be sites of at leasttle more than programs and guides to kabuki per-a temporary social equality. Like the European

formances. The political impact of London coffee

coffee house, where “for one penny any man could

houses and the institutions they spawned was not

sit and drink” and need not make way for his so-matched by the equivalent discursive space in Ja-

cial superiors (Stallybrass & White 1986,96), thepan. Of course, it is easy to account for this. We

kabuki theatre was in a sense a democratic space.

need look no further than an edict from the 1650s

The existence of a separate discursive space cen-banning the use of real names in kabuki plays andtred on the pleasure quarters is most dramaticallyrelated publications. Tokugawa policy remained

and literally demonstrated by the development offirm on denying choˉnin a political role.

the “kuruwa kotoba used by prostitutes, geisha,and other entertainers and their customers during
the Edo period,” as has already been mentioned

Conclusion
At the beginning of the seventeenth century there― 379 ―

Donald FOWLER

was no political will to stamp out the new perfor-practicality and ideology met. Despite what may

mance art that came to be known as kabuki. A pro-be described in modern idiom as their superstar-

longed period of national unrest had come to an end

dom, kabuki actors were unable to escape the stig-in 1600 with the battle of Sekigahara, which en-

ma of their outcast status and were subject to thesured Tokugawa hegemony. Dispossessed samurai

indignity of intrusive edicts throughout the Toku-and veterans of the Korean campaigns of the 1590s

gawa period.

flocked to the cities, and indulged in licentious pleasures centred on kabuki. Toleration was the only

Another development that troubled the authori-realistic option for the authorities. After all, theties was the extent to which kabuki and the plea-

Tokugawa government had other priorities, includ-

sure quarters became a focus for choˉnin identity.

ing the final elimination of the military threat

After the very real gekokujoˉ22 of the sixteenth cen-posed by the Toyotomi clan. It suited the Tokugawa

tury, exemplified by the rise to pre-eminence offor disgruntled samurai to dissipate their energies

the peasant Hideyoshi, and to which late sixteenth

in worldly entertainment. The merest hint of politi-

and early seventeenth century national policies

cal agitation on the part of kabuki-mono, on thewere partly a response (shinoˉkoˉshoˉ for example),other hand, was severely dealt with.

the pleasure quarters threatened once more toturn the world upside down. Merchant identity

The case has been made in this paper for bakufu

centred on kabuki and the pleasure quarters, andpragmatism, in itself an unremarkable assertion,backed up by great economic strength, threatened

though one necessitated by the priority that has

to become a politically challenging discursive

tended to be given to ideology as a ground for Toku-

space. Denied any direct political outlet, the ener-

gawa policy. Even pragmatism, though, demands

gies of merchants were disproportionately fun-its expressive cast. A four-fold schema of rationales

nelled into the cultural arena. The ever-increasingof control has been presented: public order; policing

economic strength of urban merchants was rightly

the boundaries of the Tokugawa social order; main-

perceived as a threat to samurai rule, resulting in

taining samurai identity and pre-eminence; andculture being used as a battlefield for power. This

ongoing samurai - merchant contestation.

was the context of the accommodation of kabuki in
the Tokugawa order in the seventeenth century.

Public order is the concern of all governments and,considering the amount of trouble kabuki attract-

Intervention in kabuki was undertaken to meeted, at least in the first half-century of its develop-

the threat of rising merchant power, denying thement, it would be foolish to deny its importance inpolitical potential of the new discursive space cen-

the immediate framing of official policy. The re-tred on the pleasure quarters, and ensuring thatmaining three rationales of control are closely re-the choˉnin confined their energies to economic af-

lated and interlinked and, indeed, specific to Ja-

fairs and ‘licensed’ cultural activities. Merchants,

pan in the seventeenth century. Samurai identitywith their economic power were a tacit contradic-

depended on distinction from the other socialtion of Tokugawa ideology; a kind of culturalgroups; in the field of culture, noˉ was for samurai,

gekokujoˉ. Some were as rich as the most powerful

and kabuki was for non-samurai. Most represen-daimyo, and most were better off than a signifi-

tative of Tokugawa pragmatism was shinoˉkoˉshoˉ,cant number of samurai foot soldiers, with no bat-upon which the Tokugawa order was predicated,

tles to fight, who, though nominally of high status,

but which, as we have seen, though based on Con-in fact “hardly had anything more than their pride

fucian principles , arose from the exigencies ofand their swords” (Ortolani 1990,157). The bakufu

Momoyama conflict. Be that as it may, much ener-

recognised that the pleasure quarters, of which

gy was expended by Tokugawa officials in policing

kabuki was an integral part, was a necessary

the social boundaries, a rationale of control where

playground for townsmen. There, money talked,

21― 380 ―

Seventeenth Century Kabuki: Rationales of Control

wealth could be displayed, and resentments could

Ikegami, Eiko 1995. Taming the Samurai (Harvard University Press).

be palliated. The bakufu successfully confined thepotentially significant threat of rising merchantKano, Hiroyuki 1991. Kinsei fuˉzokuga, Vol.4 (Tokyo).

wealth, restricting its expression to flamboyant,bawdy, irreverent, and mildly subversive enter-

Keene, Donald 1976. World Within Walls: Japa-

tainment and clamping down fiercely on any seri-

nese Literature of the Pre-Modern Era, 1600-

ous challenge to its authority.

1868 (New York).
Law, Jane Marie 1997. Puppets of Nostalgia: The

The transformation of Kabuki across the course oflife, death and rebirth of the Awaji Ningyo tradition (Princeton).

the seventeenth century, what one might call its
journey from anarchy to respectability, its estab-Leiter, Samuel L. 2002 A Kabuki Reader (NewYork)

lishment through an internal dynamic of transformation in interaction with pressure from above,

Marra, Michele 1993. Representations of Power:

created a kabuki that Okuni, for one, would have

The Literary Politics of Medieval Japan (Ha-struggled to recognise.

waii).
Moeran, Brian 1989. Language and Popular Cul-

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and Marginal Reality in Japan’ in R.K,Jain, ed.
Text & Context: the social anthropology of tradi-cannot be pursued.
10 Yoˉ jo, or young women’s kabuki, was primarilytion (Philadelphia).

sponsored by brothels. Performers wereindistinguishable from prostitutes.
11 In this connection it is worth noting that “the formal

1

2

Incidents in 1607 and 1612 resulted in severe

structure and subject matter of noˉ were finally

repression by the authorities; many kabuki-mono

codified [according to the aesthetics of Zeami] during

were executed (Ortolani 1990,155-6)).

the Tokugawa period”(Marra 1993,55).

The vitality of Genroku kabuki, at the turn of the

12 A polemical and didactic popular work published six

eighteenth century, testified to “a middle-classmonths after the suppression of the 1637 Shimabarabourgeoisie’s erosion of the shogun’s monopolistic

rebellion.

rights over the field of cultural production” (Marra
3

1993,174).

Christian threat was ruthlessly suppressed in the

Shamanic elements endured in kabuki, even in its

first half of the seventeenth century..

established form. This theme, however, will not be4

5

13 The Ikkoˉ -Ikki had been dealt with before 1600 & the

14 It is noteworthy that the most famous tract praisingelaborated upon in this paper.

the virtue of samurai, the engaging and fascinating

As well as the external dynamic of intervention, theHagakure, the thoughts of Yamamoto Tsunetomointernal dynamic of hereditary theatre ownership,(1659-1719) as recorded by a younger samurai, wasand resultant conservatism, within the rising choˉnin

written in a spirit of nostalgia after a century ofclass accounts for the transformation of kabuki bypeace had rendered such purported values an

the turn of the eighteenth century.

anachronism.

See, for example, Kano Hiroyuki 1991, Kinsei

15 Intentions, apart from purely venal ones, are rather
more difficult to divine for early kabuki.

fuˉ zokuga, Vol.4, Matsuri to Shibai, Tokyo; Kinsei

16 Japanese scholars have recently argued forfuˉzoku zufu, vol.10, 1983, Shogakkan.
6See, for example, Shively 1968.

intentional manipulation of outcast groups by the7

See Shively 1968,233.

Tokugawa government in order to provide “guards,

8

Izumo taisha had maintained a position of rivalry

executioners, and policemen to suppress peasantwith the official centre of Shinto, Ise jingu, since theriots” (Law 1997,274 note 40).
17 Although at one stage the appellation ‘kabuki’ itself

rise of the Yamato clan in the seventh century.
9became subject to prohibition.

And in the process laid claim to an ancient religious
practice in which female priests were believed to

18 Kabuki never entirely shed elements of divine

lend their voices to a deity in order to convey sacredmediation, retaining them in crystallised form evenmessages to the common people (Marra 1993,91).

in the present day.

Connections between religious institutions and

19 In fact courtesans ranged from lowly teppoˉ to theperformance went back centuries. In the medieval

majestic oiran, with numerous gradations between.

period, what might broadly be termed folk culture,

20 See Norbert Elias 1978. The Civilizing Process (New
York).

had been staged by religious institutions. For
example, temples and shrines were the major

21 Other Confucian principles were less amenable: thesponsors of sarugaku, providing income throughTokugawa line of shoguns were happy to ignore, forentertainment while retaining ritual elements.

example, that a mandate to rule depended on the

While on the face of it the slow, sliding movements

virtue of the ruler. The fitness of Tokugawa rule wasof sarugaku dance and its offspring, noˉ , could barely

not subject to debate.

be more dissimilar to the vigorous stamping

22 Gekokujoˉ refers to inferiors overthrowing theircharacteristic of kabuki, some scholars cite sarugaku

superiors, particularly prevalent during the warring

as a source of kabuki. Around 1600, the exact nature

period of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

of sarugaku is hard to ascertain and so comparisons― 382 ―