Loyal fans pack domestic performances, and overseas stagings are almost always well received.
But a little over half a century ago, the entire institution of kabuki was in mortal danger. After World War II the authorities of the Allied Occupation banned the staging of the bulk of the kabuki repertoire, considering its message to carry militaristic and feudalistic overtones. Like most other traditional Japanese art forms, kabuki is passed on from one generation to the next not through a written corpus of manuals and commentaries but through a process of imitation and personal direction by which the young learn from their elders. Since the Occupation ruling covered almost all of the kabuki classics loved by audiences, if it had continued in force for an extended period, kabuki as a whole would surely have suffered a terminal decline. It was an American who rescued kabuki from this threat to its survival.