Posted by John Fiorillo on December 11, 1998 at 20:47:01:
In Reply to: Research on Onnagata - help! posted by Gwynn Goodner on December 11, 1998 at 18:31:48:
: I am currently trying to do some investgative research on the onnagata from 18-19th centruy Kabuki. I am looking for books, memiors, essays etc. on the subject and on Kabuki in the 19th century. I found John Fiorello's e-mail about the history of onnagata very interesting and would like to read more about the subject, in hopes of doing a paper on them. If anyone has any suggested reading regarding the men in women's roles in Japanese theatre, Japanese theatre in general, books about training, biographies, plays or the social standing of actors in everyday life, please post them in a follow up. I have been interested in writing on traditional theatre and this seems like an interesting subject to pursue. Thanks for you help.
Response from JF:
The best single discussion I know in English about the onnagata can be found in the bilingual (English and Japanese) publication by Dunn, C. and Torigoe, B.: The Actors’ Analects: New York: Columbia University Press, 1969. Unfortunately it is long out of print, but it pops up occasionally in used bookstores and can probably be located on the internet or through interlibrary loans. The chapter in question is "The Words of Ayame," pp. 49-66, which represents some famous writings by the actor Yoshizawa Ayame (1673-1719), one of the greatest onnagata who ever lived and surely one of the most influential, for it was he who defined for generations of female impersonators in the kabuki theater the essence of the onnagata’s role both on and off the stage. Dunn and Torigoe’s book is a very good scholarly guide to a collection of writings by 17th C. actors. I highly recommend it even though it is limited in scope because it is a fine example of in-depth and insightful specialization that one rarely if ever finds in general art surveys. Excerpts of Ayame’s writings are also found in a more easily located book by A.C. Scott titled The Kabuki Theatre of Japan: London: Allen and Unwin, 1955 (I think it is still around in more recent paperback reprintings), pp. 172-175.