Posted by John Fiorillo on October 02, 1998 at 22:29:34:
In Reply to: Onagata Player posted by Michael Johnson on October 02, 1998 at 10:17:01:
: I recently aquired a print by Kunisada of an Onagata player.
: (Thanks Gary) I had assumed that the person depicted was a women.
: However, I see that the persons forehead is covered by a cloth.
: I seem to recall reading that this was used to cover the shaved areas
: on men. So, are Onagata players men, women, or both? Second, what is an
: Onagata? I had assumed that it was a musical instrument but there doesn't seem to be
: anything of the sort there. Thanks in advance.
: Michael
Response from JF:
"Onnagata" (please note the correct spelling) means, literally, "woman’s manner" (= onna + kata). Onnagata were male kabuki actors who performed the roles of women. It is a very commonly encountered term in discussions of kabuki and ukiyo-e prints. Some actors specialized exclusively in women’s roles, while others played both men’s and women’s parts. Here is a brief history to explain how only men came to play the roles of women in kabuki (still true today):
Kabuki supposedly arose in 1603 (possibly as early as 1596) when Okuni, apparently a Shinto priestess of doubtful character, appeared in Kyoto in performances that were farces based on outlines of Nô (the classical Japanese theater) and kyôgen (the classical Japanese comic theater). As more and more Kabuki troupes were formed many used men for women's roles and women for men's roles, often providing lewd entertainment that was little more than an advertisement for the profession of prostitution practiced by actors of both genders. The earliest skits were known as keiseikai ("hiring a prostitute") and chaya asobi ("playing in a brothel"). There were also troupes composed almost entirely of women, called onna kabuki ("women’s kabuki"), and an all-male theater called the wakashû kabuki ("young men’s kabuki") both groups also serving in part as organizations for prostitution. The government (bakufu) did not approve of the immorality of the kabuki and began issuing proscriptions against it as early as 1608. In 1629 a ban was imposed on women in kabuki because women impersonating men was considered detrimental to public morality. Occasionally the bakufu also banned wakashû kabuki, as in 1642. However, after 1652 more reforms were put in place and the kabuki theater took its present form, an all-male theater called yarô kabuki ("men's or fellow’s kabuki"). Nevertheless, prostitution and the physical attractiveness of the younger male actors often continued to take precedence over acting skill until the 1680s. There were, for example, yarô hyôbanki, which were critical guidebooks that rated young male actors more for their sexual appeal than their acting talents. The enormous popularity of actors continued well into the period after the 1680s and may have partly inhibited the development of the art form, for there is evidence that actors confined themselves to the sorts of roles most advantageous to them, often ignored written text when it did not suit their abilities, and even altered plots to provide themselves with tailor-made vehicles for their skills. As a result, playwrights were initially restricted in what they could do in the kabuki theater. In fact, Japan's most important playwright, Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1725) is said to have turned more and more toward writing for the puppet theater to better express his own artistic vision for the theater.
The cloth you mentioned is called a murasaki-bôshi ("purple cap"), which was a purple silk headcloth used by onnagata to cover the shaved forelock; it was used both during performances when acting in female roles and off-stage on formal occasions (the color of the cloth was not, however, always purple). The forelocks were shaved because apparently at some point the bakufu ordered that onnagata shave their heads to make them less attractive and thus less prone to illicit temptations, but wearing the cloth soon became only a conventionalized part of the onnagata’s persona.
Onnagata eventually became, ironically, the arbiters of female style, and their skill at onnarashisa ("female likeness") represented a model for feminine expression and behavior that even real women emulated. Onnagata excelled at playing keisei ("castle topplers," courtesans of the highest ranks, although the term was not used to designate any specific grade of prostitute), and there were many plays with "keisei" in the title (particularly plays performed in Osaka). In the kabuki theater from the late 17th century the keisei represented a most important and demanding role for the onnagata, who had to concern himself with the portrayal of beauty, experience, elegance, fidelity, and innocence in combinations that made the keisei an expressive character on the stage. Another specialty of the onnagata were the roles played during the michiyuki-mono ("road-going piece," a stylized kabuki dance). Initially, this dance involved scenic descriptions and portrayals of incidents as the characters journeyed between famous places. Later, the term became more frequently used for the tragic journeys of lovers in Chikamatsu’s double-suicide plays. In addition, the dramatic dance form called shosagoto were pieces developed first in the performances of the onnagata.