Oshi-Katsu Chronicle: Early Edo. Finding Your Actor, from Izumo no Okuni to Danjuro and Tojuro

Drawn in by eye-catching costumes and dance, you realize you’ve started following one performer. What helps you find an oshi is often that person’s one-of-a-kind look and movement.

In 1603, in Kyoto, just as Japan passed from the Warring States era into the Edo period, the “kabuki-odori” of Izumo no Okuni became a hit. Known for striking dress and dance, including a woman dancing in men’s clothing, it was the art that gave rise to kabuki.

From there, attention turned to the individuality of each actor, and books critiquing acting found readers. What grew was a pleasure that overlaps with today’s oshi-katsu: finding a performer you love and then wanting to know what people think of them.

1. 1603Okuni's kabuki-odoriA hit in Kyoto
2. 1607Dancing at Edo CastleA record of her performance
3. 1685Aragoto takes shapeBy leading theory, the Kinpira role
4. 1699An actor critique bookThe volume in Tokyo's library
5. 1703Sonezaki ShinjuA hit at the Takemoto-za

On stage and in print, interest in performers and works widened together.

1. Drawn to the Costumes and Dance: The Star Izumo no Okuni

The word kabuku means to act differently from everyone else, in a way that stands out. Okuni danced in men’s dress with a cross necklace worked into her look. The Japan Arts Council’s explainer describes a style that departed from ordinary dress of the time. History of Kabuki Dance (in Japanese)

At a concert today, too, your eyes can land on the costumes and dance before you’ve really heard the song. Okuni’s kabuki-odori had that same way in. At the center of the stage was a performer who made people think, “I want to see that person again,” not just the title of a piece.

Performing arts of the time were often staged on temporary stages built on riverbanks or in temple and shrine grounds. At the height of her popularity, Okuni is said to have had a dedicated stage in the grounds of Kitano Shrine in Kyoto. There is also a record of her dancing at Edo Castle in 1607. Kabuki Encyclopedia, “Izumo no Okuni” (in Japanese)

The “Okuni Kabuki Screen” held by the Kyoto National Museum is thought to depict the stage where, in 1603, Okuni borrowed the Noh stage of Kitano Shrine and began her kabuki-odori. The music has no shamisen, only flute, hand drum and drum, which shows the form in its early days. Kyoto National Museum, “Okuni Kabuki Screen” (in Japanese)

2. Danjuro or Tojuro? Finding Your Oshi in an Actor’s Strengths

By the end of the 17th century, actors with very different appeal were thriving in Edo and in Kamigata, the region centered on Kyoto and Osaka.

Edo

First Ichikawa Danjuro

• [object Object]
• Bold heroes with superhuman strength

Kamigata

First Sakata Tojuro

• [object Object]
• Soft, delicate lovers troubled by love

Same art form, different reasons to pick an oshi.

The first Ichikawa Danjuro, who won popularity in Edo, boldly played heroes with superhuman strength and the like. This style is aragoto. The first Sakata Tojuro of Kamigata, by contrast, excelled at wagoto: softly and delicately playing romantic leads troubled by love and circumstance. Japan Arts Council, “The Formative Period of Kabuki” (in Japanese)

Some people thrill to a powerful hero; others are gripped by the face of someone lovesick. Even within kabuki, there isn’t one reason to back an actor. The same goes today: whether you fall for an actor’s action scenes or for their fine emotional expression changes whom you notice.

Danjuro was an actor, but he was also a creator who wrote his own scripts, while Chikamatsu Monzaemon wrote many scripts for Tojuro. Japan Arts Council, “The Creators” (in Japanese) According to the official site of Naritaya, the Danjuro family’s house name, the leading theory takes the role of Sakata Kinpira that the first Danjuro played on stage in 1685 as the beginning of aragoto. He also wrote scripts under the name Mimasuya Hyogo. Naritaya official site, “The First Ichikawa Danjuro” (in Japanese)

Scripts were made with the actor’s strengths in mind. Think of today’s ate-gaki, the practice of writing a role to suit a particular actor, and the bond between performer and creator becomes clear.

3. I Want to Read What People Think of My Oshi, Too: The Yakusha Hyobanki

On the way home from your oshi’s show, you search social media for their name or the title of the production. Do you find yourself reading impression after impression, wondering how other people felt about that scene?

1. 01See the showThe stage that drew you in
2. 02Look for opinionsSearch now; open a book then
3. 03Read the ratingsTypes of role, rank, critique
4. 04CompareHow did others see it?

Books played the role that social media plays today.

The Edo period had books for this too, ones where you could read how actors were rated. They were called yakusha hyobanki, or actor critique books: collections of stage reviews that critiqued actors’ art and recorded evaluations.

A volume published in 1699 and held by the Tokyo Metropolitan Library divides actors by the type of role they play, ranks them and includes descriptions of their looks and critiques. Readers could learn an actor’s strong roles and standing, things a name alone doesn’t tell you. Tokyo Metropolitan Library, digital showcase on the 1699 actor critique book (in Japanese) Actor critique books kept appearing throughout the Edo period, and the culture of evaluating actors’ art and passing on their reputations lasted into the Meiji era. Ritsumeikan University Art Research Center, “Actor Critique Books” (in Japanese)

How did other people see the performance that drew you in? The fun continues after you’ve seen your oshi. It wasn’t a system where anyone could post instantly, as on social media, but books played the role of carrying impressions and evaluations of the stage.

4. Feeling for the Characters: The Audience Sonezaki Shinju Drew

Beyond an actor’s face and acting, some audience members were gripped by the story itself. Sonezaki Shinju (The Love Suicides at Sonezaki), first staged in 1703 at the Takemoto-za in Osaka, is a major example.

It is a work of ningyo joruri, or puppet theater, in which the movements of the puppets are joined with a voice that tells the story and shamisen playing. Its author was Chikamatsu Monzaemon, who put on stage stories drawn from the love, money and relationships of people living in the town. Japan Arts Council, Sonezaki Shinju (in Japanese)

The story was based on a real double suicide that took place in Osaka in April 1703, and the first performance came the following month. The shrine where it is set, Tsuyuten Shrine, is still known today as “Ohatsu Tenjin.” Ritsumeikan University Art Research Center, “Sonezaki Shinju” (in Japanese) Tsuyuten Shrine, sites connected with Sonezaki Shinju (in Japanese)

The leads are Tokubei, who works at a soy sauce shop, and Ohatsu, a courtesan. Tokubei is betrayed over money and driven into a corner. The two lovers are up against circumstances that feeling alone can’t move. What the audience watched was not a distant hero but the suffering of someone who might live in the same town.

Sonezaki ShinjuFirst staged in 1703

• A real caseThe story was based on an April 1703 event
• Ordinary livesA soy sauce shop worker and a courtesan
• PressureBetrayal over money
• Three arts as onePuppets, voice and shamisen
• A hitHelped the Takemoto-za's finances

The audience watched the suffering of people who might live in the same town.

When a character you love is suffering, you can’t look away from what comes next. You find the same way of enjoying a work in dramas and anime. In puppet theater, the puppets’ movement, the narration and the shamisen come together to convey emotion.

The production was a huge hit and helped rescue the struggling Takemoto-za’s finances. When people gather for one work, a theater can prepare its next one. Japan Arts Council’s work explainer (in Japanese)

Sonezaki Shinju also appears as a kabuki piece in the film Kokuho (National Treasure). A story first staged as puppet theater in the Edo period is also performed in kabuki, and today some people come to know it through film. Shochiku, “Sonezaki Shinju,” which also appears in the film Kokuho (in Japanese)

Audiences of this era enjoyed the actors’ performances, were drawn into the stories, and also came across reputations recorded in books. It was an age when interest in actors and works spread through both the stage and print.

Timeline of Oshi-Katsu in Azuchi-Momoyama and Early Edo

From Okuni’s kabuki-odori to kabuki that celebrates each actor’s individuality, and on to puppet theater in which a single work drew crowds. Here, the changes on stage are set beside the widening pleasure of backing someone.

1. Oct. 1587Hideyoshi hosts the Great Kitano Tea Gathering at Kitano Tenmangu ShrineBusiness
2. 1603Izumo no Okuni performs the kabuki dance in KyotoStage
3. 1617The Yoshiwara is licensed in EdoBusiness
4. 1624Saruwaka Kanzaburo opens the Saruwakaza in Nakabashi Minami-chi, EdoStage
5. 1629Onna kabuki (women's kabuki) is banned for corrupting public moralsStage
6. 1652Wakashu kabuki (young men's kabuki) is banned in EdoStage
7. 1673The first Ichikawa Danjuro launches aragoto (rough style) in "Shitenno Osanadachi"Idols
8. 1678Courtesan Yugiri dies, and "Yugiri Nagori no Shogatsu" is bornIdols
9. 1684Takemoto Gidayu opens the Takemotoza in DotonboriStage
10. 1699"Yakusha Kuchi Jamisen" sets the form of the actor critique bookMedia
11. 1703The Takemotoza premieres "Sonezaki Shinju" (The Love Suicides at Sonezaki)Stage
12. 1704The first Ichikawa Danjuro dies on the stage of the IchimurazaIdols
13. 1714The Ejima-Ikushima incident ends the Yamamuraza, leaving the three Edo theatersBusiness

Performing Arts and Trend Words of Azuchi-Momoyama and Early Edo

Aragoto and wagoto for talking about actors’ performances, and kabuki-mono and yaro-atama for looks and dress. Words for talking about the stage’s appeal grew up too.

Kabukimono (kabuki people)

Young people of the era with outlandish dress and conduct beyond common sense. They were the subject of Okuni's dance

Yaro-atama ("fellow's head")

The hair of performers who shaved off their forelocks after the ban on wakashu kabuki. It gave yaro kabuki (men's kabuki) its name

Aragoto (rough style)

A style begun by the first Ichikawa Danjuro in 1673, marked by kumadori makeup and exaggerated, powerful acting

Wagoto (soft style)

A style perfected by the first Sakata Tojuro, marked by gentle gestures and delivery of lines

Meibutsu (famous tea utensils)

A term for tea utensils given special value by their provenance and anecdotes

Aragoto and wagoto describe the acting strengths we saw in section 2. Yaro-atama is the name of a hairstyle that appears alongside the history of kabuki performed by male actors.

Next comes the mid-Edo period, when teahouse celebrities and prints of actors spread. Oshi-Katsu Chronicle: Mid-Edo features teahouse favorites, vividly colored nishiki-e prints and sumo rankings.

References

• Japan Arts Council, “History of Kabuki Dance” (in Japanese)
• Japan Arts Council, “Izumo no Okuni” (in Japanese)
• Japan Arts Council, “The Formative Period of Kabuki” (in Japanese)
• Japan Arts Council, “The Creators” (in Japanese)
• Tokyo Metropolitan Library, digital showcase on the 1699 actor critique book (in Japanese)
• Japan Arts Council, Sonezaki Shinju (in Japanese)
• Kyoto National Museum, Featured Works, “Okuni Kabuki Screen” (in Japanese)
• Naritaya official site, “The First Ichikawa Danjuro” (in Japanese)
• Ritsumeikan University Art Research Center, “2026 AVF Kabuki and Media,” Actor Critique Books (in Japanese)
• Ritsumeikan University Art Research Center, “2026 AVF Kabuki and Media,” Sonezaki Shinju (in Japanese)
• Tsuyuten Shrine (Ohatsu Tenjin), sites connected with Sonezaki Shinju (in Japanese)
• Shochiku, announcement of the Cinema Kabuki Sonezaki Shinju release (in Japanese)