Kabuki

こんにちはみなさん！
Konnichiwa Mina-san!

きのう、かぶきをみにいきました。
Kino, Kabuki wo mi ni ikimashita.
Yesterday, I went to see Kabuki.

Mina-san, have you ever heard of Kabuki? It's a traditional form of Japanese theater. If you've ever seen a picture of a woodblock print (ukiyo-e), or a photograph of a Japanese person with their face painted white and red around the eyes, you were probably looking at an image of a Kabuki actor.

Since female Kabuki actors were outlawed in the Edo Period (1603-1868), the performers are entirely male. A male kabuki actor playing a female is called "onna gata" (おんながた).

The play I went to see was designed as an entrance to the world of Kabuki for those who knew little about it--in particular, high school students. They had two famous young Kabuki actors introduce the stage and talk about Kabuki before and after the performance. They were Nakamura (last name comes first in Japanese) Hayato (age 16) and Nakamura Kazutaro (Age 19). The high school girls in the audience went crazy over them!