Kabuki at Home
Trevor Skingle shares his love for kabuki theatre and some details about his collection of kabuki-related items.
I was in the Army some years ago and, as a part of my role as a Physical Training Instructor, I got involved in Judo, eventually becoming a Judo Coach, Official and Judo Club Manager for three different clubs depending on where I was posted; which started a tradition of Judo at those Regiments. As a consequence I became interested in Zen Buddhism and then the Japanese arts. Once I left the Army, I continued my interest in Judo at the Budokwai club in Fulham and in Japanese culture too. To get a better understanding about Japan and Japanese culture, I learnt some spoken Japanese and Hiragana and Katakana and visited Japan for the first time in 1987. I have been going back to Japan from time and time ever since. On this first trip, I went to a performance of kabuki at the Minamiza theatre in Kyoto and was completely hooked.
Each time I have been back to Japan I have made a point of attending the kabuki performance that mark the beginning of the theatrical year. As a consequence of my fascination with kabuki, I began to research its history and background and started to collect kabuki-related items such as kabukiza magazines (from February and April 1930), actor Nakamura Utaemon’s stage prop inro, various old kabuki banzuke, portrait paintings and photos of kabuki actors and kabuki stage scenes, and an oshiguma from a performance of Momijigari (Contemplating Maples) at the Shintomiza theatre in February 1922 which include the face pressings of Ichimura Uzaemon XV as Taira no Koremochi, Onoe Baiko VI as Princess Sarashina the witch of Mount Togakushi, and Ichimura Takematsu IV as the Mountain God Yamagami.
The photos of kabuki actors took precedence in my attraction to kabuki and I have collected many unusual photos which adorn the walls at home. Not least of these were two photos of the historical actors Ichimura Uzaemon XV and Matsumoto Koshiro VII performing in Kanjincho (The Subsription List) at the Kabukiza theatre in the 1930s, both of which were signed personally by them. Other photos I have on display at home are:
- The Azuma Troupe meeting Mrs McArthur at the Century Theatre in New York on the 2nd February 1954;
- Actor Ichimura Uzaemon VX and his wife departing on their tour to the USA and Europe on the N.Y.K. Liner Taiyo Maru on the 14th April 1928;
- Anastas Miyokan, the Armenian Bolshevik and Soviet First Deputy Premier, meeting the 47-year-old actor Nakamura Utaemon VI in Tokyo on the 29th May 1964;
- Actor Onoe Baiko VII with British Princess Alexander, the Honourable Lady Ogilvy KG GCVO, and Princess Chichibu nee Setsuko Matsudaira, in the backstage at the Kabukiza theatre on the 20th November 1961;
- The youngest daughter of Prince Oscar Bernadotte Mrs. Elsa Victoria Cedergren, niece of King Gustaf V of Sweden and her husband Carl Axel “Hugo” Cedergern with actor Onoe Kikugoro VI, at a performance of the dance ‘Fuji Musume’ at the Kabukiza theatre in Tokyo on the 30th March 1937;.
- Actor Onoe Kikugoro VI with James van Zandt and the Veterans of Foreign Wars in the backstage of an unknown theatre in Japan on 7th May 1936;
- Actor Nakamura Tomataro as Umegawa in the play Koibikyaku Yamato Orai (The Money Courier from Hell aka The Messenger of Love) at the University of Michigan’s Power centre in Ann Arbour, Michigan, on 8th June 1988.
I also made a documentary at home about actor Ichimura Uzaemon XV which I published online here.
Though I have copies of these photos on display at home the originals I donated to the Waseda Theatre Museum in Tokyo, along with other items and a plethora of personal documents of the opera singer Sekiya Toshiko, Ichimura Uzaemon XV’s niece. I donated the oshiguma to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. A worthy legacy, I think, of my fascination with kabuki…
I currently have a Japanese annual of actors from the Showa era (1926-1989) which I am going through and translating the captions.