Wow! I am soooo exhausted, and I've already had a chance to sleep through the night. So yesterday was Kabuki Day for me. My Japanese parents took me to Kotohira for my very first Kabuki experience. It was quite a day. While there was nothing spectacular that happened really, it was just an all-around great Japanese cultural experience. But boy was it a long day and boy am I tired.
I woke up around 6:30 but laid in bed until 7:30 or so. Then I got up and cleaned my apartment a bit since it's been sorely needing it. Dishes, laundry, general pick-up. Then, I finally shaved my beard. (I don't know if I ever posted a picture with my beard at its longest. Or with my hair at it's longest. I finally got it cut.) Anyway, then I showered and Hashizume-sensei was there to pick me up at 9:30 (actually she was a bit early). She was in a kimono, which I wasn't expecting. I was in jeans. So I offered the change. At first she said no, but then I said it would be easy and she paused and thought. So, I knew the answer. After I put on slacks, we went back to her house and got her husband and our lunch for the day. When we got to Kotohira there were lots of people already there. So Mr. Hashizume dropped us off to go get good seats. We were actually some of the last people in our section, so we didn't get great seats. We didn't get any of the bench seats, only some floor seats where you have to sit "seiza", which means on your knees with your bum on your feet. Though, you could go Indian style, but with all the people, it's kind of difficult. And we were pretty jammed in there. But when her husband arrived, he noticed 3 seats at the end that were where the steps were. It was right in the foot traffic, but it allowed two of us to hang our legs down. So, we moved. And an added benefit was the fact that we no longer had a huge column blocking the middle of our view. We actually had a pretty awesome view.
I've got to explain a view things about kabuki, and this actually goes back a few weeks. (I should have already blogged about this but I was too busy at the time.) Hashizume-sensei made me a "Kabuki How-to" packet a few weeks ago. She typed up some paragraphs and worked on translating some key parts into English (even surreptitiously using me to help at times). She printed off and meticulously cut out colorful pictures to help demonstrate key concepts. Then she sat down with me when she handed it to me and helped me understand parts of it. I couldn't believe the time she put into it. Anyway, so this is where my knowledge of Kabuki began.
One special aspect of Kabuki is the way actors enter and exit. They use the "hanamichi". It's an elevated walkway that runs through the audience starting stage right and going straight to the back of the audience. And we were up in the balcony all the way to the right so that the "hanamichi" was on the opposite side of the theater from us. It made it so that it formed a nice open L shape with the stage and when the characters were entering and leaving we could see everything as one big scene. Basically, I'm saying even though we were in the cheap seats, we really had a nice view. And we didn't have cramped legs.
Anyway, so we got settled in and then Mr. Hashizume took me outside and pointed out various parts of the theater and we talked as much as we could in Japanese. And he made me stand for several pictures.
Back inside, the plays began. I was actually confused at first. I thought it was one show with an intermission. But there were three different stories with 2 intermissions. After the first show which I didn't understand, but was interesting and funny enough, we got out the "bento" that Hashizume-sensei had prepared. She had made some sandwiches and onigiri and pickles. All homemade of course. The second show was a little easier to understand. There were more actions and I actually could catch a few words. It was about two men fighting over a sword whose ownership was eventually to be decided by an elder. And if I understood the end (which was the only confusing part) the bad guy took the sword and knocked down all the other guys and ran off with the real owner chasing him. The guys who got knocked down meanwhile were laying on their backs with their hands and feet in the air doing what looked like a doggie paddle. The third show was the grandest one with the biggest costumes, a more elevated stage, a bigger cast, and the "shibaraku" which this style of Kabuki is famous for. I, of course, couldn't understand any of the details of this story. There were not very many actions that went with the dialogue. It was a love story where the hero arrives and beheads some guys and takes the woman away with him. Yes you see the heads on stage and the guys running off with blood spewing (red cloth) spewing from their necks. But before that happens, the story goes along with not much movement. People just talking. Then, when all is explained, the hero makes his entrance. "Shibaraku" ~ Wait a minute! He comes in wearing platform sandals and about 15 layers of costume to make him larger than life. His outer robe sort of ends in pant legs that are so long that he is actually walking on them inside them. Which I don't know how that works. Especially in platform sandals. Meanwhile his sleeves are about a meter and a half long with rods in them to hold them taut, like a kite, but square. He has two white feathers in his hair as well and his face is painted with red blood lines. He, of course, saves the day. But not before three stagehands help him remove three layers of kimono to reveal his belt and take apart the super-sleeves and help him get his sword out. All on stage.
Afterward, we stayed back a minute and snapped a few pictures together. And then we all walked down to the car together. Even just that would have made for an exhausting day as it was all in Japanese. But we went back to their house. We relaxed a bit in the afternoon as Hashizume-sensei got out of her kimono and went about the house doing things. But eventually she came into the den and we talked about Kabuki for a while. The conversation drifted and she showed me some of what she's been studying with English. Around 6 (or maybe 5) we started cooking dinner. That was quite a process. We made homemade sushi, tempura, and donuts. And when I say 'we' I mean, me and Mr. Hashizume only helped a little. And when I say sushi, don't think of what Americans think for sushi. Sushi in Japan, I think, just means rice that's been mixed with vinegar (and sugar and salt) and then put with something else, usually some sort of seafood either uncooked and rolled or cooked and diced up and mixed (often with egg) with the rice. We had the latter, which is "daisuki" (big like). The tempura was bamboo shoots, fish, squid, and something else. And the donuts were just regular donuts, fried and sugared. Some had "an" sweet bean paste though. There was a huge amount of food, but we managed to make a pretty big dent in it. And of course, most of the remainder came home with me.
Meanwhile, all throughout cooking and eating, it's all Japanese with the occasional English thrown in there. Hashizume-sensei LOVES to talk and when she gets going, there's no stopping her. By the end of the night, I wasn't so much physically tired, but my brain was literally shutting down. I couldn't focus any more on what she was saying to even TRY to understand. And when we were ready to leave, her husband wanted to sit and finish a TV show he had started. So, it was more talking. Somehow, I found a second wind though, and I started putting together some pretty good sentences from what I could tell. They flowed and made sense. But luckily the show ended and I was able to get home and rest. But it was a pretty amazing day. I'm so grateful to the Hashizumes.
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ほんとにたのしかったです。歌舞伎ははじめて。日本語まだじょうずじゃない。そしてぜんぜんわからなかったです。でもいま歌舞伎のものをならいたいです。
