HANA NO GOSHO SHIMATSU

['The Incident of the Ashikaga Shogunate']

CAST :

Ashikaga Yoshinori

Matsumoto Kōshirō

Hatakeyama Mitsuie

Nakamura Shikan

Azumi Yukihide

Kataoka Ainosuke

Irie

Nakamura Jakuemon

STORY :

Ashikaga Yoshinori, the second son of the Grand Minister Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, plots to become shogun at the Muromachi Residence, which people call the 'Flower Palace' after the beautiful flowers and trees planted all over the garden. He allies himself with his father’s confidant Hatakeyama Mitsuie, shogunal deputy, and tips off his father about the false rumour that his elder brother, the heir Yoshitsugu, conspires to rebel against him. He murders his father in his bedroom who is enjoying his time with his mistress. Then he puts the guilt of killing his father on Yoshitsugu and makes away with him. Now that he has assumed control of the shogunate, just as he wished, he becomes more and more autocratic. Finally, he kills Mitsuie with whom he allied himself. A few years later, as he spends sleepless nights annoyed by spirits of those he has murdered, rebellious farmers force their way into his residence and …

KANADEHON CHŪSHINGURA
Act 10, Amakawaya Gihei Uchi

['Act 10, Amakawaya Gihei's Shop' from 'The Treasury of Loyal Retainers']

CAST :

Amakawaya Gihei

Nakamura Shikan

Ōboshi Yuranosuke

Matsumoto Kōshirō

Osono, Gihei's wife

Kataoka Takatarō

STORY :

Amakawaya is a shipping agency at Sakai in Settsu Province. The master Gihei secretly provides arms to Ōboshi Yuranosuke who needs them to attack Kira's mansion. By doing this he will avenge his lord's death. One night, policemen surround him, suspecting that he supplies the masterless retainers of the Akō domain with arms. Though the policemen threaten him with his son's life, he assumes ignorance, but then an unexpected visitor calls on him and …

MIGAWARI ZAZEN

['The Zen Substitute']

CAST :

Yamakage Ukyō

Onoe Shōroku *

Tamanoi, Ukyō's wife

Nakamura Ganjirō

*The cast has been changed from the initial announcement.

STORY :

This is a dance drama adapted from a classical kyōgen comedy. Lord Yamakage Ukyō wants nothing more than to visit his lover Hanago, but he has one important problem: his homely and overbearing wife will not leave his side. He thinks of several excuses to leave the house, but when these are rejected, he finally insists that he will practice Zen meditation all night. However, he cheats by making his servant Tarōkaja take his place so that he can go off secretly to see Hanago. When he returns, giddy from a night of pleasure and tells his story to Tarōkaja in dance form, he is unaware that his wife has discovered his deception.

DOKURONI

['Nun Dokuroni']

CAST :

Dokuroni

Bandō Tamasaburō

STORY :

In the late 12th century, Genji warriors have almost destroyed the once thriving Taira clan, and without pity they murder Juōmaru, son of the beautiful chief lady-in-waiting of the New Middle Councilor and the late Taira no Shigehira. Witnessing this, the priest Ashōbō Insai bemoans the transience of the world. A year later, Dokuroni (Nun's Skull) is in a nunnery in Nara. She is so named because she always carries the small skull of Juōmaru on her person. The ugly belfry keeper Shichibē yearns deeply for the beautiful nun every day. She learns a secret method through her religious services, and Shigehira, for whom she has been longing, appears in her presence. But …

KURUWA BUNSHŌ
Yoshidaya

['Love Letters from the Pleasure Quarters']

CAST :

Fujiya Izaemon

Kataoka Ainosuke

Kizaemon of the Yoshidaya

Nakamura Ganjirō

Yūgiri of the Ōgiya, a courtesan

Bandō Tamasaburō

STORY :

Set during the Edo Period, this is a dance drama portraying a scene in the Osaka licensed quarters at the New Year. The young lover Izaemon has been disowned by his family for loving the courtesan Yūgiri. Now dressed in nothing but a paper kimono, he visits the Yoshidaya pleasure house to meet Yūgiri. It has been a long time since they last met and they have a jealous quarrel. After that, they make up, and then at last news arrives that Izaemon's parents have relented and given them permission to marry.