SUGAWARA DENJU TENARAI KAGAMI
Terakoya

['The Village School' from 'Sugawara's Secrets of Calligraphy']

CAST :

Matsuōmaru

Onoe Kikunosuke

Takebe Genzō

Kataoka Ainosuke

Tonami

Bandō Shingo

Chiyo

Nakamura Baishi

Sono'o no mae

Nakamura Tōzō

STORY :

The former imperial minister and master calligrapher Kan Shōjō has now been exiled and his family are in grave danger. Takebe Genzō was Kan Shōjō's most gifted disciple. Genzō runs a small school in the country and is sheltering Kan Shōjō's son and heir, Kan Shūsai, whom they are trying to pass off as their own son. However, word has reached the enemy that Kan Shūsai is at their school and Genzō has been ordered to behead him. Moreover, the retainer Matsuōmaru who knows Kan Shūsai's face is to come to inspect the head. Genzō's only hope is to kill one of the other students as a substitute. On that day, a new student named Kotarō who has a refined bearing arrives. Genzō takes the terrible decision to kill him in place of his lord's son.

KEISEI DŌJŌJI

['The Courtesan at Dōjōji Temple']

CAST :

Kiyokawa, a courtesan, in reality, the spirit of Kiyohime

Nakamura Jakuemon

Anchin from Shirakawa, in reality, Taira no Koremori

Onoe Shōroku

Myōseki

Ōtani Tomoemon

Sonshū

Onoe Kikugorō

STORY :

This is one of the several dances based on the legend of Anchin and Kiyohime. This version of the work differs from 'The Maiden at Dōjōji Temple' in that Kiyohime's spirit appears as a courtesan. The priest Anchin is in reality, the Heike warrior Taira no Koremori who is in hiding. The courtesan Kiyokawa suddenly appears at the temple suffering from delusions of love and ...

Genroku Chūshingura
OHAMA GOTEN TSUNATOYO-KYŌ

['Lord Tsunatoyo at his Ohama Estate' from 'The Loyal 47 Rōnin of the Genroku Era']

CAST :

Tokugawa Tsunatoyo

Kataoka Nizaemon

Tominomori Suke'emon

Matsumoto Kōshirō

Okiyo, Tsunatoyo's consort

Nakamura Baishi

Ejima, a private secretary

Kataoka Takatarō

Arai Kageyu

Nakamura Karoku

STORY :

After Lord Asano Takuminokami attacked and wounded Kira Kōzukenosuke within the shogun's palace in 1701, he was ordered to commit ritual suicide, his domain was confiscated and his retainers all became masterless samurai. A group of these masterless samurai are planning to avenge their lord's death by killing the man they hold responsible, Kira. The play is set the year after Lord Asano's attack. Lord Tokugawa Tsunatoyo is holding a beachside party. Learning that Kira will attend this party, one of the masterless samurai, Tominomori Suke'emon, asks to observe from a distance. However, he hears from Lord Tsunatoyo that the Asano family will soon be reinstated, which means there will be no more reason for revenge. However, he ambushes Kira and makes his attack. The story focuses on the meanings of revenge.

ISE ONDO KOI NO NETABA

['The Ise Dances and Love's Dull Blade']

CAST :

Fukuoka Mitsugi

Matsumoto Kōshirō

Imada Manjirō

Onoe Kikunosuke

Kisuke, the cook

Kataoka Ainosuke

Shōjiki Shōdayū

Bandō Hikosaburō

Omine, Mitsugi's aunt

Ichikawa Komazō

Oshika, a courtesan of the Aburaya

Bandō Yajūrō

Fujinami Sazen

Nakamura Matagorō

Okon, a courtesan of the Aburaya

Nakamura Jakuemon

Manno, the chief maid

Nakamura Kaishun

STORY :

This is a sewamono play, a drama portraying in a realistic way the lives of ordinary people in the Edo period. It was based on a true incident involving a sword that occurred in a brothel in Furuichi, near the Grand Shrine of Ise. In Awa Province (present day Tokushima Prefecture) the lord's uncle Hachisuka Daigaku is plotting to take over the Hachisuka clan. As the head retainer Imada Kuroemon who enjoys the lord's confidence is in his way, he tries to bring Kuroemon down by stealing the heirloom sword Aoe Shimosaka and laying the blame for its loss on Kuroemon's son Manjirō. Manjirō goes to Ise to investigate the theft and to clear himself of losing the heirloom which at last he finds. Enticed by the henchmen of Daigaku's retainer Tokushima Iwaji, Manjirō pays frequent visits to the courtesan Okishi of the Furuichi pleasure quarter. Having no more money to visit her, he pawns the Shimosaka sword, the certificate for which is taken away through deception by Iwaji's faction. Fukuoka Mitsugi, a lowly acolyte in Ise who serves the Imada clan, intercepts a secret letter from Daigaku to Iwaji. He recovers the sword and comes to the Aburaya brothel to regain the certificate from Iwaji. In order to get the certificate for him, Mitsugi's lover Okon pretends that she no longer loves Mitsugi and that she has fallen for Iwaji instead. Not knowing Okon's true feelings, Mitsugi becomes distraught and slays many of the people in the brothel, driven on by the mysterious power of the sword Shimosaka.

Rokkasen Sugata no Irodori
KISEN

['The poet priest Kisen' from 'Colourful Guises of the Six Poet Immortals']

CAST :

Kisen Hōshi, head priest of a temple

Onoe Shōroku

Okaji, a tea stand waitress in Gion

Nakamura Baishi

STORY :

The dance 'Kisen' is one part of a series of dances portraying the six poetic geniuses of ancient Japan. The five male poets in the group are all portrayed as being in love with the sixth, Ono no Komachi, one of Japan's most famous beauties. While the other dances are set in ancient Japan, this dance suddenly jumps to the Edo period where the poet priest Kisen wanders about intoxicated by the beauties of the cherry blossoms and by Okaji, a beautiful tea waitress.