KABUKI: (1)political maneuver? (2)sushi bar? (3)ancient art form back at Lincoln Center?

Those who answered "C" are 100% correct!




"Kabuki" is part of the world lexicon, and has many meanings outside Japan, its country of origin, said Samuel L. Leiter, addressing a crowded lecture hall at
The Nippon Club in New York. Despite torrential rain, flood and thunder that evening, which was wild and furious as in some stage settings at the Kabuki-za in Tokyo, a very mixed audience wanted to understand Kabuki - before it returns to New York this week at Lincoln Center. 

I thought I knew - well I've seen it - in Japan, land of its origin!

My friend, Takako Ikeda, lived in Fort Lee in the 1990s.  She is a Japanese classical dancer.  As a female she cannot perform on-stage at Kabuki, but she does perform music unseen and offstage - throughout Japan.

Takako invited me to the National Theater in Tokyo to see Kabuki several times after she moved back and resumed her career.

But, that's enough about me, for now.  Through this week in photos and prose I will introduce Kabuki as I have been privileged to see it - back stage as well as front-row center.

In simple terms, for now,  men play all the roles in Kabuki: female and male (women were banned from Kabuki in its early days ). 

For me, as other westerners, this seemed like the old days of Milton Berle - or present-day cross-dressing - UNTIL I SAW IT!!!

I'm off to Lincoln Center now, for a dress rehearsal, and a peek at the Japanese village erected in the gardens of Lincoln Center.

MORE TOMORROW!