Figures of Showa stage #1 – The actor Onoe Kikugoro VI in the role of Yayoi in Kagamijishi – White version

Series
Figures of Showa Stage

Series Number
1

Title in English
Figures of Showa stage #1 – The actor Onoe Kikugoro VI in the role of Yayoi in Kagamijishi – White version

Title in Japanese
Showa Butai Sugata 1 – Yayoi no Kagamijishi Onoe Kikugoro VI

Title in French
Portraits de la scène de Showa No.1 – L’acteur Onoe Kikugoro dans le role de Yayoi dans Kagamijishi – Version blanche

The play
Kagami jishi (The lion dance) is a musical dance created in 1893. It belongs to the Naga-uta (long song) genre, that is taking music from Noh theater to kabuki by adding shamisen (a three-string long neck lute played with a plectrum) to the orchestra. The premiere was played by Ichikawa Danjuro IX with his two daughters playing the butterflies.

The story
The story is related through the movements of the dancers. Yayoi is a lady-in-waiting at the Shogun’s palace in Edo. She was selected to perform the lion dance for the New Year celebrations, a performance to exorcise evil spirits. The dancer has to wear a wooden mask with silk streamers and movable jaws. She is locked in a room with the mask and told to practice. At first, she is overwhelmed by her surroundings and dances timidly. However, her pace quickens as the lion’s spirit takes possession of her. Two butterflies appear and the lion takes full control of Yayoi and chase them around. The maiden has now totally disappeared and the lion goes to his lair, then comes back and falls asleep. The butterflies come back to tease him and the lion works himself into a mighty rage and stands shaking his great mane around in a fury of movement.