Figures of Showa stage #12 – The actor Onoe Baiko VII as Fuji Musume in “Wisteria maiden”

Series
Figures of Showa Stage

Series Number
12

Title in English
Figures of Showa stage #12 – The actor Onoe Baiko VII as Fuji Musume in “Wisteria maiden”

Title in Japanese
藤娘 七代目尾上梅幸 昭和舞台姿　その十二
Showa Butai Sugata 12 – Fuji Musume – Onoe Baiko VII

Title in French
Portraits de la scène de Showa No.12 – Acteur Onoe Baiko VII dans le role de Fuji Musume “L’esprit de la glycine”

The play
This play was created in 1826 when actor Seki Sanjiro II performed for the last time in Edo. He danced five numbers under the title “Kaesu Gaesu Onagori no Ôtsue”, a reference to the traditional paintings from the Otsue region, south of Biwa Lake. The five acts represented The Wisteria Maiden (Fuji Musume), a blind masseur (Zatô), a footman (Sekisan yakko), the God tenjin and a boatman. Only the first three have survived and are now performed as independent pieces. In 1937 Onoe Kikugoro VI rewrote the dance to make more supernatural with the girl becoming the spirit of the wisteria. At first the stage is in the dark and the orchestra plays a sad and slow tune (naga-uta), then all the lights are turned on to reveal the giant Wisteria tree, the actor at the centre and the musicians on the side of the stage.

The story
Fujimusume the Wisteria Maiden is a kabuki dance sequence. There is no particular plot, only the music and the dance to describe the feelings of a young enamored maiden, who is in fact a spirit of the wisteria. The dance is divided in sequences each one performed in different kimonos, with variations on the theme of wisteria pattern and different colors. The costume changes are done behind the large painted trunk of a pine tree which traditionally serves as the background for the performance.

Several accessories are used during the dances and with the actor’s skills they take different significations: a ribbon of the lacquered hat becomes a brush with which the maiden writes her love letter; the long sleeves of the kimono become bouquets of wisteria flowers, the fan represents a sliding door or a sake cup. The actor’s skills and the spectators’ imagination work together to create various images.