KABUKI FUN FACTS: With the Ichikawa Nekojin Kabuki Players

KABUKI FUN FACTS from the Ichikawa Nekojin Kabuki Players and Aoi Tokugawa

Kabuki and cartoons have something in common. 

For one thing, both project the nature of a character by their face - its color and expression. A bad guy has a terrible face, and a guy who is good or "cool" has a cool face. In Kabuki, a nice guy like Sukeroku has white makeup and red kumadori; that is, a particular style of makeup used in kabuki in which red, blue, brown, and black cosmetics are painted on an actor’s face to emphasize the nature of the character he portrays.

In the case of a female role, for example, a sexy or desirable unmarried lady wears a red kimono. In comics you are likely to see such a woman, perhaps a femme fatale, in a tight-fitting red dress.

The etymology of kabuki is “kabuku”; that is, inclined toward an imbalance or abnormality. Kabuki players like to wear strange fashions; so one might say then, that kabuki is the father of cosplay (costume play).

And there it is and there you have it.