The intense theatre activity of Yedo, Kyoto, and Osaka that followed in the wake of the edict against Wakashu Kabuki was but the outcome of the growing consciousness of the people and an expression of their natural art craving.

The competition between the stages of the three towns brought about rapid developments in every direction, and many of the conventions that distinguish the modern stage were inaugurated at this time.

Yedo was the seat of the Tokugawa Government, the Shoguns ruling the country with an iron hand. The feudal lords and their vassals paid allegiance to this Government, and Yedo swarmed with two-sworded samurai. It was the liveliest centre of the country for the ronin, or samurai unattached to a master, and in consequence all the adventurous spirits of the time were attracted here as moths to a candle. Yedo Kabuki thus developed marked characteristics of its own.

The atmosphere of Kyoto was entirely different. Here lived in seclusion the Emperor, surrounded by the Imperial families and the nobles. The usurping Shoguns had reduced the Emperor to impotence. Kyoto was the home of artists, poets, writers, and the people were calm, elegant, and given to refined pursuits. The actors of Kyoto contributed not a little to the taste and style of Kabuki.

Osaka, also, had a great influence upon Kabuki. Here, people were well-to-do and full of energy. This town had for centuries been one of the foremost centres of trade, and the inhabitants counted theatre-going among their chief pleasures. Osaka Kabuki contributed some of the most important material that went to the building up of the theatre of the people.

When the handsome young players of Wakashu Kabuki no longer held the centre of the stage, acting made rapid progress. Theatre construction greatly improved; the introduction of the samisen caused a special music of the theatre to come into being, which was soon to differentiate Kabuki from the farces of the Nō theatre it had imitated so slavishly. There also arose a new school of music, Yedo Nagauta (long poem or song), the basis of Kabuki’s interesting music-dramas.

At this period the onnagata, or specialty of acting women’s rôles, began, a convention that makes the Japanese stage so unlike anything to be found in the Occident.

It had been customary on O-Kuni’s stage, and later on the women’s stage, for men to assume women’s rôles and women to appear as men, but when the Government forbade women appearing on the stage it was necessary, not only from an art point of view, but also from a business one, to find substitutes.

Therefore, in the natural course of events, men came to monopolise female rôles. This was no new thing after all, for the Nō, that flourished for two hundred years before Kabuki had sprung into being, was also a male theatre, and not only did men wear women’s masks when impersonating the tragic heroines of the Nō drama, but the impersonators of females in the farces of Nō, or Kyogen, were likewise males, wearing cotton coverings over their heads, as may be seen to-day in the performances of the Nō.

Besides, the male impersonator of women had long been a convention of the Chinese theatre, and as Japan had absorbed within herself so much of the civilisation from the continent, it was not surprising that her theatre conventions, as well as those of her other arts, should be akin to those of China.

Yet there was in Japan a tendency towards a theatre development similar to Europe, had not the Government so resolutely set itself against all freedom of action on the part of the theatre folk.

In this early period of expansion there were many good actors whose traditions were carried on and who made a firm foundation for the brilliant Genroku age, Kabuki’s greatest period of growth and out-flowering.

Among the tateyaku, or leading actors, before Genroku, there were three men of influence—Arashi Sanyemon, of Yedo; Fujita Koheiji, of Kyoto; and Araki Yojibei, of Osaka.

Arashi Sanyemon was born in 1635 and died in 1690. He came to Yedo from Settsu Province, where his father was a prosperous fish dealer. In one of his popular plays there was a line about the moon having its clouds and the flowers their storms, and people quoting this called out “Arashi!” when he appeared on the street. This was a poetical term meaning mountain-wind, or storm. Sanyemon thought this a good stage name, and thereafter adopted it, a cognomen that has been used by actors ever since.

Sanyemon was not content to play to Yedo audiences, but went to Osaka, where he became the proprietor of a theatre. He greatly improved plays, wore magnificent garments, and acted to the accompaniment of flute, drum, and samisen. His plays served Chikamatsu Monzaemon as originals when that dramatist wrote two of his best-known doll-dramas. Arashi Sanyemon was succeeded by his son, who became one of the noted actors of Genroku.

Contemporary with Arashi Sanyemon was Fujita Koheiji, of Kyoto. He had come from the adjacent province of Ise, after acting in small country theatres, and was a close rival to Arashi Sanyemon. It is said that he never lost his popularity on the stage during his career, although he did not attempt to hide the ravages of time by using face powder in making up. His gestures were those of real life, and were considered as models that were handed down to his successors. Fukui Yagozaemon, of Osaka, the first playwright to compose long pieces of several acts, had much to do with increasing Koheiji’s reputation, writing plays for him that pleased the public.

Likewise, Yagozaemon was largely responsible for the fame of another influential actor, Araki Yojibei, of Osaka, who ended his earthly career in 1700. This early playwright, Yagozaemon, was not only a stage writer, but a good actor as well, and was successful as a kawashagata, or middle-aged woman character. He was one of the stage authorities of his day, and wrote a play for Yojibei that was the great success of the time. It was Hinin Adauchi, or The Beggar’s Revenge, the first long play to be composed in Osaka, free from all association with the Nō drama, a piece that has long survived, with modifications, and is still a favourite with modern actors. Yojibei was versatile; he was praised as clever in stage fighting and excellent when impersonating a wounded man, so that he was an early advocate of realism in acting.

Among the dokegata, or comedians, there was an actor who could boast of blue blood when it came to theatre lineage. He was Sadoshima Dempachi. His father before him was Sadoshima Denbei, who had headed one of the Onna Kabuki companies in Kyoto. Dempachi had been brought up in the theatre atmosphere. From the theatre chronicles it is found that he was ugly and did not have a pleasing voice, two disqualifications for a tateyaku, or chief actor, but he was a dancer par excellence, and this covered a multitude of sins, since dancing is the basis of the Japanese actor’s art. Sadoshima Dempachi was fortunate in the possession of a son who inherited his genius, Sadoshima Chogoro, who, although less of an actor than a dancer, had much to do with the movements and postures of the newly arisen music-drama, and left behind him a journal concerned largely with the secrets of dancing, the Sadoshima Nikki, or Journal of Sadoshima.

When the Wakashu Kabuki went out of existence and plays were produced that required complicated characters, a strict division of labour among the actors was carried out, and they were obliged to play only their own specialties.

In the Onna Kabuki the rôles had been fixed as in the Nō theatre. There was a shite, or chief actor; a waki, or secondary player; and tsure, or assistants. In Wakashu Kabuki, the handsome youth who was selected as star of the company was called taiyu, or chief, while older actors acted as secondary and supporting players. As in the Nō there were kyogen shi, or comedians, so there were dokegata, or funny men, in the Wakashu Kabuki.

The specialties of the newly established male stage were simple at first, then became more and more complex. They were the tateyaku, or chief actor, who played the hero, always a good, courageous, and loyal personage. The katakiyaku was the name of the specialty in villains,—the bold, bad characters who caused all the trouble. There were the onnagata, or actors playing women’s rôles; the dokegata, or comedians; oyajigata, or elderly men, and the kawashagata, or females of middle age. Youthful heroes were played by wakashugata, while koyakugata was the name given those who took children’s rôles.

With the increase in the importance of acting, and the overwhelming interest the public took in the competition of the actors, the most complicated system of rank came to be bestowed upon the players.

During the Wakashu Kabuki regime, the audiences were simply charmed by the dancing of attractive young men, but as soon as complicated plays brought diversified characters, the people became most critical of acting, a characteristic that has remained as regards the Japanese playgoer. This holds true equally of modern audiences, that are ever alert to see the differences between good and indifferent acting, and which they appear to find much more worthy of consideration than the merits or demerits of the play.

Playgoers took keen interest in the rank earned by their favourites, and were elated if an actor became more prominent, and equally disturbed if he did not live up to the promise of his early career. The most important rank was termed jojo-kichi, or best-best-good. Intermediate rank was marked by the Chinese characters denoting jojo or best-best, chu-no-jojo or middle-best-best, and chu-no-jo, middle-best.

Later on, the system determining the talents of the actors became elaborate. There was first the superlative standard, called head-of-all-acting, and this was like Miranda, created of every creature’s best, top of admiration. Murui followed, a most coveted title, signifying without rival, applied to the best in each specialty, whether it was an onnagata or a tateyaku.

The third rank was jojo-kichi, best-best-good, used for the second in each specialty, and the fourth was shingoku-jojo-kichi, or truest-best-best-good; the fifth, dai-jojo-kichi, or great-best-best-good; while the sixth was called ko-jojo-kichi, or little-best-best-good.

The seventh rank was jojo-kichi, best-best-good. This was the standard rank, the others were given only to the great stars. Below jojo-kichi were the eighth and ninth ranks, and still lower a number of different terms diminishing in value. These were written in Chinese characters beside the actor’s name on the programme and on the bill-boards outside the theatre, of which he must have been inordinately proud.

In Kokon Yakusha Taizen, or Ancient and Modern Actors, published by Hachimojiya in the third year of Kwanyei (1791), there is a statement as to the origin of these ranks. In China the rank was given to loyal persons who were considered worthy of reward for merit. The titles jojo and jo-chu-no-jo were conferred upon them.

Murasaki Shikibu, the famous court lady, who wrote the Genji Monogatari, or stories concerning the adventures, largely romantic, of Prince Genji, used the rank of jojo-kichi when she wished to give one of her heroes a meritorious title, taking the jojo, or best-best, from the custom prevailing in China, and adding kichi, or good, on her own account. As the art of the actors developed their genius was recognised, and this system of reward devised. At first the classification fell into the categories of good, middle, and poor, but gradually the most extravagant terms were used to denote the pinnacle of art achieved.

Along with this minutiæ in connection with acting the dramatic critic was called into being, the actor and his critic being complements of each other the world over.

Persons of literary pretensions began to criticise the actors, and published their opinions. It is not clear when the first of these criticisms appeared, but Ihara Seiseiin mentions 1656 as the probable date.

At first the criticisms dealt largely with the personal appearances of the onnagata, who were the most fascinating players on the stage, their borrowed feminine charms and graces being attractive to men and women alike. Then followed publications relating to anecdotes of the actors.

Criticism improved as the critics were given more food for thought, and were able to judge the value and quality of the acting, rather than mere descriptions of an actor’s dress, face, or manners.

There were two famous dramatic critics during the fruitful Genroku period, when the theatre rose to the summit of its achievements. One of these was Ihara Saikaku, the author of a popular novel, Ukiyo Zoshi, that was not distinguished for its moral tone, and other writings, and Hojo Danshin, a composer of haiku, or short poems.

Their criticisms were written in their leisure hours and were a matter of their own pleasure. They were blessed in that they were not obliged to think of newspaper proprietors, sensitive theatre managers, or the vagaries of the reading public, but could spin out of their heads the fancies that came to them after attending the theatre. They were not obliged to rush to some smoky, noisy newspaper office, there to grind out their copy at a late hour on the typewriter with printers’ devils ready to snatch in desperate hurry. No doubt they sat all day long on the tatami, or straw mats, of their dwelling, looking out upon some quiet landscape scene, and thinking at leisure.

Much of their writings is trivial in the light of the present, but, on the other hand, they reveal intimate glimpses of the theatre and actors that would be delightful to a lover of modern Kabuki, if the task of separating the wheat from the chaff in this formidable array of scribblings was not so difficult.

Following the example of Ihara Saikaku and Hojo Danshin, other literary men devoted themselves to chronicling the events of the theatre, and they wrote copiously, giving minute descriptions of the gestures and elocution of the actors.

Books of criticism were called hyobanki (lit., account of reputation), and these became the monopoly of the Yedo publisher, Hachimonjiya. The first of these books appeared in 1656; the series continued until just before the Restoration, the publishing house lasting for 211 years.

Hachimonjiya Yisho, the head of the firm, was a writer about theatre matters as well as a publisher, and his partner in the business, Ejimaya Kiseki, also wrote books relating to the theatre. The partners quarrelled and separated for some years, each issuing his own publications, but afterwards they forgot their differences and once more collaborated. Their successors carried on the work of issuing the hyobanki, which were the only books descriptive of the theatre. They reached hundreds of volumes, and are an encyclopaedia of Kabuki.

While the theatres of Kyoto and Osaka changed hands frequently and went by various names, four historic Yedo playhouses were started in this formative period with which generations of actors were to be long associated. They were the Nakamura-za, Ichimura-za, Morita-za, and the Kawarasaki-za.

The descendants of the owners of these theatres had the exclusive right to give performances and to be theatre proprietors. The actors were their retainers. As a result there came into existence in Yedo different theatre clans, with the establishment of an hereditary caste in theatre circles.

Saruwaka Kansaburo had founded the first Yedo theatre in 1624, calling it the Saruwaka-za, but his cousin, the third Kansaburo, changed the name to Nakamura-za, a playhouse in which appeared many of the most talented actors that adorned the Yedo stage.

The Ichimura-za was originally the Murayama-za, founded by a brother of the Kyoto manager, Murayama Matabei, who endured so many privations while waiting patiently for the governor to give permission for the long-closed theatre to reopen in Kyoto.

The Yedo Murayama adopted several sons to succeed him as head of the theatre, but they had no business ability, and the theatre was finally purchased by Ichimura Uzaemon in 1666, a name long recorded in the annals of the theatre and borne at present by the popular actor of the Kabuki-za in Tokyo, Ichimura Uzaemon, the thirteenth.

Uzaemon’s ancestors were said to have been samurai in the service of a daimyo. On coming to Yedo from the provinces he entered the employment of Murayama Matasaburo and afterwards became the sole proprietor, giving the theatre his own name. He was not an actor, but successful in business management, and few of his successors distinguished themselves on the stage. The Ichimura-za crests, one an orange with leaves at the top and the other a stork in a circle, have continued to be theatre symbols from the time of the first Ichimura-za to the present. This playhouse passed through many vicissitudes, and was removed from its original site and finally destroyed by fire. The last theatre bearing this name has come down to modern times, and was destroyed in the great disaster of 1923, a temporary Ichimura-za serving at the present.

Still another theatre, the Morita-za, was to have considerable influence upon stage history. It was established in 1660 by Morita Tarobei, who came to Yedo from Settsu Province. Among his advisers was a comic actor, Bando Matakuro, and he adopted this actor’s son, transferring his property to him and calling him Morita Kanya, the second, a name that has been inherited for 250 years by actors and managers. The thirteenth Morita Kanya is now a member of the Imperial Theatre company, and his father was one of the most aggressive theatre managers during the modern period of Meiji.

The Yamamura-za was another of the first Yedo theatres, and would in all probability have continued together with the Nakamura-za, Ichimura-za, and Morita-za, but one of its leading actors became involved in a scandal with a lady-in-waiting at the Shogun’s Court, and it was demolished by the authorities.

Kawarasaki Gonnosuke established the Kawarasaki-za in 1648. He was at first a Nō actor, but came to Yedo from the provinces and started a Kabuki theatre. Among several plays he composed, that concerning the revenge of the Soga Brothers was most popular. In 1663 this theatre was incorporated with the Morita-za, but later they separated and continued until modern times, the Kawarasaki-za having been closely associated with the Ichikawa actor-line.

Za—as applied to a theatre—had not been especially invented to meet the new theatrical situation. Long before the Nō had become firmly established in the fourteenth century, companies of players attached to the great Shinto Shrines had called themselves za, which previous to this time had been in use to denote a commercial guild. It was a case of history repeating itself that the resurrected term should have been used in connection with the new playhouses that were springing up in all directions.

Such was the rise of the theatres in the three towns, a rapid development that came about in the half-century between the abolition of the Women’s Stage and the beginning of Genroku, Japan’s golden age.

Enthusiastic audiences filled the large theatres of Yedo, Kyoto, and Osaka, flocked to the doll-theatres where the marionettes triumphed and threatened to outrival the actors in popularity, while innumerable minor playhouses of a temporary character were set up in the compounds of shrines or by the cross-roads, and spread in the provinces.

It was a time of actor-worship. Two great stars appeared. They were Ichikawa Danjuro, of Yedo, and Sakata Tojuro, of Kyoto, diverse in their principles, leaders of the two schools that laid the foundations of modern Kabuki.

From this time onward the yakusha, or actor, dominated the theatre.