yamaonna

well, kabuki is over and done with…  Actually ran much much shorter than i thought it would….  I thought i would be hard pressed to be home by curfew, when in fact i have been home almost 2 hours already.  But the plus about that is i can go to bed early!  yokatta!

so, the kabuki was good.  but different to what i expected.  When i went in tokyo (damn it, the girl next door is playing her stupid video game again….  ggrrrrrrrr) it was about 5 hours in total – 3 plays, 2 kabuki and one shorter skit…  Today was one play, an adress by the actors, and then 1 dance.  Apparently one of the guys acting tonite is a very famous kabuki actor.  I love the costumes, as always they were bright and elaborate.  But what i really love about kabuki is – the music, the movements and the speaking.  Music cause shamazen (mmm, sp?) is very funky!  Movements cause they portray so much emotion with so very little movement, and its so precise….  the main actor did a dance completly on his knees tonite..  wow, how difficult that would have been (cause he moved around quite a bit).  And the speaking, cause it sounds like cats screetching….  hehe, well it does, but i like it becuase its so varied and musical.

this is what i gathered the kabuki play was about – a kid returns home to his grandma and grandpa with an arm thats holding a scroll.  They try to get the scroll out but finally the kid does it.  Then a daughter of the older couple reads it, and they figure out who’s arm it is.  Then 2 samarai come and they hid it, but the samarai know its there.  After one leaves (and hids in the bushes) the other gets them to bring it out.  then ppl come bringing the rest of the body – its the boys mother and the other daughter of the couple.  they manage to bring the ghost of their daughter back for a little… after reattaching the arm while its holding the scroll…..  then theres heaps of talking after she goes again.  then some guy got shot by a poison dart.  And the other samarai comes back only to be stabbed by the boy (I think he killed the mother)(um, the samarai that is).  But it isnt a death blow, but the guy decides to commit sucide anyway, and gets the kid to help him chop off his head.  (serious, there was a head rolling about!)  then the other samarai goes to leave, and in comes a pantamin (sp?) horse, that he actually rides!!!!  but i think the kid wants a ride too, so he gets up on the horse too, but only for a while.  And then the kid is presented with the dagger that a samarai carries (you know, the short sword).  I think the moral of the story was – congratulations, you are a man now that you have killed a man, heres a sword so you can go out and do it again……

okay, well, that what i thought was happening….  even the japanese have difficutly understanding kabuki, and rent these little head sets that explain it as its going on…..

and intresting evening. pls excuse spelling, im really tired right now…..