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♀️ Feminist Friday ♀️ Izumo no Okuni Okuni (出雲阿国, Izumo no..
🕑 Added 2023-11-10 12:00:01 +0000 UTC ♀️ Feminist Friday ♀️ Izumo no Okuni Okuni (出雲阿国, Izumo no Okuni, born c. 1578; died c. 1613) was a Japanese shrine maiden who is believed to have invented the theatrical art form of kabuki. She is thought to have begun performing her new art style of "kabuki" (lit., "the art of singing and dancing") theatre in the dry riverbed of the Kamo River in Kyoto. Okuni's troupe quickly gained immense popularity, and were known for their performers, who were often lower-class women Okuni had recruited to act in her all-female theatre group. Few concrete details are known about her life; born near Izumo Province, Okuni worked as a miko (shrine maiden) for several years at the Izumo-taisha (the Grand Shrine of Izumo) until gaining popularity for her dramatised dance performances, which onlookers gave the name of kabuki. Okuni continued to perform kabuki with her troupe until her retirement and disappearance sometime around 1610. She is believed to have died sometime around 1613. Born c. 1578, Okuni grew up in the vicinity of the Izumo shrine, where her father, Nakamura Sanemon, worked as a blacksmith, and where several other family members served. Eventually Okuni joined as a miko (shrine maiden), where she was known for her skill in dancing and acting, as well as her beauty. As it was a custom of the time to send priests, miko and others to solicit contributions for the shrine, she was sent to Kyoto to perform sacred dances and songs. It was during her performances in Kyoto that she also became known for her performances of nembutsu odori (or nembutsu dance) in honor of the Amida Buddha. Though this dance traces its origins to Kūya, a 10th-century evangelist of Pure Land Buddhism, by Okuni's time it had become a largely secular folk dance, and her particular adaptation tended to be known for its sultriness and sexual innuendo. Other popular themes for Okuni's acts included humorous skits about lover's trysts at various public establishments and meetings between men and prostitutes. Between these and other dances and acts, she garnered much attention and began to draw large crowds wherever she performed. Eventually she was summoned to return to the shrine, a call she ignored, though she continued to send money back. Around 1603, Okuni began performing on the dry riverbed of the Shijōgawara (Fourth Street Dry Riverbed) of the Kamo River and at Kitano Shrine. Okuni also performed for the ladies of the Imperial court. Gathering up the female outcasts and misfits of the region, particularly those involved in prost itution, Okuni gave them direction, teaching them acting, dancing and singing skills in order to form her troupe. Several theories exist as to the etymology of the word kabuki, one being that it is derived from those who, oddly dressed and swaggering on the street, had been dubbed 'kabukimono' (from kabuku, "to lean in a certain direction", and mono, "people"). Another possible origin is 'katamuki', which means "slanted" or "strongly-inclined." In either case, others labelled Okuni's troupe performances "kabuki" due to their eccentricity and social daring. The earliest performances of kabuki were dancing and song with no significant plot, often disdained as overly sexual and cacophonous, but equally lauded as colourful and beautiful. Okuni's troupe was exclusively female. Thus, she required her actresses to play both male and female roles. As her troupe gained fame, she was emulated by many others, particularly brothels, which offered such shows to amuse wealthy clients, as well as to gain ‘prostitutes’ who had marketable acting and singing skills. This new style of exclusively female troupes became known by the alternative names of "shibai" and "onnakabuki", (from onna, the Japanese word for "woman" or "girl") and "Okuni kabuki". One of Okuni's most popular performances featured the romantic character of Nagoya Sansaburō, a real-life samurai who had died in 1603. Onstage, Okuni's beautiful voice lured Sansaburō's spirit back into the world of the living to dance with her. Despite historical speculation about the possible links between Okuni and Sansaburō, it remains uncertain whether the pair had ever been lovers during his lifetime, or whether she had simply incorporated him into her storytelling. Okuni retired around 1610, and after that time she disappeared. In 1629, due to outcry for moral reform and concern about fights breaking out between men trying to win the attention of the actresses, shōgun Tokugawa Iemitsu forbade women from performing in kabuki. They were quickly replaced by you ng men as actors and "actresses", though this was soon banned as well due to some of the same issues of prosti tution and corruption of morals, restricting the performances to those by older men, which is a standing practice in the official theatres even today. **** Disclaimer: It is important to remember that some of the women you will read about during Feminist Friday will have done unsavory, bad, and sometimes even terrible or unforgivable things during their lives. I have decided to include any women found to be problematic rather than disregard them entirely because I believe that it would be a disservice to do otherwise. The different women discussed here have lives that span over thousands of years during which life on Earth and humanity in general changed immensely and unrecognizably. Some of their values will be outdated. Some will be laughable. Some offensive. However, I implore you to try and look at these women as individual members of a world made to tame, shame, shackle, subjugate, abuse, and kill them. Do not ignore the horrors of the past. You are free to dislike them (I dislike many!) but recognize their achievements within the context of their time and place in the world.
