Required: Read yesterday's blog first.
Today, in class, I confessed that I didn't know the reason why kabuki doesn't have actresses. The American guy in class, who has strong interests in Manyo-gana (what's that?!), explained everything. The guy went like, "Yeah, as this book says, kabuki went really erotic. It was actually prostituting on stage. The audience, mainly men, fought each other over actresses, you know. So, the government banned actresses in kabuki. Then, young, beautiful young boys came to play onnagata. This is called wakashu-kabuki. But again, the same problem came up: the audience began to fight each other over the boys, because in the Edo period, homosexuality was openly practiced. Finally, old, ugly men took over onnagata, and no one fight over them anymore. This is called yaro-kabuki, by the way."
What a guy! Incidentally, he's from the north of San Francisco, and he's never been to Japan. When I told him that he knows Japan and Japanese stuff very well and speaks very good Japanese, he said, "Yeah, I have Yamato-damashii here," pounding his chest. Geez, I felt like I have lost Yamato-damashii from my heart (well, I wonder if I ever had that). I'm not qualified to be a Japanese :(
