CONNECT CULTURE
Jake Davis (Okayama) Before coming to my current town of Nagi, I hadn’t the faintest idea of kabuki, let alone its history or appeal. I’d imagine that many foreigners residing in Japan or overseas may have briefly seen kabuki on television, in a picture somewhere, or perhaps heard iconic kabuki sounds from Japanese anime and video games. Apart from these sources, I had no idea what it actually was, and if I’m being honest, I wasn’t deeply interested in finding out more, especially when it seemed like such a niche area of Japanese culture, similar to Shakespeare. However, I was placed by JET in a town that prides itself on its preservation of kabuki traditions since the Edo period (1603-1867). After being asked by a local kabuki expert if I would like to give Yokozen Kabuki a go, I knew it would have been a big mistake to turn it down. Yokozen Kabuki is Nagi’s amateur kabuki theatre tradition. It differs from other kabuki in that it is performed entirely by locals, of whom anyone can take part. Kabuki historically became restricted to grown men due to the Edo shogunate, as it was believed that the use of female performers could corrupt public morals. To this day, professional kabuki continues to be
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