as kabuki actors, but in their daily life, they are dance teachers and the essence of their existence comes through in their performance. A kabuki actor spends his daily life in costume and make-up and expressing themselves through these techniques of staging and movement. Even with the same dance play, the difference type of performance is very evident.
The Current State of the Schools of “Mai” and “Odori” in Nihon Buyō The word “buyō” was created in the Meiji period by combining the Chinese characters for the two major varieties of dance, “mai” and “odori” to describe all kinds of dance that were then known by a variety of names. “Odori” is represented by dances from kabuki mostly originating in Edo (the old name for Tokyo). “Mai” is represented by several schools of dance in Kamigata (the old name for the area
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around Kyoto and Osaka) and includes kyōmai and jiuta mai. While also being related to kabuki, these schools of mai are also strongly influenced by gidayū , the narrative music of the Bunraku puppet theater and the classical noh and kyōgen theaters. These schools of mai are also closely with the geisha districts of Kyoto and Osaka and these dances are usually performed in banquet chambers by maiko and geiko dressed in formal kimono with hair dressed in traditional hairstyles and often with white face make-up. “Mai” has also been designated an Intangible Cultural Treasure” and kyōmai (*1) and jiuta mai are represented by such schools as Inoue, Yamamura, Yoshimura and Umemoto. The National Theatre of Japan in Tokyo first produced a recital of mai called “Mai no Kai” in 1967 (supervised by Numa Sōu) with a rich variety of artists. The performers from the Inoue school were the Gion geisha Komame and
Theatre in Japan
Theatre Yearbook 2018