This modern Meiji play is a morality tale about the effects of money and greed on a family’s fortune, based on Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s play of…

The sayaate scene is one of the most famous confrontations in kabuki theatre, in the play Ukiyozuka Hiyoku no Inazuma and in fact it is…

The Tokugawa shoguns had ruled for the entire Edo period (1603 to 1868) and in theory they ruled for the Emperor but in reality they…

Ougi Byoushi Ōoka Seidan (Famous Cases of Ōoka) is part of a family of plays about the life and times of Ōoka Tadasuke, an Edo…

This play features one of the most famous street-tough heroes (otokodate) of kabuki theatre – others include Sukeroku. They were heroic fighting commoners who would…

I don’t have the synopsis for this play but it seems to have been a very popular play based on the book “Meijin Choji: Joiner”…

I really love this print because it sums up the Meiji period very nicely – a traditional play “Kyō Ningyō (Kyōto Doll)” has been updated…

Suitengū Megumi no Fukagawa (also called “Kōbē Fudeya”) was one of the so-called “Cropped Hair Plays (zangirimono) portraying “modern” Meiji Tokyo and the people living…

Dōjōji Ittsui no Furisode (“The Maiden at Dōjō Temple”) is another classic kabuki dance play based on an 18th century Nō play simply called “Dōjōji”.…

Yowa Nasake Ukina no Yokogushi often called just “Kirare Yosa” or “Yasu the Bat” is another traditional classic of the kabuki repertoire but, ironically, the…

Soga Monogatari is another very simple story that has spawned many variants and is a classic tale of revenge. Soga Jūrō and Soga Gorō are…

Shinza the Barber is one of my favourites of the modern Meiji plays. It is a classic kabuki story of love, abduction, trickery and revenge…

The two plays “Kagamiyama Kokyō no Nishikie” (1783) and “Kagamiyama Gonichi no Iwafuji” (1860) are together a classic story of revenge in the women’s quarters…

Kanjinchō is one of the kabuki classics – a staple of any actor and all of the theatres. It is a very compact play with…

Although Chūshingura isn’t a name that most people in the West would recognise but I’m sure they would have heard of the story of the…

Sukeroku is another classic kabuki play – something that is always on the repertoire in Tokyo. For the lead performer it is an Otokodate role…

In my previous article, on the play Okige no kumo harau Asagochi, I covered one of the most successful of the modern Meiji plays staged…

“Okige no kumo harau Asagochi” (“The Morning East Wind Clearing the Clouds of the Southwest“, 西南雲晴朝東風) is one of my favourite kabuki plays to collect…

The first image is a really unusual ōkubi-e (big-headed print) and I was very lucky to be able to purchase it because this sub-genre is…

This unassuming print features another nice conflict between the traditional kimonos worn on either side and the western hat and metal-spoked umbrella held by the…