Identity

“Increasingly I think one of the main functions of [stable identity] concepts is that they give us a good night’s rest… Around us, history is constantly breaking in unpredictable ways, but we, somehow, go on being the same.”

- Stuart Hall

            The first time Kabuki was ever explained to me, the person called it part of Japan’s national identity. At the time I did not necessarily understand what they meant by that. To me, a certain country could not have an “identity.” Each individual person within that country holds their own identity, who they are. Now, of course those identities come together to create the country itself, and how the world viewed it. So how could Kabuki, a theater form viewed as unrefined by the government during its inception in the Edo Era, determine Japan’s national identity? This is not a fate that the world has chosen for Japan, some fragment of an Orientalist power that still manages to change the perceptions on the East’s identity. I feel that an identity is something that you choose for yourself, and if a person can change theirs then so can a country. Japan chose Kabuki Theater as part of its core, allowed it to be part of the identity they still hold today.

            Kabuki was truly born during the Edo Era in Japan, a product of the merchant class. Though the government tried desperately to keep the merchant class out of Kyoto, Japan’s ancient capital, the merchants transformed the city. This was the era of geisha and festivals, the fantasy world people know Japan for today. Unable to go to the refined Noh Theater, the merchants developed Kabuki Theater for the middle and lower classes of society. Originally Kabuki had various parts, each performance playing out like a festival with music and acrobatics. Eventually Kabuki was shut down for using women as actors. Refusing to be deterred, Kabuki opened back up with male-only casts. Over time the theater turned into the refined form known today.

            The main purpose of Kabuki is to capture and produce emotion. It captures the true heart of Japan by focusing on the hidden beauty with defined, purposeful movements. The sense of fleeting emotions is a prominent feeling among the Japanese people. Bittersweet emotion over fading beauty; the memory of cherry blossoms after the petals have faded. To enjoy things as they are, to move with the seasons and times, Kabuki encompasses this for Japan. Acting a reminder of the Japanese culture, it is as art form for the people, fought for and adopted over time. The theater form acts as a piece of the heart Japan seems to crave. Though it can be grounded as a difference between East and West, it is the reminder within Japan of the search for hidden beauty, of simplicity from one of the most prosperous times in Japanese history.