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Kabuki Dancer
To be kabuki in Japan once meant to be outrageous, daring, flaunting convention. It was in sixteenth-century Japan, as Shakespeare was writing his masterworks half a world away, that the spirit of Kabuki theater was born out of a single woman's passions and dedication to her art. In Kabuki Dancer, the popular Japanese novelist Sawako Ariyoshi (The Doctor's Wife, The River Ki, The Twilight Years) retells the story of Okuni, the legendary temple dancer who first performed among jugglers and freak shows on a stage along the riverbank in the heart of the imperial city of Kyoto. Blending the rhythms and movements of religious festivals with the words of popular love songs, she and her troupe became sensations. Their affairs and rivalries, infatuations and jealousies, were transformed into the very fabric of their performance, as it began its evolution into the classic drama of today. Against a backdrop of civil war, dynastic conflict, and social turmoil, Okuni and her companions and lovers, together with their audience of artisans, merchants, and aristocrats, struggled to survive the birth pangs of a glorious--yet sometimes deadly--new age. Based on fact, transmuted into powerful and moving artistic expression, Kabuki Dancer is at once a turbulent love story, a recreation of an exotic and colorful historical period, and an almost mythic representation of the miraculous moment in which an immortal art form appears.
352 pages, Comic
First published January 1, 1969
7 people are currently reading
682 people want to read
About the author
Sawako Ariyoshi
125 books90 followersBorn in Wakayama City and a graduate of Tokyo Women's Christian College, Sawako Ariyoshi spent part of her childhood in Java. A prolific novelist, she dramatises significant issues in her fiction such as the suffering of the elderly, the effects of pollution on the environment, and the effects of social and political change on Japanese domestic life and values, especially on the lives of women. Her novel The Twilight Years depicts the life of a working woman who is caring for her elderly, dying father-in-law. Among Ariyoshi's other novels is The River Ki, an insightful portrait of the lives of three rural women: a mother, daughter, and granddaughter. Her novel The Doctor's Wife, a historical novel dramatising the roles of nineteenth-century Japanese women as it chronicles the experience of a pioneer doctor with breast cancer surgery, has identified her as one of the finest postwar Japanese women writers. The Doctor's Wife (1966) is considered as her best novel. Starting in 1949, Ariyoshi studied literature and theatre at the Tokyo Women's Christian College until she graduated in 1952. In 1959 she spent a year at the Sarah Lawrence College in New York. She then worked with a publishing company and also wrote for journals, joined a dance troupe, and wrote short stories and scripts for various media. She travelled extensively, getting material for her serialized novels of domestic life, mostly dealing with social issues. Recipient of a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship in 1959, Ariyoshi had received some Japanese literary awards and was at the height of her career when she died quietly in her sleep.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
March 20, 2016
Historical fiction at its best.
Ariyoshi paints a portrait of the incredible 17th century peasant woman, Okuni of Izumo, who invented the art form of Kabuki. The bitter irony is that although Kabuki was born out of a woman cross-dressing as a man and a subordinate character of a man dressing as an old woman, the art form would be taken over by men while women were banned from stepping onto the stage. Directly before this takeover, pimps appropriated Kabuki for advertising prostitutes before a male audience. To me, this indicates how patriarchy tamed the dangerous subversive energy in Okuni's art. In its original form, however, Kabuki anticipated contemporary forms of gender-bending, cross-cultural, pansexual joie-de-vivre. Recently, an all-woman dance troupe performed Kabuki in Japan. Although received with appreciation, these female performers have not been able to wrest back Kabuki from its association with men playing every role, especially those of women.
Ariyoshi's narrative explores the life of Okuni and the reader is struck by many parallels with female artists elsewhere--Bessie Smith and the many talented founders of jazz, for instance--whose personal lives were full of tragedy. Who did such women talk to? They had no one who treated them as organic intellectuals. Who nurtured them? Because a creative mind and a performing body require steady nourishment otherwise they become depleted by their exertions. The novel provides some possible answers. A woman with such enormous talent was resented by everyone, betrayed by those to whom she had only shown generosity and could only find respite on the stage; she delved deep into her inner resources and drew sustenance from artisans, laborers, folk songs, excursions to watch processions and novel sights, the loud appreciation of commoners among her audience. Even if every man she loved tried to put out her inner creative fire, she danced on because, as Okuni tells herself repeatedly, the day she stops dancing is the day she’ll die.
If I had one small regret about this book it is only that it would benefit from a critical introduction—although it has sparked enough interest that even someone with little knowledge of Kabuki like me now wants to watch a performance.
Ariyoshi paints a portrait of the incredible 17th century peasant woman, Okuni of Izumo, who invented the art form of Kabuki. The bitter irony is that although Kabuki was born out of a woman cross-dressing as a man and a subordinate character of a man dressing as an old woman, the art form would be taken over by men while women were banned from stepping onto the stage. Directly before this takeover, pimps appropriated Kabuki for advertising prostitutes before a male audience. To me, this indicates how patriarchy tamed the dangerous subversive energy in Okuni's art. In its original form, however, Kabuki anticipated contemporary forms of gender-bending, cross-cultural, pansexual joie-de-vivre. Recently, an all-woman dance troupe performed Kabuki in Japan. Although received with appreciation, these female performers have not been able to wrest back Kabuki from its association with men playing every role, especially those of women.
Ariyoshi's narrative explores the life of Okuni and the reader is struck by many parallels with female artists elsewhere--Bessie Smith and the many talented founders of jazz, for instance--whose personal lives were full of tragedy. Who did such women talk to? They had no one who treated them as organic intellectuals. Who nurtured them? Because a creative mind and a performing body require steady nourishment otherwise they become depleted by their exertions. The novel provides some possible answers. A woman with such enormous talent was resented by everyone, betrayed by those to whom she had only shown generosity and could only find respite on the stage; she delved deep into her inner resources and drew sustenance from artisans, laborers, folk songs, excursions to watch processions and novel sights, the loud appreciation of commoners among her audience. Even if every man she loved tried to put out her inner creative fire, she danced on because, as Okuni tells herself repeatedly, the day she stops dancing is the day she’ll die.
If I had one small regret about this book it is only that it would benefit from a critical introduction—although it has sparked enough interest that even someone with little knowledge of Kabuki like me now wants to watch a performance.
October 11, 2017
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Am recunoscut același stil melodios, aceeași atenție la detalii, aceleași personaje puternice…dar mi s-a părut mult mai greoaie decât Parfum de curtezană. Am avut impresia că citesc simultan două povești: una în care Okuni mă poartă în pași de dans în lumea ei și una în care mi se prezintă o perioada din istoria Japoniei. Luate separat, cele două povești mi-ar fi plăcut mai mult, puse așa laolaltă parcă m-au sufocat. Multe nume, multe reguli, multe detalii istorice. Am simțit că mi se ”fură” constant atenția de la Okuni și viața ei care mi s-a părut și mai interesantă după ce am realizat că Okuni existase cu adevărat și că reușise nu numai să se afirme într-o lume a bărbaților dar și să pună bazele unui nou dans -Kabuki.
Am recunoscut același stil melodios, aceeași atenție la detalii, aceleași personaje puternice…dar mi s-a părut mult mai greoaie decât Parfum de curtezană. Am avut impresia că citesc simultan două povești: una în care Okuni mă poartă în pași de dans în lumea ei și una în care mi se prezintă o perioada din istoria Japoniei. Luate separat, cele două povești mi-ar fi plăcut mai mult, puse așa laolaltă parcă m-au sufocat. Multe nume, multe reguli, multe detalii istorice. Am simțit că mi se ”fură” constant atenția de la Okuni și viața ei care mi s-a părut și mai interesantă după ce am realizat că Okuni existase cu adevărat și că reușise nu numai să se afirme într-o lume a bărbaților dar și să pună bazele unui nou dans -Kabuki.
August 30, 2025
superb. n am mai citit o carte asa buna de la pachinko
January 26, 2016
This book is a historical novel about Izumo no Okuni , the woman who invented kabuki in 16th-century Japan. Little is really known about her life -- she was born around 1572, perhaps served as a miko at the Grand Shrine of Izumo, danced on stages on the riverbed of Kyoto and at the Kitano Shrine, gathered a troupe of dancers and musicians who performed dances and romantic skits, merging drama with music and dance, attracted large crowds, performed for nobles and samurai and stopped performing around 1610. Times and accounts of her death vary from 1613 to the 1640s.
Like so many other historical/biographical novels, Kabuki Dancer fleshes out the story of Okuni with romantic entanglements. But Ariyoshi seems less interested in character development than in historical background, local color, and the evolution of early kabuki, thankfully.
I found I learned much about 16th century Japan --the turbulent rules of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu and their methods of unifying Japan. It's fascinating to compare what was happening in Spain and England, on the other side of the world, with Japanese history. Hideyoshi, after great military victories in the Japanese provinces, thought he could conquer Korea and China -- disastrously. While the Japanese initially embraced the "Southern Barbarian" fashions and the Kirishtani (Christians) -- Tokugawa recognized the divisive aspects of their influence and expelled them from Japan.
Amidst the political turmoil, Okuni, a young rural girl from Izumo, travels to Kyoto with a small group of folk dancers and decides not to return home. She is entranced with dancing and the adulation of the audience. Ariyoshi, a playwright and sometime member of a dance company, traces the gradual evolution of kabuki from devotional dance to theatrical performance involving song, dance, plot and spectacle.
Like so many other historical/biographical novels, Kabuki Dancer fleshes out the story of Okuni with romantic entanglements. But Ariyoshi seems less interested in character development than in historical background, local color, and the evolution of early kabuki, thankfully.
I found I learned much about 16th century Japan --the turbulent rules of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu and their methods of unifying Japan. It's fascinating to compare what was happening in Spain and England, on the other side of the world, with Japanese history. Hideyoshi, after great military victories in the Japanese provinces, thought he could conquer Korea and China -- disastrously. While the Japanese initially embraced the "Southern Barbarian" fashions and the Kirishtani (Christians) -- Tokugawa recognized the divisive aspects of their influence and expelled them from Japan.
Amidst the political turmoil, Okuni, a young rural girl from Izumo, travels to Kyoto with a small group of folk dancers and decides not to return home. She is entranced with dancing and the adulation of the audience. Ariyoshi, a playwright and sometime member of a dance company, traces the gradual evolution of kabuki from devotional dance to theatrical performance involving song, dance, plot and spectacle.
December 2, 2018
„In Japonia secolului al XVI-lea, sa fii kabuki („destrabalata”) insemna sa sfidezi conventiile, sa imbratisezi noul (si moda „barbara” adusa de occidentali). Asa i se va spune si lui Okuni, fata de la tara al carei viitor nu prevedea nimic spectaculos, dar care iti afla vocatia in dans. Dansul o va purta spre Kyoto si Edo, dansul ii va deschide drumul spre inima barbatilor, spre palatele samurailor si ale concubinelor imperiale. Insa pe frumoasa Okuni nu o atrage stralucirea aristocratiei. Pentru ea, arta spectacolului se imbogateste in strada, unde viata freamata neingradita. Aici, in fata oamenilor de rand, printre jongleri, muzicanti si femei usoare, daruieste tot ce are mai bun, aici prind viata, din iubirile, dezamagirile si sperantele artistilor, personajele pe care le interpreteaza, aici ia nastere teatrul Kabuki, arta inovatoare ce rupe legatura cu rigidul No. Imbinand ritmurile dansurilor sacre din templele nipone cu muzica vie cantata de oamenii de rand, care isi exprima neingradit pasiunile, Okuni devine prima dansatoare de Kabuki.
Intr-un roman emotionant – in acelasi timp poveste de dragoste si evocare a unei epoci glorioase si sangeroase din istoria Tarii Soarelui Rasare –, Sawako Ariyoshi reuseste, in Dansatoarea de Kabuki, sa dea viata unei figuri legendare a Japoniei.
Este o carte greoaie, deoarece este plina de fapte istorice despre Japonia acelor vremi, perioada lui Taiko, dar si dupa ce Ieyasu Tokugawa ajunge la putere.
Mi-a placut personajul Okuni si Densuke, i-am admirat pana la sfarsit.
„Dansatoarea de Kabuki” o prezinta pe Okuni, femeia care a dat nastere stilului Kabuki schimbandu-i sensul din „destrabalata” in „dans, arta”.
Kabuki desemnează teatrul specific japonez, ideogramele ce-l compun înseamnă "dans", "artă", "muzică", dar cu patru veacuri în urmă avea alte sensuri: "neobişnuit", "şocant" şi chiar "destrăbălat". Teatrul a fost creat de o tânără, Okuni din Izumo, care avea în sânge focul, pasiunea cântecului şi a dansului, dar după ce a susţinut spectacole îndrăzneţe, s-a trezit concurată de alte dansatoare, în scene încărcate de erotism. Datorită acestor femei, "onna-kabuki", asemenea spectacole sunt interzise în 1629, iar kabuki devine teatru jucat exclusiv de actori.
Iubirea ii lipseste lui Okuni desi o cauta toata viata: il ignora pe delicatul Densuke, partenerul perfect pe scena, care o iubeste cu devotament pana la sfarsit, i se daruieste in schimb li Sankuro, tobosarul trupei care mai tarziu o va trada cu cea mai buna prietena a ei, si traieste marea pasiune cu Sanza Nagoya, din veche familie de samurai si talentat cantaret, care o paraseste din orgoliu.
Desi este o carte greoaie prin prisma faptelor istorice, mie mi-a placut, m-a impresionat viata lui Okuni si cum a reusit ea sa se ridice de fiecare data si sa mearga inainte.
O ecomand, mai ales celor pasionati de istoria Japoniei.
Intr-un roman emotionant – in acelasi timp poveste de dragoste si evocare a unei epoci glorioase si sangeroase din istoria Tarii Soarelui Rasare –, Sawako Ariyoshi reuseste, in Dansatoarea de Kabuki, sa dea viata unei figuri legendare a Japoniei.
Este o carte greoaie, deoarece este plina de fapte istorice despre Japonia acelor vremi, perioada lui Taiko, dar si dupa ce Ieyasu Tokugawa ajunge la putere.
Mi-a placut personajul Okuni si Densuke, i-am admirat pana la sfarsit.
„Dansatoarea de Kabuki” o prezinta pe Okuni, femeia care a dat nastere stilului Kabuki schimbandu-i sensul din „destrabalata” in „dans, arta”.
Kabuki desemnează teatrul specific japonez, ideogramele ce-l compun înseamnă "dans", "artă", "muzică", dar cu patru veacuri în urmă avea alte sensuri: "neobişnuit", "şocant" şi chiar "destrăbălat". Teatrul a fost creat de o tânără, Okuni din Izumo, care avea în sânge focul, pasiunea cântecului şi a dansului, dar după ce a susţinut spectacole îndrăzneţe, s-a trezit concurată de alte dansatoare, în scene încărcate de erotism. Datorită acestor femei, "onna-kabuki", asemenea spectacole sunt interzise în 1629, iar kabuki devine teatru jucat exclusiv de actori.
Iubirea ii lipseste lui Okuni desi o cauta toata viata: il ignora pe delicatul Densuke, partenerul perfect pe scena, care o iubeste cu devotament pana la sfarsit, i se daruieste in schimb li Sankuro, tobosarul trupei care mai tarziu o va trada cu cea mai buna prietena a ei, si traieste marea pasiune cu Sanza Nagoya, din veche familie de samurai si talentat cantaret, care o paraseste din orgoliu.
Desi este o carte greoaie prin prisma faptelor istorice, mie mi-a placut, m-a impresionat viata lui Okuni si cum a reusit ea sa se ridice de fiecare data si sa mearga inainte.
O ecomand, mai ales celor pasionati de istoria Japoniei.
August 24, 2016
Okuni din Izumo e adevarata creatoare a teatrului Kabuki. Dar dincolo de asta, cartea lui Sawako Ariyoshi spune povestea unei femei care a reinviat dupa fiecare infrangere, personala sau profesionala, dansand din tot sufletul. Sau "ca o smintita", cum spune autoarea de nenumarate ori. Iubita de o lume intreaga pe care a fascinat-o cu dansul ei usor, cu povestile pe care le spunea prin miscari de dans, Okuni n-a avut parte de iubirea pe care si-a dorit-o, chiar daca a fost totusi iubita o viata intreaga de un barbat care i-a fost alaturi in cele mai grele incercari. Parasita, tradata de omul pe care-l iubea, de cei care au facut parte din trupa ei, de familie, a continuat sa danseze pana la sfarsitul vietii. Trei stelute doar pentru ca nu mi-a placut stilul autoarei (sau o fi fost traducerea de vina, desi nu m-as grabi sa acuz partea asta), iar cartea e buna doar pentru relatarea povestii nu si a placerii lecturii.
December 15, 2017
This is Arayoshi's worst novel on the English-language market. Cliched, trite, and often quite boring, it's mediocre at best. Skip this one and read The Doctor's Wife and The Twilight Years.
November 6, 2023
When Izumo no Okuni comes to Osaka with some fellow villagers, all she wants to do is dance. Her rustic folk dances and songs quickly gain her a loyal following among the common folk, and she even gets invited to perform for high ranking samurai and court nobles. Her husband Sankuro, ever so interested in fame and fortune, would like her to dance only for wealthy patrons, but Okuni opts to move to Kyoto instead. There, at the banks of the Kamo river near Shijo street, her distinct and innovative style of dancing draws large crowds of spectators and, in time, competitors who imitate her. However, Okuni is always ahead of them all, and despite numerous setbacks, she remains “Best in the World” and single-handedly invents what is known today as Kabuki.
This book blends what is known for sure about Izumo no Okuni with legends and folk lore. The result is a gripping life story of a woman who did not always get her way, but nevertheless insisted on creating her own path amidst the turbulent last years of the Japanese warring period and the beginning of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
I greatly enjoyed this book about Izumo no Okuni that follows her life from the age of 17 until her death at 37. While much of her personality depicted here must be considered fiction, it is hard to conceive how a less strong-willed person would have been able to create an art form that continues to be practized (and innovated) today, 400 years after her death.
Fans or residents of Kyoto will recognize some of the places mentioned in this book.
This book blends what is known for sure about Izumo no Okuni with legends and folk lore. The result is a gripping life story of a woman who did not always get her way, but nevertheless insisted on creating her own path amidst the turbulent last years of the Japanese warring period and the beginning of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
I greatly enjoyed this book about Izumo no Okuni that follows her life from the age of 17 until her death at 37. While much of her personality depicted here must be considered fiction, it is hard to conceive how a less strong-willed person would have been able to create an art form that continues to be practized (and innovated) today, 400 years after her death.
Fans or residents of Kyoto will recognize some of the places mentioned in this book.
December 10, 2025
Destul de greu de citit, multe detalii istorice, denumiri greu de ținut minte... Nu m-a mișcat, nu mi s-a părut chiar așa interesantă povestea lui Okuni. Ce e interesant e faptul că a chiar existat dansatoarea de Kabuki.
June 15, 2024
dnf 70%
i found it so hard to follow because the plot was switched from a character to another so fast and so abruptly, that sometimes i was wondering whose plot was that😥
i found it so hard to follow because the plot was switched from a character to another so fast and so abruptly, that sometimes i was wondering whose plot was that😥
December 29, 2024
One of the best books I read in my life, I cried a lot.
January 26, 2018
The origiinal Forest Gump...
Check out my full review:
https://ianjoshyateswriting.blogspot....
Check out my full review:
https://ianjoshyateswriting.blogspot....
April 20, 2016
Izumo no Okuni ("The Kabuki Dancer," 1969) is the story of Okuni, the woman who in the late 16th century "invented" a new form of dance that was an early incarnation of the Kabuki theater. She performed on a stage along the bank of the Kamo River in Kyoto. The novel vividly depicts the historical background as well as the rivalries in Okuni's troupe. Translated into English by James R. Brandon, who is a specialist on the Japanese theater in general and Kabuki in particular
February 27, 2010
A beautifull story of a girl that doesn't wont to give up her dream and the things that makes her happy for nothing and in the process makes history
May 9, 2010
This is a very surprising book about the woman who founded Kabuki. She defied convention in order to do it.
November 17, 2010
I do not know much about the history of kabuki, so I don't know how accurate this historical novel is, but it was a really good read.
July 28, 2014
3.5 It was interesting and well done.
February 18, 2016
Finally finished it! Not that it was not interesting, but I kept beginning reading other books and kept letting it aside. I liked better the first book I read by Ariyoshi, "The Doctor's Wife".
May 27, 2016
+ + + Excellent read about historical figure Okuni from Izumo.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews