Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail

[Lorenzo Javier Torres Hortelano]

Dear Faith,

Thanks a lot for the information. So, there is an interesting question about
why Kurosawa wanted to show the blank scroll. Whatever the reasons, what
seems evident is that it was a difficult decision for him, as you realise if
you analise the way of filming and editing that particular scenes, with
evident 'jumpings' on it, with a fantastic out of focus when the camera is
just going to cross the scroll's axe. In some way, showing the blank scroll
to the spectator gives more value to Benkei's action. On the other hand,
that focusing in the blank scroll, is something that Cinema can do as way of
expression different from the theatre. In the sense, it's really more a
drift apart from the original plays than a 'lie' -although I meant it
metaphorically.

And yes, you are right about the *onnagata* but, maybe *Tora... *goes
further because we can see* *Yoshitsune in that act of dressing up like a
maiden: is that action usually represented in the plays?

Best regards,


 *Lorenzo J. Torres Hortelano*
Profesor / Professor
Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
Facultad de Ciencias de la Comunicación
Despacho 244b, Edificio Departamental
Camino del Molino s/n, 28943 Fuenlabrada (Madrid, Spain)
(34) 914888445
2011/1/28 faith <faithbach at yahoo.co.jp>

> Lorenzo,
>
> The blank page is not shown to the audience in the kabuki play (I do not
> know about the Noh), altho' it is clearly understood to be blank, and the
> narration may even tell us it is blank, I would have to check the script for
> that.  In 30 years' watching kabuki I have never seen any actor show the
> audience the blank page, including Danjuro, who otherwise occasionally does
> non-standard business.  This is why one is unlikely to find a visible blank
> page in any kabuki woodblock prints, as someone else has mentioned:
> woodblock prints are generally accurate records of contemporary onstage
> business.
>
> Altho' I have seen Danjuro play Benkei many times live, I have not yet seen
> the DVD to which Sarah refers.  [Do we speak of the same play?  Kanjincho is
> not part of a "whole play" but is an independent one-scene show which
> runs an hour or so.]  So I checked with a colleague who did the
> English-track commentary for the Kabuki-za DVD series and is something of a
> specialist on this particular play; he confirms Danjuro does not show the
> audience the blank page.  It is, of course, just within the realm of
> possibility that in some filmed version somewhere the cameraman has chosen
> to film the scene at an odd angle, modern "Cinema-Kabuki"style, in which he
> makes the blank side visible especially to the film audience: I have not
> seen such a thing, but it could happen, in which case it would be a personal
> (Kurosawaesque) decision by the film director, and rather a naughty one at
> that, which goes quite against the visual idiom of kabuki.  If anyone has a
> film like this, it is a fascinating anomaly which I would love to see!
>
> Please allow me also to point out, regarding your point of Yoshitsune
> looking like"a maiden dressing up," that it is standard kabuki custom to
> have an *onnagata* female role specialist play Yoshitsune in Kanjincho.
> Altho' Yoshitsune is male, his dramatic incarnations tend to be on the
> androgynous side.  This is less than accurate according to what we know of
> the real Yoshitsune, but there are historical as well as cultural reasons
> for his image developing this way in dramatic narrative.  So on that score
> Kurosawa would be following established dramatic precedent in "feminizing"
> Yoshitsune's image... which might make it less than entirely a "lie?"  I
> would be happy to give you more information on this point if you like, or
> direct you to sources which discuss it.
>
> May I suggest you actually see the kabuki Kanjincho, on which Tiger's Tail
> is so closely based, before publishing about it so you will be conversant
> with the visual details?  Feel free to contact me offlist if you need a
> disc, or any further information about kabuki, which is my academic
> speciality.
>
> Best regards
> Faith Bach (D.Phil., *Oxon*.)
> Kwansei Gakuin Univ.
>
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/kinejapan/attachments/20110129/389e6a7b/attachment.html