Power Struggles Through Kabuki

Power Struggles Through Kabuki

Throughout time, the lower class has used dance as a tool for expression. But another main use was as a form of power. For those forced into the lower castes of their feudal class hierarchy, dance was something that those people could call their own. Even, at times, excluding the higher classes from attending! With such power, dance was a weapon of resistance, pushing back against they very people who oppressed them. One of the most well-known Japanese art forms, Kabuki theatre and dance, was used by the lower Japanese classes as a type of retaliation to the Shogun, it was entertainment they could call their own. In contrast from the other dances already discussed in class, like Bharata Natyam, and Yemenite wedding dances, kabuki was a focus on power achieved through entertainment, whilst the other dance forms have a strictly religious and ceremonial past. However, kabuki dance and Bharata Natyam share similar pasts embedded with power and resistance.

Historically, the kabuki theatre of Japan was created by the lower class. “Unlike the No with its aristocratic acceptance, the Kabuki had to make its way commercially, depending for its existence upon the approval of nonaristocratic audiences” (Ernst 2). During the climb of Kabuki, “Japan was variously involved in civil wars between rival fiefs” (Ernst 2). This would later give way to differences between the feudal classes – the lower classes would need something that they could have for themselves, since No theatre was strictly for the wealthy as previously stated. Not only was Kabuki used as a form of resistance between classes, but it is important to note that during this time “Japan was isolated from the rest of the world. The isolation of the country, like the majority of the policies of the shogunate, was a measure of political expediency” (Ernst 3). Kabuki was something that only the Japanese could witness within their own country, in a way, it was just another form of...