Hi!
My friend, Sachiko, who is well up on Kabuki,
asked me if I wanted to join her to go to
Shinbashi Enbu-jou and watch Kantaro
Nakamura's Kabuki performance of
succeeding to the name of Kankurou.
歌舞伎通のお友だち 幸子が誘ってくれて、
中村勘太郎の勘九郎
襲名披露の
歌舞伎を観に新橋演舞場に行ってきました
I always thought Kabuki was difficult, but
I actually found it to be quite enjoyable.
むずかしいと思い込んでいた歌舞伎・・・
意外や意外、すごくおもしろかったです
As anyone would expect, Edo entertainment
has quite a lot of silly parts and common
stories and it was like watching the "Dorifu"'s.
(Drifters, Dorif, pronounced and shortened in
Japanese, is a Japanese comedy group that
was really popular in the 70's.)
さすが江戸の娯楽、
けっこうおバカというか、
下世話なところもたくさんあって
なんか、ドリフ見てるみたいでした
I realized modern Japanese comedy
has its roots here.
日本の今のお笑いとか、なるほど～
ここにルーツあり、とみた
But at the same time they do have themes
like the shallowness of a human being, which
is a theme anyone can relate to no matter
what time of age and nationality.
でも、ちゃんと人間の浅はかさを描いていたり、
時代や国境を超えた普遍のテーマを
扱っていたりします
The performance started at 11am and
they showed 3 stories so by the time it
ended, it was already past 4pm.
So long!
朝１１時開演で、三本立て
終わったときは夕方の４時をまわってました
長かった～
The ticket cost 10,000yen, but I think
it's an attractive price.
Usually, regular performances are
2 hours long and they cost more.
チケットは１万円だったけど、
普通の演劇とか、２時間くらいで
１万円以上したりしちゃうのを考えると
お得かも
Our seat was on the right side of the second
floor, and we saw the stage from the side
but we were able to see the Hana-michi
straight front.
(Hanamichi is the walkway you can see
in the picture above, that is set at 90
degrees to the main stage.)
We could see the Kabuki actors walk there,
see their poses, and see the entire stage.
It was such a great seat.
私たちの席は２階の右側で
舞台自体は横目に見るんだけど、
花道が真正面に見れて
歌舞伎役者さんたちの登場や決めポーズが
満喫できたし、正面舞台も全体が見れて
すごく良い席でした
If you sit on the seats on the left side,
you can only see the hana-michi from behind,
so you cannot see the actors from the front.
同じ横の席でも、左側だと花道を後ろから
見ることになっちゃうので、役者さんたちの
後ろ姿しか見れなくなってしまうんです
Another fun part about Kabuki is
the food you can eat during the break.
そして歌舞伎のもうひとつの楽しみといえば
なんといっても幕間に食べる食事
There's a restaurant and you can eat
there, but the break is only 30 minutes
and we didn't want to rush so we decided
to buy a lunch box.
お食事処もあって、そこでも食べれるけれど
幕間は３０分であわてちゃうので
私たちはお弁当を買うことにしました
Unlike other theaters, we can eat at
our seats, so that's another enjoyable
thing about kabuki.
他の劇場と違って客席で飲食できるのも
歌舞伎の楽しいところ
I got the Kankurou celebration lunch box,
and it was so good.
私は勘九郎襲名のお祝い弁当
これが本当においしかったんです
I didn't think there are makunouchi
lunches that are good as this one in
the food section of department stores.
(Makunouchi is a Japanese style lunch
box that has all kinds of food like fish,
vegitables, meat, and sweets in each
small section inside the box.)
デパ地下でもこんなに美味しい
幕の内ってないと思うっ
I could really tell they were using
the quality ingredients.
本当に良い素材を使ってるって
感じがしました
The one thing I did wrong was that we ate
during the break after the first story.
During the second story and the third,
I became soooo sleepy.
I slept through almost half of it...
(Sachiko was able to stay awake!)
ちょっとだけ失敗したのは・・・
１本目の後の幕間でお昼を食べたんですが、
そうしたらその後の２本の間が、眠い眠い
半分くらい寝ちゃいました
（幸子は起きてた
）
When I go next time, I'm going to eat
breakfast before and skip lunch, and
eat after the show is finished.
次に観に行くときは、
ちゃんと朝ごはんを食べていって
お昼のお弁当はがまんして、
終わってから夕方にお昼ごはんを
食べようと思います
Actually, Sachiko was saying, Kabuki is
really long and there are some boring parts,
so she decided she's going to sleep through them.
That's so strange and funny.
余談ですが、幸子が言うには、
歌舞伎って長いし、ちょっとつまらない場面もあるので
彼女はそこは寝るって決めてるんだそうです
ちょっと変だけどおもしろい考え
I heard many people are actually asleep
during the performance.
実際、寝てる人、
すごく多いんだそうです
I was also sleeping so I couldn't have
a look at the audience though.
私は寝てたうちのひとりだから
まわりは見れなかったけど・・・
