In November, the Kabukiza Theater in Tokyo offers its annual two-part kaomise performance. Kaomise, meaning "face-showing," was the most important kabuki event of the year during the Edo Period (1603-1867), as it was when theaters selected their actors for the coming year, then introduced them to audiences in these performances.
Although the practice ceased in Edo in the 1860s, it was revived -- in name, at least -- by the Kabukiza in 1957 and is now its regular November program. No longer, however, is it a showpiece of newly signed performers. The current season's kaomise features some actors in their prime, as well as Tomijuro, Ganjiro and Shikan Nakamura -- three living national treasures, each in their early 70s.
The program begins with a ceremonial number, followed by Act III of the kabuki version of the 1731 bunraku play, "Kiichi Hogen Sanryaku no Maki (Abbot Kiichi's Art of War)," in which Tomijuro takes the lead.
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