Kawatake Mokuami
【河竹黙阿弥】
【KAWATAKEMOKUAMI】
Kawatake Mokuami (1816~1893)
He was an author of Kabuki plays who was active from the late Edo period to the Meiji period. Over 50 years of his career, he wrote 130 Sewamono plays, 90 Jidaimono plays, and 140 dance plays.
Mokuami is most renowned by his Sewamono dramas, although he wrote some Matsubame plays and adaptations of overseas novels. At the end of the Edo period, he worked with a great actor Ichikawa Kodanji 4th to illustrate the life of the people at that time in a realistic manner. After the Meiji period, he continued to describe the life of the Edo period that was fading away and the process of Westernization that had been triggered by the civilization and enlightenment. These Sewamono dramas were written in seven-and-five syllable meter that sounds comfortable to the ears and the music of Kiyomoto was mostly used to accompany the plays.
The chief examples of his Sewamono plays include “Aotozoshi Hana no Nishikie” in which Bentenkozo appears as the leading role and “Tsuyu Kosode Mukashi Hachijo” (Kamiyui Shinza), and his Matsubame dance plays include “Tsuchigumo”. Many of his works are still performed today.
After Mokuami died, there was no Kabuki playwright as great as he was. Therefore, novel writers began to write Kabuki plays. Those works written after Mokuami by novel writers are called “Shin-Kabuki (New Kabuki)”.
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【市川家（小團次系）】
【ICHIKAWAKE(KODANJIKEI)】
