Kabuki; Beauty till the Last Breath
Last week I attended the lecture about Kabuki… so fasinated..and here is what I would like to share..
Kabuki is the performance that tries to beautifully convey the philosophy of ideal society, justice and human being to the audience. For me, ideal society and justice seem to be very difficult to understand but I think I can get some sense about human being so this paper will be about it, focusing on the last moment of human being. We all human have no experience in dying but kabuki will let us experience in through the performer.
Kabuki was once the most popular entertainment in Edo period. Romantic and heroic tales were performed on stage and the performers were the superstars whose picture would be printed in the wooden block and sold for their fans to collect and their costume could create fashion trend.
In the sense of Kabuki, beauty might be interpreted as colorful and young since the leading female role will represent the female at age of less than 20 coming with elegant colorful costume. The love of young girl that displayed in Kabuki popular scene is the girl love to the bell which represented something could not be reach.
One of the most famous stories was Chuchikura which the story was related to Harakiri, the ceremony of suicide, commanded by shogun and the death belonged to both the lord and their samurai.
During Edo period, committing suicide was considered honorable and at that time many samurai traded their lives with the that glory.
Some people might perceive this scene as the expression of serving selflessness to the leader. In the other hand, we should keep in mind that at that period people should obey their placement and that would keep the order of the society which meant order of the ruler.
Many people who try to be the hero but fail to do so ended up with Harakiri and they would be given credit as they live and then died by the code of honor. If we failed to live our lives as the ideal one then we committed suicide, would we be given that honor?
The attractiveness of Samurai way for me is about mist and encouragement that made the legend. Samurai lived for honor and glory but at the time when there was no war; Harakiri is also the way to that end. I am wondering if it worth to have the glory legend after death instead of have simple live which not glow but have potential for happiness.
. .l am now thinking about Lieutenant Dan in Forest Gump, who firstly, wanted to die in the field with honor instead of living without legs. Then he felt thankful to Forest Gump for saving his life which he can live it happily…with artificial legs…maybe nothing to do with legs..
The beauty sense of death in Kabuki reminds me the full bloom of sakura in Hanami season. During the full bloom, the beauty reaches its peak then declining as much as the falling part. After all flower falling, people who have never seen sakura tree before might not be able to tell which is sakura tree since there will be only naked branch left. Even there is no petal on the tree, people still think and talk about that beautiful moment… I think this might be similar to the way people think about hara-kiri.
During the lecture, Prof. Hideo Furuido gave example of the last happiness before departure. Young samurai spent time with the family members in the night with no cloud then killed himself next morning. I do not know if it is related but I found something similar in the famous movie “I give my first love to you”, which the guy spend whole day with his beloved girlfriend before dying. So why should we die when we can seek for happiness??
One of my Japanese friends told me that in the country of suicide death is higher than the death of accident, dying is not the referable topic in daily life. That is why when there was somebody jumps into the railway we will be informed that there is an accident. Yes, this is accident for us since we will never predict about that but for the people who committed that, it is surely not an accident. I cannot know the reason behind the huge number of death and I am not sure if this death is different from the old day. But what is certain is that, their death will be recognized.
At this point I am not certain anymore if kabuki can convey the concept of ideal society. Even death that is displayed on stage is the combination of beauty and I have to admit that it is really beautiful, should this scene be included in the philosophy of human living? Or it is just the brain wash message from ruler to the subordinate? and in this case the philosophy might be something to do with obedience not justice or ideal state…
It would be good if there is some scene of what is happened after death…but maybe it is just nothing… at all..
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