Kabuki Theatre Begun

Kabuki, a major form of traditional Japanese theater, is generally traced to the early seventeenth century. According to long-standing tradition, it began when a female performer named Izumo no Okuni led troupes in performing lively, popular dances and dramatic sketches, reportedly in the area around Kyoto.

Early kabuki combined dance, music, and drama in a flamboyant, accessible style that appealed to ordinary townspeople. Authorities later banned women, and then young men, from the stage on grounds of public morality, after which adult male actors came to perform all roles, including female ones played by specialists known as onnagata.

Over the following centuries kabuki developed elaborate conventions of costume, makeup, stylized movement, and stagecraft, including the revolving stage and the hanamichi walkway through the audience. It became one of Japan's most celebrated performing arts and remains a living theatrical tradition today.