Day 2
Afternoon
December 29, 2012
Kyoto (DIY Tour)
After eating a vegetarian lunch over at Yudofuya Restaurant, we hopped on the bus using our Kyoto City Bus One-day pass to Gion.
Gion is an entertainment district lined with buildings exhibiting a more traditional, Kyoto-esque style of architecture. You can sometimes see a geisha walking through at night.
Izumo no Okuni
In 1603, Izumo no Okuni presented her Kabuki Odori (Kabuki Dance) here on the Shijo Gawara the dry riverbed along side the Kamogawa River near Shijo. At a time when Kyoto was in disarray after the Battle of Sekigahara, Okuni's performances dressed in flamboyant men's costumes delighted and caught the imagination of the people, receiving tremendous acclaim.
Okuni is considered to be the founder of kabuki, but her birthplace is unknown. She was a miko (shrinemaiden) at Izumo Taisha Shrine in Shimane who brought her troupe of performers to Kyoto to solicit contributions. Here in Kyoto, she first gained fame for her shows in the Noh stage at Kitano Tenmangu Shrine, then toured around amid growing popularity.
Later, in the beginning of the Edo period, onna kabuki (kabuki played by women) was banned as a corrupting influence on social morals. Me took over, even playing the female roles (onna-gata), and the resulting shows developed into the kabuki of today.
More Kyoto photos after the break...
