KABUKI: LIVE (plus engraved) in Bangkok

The Japan Foundation, Bangkok teams up with the National Discovery Museum Institute, or Museum Siam, in presenting a unique visual arts and theatre event "Kabuki Demonstration and Nishiki-e Exhibition".

Featuring stars of Kabuki today, this 90-minute programme starts with Sanbasou("Mai" Dance) by Mr. Bando Kotoji, followed by "What is Kabuki?", a lecture by Ms. Yoshiko Takahashi—don’t worry, a translator is present. Then, we’ll witness how Kabuki performers put on their make-up, and we can also participate in the Kabuki dance demonstration. Finally, we’ll watch the highlight, Kabuki Dance entitled "Yoshino Yama (Mt. Yoshino)". In other words, we’ll get both brief theory and some practice of this four-century-old theatre of the common folks.

Afterwards, the audience is invited to view the “Nishiki-e Exhibition”, on display until December 20. The thematically relevant showcase featuring Japanese multi-colored woodblock printing invented in the 1760s and considered to be one of the origins of multi-color printing in the world.

The focus of this exhibition is on "Yakusha-e", or "actor prints", one of the popular themes of Nishiki-e. They include not only portraits of individual artists, but also prints of kabuki scenes and of other elements of the theater.

Since Kabuki was a popular urban entertainment for ordinary people during Edo Period, audiences scrambled to obtain their favorite actors’ "Yakusha-e."

Seeing how two genres of classical arts related to each other in the past, now at the same venue: that’s indeed rare for Bangkok.