18 Decmber 2022
JCTEA planned a Taishu Engeki performance by inviting Kaishi Professional University (Niigata) interns. 


2023.03.02

JCTEA planned a Taishu Engeki performance by inviting Kaishi Professional University (Niigata) interns. 

“Meiwa Gijin-den (the story of a righteous man of the Meiwa era)”
Script in collaboration with Kazunori Watanabe. The play was based on a real story about a riot in Niigata during the Meiwa era. 

In 1768, the townspeople resisted the clan administration in Niigata-machi, Echigo Province, and managed to hold a self-government for two months. The revolt was in response to the imprisonment of Tohshiro Wakui, a local merchant, who had helped the townspeople by arranging to indefinitely postpone the tax payment imposed by the Nagaoka clan’s feudal load. Despite his good deed, Tohshiro was betrayed and imprisoned. The townspeople, who were outraged by this, revolted in support of Tohshiro.

Taishu Engeki originated from actors who left the classically traditional Kabuki theatre during the Edo period to become travelling entertainers. It grew in popularity throughout Japan as the theatre for the masses. Today there are about 120 troupes, which tend to be formed within families. Their leadership is usually handed down from generation to generation. Taishu Engeki consists of plays and dance shows. The plays are characterised by easy-to-understand historical dramas with a clear sense of right and wrong, comedies that provoke laughter, and tear-jerking, human-interest dramas. The dance shows are delicate yet extravagant. Taishu Engeki is jam-packed with the traditional characteristics of Japanese culture that appeal to foreigners - Kimono, Geisha, Oiran (courtesans), Samurai, swords, Chambara (sword fighting), Shamisen, Kabuki and more! In particular, Onnagata, in which male actors perform as women, is filled with unique beauty and quality.