Ennosuke Ichikawa is presenting his latest "Super Kabuki" production, "Shin Sangokushi II (New Record of the Three Kingdoms, Part II)" at Tokyo's Shinbashi Enbujo Theater through May, leading members of his personal troupe including Danshiro (his younger brother), Ukon, En'ya, Emiya, Emisaburo and Shun'en.
Super Kabuki, which features fast-paced action and spectacular theatrical stunts, was created by Ennosuke in 1986 in an effort to reinvigorate kabuki and make it more relevant to modern audiences. It retains classical kabuki acting and staging techniques, such as tachimawari (fight scenes), striking mie poses and elaborate kumadori makeup, but uses original scripts and background music along with an arsenal of high-tech special stage effects.
"Shin Sangokushi II" is Ennosuke's eighth Super Kabuki production, and follows on from "Shin Sangokushi I," which ran for nine months in 1999-2000. Set in third-century China with a script written by Kensuke Yokouchi, the story is based on the lengthy Chinese historical novel "Sanguozhi Yanyi (Romance of the Three Kingdoms)," written by Luo Guanzhong during the 14th century, which was in turn based on "Sanguozhi (Record of the Three Kingdoms)," a collection of tales of the warlords and statesmen of the Chinese kingdoms of Wei, Wu and Shu, who vied for supremacy amid the chaos surrounding the fall of the Han Dynasty in A.D. 220.