For the month of May, the Kabukiza Theater in Tokyo is presenting a special program celebrating the Dankikusai (Danjuro-Kikugoro Festival). The afternoon program features "The Tale of Genji, Part II" in three acts, and the evening program includes two strikingly intense plays, "Gappo's Abode" and "Ise Ondo."
Leading the Dankikusai are Danjuro Ichikawa XII, who succeeded to his stage name in 1985, and Kikugoro Onoe VII, who assumed his in 1973. Danjuro's son, Shinnosuke, and Kikugoro's son, Kikunosuke, both 23, take lead roles in "The Tale of Genji, Part II" and support their fathers in the two evening plays.
Participating also in the Dankikusai program are others who are related in various ways to the Ichikawa and Onoe lines of kabuki actors. The Dankikusai was initiated at the Kabukiza in 1936 by the late Kikugoro Onoe VI to commemorate the outstanding theatrical achievements of Ichikawa Danjuro IX and Onoe Kikugoro V, the two giants of the kabuki theater in the last quarter of the 19th century. Kikugoro VI was a great actor in both historical (jidaimono) and realistic (sewamono) plays. He learned the fine points of kabuki acting from Danjuro IX and his father, Kikugoro V, and transmitted them to succeeding generations.