For his 33rd annual summer season at the Kabukiza Theater in Ginza, Ichikawa Ennosuke is this month presenting not one but two kabuki classics: "Yotsuya Kaidan (The Ghost Story at Yotsuya)" and "Chushingura (The 47 Loyal Retainers)." There's a catch, though -- he's fashioned them into a single, three-act drama.
In the kabuki theater of today, Keio University graduate Ennosuke, 63, is the only one capable of directing and acting in the plays he produces, working on kabuki scripts, and also managing his own theatrical business.
Ten years of work have gone into the current production, which constitutes the afternoon program at the Kabukiza, and for which Ennosuke's staff writer, Ishikawa Koji, faced the mammoth task of combining "Yotsuya Kaidan" and "Chushingura," two epic works of great complexity.