The Kabukiza Theater in Ginza this month is featuring Tamasaburo Bando, one of Japan's foremost onnagata (women's role) actors, in three numbers: first with hislongtime partner Nizaemon Kataoka, then with Kankuro Nakamura. Other great names on the playbill are Danjuro Ichikawa, Kichiemon Nakamura, Tomijuro Nakamura and Shikan Nakamura.

The afternoon program begins with a 30-minute dance, "Aioijishi," the oldest form of kabuki dance on the mythical lionlike creature shishi, created in 1734 from the noh play "Shakkyo."

The first of the two afternoon plays is "The Shogun Leaves Edo," which is the final part of Seika Mayama's 1934 trilogy on the Meiji Restoration of 1868. Directed by Mayama's daughter Miho, the play portrays Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the last shogun, the night before and on the day of his departure from Edo on April 11, 1868.

Yoshinobu, whose tale was told in last year's NHK serial drama, was a scion of the Tokugawa branch family that ruled the domain of Mito. A man of great intelligence and fiery temperament, he became shogun in December 1866 and resigned his post in October the following year. His brief term was racked with turbulence.

Danjuro tackles the part of Yoshinobu for the first time with great success, convincingly portraying the last shogun's frustration and bitterness on the eve of his departure from Edo.

Following his resignation and the defeat of Tokugawa forces in early 1868, Yoshinobu had gone into seclusion at the Kan'eiji Temple in Ueno while negotiations proceeded. Yamaoka Tetsutaro and other Tokugawa officers persuaded Saigo Takamori, the leader of the royalists, to spare the shogun's life and allow him to go into retirement.

The curtain rises on the night before April 11, 1868, as Yamaoka (Kankuro) enters Yoshinobu's presence. Yoshinobu is embittered against the domains of Satsuma (now Kagoshima Prefecture) and Choshu (Yamaguchi Prefecture) for overthrowing the shogunate, but Yamaoka urges him to remain loyal to the Imperial Family and leave Edo as scheduled. If Yoshinobu should hesitate to do so, argues Yamaoka, a battle fought through the streets of Edo would endanger thousands of civilians. At dawn the following day, Yoshinobu calmly crosses the bridge at Senju, heading toward retirement in Mito.

A set of three dance numbers from the 1931 "Rokkasen," a piece about six renowned 9th-century poets, follows, featuring Kankuro, Nizaemon, Tamasaburo and Tomijuro.

In "A Snowy Night at Iriya" at the end of the afternoon program, Nizaemon and Tamasaburo delight their fans by playing together Nizaemon as Kataoka Naojiro, a handsome ronin living on shady dealings, and Tamasaburo as Naojiro's courtesan lover Michitose. Part of an 1881 Kawatake Mokuami sewamono (realistic play), it opens in a soba noodle shop in Iriya. Leaving the shop, Naojiro meets the blind masseur Joga (Matagoro Nakamura) and asks him to take a message to Michitose, whom he has not visited for several weeks. In the following scene, Naojiro comes to see Michitose through a snowstorm, and she is overjoyed to see him. Their happy reunion is soon shattered, however, when the police show up to arrest him.

Nizaemon and Tamasaburo are a striking pair as Naojiro and Michitose, but Nizaemon is playing Naojiro for the first time, and doesn't achieve quite the right mood. Tamasaburo has played Michitose many times opposite great leading men like Danjuro, Kichiemon and Kikugoro Onoe.

The disappointment may also be due to the loss of the wonderful Kiyomoto accompaniment by the great master Shizudayu, who for so many decades made the final scene of this play perfect by his singing.

The evening program consists of "Moritsuna's Camp," an excellent example of the stylized type of kabuki, and Shin Hasegawa's realistic 1932 play "Irezumi Chohan (A Tattooed Die)." Between the two plays comes a dance depicting the escape of Hayano Kanpei (Danjuro) and his lover Okaru (Shikan) from Kamakura. This dance was added to the famous "Chushingura" in 1833, to follow the tragic scene of En'ya Hangan's harakiri.

Adapted from Chikamatsu Hanji's 1769 bunraku play, the tragedy "Moritsuna's Camp" tells of the samurai brothers Sasaki Moritsuna and Takatsuna, members of a distinguished warrior family in Omi Province (Shiga Prefecture). The two brothers have to fight each other because they happen to be vassals of rival warlords. Takatsuna sacrifices his son Koshiro for Moritsuna's sake.

The play centers on Moritsuna, who suffers from conflicted loyalties though he is on the winning side. At two hours, the play is long, but worth seeing for Kichiemon's rendition of Moritsuna in the style he learned from his eminent grandfather Kichiemon, who was unsurpassed in the part.

The production also provides roles for Kasho Nakamura's two young sons Tanetaro, 10, as Koshiro and Tanenosuke, 6, making his debut at the Kabukiza as Moritsuna's son Kosaburo.

In "Irezumi Chohan," the last number in the evening program, Kankuro plays Hantaro, a young ne'er-do-well from Fukagawa who is addicted to gambling. Hantaro is living in Gyotoku, having fled Edo after killing a man in a fight.

While walking one spring evening, feeling homesick for his parents and Fukagawa, he meets a despondent young woman, a teahouse waitress, who is about to drown herself. Hantaro talks her out of it, gives her some money and leaves without making any demands, and the girl, Onaka (Tamasaburo), falls in love with him.

Two years later, Hantaro and Onaka are found living in South Shinagawa. They are desperately poor, because Hantaro still gambles away all his earnings from working as a stevedore. Onaka has been seriously ill for some time and, realizing that she has not long to live, she tattoos a die on Hantaro's arm to remind him not to gamble.

Determined to get enough money to let Onaka die in comfort, Hantaro decides to try his luck one last time. He goes to a gambling den run by the gangster Masagoro (Nizaemon, much more convincing in this role), but having no money to bet, he gets beaten up and thrown out by Masagoro's men.

Masagoro then comes out and stops his men. Moved by Hantaro's tale of woe, Masagoro offers him one roll of the dice for the contents of Masagoro's wallet. Hantaro rolls the dice for the last time, and wins.

"Irezumi Chohan" is a play Kankuro has to perform well, for it was his famous grandfather Kikugoro Onoe VI who originated the role of Hantaro when the play first opened in 1932. Kankuro's late father Kanzaburo was also noted for the role, and Kankuro learned it from Kanzaburo. Kankuro played Hantaro at the Kabukiza in 1991, also opposite Tamasaburo, who had played Onaka in 1978 opposite Kanzaburo.

Kankuro has clearly grown in the role, which will be a great asset to his promising career.