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.