Through the month of September, the Kabukiza Theater in Ginza is offering an excellent selection of historical and realistic plays and a dance number for the afternoon and evening, starring Uzaemon Ichimura, Kichiemon Nakamura, Tomijuro Nakamura and Baigyoku Nakamura. Participating also in the current programs are prominent onnagata actors such as Jakuemon Nakamura, Shikan Nakamura and Sojuro Sawamura.

The afternoon program begins with a superb example of a period costume spectacular (jidaimono), lavishly adapted for the kabuki stage in 1762 from part of the 1737 bunraku play "Goshozakura Horikawa Youchi" by Bunkodo and Miyoshi Shoraku. It centers on the brilliant military hero Minamoto no Yoshitsune, who destroyed the Heike clan in 1185, only to be accused of treachery, condemned and hounded to death by his envious elder brother Yoritomo, the first shogun.

Generally referred to as "Benkei as Shogun Yoritomo's Messenger," the play focuses on Yoshitsune's loyal follower Benkei, who has received an order from Yoritomo for the death of Yoshitsune's pregnant young wife, Lady Kyo. Benkei goes to the house of Jiju Taro, where she is being held.

In order to save Lady Kyo, Benkei and Jiju Taro decide to sacrifice Kyo's maidservant Shinobu and pass her head off as Kyo's. Shinobu's mother Owasa raises fierce objections, but Benkei stabs the girl to death. Only then does he discover that Shinobu was his own daughter, conceived in an affair with Owasa 18 years before. As the curtain is drawn, Benkei weeps for his lost daughter, joined by Owasa, who is torn between her profound grief and her happiness at being reunited with Benkei.

Uzaemon, 83, performs impressively as Benkei opposite Shikan, 71, as Owasa; Shikan, who has made the part his own over the years, may well be the finest onnagata to perform Owasa. Shikan's grandson Kantaro, 17, plays both Lady Kyo and Shinobu, while Uzaemon's sons Hikosaburo, 56, and Manjiro, 49, play Jiju Taro and his wife, Hananoi.

After the tragic "Benkei as Shogun Yoritomo's Messenger," Jakuemon's outstanding presentation of the dance "Dojoji" comes as a welcome treat. Created by Nakamura Tomijuro I in 1753 and performed to nagauta accompaniment on a stage set with a great temple bell hanging against the backdrop of cherry blossoms, "Dojoji" demands all the essential techniques of kabuki dance by the onnagata actor.

To celebrate his sanju anniversary at the Kabukiza (he turned 79 years old last month!), Jakuemon has chosen "Dojoji" because it is his favorite dance number. He shares the part of the priestess, Hanako, with his son, Shibajaku, 43, and it is exciting to watch Jakuemon and Shibajaku compete with each other in their beauty and dancing skills.

Jakuemon and Shibajaku are double images of the enchanted priestess, who has traveled to the Dojoji Temple in Kii, hoping to see the newly dedicated bronze bell. Actually, this priestess is the spirit of the legendary heroine, Kiyohime, who fell in love with the chaste monk, Anchin, and, transformed into a giant snake, chased him to Dojoji, where, coiling herself around the bell, she burned him alive in it by the heat of her jealous anger.

Taking off her ceremonial golden hat, the priestess turns into a winsome maiden and Jakuemon and Shibajaku take turns in expressing various facets of a woman's experiences in love, dancing and changing costume on the stage by the hikinuki method. The dance ends as the bell is lowered to the stage and the father-and-son performers climb onto it and strike mie poses, revealing their true identities.

The final play in the afternoon program, "The Hachiman Festival on the Night of a Full Moon" by Daigo Ikeda, is a masterpiece in modern sewamono, first staged at the Kabukiza in 1918. Ikeda's script, based on a play written in 1860 by the well-known kabuki playwright Kawatake Mokuami, is moving. It centers on a hard-working, naive young man called Shinsuke from Niigata, who is ruined by his brief association with a beautiful geisha named Miyokichi in Fukagawa.

Kichiemon, 55, gives a convincing performance as Shinsuke, a trader in chijimi cloth used to make summer kimono. (Kichiemon first played Shinsuke in 1977, opposite Tamasaburo Bando as Miyokichi.) Fukusuke, 38, is perfect as Miyokichi, a part he has played twice before.

Miyokichi, who is fickle and arrogant, persuades the smitten Shinsuke to sell his house and land for 100 gold pieces and give them to her, saying that she will part with her lover, the young boatman, Sanji (Baigyoku Nakamura), and marry Shinsuke instead. When he returns that evening, money in hand, Shinsuke finds that he has been deceived and she has no intention of parting with her tough-guy lover. Realizing that he's ruined himself for a fantasy, Shinsuke is devastated.

The play ends with a spectacular murder scene performed in a shower of real water. As people hurry toward a collapsed bridge to rescue those who have fallen into the river, Shinsuke, now completely deranged and holding a stolen sword, confronts Miyokichi. Their struggle in the rain ends with Miyokichi's death. Shinsuke laughs loudly as he is carried away by the angry crowd, and a huge, golden moon looms over the stage, now empty except for a shed with blood-stained shoji doors.

In the evening program, Kichiemon rises to the challenge of playing Ishikawa Goemon, the legendary 16th-century character famous for his amazing burglaries and magical powers. The play for "Ishikawa Goemon" in three acts was written by Ginsaku Tobe expressly for Kichiemon's current production. It is based on Enji Kimura's "Zoho Futatsudomoe" written in 1861 to showcase the skills of kabuki actor Kodanji Ichikawa IV.

Following in the footsteps of Kodanji, Kichiemon performs a spectacular special effect called a chunori in Act II, Scene 2, in which he steals the official seal from the Ashikaga Palace. He emerges from a huge basket floating in midair after and escapes by "flying" over the hanamichi passageway.

Goemon and Konoshita Hisayoshi (i.e. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, played by Tomijuro) are attempting to take control of the country by different means. The confrontation finally takes place in Act III, at the main gate of the Nanzenji Temple in Kyoto. In watching Kichiemon's "Ishikawa Goemon," however, one cannot help realizing the difficulty of making a modern jidaimono a real success.

Kichiemon and Tomijuro perform together also in the following four-act "Mekuranagaya Ume no Kagatobi," a 1886 Mokuami masterpiece about the tough gangs of rival firemen in old Edo, when private fire companies vied for business. The first act presents a group of hot-blooded young firemen guarding Lord Maeda's residence in Edo. As they are about to battle a rival fire company under the leadership of Matsuzo, they are stopped by Umekichi, another leader of the firemen.

The following three acts center on a gangster named Dogen, who makes his living by murder, robbery and extortion and occasionally poses as a blind masseur. While Kichiemon plays the dashing Matsuzo, Tomijuro impressively handles the two contrasting roles of Umekichi and Dogen, following the tradition of the great Kikugoro Onoe VI. Tomijuro has played Dogen many times, and it is thoroughly enjoyable to see the comic touches that he gives his amazingly wicked character.