From March 18 to 20, 2017, five performances of Japan's Songzhu Daikabuki were held in the Beijing Tianqiao Theater for three days. Kabuki Art and Kyoto

1956 Mei Lanfang visited Japan and took a photo with Kabuki artists

From March 18 to 20, 2017, Japan's Songzhu Da Kabuki performed five performances for three days in three consecutive days at Beijing Tianqiao Theater . It is hard to get a ticket without publicity, which surprised many people in the drama industry. This performance is an international cultural exchange to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the normalization of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations, and it is also the second time that Japanese Kabuki came to China ten years later.

Kabuki Art and Peking Opera are both traditional arts born on the fertile soil of Asia. They each have their own sects and masters inheritance, and have interacted and influenced in different historical development stages. The several encounters between the Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang and Japanese Kabuki recorded in this article prove from the other side that art is interconnected, and the emotions of people behind art are also interconnected.

Kabuki is a rising star in traditional Japanese dramas. It appeared around the beginning of the 17th century and was established at the end of the 17th century. Because it happened to cater to the vigorous development of Japanese civil society at that time, it began to prevail in Japanese society, gradually formed a group of representative plays and emerged a group of famous artists. Until 1868 AD, the Reform Movement had rapidly emerged, and culture and art also set off a trend of improvement. Kabuki also underwent major changes during this period, advocating the improvement of taste, emphasizing the educational function, building new theaters, and rehearsing a large number of new plays. From April 26 to 29, 1887, the 20th year of Meiji, Kabuki was summoned to the palace for four consecutive days for unprecedented times, known as "Tianlan", which means that the improvement of Kabuki was eventually recognized by the state and thus completely changed its low social status.

The most representative artist of Chinese Peking Opera, Mei Lanfang (1894-1961), has visited Japan five times, including 1919, 1924 and 1956. In 1929 and 1930, they traveled back and forth through Japan when they performed in the United States. Mei Lanfang thus had an indissoluble bond with the Kabuki of Japanese traditional drama.

1919's first visit to Japan for a performance, and rediscovered the "Chinese Classic"

1919 From April to May, Mei Lanfang led a delegation to Japan for the first time at the invitation of Japanese chaebol Kihachiro Okura and the Imperial Theater. At this time, the Kabuki world rose together. The so-called heroes can be roughly divided into two major camps. One faction advocates adhering to improving traditional plays, while the other faction actively compiles and performs new plays. Okura Kihachiro and the Imperial Theater supported the traditional school, which was also the mainstream of Kabuki at that time.

Mei Lanfang happened to lead a movement to improve Peking Opera just before performing in Japan. While he compiled and performed new fashion dramas and new costume dramas, he chose to process traditional dramas, which were both impressive. This means that before going to Japan, Mei Lanfang had already gained artistic experience similar to Kabuki improvement. However, perhaps influenced by the invitation, Mei Lanfang's performance in Japan was still mainly based on traditional repertoires, and was quickly attracted by traditional Kabuki artists and audiences of the Imperial Theater.

Mei Lanfang was also very excited about her first encounter with Kabuki. He reviewed in the article "The Crystal of the Precious Art of the Japanese People - Kabuki":

When I first watched it, what surprised me was that not only did not feel strange, but also was very friendly and familiar. My view is that Kabuki and Chinese classical drama have many common features, especially Peking Opera. For example, all the behaviors and actions of people in Kabuki dramas are not directly brought to the stage from life, but are drawn from real life, processed through artistic techniques, and appropriately exaggerated and refined. Their singing and dancing are an art that is highly integrated with rhythm, and can control the muscles of the body with extreme precision... The characters of Kabuki include various different characters such as "Liufu", "Female", "Enemy", "Two Branches", "Three Branches" and "Xinbao Lifu", "Niang Sha", "Float Shape" and other different characters. It is simply the same as those of Peking Opera's "Sheng", "Dan", "Jing", "Mo", "Chou", and "Qingyi" and "Hua Dan". In Kabuki dramas, people only have "pronouncements and do", and the band is responsible for singing. They are of the same nature as the local operas in my country's high-pronunciation system, and they are also shared with China in terms of musical instruments.In short, although Chinese people can’t speak Japanese Kabuki, they are not difficult to accept. We can fully understand why they perform this or that. The types and plots of the stories they performed are almost the same as the structure and content of the ancient stories in my country.

Mei Lanfang thought that the reason why Kabuki is so similar to Peking Opera is that:

That time in Japan, I understood why Japanese classical drama and Chinese classical drama have many similarities. This is not isolated or accidental, but has been inseparable from the fact that over the past thousand years, they have heard each other's voices and breathed together.

Mei Lanfang's discovery should have a great impact on Mei Lanfang himself. At that time, Mei Lanfang's Peking Opera improvement was at a crossroads, that is, whether to continue to develop along the path of new fashion dramas; or to retain the traditional appearance of Peking Opera and continuously improve and improve. Mei Lanfang finally chose the latter - his important choice on the artistic path is not unrelated to his great success in his first visit to Japan and his timely verified with Kabuki's improvement experience. In his understanding of Kabuki, he also reexamined and rediscovered the so-called "Chinese classical". As an indisputable fact, Mei Lanfang stopped rehearsing her new fashion show after her first visit to Japan, which of course was not a coincidence.

1926, a famous Japanese actress took a photo with Mei Lanfang at Qianmen East Station when she arrived in Beijing.

The 1920s' visit to Japan performance was performed on the same stage in China. The two artistic exchanges were deepening. The first visit to Japan ended. Mei Lanfang devoted himself to the selection and processing of traditional plays with greater enthusiasm. In particular, he and another representative Peking Opera artist of the Republic of China, Yang Xiaolou , formed Chonglin Club to rehearsed the classic drama "Farewell My Concubine" that still remains popular, creating another leap in Mei Lanfang's art. In Mei Lanfang's artistic practice, you can vaguely see the shadow of the "living historical drama" advocated during the Kabuki reform period. The so-called "living historical drama" is symbolized by the Jiushi Ichikawa Tushiro, focusing on historical facts, filtering out some absurd parts of the traditional drama, and recreating historical reality with freehand drama art techniques. Mei Lanfang's later dramas such as "Farewell My Concubine", "Xi Shi", and "Taizhen Waiji" can also be regarded as "living historical dramas" of Peking Opera in a sense.

Just the year after Yang Xiaolou and Mei Lanfang co-starred in "Farewell My Concubine", on September 1, 1923, a major earthquake in Kanto occurred in Japan. Mei Lanfang responded to the government's call and launched an uprising performance, raising nearly 10,000 yuan in donations for Japan. This righteous act touched all walks of life in Japan, especially the Kabuki community, which has become a legend of Liyuan that has been circulating in the past century.

In 1924, the Empire Theater, which was destroyed by the Kanto earthquake, was restored and rebuilt. The first thing I thought of was Mei Lanfang, who was invited to participate in disaster relief, to perform in the future. Between October and November, Mei Lanfang achieved his second performance in leading a delegation to Japan.

At this time, the two main forces in the Kabuki world were the Imperial Theater centered on the seventh generation, Yuki Shiro Matsumoto and Umeyuki of the Sixth generation, and Kabukiza centered on the fifth generation, Yuemon Nakamura and Saemon Nakamura. Both of these major forces mainly perform traditional repertoire. In addition, there are Momoda and Literature Chairs led by the 13th generation of Mimoda Kanaya, Kuangyeza led by the sixth generation of Kikugoro, and Meijiza led by the ninth generation of Ichikawazuo. However, Kabuki artists who are subordinate to different forces have reached a high degree of agreement on their attitude of welcoming Mei's visit to Japan.

Mei Lanfang further deepened her understanding of Kabuki during this visit. In addition to reaffirming the similarities between traditional Chinese and Japanese dramas, we also expressed respect for Kabuki performing arts. Mei Lanfang published an article "The Rise and Fall of Chinese Opera and its Changes in Techniques" in the December 1924 issue of Japanese "Renovation" magazine, saying:

Japanese dramas have many similarities with Chinese dramas. From the perspective of acting skills, a few days ago, I watched Kikugoro's three plays, "The Hero", "Fisherman" and "Slaves". Among them, there are many similarities between the dance posture and the rhythm. "The Hero Niang" has the skills of catching the water body (watching the figure by the water) and changing the clothing and clothing in "The Legend of Niang".The fishermen catching croaker, catching abalone, and octopus are generally similar to Chinese dramas, and there are also scenes that show elves and monsters in Chinese dramas. (Omitted in the middle) The difference between Chinese dramas and Japanese dramas is that Chinese drama actors take on the lines and songs and dances, while Japanese drama lines and dances are undertaken by different personnel. Therefore, an actor in a Chinese drama can only play one or two plays, about one to two hours, and a person in a Japanese drama can usually play several roles. In the aforementioned performance, Kikugoro can play nine roles in a day, and his makeup speed and magic are breathtaking.

Two years after Mei Lanfang's second visit to Japan, the famous Japanese Kabuki actor Thirteenth generation, Kamiya Momoda, asked someone to bring a letter to Mei Lanfang, saying that she hoped to have the opportunity to visit Beijing and perform with Mei Lanfang. With the powerful help of Mei Lanfang, on August 20, 1926, the 13th generation Momota Kanaya led 54 people from the Momotaza Theater Troupe to Beijing.

The 13th generation of Momoda Kaya was born into a prominent Kabuki family. His father, the 12th generation of Momoda Kaya was one of the leaders of the Kabuki Reform Movement during the Meiji Restoration period. The 12th generation, Mitsuda Kanaya, was originally the second son of Nakamura's Saemon. She adopted the Morita family as her adopted son at the age of 18. Later, she became famous and replaced her adoptive father, Mitsuda. Momotasa, whom he led, first built a Western-style grand theater, namely the New Rich Temple. The theater was equipped with electric lights, and even used a military band in the inauguration ceremony. Later, a number of new plays were launched, which triggered the "European craze" of Kabuki. Although the thirteenth generation, Kazuya Momota was not as radical as his father, he was also keen on improving, especially advocating the literaryization of Kabuki plays. He also cooperated with Nie Ichikawa Guanosuke to establish a troupe called Literary and Arts, performing the "I Don't Know", "Ikyu a Day", "Long Live the Humanity", and "Kuaichi's Tadarukyu's Conduct" and other plays, making him famous for performing such new dramas with strong literary nature.

At this time, the Kabuki industry advocated performing traditional plays, and did not clearly show interest in Kabuki's exchanges overseas; and artists like the Thirteenth generation, who actively promoted the second improvement of Kabuki after the Meiji Restoration, hoped to introduce their "new Kabuki" plays to foreign audiences and gain international recognition. The Kabuki Beijing performance headed by Kanya Momoda in 1926 was not only the first visit to China in Kabuki history, but also the first official foreign performance in Kabuki history.

Mei Lanfang warmly welcomed the visit of the Thirteenth generation, Kazuya and his party. Then he performed on the same stage as Kanya Momoda and others for three days. The Japanese repertoire are "The Three Generations of Kamakura", "Lion Lion", "Dao Seung Temple", "Miyashima Silent Fight" and "Six Songs Immortals"; Mei Lanfang performed "Fighting Puguan", "Tao Jinling", "June Snow", "Kinshan Temple", etc. The performance was unprecedented, so the Beijing government had to send multiple police officers outside the theater every day to maintain order. After the performance, Mei Lanfang hosted a grand reception at the Water Pavilion in Zhongshan Park to celebrate the success of the performance. Mei Lanfang also invited his wife Fuzhifang to Ruifengxiang to purchase clothes and made a Chinese dress for each of the Japanese performance troupes, and gave them to everyone as a gift. Through this visit to China, Kabuki artists such as Momota Kamiya have formed deep friendship with Mei Lanfang. Kanaya Momota determined that the Peking Opera art represented by Mei Lanfang could be used as an allies of their "new Kabuki".

On January 21, 1930, Mei Lanfang took a photo with artists after she arrived in Japan.

1930 went to the United States to perform through Japan, deepening the exchange of Chinese and Japanese artists

On January 18, 1930, Mei Lanfang led a delegation to take a boat from Shanghai to perform in the United States, returned home in July, and passed through Japan. The Japanese drama industry held a welcome meeting for Mei Lanfang twice to welcome his arrival.

Mei Lanfang's disciple and secretary Li Feishu also left a broken manuscript of "Mei Lanfang's Travels in Beauty", which is the most detailed record of Mei Lanfang's visit to Japan. According to Li Fei Shuji, after Mei Lanfang and her party arrived in Kobe, Japan on January 20, 1930, Mei took several people to Tokyo by train, and boarded the ship from Yokohama to the United States on the 23rd.