Post by Hiba Rashid on Nov 5, 2015 5:11:37 GMT
To Masuyama, Mangiku Sanokawa is the definition of a pure onnagata. Mangiku is not simply an actor who embodies the role of onnagata on stage, but one who maintains that role backstage and even in his real life. The Ayamegusa claims that “unless the onnagata lives as a woman in his daily life, he is unlikely ever to be considered an accomplished onnagata” (pg. 297). Mangiku can therefore be considered an accomplished onnagata. Even in his real life, he consciously behaves and speaks as a woman -- this makes his performance appear natural and elegant to the audience. There is no need for him to make an effort to change his identity when leaving the real world and entering a fictional world. He is so natural, he is even described as more feminine and elegant than real women.
This shows an illicit union between dream and reality because male actors in kabuki, like Mangiku, attempt to mimic an identity that is the opposite of their own. They take an identity from the real world (that of a woman) and try to master it. They try to master it by incorporating it in their real lives -- to the extent that their real identity (that of a man) is no longer visible. Dream, the fictional world put on stage, and reality become one as the actors adopt the role of woman on and off-stage.
It can be considered illicit because it breaks the gender norms of society and the ways in which a man is supposed to behave. If a man chooses to become an onnagata, he chooses to give up his masculinity and truly adopt the lifestyle of a woman. For this reason, I find the concept of onnagata in kabuki to be quite contradictory. On the one hand, these male actors are encouraged to master how to be a woman because it is elegant, graceful, beautiful, charming, etc. Yet, they do not allow real female actors be part of the theater. The real women who know better how to “be a woman” for they are actually women. It seems the woman (or the concept what a woman should be) is only valued through the embodiment by a man. A man mimicking a woman’s identity is seen as more beautiful than a woman being herself.
This shows an illicit union between dream and reality because male actors in kabuki, like Mangiku, attempt to mimic an identity that is the opposite of their own. They take an identity from the real world (that of a woman) and try to master it. They try to master it by incorporating it in their real lives -- to the extent that their real identity (that of a man) is no longer visible. Dream, the fictional world put on stage, and reality become one as the actors adopt the role of woman on and off-stage.
It can be considered illicit because it breaks the gender norms of society and the ways in which a man is supposed to behave. If a man chooses to become an onnagata, he chooses to give up his masculinity and truly adopt the lifestyle of a woman. For this reason, I find the concept of onnagata in kabuki to be quite contradictory. On the one hand, these male actors are encouraged to master how to be a woman because it is elegant, graceful, beautiful, charming, etc. Yet, they do not allow real female actors be part of the theater. The real women who know better how to “be a woman” for they are actually women. It seems the woman (or the concept what a woman should be) is only valued through the embodiment by a man. A man mimicking a woman’s identity is seen as more beautiful than a woman being herself.