Introduction

While researching Kyoto for my 15 minute Japanese speech, I stumbled across the fact that kabuki was created in a dry riverbed of Kyoto back in the seventeenth century not by a man, as all actors now are, but by a woman.

If you do not know anything about Kabuki this may not come as a surprise, but when you know that Kabuki is done only by men, and that there are men who are famous for dressing up as women, then the bizarreness of the situation sinks in. Why was a theatre famous across Japan for beautiful transvestites founded by a woman? Where did all the women go? This query prompted me to start research on Izumo no Okuni, the priestess who started Kabuki on a dry riverbed with the homeless and the outcasts.

The first article, about Izumo no Okuni, is my report for my Honors English 34 Seminar. The second article, currently entitled Kabuki, is uncompleted research about kabuki as an art form, a hub for homosexuality throughout Japan, and any other interesting tidbits I find.

Dewa, hajimemashite.