Economist magazine on Kabuki

choi

Kabuki theatre in Japan | In a Pickle; Two acting greats die, throwing their great tradition into question. Economist, Feb 16, 2013.
http://www.economist.com/news/as ... ion-question-pickle

Note:
(a) Kabuki-za  歌舞伎座
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabuki-za
(first (wooden, 1889-1921 when it was burned down from an electrical fire; second (construction commenced in 1922 but was destroyed in  the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake 関東大震災; the third one heavily damaged in the Allied bombing during World War II; fourth (1950-2010); fifth under construction)
(i) Kabuki-za's owner Sochiku Co, in its Japanese-language website (not the English-language website, whose information was sparse), supplies the outlooks of the future building (to be opened in phases).

懐かしいおもかげを継承しつつも新しい装い; 開場より125年, 第五期歌舞伎座が誕生致します
http://www.shochiku.co.jp/play/kabukiza/about/facility.pdf

translation of the web page title: "While inheriting the desired vestige, a new look; 125 years since the first opening, the fifth stage of Kabukiza is reborn.  
* natsukashii 懐かしい 【なつかしい】 (adj): "dear; desired; missed"
* omokage 面影 【おもかげ】 (n): "face; looks; vestiges; trace  <この町はいまだに昔の面影をとどめている。 This town still retains something of the old days>"
* tsutsu つつ: "while"
* yosooi 装い 【よそおい】 (n): "dress; outfit"
(ii) New Kabuki-Za To Bring Tradition, Innovation Together. Nikkei, Feb 20, 2013.
http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20130222D22HH612.htm
("The new theater will look much the same as the previous structure that was built in 1950 in traditional Japanese architectural style, characterized by a large, tiled roof. But unlike previous versions, right behind it rises a 29-story office tower")
(iii) Design for new Kabuki-za unveiled. Japan Today, Apr 6, 2011.
http://www.japantoday.com/catego ... -kabuki-za-unveiled
(iv) There is a suspicion of the motivation for the 2010 demolition, due to the new office building which would be quite an asset.

(b) The article said, "The new concrete façade, preserving the low-slung swagger of the original, is an incongruous medieval pastiche squatting in the middle of Tokyo’s glitziest shopping district."

pastiche (n; French):
"a literary, artistic, musical, or architectural work that imitates the style of previous work"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pastiche

(c)
(i) For Danjuro Ichikawa XII, see
ICHIGAWA Danjūrō XII  十二代目 市川 團十郎
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichikawa_Danj%C5%ABr%C5%8D_XII
(1946-2013; the twelfth kabuki actor to hold the illustrious name Ichikawa Danjūrō; eldest son of Ichikawa Danjūrō XI; birth name Natsuo HORIKOSHI 堀越 夏雄)
* I do not know why the title retains the old-styled 團 (for Japanese anyway), instead of 団 (pronounced "dan").
* me 目【め】 (n): "(1) eye * * * (7) ordinal number suffix"

Equivalent to 第 in Chinese, definition 7 is what it is here in the title.
(ii) Ichikawa Danjūrō
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichikawa_Danj%C5%ABr%C5%8D
(The name Danjūrō is generally taken at the peak of an actor's career; Prior to taking the name Danjūrō, an actor frequently had the names Matsumoto Kōshirō, Ichikawa Shinnosuke, or Ichikawa Ebizō)

Ichikawa Danjūrō I  初代 市川 團十郎
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichikawa_Danj%C5%ABr%C5%8D_I
(1660-1704; holding title 1675-1704); While performing at the Ichimura-za  市村 座  on 19 February 1704, Danjūrō was stabbed and killed onstage by fellow actor IKUSHIMA Hanroku  生島 半六)
(iii) The article mentioned his only "son, Ebizo Ichikawa XI."  
十一代目 市川 海老蔵

* ebi 海老【えび】 (n): "prawn; shrimp; lobster; crayfish"

(iv) The article stated, "A climax of his performances was a cross-eyed nirami (glare), said to drive off evil, that he had to project right to the back of the theatre."
* nirami 睨み 【にらみ】 (n): "stare"
* two kinds of stares:
(A) 「にらみ」で新型インフル退散　海老蔵さんがお家芸披露. 共同通信, June 3, 2009.
http://www.47news.jp/CN/200906/CN2009060301000641.html
(B) 「睨み(にらみ)」〜無病息災. 渋谷ではたらく建築家, Jan 6, 2012
http://ameblo.jp/tatemono/entry-11128253235.html

(d)
(i) For Kanzaburo Nakamura XVIII, see NAKAMURA Kanzaburō XVIII  十八代目 中村 勘三郎
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanzaburo_Nakamura_XVIII
(1955-2012; born Noriaki NAMINO 波野 哲明; the eighteenth in the line of Nakamura Kanzaburō, his father the seventeenth; He took the name Kanzaburō in 2005)

* zaburō 三郎 【さぶろう】
* rō 郎
* Japanese Wiki under "十八代目 中村 勘三郎" indicates that his title had been 五代目 中村 勘九郎 (1959-2005).
took the title in 2005, he was  
(ii) The article averred, "Kanzaburo’s sons, Kankuro VI and Shichinosuke II, inherit the custodianship of a lineage that stretches back 18 generations."
* 長男: NAKAMURA Kankurō VI  六代目 中村 勘九郎

九 is usually pronounced "kyu" but occasionally "ku"--both Chinese pronunciations.
* 次男: NAKAMURA Shichinosuke II  二代目 中村 七之助

(e) The article observed, "It [kabuki] was once far less respectable than now, beginning as all-female casts before moving to the capital’s brothel district."

kabuki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabuki
(section 1.1 "1603–1629: Female kabuki  The history of kabuki began in 1603 when Izumo no Okuni 出雲 の 阿国 [which is a woman's name], possibly a miko 巫女 of Izumo Taisha 出雲 大社, began performing a new style of dance drama in the dry riverbeds of Kyoto. * * * Kabuki became a common form of entertainment in the ukiyo 浮世 [describing the urban lifestyle, especially the pleasure-seeking aspects], or Yoshiwara 吉原, the registered red-light district in Edo 江戸 [Tokyo's old name]")

* Yoshiwara 吉原, not "ukiyo," is the registered red-light district in Edo.