Getting Twisted
The kabuki were originally rōnin samurai who lost their feudal lord who had some education and instruction in courtly manners, but were now destitute and rebelious, living in the city, and looking for some fun and trouble. The word kabuki litterally means “twisted” and these rōnin went about with a swaggering gait and a contorted posture to demonstrate their disdain for military custom and stiff courtly manners. Wih their outlandish dress and wild ways they were no doubt the most extravagant and outrageous characters in the new city of Edo. They were certainly the subject of great fascination, because they became the subject of Izumo no Okuni’s play acting, which became the basis for the new kabuki theatre. These early skits by Okuni were object lessons on how to get twisted. She would dress up as one of these city ronin and swagger about with a sword at her side and flirt with a courtesan on stage. Their courtly love dialogues were interupted by a rustic bumpkin who would interject crude humor and contrast the fashionable ways of the lovers. In an important way the performance was a way to teach the common merchants who were flocking to the cities how to behave, how to talk to a courtesan, how to swagger like a kabuki. This pattern of dramatic action has appeared elswere and at other times on the world stage: commedia dell’arte, ludruk, burlesque, and MTV, to name only a few. In each instance the audience was invited to abandon bounded rural and domestic values and for a while learn to twist a new way.
