Japan, Kabuki, and Bunraku: Crash Course Theater #23

[@damedesuka77]

Kabuki is exclusive to male actors, but now in modern Japan there's also a female only theater troupe called the Takarazuka Revue. Some actresses specialize in playing male roles and, dare I say, look more gentlemanly on stage than actual males. They play adaptations of many titles, even some famous anime/manga. You should talk about them later when these videos reach the modern theaters era!

[@AyubuKK]

helios396 That sounds really cool!

[@seleciaa]

helios396 That sounds pretty cool!

[@atsukorichards1675]

That's true, but theirs are more like the modern musicals, not kabuki.

[@scarredchild]

Anime makes a lot more sense. Especially the dramatic pause is like that moment where the background changes to action lines just before the person hits their opponent.

[@AyubuKK]

scarred child Yeah

[@CommodoreFluffy]

i guess mispronouncing things is no longer john green's thing

[@pirateking56128]

Shout outs to all the people that know japanese watching this video. I know your pain.

[@highfivehangten]

Okashido So much pain. 痛い!

[@pirateking56128]

ネ

[@irrelevantFJS]

Okashido 我慢できなかった。😂

[@safir2241]

Eh it’s pretty easy compared to english

[@littlefishbigmountain]

Safir They’re referring to the pronunciation of the video. They didn’t think it needed to be spelled out because anybody who they were referring to would obviously notice

[@carolin9697]

Not to be nitpicky, but the amusement district in Edo is called Yoshiwara, not (really) ukiyo. "Ukiyo" as a word stands more for the lifestyle in the amusement quarters etc. While it is all intertwined, I think it would be wrong to remember "Ukiyo" as the name for a physical place, which it is not (really). The translation "floating world" is correct though.

[@RSeidl540]

Yes, and in addition to this, the theatres were not located in Yoshiwara. The Kabuki theatres were placed in two different districts as the Edo Shogunate wanted to separate prostitution from theatre. It is a common misconception that the theatres were located in the red light districts - but they were indeed close by.

[@Jaydoggy531]

The Met Opera has a staging of Madame Butterfly that involves a Bunraku Puppet being her son (since the part has no dialogue). It's a fascinating mix of theaters, I encourage anyone to check it out.

[@thebermudaI]

Boon-raku. ♡ There's no "uh" sound in Japanese. 文楽です。日本語でuh音がない。

[@unniesslamdunk8018]

TheBermuda 日本人ですか？

[@camiloiribarren1450]

I always wondered the difference between Noh and Kabuki. Now I learned the term for puppet, Bunraku. Thanks a lot, Mike

[@lsamaknight]

Aww. No mention of the fun Kabuki has with the Kuroko (stage-hands dressed all in black). It's where the tradition of ninja dressed all in black comes from. Since the audience was supposed to treat them as part of the scenery it was shocking when one of them interacted with the actual actors.

[@yukomoriyama7532]

Ninja was there during sengoku-jidai and it is way back than kabuki. How come kuroko be the tradition of ninja?

[@lsamaknight]

Not the existence of ninja, just how they were depicted in popular culture. Stuff like the costume design in Shuriken Sentai Nininger traces its roots back to the costumes worn by the kuroko.

[@aperson22222]

Why would I think the death of a soy sauce seller is less tragic than the death of anyone else in similar circumstances? A person’s a person, no matter their job.

[@sarahblack9333]

Very true, both of you.

[@jitaru3707]

Hearing about these puppets, and the very odd illustrations in the Japanese children's books I grew up with finally making sense

[@lacybookworm5039]

Finally theater outside of Europe!

[@Elfos64]

You mean wrestling? Eh... while it is certainly a performing art, it's mostly televised. Sure, there are people in the audience to see them actually do stuff in the arena and there's not generally much effort put into cinematography, but by that logic talk shows could count. Theater is all about live performance right in front of the audience, without film or editing.

[@sarahleonard7309]

I realize that they have been focusing on European theater, but they have already done episodes on Sanskrit and Noh theater.

[@GusAlo17]

Just today in the med school we studied the Kabuki syndrome, which has it's name for the face shape of the affected, which reassembles the Kabuki masks.

[@thebeatisdead]

Why does the law nearly always ruin the fun for female performers? It is cool that the Kabuki genre was started by women even if they didn't get to continue being performers at the time.

[@12mjk21]

Izumo no Okuni did it to pay for the travel fees she did as a traveling priestess (since there were not enough shrines to go around, priestesses traveled to do their services), this was kind of a fluke. atleast Kabuki was not outright banned, love the "shiranami gonin otoko" play

[@htoodoh5770]

thedeadbeat Prostitute is a problem. I guess. The shogun hated the samurai going there, so he decided to stop it.

[@AyubuKK]

True

[@gickles8830]

That thought bubble was basically like: Oh I'm broke, GUESS ILL DIE THEN

[@Nadia1989]

Kabuki is so popular that there are some operas that were adapted to the format, like Aida. Sadly, there is no recording AFAIK

[@Orlymusicboy]

I'm a great admirer of both CrashCourse's content and Mike's presentation style, but the pronunciation in this episode is atrocious. It really lowers the quality and educational value of the video. They also show an animation of a bunraku puppet with marionette-like strings. That's not how they work. It's also a pity that they omit the tayuu from their summary of bunraku.

[@Cae_the_Kitsune]

With all due respect, your Japanese pronunciation needs some work.

[@cwam1979]

Very good overview, but your pronunciation is off (mie, bunraku).

[@ericamorrissey4718]

Would love to see a video on the arts of the Geisha. Thank you for making these great videos 😊

[@TheAlpacalypseIsUponUs]

A crash course forensics would be pretty cool.

[@yugo4k]

Very interesting and well researched, but besides the numerous pronunciation comments already made, it would be a lot more informative (to a very large part of the world) to have the measures in metric... at least also in metric.

[@Gogandontas07]

you guys are amazing, thanks for everything you do!

[@hiteshgupta8474]

Thought bubble characters are so cute !!

[@yohtan]

The change from boys to men didn't stop the naughty stuff btw.

[@BlackEyedGhost0]

10:30 Those plays must be sensational. I laughed for a whole minute just hearing a description of the play.

[@nothisispatrick4644]

This so interesting

[@isamekailmahmud9302]

who are you

[@littlefishbigmountain]

Isa Mekail Mahmud I think it’s the Krusty Krab

[@danitiwa]

Very informative and good video thou thank u

[@harsyakiarraathallah2222]

Kabuki must be Learn by the Westerns more to make Greater Opera for Shakespeare.

[@mojosbigsticks]

This is never long enough!

[@seleciaa]

Hi Mike! No one expects perfection, but a lot of your Japanese was pronounced incorrectly. Just thought to let you know for future videos. The vowels are pronounced like the Spanish ones, if you're used to that. A = ah I = ee U = oooh E = eh O = oh Hope that helps!

[@glitschqualle]

I know I'm nitpicking here and it's "only cartoons" but I often wish the graphics team was putting a little more effort in the costumes. The kimono (especially the female ones) just don't look like japanese kimono but more like chinese hanfu. It would help distinguishing the different cultures. As someone who loves and collects kimono it really bothers me... I otherwise really love this video and the shows.

[@irrelevantFJS]

teapotOctopode That was tough for me to stomach as well. But unfortunately they just don't understand how kimono work or their structure. :(

[@carmellaboykin2720]

I wish I had this when I was in IB theatre 😂

[@adoredpariah]

The Muppets were substantially more horrifying in ancient Japan.

[@MariankGonzalez]

Matsuo Bashou is the most famous Japanese poet, so he could be the new Japanese Shakespeare.

[@atsukorichards1675]

Bashou's speciality was Haiku.

[@maddoxorourke871]

you should discuss rakugo!

[@Andy-km1xp]

これはすごいと思います。

[@metrok00laid]

what a great channel! thank you

[@maria-lz3he]

I wanna see a kabuki play now :( so cool!

[@vitgerivaz]

There's also a weird but entertaining movie called Bunraku with Ron Pearlman, and that's all that I'll say

[@DrFarazHarsini]

CrashCourse: Would you be interested if I help to add Farsi (Persian) subtitles to some of your videos? I couldn't find a way to message you, so let me know if interested! Thanks!

[@funstuff81girl]

this explains so much about Japanese culture

[@eruno_]

onnagata ❤️

[@plursocks]

You should mention Takarazuka too! :)

[@kzenias]

There's a typo in the Tought Bubble animation at 11:10 It's sonezake, not sonezak

[@atsukorichards1675]

It is Sonezaki.

[@somiiasalah2958]

Crash courses u r the best ❤❤

[@samalexander8574]

MIKE! I missed you!!!

[@tomoxt]

見得(mi-e)をmiiって発音するのはなぁ

[@Daviysoh]

立役(Tachiyaku)のTa"kii"yaku発音も気になった

[@atsukorichards1675]

Syouyu merchant's apprentice could carry a katana around??

[@Tjm5656]

I absolutely love watching Bunraku and Ningyo puppetry

[@irrelevantFJS]

TONY MANFREDI By the way, ningyo just means puppet in Japanese.

[@atsukorichards1675]

I think Tony meant Ningyo-Joururi (人形浄瑠璃). Bunraku (文楽) became almost the other name of it nowadays.

[@AAAAAA-lx2cl]

For effective speedrunning of crash course playlists, increase the video speed according to familiarity: Watched the playlist before =1.25x Studied concepts in spare time=1.5x Taken a class for subject=2x

[@AAAAAA-lx2cl]

I do this for the Crash Course Chemistey playlist. Helps me get right to the meat of the videos.

[@dragonhunter6900]

Kathakali is not south east asian. It’s south indian, native to the indian state of kerala.

[@12mjk21]

which is south of Asia, somewhat to the east more to the middle

[@Elfos64]

Why was this video done so long after the Noh one? Anyway, will you cover Hero shows, modern Japanese theater too? Basically, set up a small stage somewhere public/high traffic, like a mall or something, and act out a little fight scene or something with actors dressed as superheroes/villains, usually to promote a tokusatsu series popular at the time.

[@ayaaralemua7154]

Elfos64 it would be interesting if he covered the Takarazuka Revue too

[@eruyommo]

I think it is because of a loose chronological order.

[@Elfos64]

+AyaAraleMUA I'm not familiar with that, describe it please.

[@kokuinomusume]

Because Mike is focusing on the most famous playwrights so the noh episode focused on Kan'ami and Zeami who lived during the Kamakura shogunate in the 1300s and 1400s, and this one is centered around Chikamatsu Monzaemon because he's the most famous kabuki/bunraku writer, and he worked during the flourishing of kabuki around the Genroku era (let's say some decades before and after 1700 even if the actual Genroku period was a lot shorter) in the Edo period. There are more famous plays from this period like Kanadehon Chuushingura (which features in the video as a background woodcut) and also later ones like Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan, but Mike is focused on ~famous playwrights~ so Monzaemon it is.

[@ayaaralemua7154]

Elfos64 the Takarazuka Revue is an all Female theatre troupe. They adapt plays/Japanese folklore and western musicals (sometimes they do anime series too like rose of Versailles) for performance. They are located in Takarazuka in the Hyôgo Prefecture have been around since the early 20th century. The revue itself is separated in 5 troupes based on style of performance and material that they perform.

[@chrisforsyth8323]

Okay, Japanese pronunciation critics. We all suffered through the French terms, you can just deal with it.

[@lacybookworm5039]

Why has PBS History of Theater been so eurocentric? I enjoyed those episodes and would like to see the same thing with other regions of the world.

[@Udontkno7]

Skylar LacyBookworm !! I'll love to see African/Middle Eastern theatre.

[@kennethconnally4356]

It's going in chronological order. Are there any major dramatic traditions from before the 18th century that you think they've skipped?

[@htoodoh5770]

Kenneth Connally Who?

[@conorsmith9424]

Could you update the playlist for this series please?

[@plasticturnipboy5642]

Narrator: ..."They have become models of true love" Me: Have they though? Mike, 2 seconds later: Have they though? Me: Nice!

[@cramerfloro5936]

Oh hey! It's lewd mime! :-)

[@PirateLuffyDKing]

Just in time for Wano

[@hiteshgupta8474]

Btw,I live in India and it's not "kata-kali" but "kathak-kali".

[@AyubuKK]

Pretty cool!

[@ms.rstake_1211]

YASss!!! ...but when do they use Kabuki brushes? 😂😅

[@michelleyoung4973]

What is he saying? Corazon?? Korason??

[@Clayton0301]

Mike you’re looking extra delicious in this vid

[@Ojoku12]

Isn't he?

[@PunkoRegarto]

Does anybody know the name of the play used in the Thought Bubble section?

[@simsrock9982]

So were Kabuki used to depict any current real life events or where they based in fiction or history?

[@esta1ful]

Thanks for the explanation. I understand it all now 😢🥶🤖NOT

[@miekefabel7596]

could you post your written dialogue for this video? Thanks

[@miekefabel7596]

please ;(

[@WeiYinChan]

Funny how most shoguns are gay or at least bisexual (there was only one who was exclusively straight, and he was considered a weirdo because of that), Also, now women are still banned from kabuki, even though a woman invented it. But now because there are no woman actors, female roles are cross-dressing dudes, and if you look up a dancing performance... it’s like really gay.

[@irrelevantFJS]

WeiYinChan where in the heck do you get this really crazy information? 😂

[@WeiYinChan]

Ara Mahar It’s pretty well known that in feudal Japanese it’s common for samurais and monks (who thought doing it with men doesn’t break the celibacy rule) to have male lovers. Similar things were happening in China among nobles and royal officials. Like you would be considered weird if you don’t have one. I can’t remember who the weird straight guy was tho... I learnt of al these from my Japanese class 😂

[@sandradermark8463]

I got to know Okuni of Izumo through the anime Samurai Deeper Kyo... 😘 Subversive indeed. A precursor of Takarazuka, may we say?

[@Kikuye]

What the heck did he say Kabuki means? Tilt? Kabuki : 歌舞伎 song/dance/skill

[@irrelevantFJS]

KrayolaBlue91 Yeah that really confused me too.

[@SiKedek]

That's actually an ateji ('folk-etymology' character combinations), so Mike is right with this fact. It's actually from the verb kabuku [傾く], which means 'to be eccentric; to lean; to dress oddly'.

[@PennyDreadful1]

9:45 why is a soy sauce salesman allowed a sword? The Japanese were quite strict about weapon control.

[@aravind.r9621]

Its "Kha-tha-kali"

[@lukechadwick2882]

I’m doing a report on British theatre and all things Britain be great if you do a video on them and btw I love your channel I’m passing a lot of reports And modules because of your videos

[@kieranduffy6760]

"The audience was full of soy guys." Ok, chill out Paul Jospeh Watson.

[@ZealClarke]

EE-doh????

[@JohnBrockman]

Obviously Izumo no Okumi is the preincarnation of Contrapoints.

[@myusernameis_pasword6860]

Wait... Buddhas couldn't love like that so how will they reach "buddhahood"?

[@maverickrobinson5521]

4:03 So JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, is more or less anime at its Kabukiest...

[@htx-brad]

Who else had to watch this for there theatre class?

[@LittleJoeTheMoonlightCat]

CATS is done KABUKI STYLE. MIE is Pronounced MAY.

[@GallantGriffinGaming]

"young boys who also prostitute themselves" kirby's calling the police

[@ductuslupus87]

If it take two decades for someone to be "Qualified" to operate a puppets head, that is nothing but messing around.

[@decipleofchristforallmyday8810]

Anyone else here cause futurama episode where they were making fun of Scooby doo?

[@ixis]

Kah-buhki, Boon-rah-koo, No

[@TheDumdei]

So, what I'm getting from this is that Kabuki was basically an early version of the Lifetime movie of the week.

[@SiKedek]

Yep, especially with the sewamono plays - often with much more tragic conclusions! You can also think of the graver jidaimono (historical plays) as a combination of Masterpiece Theater and your primetime drama of choice (GoT or Breaking Bad, y'know - and some dark stories are reminiscent of The Walking Dead!).

[@psyphi1394]

Kathakali should be pronounced as Ka (like 'ca' of 'card')-the (english word, not pronounced as thee)-ka ('ca' of 'card')-li.

[@AyubuKK]

PsyPhi Thanks

[@anderson_98]

Subtitles?

[@1980rlquinn]

Please make the minimal effort to pronounce words correctly. Of course, you are not obliged to lose your American accent for your audience here, but 1) if you could not do the minimal work to know the words themselves (some are already established in English), how do we trust any other research and 2) many of these words are new to the audience and here is where we learn them. Deliberately or accidentally teaching them incorrectly pointlessly frustrates further research and communication.

[@cwam1979]

1980rlquinn Couldn't agree more, but at least they are bringing attention to different forms of theater in "the West".

[@bassdylan7048]

Christopher Miller agreed and agreed. Japanese phonology (pronunciation) isn’t too difficult anyway. There’re only five vowel sounds. あ (a/ah) い (i/ee) う (u/oo) え (e/eh) お (o/oh)

[@MariankGonzalez]

1980rlquinn Yesssss!

[@rdreher7380]

I completely agree. What really gets me especially is when people mispronounce ROMANIZED words. It's one thing when someone butchers a word because the don't understand how letters are used differently in languages like French or German or Italian, but when it comes to languages like Russian or Japanese, which are not written in Latin script, we've already TRANLITERATED them in the most easily understandable way. And yet still people say "ee-do" instead of "eh-do" or "Ah-na" instead of "onna," or "takiyaku" instead of "tachiyaku!" wtf! (He probably just read the script wrong with that one). "Bun raku" (with bun like "hot dog bun") sounds particularly bad though. "U" means "oo!" (though even that is an approximation to the actual Japanese sound; it's still better than a schwa sound). At least Mike Rugnetta didn't do some of the most egregious mispronunciations, such as "key-YO-toe" instead of "kyoh-toh," or even more common than that: "TOE-key-yo" instead of "Toh-kyoh." We've translitereated it as clear as possible: KYO not KI-YO!!! Another common problem, which Mike does a little bit too, is adding stress in weird places. This is somewhat unavoidable, as English is a stress-accent language and Japanese is a pitch-accent language, so unless you have practiced a lot you're going to change the pronunciation at least a bit, and if we're talking in English we need stress patterns to let our speech flow correctly. However, stressing some syllables is much better than others. For example. I live near Sapporo. In Japanese, this is pronounced sap-po-ro, with the sap being a little lower in pitch, and the po and ro a little higher. However, the sap is a closed syllable (ends in a consonant) and is thus "heavier" (longer), so the best way to approximate this in English is the put the stress on the first syllable: SAP-po-ro. However, since at least the time the Winter Olympics were here, it has become very common for English speakers to pronounce the city as "suh-POOR-roe." This sounds AWFUL! It completely ignores the double consonant, and reduces the heavy syllable into an unstressed schwa, instead emphasizing what should be a very short "po," it's just... why!?! Ugh. At least most of Mike's pronunciations where completely fine. It's not like the time John Green said "A-ki ha-BA-ra" in a Mental Floss video. THAT was bad XD

[@Geobacter]

Yeah... it's very common to come across severe mispronounciations on KZbin. I'm a German native speaker and I watch a lot of history videos on this platform. So I hear seemingly easy words being butchered all the time (along with more challenging ones). It's best to expect those mistakes and then to ignore them. ;)

[@PedanticAntics]

The reason we get so bent out of shape about Japanese pronunciation is that it's *SO. DAMN. EASY* to pronounce if you're already a native English speaker. It isn't like you have to learn new sounds like in French or Arabic or Chinese. So to consistently mispronounce Japanese shows a kind of blatant lack of respect. Just spend *five minutes* learning the *5* basic vowels. That's it. It's really that easy. Just 5. Please.. A (a in wash) I (ee in beet) U (oo in boot) E (e in get) O (o in tote)

[@winstonchurchill4389]

Hey CrashCourse do an episode on the Khazar empire:)

[@VivekGopinathan]

South Asian. Kathakali is South Asian.

[@madambutterfly1997]

calamites?

[@AshishGupta-ql9lq]

i like how he pronounce kathakali

[@MrPabs23]

For a second I misread the title... there I said it

[@nakoruruwantspepsi1556]

I'm only a little disappointed you missed the opportunity to say "soy bois"

[@htoodoh5770]

Mariaalicia Barraza lol

[@bennygoodmanisgod]

Ikr. What a missed opportunity :(

[@somtamtim]

or domestic drama 'sewer mono'. nice.

[@robertpalumbo9089]

Sgt. Kabuki man NYPD troma studio

[@Nihadhawan]

How are u able to say so many japanese words😜

[@danitiwa]

You missed an A when you pronounced Kathakali dude

[@emilyrosetucker]

Giuguguguv