Paper short abstract:

Much has been discussed about the status of dream in noh theatre, but less is known about its treatment in kabuki. The proposed paper will discuss how dream is represented in kabuki theatre, especially in Tsuruya Namboku IV's famous play Yotsuya kaidan (The Ghost Stories at Yotsuya, 1825).

Paper long abstract:

My concern lies in the representation of dreams in 19th century kabuki, which reached full maturity with such playwright as Tsuruya Namboku IV (1755-1829). Traditionally, dreams in the Japanese theaters had been related to divine revelation, or a message sent from god(s). In early bunraku (bunraku before its "modernization" by Chikamatsu in the late 17th century), for example, the dream was a commonplace device used to transmit the Buddhist or Shintoist deities' wills. Chikamatsu made use of dreams in some of his plays, but this dramaturgical device is related to theatrical devices such as spectacular scenery changes. In Chikamatsu as well as contemporary kabuki plays, the dream was a tool for making illusions on stage.

It was Namboku IV's famous play Yotsuya kaidan (The Ghost Stories at Yotsuya, 1825) where dreams assumed a different aspect from foregoing kabuki plays; in the final act, the degenerated hero Iemon marries a beautiful woman in the countryside, finding happiness. It turns out, however, that she is the ghost of his wife, Oiwa, who has died in misery after having been mercilessly abandoned by her husband. The entire scene is Iemon's dream, and awaked, he is further tormented by Oiwa's figure. While the scene was conceived to feature a rapid change of roles from a beautiful woman to an ugly ghost, played by Onoe Kikugorō III, it tells of Iemon's ambivalent attitude toward Oiwa, or the hidden unconscious, if we are to use modern terminology. Such dramaturgy of casting another light on characters through the pretext of the dream is also found in plays by Kawatake Mokuami (1816-1893), while they are apparently constructed on naked realism.