Art Festivals & Events

Featuring spectacular stage effects and scene changes, “Tenjiku Tokube Ikoku Banashi（The Strange Tale of Tenjiku Tokube）” by playwright Tsuruya Nanboku IV, is a “family dispute” play revolving around possession of a household heirloom. Actor Nakamura Shikan stars as the returned adventurer Tenjiku Tokube and the prologue opens with a scene set at Kitano Tenmangu Shrine, today a leading Kyoto tourist attraction. Frogs, a motif taken up in Japanese poetry since ancient times, appear in the story, a hint at the close relationship people felt with nature. The “frog sorcery” performed by Tenjiku Tokube (“India Tokube”) is a theme that recurs in early modern popular novels and plays, beginning with Chikamatsu Monzaemon’s Ningyo Joruri puppet play “Keisei Shimabara Kaeru Gassen” (The Battle of Frogs at the Shimabara Pleasure District; first staged in 1719). The “Tenjiku Tokube” Kabuki program, along with other plays such as “Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari” (Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya) and “Shinobiyoru Koi wa Kusemono” (Panorama of Love and Intrigue), exerted great influence on early modern art and literature.