Art Festivals & Events

In their October Special Performances, as a memorial to the famous actor Hanayagi Shōtarō (1894–1965), the Shinpa Theatre Company presents Koume to Hitoe (Koume & Hitoe) and Kottai-san (A professional female entertainer). The former is one act of Kanaya Koume, first performed in 1919, in which Hanayagi played the featured Shinbashi geisha, Koume. The actresses and the onnagata (male actors of female roles) compete with each other in brilliant scenes that can only be seen in Shinpa. The latter, Kottai-san was first performed in 1955, and in this work Hanayagi played the proprietress Oei of the famous geisha house in Kyoto’s Shimabara Pleasure Quarter. The Shinpa Theatre Company, which describes so delicately the human warmth of the Japanese people, here portrays the way of life of geisha from the east and west of Japan.