F U T U R E  H I S T O R Y

Overview

Centered on Kyōkanoko Musume Dōjōji — first staged at the Nakamura-za in Edo (present-day Tokyo) in 1753 and long regarded as the pinnacle of the onnagata repertoire — this exhibition traces the intellectual, religious, and social currents that shaped the formation and transmission of kabuki-buyō and the onnagata tradition, drawing on more than one hundred works and primary sources from the period.

Owing to its title, Kyōkanoko Musume Dōjōji has frequently been read through the Dōjōji legend of the monk Anchin and the young woman Kiyohime — a tale of obsession and of serpentine metamorphosis, in which rage and jealousy transfigure Kiyohime into a great serpent. The work, however, did not arise from that legend alone. It took form, and has continued to be performed across generations, at the confluence of multiple cultural memories: the religious thought and worldview of the age, classical literature, oral and folk traditions, theatrical convention, and the social temperament of Edo. Through religious treatises, illustrated literary editions, ukiyo-e prints, actor portraits, playbills, nagauta libretti, and stage materials published from the seventeenth century onward, the exhibition considers how such memories and images were rendered visible, distilled into bodily form (kata), and ultimately crystallized as one of the most luminous works in the onnagata repertoire.

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During the Heian period, concrete visions of hell and the Pure Land took shape through texts such as Genshin's Ōjōyōshū. A worldview that regarded this life as a realm of delusion — informed by impermanence, karmic causality, and the longing for rebirth in the Pure Land — was inscribed deeply in Buddhist visual culture, including raigō paintings and depictions of the Six Realms, as well as in literary monuments such as The Tale of Genji and The Tale of the Heike. These religious and literary traditions were inherited by the society of early modern Edo even as the sorrowful uki-yo (憂き世), the transient world of suffering, gave way to the resplendent uki-yo (浮世), the floating world of pleasure. They circulated as social norms — and at times in inverted form, infused with humor and wit — and came to be shared broadly, reaching even children. Sustaining this circulation and transformation were the woodblock-printed books that proliferated through commercial publishing from the seventeenth century onward, alongside the theater, which served as another vital site of transmission.

With Kyōkanoko Musume Dōjōji at its core, the exhibition turns extensively to the theatrical space — as visualized in Torii Kiyonaga's degatari scenes and in contemporary depictions of theater interiors — defined by the relationship between stage and audience, and between actor and costume, in which dance technique and dress alike give form to character; and to the themes of life and death that the onnagata has long embodied. A more focused, smaller-scale section is devoted to the history of kabuki-buyō performed within the Ōoku — the inner quarters of Edo Castle — by female actors of kabuki lineage and by women trained as disciples under male kabuki actors, both of whom were granted access to perform within its precincts.

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A further distinguishing feature of this exhibition is its presentation of the classics not as inherited relics of the past, but as "the classics as of September 2026," viewed through the lens of a woman living today.

"For me, the classics have always been the present."

So observes the dancer Ranshou Fujima, one of the exhibition's curators. Though born into an ordinary household rather than a kabuki bloodline, Ranshou has nonetheless trained in kabuki-buyō — and in the onnagata role in particular — since early childhood under Rankei Fujima, the grandmaster of kabuki choreography, and has performed in the tradition ever since.

For her, the classics have never been distant artifacts; they have stood as close to her senses and body as the contemporary literature, manga and animation, and cinema of her own time. Taking that intimacy as its point of departure, the exhibition seeks to illuminate the future of the classical tradition.

The works on view include early ukiyo-e; actor prints by the Torii, Katsukawa, and Utagawa schools; classical texts and woodblock-printed editions; costumes in use on the kabuki stage today; and a body of new work created by Ranshou Fujima / RANSHOU in collaboration with creators across disciplines, in sustained dialogue with the historical material.

The foundation of these holdings is the RANSHOU Archives & Collection — an archive built around materials that Ranshou began gathering organically in her teens, as she sought the grounds of her own existence and artistic expression. Portions of the collection are already accessible online as a partner institution of Google Arts & Culture; for this exhibition, the archive is expanded and presented in its fullest physical form to date.

The venue is the National Theatre of Japan, currently closed for reconstruction. Upon the stage of its Main Theatre, the exhibition contemplates the past, present, and future of kabuki-buyō and the onnagata.