Essay on Onnagata: The Art of Woman in Japanese Kabuki

Chikamatsu Monzaemon’s play, The Love Suicides at Amijima explores the disgrace of Jihei and Koharu’s misbegotten romance, the underlying conflict of the hidden innuendos aimed at the Japanese social class and the sense of duty formed between two women from unseemmingly different backgrounds. In order to fully understand these themes, on must take into account the societal structure of Osaka, Japan in the 1720s. Within this culture, every individual was instilled the notion of familial obligation and had to adhere to the rules placed upon them by society. Chikamatsu Monzaemon does an ideal job of capturing these concepts within the play.

This cartoon illustrates some common roles that stereotyped men and women. Men are represented as the strong sex. Goku, his allies and enemies are all men, who are trained and prepared physically and mentally to fight. The woman who appears in the plot, since an accessory stays at home, taking care of the house and the children. This construction of character skills is critical for opinions that suggest that women are inferior and simple-minded, compared to intelligent men who use their skills more efficiently. This also implies that men are free from household chores, which women are better suited for domestic skills.

As mentioned earlier, Miss Sasagawara does possess worthy merits such as being intellectual and refined. However, her merits are disregarded simply because she was different in appearance from the rest. Yamamoto uses Miss Sasagawara’s character to challenge the presupposed notion that people who are different are necessarily not of value and thus unable to contribute positively to society. There should not be a belittling attitude taken, such as the reception Miss Sasagawara received when she took upon herself to teach a class of girls ballet, and was the only adult rewarded with a bath towel, an intimate gift that she had to open in front of the audience, bearing in mind that this very act could possibly be seen as humiliating based on traditional conservative Japanese culture.

Costumes during theatre were to be realistic. Permits were issued to allow actors to dress in necessary clothing if their character was of a different social class. Females were not permitted to act in the theatre at the time. Because of this, men were also dressed to play female characters in the theatre. Costumes played an important part in theatre.

Over the course of the “Earth on Turtle’s Back,” When Grizzlies Walked Upright,” and the Creation Story of Adam and Eve, females are depicted to be dependent characters; furthermore, due to their actions they have been characterized as ignorant beings that influence people to believe that their existence is based upon them being creators of life that happen from their faults and even though they did things that are beneficial to others and the world itself, they are often unappreciated or ignored by others. Throughout these stories, female characters are seemingly described to have mostly negative traits; while on the contrary male does not. For instance, female characters are portrayed to be dependent creatures like in the Onondaga

A prime example of this is Seita and Setsuko’s female cousin. There are several mentions during a portion of the film about her status as a worker. Her mother, Seita and Setsuko’s aunt, believes it to be patriotic and work toward the country and war effort. There is nobility in working for the war, in it as a man of the military or on home soil as a woman. The aunt makes her opinion about this abundantly clear; her critique is hard to ignore. Her grueling dogging of the main protagonists also is a critique of gender roles. What she says is most often just as important as how she says it. Her tone is often militant even in nature, again emphasizing the importance of the war. She is a motivator and a drill sergeant. Japanese soil is as much a war zone as the places of actual war. Her role in the household is scattered with masculine traits. Setsuko’s and Seita’s hiatus of habitation under their aunt’s roof enabled a sense of independence happiness not seen before for Seita and Setusko. For example, she has Seita sell his mother’s kimono for rice. Control of finances is a facet of the male gender role. Yet she convinced Seita to sell the clothing with ease. In this is evidence that a woman with a set of masculine role traits is worth more or possesses greater power than a feminized male. In the end however, this double standard still exhibits a sense of inferiority for the female gender because a woman must change from what

The role of the patriarchal society and its impact on the oppression of female characters

Certainly, gender roles are fixed expectations of how people should feel, speak, or interact in society according to their sex. Women are expected to play subordinate roles to their male counterparts. Despite the societal assumption that women are not as strong as men mentally because they are not as strong physically was an advantage for women to achieve goals privately in the following dramas. In Trifles, Antigone, and Dollhouse the women who played submissive roles in public, exhibited powerful acts of bravery for themselves and others. These women are powerful characters despite societal expectations and proved they are stronger than the men believed because they used passive methods to reach tough objectives.

In Ihara Saikaku’s story, Life of a Sensuous Woman, and Mary Wollstonecraft’s work, “Vindication of the Rights of Woman”, the issue of double standards in gender are examined. Both pieces offer a perspective into the lives of women during their respective times and show how some standards that are considered favorable for men, are looked down upon for women. In particular, the two works examine how women were treated differently based on their education, their social status and even their sexual history. Saikaku looks at these issues in a different lens from Wollstonecraft, based on his experiences as a man living in Japan in the 17th century. Their experiences shape their works and show how the issue of double standards of gender span culture, time and geography.

In the modern world women work, vote, run for office and the list goes on. In most aspects, women are equal to men. However, this was not always the case. In centuries past, women were not viewed as being equal to men socially, intellectually, or politically and were thought incapable of accomplishing anything of value. Consequently, many cultures held the view that women were possessions whose only purpose was to be subservient to men. The view of women as mere objects is evident in various works of literature throughout the ages. Two classic works of literature that exemplify this are The Thousand and One Nights and Murasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of

The lack of male presence symbolizes their disdain in the women’s lives. As portrayed in the book, the protagonist and other major characters are all females, suggesting self-sufficiency. The author writes about the women being left by their husbands, but moves on, depicting male triviality. The female characters also develop their independence when they rely on each other during difficult times.

During the time in which the play took place society frowned upon women asserting themselves.  Women were supposed to play a role in which they supported their husbands, took care of their children,

We live in a society where the similarities between female and males are seen at birth. It begins innocently with the toddlers; girls get pink while boys get blue. The gap between boys and girls develops with time and becomes increasingly apparent. There are still gender stereotypes today, but it is not as bad as it was in the past. Jamaica Kincaid’s short story “Girl” perfectly portrays gender stereotypes. It represents gender concepts as cultural constructs in the period it was written. These conceptions are comparable to current stereotypes about gender. The book gives us a list of commands from a mother to a daughter. Men in the society are dominant to the women, and the set of rules is a product of patriarchy whereby the mother and daughter appear as subordinates to the men in their lives. The article makes one aware of the prevailing masculine hierarchy that exists in a family, and how it creates firm gender roles for females in the society.

Majority of the ancient societies portrayed similarities in the presentation of women and girls. In other words, women and girls in the traditional communities were given similar roles and were regarded as the inferior members of the society. Men were viewed as members of the superior gender and due to this; they were given the primary responsibilities in the society and were also regarded as the heads of the family and the entire community. In most cases, women took the roles and responsibilities of housewives, caretakers, nurturers, reproducers, and mothers while men were given the responsibility of managing the society. The classification of diverse roles for women and men was destructive on the side of the females as men sought to dominate them, take advantage of them and even oppress them and this resulted in the case of gender imbalance and inequality. It is clear that men were insensitive about this division and hence scholars rose to represent the fate of women through writing. The Tale of Kieu by Nguyen and the Separate Ways by Chiyo portray women as oppressed, voiceless and members of an inferior gender.

Portrait of an Arhat (Rakan) was created in Edo period of the Japanese art culture. This period started in 1615-1868 when culture expression started to really blossom for the Japanese culture (Singer). From statues, lavish paintings, and religion the art speaks vibrant vibrations. This culturally diverse period gets its name from the city of Edo, known as Tokyo modern day. Which became the headquarters of the government when Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542 – 1616) unified the country (Department of Asian Art). The Tokugawa regime was started in 1603, when the emperor, in “recognition of Ieyasu’s supremacy on the battlefield”, appointed him shogun. Shogun is the highest military position you can carry in Japan (Singer). After this Japan had strict laws on not using motor vehicles were put into place. Going into the 1630s, contact with the outside world was stopped through “official prohibition of foreigners” (Department of Asian Art). Around 1720 Edo had a population of “more than one million residents having more population than London or Paris at the time” (Singer). According to Art of Edo Japan Kyoto, was city of temples and shrines. It was the leading center of arts and crafts production with a population of close to 400,000 (Singer).