Fuji Musume (藤娘, The Wisteria Maiden) is a kabuki dance with lyrics written by Katsui Genpachi, choreography by Fujima Taisuke and music by Kineya Rokusaburô IV, first performed in 1826.[1]
| Fuji Musume | |
|---|---|
Seki Sanjuro II playing the Wisteria Maiden at the Nakamura-za, print by Utagawa Kunisada c. 1826
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| Written by |
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| Characters | Wisteria Maiden |
| Date premiered | 1826 |
| Place premiered | Nakamura-za, Edo |
| Original language | Japanese |
| Genre | shosagoto |
Originally part of a set of five different dances performed as a sequence, Fuji Musume is the only one that has survived.[2] The first time these dances were staged in 1826 at the Nakamura-za in Edo, actor Seki Sanjuro II performed all of them as part of his farewell performance.
One of many revisions to the play, playwright Oka Onitaro [ja] and actor Onoe Kikugoro VI [ja] created a new, more supernatural version of the dance, staged for the first time in March 1937 at the Kabuki-za. In this version, the maiden becomes the spirit of the wisteria.[1] The next year, performances of the dance by Onoe Baiko VII [ja] at the Minami-zainKyoto[3] and at the Kabuki-za in Tokyo, helped popularized the dance.[4]
Fuji Musume remains a popular and famous dance in the kabuki repertoire.[5]
The titular Wisteria Maiden is the only character seen in the play, and is accompanied by a nagauta musical ensemble of singers, shamisen, drums, flute and small gongs.
"Fuji Musume" is the visual climax of a Kabuki show, in which the dancer performing the role of the Wisteria Maiden changes kimonos four times and dances against a gorgeous backdrop of clusters of mauve and purple wisteria flowers. There is no story to speak of; the pleasure of the dance comes from the fast changes of costume which are performed on stage behind the trunk of a tree and the charming and winsome glances of the maiden as she expresses sentiments of love.[1]
The play was translated into English by Leonard C. Pronko in Kabuki Plays on Stage III: Darkness and Desire, 1804-1864, edited by James R. Brandon and Samuel L. Leiter and published in 2002.[2]
