Attractive Villains
December 3 (Tue), 2024‐March 2 (Sun), 2025

This museum exhibits ukiyo-e woodblock prints published in Osaka in the Edo period. Many of the ukiyo-e prints made in Osaka were portraits of popular kabuki actors performing in theatres around Dotombori.

There are various roles in kabuki plays such as main role, woman’s role, villains’ and clown’s roles. Also there are two styles of kabuki; aragoto (rought style) and wagoto (soft style). Actors are required to act in line with the requirements of each role. In kabuki plays male actors play all roles including young and old, male and female, therefore what role the actor is playing is an important point for audience. In particular, audience like kabuki plays in which villains are completely knocked off.

In this feature exhibition, we focus on kabuki plays that villains play important roles. Villains are categorized according to the types of their wrongdoing or the villain’s social status. There is a variety of villains; some are truly evil and some seem evil but actually…… Please enjoy villains’ attractiveness through portraits of actors. They serve as a foil to the star actor and enliven the stage.

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Kinds of villains
Kabuki characters are categorized according to historical background, social status, age, gender and occupation. Villains are especially important to unfold the story because they confront the hero and become an object of hatred.
Villains are categorized as “main role” (male character) and subdivide by types of wrongdoing and his social status. ‘Jitsuaku’ is a high-ranking villain who has a large-scale plot such as to take over the nation. ‘Iroaku’ is a bad guy who is good looking and charming at first glance but betrays a woman in the end. ‘Handogataki’ is a villain with a comical character.
Female villains include ‘mamahahagataki’ who causes trouble among maid-servants at samurai residence, and ‘akuba’ who has her hair in a ponytail.
Villains can be identified by his makeup called ‘aiguma’ (blue kumadori makeup) to express dreadfulness and by his wig of long hair to express power, and by his obvious costume. Please try to identify villains in ukiyo-e.

Jitsuaku
A cold-blooded villain who plots large-scale evil. He plots to take over the nation or plans a rebellion and drives the hero into a corner. The chief examples are Kono Morono in “Kanadehon chushingura” and Nikki Danjo in “Meiboku sendaihagi”.

Iroaku
A villain who is attractive to women. He betrays women and does whatever it takes in order to achieve his goal. The chief example is Tamiya Iemon in “Tokaido yotsuya kaidan”.

Akuba
Female villain who brandishes a knife or blackmails someone. Akuba is an attractive woman who has her hair in a ponytail, wears kimono with plaid pattern, has both bewitching laziness and stylish sex appeal. The chief example is Dote no Oroku in “Osome Hisamatsu ukina no yomiuri”

Akattsura (red face)
Villains with red face. Many of them are villains’ followers who are often violent. Kujaku Saburo in “Hadekurabe Ise monogatari” was told to overthrow the country by his father Natora taking advantage of dispute over succession between two princes, Koretaka and Korehito.

Really nasty…
Even if it’s for entertainment, villains’ wrongdoings are too much to tolerate for audience.

Kono Morono in “Kanadehon chushingura” loves Enya Hangan’s wife, Kaoyogozen, and is refused. He does Enya Hangan a dirty trick, harasses and insults him out of spite.

Sukune Taro in “Sugawaradenju tenaraikagami”, takes inhuman measures and puts his wife’s life at risk in order to assassinate Kanshojo.

Tombei in “Shinrei yaguchi no watashi” is a greedy father who sacrifices his own daughter, Ofune, in order to capture Nitta Yoshimine.

Mikawaya Giheiji in “Natsumatsuri Naniwakagami” ignores the begging of his daughter’s husband, Danshichi and plans to deceive and take away his benefactor’s mistress for money.

Ikuta Denpachi in “Adauchi Sozenji no baba” brings a lot of henchmen to a duel and makes an attack on Enjo Jizaemon and Harufuji Ikuhachiro who come to take revenge on Ikuta Denpachi.
These villains are all defeated in the kabuki plays so don’t worry.

Seems to be a villain but is actually…
There are cases that a villain is hostile to the hero on the surface but is actually an ally.

Matsuomaru in “Sugawaradenju tenaraikagami” is a retainer to Fujiwara no Tokihira, but his triplets brothers, Umeomaru and Sakuramaru, are on Kanshojo’s side. In the scene ‘Kurumabiki’, they seem to confront each other but, in the scene ‘Terakoya’, Matsuomaru sacrifices his own son in order to save Kanshojo’s son and returns the favor.

Kiichi Hogen in “Kiichi Hogen Sanryaku no maki” is a former Genji warrior now serving Heishi. He detects that a servant Torazo is actually Ushiwakamaru and reveals that he is the one that taught Ushiwakamaru at Mt. Kurama. Hogen gjves his daughter Minazuruhime a book of tactics implying that the book would later reach to her husband Ushiwakamaru’s hands and kills himself.

Kanki in “Kokusenya kassen” once served Ming dynasty but now he is a vassal of Tartar King who defeated the dynasty. Watonai, his wife’s step brother, asked Kanki to help him revive the dynasty but he refused to betray the king. After Kanki’s wife Kinshojo committed suicide asking him to help her step brother, Kanki swears to defeat Tartar King with Watonai.