After completing an intensive kabuki workshop at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa this summer, students stepped into the spotlight on Monday, August 18 at the Earle Ernst Laboratory Theatre. Their performance brought to life the movement, music and artistry passed down to them by a world-renowned, eighth-generation kabuki master.
This August, Ichikawa Monnosuke VIII led a kabuki masterclass at UH Mānoa, offering rare, hands-on training in this vibrant classical Japanese art form.
“This opportunity to train in kabuki with a professional is truly unique,” said UH Mānoa theatre professor Julie Iezzi. “Nowhere else in the world, not even in Japan, can those outside of the tradition train under a kabuki actor.”
Spirit of kabuki
The two-week workshop, offered Mondays through Fridays through UH Mānoa’s Outreach College and Department of Theatre and Dance, was filled with students, alumni and community members, and focuses on kabuki movement and vocal training.
“In thinking about the future, I feel that this is a really good opportunity to help spread knowledge about kabuki to more and more people around the world,” Monnosuke said through a translator.
Among the students who studied under Monnosuke is Karese Kaw-uh, who earned an MFA in theatre for youth at UH Mānoa and starred in the university’s kabuki production in 2024.
“What I love about kabuki is that you have to hear the rhythm and the sound. And so the pieces that we’re working on really deal with music and movement. So we have to listen to cues and say the words in a rhythmic pattern,” Kaw-UH said.
For 19-year-old Zumi Guillermo-Togawa, a student at Kapiʻolani Community College, the best part was exploring the different ways kabuki characters can move and express themselves.
“My most favorite part is learning about the different characteristics and personality for just the walks, not even just the voices, the walks, the mie and how it differs depending on the character and character type,” said Guillermo-Togawa.
Eighth-generation master
Monnosuke, whose family’s kabuki lineage dates back to 1713, is no stranger to UH. In spring 2024, he and his apprentices trained student actors for UH Mānoa’s English-language kabuki production, The Maiden Benten and the Bandits of the White Waves. That production not only sold out performances but also received a first-ever invitation to perform in Japan, where it was enthusiastically received.
Kabuki has deep roots in Hawaiʻi. In fact, the university staged the first known English-language kabuki production in the islands 100 years ago. Today, UH Mānoa is helping keep that legacy alive.
Kabuki legacy
With guidance from Iezzi, UH Mānoa’s Department of Theatre and Dance is breathing new life into English-language kabuki, an art form that flourished on the Kennedy Theatre stage under the leadership of late UH Mānoa Professor James R. Brandon and master kabuki actor Nakamura Matagorō II, with vital support from community artists Onoe Kikunobu (dance), Yamada Chie (music) and Joji Wago (wigs and makeup).
Monnosuke and his wife, Yukika, first met Iezzi in 2016, already aware of the university’s rich kabuki traditions and eager to support its continuation.
“They were wondering about future plans for kabuki, and actually came at the perfect time, since I, too, was searching for artists interested in helping to rebuild the complex infrastructure of knowledge necessary to continue doing kabuki productions,” Iezzi said.
Hamilton: Honoring kabuki
This fall, Hamilton Library will open a new exhibit in the Asia Reading Room honoring kabuki. Crafted by Japan’s Shōchiku Company and gifted to UH in 1939, the intricate kabuki theatre model has been in storage for nearly 90 years in different places. In partnership with the theatre and dance department, a new exhibit case will allow the model to be permanently displayed, alongside other performing and exploring kabuki at UH Mānoa exhibits.
