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ONNAGATA: A LABYRINTH OF GENDERING IN KABUKI THEATRE. Mari Isaka. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2016. 272 pp. Cloth, $50.00.
Isaka offers one common definition of the term onnagata as "those in charge of women's roles" in the kabuki theatre (p. 6). Many studies on onnagata modify this definition, replacing the nongendered pronoun "those" with the qualified noun "male actors," implying that a male body is the only site for the onncbgatcHs performance of "womanliness." In her book, Isaka argues against this gendered specificity through analysis of texts by and about famous onnagata and by presenting examples of women actors who were successful onnagata. In so doing, Isaka shows a fluidity of gender performance in the art of the onna,gata, leading us into the labyrinth of "womanliness" that flows between the fictional world of the theatre and the real life of society in both male and female bodies.
The book begins with a short introduction to kabuki, which allows the reader entrance into Isaka's ideas on gendering and onnagata. Focusing on the original meaning of the word kabuku (to lean; to act and/or dress in a particular manner), kabuki is immediately defined as a "queer" theatre with a checkered history. Isaka does not spend a great deal of time describing kabuki performance but emphasizes that this book is an analysis of the literature of and about onna,gata, particularly the geidan, the writings of kabuki actors describing their artistic praxis. The book then "examines and inquires into how the gender performance of onnagata has been understood, conceptualized and theorized" (p. 15). Through an...