m of theater often makes it seem stuffy, and people are not as familiar with the special peculiarities of Kabuki as they used to be. Still, popular actors continue to bring audiences into the theater and there has recently been a "Kabuki boom" centered around young people. Kabuki continues to be a form of entertainment enjoyed by a wide range of people, just as it has been for 400 years.The Genroku period was also the time when most of the conventions and styles of Kabuki, including play structure, character types, the art of the onnagata, took form. Actors were arranged in a strict hierarchy, a hierarchy that determined which sort of character they would play each month. The head "tachiyaku" actor at the theater received the main role, while the star onnagata played the main woman role. Beneath came the waka-onnagata, or young onnagata, the villains and the comic actors. Among "tachiyaku" male character roles, two prominent acting styles emerged in this period. In Edo, presently Tokyo, Ichikawa Danjuro I created "aragoto," or rough style. This pompous, exaggerated style of acting was often used for characters of superhuman strength and Danjuro developed a specialized form of make-up, known as "kumadori," as well as movements and ways of delivering lines to emphasize their might. Also created by Danjuro were "mie." These poses, where the actor glares fiercely with one eye crossed, became a trademark of Kabuki and are often used to dramatic effect in ukiyoe woodblock prints of actors. These "aragoto" characters had a strong sense of justice and fought against strong villains that advanced their own causes at the cost of those too weak to protect themselves. In this sense, "aragoto" was seen as an embodiment of the animosity of the commoners towards the ruling samurai class, and actors where often thought of as gods when they played "aragoto" roles. In Kansai, Sakata Tojuro perfected a style of acting known as "wagoto" or soft style. Whil...
