Hayagawari ("quick-change technique": 早替り) were sudden transformations of character that were made possible by various stage tricks called keren (外連), such as removing upper layers of clothing to reveal new costumes for the next role, or altering make-up and accessories. Face masks, which were sometimes part of bi-gender costumes, were used to quickly exhibit faces belonging to different characters, as in the case of ushiromen ("back masks") worn on the back of costumes and put into effect when turning one's back to the audience. Thus the actor was able to effect rapid changes in age, gender, voice, demeanor, occupation, and moral character.

Although hayagawari had been popular on the kabuki stages in Edo and Kamigata (Osaka-Kyoto area) since the early eighteenth century (as part of the genre known as hengemono or "transformation pieces," 変化物), the Kamigata theaters witnessed a vogue for such devices at least as early as 1816-1817, if we can judge by surviving ukiyo-e prints. One frequently encountered type of hayagawari was the nanabake ("seven changes," also called shichihenge), which required the actor to take on seven different roles (nanayaku) within a single performance.

As shown in the image above, the Osaka artist Shôkôsai Hanbei (松好齋半兵衛 act. c. 1795-1809) portrayed the actor Asao Tamejûrô I in a hayagawari for half-page illustration in the Shibai gakuya zue (Illustrated guide to backstage at the theater: 戯場楽屋圖繪), vol. 2, 1800, co-published by Hachimonjiya Hachizaemon and Shioya Chôbei. We are given a sneak peek into the transformational moment during a quick-change when Tamejûrô during one a transformation. With an arm and a leg flailing outside the straw hut, he frantically thrusts himself inside. We can see here how clever and economical the staging is, as the hut serves both as a stage prop and a hideaway for executing the hayagawari. One assistant holds up a mirror while also preparing to hand over a wig. Another helps the actor put on a black haori. A third attendant holds two swords, presumably the last bit of costume change. It is an image that is both amusing and informative.

The popularity of hayagawari was reflected in ukiyo-e prints through many depictions of actors in multiple roles. There was also a sub-genre of prints called hayagawari-e or "quick-change pictures," which when juxtaposed against one another and folded along alignment lines formed alternate images. Others had hinged flaps with one design that when lifted revealed an alternate design underneath. This style of print was also popular in forming erotic pictures from the elements of more decorous images. Another approach in ukyio-e was to portay the same actor in two or more roles simultaneously. One example from a nanabake ("seven changes": 七変化) from the Osaka stage is the print shown on the right by Ryûsai Shigeharu (鉚齋重春 1803-1853). It was published by Kichi (吉) for a performance of Osome Hisamatsu ukina no yomiuri (News of the affair of Osome and Hisamatsu: お染久松色読販) at the Wakadaya Theater in 3/1828. Sawamura Gennosuke II (沢村源之助 1802-53), a Edo actor who performed frequently in Osaka (see also Onagori kyôgen), is shown in dual roles as the two main characters Osome (お染) and Hisamatsu (久松). Based on an actual love suicide circa 1708-1710, the tragedy was first recorded in the most famous of all utazaimon ("popular ballads").

The play was written by Tsuruya Nanboku IV and first performed at the Morita-za, Edo in 3/1813. The yomiuri of the play title were ("reading-selling"), vendors who sang or chanted the news, including scandals such as tales of tragic lovers. The Osome-Hisamatsu story gave rise to the expression Hisamatsu rusu ("Hisamatsu is not at home"). When inscribed on paper and attached to one's door, it served as a talisman against influenza (osomekaze). The serendipitous embedding of Osome's name in the term for influenza linked it with Hisamatsu, who, if not at home, would be elsewhere with Osome. Thus the writing and posting of Hisamatsu rusu became a fetishized expression to chase away influenza.

In the play Hisamatsu, a pawnshop apprentice, was the lover of Osome, although he was betrothed to another. The lovers become involved in foiling an evil plan which leads to a murder by Hisamatsu. As he is also guilty of illicit love, they have no choice but to journey to the Sumida river to commit double suicide (shinjû); however, they are stopped and survive in this version of the story (though not in others). Besides the roles of the lovers, Gennosuke would also have performed the roles of a geisha, palace maid, old woman, country girl, and farmer's wife. Shigeharu's design illustrates the simultaneous depiction of one actor in multiple roles, a scene during their intended final michiyuki ("road going") as they traveled at night toward the Sumida River to die. This scene was typically performed as a stylized dance sequence. The portrayal of one actor in two or more roles within a single design was a conventional conceit of ukiyo-e artists, as the actor could not, of course, actually be in two places at one time. The intention was to portray the effect of near-simultaneity of hayagawari.

A second example of an Osaka nanabake is shown on the left. It is one of the earliest known designs by Shunkôsai Hokuei (春江齋北英 active c. 1828-1836) and depicts Ichikawa Hakuen II (市川白猿), the temporary acting name of the great Edo actor Ichikawa Danjûrô VII; 1791-1859), who was performing in Osaka after fires had destroyed all three theaters in Edo in 3/1829. On this sheet he performs the roles of Yashio (八しを) and Kinugawa Tanizô (絹川谷蔵) in the play Date kurabe Okuni kabuki (Contest of the Date clan in Okuni kabuki: 伊達競阿國劇場) at the Naka Theater in 8/1829. Published by Tenki (天キ) and Iden (井傳), the sheet is inscribed shichi yaku no uchi ("From among seven roles": 七役之内)). Hokuei designed two other prints for this set depicting Hakuen in the remaining five roles: Nikki Danjo (に木だん正) and Arajishi Otokonosuke (荒獅子男之助) on one sheet, and Dôtetsu (道てつ), [Hosokawa] Katsumoto (かつ元), & Yorikane (より兼) on the remaining sheet.

The play involved a complicated adaptation of the drama Meiboku sendai hagi (Hagi, the Famous Tree at Sendai: 伽羅先代萩) involving the intrigues over disputed succession in the Date clan (including the infamous necromancer Nikko Danjô and the valiant samurai Arajishi Otkonosuke). The play also detailed events surrounding the court lady Kasane and her lover Yoemon.

Hakuen's two characters are adversaries on opposing sides of the dispute. Yoshio attempts to assassinate the young male heir of the Date (now calling themselves the Ashikaga), but she is frustrated in reaching her goal and is later slain by the nurse who is harboring the child. Tanizô, a former sumô wrestler in the service of the Ashikaga, saves his lord Yorikane from assassination, although he must also murder his lord's mistress, the courtesan Takao. The subplot takes a turn when Tanizô changes his name to Yoemon and marries Takao's sister, Kasane. The vengeful spirit of Takao disfigures her sister Kasane to punish Yoemon. Ultimately, he must also murder Kasane when she attacks him in a fit of jealousy. © 2000-2019 by John Fiorillo

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Ikeda Bunko, Kamigata yakusha-e shûsei ("Collected Kamigata Actor Prints"), Ikeda Bunko, 1998, p. 83, no. 253.
• Leiter, S.: New Kabuki Encyclopedia: A Revised Adaptation of Kabuki jiten. Westport: Greenward Press, 1997, pp. 15, 74-75, and 519-20.