From tonight until Friday, Japanese Kabuki artists will bring the two shows Wisteria Maiden (Fuji Musume) and A Sword Thief (Tachi Nusubito) to the 2004 Beijing International Drama Festival at the Poly Theatre.

The show will feature artists from the Nakamura School, one of the most renowned Kabuki schools in Japan, with the Chikamatsu-za Shochiku Grand Kabuki performance troupe.

Ganjiro Nakamura will perform Wisteria Maiden, while Kanjaku Nakamura and Kikaku Nakamura will play A Sword Thief.

Wisteria Maiden was first presented in 1826 as one of five dances. Each dance depicts a character taken from the Otsu-e pictures, a swift brush drawing in an area called "Otsu-e."

Originally, all five dance numbers were preformed in succession by one dancer. Wisteria Maiden is the shortest, but has been the most popular and best remembered among the five.

In the show, the elegantly dressed performer who plays the spirit of the Wisteria dances under an old pine tree.

A Sword Thief is adapted from one of the classic Kyogen mime comedies which were companion performances on the Noh stage.

The Kyogen play, like Noh, uses hardly any stage props as the performers' miming actions make up for this lack of gear.

The Kabuki adaptations of such Kyogen plays generally retain this characteristic, as its bare stage reproduces the appearance of the Noh stage with a painting of an old pine tree as its backdrop.

A Sword Thief was adapted to the Kabuki genre by Okamura Shiko in 1917.

The story starts with a character named Manbei strolling in the street, carrying a fine sword which is a family heirloom. Another young man named Kurobei tries to take the sword away from Manbei, so they start to fight.

An official named Usaemon arrives and tries to put an end to the fight, but has no idea who is the real owner of the sword.

So he asks them a series of questions about the sword. Manbei is able to answer each question immediately, while Kurobei who has heard the answer gives an identical answer. Of course, the clever Manbei gets the sword back finally.

(China Daily May 12, 2004)