Word: kabuki
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Shido Nakamura is the proud bearer of a long-lost brand of cool. It's a cool recovered from the mists of history, a pre-TV cool, a primordial cool from an age before cool became bankable. Born and bred in the rarefied world of classical Kabuki?a 400-year-old Japanese theatrical form originated by troupes of itinerant artists and prostitutes?the 30-year-old actor has managed over the past year to convert his tradition-tempered stylishness into modern star power through a series of spectacularly successful film and TV roles. Sipping cranberry juice in a Tokyo caf?...
...might look to the past for inspiration, but Shido (who, in the Kabuki tradition, is commonly known by his first name) is very much a man of his day. His film debut in last summer's Ping Pong, in which he played a demonically intense table-tennis champion named Dragon, netted him a Best Newcomer trophy at the Japanese Academy Awards, along with a host of other laurels. He followed up on the small screen in Japan's first sitcom, HR, as a bleached-blond rebel who spooks his night-school classmates with insinuations of underworld connections, and orders pizza...
...Still, many of Shido's defining qualities as an actor were developed on the Kabuki stage. "His training taught him to work within narrow limits, so he knows how to make a lot out of small opportunities," says Hitomi Hagio, a Tokyo-based film and theater critic. That's made Shido a natural character actor. Whether dolled up in white face paint and a kimono playing a samurai's prodigal son, or hamming it up on TV alongside pop idol co-stars, he visibly savors each one of his roles. And his gift for satire, evident in HR, reflects Kabuki...
...couture show that Galliano designed for Christian Dior in January, inspired by a recent trip to China and Japan, McGrath took Kabuki to its outer reaches, left, painting faces white, blue and pink. "Every designer takes you on a different journey," she says. "It's great when they let you into their fantasy." --By Michele Orecklin...
...weirdest public bath I've found in Tokyo is located hard by the railroad in Kabuki-cho, the famous red-light district. I was intrigued by its position when I stumbled upon a mention of the Green Plaza Shinjuku in a magazine, but grew alarmed at the cheesy, basement entrance. I ascended to the 10th floor, and was relieved to find the 24-hr. spa clean and respectable. Moreover, it features a real gem on its roof: the rotenburo, or outdoor bath. There's something gleefully luxurious about floating in a steaming hot bath the size of a small swimming...