Word: nizaemon
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Discriminating geisha girls came near to swooning over him. Austere drama critics agreed that no Kabuki actor had mastered his art more perfectly. A great lover, onstage and off, lithe, handsome, 64-year-old Nizaemon Kataoka was Japan's Van Johnson, Alfred Lunt and John Barrymore rolled into...
...complex hierarchy of Japanese drama, the Kabuki (literally "type of theater"), originated by Folk Dancer O Kuni in 1603, comes closest to the western theater. Less formal than the classical Noh drama, its stages extend into the audience like burlesque runways. Actresses are rare in Kabuki, and Nizaemon was equally at home in both male and female parts. As the leading lady in Akoya he had to perform expertly on three difficult musical instruments. His interpretation of the murdered warrior in The Story of the Soga was second to none...