Frozen Moments: Writings on Kabuki, 1966-2001 (review)

The title "Frozen Moments" refers to the mie: the formalized poses in a Kabuki performance. A more specific definition (from Leiter's own Kabuki Encyclopedia [1979]) is "a picturesque and striking pose taken by an actor at a climactic moment in a play in order to make a powerful impression on the audience" (232). In this new volume, Leiter offers a collection of "essays written at specific moments in time," about the Kabuki over the course of four decades, showing Leiter's devotion to this form and making a powerful impression on the reader (x).

In 1966, Leiter published his first article on Kabuki—a series of interviews with four actors reprinted in the current volume. He has since become one of the pioneers of the field. This compilation offers fifteen "frozen moments" of varying length, topics, and quality, ranging from that first essay up to pieces written in 2001, and approaching the Kabuki as a sort of tour guide for those who have a passing familiarity with the form, but also offering enough support material to make it accessible to those who do not know it as well. As a result, as Leiter himself shares in the introduction to Frozen Moments, the essays "tend to be more descriptive than analytical" (xi). They are also accompanied by two hundred ten illustrations and photographs, which greatly supplement the text.

Twelve of the fifteen pieces are reprinted from a variety of sources, such as Educational Theatre Journal, DramaSurvey, Theatre Crafts, and, of course, Asian Theatre Journal. Some of these pieces are rare and difficult to find, which makes their appearance here greatly appreciated. In that sense, Frozen Moments represents a sort of "greatest hits" collection for Leiter—and Kabuki scholars will appreciate the collection for that reason alone. Also included are three previously unpublished pieces: a comparison of Ichikawa Danju\ro\ IX and Henry Irving, an exploration of the relative reality of onna-gata (men who play women) onstage, and a survey of rural Kabuki theatres. The chapters themselves do not appear in the order in which they were written, but rather organized around the four themes of "Actors," "Performance," "Theatres," and "History." The last section consists of a single essay comparing Kabuki to the British theatre of 1650-1800—a very interesting comparison given that the standard point of East / West linkage is the Elizabethan / Jacobean period. But Leiter argues compellingly for greater similarity between Edo Kabuki and the English Restoration and Eighteenth century theatres. Also offered are detailed chapters on mie (stylized poses), keren (special effects and acrobatic action), tachimawari (stage fights) and American Kabuki replication.

The chapter on "Kumagai Jinya" (Kumaigai's Battle Camp), the third act of Ichinotani Futaba Gunki (Chronicle of the Battle of Ichinotani, 1751), and its various performance traditions may be the best writing this reviewer has encountered for making clear how kata (form) and tradition shape Kabuki acting yet still give performers a variety of individual opportunities for interpretation. Outside of taking students to an actual live performance or comparing videotapes of different productions of the same show, it is difficult to impress upon those not familiar with Kabuki the complex interrelationship between tradition and individual performance. Leiter's book provides an eminently readable and comprehensible model to do just that.

The volume is not without its flaws. Not all terms used in the text are included in the glossary. Each individual essay has its own notes and list of references, but the additional "Selected Bibliography" which is included is missing several entries. For example, none of the works cited in the introduction is included. Several glaring typos also stand out (such as the assertion that Henry Irving and Ichikawa Danju\ro\ IX were both born in "1938," despite the following sentence that observes that Irving died in 1905 [45]). There is also an unevenness to the pieces, although this is easily explained by the fact that they are "frozen moments" from four...