I Was a Swordsman in Ancient Japan

In the second year of Kanzheng, December 4——

Nishinocho, in a certain house——

As soon as Ogata entered the house, he saw Jiro Nishino.

Nishino Jiro was sitting cross-legged on the ground, watching seriously the rehearsal of the members of Takarashimaya in front of him.

After seeing Ogata entering the house, Jiro Nishino and the members of Takarajimaya stopped what they were doing, and greeted Ogata with their faces.

With the concerted efforts of Ogata and Nishino Jiro, the script was finally successfully completed the day before yesterday—it has to be said that Nishino Jiro is still very talented in writing.

In such a short period of time, a script that Ogata was quite satisfied with was completed.

In fact, Ogata did not understand kabuki, nor did he know what kind of kabuki script was considered a good script.

He only knew that under his guidance, Jiro Nishino's kabuki script basically conformed to historical facts, and could be read as a history book.

In Ogata's eyes, as long as the script based on his deeds is in line with the real situation, it is a good script.

After finishing the script around 9 o'clock in the morning the day before yesterday, Jiro Nishino excitedly carried the script and took Ogata to find the only Kabuki troupe in Nishinocho, Takarajimaya.

According to Nishino Jiro, although Treasure Island House is a kabuki troupe, all the members in it only take kabuki as a full-time job, and there is no one who relies entirely on kabuki for a living.

All members of Takarajima House usually have their main business, and only regard Kabuki as a hobby and part-time job. I usually do my own main business, and only when I encounter some festivals, I get together to perform a play together, satisfying my hobbies and at the same time earning some extra money.

Because they don’t rely on kabuki to eat, but rely purely on enthusiasm to perform kabuki, every play performed by Treasure Island House is of high quality. It is well-known in Nishikino Town and is very popular with the people of Nishikino Town. Welcome.

Whenever Treasure Island House is going to perform Kabuki, the tickets will be sold out quickly, and every show is basically full of seats.

Every New Year, Takarajima House will perform Kabuki in Nishinocho.

Because of the high popularity of Treasure Island House, watching the performance of Treasure Island House has become one of the things that many people in Nishino Town must do every New Year.

Nishino Jiro, who aspires to become a "Kabuki playwright", has a very good relationship with Takarajima House.

Prior to this, Jiro Nishino had made an agreement with Treasure Island House - this year's New Year, Treasure Island House will perform a new play written by Jiro Nishino.

So for this script by Nishino Jiro, the members of Treasure Island House have been waiting for a long time.

The morning before yesterday, when Jiro Nishino handed over the finished script to the members of Treasure Island House for reading, all the members of Treasure Island House praised the script written by Jiro Nishino, saying that this is a movie that might be a hit. Welcome to a good show.

Treasure Island House has a total of 15 members, of which 8 are in charge of playing music and 7 are in charge of acting—all of them are eager to try. They just received the script the day before yesterday and immediately started rehearsing in full swing.

There are many similarities between Chinese opera and Japanese kabuki. For example: Both of these performing arts have special personnel responsible for playing background music on the spot.

In Chinese opera, there will be special personnel responsible for playing the erhu and playing the castanets behind the scenes, and adding background music to the performances in front of the scene.

And Japanese kabuki is similar - there are special personnel responsible for playing shamisen, blowing shakuhachi, and playing various musical instruments behind the scenes to provide background music for the performances in front of the scene.

In a professional Kabuki troupe, in addition to those who are in charge of playing music and rehearsals, there are also those who are in charge of make-up, setting up the stage background, and doing chores...

And Treasure Island House is just an amateur theater troupe whose members only take Kabuki as a side job.

So there are two types of people who are in charge of playing music and those who are in charge of performances, which is barely enough.

The play that Jiro Nishino wrote required a minimum of seven actors—just right.

Ogata also became somewhat curious about the art of kabuki through the time he spent writing scripts with Jiro Nishino a few days ago.

Since the script was compiled the day before yesterday and rehearsals have begun, Ogata's morning activities have changed from "writing the script with Jiro Nishino" to "come and see their rehearsal".

The room that Ogata is currently walking into is the place where the members of Treasure Island House are specially used to rehearse Kabuki.

"Good morning! Mashima-kun!" Jiro Nishino greeted Ogata with enthusiasm as usual.

"Good morning." Ogata nodded in agreement, and sat cross-legged beside Nishino Jiro, "How is everyone rehearsing?"

"It's going well so far!" Nishino's tone was full of excitement that couldn't be concealed, "Everyone is enthusiastic! We can't wait to perform "One Knife Studio" in the New Year."

"One Knife Studio" - the name Ogata and the others gave this play.

A good name, to some extent, determines the life and death of a drama.

If we can come up with a resounding, catchy title that can be remembered even by people who cannot read, it will greatly promote the spread of this play.

After finishing writing the script, Ooyo and Nishino racked their brains to think about what to name the play.

In the end, Ogata made the final decision—name the play "One Knife Studio".

Although Ogata now has a bunch of titles, "Executioner Yidao Zhai", "Ogata Yidao Zhai", "Ren Zhan Yi Shi", "Sura"...

But the most widely circulated is undoubtedly "Executioner Yidao Zhai".

Since Ogata left the feudal clan, almost all the people he met who used his title to call him used "Yitao Zhai" or "Ogata Yidao Zhai" to call him, and very few people used his other titles to call him he.

"Yidao Zhai" has only three syllables, which is catchy and widely spread.

This play is based on his deeds, so it is just right to use the title "Yidao Zhai" as the name of this play.

After Ogata proposed the name "One Knife Studio", Jiro Nishino immediately nodded in agreement with bright eyes.

That's how the name of the play was decided.

"That's good." Ogata nodded with a smile, and followed Nishino Jiro silently to watch the members of Takarashimaya who were rehearsing "One Sword Studio" in front of them.

When writing the script with Jiro Nishino, Ogata also learned a lot about kabuki from Jiro Nishino.

Early kabuki was not something that could be put on the stage, it was a bit like a modern gray industry.

When Kabuki was first born, it mainly relied on selling its hue to attract attention.

Many female kabuki attract people to watch the performance by their beauty.

A very small number of female kabuki perform some physical transactions while performing kabuki.

After the Edo shogunate noticed this chaos, it felt offensive. So in the sixth year of Kanei, the Edo shogunate issued a ban on "female kabuki", and women were prohibited from performing kabuki.

Without women to perform, what about the female characters in the play?

Then let the cute boys play it.

After the Edo Shogunate banned "female kabuki", "Wakasho Kabuki" was born.

"Ruozhong" refers to underage men.

The ban on "female kabuki" has caused people to shift their attention to the lovely "Wakashu kabuki".

The important task of playing female roles and selling luster to attract attention has shifted from "female kabuki" to the shoulders of "ruozhong kabuki".

In the first year of Chengying, the Edo shogunate also banned Ruozhong Kabuki on the grounds of immorality.

So far, neither women nor underage men can perform kabuki, and only adult men can perform kabuki.

But Kabuki's troubled history is not over yet.

As the saying goes, "There are policies at the top, and countermeasures at the bottom." After the Edo shogunate banned underage men from performing kabuki, many underage men continued to perform kabuki disguised as adult men.

And it's not just underage men who have cute looks, and there are a lot of cute-looking men among grown men.

Therefore, even though the shogunate issued a ban on "female kabuki" and "Wakasaka kabuki", the current situation that kabuki relies on selling their appearance to attract attention, and a large number of kabuki actors do some immoral things has not changed in any way.

The Edo shogunate was furious, thinking that the kabuki actors could not be saved.

Therefore, in the second year of the Ming Dynasty, the shogunate ordered the demolition of all theaters in Kyoto, the center of kabuki, on the grounds of the kabuki beating incident.

When kabuki was about to be swept into the dustbin of history, with the efforts of many kabuki defenders, the shogunate agreed to let kabuki go on the condition of "removing the prostitution of lust and performing orthodox dramas".

Since then, Kabuki has officially embarked on the right path of "serious" drama.

Thanks to the efforts of many kabuki playwrights and kabuki actors, kabuki has gradually changed from a "grey industry" that is not very popular to the current performing art that is very popular and loved by all classes.

However, the shogunate has still not lifted the ban on "female kabuki" and "waka kabuki".

Therefore, all members of Takarashimaya who are currently rehearsing in front of Ogata, without exception-all are adult men.

On the Kabuki stage, all roles are played by adult men, regardless of whether they are male or female.

So you don't need any doubts - every female character you see on a Kabuki stage, no matter how beautiful "she" looks, is a drag queen.

Ogata and Nishino co-authored this "One Swordsman", there are female characters-two female characters based on the prototypes of the izakaya where Ogata used to work, Saki and Afu.

Ogata felt very complicated when he learned that the two characters based on Saki and Afu had to be played by men.

Fortunately, it is two very handsome men from Treasure Island House who are in charge of playing these two female characters based on Azaki and Afu.

According to Nishino Jiro, these two are the actors who are in charge of playing women in Treasure Island House.

After women and minors were not allowed to perform kabuki, the female roles in the play were all played by young people with good looks, preferably boys and girls.

After watching Treasure Island House's rehearsal with Nishino Jiro for a while, Oo conveniently resigned and left.

Although Ogata came to watch the rehearsal almost every morning, it was impossible to spend the whole morning here watching other people's rehearsals, it would be boring to death.

So Ogata would simply take a look, then leave, and then rush to Baosheng Sword Hall to gain experience... Ah, no. It is to guide the apprentices of Baosheng Sword Gym, and at the same time to gain some experience.

Anyway, the rehearsal venue of Treasure Island House is quite close to Baosheng Sword Gym, so it doesn't get in the way.

...

...

As evening approached—

"It's right to hold the place close to the knife with your right hand, but don't use too much force with your left hand. Let go of the little finger of your left hand and only hold it gently with your ring finger, middle finger and index finger."

Holding a wooden knife, Ogata, who was posing in the middle, pointed to a young man standing opposite him with a sword in front of him.

The young man's name is Xiaolin, and he is also one of the "Ten Swords of Baosheng".

To be named "Baosheng Ten Swords", Kobayashi still has a bit of talent in swordsmanship.

After receiving Ogata's instructions, Kobayashi released the left hand holding the lower end of the knife handle according to Ogata's instructions.

After glancing at Kobayashi's left hand, Ogata nodded:

"That's right, that's it. You maintain this posture and attack me."

"yes!"

Xiao Lin shouted loudly, raised his knife and slashed at Ofang.

Snapped!

When Kobayashi's wooden knife was about to hit Ogata's head, Ogata swung the wooden knife in his hand horizontally, hitting the blade of Kobayashi's wooden knife directly, and knocked Kobayashi's wooden knife flying with one blow.

【Ding! Use Sakakibara Ichidou Ryuo to defeat the enemy]

[Gain 35 personal experience points and 30 experience points for ninjutsu "Shiranui Ninjutsu\