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Text File  |  1992-09-03  |  628b  |  16 lines
  1. Japanese `music, dance, skill' drama
  2. originating in late 16th-century Japan,
  3. drawing on No, puppet plays, and folk dance.
  4. Its colourful, lively spectacle became
  5. popular in the 17th and 18th centuries.
  6. Kabuki actors specialize in particular
  7. characters, female impersonators being the
  8. biggest stars. Kabuki was first popularized
  9. in Kyoto 1603 by the dancer Izumo Okuni who
  10. gave performances with a chiefly female
  11. troupe; from 1629 only men were allowed to
  12. act, in the interests of propriety. Unlike No
  13. actors, kabuki actors do not wear masks. The
  14. art was modernized and its following revived
  15. in the 1980s by Ennosuke III (1940-).
  16.