ABSTRACT
At the end of the nineteenth century Kabuki attempted to renew itself under the impact of changing conditions brought about by the Meiji Restoration. The efforts came from within the Kabuki world, headed by major figures of the day, Danjuro IX and Kikugoro V. Ashamed of its overt use of eroticism, the grotesque and exaggerated stylization, the Kabuki world tried to enhance its prestige by imitating the aristocratic and refined tone of the Noh theatre on the one hand, and the realism and historicism of the newly discovered Western theatre on the other. This two-forked voyage towards an ill-conceived renewal led Kabuki to a double denial of its own essence. Eschewing its own rich past, it leapt over several centuries of popular success, in order to find inspiration in a dramatic (or ceremonial) form that is in many ways at odds with Kabuki. At the same time it rejected those qualities it considered childlike and attempted to create a more mature art reflecting a realistic, serious point of view.
