Kamigata

Kamigata (上方) is a region of Japan referring to the cities of Kyoto and Osaka; the term is used particularly when discussing elements of Edo period urban culture such as ukiyo-e and kabuki, and when making a comparison to the urban culture of the Edo/Tokyo region.

Kabuki, ukiyo-e, and many of the other related fields of popular and urban culture of the Edo period in fact originated in Kamigata before being transmitted to Edo. The vast majority of scholarship on the urban culture of the Edo period (1603–1867), even today, focuses on culture in Edo; Kamigata culture, though it is beginning to be studied more and more, and represented in museum exhibits more often as well, remains very much overshadowed.

Theatre

Kabuki, like many other traditional arts, originated in the Kamigata area. It grew out of Noh theatre and traditional Shinto dances, and was originally much more a dance form than drama. After periods of women's kabuki (onna kabuki) and young men's kabuki (wakamono kabuki), in which the dancers/actors were also prostitutes, and thus various proscriptions were put into place, including the banning of women from the stage, men's kabuki (yarō kabuki), the beginnings of what is considered today the mainstream form of kabuki, emerged.