#onnagata

[onnajandro]

Rose Print One Piece,, My favorite Moi-memê-Moitié dress ever ... (⁠.⁠ ♡⁠ ⁠ᴗ⁠ ♡⁠.⁠)

[fragrantblossoms]

Kishin Shinoyama, Bandō Tamasaburō, circa 1971.

[softerthansin]

Yatsuhashi (Bandō Tamasaburō V) glances back at a smitten Jirozaemon in Kagotsurube Sato no Eizame

[classic-asian-art]

Black hair falling like ink poured from a well. Pale skin catching no light, holding no shadow. Rust and iron at the wrists. Utagawa Kunimasa's "Bust Portrait of Iwai Kumesaburo" is an actor frozen mid-becoming - someone else's body worn like armor. And speaking of armor: those hexagonal chain-mail kote, the green-laced dō plates, the weapon shaft rising diagonally behind the shoulder. A warrior's costume. But the face beneath the white hachimaki belongs to an onnagata - a male actor specializing in female roles. Kumesaburo was one of the most celebrated onnagata of the 1790s. So here's your question: Kunimasa studied under one of ukiyo-e's most famous masters. Who was his teacher? A) Kitagawa Utamaro B) Tōshūsai Sharaku C) Utagawa Toyokuni I D) Katsushika Hokusai The family name gives it away - in ukiyo-e, your school name was your inheritance. The answer is C. Kunimasa was Toyokuni I's most gifted pupil, and he was dead by twenty-seven. This print - now in the Rijksmuseum - is one of the few things that outlasted him. The bokashi clouds greying behind the figure like a curtain about to close. Quelle: meisterdrucke.com

[kinnister]

Recently watched Kokuho and was inspired to dress up one of my already kabuki inspired ocs as an onnagata :)

[amf-studios]

My latest queer yokai, this is Drag-on Queen!

This yokai is based on the Japanese practice of onnagata

To provide a little context, around the 17th century, Japan's government was trying to crack down prostitution, especially with kabuki theaters basically being brothels as a side hustle. So in order to combat this... they banned women from acting altogether.

Now, among those theaters were ones that legitimately cared about the arts. And they needed a way to keep their stories alive. So, they did the only thing they could do... cross dress!

Kabuki theater started having men play in female roles, and it went on for so long that it's still a relatively common practice today! (The irony was, not only did banning women actors *not* stop the prostitution, it only got worse afterwards!)

Now, combine the cross dressing with the over the top, exaggerated nature of Kabuki theater, and you've got the basic elements of drag!

So, combine that with a phrase I've heard a couple times of "fire breathing drag queen" and dragons being able to take human form in a few mythos, Japanese included!

Those inspirited by Drag-on Queen start acting severely over the top in their gender expression, usually of the opposite of their own gender but not always.

Drag-on Queen is a fire attribute, C rank of the charming tribe. His soultimate is called "burning Runway" where he let's out a jet of fire breath to burn up his opponents!

I hope you enjoy this drag wearing Dragon!

[nanahoshiworld]

An onnagata with snaggleteeth 🦷

（This type of tooth alignment is considered cute in Japan.）

[elliottjpg]

On this beautiful (two days after) Trans Day of Visibility, I give you a transgender kabuki actress!

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暁の物語 Akatsuki no Monogatari

光 Akane

(O-Akane or Akane-hime to be polite)

Asakura Heijirō (朝倉 炳次郎), better known by her public name O-Akane, is an onnagata: a cross-dressing kabuki actor specializing in female roles, as well as an oiran: a high-ranking courtesan; and she is Hikari's lover.

Born to a poor family but blessed with amazing looks and an ambitious mind, Akane turned to (male) prostitution very early on by necessity. When kabuki theater came into being, she found her calling: being onstage was not only a way to attract clients, but also to express herself, and to indulge in the femininity she had been hiding her whole life. She was soon able to make a name for herself, as both an actress and a cultured, high-ranking courtesan, allowed more choice and luxury than most of the women of the pleasure district.

She is the kind of courtesan who knows her own worth and knows how to use it to get what she wants. She is cunning (although not cruel), resilient and ambitious, which allows her to live a relatively enjoyable life in the pleasure district. Being able to live as a woman is more than she could hope for, and she can both put up with a lot and fight very fiercely to keep this privilege.

She met Hikari when he was visiting the pleasure district. He saw her perform onstage and was immediately struck and fascinated by her, enough to court her for many weeks before being allowed to meet her. Their relationship quickly grew beyond that of a client and a courtesan, into a romantic -albeit unusual and unstable- relationship. Akane feels that Hikari is the only person who truly understands her, both as a person, as a woman, and as a trans individual.

Hikari being a traveler, he only spends little time with Akane, which makes it all the more precious to both of them. Hikari sometimes still has his doubts about Akane's true feelings, which are something prostitutes often play with. Akane truly does love him, but she can't bring herself to dispel his doubts, because both of their lives are too complicated for clear-cut feelings.

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Akatsuki no Monogatari (the Tale of Dawn) takes place in the very beginning of the Edo era, in the transition years between the warring period of the Sengoku-Jidai and the two hundred years of peace under the Tokugawa shogunate. It is a story about change and beginnings, both of a person and of a country.

Some name lore and historical context under the cut!

Explanation of Akane's name:

Like most men of her time, Akane has a "public" first name (Akane), a "private" first name (Heijirō), and a family name (Asakura).

-Akane is the stage name she chose for herself. It is typically written 茜, which means "deep red" or "madder plant (Rubia cordifolia). But it turns out it can be written with 80 different kanji or combinations of kanji, one of them being... fucking hikari 光. Because kanji is a system created by the devil. So of course I had to pick that spelling.

Note that in the Edo era, women's names were typically written in kana, not in kanji. In a formal setting, she would normally be referred to as O-Akane, or Akane-hime (princess Akane - she is not a noble, it's just a fancy title like milady).

-Heijirō is Akane's male adult name that she received upon coming of age. It is normally written 平次郎 which means "even second son" ("even" being an auspicious adjective; men's names were often composed of a positive word and their order of birth). Except it turns out that "hei" can also be written with the kanji 炳, which means... bright and shining! Like fucking 光 (which means light). So I obviously had to choose that spelling. Maybe Akane was given the name "even second son" and changed the spelling herself to "bright second son".

-Asakura is Akane's family name, the spelling is inconsequential, I chose it simply for the sound.

A remark on Akane's gender identity:

She personally identifies as a person of feminine nature, insofar as she can conceptualize "identifying as a woman" in this historical context. In modern terms she is a trans woman; in the Edo era's society, she is a man who cross-dresses 24/7 For The Art. Yes that was a thing. I could not make this up if I wanted to. From what I understood of my research, Edo society kinda considered onnagata to be its own gender role.

To quote the book "Kabuki" by Masakatsu Gunji: "In the attempt, not just to express femininity, but to become a woman, [...] the daily lives of onnagata were lived in the same way as women in almost every detail. On the third day of the third month, they celebrated the Doll Festival; they did sewing in their spare time; and their clothes were those of women in every respect. This intense effort to become a woman, by being ultimately doomed to failure, served to create for other men a kind of abstract of femininity that somehow summed up its essence better than any individual woman ever could."

Disclaimer on historical accuracy:

I really cannot speak for the accuracy of Akane's costume. I did my best by referencing old ukiyo-e prints of oiran (courtesans), but at the end of the day this is a very approximate attempt on which I slapped some modern furisode (long sleeve ceremonial kimono) patterns. At least it looks rad.

Also, historically, it's not very realistic for Akane to be an onnagata. In the early days of kabuki, all the actresses were women, and a lot of them moonlit as prostitutes - the plays were a way to advertise themselves and attract clients. A shogunal ban was eventually placed on women in theater, displacing the problem and creating an opening for young male prostitution (and the basis for the future onnagata). Then young men were banned from kabuki for the same reason, and cross-dressing male actors had to be registered with the shogunate lest the audience thought there was an actual woman on stage (a scandal!).

From what I understood of my research, the direct ties between kabuki and prostitution seem to have been severed after the second ban (on young male actors), which was followed by an attempt by kabuki actors to appear more respectable. By the time kabuki was established as a proper art form and the onnagata became highly regarded trendsetters and fashion icons, actors were no longer prostitutes.

Akatsuki no Monogatari takes place in the early decades of the Edo era, so in the first years of kabuki, before onnagata became a thing. But sometimes, you just have to bend history a tiny bit to treat yourself to a cool transgender actress/prostitute.