A closer look
Early 17th-century Japanese theater was less about refined high art and much more about high-stakes brawling. Kabuki was originally pioneered by women, but their highly sensual, avant-garde dances caused such aggressive jealousy among samurai patrons that violent, fatal sword fights regularly erupted in the audience over access to the actresses. To maintain strict societal order, the puritanical Tokugawa shogunate outright banned women from the stage in 1629, forcing adult men to play all female roles—a rigid tradition that defines Kabuki to this day.
