Kabuki vs kabuki

This is one of my favourite covers from my Kabuki comic collection. It's actually a bit of a departure from David Mack's usual ethereal style of painting and colouring, but I think it achieves a beautiful ceremic quality to it. You can almost expect to reach out and touch the cold, smooth, white surface.

The eyes aren't part of the mask, though. They're Kabuki's eyes. The red isn't from her irises, as she's wearing red lenses.

Went through some basics on kabuki as a Japanese theatre form during last weekend's Y&W session. It prompted me to go back to my Kabuki comics and I saw it in a new light, which intrigued me. [Note: When "kabuki" appears fully in lowercase, I mean the theatre form; when it's "Kabuki" in sentence casing, I refer to the comic series.]

David Mack obviously knows his stuff about Japan, its culture and art forms and uses much of it in Kabuki (duh). What fascinated me was the fact that he used a mask for his protagonist who bears the pseudonym Kabuki, whereas kabuki itself does not use masks, as compared to Noh theatre. It didn't make sense to me until I thought about it a little further.

Kabuki is one of eight agents in a group of assasins known as Masks of the Noh, each agent bearing a unique mask. Moreover, they were initially led by a villian in disguise who donned, surprise surprise, an Oni mask (the only mask used in kabuki plays, by demon characters).

I realised the parallel between Kabuki's origins and the kabuki theatre form. She was born of a peasant woman - kabuki rose as a 'common man's theatre'. Moreover, one realises that it's after her mask is taken off that her real connection with kabuki is revealed - she has the characters "ka bu ki" carved on her face. Hence, it's the unmasking that makes her true to her namesake.

If a reader is sharp, they'd also realise that her name makes her the odd one out in Masks of the Noh, since kabuki is performed without masks (with the exception of Oni). That in itself should foreshadow her pending fate. Also, the use of Oni's mask would immediately clue one in that he'd be the villian in disguise since it signposts him as the demon figure.

While I find David's storytelling too slick and sometimes overdoses the reader with stylo-milo and arty-farty images, his story arcs are filled with so much depth and symbolism that they're still a pleasure to read. My new discovery of kabuki as an art form has led me to further appreciate the art and richness of both the theatre form and the comic.