Just to keep you interested though, here are some pics from last year's show, a Kabuki drama by the internationally famous author Yukio Mishima. Iwashiuri no Koi Hiki Ami, Sardine Seller Draws the Net of Love:

Sarugenji, a humble sardine seller is depressed because he has fallen in love... 'With who?' asks his concerned father, 'With a woman!' Bunshichi earnestly replies ...The object of his affections, Hotarubi, is a high class courtesan, well above his station in life. So Bunshichi, with the help of his father and friends, resolves to disguise himself as the nobleman Utsunomiya in order to visit the beautiful Hotarubi.

Arriving at the pleasure house, Lord Utsunomiya (Saurgenji in disguise) regales the girls with war stories; lively battle tales of John Claude Van Clam and violence without porpoise. The girls are delighted and finally Hotarubi appears (sillhouetted above) to the strains of 'Wild Thing' and Sarugenji is able to meet and talk with her alone.

The story ends happily (this is not always a common thing in kabuki) with Hotarubi confessing that she cannot love Lord Utsunomiya as she had already fallen in love with a humble sardine-seller, who she had seen from her palanquin recently. Sarugenji reveals that he is that Sardine-seller and proves it by reciting his fish-vending cry. Hotarubi, in turn is revealed to be a princess whose identity was being concealed for her personal safety. The two lovers, completely ambivalent to the social distance between them, leave happily together with Hotarubi protesting that she will give up everything to be Sarugenji's wife.

Here, the courtesans accost an unsuspecting audience member

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