引抜

Hikinuki ("pulling out") transforms a costume in the blink of an eye, in full view of the audience. One costume is worn over another, loosely basted at sleeves and hem with heavy thread; at the perfect moment a stage assistant pulls the threads, the outer robe slips away, and the garment beneath appears.

Used above all in dance pieces such as Kyōganoko Musume Dōjōji, the change lands on a shift in the music, its new colours mirroring a turn in the character's heart. When actor and assistant breathe as one, the house erupts.

The stage on which to savor hikinuki above all is Kyōganoko Musume Dōjōji. As the shirabyōshi Hanako dances on, her costume changes at each turn of the music, mirroring in colour the shifting heart of a girl in love. Most famous is the change into white for the dance with suzudaiko in hand—each perfectly timed pull drawing a stir from the house, dance and device made one.

Hikinuki belongs to kabuki's shared stagecraft, cultivated alongside the dance repertoire. Its impulse—to make the costume itself an instrument of drama—distills the essence of kabuki's visual imagination.