お家芸

Oiegei—the "house art"—is the speciality a family of actors has polished and handed down for generations. Each kabuki family has its own artistic lineage, and the house art is at once its pride and its banner.

The first clear codification of a house art is said to be the Kabuki Jūhachiban, the eighteen plays designated by Ichikawa Danjūrō VII; other families later followed with selections of their own. The everyday Japanese word oiegei, meaning "one's forte," is said to spring from this theatre tradition.

Other houses followed the Ichikawa lead: in the Onoe Kikugorō family (Otowaya), the fifth and sixth Kikugorō are said to have designated works such as Tsuchigumo and Migawari Zazen as the Shinko Engeki Jisshu, their "Ten Plays Old and New." Each family raising its own banner and honing its art against the others—the oiegei culture enriched kabuki as a whole.

The house art of the Ichikawa Sōke is aragoto, inherited from Danjūrō I. Codified as the Kabuki Jūhachiban and later joined by the Shin (New) Kabuki Jūhachiban, it has been handed down to Danjūrō XIII.