大詰

Ōzume is the final act of a play. In Edo-period kabuki, a day's program was divided into a history play and a domestic play, and the last act of the history play is said to have been called the ōzume, while that of the domestic play was the ōgiri. Today the word broadly names the closing act or scene of any production.

In everyday Japanese, negotiations or projects "reach their ōzume"—their final stage. The tension of a last act, where every thread of the story converges on its resolution, carries over intact into daily speech.

In present-day usage the word spans work and sport alike: "Budget negotiations have entered their ōzume"; "The season is at its ōzume—three games remain." In the set phrases "reaching the ōzume" and "entering the ōzume," the tension of a final act into which every storyline converges still breathes.

Ōzume is a word of kabuki dramaturgy as a whole. The grand final acts of the history plays were the glory of Edo kabuki—and the stages of the Ichikawa Sōke, bearers of aragoto, stand within that tradition.