The Story in Three Lines
Kabuki loses nothing when you know the story in advance. Start with just three lines.
- 01
Under the pretense of shaving a hero's beard with a sickle, an enemy tries to slit his throat—and the blade will not cut. An aragoto play about invulnerable strength.
- 02
Danjūrō IV is said to have first performed it in 1774, though little is known for certain.
- 03
With no fixed script the play long lay dormant, until Ichikawa Danshirō II and his son En'nosuke II revived it in the Meiji era.
Three Things to Watch For
These three points are all the preparation you need. On the day, simply give yourself to the stage.
The neck that will not cut
A sickle laid to the throat leaves not a scratch. The hero's superhuman body is proven through the homeliest of acts—a shave.
The shadow of Kagekiyo
Kagekiyo appears in several plays of the eighteen, and Kamahige is counted among them—a hero who returns again and again in the repertory.
Preserved in prints
Edo woodblock prints preserve the scene, keeping the look of a lost staging alive.
Characters
- Kagekiyo
- The Heike warrior; in the revived Kamahige he is said to appear as the invulnerable hero whom no sickle can wound.
Stagecraft and Highlights
Said to have premiered in 1774 with Danjūrō IV, the play's details are unknown and its script unfixed; what survives, alongside woodblock prints, is the marvelous conceit of the shave that cannot kill.
Revived in the Meiji era by Danshirō II and En'nosuke II, it carries into the present the open-hearted absurdity at the core of Edo aragoto.
The Ichikawa Connection
One of the Kabuki Jūhachiban, associated with Danjūrō IV, and—like Kagekiyo and Gedatsu—part of the family's long engagement with the hero Kagekiyo.
Related terms
Sources
- Author
- KABUKI Universe Editorial Team
- Supervision
- Ichikawa Danjūrō
- Published
- Aug 15, 2026
- Updated
- Sep 9, 2026
Supervision means Ichikawa Danjūrō has reviewed this page's intent and key points. The text is the editorial team's writing, not Ichikawa Danjūrō's own statements. Editorial responsibility rests with the team, which corrects any error. Read the editorial policy