What defines the Ichikawa Sōke's aragoto — and is the weight of the costume part of it?

Aragoto — literally "rough business" — is the style held to have been begun by Danjūrō I in 1673 and brought to maturity in the Genroku era. It aims to raise onto the stage a strength beyond human measure. It stands opposite wagoto, the delicately amorous style refined in the Kamigata region, and has long been placed as the art most characteristic of Edo's temperament.

Begin with what the eye sees. First the kumadori: a makeup that exaggerates the lines of muscle and vessel across the face, in aragoto drawn in red — the colour held to signify righteousness and power. Then the wig: the kuruma-bin, its side locks flaring outward, makes the very silhouette of the head other than human. And the costume: the suō of Shibaraku is cut vastly beyond any ordinary body, the three-square Ichikawa crest stamped large across it.

The weight the question asks about is indeed part of it — but the point is not that the actor moves despite the weight. It is that he moves while showing the weight. Wearing that outsized rig, he settles his hips, carries his body slowly and hugely, and freezes into a mie. The sequence is itself the proof of power. The same holds for the great strides of a roppō down the hanamichi: movement that displays bulk and mass is the substance of the style.

There is also a devotional colour to aragoto. Its heroes often carry a childlike innocence while being charged with the power of gods and buddhas to drive off evil. The Ichikawa family's long association with the deity Fudō Myōō at Naritasan Shinshōji is held to be connected to this character. Not a mere display of strength but an exaltation before the power that expels evil — that, it is thought, is why aragoto has gone on being performed for more than three centuries.