In Kamahige, why is Kagekiyo's kumadori red above and blue below?

Begin with the man. Aku Shichibyōe Kagekiyo was a warrior in the service of the Heike. After the fall of the Heike he went on nursing his hatred of the Genji — a figure who recurs through noh, kabuki and jōruri. He is no simple villain: he carries at once the nobility of one who kept faith to the end and the terror of one possessed by an obsession.

With that in place, the colours become legible. Kabuki kumadori has a grammar of colour: red carries vigour, youth and righteous strength; indigo carries resentment, the supernatural, the air of what is not quite human. That two colours are placed on Kagekiyo's face is usually explained as showing both natures inhabiting one man — the red above for the warrior's power seething within, the indigo below for an obsession beyond the ordinary.

One caution, though. The details of the kuma differ by production and by house kata. Even for the same Kagekiyo the strokes and the disposition of colour can vary, and the explanation of meaning is not settled to one account. Many kabuki kata are held to have worked first and been explained afterwards. So rather than memorising one-to-one that this colour means that, it is more useful in actual viewing to hold the grammar of colour as a loose system and read what the face in front of you is saying. Kamahige, one of the Kabuki Jūhachiban, is the play that stages Kagekiyo's prowess.