Kanjinchō

Kanjinchō (勧進帳, The Subscription List) is a kabuki dance-drama by Namiki Gohei III, based on
the Noh play Ataka.[1] It is one of the most popular plays in the modern kabuki repertory.[2]
Belonging to the repertories of the Naritaya and Kōritaya guilds, the play was first performed in
March 1840 at the Kawarazaki-za, in Edo. Ichikawa Ebizō V, Ichikawa Kuzō II, and Ichikawa Danjūrō
VIII played the leading roles of Benkei, Togashi, and Yoshitsune, respectively. The lines of Ichikawa
Danjūrō and Matsumoto Kōshirō have come to be particularly celebrated for playing the role of
Benkei in Kanjinchō.[3]
Kanjinchō was the first kabuki played adapted closely from the Noh theater.[4]
Though bearing the same name and general narrative concept as a 1702 play, one of the Kabuki
Jūhachiban, the modern version of Kanjinchō, going back to 1840, is believed to not be directly
derived from or connected to this earlier aragoto piece.[5]
Akira Kurosawa's film The Men who Tread on the Tiger's Tail is partly based on Kanjinchō.[6][7]
Kanjinchō is performed so often that it is said that seasoned kabuki actors consider it an insult to be
asked to rehearse it.[8]