Izumo no Okuni Queers the Stage

This chapter introduces the dazzling brilliance of Izumo no Okuni, the woman credited with founding kabuki. Given the scant historical record regarding the real Okuni, the chapter draws extensively on the 1969 novel by the post-war literary diva Ariyoshi Sawako. In Ariyoshi’s telling, Okuni rises from a provincial shrine dancer to become a willful diva, enthralling sophisticated Kyoto audiences. Refusing to allow either her sexual identity or performance style to be constrained by societal norms, she championed theatrical innovation to achieve wild success. Since a feature of Okuni’s performance was to cross-dress and dance as a man, the chapter interprets Okuni’s performance art through the work of queer theorist José Esteban Muñoz.