Meet Tove Bjoerk, a professor of Japanese culture and kabuki researcher at Saitama University, who sits down to talk to us about the history of kabuki. She tells us about the origins of kabuki performances, how it's evolved throughout the years, and the secret to why it remains so successful to this day.--0:00 Intro0:44 Meet Tove8:48 Interest in theatre9:56 Interest in Ichikawa Danjuro14:24 What makes kabuki special16:36 A stage art for the poor19:27 Kabuki was banned23:11 How popular was kabuki?27:15 Was kabuki style consistent across Japan?28:43 Diaries of Ichikawa Danjuro34:40 What do you need to know before seeing kabuki?37:33 Kabuki gets banned again44:52 Bjoerk's least favorite play47:09 Kabuki acting56:25 Ongoing research1:00:31 Founder of kabuki1:03:58 Kabuki today--Follow us:https://unpacking.jp/https://www.instagram.com/unpacking_japanhttps://www.tiktok.com/@unpackingjapanhttps://www.facebook.com/unpackingjapanhttps://www.youtube.com/@unpackingjapanshortshttps://www.x.com/unpacking_japanhttps://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/unpackingjapanSubscribe for more in-depth discussions about life in Japan! Interested in working at a global e-commerce company in Osaka? Our parent company ZenGroup is hiring! To learn more, check out https://careers.zen.group/en/