kabuki

[ kah-boo-kee, kuh-, kah-boo-kee ]

noun

1. popular drama of Japan, developed chiefly in the 17th century, characterized by elaborate costuming, rhythmic dialogue, stylized acting, music, and dancing, and the performance of both male and female roles by male actors. Compare Nō.
2. Kabuki. Also called Grand Kabuki. public performances of this type of drama.

kabuki

/ kæˈbuːkɪ /

noun

1. a form of Japanese drama based on popular legends and characterized by elaborate costumes, stylized acting, and the use of male actors for all roles See also No 1

Word History and Origins

Origin of kabuki¹

1895–1900; < Japanese: originally, as v., to act dissolutely; usually written with phonograms that carry the meanings “song-dance-skill”

Word History and Origins

Origin of kabuki¹

Japanese, from ka singing + bu dancing + ki art

Example Sentences

All of this is nothing but another right-wing kabuki dance, staged by the Republican Party whenever they come close to getting what they've asked for.

From Salon

Trump and his team will try muddying the waters and engaging in legal kabuki theater for the next few months.

From Salon

“This is political kabuki theater,” the complaint says.

From Washington Times

And so the famed Fujima Kansuma, master kabuki dancer who entertained generations of Japanese Americans, embraced the art because it allowed her to take on male roles as a way of fulfilling her dad’s wish.

From Los Angeles Times

His legacy is the degradation of political discourse to the monosyllabic tirades of Shakespeare's Caliban, which simultaneously scandalize and energize the kabuki theater that passes for government.

From Salon

More About Kabuki

What does Kabuki mean?

Kabuki is a form of classical theater in Japan known for its elaborate costumes and dynamic acting. The phrases Kabuki theater, kabuki dance, or kabuki play are sometimes used in political discourse to describe an event characterized more by showmanship than by content.

Where did Kabuki come from?

The word kabuki combines the Japanese words ka (“song”), bu (“dance”), and ki (“skill”). However, The Japan Times reports that kabuki comes from the verb kabuku, meaning “to slant or to sway” and is used to describe “people who were out of the ordinary and preferred to dress in extravagant attire.” As an art form, Kabuki is characterized by colorful costumes, music, stylized performances, and broad dramatic postures and gestures called kata. With plots often derived from historic warriors and scholars, common themes include honor, justice, and order.

Westerners encountered Kabuki in the 19th century and early 20th century. In 1867, James Curtis Hepburn’s Japanese-English dictionary defined Kabuki as “a kind of opera.” In 1938, Japan’s Board of Tourist Industry produced a pamphlet to explain Kabuki to visitors.

American political pundits began to describe political showmanship and posturing as Kabuki in the early 1960s, with one early instance in 1962 characterizing President Kennedy’s New Frontier policy as “financial kabuki” making for a “colorful, carefree sight.”

In 1966, Ben Anderson, a scholar of Indonesian culture, explicitly compared the Japanese occupation of Indonesia to Kabuki. Anderson argued that the Japanese government used the elements of Kabuki, including, “mysterious silences, lightening changes of mood, terrifying grimaces, spectacular acrobatics and sumptuous pageantry” to control the Indonesians. That characterized Japanese foreign relations of the time as more theatrical than substantial. Since then, kabuki has been used to describe political drama and pageantry in the United States, Japan, and elsewhere.

How to use the term Kabuki 

Kabuki theater is still commonly used by Western political pundits across the political spectrum. Kabuki, Kabuki theater, and Kabuki dance are used interchangeably in punditry. Some have argued that this use of Kabuki is a misunderstanding of the artform, contrasting the form’s subtleties and nuances with the political meaning of “empty show.” However, some commentators do use Kabuki to indicate the complexities of political performance as opposed to a shorthand for “style over substance.”

Of course, Kabuki and Kabuki theater are still used to talk about the theatrical form, as well.

More examples of Kabuki:

“Thus are the U.S. politics of the Iraq war a Kabuki performance, punctuated by occasional moments of Democratic jujitsu“
—Kurt Andersen, New York, June 2007

“Over the years, Winfrey’s resistance to booking politicians softened, and not because of a sudden willingness to perform the conversational kabuki of the traditional stump-speech interview …”
—Derek Robertson, Politico, January 2018

Note

This content is not meant to be a formal definition of this term. Rather, it is an informal summary that seeks to provide supplemental information and context important to know or keep in mind about the term’s history, meaning, and usage.