Performance - Kougyou

Generally speaking, it refers to an event that is open to spectators (audiences) for a fee, and today it refers to the planning and performance of various entertainments, ranging from plays, movies, music, dance, sports such as sumo wrestling and boxing, circuses, spectacles, etc. Usually, they are for profit, but there are also charity events and donation events that do not take profitability into consideration.

It is nearly impossible to trace the origins of entertainment, but its original forms can be seen in the Osiris rites performed by the priests at the ancient Egyptian court, the singing and dancing of the shamans in ancient China, and the theatrical performances at the Dionysian festivals in ancient Greece. However, most of these were part of religious events sponsored by the king or the state, and are far removed from the modern concept of entertainment, which assumes the collection of admission fees. Furthermore, the various religious drama performances sponsored by churches in medieval Europe are also different from entertainment in the modern sense. However, on the other hand, there was the lineage of street performers and minstrels descended from the mimos (versatile arts) of ancient Rome, who traveled around the country selling their own arts and crafts, and may have been the forerunners of today's entertainment form.

From the end of the Middle Ages to the early modern period, private guilds were formed to perform secular morality plays and passion plays, and professional theater companies such as the Commedia dell'Arte in Italy became popular, but these still had a strong influence of the church, royalty, and aristocracy as patrons and directors. The system of the Master of the Revels in Elizabethan England is one example. Meanwhile, modern impresarios also began to appear, and in 1637, the Tron family, owners of the San Cassiano Theater in Venice, signed a lease with a Roman opera company to perform "Andromeda," and this trend spread to other European cities. In Germany, a public theater was established in Dresden in 1746, and in France many theaters followed suit after the Revolution, and in England, the Theater Emancipation Act was enacted in 1843, allowing the liberalization of performances outside of officially licensed theaters. In the second half of the 19th century, Russia and the United States also joined the ranks, and as entertainment became more commercialized and internationalized with the development of capitalism, entertainment came to occupy a major position as a business.

Since the modern era, there have been many different types of performances, but they can be divided into three types based on function: a "hand-made" performance, where the impresario or theater company decides on the income and expenditures themselves; a "sell-out" performance, where the impresario or theater company leaves the performance responsibility to the theater owner; and a "commissioned" performance, where both parties decide the percentage of the income and expenditures. In terms of performance style, there are the producer system, where the producer oversees everything from the staff to the cast, the repertory system, where several works are performed in succession, and the long-run system, where revenue is increased by a single performance over a long period of time. The word "impresario" (impresario) is Italian and originally meant the impresario of an opera. In recent years, impresarios are often called producers, managers, or agents, and in European national theaters, the highest executives usually play this role.

[Tsutomu Ohshima]

In Japan, entertainment events did not traditionally charge a fee to be shown. For example, there are records of performances such as waka poetry gatherings, bugaku, and ennen, held by aristocrats, temples, shrines, and samurai families, being called "kogyo." In the Kamakura period, the form of "kanjin kogyo," in which admission fees were charged under the pretext of raising donations for public works such as the construction and repair of temples and shrines, the casting of bells, and the construction of bridges, became widespread. Medieval performances such as sarugaku (Noh theater), dengaku, and kusemai were often held in this format. Kabuki dance in the early Edo period also used the term "kanjin kogyo" as its name. An example of this is Izumo no Okuni, who called herself a shrine maiden of Izumo Taisha Shrine and promoted her performance as a kanjin kogyo to raise funds for the restoration of the shrine. In the case of kanjin performances, the entertainers themselves were the organizers, but eventually the holders of performance rights, the actors' employers, and the theater owners became co-organizers and began to seek out additional investors for performances. In Edo, the zamoto, who combined the functions of all three, received investment from the kinshu (kinkata), while in Kamigata, the three people of nadai, tayumoto (zamoto), and koyasu owner held performances with investment from the ginshu (ginkata). Kabuki and puppet theater performances in the Edo period were generally held in this format.

The rational management of Kabuki performances was established in 1902 (Meiji 35) by Shochiku General Partnership (the parent company of Shochiku Co., Ltd.), which was started by Shirai Matsujiro and Otani Takejiro. Also, the Imperial Theatre, established in 1988, held performances as a joint-stock company and adopted modern management methods. From then on, performances were generally run by rational corporate organizations. In this way, performances, which had been considered "water-intensive," were able to become fairly rational businesses, but the performance of purely stage plays such as Kabuki requires a large amount of "preparation" expenses such as labor and production costs, yet has a limited audience and is subject to various constraints, making it difficult to make a profit, and it still has not completely escaped its "water-intensive" nature. The current Kabuki performance format of about 25 days per month with two performances per day, day and night, was first adopted at large theaters in January 1885 (Meiji 18) at the Osaka Asahiza Theater, which put on separate Kyogen performances for the day and night, and in Tokyo it was the Teigeki Theater in May 1923 (Taisho 12). However, the National Theater generally holds one performance per day.

[Yukio Hattori]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

一般に有料で見物（観客）に供する催しをいい、今日では演劇、映画、音楽、舞踊などから、相撲(すもう)、ボクシングなどのスポーツ、サーカス、見せ物などに至る種々の娯楽の企画・公演をさす。普通、営利を目的とするが、慈善興行（チャリティー）や寄付興行などのように採算を考慮しないものもある。

　興行の発生をつきとめることは不可能に近いが、古代エジプト宮廷での祭司によるオシリスの儀礼や、古代中国の巫覡(ふげき)の歌舞、ついで古代ギリシアにおけるディオニソス祭礼での演劇上演などに、その原初の形態がみられる。しかし、これらのほとんどは王または国家の主催による宗教的行事の一部であり、入場料の徴収を前提とする今日的な意味での興行の概念からはほど遠い。さらに中世ヨーロッパにおける教会主催の各種の宗教劇の上演も、近代的な意味での興行とは異なる。ただ一方には、古代ローマのミモス（雑芸）の流れをくむ大道芸人や吟遊詩人たちの系統があり、彼らは自らの技芸を売り物にして各地を巡回するなど、今日の興行形態の先駆的存在であったとも考えられる。

　中世末から近世にかけては、世俗的な道徳劇（モラリティー）や受難劇（パッション）上演のための民間の組合が結成され、またイタリアのコメディア・デラルテなど職業俳優による劇団の活躍が盛んになったが、これらも依然として教会や王侯貴族の庇護(ひご)、監督の側面が強かった。イギリスのエリザベス朝における興行奉行Master of the Revelsの制度はその一例である。一方、近代的な興行師も出現するようになり、1637年、ベネチアのサン・カシアーノ劇場の所有者トロン家が、ローマのオペラ一座と賃貸契約を結んで『アンドロメダ』を上演したが、この風潮は他のヨーロッパ諸都市に広がった。ドイツでは1746年にドレスデンに公共劇場が設立され、フランスでは大革命以後多くの劇場がこれに倣い、イギリスでは1843年に劇場解放令が施行され、官許劇場以外での興行の自由化が認められた。さらに19世紀後半にはロシア、アメリカ合衆国も加わり、資本主義の発達に伴う興行の商業化・国際化とともに、興行も企業(ビジネス)の一つとして大きな位置を占めるようになった。

　近代以降の興行の形態は多様であるが、職能上三つに分けられる。興行師や劇団自身が収支を図る手打ち興行、興行師や劇団が劇場主に興行責任をゆだねる売り興行、両者の責任で収支の歩合を決める歩（合）興行である。また上演形態のうえからは、製作者がスタッフ・キャストまですべて統括するプロデューサー・システム、何本かの作品を交互に連続上演するレパートリー・システム、長期にわたる単独興行による収入の増加を図るロングラン・システムなどがある。なお、興行師を意味するインプレサリオimpresarioはイタリア語で、本来はオペラの興行主のことである。興行師は近年では、プロデューサーproducer、マネージャーmanager、あるいはエージェントagentなどとよばれることが多く、ヨーロッパの国立劇場では最高責任者がこの役割を果たしているのが普通である。

［大島　勉］

　日本でも、芸能などの催しは、古くは料金をとって鑑賞させる形態をとらなかった。たとえば和歌会、舞楽、延年(えんねん)など、貴族、寺社、武家が催した芸能の機会を「興行」とよんだ記録がある。鎌倉時代になると、寺社の建立・修理や鐘の鋳造、そのほか架橋などの公共的事業のために寄付金を集める名目で入場料をとる「勧進興行」の形式が広く行われるようになった。中世の猿楽(さるがく)（能楽）、田楽(でんがく)、曲舞(くせまい)などの興行もこの形態で行われることが多かった。江戸初期の歌舞伎(かぶき)踊も「勧進興行」を看板に掲げた。出雲(いずも)の阿国(おくに)が出雲大社の巫女(みこ)と名のり、大社修復のための勧進興行であることを標榜(ひょうぼう)したのはこの例である。勧進興行の場合、主催者は芸能人自身だったが、やがて興行権所有者、俳優の雇用主、劇場所有者が共同主催者となり、興行に際して別に出資者を求めて行うようになる。江戸では三者の性格を兼ねる座元が金主(きんしゅ)（金方(きんかた)）の出資を受け、上方(かみがた)では名代(なだい)、太夫元(たゆうもと)（座本）、小屋主の3人が銀主（銀方）の出資を得て興行を行った。江戸時代の歌舞伎や人形芝居の興行はおおむねこの形式で行われていた。

　歌舞伎の合理的な興行は1902年（明治35）に白井松次郎、大谷(おおたに)竹次郎によって始められた松竹(まつたけ)合名社（松竹(しょうちく)株式会社の母体）によって打ち立てられた。また、11年設立の帝国劇場が株式会社組織で興行を行い、近代的経営法を採用した。以後興行も合理的な企業会社組織によって行われるのが普通となった。こうして、「水もの」とされてきた興行も、かなり合理的な企業になりえたが、歌舞伎など純舞台演劇の興行は、人件費や制作費などの「仕込み」に多額の経費を要するわりに、観客の動員数が限られており、各種の制約もあるために営利上の不利は免れず、依然として「水もの」的性格を脱しきってはいない。現在歌舞伎の興行で行われている毎月約25日間、1日昼夜二部制の興行形態を大劇場で採用したのは1885年（明治18）1月大阪朝日座で昼夜別々の狂言を出したのが早く、東京では1923年（大正12）5月の帝劇が最初である。ただし、国立劇場では、原則として1日1回制の興行を行っている。

［服部幸雄］

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