<P> The modern all - male kabuki, known as yarō - kabuki (young man kabuki), was established during these decades . After women were banned from performing, cross-dressed male actors, known as onnagata ("female - role") or oyama, took over . Young (adolescent) men were preferred for women's roles due to their less masculine appearance and the higher pitch of their voices compared to adult men . In addition, wakashū (adolescent male) roles, played by young men often selected for attractiveness, became common, and were often presented in an erotic context . Along with the change in the performer's gender came a change in the emphasis of the performance: increased stress was placed on drama rather than dance . Performances were equally ribald, and the male actors too were available for prostitution (to both female and male customers). Audiences frequently became rowdy, and brawls occasionally broke out, sometimes over the favors of a particularly handsome young actor, leading the shogunate to ban first onnagata and then wakashū roles . Both bans were rescinded by 1652 . </P> <P> During the Genroku era, kabuki thrived . The structure of a kabuki play was formalized during this period, as were many elements of style . Conventional character types were established . Kabuki theater and ningyō jōruri, the elaborate form of puppet theater that later came to be known as bunraku, became closely associated with each other, and each has since influenced the other's development . The famous playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon, one of the first professional kabuki playwrights, produced several influential works, though the piece usually acknowledged as his most significant, Sonezaki Shinjū (The Love Suicides at Sonezaki), was originally written for bunraku . Like many bunraku plays, it was adapted for kabuki, and it spawned many imitators--in fact, it and similar plays reportedly caused so many real - life "copycat" suicides that the government banned shinju mono (plays about lovers' double suicides) in 1723 . Ichikawa Danjūrō I also lived during this time; he is credited with the development of mie poses and mask - like kumadori make - up . </P> <P> Male actors played both female and male characters . </P> <P> In the 1840s, fires started terrorizing Edo due to repeated drought . Kabuki theatres, traditionally made of wood, were constantly burning down, forcing their relocation within the ukiyo . When the area that housed the Nakamura - za was completely destroyed in 1841, the shogun refused to allow the theatre to be rebuilt, saying that it was against fire code . The shogunate did not welcome the mixing and trading that occurred between town merchants and actors, artists, and prostitutes . The shogunate took advantage of the fire crisis in 1842 to force the Nakamura - za, Ichimura - za, and Kawarazaki - za out of the city limits and into Asakusa, a northern suburb of Edo . Actors, stagehands, and others associated with the performances were forced out as well . Those in areas and lifestyles centered around the theatres also migrated, but the inconvenience of the new location reduced attendance . These factors, along with strict regulations, pushed much of kabuki "underground" in Edo, with performances changing locations to avoid the authorities . </P>

Kabuki dance was derived through the social structure of the imperial court