Kabuki, where men play every role, was invented by a woman.

1603 · 1629 · apart: 26 years

The dancer Okuni began performing around 1603; in 1629 the shogunate banned women from the stage.

◍ Show on the globe

The event

• Izumo no Okuni creates kabukic. 1603 · Kyoto. Around 1603 the dancer Okuni began performing bold sketches on the dry bed of the Kamo River in Kyoto, playing male roles herself. Kabuki was born. But in 1629 the shogunate banned women from the stage, and ever since, all kabuki roles have been played by men.

17th century

More amazing facts

• 1601 · 1609 The most accurate pre-telescope sky survey came from a man who never looked through a telescope.
• 1602 In 1602 an Italian drew a world map for the Chinese — and moved the Pacific to the middle.
• 1602 · 1619 The Dutch East India Company issued the first shares ever traded on a stock exchange in 1602.
• 1603 · 1721 Edo, the future Tokyo, had over a million people by the 1720s, one of the largest cities in the world.
• 1604 · 1609 The last supernova seen in our galaxy blazed five years before Galileo turned a telescope to the sky. Kepler's star appeared in 1604, and no Milky Way supernova has been reliably seen since.
• 1605 · 1616 Cervantes and Shakespeare died in April 1616 on nearly the same calendar date — but Spain used the Gregorian calendar and England did not, so over a week really separates them.

All amazing facts (1059) →