JAPANESE KABUKI TROUPE DUE

A 35-member Grand Kabuki company from Japan will perform two dance-dramas at the Japan America Theatre from Sept. 3-7, The Times has learned.

The six performances scheduled here will follow the Kabuki contingent’s eight-day engagement (Aug. 23-30) at Expo 86 in Vancouver and a single performance (Sept. 1) in Seattle.

The tour repertory includes “Renjishi” (Double-Lion Dance), performed by the company in Shrine Auditorium seven years ago, and “Fuji Musume” (Wisteria Maiden), a vehicle for a stellar onnagata (a male performer specializing in women’s roles).

The stars of the company are different from those in the much larger ensemble that visited New York, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles (at Royce Hall, UCLA) a year ago. They include Tomijuro Nakamura V as the white (elder) lion and Hachinosuke Nakamura as the red (younger) one in “Renjishi” and Tojuro Sawamura in the title role of “Fuji Musume.”

Tomijuro is celebrated in Japan for his performance in “Renjishi,” with its virtuosic swinging of an eight-foot-long mane. He danced the same role here in 1979. The other two stars are reportedly making their American debuts.

Tickets for the Kabuki engagement will go on sale shortly, first as part of the Japan America Theatre Fall performance series and later individually.