Kakegoe

Kakegoe (掛け声) usually refers to shouts and calls used in performances of traditional Japanese music, Kabuki theatre, and in martial arts such as kendo.

In the kabuki theatre, the term is used to refer to melodramatic calls from an audience, or as part of call-and-response singing in Japanese folk music. It is a custom for people in the audience to insert kakegoe every so often, in praise of the actors on stage. There are special climaxes in kabuki theatre called "mie", where the actor puts on an extravagant pose and someone in the audience shouts the actor's stage name or guild name at just the right moment.

Occasionally the shout is not a name, for example "Mattemashita!" ("This is what we've been waiting for!") as the curtain is drawn back.

There are three kakegoe guilds in Tokyo, totalling about 60 members. They receive free passes to the Kabuki-za. Almost all are mature male Japanese, but there have been examples of women and foreigners.

In folk music some kakegoe are inserted in parts of song at will. Rather than names, kakegoe are usually words of encouragement for the musicians, singers, or dancers performing with the music. A commonly used word is "sore!" The word by itself means "that". But it is meant to be more of "That's the way!", or "Just like that!" Another is "Dontokoi!" Which means something like "Gimme your best shot!" or literally "Come quickly/don't hesitate!" "Sate!" means "So then!" Other words are "yoisho!", "yoi yoi yoi!", and "choi choi!" Kakegoe are also used in Buyō dancing, when the stage name of the performer is shouted at key points in a dance.

A great deal of kakegoe are usually unvoiced parts of the repeating chorus of the song. In a famous folk song called "Soran Bushi" the shout "ah dokkoisho, dokkoisho!" is said at the end of each verse. The verses of the song "Mamurogawa Ondo" always end in "ah dontokoi, dontokoi!" Some shouts are area-specific. In the Hanagasa Odori (Flower Hat Dance) of Yamagata, for example, the shout at the end of each verse is "ha yassho makasho!" (See Hanagasa Ondo.) This is a kakegoe heard only in this particular song and no others. "Ha iya sasa!" and "A hiri hiri" are shouts specific to Okinawan folk music.

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