Japanese Culture: Identity and Tradition

Emerging wealth of the merchant class. 
Brothels, entertainment. A lot of eroticism around! 
Interesting that it started as female only, and ended up male only!

Young men's kabuki was popular

Kabuki as a channel for people's desires and pleasures. 

Kabuki was a theatre of the masses. Not intellectual, and performed in large theatres. Unlike Noh, which was high brow. 
The actors are directors in a kabuki show, and the scripts are suggestive so the actors can interpret them.