Kunisaki Izumo no Jijō


is a 2010 Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Aya Hirakawa. The series began on January 13, 2010 in the Weekly Shōnen Sunday magazine, and ran until March 26, 2014. Before the series, a one-shot by the same title was featured in Weekly Shonen Sunday in February 2009, as a prototype.

Story

Izumo Kunisaki, a boy with lovely features often mistaken as a girl, is an onna-gata actor in the Japanese traditional stage play kabuki. The series is a comedy following Izumo's school and actor life. Izumo performs some of the most famous roles in kabuki, solving problems and gaining friends along the way.

Production

A prototype oneshot of this series was a battle story, in which the hero Izumo transforms into a battle form of Izumo no Okuni, founder of kabuki and beautiful lady. This prototype first appeared in Weekly Shonen Sunday in February 2008, and reprinted in Shōnen Sunday Super, January 2011.
The series, greatly revised from the prototype to a school and actor slice-of-life comedy, is stated to be in the Otokono-ko genre in the obi strip and media sources introducing this manga. On the other hand, this series highlights the Japanese traditional performing art kabuki, which is rather rare to be a manga theme.
Aya Hirakawa comments that kabuki is a theme she always wanted to write about. She was born and raised in Shimane Prefecture, believed to be the birthplace of Izumo no Okuni, founder of kabuki. She became interested in kabuki when she participated in a play about Izumo no Okuni when she was in junior high school.
The first edition of the comics published in Japan has illustrations printed on the backside of the cover. Also, omake such as illustrated papers are bundled in the book as sales promotion in bookstores such as Animate and Comic Toranoana after each comic release.

Drama CD

A drama CD was released as a bundle for the limited edition of Volume 7 of the manga. Second edition was bundled in Volume 11.

Characters

Main characters

;Izumo Kunisaki
;Kagato Sumeragi
;Sae Togashiki
;Kuroe Minamoto
;Umeki Sugawara
;Matsuki Sugawara

Kunisaki family

;Yakumo Kunisaki
;Rui Shiga

Kabuki actors

;Tojiro Izaya
;Kiyora Azami
;Iori Sakura
;Anjuro Yukishima

People around Izumo

;Yuzuha Nakamura
;Satsuki Kumedera
;Shuichiro Kagami

Student Council room

;Roku Suzutake
;Jin Kiriya
;Kaname Yanagi
;Kikuo Shiraki

Manga

Volume list