Traditional Japanese Kabuki theater is performed only by men but it was started by a woman named Okuni in the early 1600s A.D.
from my Twitter:
http://twitter.com/homeschoolresa The Son Unit has been reading Images Across the Ages: Japanese Portraits by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler. It's not actual portraits, as I originally assumed when I grabbed it from the library, but mini-biographies. Still kinda interesting.