KABUKI-ZA

Description

Essentials about the Kabuki-za in brief

For theater lovers who want to see a Kabuki performance, there is no better place in Tokyo than Kabuki-za (Kabuki Theater). Kabuki (meaning “song and dance”) is the traditional Japanese theater of the Edo period bourgeoisie and consists of song, mime and dance. Kabuki-za, located in Tokyo’s Ginza district, is the largest Kabuki theater in Japan and the only theater today to present Kabuki performances in a continuous season.

The history of the Kabuki-za

The current building of Kabuki-za is already the fifth construction of the theater. The first wooden theater building was built in 1889 and had a western facade with a Japanese interior. A second theater building built in 1911 had a palatial Japanese facade, but was executed with modern materials and lighting. In 1921, the Kabuki-za was completely destroyed in a fire.

Reconstruction of the theater began in 1923 and was completed three years later. The facade combines architectural styles of the Nara period with those of the Momoyama period. After the building was destroyed in an American bombing raid in 1945, the Kabuki-za was rebuilt based on the remaining parts and reopened in 1951 with modern facilities. The facade of the theater that can be seen today is identical to that of 1924.

The architecture of the Kabuki-za

The theater holds just under 2,000 spectators. The auditorium consists of a stalls, two tiers and box seats. A catwalk-shaped proscenium projects into the stalls. The theater has two restaurants and several souvenir and snack stores, as well as a museum where changing exhibitions display sets, costumes, props and musical instruments, as well as documents and models about the history of the theater.

The performances at the Kabuki-za

The theater offers daily performances, usually both a matinee and an evening performance. Today, complete plays are often no longer performed, but only combinations of individual acts from plays of different styles, for example, an act from a drama, a dance piece and part of a more modern play. Nevertheless, a performance can last four hours or more.

Tourists will witness some behaviors and rituals at a performance at the Kabuki-za, which are a bit different from Western theaters. For example, it is common at the Kabuki-za for fans of famous actors to cheer them with loud shouts at key points. In addition, people eat and drink during intermissions – even in the auditorium itself. Especially during the longer intermission, many audience members eat a full meal.

Since the texts are recited in the original early Japanese, the audience can receive clues about the progress of the plot through headphones. For foreigners, there are screens that display a translation and stage directions. Incidentally, if a performance at the Kabuki-za lasting several hours is too much for you, you can buy a ticket to the back of the second tier to see just one act, which usually lasts between half an hour and two hours.