Kabuki stage tour for international visitors gets going at National Theatre in Tokyo

The National Theatre, the center of traditional Japanese performing arts — kabuki, bunraku, nohgaku (noh and kyogen) and Japanese dance — in Tokyo’s Hanzomon district, is hosting an open house event in June and July 2023 to invite international visitors to see the backstage and other areas of the theater, which are usually unseen by the audience, for better understanding of the mechanisms used in kabuki and other performances.

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National Theatre stage tour for international visitors

June 16 (Fri), 21 (Wed), 2023
July 9 (Sun), 12 (Wed), 18 (Tue), 21 (Fri), 2023

National Theatre
(Hanzomon, Tokyo)

*See outline below for details

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The National Theatre stage tour for international visitors is an English guided tour of the Large Theatre (1,520 audience seats when the hanamichi elevated walkway is set) to demonstrate how some of the traditional stage mechanisms work during a kabuki performance.

During the 45-minute tour, visitors are invited to walk on the hanamichi to approach the center stage after a brief introduction of the theater by an English-speaking guide.

On the center stage, the visitors will be given a ride on the mawari-butai (the revolving section of the stage used in kabuki for a swift scene change) and shown around the yuka (the narrator’s floor on the kamite, or right side, of the stage) as well as the kuromisu (the musician’s room on the shimote, or left side, of the stage). Visitors will also be shown how the tri-color (black, dark green, persimmon) joshiki-maku (draw curtain) is hand-pulled by black-clad stage staff.

The stage tour will also be held in autumn 2023.

Self-guided tour for exploring theater lobby

Participants of the stage tour can also take a self-guided audio tour of the theater lobby. The theater provides a smartphone app that visitors could use to listen to explanations (in Japanese or English) on the architectural style and interior of the building, stage mechanisms and much else, while moving freely in and around the lobby.

(Photos by Kazuki Matsuura)

National Theatre to undergo renovation

The National Theatre will temporarily close its doors at the end of October 2023 to undergo major renovation. The Large and Small Theatres, National Engei Hall, office building and Traditional Performing Arts Information Centre — the four buildings that compose the theater complex — will all be demolished and replaced with a new facility, which is expected to open in the fall of 2029. The open house is held as one of many events to mark the transition from the old theater — which opened in 1966 — to the new.