Wed, Dec 21, 2022
*Half-show, half-price ticket info for January kabuki midway↓
The National Theatre held an open house event for the first time in December 2022 to allow visitors to see the backstage and other areas that are usually unseen by the public. The two-day event attracted more than 1000 fans of kabuki, bunraku and Japanese dance, both local and international, to the center of traditional performing arts in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward.
In the afternoon of Dec. 12, the second day of the event, about 30 visitors including several foreign residents joined the Stage Tour in English — a guided tour of the Large Theatre (1,520 seats for the audience when the hanamichi elevated walkway is in place for a kabuki performance) — to see how some of the stage mechanisms work.
After a short introduction of the Large Theatre by an English-speaking guide, the visitors were invited to walk on the hanamichi to approach the center stage. There, the visitors were given a ride on the mawari-butai (the revolving section of the stage used in kabuki performances for a swift scene change), shown around the yuka (the narrator’s floor on the kamite, or right side, of the stage) and kuromisu (the musician’s room on the shimote, or left side, of the stage), and were given a moment to take snap shots of themselves in front of the matsubame, a painting of a huge matsu (pine tree) used as a backdrop in matsubame-mono, or kabuki dance plays adapted from noh or kyogen.
The visitors were also shown how the tri-color (black, dark green, persimmon) joshiki-maku (draw curtain) is hand-pulled by black-clad stage staff to open or close from behind, but what surprised them the most was how strips of white paper are scattered from baskets suspended high above the stage to represent falling snow (the baskets are shaken by pulling on a cord from the stage wing). Some of the visitors gave it a try, only to learn making paper seem like snow was easier said than done.
A 24-year resident of Tokyo from Germany, who frequents the kabuki theater, joined the stage tour with her friend that day. She had never seen the backstage before. “I didn’t realize the stage and audience was so close until I got up on the stage myself,” she said. “I will come again to see a kabuki performance next month (January 2023). I will surely enjoy it much more now that I know what goes on on the other side.”
WELCOME! KABUKI half-show, half-price tickets
[For foreign nationals only] Half-show, half-price tickets are available for kabuki performances (the second half of each performance) at the National Theatre (Large Theatre) in January 2023.
January performance: Tōyamazakura Tenpō Nikki
Term: Jan. 13 (Fri) – 27 (Fri), 2023
*Closed on Jan. 19 (Thu)
Time: 1:30 p.m. – around 4:00 p.m.
*6:00 p.m. – around 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 13 (Fri)
Ticket price: 6,000 yen (1st-grade seats)
*12,000 yen for full show
Audio guide in English: 800 yen
*English subtitles are not available– Go to the National Theatre website for more info on the performance
– Advance tickets are available through Confetti
– Same day tickets will be available at the National Theatre ticket booth
What followed the stage tour was a lecture meeting for a different group of visitors on “Kagamijishi,” a sculpture by Denchu Hirakushi (1872-1979) on permanent display on the first-floor lobby of the Large Theatre. After Hiroko Hirakushi, Denchu’s granddaughter, spoke about her memories of the master sculptor, nagauta (vocal music accompaniment to kabuki) performers and hayashi (instrumental music accompaniment to kabuki) musicians entertained the visitors with lyrics and music from kabuki dance “Shunkyo Kagamijishi” (Young Palace Maid and the Spirit of Shishi).
Other visitors took the Self-guided Audio Tour of the theater lobby. The theater provided 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 about the Large Theatre, while they freely moved around the lobby and inside the theater.
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 was held as one of many events to mark the transition from the old theater — which opened in 1966 — to the new.
(Photos by Kazuki Matsuura)
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