2012年04月26日
Kompira Kabuki
Takamatsu is just an hour away by car or train to Japan's oldest Kabuki theater, Kanamaruza, in Kotohira town. The theater was built 170 years ago and is open for public viewing.
Kanamaruza
Better yet, it is still used for Kabuki. For 2 weeks every April, top Kabuki actors in Japan converge on Kotohira town to perform before capacity audiences.
That's where I went last weekend and it was fabulous. No photos are allowed during the performance, of course, so you'll have to make do with what I could get.
Watch your head when you enter
Volunteers are key to the annual event's success. About 20 volunteers manage all the stage effects, which are done without machines or electricity, just as they were in the Edo period. One team manually turns the revolving stage from underneath and raises the lifts that pop actors out onto the stage above. Another team controls the natural lighting by opening and closing the shutters on the upper balconies.
Bamboo ceiling
Catwalk
Another volunteer team consists of 20 to 30 women called Ochakosan who usher the audience to their seats, sell programs, and clean the playhouse. Applicants for this position come from all over the country.
Selling programs
The actors clearly revel in the chance to return to the roots of their art by performing in this authentic Edo period theater.
During performances, they pass so close you can hear them breathing or feel their costumes brush the top of your head. This proximity encourages interaction between the actors and audience, creating a very intimate theater atmosphere. The audience becomes very intimate with each other, too, because they spend close to 3 hours jam-packed into square spaces designed for small 19th century Japanese.
Empty seats
Same seats with people in them.
Here's where I sat.
But there are chair-like steps in the back balcony.
Fortunately there are two long intermissions for the audience to return to the 21st century and rest their legs and rear ends.
Kompira Kabuki has become so popular that it's hard to get tickets. There was a period, however, when the theater's survival was threatened. When it was first built in 1835, Kabuki provided entertainment to the many pilgrims visiting nearby Kompira Shrine but with the rise of movies and then television in the twentieth century, the theater was abandoned. Thanks to the efforts of local citizens, it was restored in 1976. Then, in 1984, three visiting Kabuki actors fell in love with it and suggested reviving Kabuki performances. The first Shikoku Kompira Kabuki performance was held in 1986. The event proved so popular that it was lengthened from three days to two weeks. This year marked its 28th season. If you can afford the price and actually get a ticket, it's well worth going.
Access
Train: Catch the Kotoden train from Chikko station near the port or Kawaramachi station in central Takamatsu. Get off at Kotoden Kotohira Station. (About 1 hour; 610 yen one way; 1 every 30 min. or more).
Car: Take Route 32. About 1 hour. The souvenir shops offer “free” parking if you buy more than \1,000 worth of goods. Parking at JR Kotohira station is 200 yen for the first hour and 100 yen for every 30 min. thereafter. It’s a longer walk to the theatre.
Kompira Kabuki Ticket Information
Admission: A seat 13,000 yen←Masuseki: 5 people per tatami box (180cm x 124cm).
B seat 10,000 yen
C seat 7,000 yen
Tickets are sold by a lottery system from January 8th to February 6th and you must apply by reply-paid postcard. I have heard that it's easier to get tickets through travel agents but you should check several months in advance.
Inquiries: 0877-75-6714 Shikoku Kompira Kabuki Oshibai or 0877- 73-2111 Kotohira Town Office
Kompira Theater is also open for viewing at other times of year.
Admission: Adults 500 yen, Students: 300 yen, Children: 200 yen
Hours: 9:00-17:00 Tel: 0877-73-3846
Kanamaruza
Better yet, it is still used for Kabuki. For 2 weeks every April, top Kabuki actors in Japan converge on Kotohira town to perform before capacity audiences.
That's where I went last weekend and it was fabulous. No photos are allowed during the performance, of course, so you'll have to make do with what I could get.
Watch your head when you enter
Volunteers are key to the annual event's success. About 20 volunteers manage all the stage effects, which are done without machines or electricity, just as they were in the Edo period. One team manually turns the revolving stage from underneath and raises the lifts that pop actors out onto the stage above. Another team controls the natural lighting by opening and closing the shutters on the upper balconies.
Bamboo ceiling
Catwalk
Another volunteer team consists of 20 to 30 women called Ochakosan who usher the audience to their seats, sell programs, and clean the playhouse. Applicants for this position come from all over the country.
Selling programs
The actors clearly revel in the chance to return to the roots of their art by performing in this authentic Edo period theater.
During performances, they pass so close you can hear them breathing or feel their costumes brush the top of your head. This proximity encourages interaction between the actors and audience, creating a very intimate theater atmosphere. The audience becomes very intimate with each other, too, because they spend close to 3 hours jam-packed into square spaces designed for small 19th century Japanese.
Empty seats
Same seats with people in them.
Here's where I sat.
But there are chair-like steps in the back balcony.
Fortunately there are two long intermissions for the audience to return to the 21st century and rest their legs and rear ends.
Kompira Kabuki has become so popular that it's hard to get tickets. There was a period, however, when the theater's survival was threatened. When it was first built in 1835, Kabuki provided entertainment to the many pilgrims visiting nearby Kompira Shrine but with the rise of movies and then television in the twentieth century, the theater was abandoned. Thanks to the efforts of local citizens, it was restored in 1976. Then, in 1984, three visiting Kabuki actors fell in love with it and suggested reviving Kabuki performances. The first Shikoku Kompira Kabuki performance was held in 1986. The event proved so popular that it was lengthened from three days to two weeks. This year marked its 28th season. If you can afford the price and actually get a ticket, it's well worth going.
Access
Train: Catch the Kotoden train from Chikko station near the port or Kawaramachi station in central Takamatsu. Get off at Kotoden Kotohira Station. (About 1 hour; 610 yen one way; 1 every 30 min. or more).
Car: Take Route 32. About 1 hour. The souvenir shops offer “free” parking if you buy more than \1,000 worth of goods. Parking at JR Kotohira station is 200 yen for the first hour and 100 yen for every 30 min. thereafter. It’s a longer walk to the theatre.
Kompira Kabuki Ticket Information
Admission: A seat 13,000 yen←Masuseki: 5 people per tatami box (180cm x 124cm).
B seat 10,000 yen
C seat 7,000 yen
Tickets are sold by a lottery system from January 8th to February 6th and you must apply by reply-paid postcard. I have heard that it's easier to get tickets through travel agents but you should check several months in advance.
Inquiries: 0877-75-6714 Shikoku Kompira Kabuki Oshibai or 0877- 73-2111 Kotohira Town Office
Kompira Theater is also open for viewing at other times of year.
Admission: Adults 500 yen, Students: 300 yen, Children: 200 yen
Hours: 9:00-17:00 Tel: 0877-73-3846
My Profile
Cathy Hirano キャシー ヒラノ
I've lived in Japan since 1978. After graduating from a Japanese university with a BA in cultural anthropology in 1983, I worked as a translator in a Japanese consulting engineering firm in Tokyo for several years. My Japanese husband and I moved to Takamatsu in 1987 to raise our two children in a slower-paced environment away from the big city pressures. We've never regretted it. I work as a freelance translator and interpreter and am involved in a lot of community work, including volunteering for Second Hand, a local NGO that supports educational and vocational training initiatives in Cambodia, and for the Takamatsu International Association. I love living in Takamatsu.
Cathy Hirano キャシー ヒラノ
I've lived in Japan since 1978. After graduating from a Japanese university with a BA in cultural anthropology in 1983, I worked as a translator in a Japanese consulting engineering firm in Tokyo for several years. My Japanese husband and I moved to Takamatsu in 1987 to raise our two children in a slower-paced environment away from the big city pressures. We've never regretted it. I work as a freelance translator and interpreter and am involved in a lot of community work, including volunteering for Second Hand, a local NGO that supports educational and vocational training initiatives in Cambodia, and for the Takamatsu International Association. I love living in Takamatsu.
Posted by cathy at 00:13│Comments(1)
この記事へのコメント
I lived only a sukoshu months in Sapporo but about two years in and around Sendai. Loved it. The years when I was there, 1953 through summer of 1956, the Occupation was still underway and people had next to nothing. Shacks were homes, repeatedly rebuilt after B-17 and B-29 fire bombings that happened almost every night. People wore pieces of rope for belts and trousers were too short and shoes were gatas made of wood. A pound of coffee would pay a month's rent and a package of American cigarettes would buy anything you wanted. Old ladies worked at cleaning the headquarters building and emptied the mountains of ashtrays. Later, they could be found sitting in the closet field stripping cigarette butts and saving the tobacco. It was an interesting time for me and I spent most of my spare time taking photographs. Some are in the city museum of history and folklore as the city had no physical record of the time period I was stationed there and was eager to accept the collection of photos I offered them. Also, of interest to me, the people were friendly, shared what they had and smiled all the time.
Posted by Abraham Lincoln at 2012年05月08日 23:08
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