Kabuki has been performed on this corner since 1889, and the current theatre, rebuilt in 2013 behind a baroque Japanese facade with a glass tower rising above it, is the genre’s home stage. Inside, the hanamichi walkway cuts through the audience, actors freeze into painted poses and fans shout the actors’ family names at the climax. Programmes change monthly and run four or five hours, split into separate plays.
Nobody needs to sit through a whole day. Buy a single-act ticket, pick the dance piece or the quickest drama, and borrow the subtitle guide. Arrive early enough to see the bento sellers in the basement Kobikicho Square and the costumes upstairs.
Tips
- Single-act tickets (hitomaku-mi) are sold for a few thousand yen the same day from a dedicated counter, with reserved seats up in the fourth-floor gallery
- Rent the English subtitle guide at the door, as the plot is dense and the language archaic even for Japanese speakers
- The free rooftop garden and the fifth-floor gallery of costumes are open even when you are not seeing a show