KABUKI-Michelin Guide for beginners and tourist! [February Kabuki Program in Kabukiza Theatre]

February Kabuki is very popular and it is very difficult to get tickets even for Japanese because the two sons of famous actor (KANKURO) will appear on the stage. But you can get single act ticket at the theatre, so if you want to see REAL Kabuki play, please make a line to buy tickets one hour before to start selling the tickets(please refer time tables bellow). Evening Show is the most difficult to get tickets, but I recommend to see Matinee's first act called SARUWAKA(11am). It is Japanese traditional dancing and I promise you will enjoy to see it!

You can see the detail of this month’s Kabuki play.
https://www2.ticket-web-shochiku.com/en/performance/00117021.html
http://www.kabuki-bito.jp/news/3827
(Single act tickets selling time table in Japanese)

But from this information, it is difficult to judge the play is suitable for tourists or not. Here, I would like to rank the play with the star-mark like Michelin Guide. The black star means “recommend”, and the white star means “better to avoid for beginners”. It would be my great pleasure to see the following refering before you will go to Kabuki watching!

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February Kabuki Program at Kabukiza Theatre
Daily: February 2nd through 26th
Box Seat : 20,000 / First Class Seat : 18,000 / Second Class : 14,000 / Upper Tier A : 6,000 / Upper Tier B : 4,000
Unit: Japanese Yen (tax included)
Single act ticket is 1000 Yen to 1600 Yen. Very reasonable!

This month's performance commemorates 390th year anniversary of the first kabuki performance at the Saruwakaza Theatre which is said to be the first kabuki theater in Edo. Also, Nakamura Kankurō's two sons will make their debut in the Evening show. Nakamura Kankurō is an actor who takes the family name of the founder of the Saruwaka-za theater.

Matinee (from 11:00 AM): Single act ticket will sell from 10:30
SARUWAKA EDO NO HATSUYAGURA
[The First Kabuki Performance in Edo]
★★★★★
(Strongly recommend! This act is Japanese traditional dancing and everybody can feel happiness!)

ŌAKINAI HIRUGAKOJIMA:(Single act ticket will sell from 11:15)
[Yoritomo in Exile]
★★☆☆☆
(Difficult to understand. This is the story of Japanese Old histrical general of Heian era.)

SHISEN-RYO KOBAN NO UMENOHA(Single act ticket will sell from 12:05)
[Four Thousand Gold Coins]
★★☆☆☆
(Difficult to understand. But you can see the ordinary life of the people of Edo era. This is a story of bank robbery of Edo era who broke the government's bank safe and described the life in prison.)

ŌGI JISHI
[The Lion-head Fans]
★★★★☆
(Recommend. Easy to understand. This is a short dancing act. Total time is about 10 minutes. It is typical Kabuki dancing act.)

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Evening Show (from 4:30 PM):(Single act ticket will sell from 2:00PM)
KADONDE FUTARI MOMOTARO
[The Brothers' Debut as Two Momotarōs]
★★★★☆
(Momotaro is the hero of an Japanese old tale which any Japanese knows, but tourist is also easy to understand because the story is very simple. The two kids are so cute and except them, you can enjoy typical Kabuki.)

EHON TAIKŌKI(Single act ticket will sell from 4:45PM)
[ Picture Book of the Taikō Chronicles - The Retreat at Amagasaki]
☆☆☆☆☆
(Better to avoid. This is very famous Kabuki act but for tourists, it is very hard to understand. Very deep story)

UME GOYOMI(Single act ticket will sell from 5:50PM)
[Tanjirō's Love Triangle]
★★★★☆
(Recommend! Easy to understand. Also you can see the beautiful BLUE RIVER on stage! This is the story of jealousy of two women.)

I hope you will enjoy your Kabuki watching!

KABUKI-Michelin Guide for beginners and tourist! [For January Kabuki at Shimbashi Enbujo theatre in Tokyo]

Kabukiza (Kabuki theatre in Ginza, Tokyo) is the only place where you can enjoy seeng kabuki almost every day in Japan. But most of the foreigners and tourists do not know that there is another place where you can enjoy seeing Kabuki very close to Kabukiza. It is Shimbashi Enbujo Theater. From 3 minutes walking from Kabukiza, you can find Shimbashi Enbujo Theatre.

On every January, for celebrating the New Year, Kabuki play is held at the Shimbashi Enbujo Theatre. This kabuki program does not sell a single act ticket, but the contents are rich in variety, so I recommend to go to Shimbashi Enbujo Theatre, if you missed to buy tickets at Kabukiza on January. I think compare to Kabukiza, the program is very easy to understand for beginners and tourists.

In this theatre, they has no English "G-Mark Guide" (captioning) rental service like Kabukiza has, but they provide "Earphone Guide", the voice guide, along the story in English (700 yen). If you go there, you should use this service.

You can see the detail of this month’s Kabuki play.
https://www2.ticket-web-shochiku.com/en/performance/00417011.html


But from this information, it is difficult to judge the play is suitable for tourists or not. Here, I would like to rank the play with the star-mark like Michelin Guide. The black star means “recommend”, and the white star means “better to avoid for beginners”. It would be my great pleasure to see the following refering before you will go to Kabuki watching!
(Sorry, I did not have a time to see Matinee, so I only evaluate the evening show. )

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January Kabuki Program at Shimbashi Enbujo Theatre
Daily: January 3rd through 27th

Box Seat : 20,000 / First Class Seat : 18,000 / Second Class A: 10,000 / Second Class B: 6,500 / Upper Tier A : 6,500 / Upper Tier B : 3,000
Unit: Japanese Yen (tax included)

This month's performance is to commemorate the Name Succession of Ichikawa Udanji III and the first stage of his son Ichikawa Ukon II.

Matinee (from 11:00 AM):
Full-length performance of FUTAGO SUMIDAGAWA
[Sumida River and the Twins]

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Evening Show (from 4:30 PM):
GENPEI NUNOBIKI NO TAKI -Yoshikata Saigo
[ The Death of Yoshikata ]
★★★★★
(strongly recommend. THIS IS KABUKI! You can feel the kabuki world simply.)

KOJO
[ Stage Announcement ]

CAST:
Ichikawa Ukon taking a new name Ichikawa Udanji
and other top rate actors are present.
★★★★☆
(The atmosphere is so nice. You can feel the edo era. KOJO is the special event for Kabuki actor's life, so you should check it. But they speak only in Japanese, you must have "Earphone guide" rental service.)

SHIKORO BIKI
[ Kagekiyo's Contest of Strength with Shiro ]
★★★☆☆
(It is amazing that the stage is dramatically moving up and moving down. The story is a little complex but you can enjoy it.)

KUROZUKA
[ The Black Mound on the Adachi Plain ]
★★★★☆
(So nice dancing. This is the typical Japanese traditional musical and you should check this. You can also enjoyig to see the kabuki's dynamical make up.)

You can see REAL KABUKI also in Asakusa! New Year Asakusa Kabuki at Asakusa Public Hall is suitable for beginners!

Kabukiza (Kabuki theatre in Ginza district) is the most famous place for seeing Kabuki play in Japan, but you probably do not know the other place where you can enjoy seeing REAL Kabuki play in Tokyo.

On every January, you can enjoy seeing Kabuki in Asakusa. That is called New Year Asakusa Kabuki. This is held at “Asakusa Public Hall” where many tourist are well known place, Asakusa.

This New Year Show is mainly played by young and popular Kabuki actors and this show has a face of “practice practice” (I think). So the programs are not too difficult for beginners and at one show, you can also enjoy seeing various programs, for example, the traditional play to dancing play. In addition the ticket is not expensive compare to Kabukiza!

So if you have a plenty time to spend at Tokyo in January, I strongly recommend to see Kabuki in Asakusa Pablic Hall!

Kabuki at Asakusa Public Hall
The place Asakusa Pablic Hall

KABUKI-Michelin Guide for beginners and tourist! [For January show in Kabuki-theatre in Tokyo]

For beginners and tourists, it would be a great experience to watch a REAL Kabuki. But PLEASE BE AWARE. Kabuki have various patterns of play, for example, old(traditional) type, new type (SHIN-KABUKI), latest type (SHINSAKU-KABUKI), and dancing type. Some new type is too difficult to understand for tourists (sometimes too difficult even for Japanese!). I often saw that tourists were deeply disappointed when they watched over the new type of Kabuki. I guess they were looking forward to seeing the old and typical type but it wasn’t.
So when you are going to watch Kabuki, you SHOULD CAREFULLY SELECT the type of Kabuki. If you could not understand the type of the play, do not hesitate to ask the clerk in front of the Kabuki theatre. Don’t’ worry, most of them can speak English fluently. And if you could not understand the traditional play of Kabuki, I strongly recommend to watch the DANCING PLAY.
Most of all Kabuki dancing is easy to understand because there are no speech (serif):-) and you can enjoy the Edo era’s atmosphere.

You can see the detail of this month’s Kabuki play.
https://www2.ticket-web-shochiku.com/en/performance/00117011.html

But from this information, it is difficult to judge the play is suitable for tourists or not. Here, I would like to rank the play with the star-mark like Michelin Guide. The black star means “recommend”, and the white star means “better to avoid for beginners”. It would be my great pleasure to see the following refering before you will go to Kabuki watching!

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Matinee[Hiru No Bu](from 11:00 AM):

(1)SHOGUN EDO WO SARU
[Tokugawa Yoshinobu Leaves Edo]
★☆☆☆☆☆
(Difficult to understand. Speech is a lot and the actor’s movement is few)

(2)OTSU-E DOJOJI
[Dance of Otsu-e Characters]
★★★★★
(Very funny play and very acrobatic dancing! One actor plays seven roles!)

(3)IGAGOE DOCHU SUGOROKU -Numazu
[The Vendetta at Iga Province -Numazu Post]
★★☆☆☆
(Hard to understand. It displays Japanese delicate thinking.)

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Evening Show[Yoru No Bu] (from 4:30 PM):

(4)II TAIRO
[Ii Naosuke's Last Day]
★★☆☆☆
(Hard to understand. Too long)

(5)GOSEI NAKAMURA TOMIJURO SHICHIKAIKI TSUIZEN KYOGEN
1. ECHIGO JISHI
[Program commemorating the 7th anniversary of the death of Nakamura Tomijuro V]
[An itinerant Entertainer from Echigo Province]
2. KEISEI
[Courtesan]
★★★★★
(Strongly recommend! The boy’s traditional dance is amazing! Tamasaburo is the Japanese most famous actor who plays women's roles. You should check him(her:-))!)

(6)MATSUURA NO TAIKO
[Lord Matsuura and the Drum of Chushingura]
★★☆☆☆
(Hard to understand. if you are familiar with Japanese CHUSHINGURA-Great revenge story, you will enjoy a little, I hope.)