A faint sound came from behind the agemaku curtain, and I got goosebumps. My seat this time was along the hanamichi as usual, but at the far end, close to the curtain. I came for Nizaemon Kataoka’s Numazu, and made a full day of it with both the Matinee and the Evening Show. Today, as always, was the best.
Read about the Matinee → September Program at the Kabukiza Theatre: Matinee (September 2026)
What is the Shuzansai?
Every September, the Kabukiza Theatre holds the “Shuzansai,” a program honoring Kichiemon Nakamura I, a star of the Meiji through Showa eras. “Shuzan” was his haimyō, the pen name he used for haiku. This year marks the 20th year of the Shuzansai, and also the 140th anniversary of Kichiemon I’s birth.
The Evening Show had four pieces: Hinazuru Sanbasō, Numazu (from Igagoe Dōchū Sugoroku), Kyō Ningyō (from Meisaku Hidari Kogatana), and Okuden (from Ichijō Ōkura Monogatari). In Numazu, the role of Jūbei the cloth merchant is played by either Nizaemon or Kōshirō Matsumoto depending on the date; I saw Nizaemon’s performance.
I reserved my earphone guide online in advance. Pickup was smooth, and once you’ve done it this way there’s no going back. So convenient!
The privilege of a full day: an empty theatre
I’d come straight from the Matinee. During the break separating the two shows, I waited in the second-floor lobby with a coffee from the vending machine until it was time for the Evening Show ticket check.
I really wanted a photo of the theatre with zero audience, so about ten minutes before the doors opened I started wandering restlessly and parked myself by the entrance. The moment they opened, in I went, and snapped the empty house. The Mt. Fuji drop curtain, the vacant box seats, the hanamichi stretching straight ahead. Getting to take in this quiet view is, I think, a privilege reserved for those who do both shows in one day. I was so fidgety I may have looked a bit suspicious (laughs). Next time I want to shoot the view from the third floor too!
Right by the agemaku: a different hanamichi seat
This time my seat was along the hanamichi again, but not my usual spot near the front. It was toward the back, close to the agemaku, the curtain at the far end of the hanamichi. Same hanamichi, yet the view was so different it felt brand new. With Nizaemon in the cast, tickets were scarce and I couldn’t choose my seat, but this one turned out to be great, so all’s well!
What gave me the biggest chill was hearing sounds from behind the agemaku. The presence of an actor waiting to make an entrance seemed to seep through the curtain, and my excitement shot up.
During the intermission before Kyō Ningyō, I could also watch cypress boards being laid along the hanamichi. These are called shosadai, platforms placed over the stage and hanamichi for dance pieces, so that the stamping of feet resounds properly.
Watching this, it struck me: these can only be laid and removed during a long intermission, right? Which means “put the dance piece in a slot bracketed by intermissions” might be a real constraint on how a program gets assembled…? I looked into it and couldn’t find that much detail, so this is just my guess. But it’s a bit of backstage life you only get to see from a hanamichi seat.
The Evening Show pieces
Hinazuru Sanbasō is a celebratory dance praying for peace under heaven, performed by Kaishun Nakamura, Manju Nakamura and Jakuemon Nakamura. This is how the Evening Show opens.
Numazu (Igagoe Dōchū Sugoroku)
The Jūbei I’d been waiting for: Nizaemon. So youthful it was astonishing. The bearing, the posture, the figure. You’d never guess he’s in his eighties. Simply perfect.
Partway through, I saw something glisten on his cheek. Sweat? Tears? … I’m fairly sure they were real tears. I couldn’t take my eyes away from my opera glasses.
And then the ōmukō at the final curtain (the shouts from the audience, like “Matsushimaya!”) were tremendous. Moving, truly. I want to see Nizaemon’s Numazu again.
I’ve seen Kōshirō’s Jūbei before, at the Konpira Kabuki. That was wonderful too, but Nizaemon’s Kamigata (Kyoto-Osaka style) flavor has its own, different appeal. I love them both.
Kyō Ningyō (Meisaku Hidari Kogatana)
Tokizō Nakamura as the spirit of the Kyoto doll. Thirty minutes that reconfirmed how much I adore Tokizō.
I followed him through my opera glasses from the moment he appeared, and Tokizō did not blink. Not once. Of course, he’s playing a doll, so it makes sense, but can a person even do that? I couldn’t look away, for a whole different reason. The exchanges with Shōroku Onoe as the sculptor Jingorō were a delight too. This was the piece that made me laugh the most all day.
Okuden (Ichijō Ōkura Monogatari)
When I saw Kōshirō as Lord Ōkura at last year’s Kaomise at the Minamiza, the play began with the “Higaki” scene, where Ōkura deliberately plays the fool, and then in “Okuden” he reveals his sharp true self.
This time only “Okuden” was performed, so it opened with Ōkura already in his dignified mode. Without the earphone guide, I might have been confused: “Wait, isn’t this the guy who’s supposed to be pretending to be a fool?” Honestly, I would have liked the setup. Though I suppose that’s kabuki for you.
That said, Somegorō Ichikawa’s shifts from one persona to the other were impressive, and I was surprised at how young he still is. It was his first time in the role, apparently. And Kōshirō, by the way, appeared as Yatsurugi Kageyu.
Somegorō playing the fool while cradling a severed head was gloriously psychopathic 🤣
A dinner refugee and Medetai-yaki
The truth is, with a typhoon approaching, I hadn’t known whether I’d be able to make it to the theatre at all, so I’d cancelled my reservations at both Kitcho and Hanakago early. In the end I made it to the show just fine, but now I was a dinner refugee.
I could have booked a meal after the doors opened, but this time I showed a strange resolve: “I won’t eat!”
Naturally, resolve is no match for hunger, and at the intermission I went to the basement bento shop outside the theatre. The usual crush was gone, but so were the popular bentos, sold out. No tenmusu either, which I’d been craving 😭 So dinner ended up skipped, but I was so hungry I bought a Medetai-yaki 🐟 (the Kabukiza’s fish-shaped taiyaki pastry). Eating a taiyaki while gazing at the hanamichi and the striped jōshiki curtain is always, always the best.
Closing thoughts
After the show, I looked up at the illuminated Kabukiza and thought once again how beautiful it is.
Goosebumps from sounds behind the agemaku, watching the shosadai boards being carried in, and Nizaemon’s tears that kept my opera glasses glued to my face. That was my Evening Show. From now on, I’ll be keeping an eye out for whether the shosadai are in place 🥸
