New Kabuki in America

Heisei Nakamura-za Crosses the Pacific in 2004

portrait by Benjamin Lee / coordination and text by Alex Kerr

Descended from ancestors who managed the Nakamura-za Theater, one of the three great kabuki halls of old Edo, Kankuro debuted on the stage at age four. He has since performed male and female roles in most of the important classical kabuki plays. Like his father, actor Kanzaburo XVII, he is renowned for his comic talent and a warm humanity that can also make an audience weep.

Kankuro, born in 1955, has experimented with film, television, and even fusion theater combining kabuki and contemporary staging. His efforts coalesced in 2000 when he founded Heisei Nakamura-za, or The Nakamura Theater of the Heisei Era (Heisei naming the current emperor's reign, which began in 1989).

The new Nakamura-za is a temporary, movable structure. Designed with meticulous research, it conveys as closely as possible the feeling of being in a kabuki theater of the early 17th century. Theaters were transient then, built to appeal to the colorful tastes of the common people in the big cities. In Heisei Nakamura-za the audience sits low on the floor, and the stage and hanamichi (walkway) project outwards to maximize intimacy with spectators. At the same time, the theater incorporates high-tech devices, allowing surprisingly avant-garde stagecraft.

Heisei Nakamura-za thus combines old and new: Its form faithfully recreates the classic theater environment (which was lost for over a century), but the content is contemporary. After playing to sell-out crowds in Osaka and Tokyo since 2000, the entire show is going to America for the first time.

From July 17 through 25, it will be assembled in front of Lincoln Center. Kankuro's troupe will perform Natsumatsuri, one of kabuki's most dramatic, even shocking, plays, with new staging by Kazuyoshi Kushida. They will also appear at the Majestic Theatre in Boston (July 8 through 10) and the Warner Theater in Washington, D.C. (July 28), performing the classic dances Bo-shibari and Renjishi.

Articles from the 2004 SUMMER issue:

• Summer Living and the Elements: Wind - Light - Water
• New Kabuki in America: Kabuki Tour Preview - Nakamura Kankuro Interview
• Japanese Cuisine in New York: Matsuri - Masa - Megu - 21 Other Restaurants
• The Top 12 Matsuri of Summer
• Kimono Chic for Men

Kateigaho International Edition Issues:

2005 SUMMER - 2005 SPRING - 2005 WINTER

2004 AUTUMN - 2004 SUMMER - 2004 SPRING - 2004 WINTER

2003 AUTUMN - INAUGURAL ISSUE