Nakamura Kazutaro

Kabuki is a world-class theater with a history of over 400 years, but is also exciting entertainment. What is the secret of its enduring attraction? Haruka Christine, Nakamura Kazutaro, and Ichikawa Somegoro guide us through the world of kabuki.

Based on a true incident, this is a timeless story of a hot-headed young man who rebels against his parents and is forced into desperate straits, eventually losing himself in madness.

A recording of a play based on the tale of Tōkaidōchū Hizakurige.

The best-selling "The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl" novel is a story set in Kyoto about a “Senpai” who has a crush on “The Girl with Black Hair”, his junior, and depicts how he gets caught up in various incidents by trying to draw her attention. Adopting the novel for this theatre play, Makoto Ueda, representative of popular theatre company "Europe Kikaku" based mainly in Kyoto, is leading as scriptwriter and director.

Actor Kataoka Ainosuke explores a kabuki dance in which 2 actors play a total of 8 different roles featuring Tokyo’s famous Sanja Festival. The most famous part of the dance features the legendary fishermen who caught the Buddhist image in the temple at Asakusa in their net.

Kabuki performance of the story “Peony Lantern”.

Naoko Ishikawa, a Japanese history teacher, is assigned to a dilapidated high school in a sparsely populated area. In the lifeless town, where no young people are to be seen, only the elderly. Naoko is welcomed by the vice-principal, Wada and the guidance counselor, Ikegami. Naoko's welcome party is held at Ikegami's house. His elderly father, Tadashi, is the town mayor, and Naoko is surprised by the youth of his wife, Asami. At the party, Naoko is given cloudy local sake to drink. Soon, Naoko's consciousness becomes hazy, and she is carried to the bedroom where she is subjected to the lewd caresses of men... The next day, Naoko wakes up in her room and cannot determine whether what happened last night was a dream or reality. Enduring a hangover headache, Naoko goes to school. In Naoko's class, there is a student named Kinoshita. When Kinoshita suddenly starts acting violently in the classroom, a female student, Misato,says, "He's sick."

A traditional theatrical form intended to be epic, with spectacular stories, sets, make-up and costumes, the invention of kabuki is attributed to a priestess, Okuni, in the early 17th century. This street art quickly moved to theatres and has survived to the present day, remaining very popular in Japan. In 2020, when live theatre performances were cancelled due to the COVID-19, a young kabuki actor, Kazutaro Nakamura, assembled a unique team of artists consisting of classical dancers, traditional musicians, and kabuki actors to propose ART KABUKI, a sumptuous filmed performance enhanced by the latest technological advances in the stage arts. The staging of this show would based on three themes: play, beauty, and life. This message of hope would not only be for the Japanese people, but a source of comfort for people around the world.