Paper short abstract:

The paper examines the relationship between kabuki and two types of community: the permanent and established community based around the Ginza Kabukiza theatre, and the new and/or temporary communities built around specific experimental performances and promotional events.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the relationship between kabuki (and kabuki related culture) and two types of community.

In the first section, the focus will be on the permanent kabuki community for which the Ginza Kabukiza has now become home. Taking account of the fact that there has been a kabuki theatre on the same site since 1899, I will consider how links between kabuki and the theatre location were initially forged and have since been fostered gradually over time. I will show how the project to develop the most recent theatre building, the Ginza Kabukiza, and the Kabuki Tower, both opened in 2013, draws on and reinforces these connections. I will argue that, although there is also significant activity in kabuki performance and culture outside this space, the idea of Ginza Kabuki as the home of kabuki is being increasingly emphasised.

The second section will look at some of the ways in which kabuki and its surrounding culture are being taken out of this home environment, and will attempt to assess what impact this has. As examples of kabuki performance beyond the Ginza Kabukiza, I will discuss the kabuki adaptation of the manga One Piece, staged at Shinbashi Enbujo in 2015, and the kabuki spectacles performed in Las Vegas in 2015 and 2016. Both demonstrate the importance given to experiment and innovation in kabuki, and may also be seen as attempts to construct a new temporary community and/or to extend the established one. I will then introduce the Kabuki Gate exhibition and shop opened at Narita Airport in March 2015 and the Tembo or Tenku kabuki event at the Tokyo Skytree in October 2016, both of which may be viewed primarily as commercial promotional activities for kabuki, but also contribute to the construction of new temporary communities in a similar manner to the performances examined.