2018년 5월 2일 수요일

Visiting the Yachiyoza (八千代座) Theatre, Yamaga, Kumamoto

In the afternoon we went to Yachiyoza, a Kabuki theater in Yamaga, Kumamoto. The theater was open in 1910 and was designated as an important cultural properties of Japan by the Government.
==Summary==
In 1910, the Yamaga kabuki dancers association set up a union and sold 30 yen per share for the purpose of prosperity of the town. The designer of this kabuki house was Kametaro Kimura who was also the owner of a lighter shop and a lantern maker. At that time, Yamaga was the center of land and water transport that was used the Buzen/Satsuma Kaido highway and water transportation in the Kikuchi River, and was crowded as a place of distribution of supplies and one of the best hot springs in Kumamoto prefecture. The construction work was started in October of the same year and was completed after two months. After that, it was used for various types of events such as Kabuki, Rokyoku (also called naniwa-bushi), activity photos, modern comedy plays, concert of Japanese and classical music etc. However, the Japanese way of life changed drastically after the World War Two and thus the entertainment industry was also changed from movies to television. The theater was closed in 1973, and leakage became serious at around 1985. In 1986, the Yachiyoza Rebuilding Council was established and re-roofing in the following year. The great Heisei renovations started in 1996 and it costs 760 million yen. The repair work is done in 2001.
Let's take a tour to the retro style building of the late Meiji era. 
There's no performance on this day, we could go there freely. Going up the stairs to the second floor. 

A view of the stage from the audience seats on the second floor. 
Audience seats. Seats are available from the following three types; Zashiki (座敷) with conformable tatami rooms located in the center of the first floor, Masuseki (桝席) or boxed seats on the both ends of tatami rooms, and they also provides free seats on the both sides of second floor.
Going down the stairs, and finally we came back to the starting point.

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