Kabuki-za

Kabuki-za
歌舞伎座
	Kabuki-za, Tokyo's premier kabuki theater
Address	東京都中央区銀座四丁目12番15号 Ginza 4-12-15, Chūō-ku; Tokyo; Japan
Owner	Kabuki-za Theatrical Corporation
Designation	Registered Tangible Cultural Property
Type	Kabuki theater
Capacity	2,017
Construction
Opened	21 November, 1889
Rebuilt	1911, Tashichi Kashiwagi; 1924, Shinichirō Okata; 1950, Isoya Yoshida
Website
	www.kabuki-za.co.jp/

Kabuki-za (歌舞伎座) (TYO: 9661) in Ginza is the principal theater in Tokyo for the traditional kabuki drama form. It opened in 1889, and is one of the city's finest extant examples of Meiji-era construction using Western materials in traditional Japanese architectural styles. The building was originally constructed as the Tokyo residence of the Hosokawa clan of Kumamoto.^[1]

The building was destroyed in a fire in 1921, and was uncompleted when the 1923 Kanto earthquake struck. It was rebuilt in a baroque Japanese revivalist style, meant to evoke the Japanese castles of the 16th century; The theater was again destroyed in the Allied bombing during World War II. It was rebuilt once again, as a reconstruction of the 1924 structure, and today remains one of Tokyo's more dramatic and traditional buildings.

Performances are held nearly every day at Kabuki-za, and tickets are sold for individual acts as well as for the play in its entirety.

There are plans to demolish the structure in spring 2010, and rebuild it, a process which is expected to take three years. Reasons cited for the reconstruction include concerns over the building's ability to survive earthquakes, as well as accessibility issues. A series of farewell performances, entitled Kabuki-za Sayonara Kōen (歌舞伎座さよなら公演, lit. "Kabuki-za Farewell Performances") will be held from January through April 2010, after which kabuki performances will take place at the nearby Shinbashi Enbujō and elsewhere until the opening of the new theatre complex, currently scheduled for 2013.^[2]^[3]