Minamiza - Kabuki's Oldest Stage

Photo: Chainwit., CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

A stop on Kyoto: Higashiyama and Gion on Foot, a free self-guided tour.

The grand theater on the corner is Minamiza, the home of kabuki in Kyoto. Kabuki was born a few steps away: tradition credits a shrine dancer named Izumo no Okuni with performing a daring new style of dance on the dry bed of the Kamo River here around 1603. The shogunate later licensed a handful of theaters along this stretch of Shijo, and Minamiza, which traces its license to the early 1600s, is the last of them. That is why it is often called Japan's oldest kabuki theater still on its original site.

The present building dates from 1929, in a style recalling the castles and temples of the late 1500s, and it reopened in 2018 after a full refurbishment. The little tower on the roof was once the official sign of a licensed theater.

Come in late autumn or December for the Kaomise, the year's all-star showcase, when wooden boards painted with the actors' names line the front.

Getting here: Leave Kennin-ji on its west side and walk north up Yamato-oji-dori about five minutes to Shijo-dori; Minamiza is the big theater on your left at the corner by the river.

Did you know?: Kabuki was started by a woman, yet women were banned from the kabuki stage in 1629, which is why to this day men play every role, including the women's.

Photo op: Cross to the north side of Shijo-dori, or step onto the Shijo bridge, to fit the whole gabled facade and its rooftop tower in one frame.

More on Wikipedia: Minami-za · Kabuki · Izumo no Okuni

Minamiza - Kabuki's Oldest Stage

Stops on this tour