Kabukiza TheatreKabukiza Theatre
January Program at the Kabukiza Theatre
Daily: Jan 02 (Fri) - Jan 25 (Sun), 2026
Matinee:11:00 AM
Evening Show: 4:15 PM
*No performances on the 9th (Fri), 19th (Mon).
*The 24th (Sat) Matinee/Evening Show will be 'Kabukiza Kimono Day', a performance where customers are recommended to wear kimono.
Time Schedule
On sale: from Dec 14 (Sun), 2025 10:00 AM(JST)
Ticket Price
Special Seat: 20,000
First Class Seat: 18,000
Second Class A: 15,000
Second Class B: 14,000
Second Class C: 9,000
Upper Tier A: 6,500
Upper Tier B: 5,000
Box Seat: 20,000
Unit: Japanese Yen (tax included)
Ticket with "Captioning Service" (either English or simplified Chinese subtitles)
Tickets that include a captioning device are available on the website. Please select "Ticket with Captioning Service" (1,500 yen will be added to the ticket price) on the ticket purchase page.
*Special Seat and Box Seat: Not available online. Click here for details.
Kabukiza Theatre (at TOKYO) Theatre Information
- Single Act Tickets
- 【🔗How to buy tickets】Tickets may still be available from the promoter, Shochiku Co., Ltd. for dates that are shown as "sold out" online. To check availability and other preferred seating areas, please call +81(0)3 6745-0888 or visit the box office. To check availability and other preferred seating areas, please call +81(0)3 6745-0888 or visit the box office.
*Captioning service (either English or simplified Chinese subtitles) available to rent. Click here for details.
*Sold program (Detailed English synopsis are found at the end of the Japanese program) available.
In the Matinee, you can enjoy kabuki’s stylish beauty in a fight scene in the gorgeous work ‘The Bustling Kabuki Theatre in the Year of the Horse’, which is perfect for the New Year. There is also a spectacular fight scene in ‘The Spider's Web and the Catalpa Bow’, which is followed by the serious history play ‘The Tale of Sanemori’, which portrays Sanemori’s pride as a warrior as well as his humanity. In the Evening Show, first you will see ‘A Female “Wait a minute!” ’, in which you will be attracted by the powerful and gorgeous beauty of the aragoto acting style. It is followed by the lighthearted, joyful and rhythmic dance ‘The Dance premiered by Oniji’. Finally, ‘The Woman Killer and the Hell of Oil’, a masterpiece by Chikamatsu Monzaemon, will be performed, portraying the unfathomable depths of the human mind and the life of commoners in a realistic way.
*Performance time is subject to change
ATARU UMADOSHI KABUKI NO NIGIWAI
['The Bustling Kabuki Theatre in the Year of the Horse']
CAST :
- Soga no Gorō Tokimune
- Bandō Minosuke
- Kobayashi no Asahina
- Nakamura Kashō
- Manzai
- Nakamura Baigyoku
- Saizō
- Nakamura Kankurō
- Saizō
- Matsumoto Kōshirō
- Soga no Gorō Tokimune
- Bandō Minosuke
- Soga no Jūrō Sukenari
- Nakamura Hayato
- Chichibu no Shōji Shigetada
- Onoe Ukon
- Princess Katagai
- Nakamura Yonekichi
- Kajiwara Heiji Kagetaka
- Ōtani Hirotarō
- Ōiso no Tora
- Bandō Shingo
- Kudō Saemon Suketsune
- Nakamura Kashō
<Shōfudatsuki Kongen Kusazuri>
<Manzai>
<Kobiki no Danmari>
STORY :
The New Year Program for the year 2026, the Year of the Horse, begins with three auspicious pieces. ‘The Tug-of-War Over the Armor’ portrays in a splendid, vibrant manner how Kobayashi Asahina boldly seized the skirt of Soga Gorō’s armor to stop him as he charged toward the residence of Kudō Suketsune—his father’s killer. This is followed by a festive ‘Manzai’ dance, said to bring good fortune to the people, performed here by a lineup of accomplished dancers. In ‘Search in the Dark at Kobikichō’ characters connected to the Soga brothers line up and search silently in the dark. This is an acting convention called ‘Danmari’ which is characteristic of kabuki. ‘Kobiki’ in the title refers to Kobikichō, the old name of the town where the Kabukiza is situated. In the city of Edo, modern Tokyo, it was considered auspicious to perform Kabuki works concerning the vendetta of the Soga brothers at New Year’s and this continues today as a theatrical tradition.
KUMO NO ITO AZUSA NO YUMIHARI
['The Spider's Web and the Catalpa Bow']
CAST :
- Sen’ya, a page
Kensaku, a medicine peddler
Yotsuwa, a woman who takes care of a prostitute in high rank
Eiju, a jester
Otoichi, a blind masseur
Usugumo, a courtesan, in reality, the spirit of the spider
Hirai Yasumasa
Onoe Ukon- Sakata no Kintoki
- Bandō Minosuke
- Usui Sadamitsu
- Nakamura Hayato
- Minamoto no Yorimitsu
- Ichikawa Monnosuke
STORY :
This is one of the oldest dances in the kabuki repertoire related to the legend of a spider that attacked the medieval warrior, Minamoto no Yorimitsu. Yorimitsu is visited by an evil spider with magical powers. The creature appears in various forms, disguised first as a child, second as a jester, third as a blind masseur and finally as a courtesan. After revealing its true nature, the spider throws out its web, trying to trap the warrior.
Genpei Nunobiki no Taki
SANEMORI MONOGATARI
['The Tale of Sanemori']
CAST :
- Saitō Sanemori
- Nakamura Kankurō
- Koman
- Nakamura Shichinosuke
- Seno'o no Jūrō
- Onoe Shōroku
STORY :
This is a 'jidaimono' history play set at the end of the Heian Period (12th century). The play's subject concerns the early days of the rivalry between the Genji and the Heike military clans. Lady Aoi, widow of the Genji clan's leader Kiso Yoshikata, is pregnant and is in hiding at the house of a man named Kurosuke. Knowing that Lady Aoi is there, Sanemori, a warrior who was once of the Genji clan but has now joined the Heike, comes to Kurosuke's house with the Heike warrior Seno'o. Should Lady Aoi's child be a boy, it could become the future head of the Genji clan, and so Sanemori is ordered to kill the baby if it is indeed male. But to everyone's surprise, the 'baby' turns out to be a woman's severed arm. Seno'o is amazed and does not believe it, but Sanemori (who is concealing something) assures him that there is a similar event in history. The highlight of this play is when Sanemori recounts how he severed the woman's arm. In this section, the actor is accompanied by the Gidayū narrator and shamisen player, leaving him free to use gestures and a fan in his heroic description.
*Performance time is subject to change
ONNA SHIBARAKU
['Female “Wait a Minute”']
CAST :
- Tomoe Gozen
- Nakamura Shichinosuke
- A stage watchman
- Matsumoto Kōshirō
- Todorokibō Shinsai
- Bandō Minosuke
- Wakana, a female catfish
- Bandō Shingo
- Narita Gorō
- Bandō Kamezō
- Shimizu no Kaja Yoshitaka
- Nakamura Kinnosuke
- Kaba no Kaja Noriyori
- Nakamura Shikan
STORY :
More ceremony than play, “Shibaraku” is one of the oldest pieces in kabuki. Minamoto no Noriyori, who rendered distinguished service in destroying Heike, has the ambition to be the ruler of Japan. A group of loyal retainers remonstrates with Noriyori on his arrogance in wearing the same costume as the Emperor without permission, but he will not listen. Just as the evil villain is about to execute them, a voice calls out for him to wait and a hero appears to save the day. However, this version is a parody of that original, as the hero is played by an ‘onnagata’ female role specialist who mixes the super-human strength of an aragoto hero with the soft gentleness of a kabuki heroine.
ONIJI HYŌSHIMAI
['The Dance Premiered by Oniji']
CAST :
- A woodcutter, in reality, Osada no Tarō
- Onoe Shōroku
- A shirabyōshi dancer, in reality, Matsu no mae
- Nakamura Manju
STORY :
This is a classical dance filled with the stylized beauty of gesture and pose, which also includes an exciting fight scene. Osada no Tarō, a warrior of the Heike clan who is disguised as a woodcutter, encounters a ‘shirabyōshi’ dancer in the mountains of Kyoto. As Osada joins her in dance, she tries to snatch a pipe from him, but ….
ONNA GOROSHI ABURA NO JIGOKU
['The Woman Killer and the Hell of Oil']
CAST :
- Kawachiya Yohē
- Matsumoto Kōshirō (Program A)
Nakamura Hayato (Program B) - Okichi, Shichizaemon's wife
- Bandō Shingo (Program A)
Nakamura Yonekichi (Program B) - Tahē, Yohē’s elder brother
- Ichikawa Komazō
- Teshimaya Shichizaemon
- Nakamura Kinnosuke
- Tokubē, Yohē’s stepfather
- Nakamura Karoku
※B Program（1/3・5・7・10・12・14・16・18・20・22・24）
STORY :
This play by the great Chikamatsu Monzaemon was virtually ignored at the time it was written, but it has become phenomenally popular in modern times for its realistic sensibility and its sensuous killing scene in which the protagonists slip and struggle through puddles of spilt oil. Yohē, heir to the oil shop Kawachiya, is living a life of debauchery. He starts a fight in town and incurs debts at the pleasure quarters, and even hits his own stepfather and sister. Not being able to take this any longer, his mother finally disowns him. Troubled by this, and needing to pay back his debts, he tries to borrow money from the wife of a neighboring oil merchant. He tries to blackmail her, but when he is rejected, he ends up killing her.