Thanks to WordPress blogger Tokyo5 for giving me the heads-up about this.
The Kabuki-za theatre in Ginza, the primary kabuki theatre in the world, is to be demolished in Spring 2010 and then rebuilt, reopening in 2013. I would love to be there for some of the last shows in the old theatre, and some of the first in the new theatre too, if I could.
In a way, this is like the kabuki fan’s equivalent of the new Yankee Stadium. The Kabuki-za was originally constructed in 1925, its architectural and interior style based on a combination of Azuchi-Momoyama (1575-1600) castle architecture and Meiji-Taishô (1868-1926) Western-inspired theatrical design. Destroyed in the war, and rebuilt in the 1950s, Kabuki-za is a grand theatre in the Western (Victorian-esque is a useful description perhaps) style.
Why anyone feels the need to destroy it and build it anew is beyond me. Certainly, there’s the possibility that there are actual structural or logistical (e.g. electrics) faults that derive from the building having been built in the 1950s, and heavily used. Certainly there is the possibility that the new structure will include technological upgrades (lighting, stage effects, etc) which might be difficult to implement without doing it this way.
But to be honest, I would not be at all surprised if it is simply that the Japanese think of a 50-year-old building as being old and in need of replacement. For a country with such a long history, and so many old, historic buildings – including several at Hôryû-ji in Nara which might be the oldest wooden buildings in the world – it is amazing the way the Japanese, when it comes to normal everyday houses and such as opposed to temples and other historical sites, think of anything older than a few decades as being in sore need of replacement. I am quite happy and proud with my own (i.e. my parents’) Victorian era house, built in the 1890s; but when I talk to Japanese about it, they seem incredulous that anyone would want to keep such a house, and that it could possibly be in a good state of repair. Where does this attitude come from?
I hope that when they rebuild Kabuki-za, they keep it relatively traditional, either rebuilding it as it is today, or redesigning it to match an older style, like that of the renovated Kanamaru-za I discussed in my last post. I hope that it is not rebuilt in an ultramodern 21st century Roppongi Hills sort of style. …
Kabuki-za to be rebuilt from 2010 – Yomiuri Shimbun
Kabuki mecca’s days numbered – JapanTimes
All photos my own, taken January 2008.
Don’t you think that the Japanese propensity for rebuilding accords rather nicely with their appreciation for impermanence? Look at how Ise is torn down every twenty years and rebuilt. Granted, it’s rebuilt in the same fashion every time, but I think there are interesting cultural parallels that can be drawn. Good for for thought. Thanks!
Well, I appreciate their propensity for rebuilding historical sites that are destroyed by fire, by natural disasters or by war. Where most countries have plaques marking the former site of historical buildings, or nothing at all, Japan has rebuilt replicas of their temples, shrines, castles, and other historical buildings.
But when it comes to regular everyday dwellings, it seems they have a completely different conception than we do regarding maintenance and upkeep of a home. Rather than building homes which show some style (like the Victorian house I live in here in NY) and which are built to last, they build homes with the intention that they’ll demolish them 10-20 years later, and consider their 10-20 year-old houses as being positively ancient and decrepit; they are incredulous at the idea that anyone would want to live somewhere older than that.
And yet, for all that they love building new homes all the time, they rarely look new, or show evidence of postmodern styles or high-tech futuristic amenities. Walk through any average lower-to-middle-class residential neighborhood in any urban area in Japan, from Naha to Sapporo, and you’ll find the same piss-ugly concrete box homes, with the tin siding and the moldy, wet, gross outdoor concrete steps… Which I guess is a separate issue.
But, yeah, I don’t really see the connection between regarding your 1980s home as old and decrepit and in horrible need of rebuilding and more traditional, artistic, philosophical Zen concepts of impermanence… Sorry :P
Yeah, it’s too bad that they’re gonna tear it down.
I gotta visit it again before 2010!
BTW, thanks for the link.
My post about this subject is here: