About Tokiwa-za
Tokiwa-za is a wooden kabuki playhouse in Takayama, a district of Nakatsugawa in Gifu Prefecture. Local residents built it in 1891, and it is now a Tangible Cultural Property of Nakatsugawa City.
Built by the community
In 1891 (the 24th year of Meiji), people in the area donated rice to pay for a playhouse in the grounds of Tokiwa Shrine. It was first called Tokiwa Engekijō. Graffiti left in the dressing rooms records that the stage opened on May 6.
During the Second World War the building served as a military warehouse. In 1992 the roof was redone and the revolving stage was restored.
Today Tokiwa-za is a Nakatsugawa City facility. The website of the Fukuoka Machizukuri Kyōgikai, a community council in the Fukuoka district of Nakatsugawa (not Fukuoka City), lists it as a city facility under designated management and publishes its rental fees. Besides kabuki, the theater hosts concerts, theater, Japanese dance recitals and other events through the year.
The building
Tokiwa-za is a two-story wooden building with a tiled roof. The front has a hip-and-gable (irimoya) roof, and you enter through the gable end. The building is 17.1 m wide and 26.9 m deep, the stage 11.2 m wide and 8.3 m deep, and the theater holds up to 500 people.
Inside the theater
- Revolving stage (mawari-butai), with the naraku, the space beneath it.
- Two hanamichi, the walkways that run through the audience to the stage: the main hanamichi and the kari-hanamichi. The theater’s pamphlet notes that the kari-hanamichi was not permanent in the old days. Nakatsugawa City gives their length as 11.7 m.
- Tayūza, a permanent box for the tayū (narrator) in the wing to the right of the stage as you face it.
- Toriyaguchi, the doorway at the far end of the hanamichi.
- Hayashi-beya, a room for the hayashi musicians.
- Masu-seki box seating in a U shape, on the main floor and in sajiki galleries on a mezzanine level.
- Backstage, dressing rooms named Ume, Take and Matsu (plum, bamboo and pine), with toilets and shower rooms for men and women, according to the pamphlet.
Kabuki at Tokiwa-za today
Kabuki at Tokiwa-za is ji-kabuki, “local kabuki”: it is performed by people from the community, not by professional actors. The Tokiwa-za Kabuki Preservation Society keeps amateur and children’s kabuki going here. It holds a regular performance every year and runs kabuki classes, including a class for children.
The theater’s pamphlet shows actors being dressed in costume and made up with kumadori for the society’s performances.
Across Gifu Prefecture, more than 30 preservation groups keep ji-kabuki alive, and nine historic playhouses survive.
Next performance: to be confirmed. Sources give different months for the annual performance, so the date will be announced here once it is confirmed.
Visiting Tokiwa-za
Visiting hours: to be confirmed. The sources we checked disagree on when the theater is open and whether you can go inside.
Address: Takayama, Nakatsugawa, Gifu (street number to be confirmed). For directions, see Getting here.
Sources
- Nakatsugawa City: Tokiwa-za (Japanese)
- Nakatsugawa City: Playhouses and ji-kabuki of Nakatsugawa (Japanese)
- Nakatsugawa City: Fukuoka area sightseeing information (Japanese)
- Tokiwa-za pamphlet, PDF (Japanese)
- Higashi-Mino tourism guide: Tokiwa-za (Japanese)
- Gifu Prefecture official tourism site: Ji-kabuki (Japanese)
- Fukuoka Machizukuri Kyōgikai (Japanese)
All sources were checked on September 27, 2026. Most of them are in Japanese.