“Oneri”, walking parade of Kabuki stars in Ginza
On this March 27th, about 60 Kabuki stars joined a special event of celebrating the grand opening of the newly rebuilt Kabukiza (the main Kabuki theater in Higashi Ginza)planned to open on coming April 2nd in Ginza, Tokyo.
The event was called “Oneri”, which was a walking parade on the main street for about one hour 10:00-11:00. Tojuro Sakata, president of Japan Actors’ Association as well as a versed Kabuki actor made an opening speech, “A new chapter in the history of the 400- year old Kabuki is about to me marked. We sincerely ask you to support Kabuki and the new Kabukiza. “. Junichi Sakomoto, president of Shochiku that facilitate kabuki shows gave a sign to start the parade and banners were hung and kabuki actors such as Tokizo Nakamura, Ennosuke Ichikawa, Ebizo Ichikawa, Kankuro Nakamura, Schinosuke Nakamura, and other popular Kabuki stars showed up, clad in traditional Japanese clothing of Montsuki-hakama, and joined the parade, led by Japanese style acrobats. They waved their hands to excited spectators of about 20,000 and walked about 400m there.