After working for the Tokyo National Theater for almost 35 years, Koji Orita became director of its Department of Performing Arts in 2003.
During his time at the NT, Orita has mastered the direction of kabuki, a task formerly assigned to zagashira, the lead actor of a group performing a play. In 1997, he became one of the first kabuki directors in modern times to stage a performance in its entirety when he tackled "Kamikakete Sango Taisetsu (A Pledge of Love to Sango)," written in 1825 by Tsuruya Nanboku IV. Nanboku (1755-1829) is renowned for producing 120 dramas during the Bunka-Bunsei Era (1804-29) when kabuki flourished in Edo and is a favorite playwright of the 60-year-old Orita.
When Orita recently staged Nanboku's "Misao no Hana Toba no Koizuka (The Flower of Chastity Entombed in Koizuka in Toba" (1809), The Japan Times had the opportunity to speak with him about producing kabuki.