Theatre Cocoon in the Bunkamura performance-arts hub of Tokyo's vibrant Shibuya district has always been a popular venue specializing in new works by fresh contemporary writers. Emblematic of this is Cocoon Kabuki, its unique series begun in 1994 under the then Artistic Director Kazuyoshi Kushida.
Not being a kabuki expert, Kushida enlisted Kanzaburo Nakamura XVIII (then called Kankuro V) as supervising director for the series — but the kabuki actor was so taken by the theater's intimacy between the audience and stage that he decided to perform as well. From then on, he was a driving force behind the entire Cocoon Kabuki project.
Kushida, a contemporary theatre director by trade, remained an observer for the first edition's production of "Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan," but then directed when "Natsu Matsuri Naniwa Kagami" was staged two years later — a move that crucially set Cocoon Kabuki on a course to reexamine classical kabuki's arcane tradition of passing down the script and direction from time immemorial. Instead, Kanzaburo and Kushida little by little applied contemporary staging methods, reading the material closely and introducing innovative direction.