What’s in a name?

The Yomiuri Shimbun

2:00 JST, November 29, 2022

Workers hold up a sign with the name of kabuki actor Kataoka Nizaemon at the Minamiza Theatre in Kyoto on Friday ahead of the annual kabuki play “Kichirei Kaomise Kogyo,” which will be performed Dec. 4-25. Fifty-four signs on the theater’s face, each measuring 1.8 meters by 30 centimeters, bear the names of actors in the thick, rounded Kantei style of calligraphy. The performance period will be five days shorter than in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the number of available seats will be nearly back to normal for the first time in three years.